Making Stars

be on 10

Prompt: It seems Jhene's been garnering a lot of attention, and Issac needs a bit of a push to do something before it's too late—his best bet is his captain. (Follows after "to blue to brown")
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Song Inspo(s): Don't(?) - Bryson Tiller; All Over Again - Josh Levi; Energy(?) - Vedo ft. Eric Bellinger
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"Remind me why you're here again?"

Issac watched as Jey yawned and rubbed his eyes before answering. "I don't know what to do about this, man. Like, I...I think I really like this girl and all but—"

"But what?"

"But..." A moment of silence passed before the ginger got up and began pacing in his captain's kitchen. "I just don't know."

Jey's expression was one of exasperation. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "You don't know what?"

"I...like there's just too many things that could go wrong, Jey. Like what if I just end up makin' a fool of myself? Or maybe I'm just reading into her actions too deeply? She probably doesn't even like white guys—" The ginger groaned into his hands and plopped into the sofa. It really shouldn't have been this frustrating having to deal with Jhene, especially because they were (or he assumed they were) good friends.

But then his mind went back to the night of the formal. Issac always thought the girl to be pretty, but seeing her beneath the glowing, flashing lights in a dress that hugged her almost too perfectly tightened the knot he didn't know existed in his chest, and he couldn't tell if it was because of the thoughts beginning to teeter into dangerous territory or the fact that another set of hands were constantly on her. It didn't strike him how often he was staring or involuntarily searching for the girl somewhere in the room until his teammates began commenting on it.

"And what about it?" The ginger was snapped out of his trance when Jey spoke. "If she don't like white dudes, she don't. If she do, she do, but you're not gon know if you don't do somethin'."

"But what can I do, Jey?"

"Be bold about it, Zac." Issac blinked and kept his gaze focused on the carpet floor, clearly overanalyzing whatever fake scene was in his head. Jey read the expression clear as day and sighed deeply. "Look man, you can't be actin' all scary bout this stuff, a'ight? You ain't gettin' her sittin' around askin' all these questions."

Issac only answered in a single nod, but he locked eyes with his captain, awaiting his next words. Jey could be pretty rough in his verbal delivery, but being around him long enough let the ginger know he really did care.

The older male adjusted himself to lean forward. Issac recognized this pose to signify Jey's seriousness on a topic and mirrored the action. "You gotta change the way you lookin' at the situation. You keep talkin' like you scared. Are you scared?" In his mind, Issac was maybe anxious, slightly nervous if they were getting technical. But it wasn't the time for getting technical, especially not with Jey.

"No."

"Then act like it. Don't think about what'll go wrong, if she end up not being' forreal bout you, whatever. You gon mess yourself up before you can do anything." Issac nodded, listening intently to the captain's words. "You gotta think like she's already yours, Issac." At this the ginger furrowed his brows. "Zac, the way you're approaching this is lookin' at her like a friend who's open for anyone to take. The only part of that sentence that's true is she's open for anyone to take, but you ain't gon think like that."

"But—"

"You ain't gon think like that," Jey repeated himself. "This is your girl, Zac."

"Jey, I don't think—"

"Your girl."

Issac sighed in frustration. "Even if I did think like that, how does that help?" He was now rethinking if coming off campus in the middle of the night for advice was his smartest idea.