Who: Sebastian & Ophelia Where: Ophelia’s Room When: Monday, October 16, evening Status: complete
Sebastian walked back and forth from his room to Ophelia’s three times before eventually knocking on the door. He wanted to talk to her, needed to talk to her, but the conversation could go so many different ways that it had him more nervous than he knew he should be. And when he was like that, people could usually tell something was up. He wanted to calm. And cool. And collected. Not a jittery mess. He took a deep breath, trying to find that zen, then pushed her door opened when she called from within.
There was something soothing about her room. He liked the earth tones and the Christmas lights, left up all year, casting a soft glow when nothing else was on. And the plants. He was sure they’d be dead if they were in his room. He didn’t have the green thumb she did. Sebastian peered in, fingers tight on the door. “Hey,” he smiled. “Do you have a minute?”
Sebastian was lucky Ophelia didn’t have her headphones on when he knocked. She did very often, even in her own room, just to block out the rest of the world. Tonight though, she just had some music playing through the smallish speakers connected to her phone. She was sitting on the floor with several books and notes spread out around her, working on a paper for one of her classes. The invitation for whoever was knocking to come in hadn’t come automatically -- sometimes she pretended she couldn’t hear the door, especially if she thought it was her mother. That was Sebastian’s knock though, and Ophelia wasn’t entirely opposed to talking to her brother at the moment.
“Hey,” she greeted, looking up as well. She was just wearing pj pants and a tank top, but that didn’t bother her at all. It was just Sebastian. “Uh, sure, come on in.”
Sebastian slipped into the room, shutting the door behind him. He was thankful for the music, the way it might muffle their conversation if their parents came by, and his fingers tapped lightly on his leg to the beat. “What’re you working on?” he asked, coming over to stand next to the bed, then eventually taking a seat on the floor with her. He hadn’t come in to talk schoolwork, but it felt like he needed to catch up with her first. He hated asking for favors, especially when he couldn’t explain them well enough to make sense. He had the feeling this one was going to be difficult to lie through.
One of Ophelia’s red brows lifted. Bash didn’t often want to talk about school work, especially not randomly during the evening. She figured he would’ve been busy with talking to friends and stuff right about now. Or doing his own homework. If he did come into her room around this time of night, it was usually to challenge her to a game or tell her their parents wanted her. The way he just came in and sat down to make small talk made her think he wanted something. “A research paper for American Lit,” she said, glancing down at the work spread around her. She looked back at her brother a little expectantly. “What’s up?”
His eyes landed on the book and he picked it up to flip through it, lips turning up at all the notes. His own copy looked similar. He loved the reading, but research papers were a pain in the ass. And she looked deep in the middle of it, if the papers all over the floor said anything. “I…wanted to see wanted to see what you had going on Saturday night. I was thinking about having some people over,” he said, setting the book back down to look up at her. “Something small,” he added, just in case she was picturing him inviting the whole football team, plus the cheerleaders.
Ophelia almost told Sebastian not to lose her page, but she bit her tongue on it. He’d seemed a little more stressed out lately than usual, and she was trying to be nice to him on purpose. Her brow furrowed for a second -- when did she ever have something going on Saturday night? -- then smoothed again as Sebastian kept talking. Their parents were going out of town for the weekend, so it wasn’t a shock that he was planning a party, however small. “I didn’t have any plans,” she said. “But ... okay, cool.” Ophelia just took it as a warning to stay in her room while his friends were over. She could handle that, most of them sucked anyway. She might sneak down to maybe bump into Greg -- because of course he would be there, Greg and Bash were connected at the hip -- but that would totally be an accident and definitely not intentional at all.
Sebastian bit his lip, feeling far more awkward than usual. Any other time, he’d just swing by, tell her he was having a party, and leave it at that. But now there were other variables. She could wander downstairs and see him with Hunter. And if he was lucky enough to have Hunter stay the night, there was a potential for catching them in the morning. Or worse. He really didn’t want to worry about that. “Someone might stay over,” he finally said, his face growing hot with the admission. “I was hoping I could have some privacy.”
The blush was a dead giveaway that ‘someone’ didn’t mean just some dude friends. Which was a little confusing, because as far as Ophelia knew, her brother wasn’t currently dating anyone, and she’d never known him to be a man-slut or anything. Was he going to try to sleep with some random girl coming to the house? Maybe it was a super crush and he was just hoping for the best. Ophelia pursed her lips at him, a bit of annoyance rising up that Sebastian seemed to think she would be underfoot or something. “For one, ew, TMI. For two, I’m not gonna like, bother you and your friends, so you’ll have all the privacy you need. Especially if you’re being gross with some girl.” Ophelia rolled her eyes.
