"Crap, crap, crap." Harper mumbled to herself as she put her thick, black hair into a ponytail. She was already ten minutes late and she hadn't even walked out the door. Her cousin Ignatius had come to visit her in Georgia, all the way from New fricking York, and she couldn't even be on time. They'd planned to meet at a small Starbucks next to the movies and she'd show him around the city. She hadn't seen in what seemed like decades and it felt like she was almost overflowing with excitement. It didn't seem that way for her alarm clock.

She grabbed a green jacket on her way out of her apartment and headed down the stairs. "G'morning, Miss Lycon!" her neighbor call to her from his seat on the couch. Their building's lobby floor had a living room with a fireplace that was rarely used. Right now, it was burning warm and bright in front of Henry, who was bundled up in blankets. That man was never warm enough. "Good morning, Henry!" she called before exiting the building and heading straight to the parking lot.

She found her blue car where it always was and got inside quickly. Usually, Georgia's weather was nice but this winter was horrible. She could see her breath coming out in rapid, little, white puffs. She started her car and immediately turned up the heat. Before placing her small hands on the wheel, she rubbed them together quickly. The drive was a quick ten-minutes accompanied by this week's top hits on the radio. When she pulled into the parking lot and parked, she checked her phone. Ignatius had called her several times already, around the time they were actually supposed to meet. Guilt twisted in her gut as she stepped out of the car. She checked her appearance once more before going into the shop. Her ponytail was acceptable and her face looked presentable. She decided, in a haste, to wear a red sweater and some black jeans with boots and a green jacket. With a deep breath, she strode to the store's door.

She noticed Ignatius immediately, his short, blonde hair standing out against the dark haired teens already there. "Harper!" he said with a warm smile. She returned it while giving him a tight hug. He was wearing a red shirt with a symbol from The Flash on it and some jeans with a scarf. His green eyes shone with happiness while he looked down at her, taking her in as well. It was hard to believe that they were related, but her mother's dark hair and eyes were passed down rather than her father's pale eyes and light hair. "How've you been?" she asked while pulling him down into a table. "I've been pretty well, actually! Avery and I are going smoothly as well as school. What about you?" he said, giving her a winning smile. "Me too! Sorry I was late but I had an alarm clock mishap. I have yet to find anyone to be in a relationship with and I'm happy with that." she responded, but already knowing his answer. "Harper, I tell you everytime we talk! You'll find them someday!" he said. She nodded knowingly before changing the subject from her.

"Why didn't Avery come with you?" she asked. "He actually really wanted to come. His brother just recently moved down here with his new boyfriend and he would have liked to see you. He got really sick, and you know it runs in his family. If Evelyn wasn't there, I would've stayed with him. He asked if I would go see his bro too. You should come with me, whenever I go." he said. "Yeah, that'd be-" she started, but was interrupted by Ignatius.

"Ivan?! What are you doing here?! Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Hi!" In the next moment, he was up and hugging the tall man who had just walked in. "Iggy? I should be asking you that. Did Avery send you to see me?" Ivan asked. "No, I'm here to see my cousin, Harper." He said, motioning to the girl who was speculating the scene. Ivan gave him a questioning look before dismissing the topic. "Would you mind if we sat with you guys? You came all the way down here to see her, I wouldn't want to disturb you." he asked. The voice that spoke next was Harper's. "No, it's cool! I wouldn't mind at all!" the surprise was evident on Ivan's face as well as his boyfriend's. "Really? Harper, was it? I'm Nicholas but friends just call me Nick." Ivan's boyfriend stated. She shook his outstretched hand as he and Ivan sat down. When she got a good look at him, she noticed the similarities between him and his brother. She had to admit, he wasn't bad looking and neither was his white haired, dark-skinned boyfriend. She immediately threw the idea down the drain. They were taken, not to mention, by each other. Plus, they're both guys which means they're probably not even interested in her.

"...anything?" she heard. "What?" she asked, too busy spacing out to noticed what Nick'd asked. He chuckled before repeating his sentence. "I asked if you wanted anything. I'm going to get drinks." "Oh! Yeah! Sure, get me a...white chocolate mocha venti, please?" she said while getting out her wallet. He stopped her before she could give him the money. "We've already interrupted your lunch, let us pay." She want to protest but he walked away, ending the conversation. Ignatius and Ivan were still talking animatedly about Avery, so she opted not to join in and just waited for Nick to come back. Before she could get up to go ask Nick if he needed help carrying the drinks, her cousin patted her back roughly.

