Who: Sebastian and Ophelia Where: The McCarthy House When: Evening, Thursday, Nov 9 Status: Complete
This week felt like it was dragging on like no other. It wasn’t just the constant rain, which everyone was complaining about, but Sebastian kind of enjoyed. But being grounded on top of no more football practice had him spending more time at home than he had since the summer. And since his parents weren’t exactly his favorite people right now, he typically went straight to his room and then stayed there till supper. After which he returned to his room. He was getting kind of sick of his own four walls though and, having finished off his homework, wandered over to Ophelia’s room and knocked on her door. They hadn’t really caught up since… well, it had been a while.
Since before the mess he made with the curse breaking, and before she was dating Greg. And she was definitely dating Greg now. He was maybe the tiniest bit jealous, but only because he would have liked to have been as open about his own relationship as she and Greg could be with theirs. That wasn’t their fault though. They were cute, and they were happy, which made him happy. But it was going to suck when his sister went out with his best friend this weekend while he sat around and did nothing. Again, not their fault. Sebastian sighed and knocked again, remembering that she sometimes had her headphones on. “Phee? It’s me.”
Phee was in her room, but she didn’t have headphones on. She’d been re-reading through all the texts she and Greg had sent one another, feeling all giddy and daydreamy and warm. The knock from the door startled her, and she shoved the phone under her pillow by reflex, thinking it was probably her mother. Brianna would’ve walked right in after the first knock though, so when the door didn’t open, Phee figured it was somebody else. She got up and pulled pj pants back on, then sat on the bed again. “Come in,” she called a second after her brother identified himself. She pulled her laptop over onto her lap and arched a brow at him as he walked in. “Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey,” Sebastian said, giving her a little smile as he pushed the door open. “You working on something?” he asked, noticing the laptop on her lap. If she was halfway through a research paper or something, he’d leave her alone, but he just thought it would be nice to talk. He felt like he’d been alone all evening, even when sitting at the dinner table with the rest of his family. “I just came by to bug you.”
Seeing as how she was just covering for her silly daydreaming, it was easy for Phee to set it aside. She felt like she was blushing a bit, but hopefully that would go away quickly. “Nah, come bug me,” she told Sebastian, giving him a little smile. Phee knew he had to feel down and restless, being grounded and all. She wasn’t even sure when the last time he would’ve been able to see Hunter, and they’d even taken his phone for a while. Torture. Phee made room for him to join her on the bed. “Are you ready to like, tunnel out of here yet?”
Sebastian smiled, shutting the door behind him and then plopping down on the end of her bed. “Oh my god, I don’t know how I’m gonna survive the weekend,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve got all my homework done. Like, all of it. And there’s only so much time I can work out and play video games. This sucks so bad.” But at least he had his phone. He just usually waited till a little later in the evening to call Hunter, when he was less likely to get interrupted by a parent. “I’m really hoping this ends on Sunday.”
Phee fluffed up a pillow against her headboard to lean back on, stretching one leg out and studying her brother. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk -- or hadn’t taken the chances, anyway -- in a while, and she felt like maybe there were a couple of elephants in the room. The whole lecture from their parents had been ... illuminating. But Phee didn’t want to launch right into it all yet, now when Bash was obviously frustrated with his situation. “Fingers crossed for you,” she said, then smirked a little and nudged him with her foot. “You wanna do my homework too? I’ve got plenty. How’s Hunter surviving?”
“I’m not that bored,” Sebastian said, lips twitching up. “Unless you know a way to get me out. Then I’ll take on whatever.” He couldn’t actually imagine doing her homework for her though. He propped his hand behind his head, making himself comfortable. “He’s doing okay. A little pouty. I promised I wouldn’t do anything to extend it, except I wanna try out for this play and I don’t know how long that’ll go after school tomorrow.” Maybe their mom would be working. Maybe she wouldn’t notice if he was an hour or two late. Dropping by Reagan’s had been quick. This probably wouldn’t be unless he was near the top of the list. “He said I should go for it though. I’m really hoping to get some time with him next weekend, but we ate lunch together yesterday, so that was nice.”
