Starbird

Chapter 16

I waited for what felt like hours for Ava to finally make her way out of our house. She and James talked at the door for probably another thirty minutes until I heard the door slam and James run up the stairs into his bedroom. And that’s when I could interrogate. Rushing out of my own bedroom, I knocked in a hurried manner, hearing him only reply with, “I’m naked.”

“Hurry up and put some clothes on!” I yelled from the other side.

“Why?”

“Because I need to talk to you,” I replied, waiting for him to give me the signal to enter.

“About?”

“What do you think?”

“Nope. Go away. I’ll stay naked, thank you.”

“James! Stop being a butt.”

“I don’t get why you’re so interested.”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m your sister and you haven’t had a girlfriend since you were fifteen. This is a big deal.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“But you want her to be!” The door swung open, James wearing his sweatpants, clutching the handle and the doorframe, barricading my way to enter his room. He looked stressed about this, something I didn’t quite understand.

“Can we not have this discussion?” He almost pleaded, sounding tired.

“Why not? I’m not going to go running to Ava telling her everything you will tell me.”

“That’s because I’m not telling you anything.” He remained in the doorframe. 

“Please James? Just tell me what’s up with you and Ava,” I said in my best little sister voice, the one where you get anything and everything you want. He sighed and moved from the doorframe towards his bed as I took that as my opportunity to come in. I plopped down on his desk chair and waited for him to begin.

“So I like her, big deal. She’s cute and funny and sweet, not to mention foreign, so I mean, it was bound to happen.” I couldn’t stop myself. I smiled like it was Christmas and I had just gotten everything I’d wanted.

“What’s the problem then?”

“Celebrities dating each other is brutal. You have everyone watching you always. You have the crazed shippers, you have the haters, you have the somewhat normal people, and then there’s the paparazzi and people always asking in interviews and Cam, you don’t understand what that pressure does to relationships.” I mulled over his words. Having millions of people watch your every move dating someone would be hard. You could be simply talking to someone else and then the tabloids would be saying you cheated! 

“Yeah, I guess not,” I said once I realized what he was saying was true.

“Trust me, I want to date Ava. I really like Ava. I’m pretty sure she even likes me back. However, it would be really difficult. Not to mention once we’re done shooting, just suppose we would still be dating, I go back to LA and she goes to Ireland and now we have a transatlantic relationship between two people working full-time in the movie industry.” James ran his fingers through his hair, stopping to grab the back of his neck as he stretched it. I remained silent, thinking over his words.

“I think... I think you should try anyway,” I said after awhile. He looked back up at me and offered a small corner smile. One that wasn’t exactly happy. It was more of an oh-you-sweet-and-innocent-thing-you type smile.

“So what, just ask her out? See how it goes? Just think ‘screw what everyone thinks’?”

“Yeah,” I replied shortly.