"My dad's brother, Hephaestus, married a Chinese woman while he was there for some work. Her name's Katherine. Harper was born in China but soon after her birth, they moved back here. That's why she looks so different from me. Both my parents were blonde and all of her mom's dark genes were passed down. She still beautiful either way though." he concluded, smiling at the girl next to him. "What did I miss?" Nick asked sitting down again after setting all their drinks down. "Nothing much, just a story. I'll tell you later tonight." Ivan said, reaching for his caramel macchiato.

"So, how did you two meet again?" Ignatius asked. "It was at an amusement park, I think it was Six Flags somewhere, but I can't remember. It was probably here, now that I think about it." Ivan said. "I went with Avery and Evelyn, but you know going to an amusement park with three people is stupid. So we were getting in lines for rides and stuff, but we hadn't thought about the odd number of people yet. We got to the front and I didn't have anyone to go with. They went first, apologizing and the likes, while I got paired with this dork. It turns out he's really….clingy? on roller coasters. After that, we kept running into each other at the park but I think that was Jessie, his sister, forcing him to follow us. Eventually, we asked him to just hang with us for the rest of the day." Avery explained.

"At the end of the day, I asked for his number so we could maybe hang out some other time. We eventually started going to places together and we called it "friendly" but we kind of knew this was heading to more than friends. This was in eighth grade, I think, by the way." he said. Harper's eye widened, and before she could stop herself, she blurted "That long?!" They stared at her for a minute before laughing and nodding. Harper's blush was already down her neck by the time of their response. Ignatius put his arm around her again before saying, "Old Harper here hasn't had a boyfriend in her twenty-two years of life.".

Their laughs quieted down. The two boys stared at her again with weird faces. Harper got up out of her seat and said, "I'm gonna...go to the bathroom. Haha, I'll be right back…" When she was out of sight, Nick and Ivan confronted Iggy. "Dude, really?" Ivan asked, giving him a glare. Ignatius was as clueless as ever. "What did I do?" he asked. "You can't just go blurting out people's romantic relationships like that. Especially not a woman's. It's really rude, and you should apologize about it later." Nick answered. Ignatius nodded, feeling a bit guilty about his comment. As Ivan was about to say something else, she walked back into the room and sat down.

"I miss anything good?" she laughed. They all shook their heads and chuckled too. "So Harper, are you a student somewhere? Or you work maybe…?" Ivan asked. "Oh, I'm a student. Studying to be an architect! I wanna build something so great it becomes so well known, like Big Ben! I am in love with clocks and architecture. Big Ben is my fucking fantasy!" The couple only watched her as she rambled on. Ignatius watched her fondly as she talked about her passion. He'd missed this conversation between them, especially since she'd moved. As kids they were extremely close. "I'm going to Georgia Tech College of Architecture. It's kinda far so most of the time I take my classes online." Ivan nodded before saying, "I'm going to start college for teaching music or maybe physical education. Nick wants to be a professional music artist."

You could almost see the interest in her eyes as she started talking about music. "I really enjoy music too! I really suck at singing but before I really started studying architecture, I was working for a company that built instruments. It was really cool to do that sort of stuff but to really get into it I had to learn about the instruments I built. I learned how to play a lot of instruments in a short period of time haha." she explained. Nick's eyes visibly widened as he shot her questions. "Can you play electric guitar?!" Her face showed shock as she responded. "Well, yeah, I think it was the first I learned…why?" Nick was almost across the table now. "I'm in a band! And we need an electric guitarist desperately!" "I don't think I'm the right pick for this, Nick-" "Just think about it, okay? Here, ah, I'll write my number down and you can just text me whenever." She took the slip of paper and nodded slowly, feeling overwhelmed. After a moment of silence Ivan said "Well, it was nice seeing you Ignatius, and nice meeting you Harper." He smiled and added, "Nick and I are gonna head home. I'll tell him to give you my number also, just incase you wanna talk more haha." The cousins waved at them as they left the building. "Well, wasn't that a coincidence? Right as we were talking about them ha." She nodded as she got out of her seat.