She didn’t have any tunnels of her own, so Phee was no help there. Sebastian was the type to honor a grounding anyway -- it wasn’t like either of them had been through very many. “Breaking out would definitely extend it,” Phee said with a chuckle. “I bet Mom would give you a pass for the play though. She loves that extra-curricular shit. And ohmygod I wanna see you up on stage. You should totally go for it.” Phee grinned at him. She wasn’t super familiar with the play, but watching Sebastian strut around on stage and spout Shakespeare? Sign her up. She ‘aww’d at him at the mention of having lunch with Hunter, feeling like she understood that particular pleasure much better now. She and Greg hadn’t been eating every lunch together, but there’d been a couple so far through the week.
“I should probably ask,” Sebastian sighed. It was a risk either way. If she said no, and he did it anyways, she’d probably be even more mad than if he did it without asking. But if she said yes, then he wouldn’t have to worry about it and it would be really fucking nice not to worry about something for a change. “You just wanna laugh at me in tights,” he grinned. He had no idea if he’d be wearing tights, but it was Shakespeare. There was always a chance. “Hunter’s talking about working backstage, so it’ll be a chance to hang out, too.” Hanging out in public wasn’t quite the same, but if they could slowly work into a public friendship, then it might be easier. Either that or everyone would immediately figure them out. “How’re things with Greg?” he asked with a little smile. He knew they were good from when he saw them together, but it felt right to ask.
“Uh, duh, that’s the whole point. Football superstar in tights and flowery language? Yes please.” Phee grinned at him. Maybe it would be one small step toward coming out for him, too. It was probably super cliche and offensive to associate dudes involved in theater with gayness, but she was glad that Sebastian didn’t seem to be fretting over that. Phee just wanted him to be himself and be happy, that was all. Especially if that included tights. Her cheeks flushed further at the mention of Greg, and Phee had to press her lips together to keep from immediately gushing. Sebastian was asking, but that didn’t mean he wanted to know everything. It might still be weird for him. “They’re really good,” she said, smiling. That couldn’t be helped. “He’s been a total sweetheart and just ... great.” Both of those were understatements and that probably showed in her face, but Phee was trying to downplay it.
“There might even be glitter,” Sebastian said, eyes wide for a minutes before he laughed. If he got the part he wanted, there could be, but he had no idea what the director would want in terms of costumes. Really the fun part was getting to be someone else, to be completely different, and blame it all on being in character. Phee’s blush reminded him of his own and how hard it was to hide his feelings when it was written all over his face. “Good,” he smiled, sure she was downplaying it and that was okay. He wasn’t sure if he’d mind the gushing or not, if it would be cute or if it would be totally weird. “I know he was worried I would be mad, but I’d only be mad if he was a shitty boyfriend.” And he knew that wasn’t Greg, except when it came to Heather. But they’d never been good together. Greg with Ophelia was one of the happier Greg’s, so it seemed good on both sides.
Phee had to give a little eye roll at the idea of Sebastian being mad about it, even if it was something she’d worried about too. Just a little. He wasn’t unreasonable, most of the time, but he was an emotional person, and boys got weird about their sisters and Phee didn’t want him to think she was trying to take Greg away from him or blah blah, whatever. So far so good. “I think he worried that you might like, think that he had his eye on me since I was little or something, or you’d be one of those ‘ugh, no dude is ever allowed to touch my sister’ guys,” she said, deepening her voice and making a caveman face -- as best she could manage, anyway. Then Phee smiled at her brother again. “But not to worry, he’s been a doll. We had like, an official date on Saturday and he was holding doors and everything.” And afterward Greg had introduced her to whole new heights of pleasure, but Bash didn’t need to know that.
Sebastian liked to think he would have picked up on it if Greg had been into Phee when they were younger, but Greg hadn’t known he was gay, so he knew things could go unnoticed if they really wanted them to. It would have been different if she was a lot younger than him, but he wasn’t worried about the age difference. “It’s more like, I only want good guys to date my sister,” he smiled back at her. And Greg was a good guy, most of the time. They wouldn’t be such good friends if he wasn’t. But there was a difference between dating someone and being friends with them, so he still worried, just a little. Probably unnecessarily. “Good to hear he’s being gentleman Greg instead of cave man Greg,” he snickered. “Not that cave man Greg is bad, but there’s less door holding and more chest beating.”
