The Wrong Brother

Chapter 16 - Stargazing

Alex's POV

It's finally Thanksgiving week and after spending almost an entire week without talking or even texting a lot with Dylan, we made plans to meet at his house.

I miss spending time with him and having real conversations, instead of the superficial stuff we usually talk about when we are with his friends. I just wish we could go on more dates and not hang out like we're buddies.

So, when he said he was coming home today, I couldn't wait. As soon as I arrive at the Wests, I call for someone, but there's no answer. It's weird, because the door is open, so technically, there is someone home.

With that in mind, I walk deeper inside the house, until I see through the door a light coming from the backyard.

As I approach the kitchen slide door that leads outside, I see Bennett sitting out there, so I relax a little.

For a moment I was afraid to go inside and find a silent intruder or something like that, but that's crazy. I knew the Wests wouldn't leave the door open with an empty house for anyone to come in.

I step outside into the dark, only Bennett's professional flashlight and the bright moon leading my way.

Let's be honest, who even has a professional flashlight?

"Hey, you're home." I say as I approach him.

I get to where he is and I look around the set-up. He has a big blanket on the lawn that seems to be quite cozy, a notebook with a bunch of pens scattered around, a couple books and he is looking at the sky in a telescope that I recognize to be our school's.

"Hey.'' He greets me and takes a step away from the device to make a note on a piece of paper before turning back to face me.

"Where's everybody?" I ask, hugging myself with the cold weather.

''My parents are still at work and Dylan is not back from campus yet."

Oh, that explains why Dylan didn't text me back. I was getting worried, but he's probably still busy with school.

"What are you doing?" I don't want to talk about Dylan with Bennett and I'm actually curious as to why it looks like he's having a picnic with himself in his backyard.

"Stargazing.'' Is all he says, before his eyes are back in the eyepiece.

"So, you're into astronomy as well?" I control myself not to playfully roll my eyes, because obviously Bennett would be into something like this, which I'll admit, is pretty cool.

"I guess you can say that. I was invited to attend an astronomy lecture at NYU, so I'm doing some research." I could pretend I'm surprised a college invited him to this kind of thing, but I'm actually not surprised at all. Of course he would be.

I can barely get a simple physics concept right and the guy is getting invited to a college lecture.

Just another thing to add to the list of things that Bennett does well. At this point, it annoys and amuses me at the same time.

I just realized that I miss spending time with him. We haven't been hanging out a lot lately for obvious reasons, but now I wish I said yes to the times he asked me if I needed his help studying for exams instead of saying that I was busy.

He never pushed when I said no, and sometimes I wish he did.

I look up to see whatever he is seeing, not that it would be possible to see anything without proper equipment, but it's a nice night and I can in fact see the stars. It's unusual for November weather, but the seasons are crazy these days.