Stars Collide

Chapter 9

"It's a date," he said, smiling. Oh god, what just happened. It felt like I was going down a roller coaster and my stomach couldn't stop fluttering.

"Yeah," I managed, trying to look as calm as possible.

"Uh, could I have your number?"

Number? I thought no one at this school had phones. "I don't have a phone number over here."

"No," he said. "Your dorm number. So I could call you on your dorm phone."

I felt like the biggest idiot alive. "Oh," I said dumbly. "I'm uh, in two thirty four in the East Coast Building."

He smiled and I felt myself relax. "I'm in six twenty two in the Mountain Building. You can call me whenever you want."

I couldn't call him! Apparently, my mouth thought otherwise. "How?"

"You just type in the building code and then the number. For example, your building's code is 1111 and mine is 3333."

"Okay," I said, knowing fully well that I wouldn't call him. He smiled. "I'll see you around, Leah," he said before turning around and walking away with his hands in his pockets.

I felt myself smiling like an idiot as I went towards my dorm to tell Chiara the news. When I got to her room, she was sitting on her bed with her head in her hands and I decided that my news could wait. "Chiara?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"I have a brother."

"I thought you said-"

"I know," she cut me off. "But apparently now I have a brother too."

I was confused. "Was he just born?"

"No, he's twelve. He's from France."

"Is he biologically related to you?"

She looked up at me. "My mom had him from a sperm donor and then the sperm donor wanted custody of him and my parents never thought to tell me of this until now when they realize he's here."

"What?" I spat. "Chiara, aren't you happy you have a brother?"

"Wait," she said. "There's more. He comes from an abusive family. Turns out that sperm donor wasn't so nice after all."

"Oh, Chiara," I said. "I'm so sorry. But I still don't see what's wrong."

"I love the kid already," she told me. "He's so sweet and caring and it kills me that he was brought up like that when he could've been brought up in my house. I feel so grateful that I have such a nice family and now I feel selfish."

"Chiara..." Why was she so nice? "None of this is your fault. Now you can make things better for him, I mean, now that he's here."

"He's going to go back to France in the summer. He'll have to go through all of it again."

"But what can you do?"

"Papa's trying to regain custody."

After twelve years? "That's great!" I told her. "Things can only go up from here. Everything's going to be great." I was never the best at pep talks.

"I guess," she said. "So, why do you look so happy today?"

"I got asked out."

"WHAT?!" Chiara screamed.

"A little louder," I told her. "I don't think New York quite got what you said."

"BY WHO?" she continued.

"Ben," I whispered.

"Ben as in senior boy you should stay away from?"

"Chiara, I already told you, Ms. Cohen told me to stay away from all of them but him."

"Yes, but if you go out with him, it would be pretty hard to stay away from his friends."

"Chiara!"

"I'm just kidding." She laughed. "God, you guys will get married and have tons of babies."

"Or the first date could go terribly wrong and he'd realize that it was a bad idea to ask a sophomore out."

"Oh, Leah," Chiara said, patting the space on her bed next to her. "Come here." I sat down and she put her arm around me. "If he thought it would be a bad idea, he wouldn't have asked you out in the first place. It's going to go great."

"Thanks," I told her.

"So, where are you guys going to go?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "He's supposed to call me on my dorm phone to tell me." I kind of guessed that last part.

"Well then, we should hang out in your room instead," she said, getting up and going to her door. I followed her as she locked her room and turned to me. waiting for me to open mine. I fumbled with my keys but we were soon in. Just as we were about to sit down on my bed, the phone rang. I panicked.

"Should I answer it now, or would that seem too desperate?"

Chiara shrugged. "Why would desperate be a bad thing?"

She had a good point. I ran to the phone and picked it up, not much of a distance due to the extreme smallness of the room. "Hello?"

"Hey, Leah," Ben's voice filled the receiver. "What's up?"

"Nothing," I told him. "What about you?" I was so proud of myself for talking despite the flutter contest my stomach was emceeing.

"Nothing much," he said. "Listen, about our date..."

Here it comes, I thought.

"I was wondering where you wanted to go."

Relief flooded in and for a moment, I couldn't speak. I shrugged before realizing he couldn't see me. "I-I don't know," I said. "Where can we go?"

"Well, the only places that we can go off campus are the coffee shop across the street, this food court kind of thing with all sorts of restaurants, and a vintage bookstore with lots of first editions and signed copies. The bookstore also has live music. I was kind of hoping you'd like to come to the bookstore."

Were we soul mates or what? "The bookstore sounds amazing," I told him, smiling so wide that I felt my cheeks go numb.

"Okay," he said. "Sunday at three?"

"It's a date," I said. "Bye."

"Bye," he said, hanging up. I put the receiver down and turned to Chiara.

"Oh my god!" she squealed. "You're going on a date! To Walden's!"

"Walden's?" I asked.

"The bookstore," she said. "But that's besides the point. The point is, it's our first week of school and you already have a date!"

"Yeah," I smiled. "I do." And the fluttery feeling came back again. "I do."