Phee laughed softly, not about to admit to her brother that caveman Greg sounded kind of sexy. As long as he knew when to turn it off, which he seemed to. But she’d always enjoyed daydreaming about him getting all dirty and sweaty and aggressive on the football field. Rawr. “Get you a man who does both, right?” she offered with a little grin. “But no, you don’t have anything to worry about, he’s been sweet as can be to me. He’s a good guy. And scout’s honor that I haven’t been like, planning our wedding or anything yet. I know he’s a senior and everything, and I’m not stupid, so I’m not gonna like ... fall apart if this doesn’t last long or whatever.” She gave a nonchalant shrug -- she wanted that to be true, really badly, and Phee hoped it would be. She was feeling a lot for Greg already ... she just had to try and keep her head on straight about it all. It couldn’t last forever. Probably.
“I got me a man,” Sebastian said with a grin and a little bit of sass. “That’s good. I mean, you’ve only been dating him a week, so that might be a bit much, but… I’m not gonna call you stupid. I mean… everyone’s different.” He was tripping over his words, trying to figure out how to say it was okay if her feelings were strong without encouraging too much because, yes, Greg would probably flip if she started talking weddings. Most guys would. And at the same time, he didn’t want to be a hypocrite. “I think the key’s to stay on the same page as him. But, you know, I don’t have a lot of good experience, so…” He shrugged, hoping he was making sense.
She’d been exaggerating to get her point across, that she was ready for this whole situation to be super temporary. Which was actually pretty sad, but Phee was trying not to get carried away. There were all these stereotypes about teenage girls getting obsessed with boys and totally forgetting themselves and any sense, and she really didn’t want to be seen that way. She felt like she had to prep herself for disappointment because it was inevitable. So being a lowkey, chill girlfriend was best. She gave Sebastian a smile, appreciating that he wanted to give her advice at all. “Speaking of, how’s it going with Hunter?” she asked. “Besides the shitty grounding and all.”
Sebastian couldn’t really talk about Hunter without smiling. He was like this bright light in the darkness, which was cheesy, but felt true. “It’s really, really good,” he said, biting his lip. “We’re looking at college together? I know it’s crazy, but… I love him.” It was a big deal to say it to Hunter, but it felt even bigger to admit it to someone else. He knew there was a chance he’d have to defend himself, to try and explain his feelings, which felt too big to contain. He was pretty close to doing exactly what his sister said she wouldn’t, all except the wedding part. Though, if he was honest with himself, he hoped he could have that someday. It just felt like too big a thing to think about right now.
Phee’s mouth dropped open and her brows lifted in an expression of surprise that wasn’t all exaggeration. “Wow, listen to you,” she said, nudging Sebastian with her foot again. “Talk about like, planning a wedding.” She sounded light and teasing about it, but something twisted weirdly in Phee’s chest, because he sounded so sincere. Which on one hand was amazing and great because her brother deserved to be in love, but on the other it seemed really fast. Like he was maybe doing what she was trying not to. It was Sebastian’s first honest relationship, and he wasn’t even out yet, and they were planning to go to the same school? It was also a reminder that graduation was sooner than she probably thought, and then Sebastian would go away and she would be stuck alone with their parents. Greg would go too. Ugh. Phee pushed all that aside and tried to focus on the good stuff, because she was probably fretting over nothing. “That’s amazing though, I’m happy for you,” she added.
“We haven’t gone that far,” Sebastian grinned, but he was almost giggly, his face bright red now. “I know it’s fast. Like, when I think about it, and I really count up the days, we’ve probably lost our minds. But… it feels right. Everything else is a mess, but he’s there and I always want him to be and it’s so much, but…” He took a deep breath and shrugged. “Thanks,” he smiled. He’d really been expecting a forced reality check and it was nice to have acceptance. He knew not everyone was going to be like that. His parents would probably lose their shit, even if he felt this way about a girl. He was going to have to break it all to them at some point, or they’d figure it out, but it really all came down to when he was ready to come out to them. They couldn’t know he was planning to room with his boyfriend if they didn’t know he had one.
He was being too cute for a reality check. Phee knew that a bad reality was possible -- Bash and Hunter could fall apart for whatever reason in the next several months -- but who was she to rain on his parade? He looked happier than she’d ever seen him before, she was pretty sure. Even if she had some doubts, Bash didn’t need to hear them, and hell, who knew, right? People fell in love in high school for good sometimes. His road was going to be hard enough without her making it worse. Smiling, Phee got her knees under her and shuffled closer so she could hug him. “I hope it works out,” she said softly, giving Bash a tight squeeze. “And anything I can do to like, help, let me know. When you come out I can shave my head or something to distract mom.” Phee pulled back to give him a little grin.