Sebastian exhaled hard in frustration, eyes rising to the ceiling. He was bad at this. Really, really bad at this. He should’ve let Greg do it for him, since he was apparently good at running her off. Or something. He was still confused about what her problem was with him. But that was besides the point. “Like you wouldn’t want me to do the same. You know I would.” It might be TMI, but he would so much rather be gone than hear his sister down the hall. That would be too much information. “I’m not worried about you bothering us. We’re just gonna hang out, have some drinks, do whatever. I’ll even have Greg pick something up for you, if you want. It’s just… please, Phee?” Puppy dog eyes weren’t likely to work on her, but he tried them anyways.
Color rose in Ophelia’s cheeks -- her complexion was just as much of a traitor as her brother’s. Her flush came more from aggravation than embarrassment, though there was a touch of that too. Sebastian was expecting that she had somewhere to go to spend the night, and she really didn’t, but she hated admitting to that. Not to mention the fact that exactly nobody would want to spend the night with her, so his reassurance that he would vacate for her just added insult to injury. “You want me to be gone all night?” she asked incredulously. “Kicking me out of my own home just so you can get laid? You’ll have to pay me with more than liquor. I don’t have like, friends on retainer I can just spend the night with, Sebastian.”
He made a noise of frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. It wasn’t just so he could get laid, even though that was a large part of it. He’d be in the same position even if he was just hoping to cuddle with Hunter anywhere other than behind a locked door. But she also didn’t have someone like Greg, a friend who’d let him crash on his couch whenever, no questions asked. “I’m not kicking you out. But I had to ask,” he said, rising to his feet. He walked to the door, paused, then walked back to her. “You don’t understand,” he started, then stopped again, annoyed with himself now. He didn’t know how to make her understand without telling her everything.
She had been about to tell him she would try to find someplace to be when Sebastian turned back around and told her she didn’t understand. That just irked Ophelia more. Of course she didn’t understand. She’d never had a group of friends who even wanted to come over and hang out, much less multiple potential partners. She heard all the time from girls about how hot her brother was and how many of them wanted to get with him. “No, obviously I don’t,” she said tightly, starting to get genuinely mad now. “Why don’t you explain it to me?” She expected Sebastian to tell her how it would be weird to have sex -- something Ophelia was sure he’d done before -- with her in the house and his friends didn’t want her hanging around, she was a pesky little sister, blah blah.
Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw tight as he clenched his teeth. He hadn’t come in to get into this. All he’d wanted was a night in with his boyfriend and his friends, a group that was significantly smaller than usual, with only Greg part of his normal circle. That was all he could guarantee. Hunter might not even be able to stay the night. He could call the whole thing off, tell them all something came up and they couldn’t hang at his house. Or he could have them over anyways and take the chance that his sister might see him with Hunter at some point in the evening. If she did, he’d have to tell her then, and potentially ruin the night. Or at least his mood. It was so hard to say. Or he could tell her now. “Okay,” he said, and reached over to turn the music up. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted one of their parents to overhear, should they walk up to Ophelia’s door. His hands shook where they gripped his arms and it took him longer than he expected to get the words out, his voice far softer than before. “I’m gay,” he finally said and just that bit made him feel like he was going to vomit.
Her little-sister-annoyance already running high, Ophelia almost snapped at him not to touch her stuff, but somehow managed not to. Maybe it was the look on Sebastian’s face, or some heavier vibe he was giving off or something. He suddenly looked like he wanted to throw up, and the words took an extra second or two to register in Ophelia’s brain. Her very first impulse was to laugh, because was he serious? That was impossible. But Sebastian looked very serious, and he wasn’t a great liar, especially to her. She stared at him for what felt like too long, then blinked and made herself at least made a puzzled noise that indicated she’d heard him. “Like ... for real?” she asked. Ophelia waved a hand suddenly as if to clear that stupid question from the air, and stood up. She grabbed Sebastian’s wrist to lead him to the side of her bed and sit down with her. He was obviously in a crisis, and that changed everything at the moment. “Okay, I’m listening,” she said, her tone much softer now.
