"James...why are we at the ship port?" I quietly asked, after opening my eyes for the first time in several minutes. 

Shortly after arriving at my bedroom door, James asked to cover my eyes with a black handkerchief so the destination of our first date was a surprise. Part of me wanted to ask why I needed to be blindfolded in the first place, but the other half really didn't want to know. 

Until now.

"Fine, put the blindfold back on," he sighed, handing me the black cloth to cover my eyes.

"What-no-" I sputtered, raising my eyebrows in James' direction.

"Trust me," he pleaded. "I want our first date to be a surprise."

I scrunched my nose and squinted skeptically as I let James' words sink in.

"You know, I really feel like we are reliving one of those dramatic and cheesy moments right now where you ask me to trust you and I say yes as if it has some deep underlying meaning...."

James froze with the stillness of the silence, before he broke out into fits of laughter.

"What?" He chuckled happily.

"Never mind," I groaned with a red flush streaking down my neck. "It's just a girl thing," I added sarcastically.

"Great," he smiled, handing me the blindfold.

I internally smacked myself on the forehead. Boys could be so stupid and ignorant; it was disheartening.

I quietly and obediently tied the black fabric over my eyes. The soft material felt nice against my eyelids, though I would never admit that to James.

I let him guide me along a path that took us to a creaking bridge. I assumed it was a bridge to a ship, but it felt much smaller than the one I boarded when I first arrived here, which caused an unnerving feeling to settle in the pit of my stomach.

But eventually, my nerves subsided when I heard the click of an opening door and I felt a gentle pressure against my lower back, leading me inside. I heard James press a button behind me and the resulting, satisfying click of a door closing. I stood in the center of what I assumed to be a ship, quietly and patiently as I waited for James to remove the blindfold.

But he didn't.

Instead, my focus was drawn to quiet rustling noises and clatters of glass-like objects as James moved across the room. I found it both mysterious and strange at the same time, but I didn't dare to interrupt him. I left him to mess around with whatever he was doing, and I was perfectly content with imagining what it was that grabbed his attention.

"Elena," James finally said in a tired voice, "You can take off your blindfold."

"About time," I smirked, pulling off the soft fabric and tucking it into the back pocket of my dress, as a familiar and handsome face came into view.

"Hey," he charmingly smiled, "This much perfection takes time," he said gesturing to a white sheet draped over the floor that was dotted with candles and rose petals.

"It's beautiful, James," I murmured softly as I gazed at the stunning set up of white lit candles and rosy blush petals brushing the outside edges of the blanket.

"Then everything went as intended," he smiled joyfully.

"So...our first date is a romantic...dinner?" I asked unsure of myself since we had already eaten before boarding the ship.

James scrunched his face awkwardly in response to my question.

"Technically our first date is going to see your sister. This is just a prequel amenity."

I burst out into light-hearted laughter, amused by James' choice of a first date.

"You want to meet my family on the first date?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but I would be honored to meet your sister, so...yes," he said softly.

"Complicated...?" I drew out with raised brows.

"Well," he started, "I heard from Conner that you requested to return to Earth to see your sister, and seeing that my parents had no immediate intention to make good on that offer in the immediate future, I took matters into my own hands."
I shook my head and peered up at James with a small smile.

"We aren't supposed to be here, are we?" I sighed tiredly.

James offered me a wide, mischievous smile.

"What my parents don't know can't hurt them," he said confidently.

"I never took you for someone who would disobey their parents," I smirked.

"A little rebellion every once in a while is good for you, especially with parents like mine," he said taking a seat on the right corner of the blanket.

"I can agree with that," I smiled, taking a seat to his right.

"I thought you might," he smirked. "Excited to see Meila?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and frowned.

"I don't know, but I think I am. Of course I want to see her more than anything, it's just, after everything that has happened, I'm not sure where that leaves us. Do you know what I mean?" I asked softly.

James' face shifted into a sad smile. His eyes clouded with a specific type of sadness and pain that could only stem from losing a loved one. A look that I only knew because it was once my own.

"I'm afraid I know exactly what you mean. I've wondered the same thing hundreds of times myself: what would it be like to see my brother after everything that has happened in spite of us? I've never gotten a clear answer," he added softly.

"You have a brother?" I asked in a soft and patient voice.

"I did," he said somewhat shakily. "My parents sent him away when we were young and never told me why. I haven't been able to contact him since, despite my efforts. My parents erased him from every system, including the match; that was the first place I checked."

"I'm so sorry, James," I murmured softly, sure that nothing I could say or do would make him feel better.

"It's alright; that was a long time ago," he said quietly in a hushed voice.