Sebastian hugged her back, absolutely beaming, and gave one of her curls a little tug as she pulled away. “Don’t you dare cut off these curls,” he smiled. “I’m sure I’ll need you to run interference. We’ll see how it goes. I’m trying to get there, but it’s slow. I really want to take him to winter formal. Which is a ways off, but super close at the same time, so… I just don’t feel like I can drop that bomb right now.” Things were already too shaky at home. Even if him being gay had nothing to do with their magical issues, he felt like he was going to disappoint them again, this time for just being who he was. Maybe if things improved, he’d figure out a way to tell them.
Phee sat back on her feet and looked regretful. “Yeah, not exactly the best time,” she agreed. Sebastian was already in enough trouble, things with their parents were tense. “It’s gotta get better, though.” She personally had no idea how they would react to Sebastian coming out as gay -- she wanted to think it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Phee had a sinking feeling that it would. She just hoped they could get the hell over it for his sake, and to keep the family together. They would just drive him away otherwise, and she would be sad if both of her brothers never came home to visit. But she didn’t want to dwell in that thought at the moment. “We should all hang out at Greg’s house soon or something. Us and Hunter and Mak and Sabrina again? That was fun.” And it would be even better with someone to cuddle on herself. “If it wouldn’t be weird now,” Phee added.
“We should,” Sebastian nodded. “It wouldn’t be weird. Or, I don’t think it’ll be. If it is, that’s my problem.” And he would get over it. Because everyone else was getting over the fact that he was gay, so he could get over his sister hooking up with his best friend. “Jules and I were planning something small down at the beach next weekend, but that’ll probably include people that I can’t get cozy with Hunter around. I was gonna ask Greg if we could crash at his place though.” That would at least give them some alone time. It reminded him that he wanted to find a soundproofing spell and he smiled a little. “Hey, has dad talked to you anymore about teaching you?” He couldn’t imagine even asking his father about something like that, but if there was a book, maybe he could flip through it. That was a best case scenario.
It felt so strange, but Phee was kind of ridiculously pleased to hear Sebastian say that weirdness would be his problem. She hoped there wasn’t a problem to start with, but she really appreciated that he recognized that any potential hangups were his own. It made her want to hug him again. “Hey that sounds fun,” she said. If Jules Cooper was planning it, that meant it would probably be a bunch of the older popular kids, which made her nervous ... but if she was going to keep dating Greg, she had to get used to them. Work on being accepted. It would help to have her brother there too, she thought. They wouldn’t let anybody be mean to her. Phee immediately wanted to spend the night at Greg’s too, but that would be a little trickier. Maybe she could use Jen as a cover. Or maybe she shouldn’t sleep over at her boyfriend’s just yet. She would think about it. Phee shook her head at his question. “No, not yet,” she said with real regret. “And after the bitchfest the other night, I kinda don’t want to ask yet. Has he said anything to you?”
“I think it will be,” Sebastian said with a little smile. He expected Phee would be there, since she was dating Greg, and wondered if he should extend the invite to Mak and Sabrina. It wasn’t really their crowd, but they were keeping it small, so maybe, especially if Jules got Jasper to come. It would be an eclectic bunch. “We’re not really talking,” he said softly, shaking his head. “I did stop by Reagan’s though, on the way home yesterday. I think maybe things have gotten all confused, but they’ll need to talk to her to get it figured out. They don’t really want to listen to me.” He’d tried his best to explain, but all they’d heard was a stupid child who’d gotten in too deep and made bad decisions. Sebastian was still bitter about it. “Hunter thinks maybe if I apologize, I’ll get this weekend back, but I dunno. Mom never said how long I was grounded for, but it feels like forever.”
Their parents did seem pretty hellbent on not listening. Thinking about it all made Phee roll her eyes. They’d been keeping secrets too, and while what Bash had done was potentially dangerous, at least he’d been doing something good for somebody else. Brianna claimed she’d been protecting them, but Phee was skeptical. Not being taught anything about magic seemed to have put them in a worse spot than they would’ve been if they’d just known something. “They need to just get over it,” she said with a sigh. “It’s not even like you were doing it on your own, you had accomplished witches guiding the whole thing and like ... you’re fine. She’s gotta let you go sometime. Hope it’s soon.”