The longer it hung in the air, the more Sebastian felt like he might go into panic mode, something he really wanted to avoid, yet had very little control over. His chest felt tight, his breathing too fast, and when she asked if he was serious, his laugh sounded delirious. Did she really think he would joke about something like that? By the time she grabbed his wrist, he was feeling light headed and that need to be sick had doubled, but he followed her to bed, pulling his knees up so he could wrap his arms around them. He took a couple deep breaths, then tried again. “I’m gay. And the number of people who know is, it’s tiny. And still feels like too many. But. But I just wanted to have my boyfriend over, with this tiny group of friends, but…” He swallowed, feeling small, even when he knew that wasn't the case. “I was afraid you’d find out.”
He was really freaking out, Ophelia’s brows drew together as her big brother curled in on himself. She wasn’t used to him looking so vulnerable and frankly terrified. Sebastian always seemed to have his shit together, and like he had everything anybody could ever want at seventeen. Popularity, good looks, smarts, a car, plenty of money ... She’d felt like something was off with him for a while now, like he was keeping some sort of secret, being cagey about certain things, but she’d never been able to put her finger on it. Now things were starting to click into place. Ophelia listened, staring at his face and trying to wrap her mind around it. Sebastian had had a million girlfriends, it seemed like, but she guessed all those were for cover. “Why were you afraid I’d find out?” she asked quietly, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. “I love you, dummy, I don’t care if you’re gay. ... I mean like, I care, of course, but not like in a bad way.”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said, his voice pitching a little higher as his emotions caught up with him. “I wasn’t sure how you would react. And I… I wasn’t ready for you to shoot me down. And tell mom. And dad. God, please don’t tell dad. Or mom, ‘cause she’ll tell dad.” When he’d gone to tell Greg, he’d been mentally prepared. He’d worked himself up to it, and still struggled not to throw up in the bushes before walking into his house. He didn’t have that this time and felt like he was scrambling mentally to keep his world in place, all while trying to grasp the fact that his sister was still sitting there, calm, and telling him she loved him. It made him want to cry in relief. “You’re really okay with it? Like… really?”
Ophelia looked briefly horrified at the suggestion that she would tell their parents, because that was a big Fuck No in her book. She tried to tell their mother as little as possible about herself, and that was just her. No way was she going to rat out her brother, especially knowing what her parents thought of ‘the homosexuals.’ She shifted her position, getting up onto her knees so she could scoot closer and wrap both of her arms around Sebastian. Ophelia clunked her head against his gently. “I am really, really okay with it,” she murmured to him. It was still kind of a shock, because she’d never even entertained the possibility, but their generation was much more accepting than their parents’. “And I’ll die before I tell anybody, okay?”
He relaxed when she wrapped her arms around him, taking deep breaths to calm himself. It was a little frightening to feel that worked up, something that didn’t usually happen unless he was trapped in a small space. He didn’t like the thought that his brain could go there, that his anxiety could spiral to a place where he literally felt out of control. But it was better now, with his sister promising things were okay. “Thanks, Phee,” he said softly, still feeling shaky, but far better than before, even if there were tears in the corners of his eyes. “I really didn’t want to run you off, but… I dunno. It felt easier than telling you.” Which was him being a coward, but he could accept that. Rejection from his family was going to be the hardest to face and he wanted to put it off as long as possible.
Ophelia supposed that made a dumb sort of sense. If the only people coming over were the ones who Knew, and she Didn’t Know, then ... yeah, that could be a problem. And Sebastian had said his boyfriend -- he had a boyfriend! -- was among them. Ophelia could only assume now that was who he wanted to spend the night, and even if it was kind of gross just because he was her brother, that was pretty adorable. She rubbed his back gently, still trying to be comforting since he sounded on the verge of tears. She knew he’d had a rough weekend with the accident and everything, and now she felt guilty for being prickly about giving him and his friends room. Ophelia pulled back to smooch him on the temple and then look him in the face again. “I’m glad you told me,” she murmured. “And look, it doesn’t change anything, okay? You’re still my annoyingly perfect brother and I love you. And if you still want me to, I’ll find somewhere to go Saturday, I promise.”