"Is that why you don't get along with your parents?"

"Partially. We've just never gotten along, and them sending away my twin brother certainly didn't help."

My mouth fell open.

"They sent away your twin?" I asked in horror.

"Yes," he said matter-of-factly.

"How could they do that to their own son? To you?" I sputtered as I tried to imagine doing that to my own child. I couldn't.

"How could they kill your parents?" He shrugged. "Talking about my parents won't change who they are," he kindly smiled. "Besides, I didn't bring you here to talk about them; I brought you here to talk about you."

My eyes crinkled as my lips widened into a bright smile.

"You know, for the longest time, I've tried to hate you and your family for taking away mine," I said slowly in a hesitant, yet honest tone. James' eyes briefly widened at my words, showing a glimpse of sadness and pain. "Your parents were easy; I could blame them and disregard them as heartless human beings who didn't care about anyone but themselves. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hate you, James," I said softly in an endearing tone. "I don't think I ever could. You've shown me more kindness and compassion than most people ever have."

"Is that a compliment?" James joked with a wide smile, though I could tell his question was genuine underneath the comedy.

"Yes," I smiled, "It's a complement."

"So you don't hate me?" He asked curiously with an arched eyebrow.

"No."

"But you don't like me either...?" He teased with underlying seriousness.

I released an unwarranted giggle as I stared into James' piercing eyes.

"Are you trying to ask me if I like you?" I smirked.

"No," he roughly coughed in an awkward manner.

"Really?" I teased. "Because I was willing to answer you before you regressed your question."

"And you say I'm insufferable," he muttered with an amused twinkle in his eye.

"Do you want me to answer you or not?" I asked softly with a small grin.

James met my eyes in silence, giving me a small nod, asking me to continue.

"I like you, not in some creepy obsessive way, but still far more than I would like to admit." James' face broke out into a warm smile. "And it frustrates me sometimes because I don't understand why. Yes, as we've gotten to know each other I've learned things about you that make me...like you, but it goes back further than that. It's like..., since the first time I met you, I've always been drawn to you," I said honestly with slight hesitation. "I suppose that could be attributed to the match, though."

James sat beside me quietly as he rubbed the corner of his lips with his finger. The candles flickering in the background cast dark shadows across his face as the spacecraft continued towards Earth.

"I understand what you mean," he finally said. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you. The match may have said our personalities are compatible, but the match didn't make us meet at the bar that night; fate did. The match didn't make us attracted to each other, we were attracted to each other in spite of it. We were drawn to each other before we even knew who the other person was; I won't thank the matchmaking system for that; I'm going to thank fate and you." He paused to suck in a mouthful or air. "And, for the record, I like you too," he said kindly with a warm and breathtaking smile.

I smiled brightly back.

"So we're friends now?" I pondered.

"Naturally," he replied as our pod tumbled down towards Earth and Meila.

AN: Twelve down and many more to go! I've been working on this chapter for awhile trying to give you guys the information you need to set up the next chapter, which has taken much longer than I had intended so I apologize. But, on a better note the next chapter is going to be action packed which will set up this story for a string of conflicts that will carry us to the end of this story(with closer together updates), an this story is going to be a million times more fun because who doesn't like drama and conflict in a book?

This chapter is shorter than usual because I wanted to give the meeting between Elena and her sister(and James) its own chapter instead of squeezing it into this one, and I also didn't want to drag out this chapter just to add more unnecessary fluff, so yeah...this one is shorter. But because it is shorter, there is a possibility that I will also drop chapter 13 today because I really want to start diving into the action and have some fun while I am at it. Also, I really don't like posting chapters  this short unless absolutely necessary, so once again, I apologize.

Lastly, when I originally started planning this story I intended for it to be a much more dramatic plot line from the get go, which I soon realized was very unrealistic and immature of me to do. Yes, as readers we love the drama, but I think there needs to be a good balance between realistic and yet interesting. I could make every single bad thing in the world happen to Elena, but is that going to be faintly believable? Probably not, unless well executed. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I've given a lot of thought into this story line and I am working hard to make this story as realistic, interesting(with a bit of drama of course), and fun as possible. I really hope you guys enjoy what you read! It is still crazy to me that thirty of you guys are sticking around for the ride even thought this story isn't complete yet. I just want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for investing your time in reading my story; it means the world to me that I can make some of you guys happy during these difficult times. Also I want to personally thank the person who left my first comment and vote. It made me so happy to see that you enjoyed my story! Please feel free to leave comments in the future; I love hearing from you guys!

As always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and updates will be coming in the near future!

-Elly6431