บท 2: Meeting With The Others.

There were a few cars driving in front of them and a couple of them following them from behind. They soon arrived in front of the house and parked their car with everyone else. The place looked even more magnificent up close. Laura, who felt suffocated from being confined to the car for too long, was the first one to get off.

She got off to the sight of Lucas opening the door for her friend, who was still in the car. She watched with fascination as the two talked briefly and her friend Jen suddenly smacked his chest and the guy laughed happily before helping her out of the car.

Whenever she saw such interactions, she would feel envious of couples. But whenever these thoughts popped up, she remembered how Rachel stayed in the ICU because of how hurt she had been after being assaulted by her boyfriend and she would come back to her senses.

"You girls are here!" Jen said and walked towards Laura and the others, with Lucas following behind her.

They all greeted Jen, who looked very excited, as if she was the one who was hosting her birthday party.

"Happy birthday Lucas," Rachel started, and everyone started giving him birthday wishes at the same time.

As they stood there, the car door to the car next to Lucas's opened, and another man stepped out. Laura was still chatting with Jen and the others before she noticed him and became silent. Rachel noticed her abnormality and turned to look at what she was looking at and also became stunned into silence.

"I told you that you would definitely be surprised," Jen said to her friends, who were looking at the newcomer in stunned silence.

Laura snapped out of her daze when she heard her friend and stepped closer to her as she continued to look at the newcomer.

"Isn't that Daniel Zate?" she asked her, as if she needed someone else to verify that she was not seeing things.

"Yes," the silver-haired man said and Laura had to stop herself from screaming in excitement. Five years ago, before she left, she used to be Daniel Zate's hardcore fan. Seeing him standing in front of her with a dimpled smile looking exactly like her friend's boyfriend made her feel complicated.

"My actual name is Jason Lewis," Jason said to the star-struck girls and Laura rushed forward to shake his hand. What handsome brothers? She didn't think it could get better than this. She doubted the other one was going to be better looking compared to a celebrity.

Although she was feeling excited about meeting a star as a fan, she also only loved Daniel like a fan did a star. She had never looked at him as a man and she didn't think she was going to start now. Not just her, Rachel, who normally walked around with a neutral expression, was beaming at the moment and things became even more chaotic when two other men who used to be in the same group with Jason showed up.

Laura was feeling so excited that her face became flushed and her green eyes shone brightly like emeralds. She did not think that she was going to meet proper celebrities when she woke up that morning. Seeing them made her feel nostalgic about the days she used to go around chasing stars.

"Where is James?" Jen asked Jason after things calmed down.

"He'll be out soon," Jason said and, as if on cue, the passenger's side of his car opened and another man stepped out. Laura turned to look out of curiosity, but she could not look away once she did. She could feel her heartbeat accelerate and her flushed face became an attractive shade of pink. Even the surrounding noise seemed to disappear.

She made eye contact with him, and she had to resist the urge to walk towards him. James looked at the tall red-haired lady who was staring at him with a flushed face. He leaned against the front of the car and smiled in amusement.

Laura looked at the bottle of wine he was holding in his hand before looking at his face once more. There were tiny dimples at the corners of his mouth that appeared when he smiled, and Laura thought her heart stuttered for a moment.

"Let's go inside then," Jen said and took Laura's hand and pulled her along with her. Laura was still in a daze as she continued to watch the slightly tipsy man who was walking towards the house in front of them.

For the first time, she met someone who moved her heart to this extent. She only saw the back of his head, but she still couldn't take her eyes away.

"Who is that?" Laura finally asked her friend.

"Oh, that's Lucas's oldest brother, James," Jen answered as she smiled at her dazed friend.

"How can he be so beautiful?" Laura mumbled in a low voice. Jen couldn't help but laugh when she heard what her friend said.

"Coming from you, he should be flattered," Jen said, amused at Laura's reaction. She had never seen her friend like this. She just hoped that the shock was big enough for her to reconsider her decision of not getting into any relationship.

Jen did not know that Laura was now thoroughly fascinated by James. James, who was drinking his wine directly from the bottle, could feel Laura's burning gaze on his back. Although he was used to seeing people, regardless of gender, get taken with his looks, he hadn't seen anyone look at him as if they were determined to have. He found it to be a very interesting experience.

He turned to look back briefly and those shining emerald coloured eyes looked at his face greedily. He chuckled in amusement before turning back and saying hi to his friend Ethan before going into the house. He didn't think he was drunk enough to deal with this situation.