“Sorry,” Sebastian mumbled, wiping at the eye that wasn’t bruised and black as he pulled back. He told himself that it was just the stress of it all, that he wouldn’t be cracking if he hadn’t spent the weekend dealing with a concussion and the aftermath of a demon possession. The little kiss from his sister made him feel better though, a little less alone with some acceptance from his family. “So not perfect,” he scoffed. “But I love you, too. And you don’t need to go anywhere. It’s just me, Greg, Hunter, Mak, and Sabrina. Like I said, tiny party.” He shifted slightly, unwrapping his arms from his knees, as he gave her a little smile. “Hunter still might stay over, but I haven’t even asked him yet. So, you know, totally counting my chickens before they hatch. I just… I didn’t want the moment when you came down to get something from the fridge to be when you found out. Or if you just had a question. Or…” Sebastian sighed and gave her a shrug. “I didn’t think it all through.”
She knew of Hunter and Mak and Sabrina, all seniors like Sebastian. She’d never talked to them, though. Sabrina and Mak ran that club for the LGBT kids, and Hunter was the sheriff's son. Since he was the only boy on the list besides Greg, Ophelia had figured out he was the boyfriend in question even before Sebastian mentioned his name again. At least he was cute! Which wasn’t a surprise, really. Bash had never had an unattractive partner that she could remember. “No, I get it,” she told him, sitting back a bit to give him room. “That would’ve been weird, yeah. So thanks for the heads up before I caught you making out with a hot boy.” Ophelia grinned at him a little. “How long have you like ... known, I guess? I mean, it’s always been girlfriends, but ... you don’t like both?” She wrinkled her nose a bit, hoping that question wasn’t too awkward, but she was curious now.
“It could have been awkward,” Sebastian agreed with a little smile. Her question didn’t surprise him, since it seemed to be common among the people he’d told, but it always felt bad to give the answer considering his history. “Like, for sure since freshman year. Before that I thought maybe, but middle school was weird.” He’d dated girls then, but it was mostly hand holding and a few little kisses here and there. If he was honest with himself, he’d liked the attention more than the girls. “I wanted to like both,” he sighed, not really put off by the question. He could understand why she would ask. “I kinda thought, if I found the right one, maybe I could make it work, but… I’ve probably got a lot of exes that are gonna have lightbulb moments when it gets out.”
It was slowly dawning on Ophelia that her brother had been hiding this aspect of himself for at least all of his teenagehood, maybe longer. He’d been pretending to be straight, because of course that was what was expected of him. No wonder he’d seemed so high strung sometimes. That was a heavy cross to bear. She felt kind of sad for him, but she understood it. Ophelia had questioned her own sexuality more than once, but more in a do I like both? kind of way. She thought about sharing that now, but she didn’t want to detract from what Sebastian was telling her. “Do you want it to get out?” she asked, crossing her legs indian-style as she watched his face. “I mean, to like ... friends and stuff. People at school. I know why you don’t want Mom and Dad to know.”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said, mirroring her position, his legs crossed with his elbows resting on his knees. He’d been thinking about it more and more lately, what it would mean for him, what it might be like. Every new person that found out felt like a step in that direction, but he didn’t think he was ready for it to become public knowledge. It was like wading through the kiddy pool verses a headfirst jump into the deep end. “I just told Greg last week, and… and things were fine. Are fine. I had it all built up in my head that he might, I dunno, leave me or something. Not ‘leave me’, but you know what I mean. I’d lose him. But I didn’t. It was nothing. He was mostly upset that I hadn’t told him and that he hadn’t figured it out. Jules did figure it out, and that still makes me nervous.” He rubbed his hand over his face, then rested his face in his palm. “A few months ago I would’ve said no, that I could wait till college. ‘Cause it’ll change everything, you know? But that was… that was before I met Hunter. If it was just friends, people at school, and I didn’t have to worry about Mom and Dad… Maybe. It’d be nice to really date someone I liked. But I’d still wanna get through football season. I don’t really think I can handle being the gay guy in the locker room.”
Honestly, boys were so stupid that Ophelia couldn’t blame him there. They could be hormone-crazed assholes, and if she didn’t find some of them so damn alluring, she thought she would be a lesbian. Still, she nudged his knee and smiled a little. “You know Greg would kick anybody’s ass who messed with you,” Ophelia said. “I get it though, being in any locker room is already a minefield.” It was for her, at least, but she’d always thought Bash would be completely at home with all his football buddies, even if they were naked. Now she knew better. It was good to hear that Greg was cool about it, even if it added more fuel onto her stupid aggravating crush on him. It was worth it. “But y’know ... maybe it won’t change everything,” she offered, giving a small shrug. “I mean, do you hear a lot of homophobic stuff around school? There’s always assholes, but with the club and everything, I think Chamberlain’s pretty progressive. And like, everybody loves you anyway, so they might be like ‘whaaaat’ at first, but then be like ‘oh okay, cool.’” Ophelia gave him a little smile.
