When We Write the Stars

Chapter 16: Hayden

 "I'd rather fight with you than make love with anyone else." —The Wedding Date

     I'd been standing outside of Cassie's apartment building for the past ten minutes. It was a nice building, brick. Had a nice view of the water on the other side. I'd seen plenty of people come and go, most of them also Seaport students. And yet I was still just standing here. I wasn't late yet, I'd gotten here fifteen minutes early, but couldn't bring myself to text Cassie that I was there.

     When I texted her, I'd have to see her, and I'd want to kiss her, but I told myself I wasn't going to kiss her, or even think about kissing her until she and I had a legitimate conversation. I didn't necessarily care what the result of the conversation was, so long as it meant we got to keep doing what we'd been doing, we just needed to actually talk about it. Cassie had made it abundantly clear she didn't want to actually talk about it, which was honestly probably why I wanted to have this conversation so badly. It was further proof that we could never agree on anything.

     We only had three more movies to watch for our project, and I knew if we didn't talk about it before we finished watching the movies and making our presentation, she'd never talk about it. I couldn't understand why she wouldn't talk about it though, I thought girls were always the ones who wanted to talk about things and define the relationship.

     I took a deep breath and finally texted her that I was there. I needed to man up and stop putting off the inevitable. Things would either go well or they wouldn't. Nothing would happen at all if I didn't ever go in though.

     "Hey," she says as she opens the door, and I can't help but notice how good she looks. She's changed out of her semi-professional getup she usually wears to class and is instead wearing sweats and a cropped blue tank top. There's something about seeing her dressed down, looking so human. Like she's just a normal college girl, not some crazy smart somewhat up-tight astrophysics genius. It's nice.

     "Hey," I reply, "So what movie are we watching tonight?"

     "I think you'll like this one actually," she replies, blushing ever so slightly, "It's called Jerry Maguire, it's about a sports agent, and you do sports."

     I chuckle, "Yeah, I do sports. Great observation Cas."

     She rolls her eyes, "Shut up, and just be glad I tried to pick a movie you'd like."

     I grin back at her, "You know, picking a movie you thought I'd like, some might say that means you like me."

     "I wouldn't go that far," she responds automatically, "I just didn't want to hear you complain all night about how unrealistic the movie is."

     "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll still find things to complain about with this one, it is a romance after all."

     She sighs as we walk into the apartment. My eyes immediately go to the whiteboard in the living room which has even more writing on it than before. I guess we are getting closer and closer to application deadlines, not that I know anything about grad school. The only reason I even go to my classes is to get good enough grades that I'm academically eligible for hockey.

     "Where's everyone else," I ask, noticing that it's a lot quieter than normal, usually all three of her roommates seem to be out here torn between ogling and interrogating me.

     "There's a volleyball game tonight, and Adri's been hooking up with a girl on the team so they went to support."

     "Damn Adri's got some game, Coleman's been chasing after a volleyball girl for weeks now with no luck."