Stars Collide

Chapter 10 (Part 1)

I stared at the phone in front of me. Ian smiled from across the room, a total of about six feet. "Well done, Weber." My expression changed and he laughed. "Don't worry. Dates aren't a bad thing."

"But will she be able to tell that it's my first date?" I asked, panicked.

"It's okay. You're a date virgin. That's nothing to be ashamed of." He laughed again and covered his face as I threw a pillow at him. "No, but seriously. There's nothing wrong with that. You'll love it."

"Was that part about trying to get her to pick Walden's a little too much?" I winced.

"I think it was fine," he told me. "It was actually kind of flirtatious. That's what we're trying to go for. Just be yourself and she'll love you. Which reminds me, I had a question to ask you."

"What?" I asked.

"Why did you pick her? I mean, all thirteen years that you've been here, you haven't asked a single girl out but now this random sophomore shows up and you're in love with her. I'm not saying she's ugly or bad or anything, but what made you want to go out with her?"

I shrugged. What did make me want to go out with her. I had no idea. I just felt some sort of inclination towards her the moment Ms. Cohen told her to stay away from us. I didn't even know the girl but it felt like there was this magnet pulling us together and I realized that instead of fighting the magnet, it would be easier to just go with it.

Ian coughed and I realized he was still waiting for my answer. I shrugged again. "I don't know, Ian. I feel like something's pulling us together."

"Aw, look at little Benny talking about fate." He blocked another pillow coming straight at his face before spinning around in my chair to dodge the next few. "Wow, you have it reeeaaalll bad."

"Hey, at least I don't go out with so many girls that my friends have stopped caring about who I'm with now."

Ian stopped spinning. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. I just said that one of us has had way too many girlfriends in the past."

Ian got up. "You'll understand when you start dating," he said coldly before leaving the room."

Great, now I got Ian mad. The one person I needed by my side for this. Now I was alone.

Ian came right up to my room the next morning as if nothing had happened. He let himself in with his spare key and walked over to the side of my bed before screaming in my ear to wake me up. We followed the same routine on Sunday like nothing happened, like we always do. We both had promised each other a long time ago to never hold grudges against each other. Ian was my brother. Plus, he was my ticket to the states. My parents promised me that they would let me go with his family this summer as long as I got accepted into Princeton. Dad and Grandpa both went there and they expect the same from me.

"Wake up!" he yelled into my ear on Sunday. "It's eight!"

Oh, shit, I was going to miss breakfast. I scrambled out of bed and put on the first things I could find before giving it a glance in my full length mirror. Looked okay. I shrugged and continued my scramble all the way to the cafeteria. I barely made it in time. I sighed with relief before going over to the cereal bar and grabbing a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Ian was already waiting at our table when I got there. He smiled and pointed at my cereal. "Do you have any idea how much sugar that has?"

"Need the energy," I mumbled as I poured it into a bowl and added milk. I took the spoon that Ian was offering and dug in. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"I thought you might've wanted to sleep in," he explained. "After all, today's your big day. It's going to go down in history- the first time Ben goes on a date." He spread his arms dramatically for emphasis.

I ignored him and continued chowing down my breakfast. When I was done, we both made our way to my room. I sat on my bed and let Ian take over my closet. He finally produced a navy blue polo and a pair of dark jeans. "This is perfect."

I shook my head. "Too much blue."

"Don't overthink it," he said, tossing the two at me. I got up and picked out a pair of khakis to go with the polo.

"It's a wonder that you get more dates than me," I said.

"It's not all about the clothes," he replied. "Go take a shower. I'll be back in fifteen."

I got up and gathered my clothes before going over to the section bathroom. It was empty and I took advantage of that. I was out in ten minutes.

"Okay," I said to Ian, who was already in my room. "We have about-" I glanced at my watch. "-five hours. What now?"

"Well," he said. "Do you have any unfinished homework?"

I sighed and pulled out my binder, flipping through it. My nerves were a mess.

A/N: So, I decided to set my usual routine of updating a chapter per character in a specific order for these two chapters because they're special! The next chapter will most likely be from Leah's point of view.

-StarsInfinite