Sebastian laughed a little as he nodded. Greg would take down anyone who messed with him, and he loved him for it. So much. He could be an idiot sometimes, but he was the best friend Sebastian could ever ask for. “I don’t hear a lot. It’s little things here and there. Mostly the guys. Things I know they’d never say around me if they knew. But I think you’re probably right. It’s just… scary.” He didn’t like admitting that, but he felt like it was probably normal. He felt like he was putting himself out there to be judged and he didn’t like that even now. “It doesn’t really matter though, cause I can’t come out at school without figuring out how to handle things here. You know word would get back to Mom before I even walk in the door.” He wasn’t sure how, but he sometimes felt like she had spies calling back to her. She knew everything it seemed.
Ophelia looked a little crestfallen on his behalf and she nodded. There wasn’t much that escaped their parents, it seemed like. Unfortunately for them. That was why they almost never had parties at their own place, Sebastian was smart to keep it small for other reasons besides his closet too. “Yeah,” she said with regret, and couldn’t resist reaching out to give one of his hands a squeeze. “You deserve to be happy though, you know? No matter what they think.” She didn’t want to push him in either direction really, because Ophelia didn’t know what would be best. She’d just now found out, after all, so ... she would have to think on it. She did know that it wasn’t any sort of flaw, and their parents needed to get over whatever hangups they had and just keep loving their son. But she also knew that things usually didn’t turn out that simple. “Whatever you wanna do, I support you.”
“Thanks,” Sebastian said, giving her hand a little squeeze back. “I didn’t think I could have this. It feels a little surreal. I guess I… I want to protect it a little longer before the shit hits the fan. I want to be ready. And I’m not there yet.” Not quite, but he had some things to work on, plans that would make him feel safer. He wanted to make sure that if the rug got pulled out from under him, there was something there to catch his fall. “So… if you’re going to be around Saturday night… do you want to meet him?” he asked, giving her a little smile. It was kind of funny, now that he thought about it, but no one had actually seen them together after the party, except for Ruby.
She smiled brighter at that. “Uh, duh,” Ophelia said, wrinkling her nose up at him a little. “I mean, like, I’ve seen him, I just haven’t met met him.” Meeting someone as her brother’s boyfriend was on a whole different level as just being introduced in passing at school or whatever. Her brother’s first boyfriend, no less, which was a milestone he’d apparently reached before she had, ugh. But Ophelia wasn’t going to sulk about it, Bash had earned that particular victory. “As long as you don’t think they’ll mind your annoying little sister hanging around or whatever.”
Sebastian grinned as he nodded, knowing how that was. “Yeah, I’d seen him too, but I didn’t meet meet him till homecoming.” Which probably sounded weird, since he’d been Homecoming King and had gone with Jules, but if she’d been keeping up, then she probably knew that Jules was now dating Jasper. And he clearly wasn’t interested. “Dude,” he laughed, “You’re not annoying. Also, I barely know Mak and Sabrina, but they’re friends of Hunter’s and they’ve all had a rough time lately, so I thought they could use a break. So tell me what you want to drink, and I’ll have Greg pick it up.” He didn’t expect her to join them the whole night, in fact he hoped everyone else would leave at some point so he could be alone with Hunter, but it wouldn’t bother him.
Seeing Sebastian grin over a boy right then was enlightening. Ophelia was pretty sure she’d never seen him make that face when talking about any of his girlfriends, and that was telling. And grossly adorable. This was going to be an interesting get-together. She smiled over not being annoying, that was always nice to hear. They were so close in age that they related to one another well, but they were still siblings, and Ophelia knew she got on Bash’s nerves just like the other way around. “I dunno, just some ... flavored vodka, I guess. The vanilla kind. Where’s Greg getting all this booze anyway?” she asked, managing to only sound mildly curious.
“You have good taste. That’s exactly what I asked him for myself, so I’ll have him mix it up. Maybe also get some cherry, or, I dunno, marshmallow,” Sebastian said. He’d never had it before, but he’d seen it on the counter at Jules’ homecoming party and thought it might be good. And Sebastian could chip in now that he wasn’t trying to pay off his sister, something he was pretty sure wouldn’t have worked anyways. “He’s got a fake and an older brother who can hook him up.” Both of which Sebastian had as well, but Trip was away and he was pretty sure Greg did a better job at passing for legal than he did. “Can you maybe be nice to him?” He asked, giving her a little nudge with his knee. “Since he’s buying and all.”
