When Stars Burn

Chapter Seven: Stars and Scars

The moment we stepped inside the house, I recognized the sounds of a video game and the groans and cheers coming from the living room where Julian proceeded to drag me into.

There was a girl in a bubble-gum pink dress shooting at spaceships on the screen next to a guy in a black shirt and jeans. They had their backs to us and Julian didn't announce our arrival until a buzz sounded off and the guy crumpled to his knees with a loud groan while the girl yelled happily, dropping her controller on the bean bag she had been jumping up and down on.

I smiled, amused by the girl specifically. Her black hair was daintily trimmed in a pixie cut, adorned with a red fabric rosette. Her caramel-colored skin contrasted beautifully with her pink outfit and her slender frame gave her the illusion of being taller and more graceful. She was lovely with features perfectly blended from her obvious mixed heritage, and probably well-off too if the quality of her clothes were to be judged. But she had that air of innocence and kindness about her that I found both endearing and tragic. She might the kind of girl who would hug children or burst into tears if she'd heard that a bunny got run over by a car.

"When will you learn, Matt?" Julian asked as he walked over to drop my backpack on the couch and and high-fived with the girl. "Even Kit doesn't play Galactic Glory with her anymore because she always kicks his ass."

Matt sighed and pulled himself up on his feet. "Well, I always kick Kit's ass in this game so his pathetic losing streak against his own girlfriend didn't really hold much weight for a warning."

"Trash Kit all you like but in the end you're no better than him at being a gracious loser," the girl chirped with a roll of her eyes before she turned and saw me standing there behind the couch. "Oh, goodness! Is this her? Are you Star? I'm Nisha! I'm so happy to meet you!"

Julian just snickered as Nisha climbed from the bean bag to the couch with her bare feet to extend her hand to me. "I heard you were beautiful and for once, Julian wasn't just gabbing on."

I noted the difference that Nisha knew about me but Cammi didn't. Maybe Julian wasn't that oblivious to Cammi's not-so-platonic interest, after all. I also didn't miss Julian's cheeks tinting a faint shade of pink when Nisha mentioned his comment about me being beautiful.

I couldn't help my grin as I shook Nisha's hand. "Glad he went with that one. I assure you he's got a slew of other adjectives for me and they're not that flattering."

"I can come up with a list and they'd all be flattering," Matt said as he got up and took his turn to shake my hand, his flirty smile practiced to perfection as he openly appraised me. "I mean, what's there to complain about?"

I raised my brows but before I could take him down a peg, Julian stepped forward and loosely slung an arm around my shoulders. "Star, this is Kit's younger brother, Matt, and if their mother is to be believed, she'd dropped him as a child a few times which explains his horrendous manners."

If Matt took that the wrong way, I couldn't tell because he just laughed and scratched his ear, reminding me very much of a little boy. While some of his features were similar to Kit, he looked a year or two younger and definitely acted like it. "A guy has to try, right? But seriously, I'm glad to meet you. I now feel better that you're the new roommate Julian picked over me. You definitely have some assets he can't appreciate in me."

"Ugh. You're just horrible," Nisha said with a face as she threw a cushion at Matt before giving me an apologetic smile. "Since Kit moved in with me six months ago, Matt's been trying to talk Julian into letting him take over the loft."

"And I've repeatedly declined," Julian added. "He made the mistake of staying over one weekend with us—a weekend of my life that I'll never get back now."