I sat in my room and boy was I sweating like Niagara Falls. There were so many possibilities on how terrible this could go. My pros and cons list were full of cons and one single pro. I could see Robin. It's a lame pro but, hey, I needed at least one.

Chase: Hey, man, I don't think I'm going to make it. Sorry. 

He didn't respond which bewildered me. He seemed passionate for my accompany but didn't bother to answer. I added one more con to the list: he's a dick. Which, yeah, was rude, but he could have had the courtesy of answering me.

"Hey, Chase. I need to talk to you." If this wasn't my brother, I would have thought we were breaking up.

"Yeah, what's up?" There was odd tension floating in my room, which is supposed to be my safe space. Curse you Jace for ruining my safe space.

"When you become an older brother, you get a rulebook on how to be an older brother—"

"Jace you are older than me by two minutes, you couldn't even read the damn book."

"And as stated in the rule book," he hardened his voice in annoyance, "you must protect your younger sibling from danger and evil." I began to roll my eyes greatly.

"Jace—"

"Chase, I'm trying to be your older brother here. I want to protect you from things that aren't good for you. And that boy is not good for you. He's malicious in every way, you've heard the rumors right?"

"Yeah, and they are rumors for a reason. They never happened! He's a nice guy and probably wouldn't even hurt a fly! You wouldn't know because you don't know him."

"Oh, and you do? Just before this morning, you had fallen in the webs of the rumors. You were scared shitless of him just like everyone else. You think that if you spend three hours with him, you're suddenly his best friend? You know his parents' occupation? Where he lives? What's his favorite color? His middle name?"

"Actually I do know that—"

"Chase! You're not getting it! You don't know a damn thing about him! You don't know about the stuff he does when he's alone. Who he's with or where he goes. Stop pretending like you know every damn thing about him!" My brother was left panting, he sure did blast a lot of energy giving me that speech.

"You know what, you're right. I don't know a damn thing about him. But I'm trying! You're sitting here judging him because of what other people have told you and you're not even stopping to at least know his middle name. Judge him, judge him all you want. Lead a blind eye to him."

"Look, I just want to help you before you fall too hard." Ah shit. Why did he have to say that? Now he's making me feel like an asshole.

My brother closed my door shut leaving me to pout alone in my room.

Chase: Hey, Actually I'm going to go.

Robin: Great, see you there.