Ophelia vaguely remembered that Greg had a brother that was way older than him and joined the Army or something, but it had been so long that she’d pretty much forgotten about him. She guessed that meant that Big Brother Wheeler was back in town. Interesting. Ophelia had been drunk only a few times before, mostly on band trips, and it had been a little scary at first but she’d liked it. Maybe that would happen more often now. The idea of getting drunk with Greg around made her stomach all fluttery. She blushed immediately and fiercely at Sebastian’s nudge. “I’m nice to him!” she insisted, feeling her dumb cheeks get even hotter. “When he’s nice to me, I’m totally nice. He’s just ... ugh, he’s Greg, okay?” Ophelia tucked some hair behind one ear only to untuck it a second later, her gaze suddenly not on her brother. “I’m nice,” she muttered.
“You are not! He thinks you hate him!” Sebastian said with a laugh of disbelief that quieted as he stared at his sister, trying to make sense of the way she was behaving. “Did he say something mean? I love him and all, but he can be an idiot sometimes. He doesn’t mean it.” Except he couldn’t imagine Greg really picking on his sister. He joked around a lot, but would’ve never said something with the intent to upset her. But the longer he watched Ophelia, the more he wondered if that was the case. “Phee… What’s up with you?”
Greg hadn’t been mean to Ophelia, not really, besides playing around when they’d been kids. For the longest time she’d just seen him as another big brother, rolling her eyes as she got into her tweens and sighing heavily at his hyperactive antics. But then ... well, puberty had happened to both of them, and she’d started noticing him more and more. He’d gotten a jawline and his lips had gotten pretty and his voice had dropped so low and football had made him bigger and thicker and he sprawled out on their furniture like he owned the place, and it all just made her feel really flustered these days. So maybe she’d been overcompensating in trying to look not in the slightest bit interested. “Nothing!” she said, realizing she was being too loud and high-pitched for it to really be nothing. Ophelia made a disgusted noise and dropped her burning face into her hands for a second. Sebastian had been honest with her about a scary thing, maybe she owed him the same. Not that they were on the same level, but ... ugh. “Okay, fine ... I kind of have a crush on Greg. But you can’t tell him, ever, you have to swear to me, okay? Do it, swear,” she demanded, peeking through her fingers.
Her response was so strong that Sebastian leaned back, eyes wide, not believing her for a second. It was becoming abundantly clear that something was up and that she was doing a horrible job of hiding it. That didn’t really prepare him for the answer though, and he stared at her dumbly for a moment before speaking. “On Greg?” He knew that was what she had said, but he was having a hard time computing. “Since when? You know I literally promised him, like, yesterday that there would be no more secrets. He will murder me if he finds out I’m keeping something like that from him. Or, you know, pout at me with big puppy dog eyes.” But he wasn’t sure he could betray his sister’s trust either, especially with the way he was peering at him from behind her hands, her face as red as he was sure his had been earlier. “But okay. Swear. Just… Oh my god.” That was going to take a while to really sink in. “Were you flirting with him? ‘Cause that’s not the way to flirt. I hope you know that.”
Ophelia looked momentarily horrified when Bash said that he’d promised Greg no more secrets, her hand moving to cover her mouth so she didn’t start squealing at him to keep his trap shut. But then he placated her and swore he wouldn’t tell. Ugh, she felt like her face was literally on fire. “Ohmygod no!” she cried, kind of wanting to crawl under her bed now and die. “I’m not flirting with him, I’m just trying to keep him away from me until this temporary insanity passes. ... but it’s been since like ... my freshman year, I guess. And it’s just gotten worse, ohmygod.” Ophelia flopped sideways dramatically and pulled a pillow over her face. She talked from under it, not too muffled to be clear. “You can’t tell him because there’s nothing to tell, okay? It’s just a dumb crush and there’s no way he likes me so it’ll just make things weird, and you don’t want weirdness, right? So just ... take it to your grave. Please, Bash.”