Sebastian nodded, running his fingers through his hair and giving it a tug. It was nice to hear his sister side with him; it made him feel a little less like an idiot, since she knew everything their parents did. “I know they think I wasn’t thinking, or taking it seriously, but I was. I thought about what might happen if I said no. They could’ve gone to you. Or mom. They were the ones in a life or death situation and-- and it was just like giving blood. It wasn’t like I was involved in some ancient blood ritual where they had to stab me under a full moon or something.” He’d thought that, and it had freaked him out, but that wasn’t the case at all. “If it was me in their situation? And the person that could help me refused?” He just shook his head because he didn’t really want to think about what he might do. If it was him and Hunter who could die, and the curse be passed on to Ophelia’s kids, he’d do just about anything to see that they broke it.
Phee looked sympathetic and nodded. She hadn’t known about any of this until their parents decided to tear Sebastian a new one, just that he’d been getting magic lessons from Reagan Kelly. But if she’d been put in his position? Phee thought she probably would’ve done the same thing and helped them. Maybe that made both of them hopeless romantics or something. Their mom would probably say ‘gullible’ instead, but whatever. If they couldn’t use magic to help people, what good was it? “Well I think you did the right thing, for what it’s worth,” she told her brother, reached over to squeeze his arm a little. “And apparently it worked. So maybe if they do go talk to Reagan, she can be all grateful and make them feel better or whatever.”
“I didn’t want them to bother her, since I was the one that went to her, but at this point I kind of hope they do talk to her. She thinks the thing hunting mom’s family might’ve been her family and Caius’, trying to break the curse. In which case, we’re all good now. Nobody’s hunting anyone, no harm done,” Sebastian said. He really, desperately wanted that to be the case, but it would take them all talking to probably sort it all out. And even then, he doubted his mother’s side would feel safe practicing, just in case they were wrong. But Sebastian was of the mindset that not practicing was more of a problem until he learned some control. “We’ll see, I guess. I told Hunter a little about it and he kinda freaked out. But I haven’t told Greg yet. Have you talked to him about it?”
She winced a little at the mention of Hunter freaking out. That probably wasn’t a great thing. “Yeah, I told him about it all yesterday at lunch,” she said. “I didn’t like, dwell on the being hunted part, ‘cause ... yeah. But I gave him the basic run down.” Phee hoped Sebastian wouldn’t mind that -- honestly, she was not going to keep this whole whiteboard web of secrets that her brother had been maintaining. At least she wasn’t going to keep anything from Greg. They were Together now, and she needed somebody to talk about everything to. “He said we have a crazy life,” Phee added with a bemused little smile.
“Yeah, I didn’t even say ‘hunted’, I said ‘cursed’, and that… It scares him. I mean, I don’t blame him, he was possessed, but I’m hoping this is nothing on that kind of scale,” Sebastian said, his gut twisting a little at the thought. He’d have to tell Hunter if it was, but he really believed that wasn’t the case. He’d just feel better if someone could confirm that for him. “They both knew about me helping break the curse though. They went with me when I gave blood. I was kind of freaking out and it turned out to be nothing.” But he knew Greg thought it was all nuts. Sebastian didn’t disagree, but he couldn’t really change it. “I know Greg hates all the secrets.”
Even though she understood why Sebastian didn’t tell her about all that while it was happening, Phee felt that sting of being left out again. It was dumb, because she wasn’t her brother’s boyfriend or best friend, so why would he have included her? It just kind of sucked to know he didn’t trust her with something that big. “Yeah I hope so too,” she agreed quietly, then shrugged. “I know he would rather know than not know, so. It sucks, but we can’t really help that our life requires a lot of secret keeping.” For a good chunk of it, anyway. Sebastian could come out and that would take care of that one, but she understood why he hadn’t done that either. After another beat, she couldn’t stop herself from adding, “You could’ve told me too, you know. I wouldn’t have told.”
