Stardust

Planets Collide

Stardust: Planets Collide

Jake Gallagher

"Yo, dude, she won't stop starin' at him. It's creepin' me out, dude."

If Ethan Marshall continued to talk like that, I would surely be using the same slang as him by the end of the month. I already slipped up when I called principle Bermudez "dude" last week, and the longer I was around Ethan, the more I was itching to buy a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt with some emotive rock band's logo on it, and a beanie tight enough to constrict my skull, and get my hair dyed black and cut into that new punk style that hung in front of your eyes so much that it looked like they didn't have any. But I was still sane enough to distance myself from my locker partner to ensure that none of that actually happened. Then again, if it was only one month into the school year, and Ethan already had me so influenced, I was afraid that all of those horrendous trends might trickle on to me and I'd become a hideous clone of Ethan Marshall... I just cringed, by the way.

"Look at her, dude! She's fuckin' creepin' on him!"

Unbeknownst to myself, I slammed my locker shut so hard that the sound actually rung over all of the hall's commotion between third and fourth period. Even my subconscious could not suppress how irritating Ethan's presence could be.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, throwing my hands up, staring at the tufts of hair that covered his eyes.

Ethan did that annoying hair flip that made me want to detach his head from his body, and he pointed behind me.

Completely uncharacteristic of her, Brennyn was as quiet as a church mouse. If it weren't for Ethan and his infuriating use of "dude" to catch my attention, she would have gone unnoticed, and Brennyn Tetro never went unnoticed if she had anything to say about it. She leaned against the locker at the end of our block, and her eyes were transfixed at a sight down the hall. With all of the bustling students, I didn't know what constant thing she could have been staring at, but whatever it was demanded her undivided attention.

Ethan lightly shoved me forward. My brows were drawn to a hard furrow when I looked back at him, but as innocent as he could be, he opened our locker and pretended to be interested in my textbooks. I underestimated how annoying he could be, but I tip-toed to Brennyn as not to disturb her. And that was when I caught a glimpse at what she was staring at.

It was none other than Skylar Glass.

Down the hall on the opposite side as us, Skylar was sifting through his locker for I-don't-know-what, but my observations of him over this passed month concluded that whatever he was looking for was probably illegal and had no business being in his locker. Even then, I couldn't help but notice that he looked really good. I mean, he wore nothing special, just a black t-shirt with a portrait of Kurt Cobain and some purposely tattered jeans. His clothes said that he was just a guy, but I've always been weird and overanalyzed and my analysis thought he looked really good.

I tapped on the shoulder before me, afraid that if I applied anymore pressure, Brennyn's thin skeleton would shatter.

"You should talk to him," I said.

From what I recalled of our conversations over the passed month, Brennyn and Skylar had been inseparable for two years, so one argument shouldn't ruin that. Then again, I didn't know what the argument was about, so I couldn't really be the judge of that. The only reason why I even knew there was an argument was because Matt told me there was. Even if he hadn't, I would have quickly noticed that Skylar was voiding Brennyn's existence from his life. Matt updated me last night, and Skylar hasn't talked to Brennyn in an entire month. They haven't been in contact since Skylar nearly got suspended for throwing a dodge ball at Billy Abel's nose in Brennyn's defense. Whatever they were arguing about must have been serious.