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by camsnewton

by camsnewton

+NARRATOR
THE PAST, DAYS AFTER THE STAR GAZING INCIDENT

"REUNION"

they stood at terminal three waiting for ethan to emerge from the gaggle of people flooding out of the baggage claim area. a few minutes passed before ethan could be seen holding his gucci duffel bag and dragging his matching suitcase closely behind him. his face lit up when he saw his beloved twin brother and his girlfriend, calista whom ethan had really taken to upon his yearly visits to london.

"welcome to the big smoke," cali laughed embracing her boyfriend's brother. ethan smiled back and hugged his friend tightly.

"where's my love?" grayson asked happily, slightly teary-eyed as the joy he felt electrocuting his body was overbearing. ethan broke apart from cali who admired the sight of the two brothers physically engaging with each other after years on end with only a few weeks each summer to actually physically interact with one another. after a minute or so, calista joined in and made it a three-way hug and the trio stood like that in the airport for some time before making their way to the parking lot.
__________

"what have i missed out on?" ethan asked as they cruised down the motorway; cali in the driver seat so that the twins could catch up and spend some quality time together.

"well as you already know, that sexy thing in the front seat is my girlfriend now," grayson beamed as she simply rolled her eyes, a gesture not visible to him.

"yes i know — i remember you blowing up my phone when it happened," ethan smiled, patting his brother on the shoulder lightly as if to say 'well done'.

"well it was my crowning moment, i couldn't keep you in the dark," grayson joked as the two verbally sparred in the back.

"do you two want to stop and get something to eat when we get back into the city?" cali asked, interrupting them as they play-fighted like children. upon hearing the word 'eat' ethan's head whipped up and his eyes bulged in excitement.

"yes," he groaned as he clutched his stomach. "the plane food was shit."

"in which case you'll need pizza to wash it down. and i'll pay, it's my treat," cali smiled to herself.

"bro, you've got a keeper!" ethan winked as he simultaneously nudged his brother.
__________

"what do you think about cali and i? like together?" grayson asked later that evening once his girlfriend had gone back to her parents' house where she still lived. at eighteen she didn't want to live in an expensive condo in the central city which would drain her funds, neither did she want to live with her boyfriend who had moved out of his aunt's home.

"you honestly seem happier now than you've been... ever."

"but, part of me misses the chase," he admitted. "i liked it when she was off-limits and i had to eliminate the competition. now it's just easy," he complained. "plus, i'm young. i'm eighteen. so, do i really want to be tied down with a girlfriend?" he squinted, almost in disgust at imagining himself in a serious relationship at such a young age.

"well, when you embark on the chase there are two paths ahead and you must pick one: you either go down the never-ending road of misery because you fail time and again to get the girl and you have to watch her from afar with other guys. or you go down the other road which is a shortcut — you can swerve ahead of her and catch her, but then you've got her. you can't later complain that you've caught her because that's what you wanted; that's what it means to chase," ethan shrugged. "i truly can't believe we're talking about this. that girl is perfect."

"and i love her, i know i do. i just feel like... like, christmas came too early. five years early, in fact."

the brothers sat on the sofa of the dimly lit room and turned their attention to the tv. both had their eyes fixated on the screen when in fact, they were actually thinking about the previous conversation they'd had. ethan found it a hard pill to swallow: he couldn't comprehend why his brother wanted to throw away a diamond because he missed his old cubic zirconia ring.

and as for grayson, he felt guilty about his reoccurring thoughts on dumping calista. he loved her, after all it was only earlier on in the car when he called her 'that sexy thing in the front seat' but he couldn't help but feel stuck. his relationship certainly didn't lack passion, flavour or spice but he felt as though in the near future it would.

"i'm going to break up with her tomorrow," he announced after a few minutes of silence from both parties.

"i think you're making a massive mistake, but okay," ethan mumbled back, displeased (to say the least) with his brother who he deemed incredibly stupid.

they sat there listening to the sounds coming from the television which seemed like a muffled mess to both boys. their heads were too filled with ideas they felt so strongly about to concentrate on piecing together the words coming from the actors' and actresses' mouths. a tightness in ethan's stomach made him feel sick and he had no clue why. maybe because cali has offered him nothing but kindness whenever they were together and he had a soft spot for her. he thought of her almost as dearly as his own sister and therefore couldn't stand to hear grayson disregard her based on fleeting emotions.

"i'm going to bed," ethan announced, standing up from the leather couch and trudging up the stairs to his new room. his walls were painted red which was an odd colour but he liked it. in his mind it screamed 'majestic' and so he thought of it as fitting. his bed frame was black with golden details to accentuate it and his covers were cream coloured. the fleecy, pima cotton sheets made ethan feel like he was laying on a heap of a million goose feathers (which was what his pillows were actually made of).

he took off his clothes and climbed into bed after opening the window so that he could get some breeze. just like his brother, he enjoyed listening to the bustle of outside nightlife: wheels on tarmac, pedestrian lights beeping and horns or sirens blaring every once in a while. as the noise filled his ears, a miraculous and what he perceived as a marvellous idea came to mind. he stuck his hand under his pillow to retrieve his phone and frantically looked for cali's number.

'you awake?' he texted.

he saw the ellipsis fading and getting bolder meaning she was typing back and the young man felt like he could breathe a sigh of relief. 'at one a.m. of course!' she wrote back.

ethan sucked in a huge intake of air and violently exhaled as he prepared himself for what was about to happen next. his fingers started moving and tapping the letters on the keyboard which would form to make words that would snake out grayson. his rationale was that if calista can dump him first he would still feel the need to chase and their romance wouldn't be quite over yet. however, he knew that if grayson ended things first it would ruin any future chance between the two. 'here's the thing,' he started to snitch.