My entries for the STARDUST contest

Dude, get better at excuses!

Lately, something about my brother Milo has been really off. He sneaks out of the house on Friday nights, he's always late to stuff and sometime, he just disappears. It's been going on for three months and my parents still haven't noticed, they believe all of his excuse even the worst one. At first, I thought maybe he's actually going to help his best friend to bath her dog. But recently, his excuses are literal jokes. He really thinks that "I got to go, the president is calling me" or "Sorry I was late, I had to take my pet fish on a walk" are good excuses. He doesn't even have a fish! I'm tired of him getting away with everything when I can't even text my best friends at 3 am without getting punished!

So, I decided to do the only thing you can do in my situation, follow my brother on one of his expeditions to unknown destinations. I can't do that alone so, I've put together a team, my best friend (and crush) Julian, Milo's best friend Cassie and I, Avery. We even have a plan, tonight, we follow my brother on one of his Friday escapades. Cassie is currently at my house while I'm at Julian's place. Did I forget to mention that Cassie and Julian are siblings? Cause they are. So, Julian invited me to sleepover and we are waiting for a text from his sister. She's hiding close to my house waiting for my dear brother to sneak out and when he does, she's going to text. Right now, we are waiting in Julian's bedroom, he's listening to music and I'm watching series on my phone. I'm in the middle of my episode when my best friend screams:

"I have an amazing idea!"

"Sure Jul, I'm sure it's an amazing idea!" I say teasing him, "but seriously, what is it?"

"We should wear disguises!" he says while disconnecting his earphones, looking at me with sparkly teal eyes. I had forgotten how pretty Julian's eye are. I don't understand how no girls have asked him out yet, he's really cute. I mean, I would ask him out if he wasn't my best friend but I'm scared he's going to reject me and we will lose what we already have. I look away from the pretty eyed boy with dark hair and I think about what he proposed, wear disguises. Like pink wigs? I ask him what kind of disguise he had in mind.

"Well, you could just steal something from my sister's closet, it's not your style so your brother will have more difficulty to spot you! We should just wear things we wouldn't wear every day! Say yes Ave, it's gonna be fun!"

He looks at me with a giant smile and puppy eyes, guess what, I can't resist that look. He pushes me toward Cassie's room and closes the door behind me. I open the closet door and look at the clothes. There's so much stuff in there! Cassie has like a thousand outfits! My brother and Julian's sister are 18 while I'm 17, so we hang out together a lot and I've seen Cassie in most of those clothes. I grab a red Coca-Cola crop top and a pair of blue denim shorts. I put them on and I feel a bit naked but the goal today is to look different, and I am looking very different right now! I undo my high ponytail, and I leave my hair loose on my shoulders. I put on a red-orange lipstick I found in Cassie's bathroom. I take a quick look at myself in the mirror and I like what I see. I walk out of the room and I enter Julian's only to see that he is shirtless, I can't help but look at his abs, and I like what I see. He put on a white and pink t-shirt and looks at me. I can't help myself and I blush hardly, he's really cute, the dark blue shorts he's wearing are really different from the jogging he usually wears. I snap out of it and look somewhere else, scolding myself mentally. He's your best friend Avery, stop being obsessed.

"You look good Ave." He says not looking me into the eyes.

"Not bad yourself, Jul."

At that exact moment, we receive a text from Cassie, it's time. We run out of Julian's house and he screams to his mom that we are getting ice cream, at least it's a better excuse than Milo's!