Sebastian opened his mouth, then shut it, frowning as he scratched the back of his neck, his brow drawn together in thought. He knew he could trust Phee. He’d told her about everything else, but… “I know,” he said softly. “I was just… it kinda scared me? I mean, it turned out to be nothing, like I said, but… I had this idea in my mind that it was gonna be really bad. Or painful. Or… I dunno.” He remembered thinking that if something went wrong, Greg and Hunter would need to get Ophelia away from there, that if he failed in some way, they’d come after her and torture her as well. Which was just insane now that he’d been through it, but at the time had seemed perfectly rational. And even if that had been the case, wouldn’t it have been better if she’d known what was going on? “I guess… I was kind of worried you’d tell me not to do it, and I was kind of worried you might volunteer yourself. Which… is stupid… so, I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
The ‘sorry’ part of that was really what Phee had wanted to hear, just some acknowledgement that he knew he didn’t have to exclude her. And maybe shouldn’t have. She at least could’ve backed him up easier to their parents if she’d known what he was doing sooner. “It’s okay,” Phee told him with a little smile. “I get it. And I know you like, didn’t want me getting involved in anything dangerous. And I probably would’ve worried my ass off about you too, but I’d rather worry than not know.” She grinned a bit before adding, “And now that Greg’s wrapped around my little finger, I’m gonna know everything anyway, so you might as well tell me up front.” That last part was at least halfway a joke, but she did think Greg would have a hard time keeping stuff from her now.
“Is that how it is now?” Sebastian asked with a little grin. “I kind of figured that anything I tell him is fair game.” Which was why he’d wanted to know if she’d talked to Greg about it already, so that he didn’t start from the beginning. Greg probably knew enough to fill in the missing pieces. “Some things are sacred though. I don’t know what, but-- I’m sure there is.” He didn’t think Greg would tell his sister everything, but he couldn’t think of what that might be at the moment and he really wasn’t too worried about it. He had so many secrets already that he didn’t want to come up with more to keep.
“Of course,” Phee conceded easily, though she still looked amused. “Best friend privilege and all. I won’t pump him for gory details or anything.” She wouldn’t want her best friend to just blurt out everything she told them either, naturally. And Phee knew how to mind her business about a lot of things. Magic just wasn’t one of them, not when it was something they had so much in common, and Bash was one of her few sources of information. She eyed her brother for a moment, then added, softer, “Thanks for being cool about us. I really do like him a lot. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface, but it’s there.” They were a weird match, just looking at them, but Sebastian probably knew better than anyone that Greg was more than what he looked like. Otherwise they wouldn’t be best friends.
“He doesn’t need the gory details anyways,” Sebastian said with a little laugh, his face coloring because there was only one thing that came to mind and it wasn’t gory at all. It was just more than Greg wanted to know, he was sure. His smile softened and he gave her a curious look. “It makes sense to me. I mean, it’s not unfathomable. But I know a different Greg than most people.” He knew how his past relationships hadn’t worked, how little he had in common with most of those girls. The only reason Sebastian had never even considered them a possible match was that they hadn’t seemed the least bit interested in each other. Until they suddenly were. “You’re welcome though. I just really like seeing you both happy.” It was why he was determined to get past any hang-ups of his own. It was a little weird, but he’d get used to it.
Phee knew it looked sudden from the outside, and maybe it had been for Greg, but she’d been crushing on him for a while. She’d intended for her feelings to stay a crush, just something to nurse and fantasize about until Greg graduated and moved away. Or until some other boy caught her eye, one who was maybe more in Phee’s league. But somehow he’d been interested in her back and they’d had chemistry and here they were. She smiled brightly at Sebastian. “I like seeing you happy too,” she said. “So I’m really glad you’re like ... letting yourself be yourself, at least in private, you know? You totally deserve that and more.” She patted his shoulder and then glanced around the room. “You wanna play something with me?” Phee asked. He’d come in here because he was bored and all this talking was probably still boring, so maybe video games could distract them both for a while.
“Thanks,” Sebastian said, smiling softly. It really did feel good to have a group of people he could be himself around, even if it was small. It made him so much more aware of the toll all the lies took on him, the stress, the worry, the constant upkeep of appearances that didn’t quite fit. The fear. To let go of that, even just for a night or an hour here and there was such a relief, and it gave him the incentive he needed to keep pushing forward. Someday he’d make it a reality. At mention of playing something, Sebastian grinned. “Sure. You pick. I’m game for just about anything.” It was the camaraderie of it that he enjoyed, so even if she wanted to play one of the Lego games he’d be happy.