Sebastian propped his head up on his hands, trying to digest what she was saying. Two years. She’d had a crush on his best friend for two fucking years and he hadn’t noticed. He suddenly knew what Greg must have felt like upon finding out he was gay, even if the way he and his sister attempted to hide things was completely different. “I won’t, Phee. I swear. I really don’t want weirdness,” Sebastian pleaded with her because he definitely agreed. It would make things weird. For them, if there was nothing there, and for him if there was. Because inserting Ophelia as the girl in Greg’s conversations about sex was soooo not okay. Sebastian took a deep breath. “I don’t know if he likes you. I honestly don’t know if he’s ever considered you, since he swears you hate him. Like, afraid you might set him on fire hate him. So maybe chill with the death glares? But…” He gave her a little smile and a shrug. “If you weren’t my sister, I’d say be nice to him for once and I’ll feel him out for you, but it’s so weird,” he laughed, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.
Ophelia hugged the pillow to her chest, her cheeks still burning up. For a long time she’d hated that she liked Greg, because he acted like such a brodude meathead sometimes, the opposite of what she thought she was supposed to like. But then sometimes he was sweet and cool, and she’d seen him be friendly with pretty much everybody in school, and now she knew that he was totally fine with Sebastian being gay, and that counted for even more in his favor. Not that it mattered, because Bash was probably right and Greg had never thought of her that way. Which was good, because she wouldn’t have the first clue what to do if he had, and the whole thing was just lethally embarrassing. “Exactly, it’s weird, so no feeling out, no nothing, let’s just pretend this whole part of the conversation never happened and I’ll just ... stay invisible and it’ll be okay,” she said. Ophelia sat up, pushing her red hair back, and frowned a touch as something registered. “Set him on fire? Did he say that?” Her eyes widened a bit. “Shit, Bash, does he know about us now?” She wiggled her fingers to indicate magic.
Sebastian plopped to the side so that he was eye level with her, laying his head on his hand. “It’s not bad weird, Phee. Just not something I’d ever considered. I don’t want you to be invisible. Not to Greg. Not to anyone.” Something about that just didn’t feel right. He didn’t want to psi or pull or interfere, but he also didn’t want her to feel like she had to hide because of him. He rolled back up to a seated position when he did, biting his bottom lip as he cringed. “So, that would be the other secret I told him, which is why he said ‘no more secrets’. ‘Cause I can’t keep dropping bombs on him every week. But I didn’t tell him what you could do, because that’s not mine to tell, so he’s kind of got it in his head that you’re gonna fireball his ass or something.” Sebastian rolled his eyes with a fond smile. “I wouldn’t have said you were one at all, but it kind of came up when we were discussing how it runs in families, if that makes sense.”
Ophelia was totally fine with being invisible to Greg. She was his best friend’s little sister, even though there was barely a year between them, and she was probably too fat for him anyway, since she was sure he was drowning in all the pretty, popular girls. She could just admire him from afar, like she had been doing. But Ophelia was not falling down that mental rabbit hole, at least not in front of her brother. She looked a little fretty about the rest of it. She hadn’t really been that mean to him, had she? Ugh, boys could be such drama queens. “Yeah, it makes sense,” she told Bash with a nod. Ophelia picked at a string on her comforter that was coming up. “Worse I could do is maybe kill all his house plants and like ... make him trip over rocks or something.” She gave a huff and a wan smile. “Ugh, sorry, I totally didn’t mean to make this about me,” Ophelia said with a cringe, then stuck her tongue out at him. “You just caught me all off guard, so there’s a bomb for you.”
“Are you disappointed that you can’t catch him on fire?” Sebastian asked, raising a brow, a little smirk to his lips. “Or can you just not come up with something just as drastic, but earth-based, like the ground opening up and swallowing him whole?” No, she couldn’t do that now, but neither of them could even light a candle as far as he knew, so a fireball was a long ways off anyways. “It’s fine. Really. I didn’t really come in here to drop that bomb on you, but it just… it felt right. And I’m kind of operating a lot on feeling right now.” He laughed at the face she made, hands folding in his lap. “I can handle it. It’s not the worst thing ever, you know. If he wasn’t like my brother, and more my type, and incredibly straight, I’d probably be crushing, too.”