"You wanna go see a movie or get some pizza or something?" she asked. She'd been looking forward to seeing the movie Central Intelligence this week. "Sure! I kinda wanted to see that new movie, with Kevin Hart and The Rock, it looks good." she nodded along with him and looked up the movie times on her phone. It was already three o'clock so they decided on a three forty-five showing. "How about we get pizza and see the movie?" Harper proposed. "Romeo's Pizza is really good, let's grab a slice." Ignatius smiled and agreed. As they were eating Ignatius brought up Ivan and Nick again.

"So...did you like them?" she nodded slowly and squinted at Ignatius. "They were a really nice couple." she stated, trying not to think of them inappropriately. "Well, would you mind like going on...you know like a...date with them?" he mentioned, trialing near the end. This time around, she choked. "What?! Of course not! Why?!" Her brown eyes widened, expecting answers. "Well, you see...this afternoon wasn't really a coincidence…" he said, looking at the floor. "You set me up?! To meet them?!" Her expression was slowly tuning angry. "Ignatius Ashley, I told you not to meddle in my love-life! You embarrassed me in front of them and then just try to get me a date?!" She was now standing and pacing in front of their table. "Did they know too?!" He nodded slowly before trying to explain. "Harper, they just-" "I don't wanna talk about it! I'm gonna go home to calm down. Just give me some space, Ignatius." she said as she gathered her things and left. The minutes to her home seemed to drag by. She couldn't believe he did that!

"Do you think I came off too strong?" Nicholas asked his partner. "Well, she seemed a little overwhelmed but she didn't seem...extremely against your band idea." he nodded as he continued driving back to their home. "...She was cute…" Nick admitted with a warm face. Ivan laughed and nodded with him. "I'd like to see her again, yes."

A WEEK LATER

"She still hasn't contacted us…" Nicholas stated. It had been a week since they'd met the girl and week since she'd acquired both of their numbers. Ivan rolled his eyes and nodded. "...Hmmm, maybe you should, I don't know, text her first?" Nick shook his head before telling his boyfriend about his worry. "I don't want her to feel pressured. She looked pretty nervous the first time we spoke, but I don't blame her. I can't believe he didn't tell her that it was a date sort of thing." Ivan nodded and added, "Annnd the fact that your manly pride won't allow you to text anyone first." Nick gave him a shocked look. "You know I'm right! I thought you'd forgotten about me, with the amount of time I was waiting on you to text me. Before I decided to do it myself."

Ignatius was also struggling. Harper wouldn't answer any calls nor text from him. He even slipped cards underneath her door. Each one read something similar to: "Please let me explain, Harper! I didn't mean to embarrass you!" When she finally opened her door, her face was red and her eyebrows were furrowed. This was the face she'd only made three times in her life; When Ignatius thought it was funny to throw mud on her new polka-dot dress, when her mom told her they were moving the day after prom, and now. "You're not sorry you did it! You're sorry because I'm mad about it." She said. Ignatius was now on his knees. "They said they were looking for a nice girl that might be open to joining their relationship and they asked me about you! They saw your picture on my Facebook and I didn't want to just cut off your chance at romance!" The girl stared at him breathing deeply before asking, "Why did you just tell me it was a date Ignatius?" She seemed breathless and flushed but he was glad he'd gotten her to speak to him. "I have no idea…" he said casting his eyes down. When this answer didn't suffice, he mumbled the truth to her. "Well we always kind of talked about bringing the family together and I thought it would be cool for us to date brothers…sorry Harper." He'd heard her sigh and walk inside before he lifted his head. He tilted his head to see farther into the apartment and found Harpe on her way back out. He ducked his head again in shame.

"Here." He raised his head again and took the hot drink she'd offered. On her way out she'd made hot chocolate and grabbed herself a blanket. "Did you….text them anyway?" he asked hesitantly. She slid him a look as she replied "Yes, but only to ask them to talk with me face to face. We're meeting up tomorrow." He nodded and said "do you know what you're going to wear?" He knew how nervous she probably was and that she didn't really know how to dress for a date. "I could help...if you'd like?" She nodded in defeat and invited him inside.