“Now I’ve got a magical goal to work toward,” she joked, rolling her eyes. Ophelia didn’t really want to do any of those things to Greg. The things she actually wanted to do to Greg were not speakable out loud, especially not to Sebastian. The things she thought she wanted to do, anyway. Ophelia didn’t even know exactly how to do them or if she would even enjoy said things, but sometimes she just felt too restless in her own skin when Greg was around. Or if she thought about him too much. Which she needed to not do, because he was like a brother to Bash, like he’d just said, and that meant he should probably be like a brother again to her too. Ophelia gave him a smile and a little laugh. “If he was a completely different person, you’d totally be into him,” she teased, giving Bash’s knee a nudge. “But that’s okay, because you’re totally into Hunter Barrett, so ... y’know. I’m so happy for you! I can’t wait to meet him and grill him and make sure he passes the sister test.”
“Right? Crazy earthquake powers,” Sebastian snickered. He thought about telling Ophelia about his plan to learn more magic, but he wasn’t sure there was anything to tell yet, not until he heard from Reagan. If he didn’t hear from her by the end of the week, he’d just have to stop by again. He found himself grinning again as she mentioned Hunter, fighting back a blush and really just overjoyed that his sister was happy for him. That she wanted to meet his boyfriend. That was a huge thing. A giant thing. She’d never cared a lot about wanting to meet his girlfriends, but then he hadn’t really cared enough to introduce them most of the time. He’d never crushed this hard on anyone, ever. “His sister went pretty easy on me, so don’t go too hard on him,” he smiled. “What is the sister test, exactly?”
“It’s a trade secret of sisters,” Ophelia told him with a smirk. She touched the side of her nose and winked at him. She’d forgotten until just then that Hunter had a sister. Ophelia had seen her around school, and she seemed quiet and kind of sullen. But then, so did Ophelia at school. So who knew what she was really like. “No really though ... he’ll have to complete a series of quests for me that might take months, and do all my chores for eternity, and then there’s an obstacle course at the end.” She grinned. Sebastian looked pretty damn happy, way happier than she’d seen him looking lately, and that made her happier too. As much as he worked her nerves sometimes, she loved her brother.
“Wow, he better really like me if he’s gotta take all that one,” Sebastian laughed. “I’d at least want to take the chores. You can’t ask my boyfriend to do chores. But I think he’d probably kick ass at the obstacle course and the quests.” He’d at least like to see Hunter try, despite them being fictional. “I keep calling him my boyfriend. Do I have to tell him he’s my boyfriend? Is that what makes it official? Or can I just throw it out there?” Things had always moved so much slower before, and Sebastian was rarely the first to use a title, so he’d never thought a lot about it.
She gave a snort laugh and a bemused look. “You are asking the wrong person,” Ophelia told him. “I mean, you could always suggest it? ‘Hey, wanna be boyfriends?’ I dunno, man.” She of course didn’t know if Hunter was as into Sebastian as he seemed to be into Hunter, but Ophelia guessed that would be pretty obvious once she saw them together. Bash looked pretty damn smitten, which was something she was pretty sure she’d never actually seen before. Maybe she’d never cared about his girlfriends because he’d never seemed to care about them either. Not like this at least. His enthusiasm was kind of contagious.
“I dunno either. We’ll see, I guess,” Sebastian smiled. His brain didn’t always seem to function completely around Hunter. Probably because half of the blood was somewhere else. But he wasn’t going tell his sister that. His head dropped to the side as he gave her a dopey smile. “We good?” He felt bad for trying to run her off initially, but he was glad he’d finally let her in on what was going on with him. Maybe she could help him figure out how to handle their parents when he was ready to take that step. Lord knew he could use all the help he could get.
Even though he had actually dated people, unlike Ophelia, at least Bash was as clueless about boys as she was. Okay, maybe not as clueless, since he was a boy, but still. Dating them seemed more complicated than being one. She smiled brightly at him when he asked if they were good, then rolled her eyes affectionately. “Yeah, we’re totally good,” Ophelia told him. She glanced down at the books and papers still spread out over the floor, and added, “Only you completely wrecked my homework groove. But I guess I can forgive you.”
“My bad,” Sebastian smiled, not really feeling bad about it. She was smart. She’d find her groove again. He was about to get up, but then leaned in and gave her a hug first, then climbed to his feet. He felt like that said more than he could put into words. The support meant everything to him. “I’ll let you get back to it. Thanks, Phee.”
Ophelia hugged him back and stayed where she was as he got off the bed, smiling faintly at him. It might still take a bit of time for the reality to sink in, but she was really glad that Bash had come out to her, even if it had kind of been under duress. “Anytime,” she said sincerely. “Always here for you. Not literally, but you know.” Ophelia gave a little chuckle and rolled her eyes, then waved her brother toward the door. “‘Night, Bash.”