lookinside (lookinside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-02-12 14:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | #october 2017, mak, mak x sebastian, sebastian |
Who: Sebastian and Mak
When: Monday, Oct 2, after school
Where: The school library
Status: Complete
The whole school day had passed in sort of a blur for Mak. It was Monday and most people hated those, but usually she was pretty happy to get to school. School meant friends and that feeling of accomplishment of getting work done, and considering how long they’d been stuck at home the week before ... but this Monday was different. Mak could barely stay awake through her classes, much less concentrate. She kept nodding off sitting up and then jerking herself awake, because she did not want to go to sleep. Not in class, not at home, not ever again.
The nightmares were getting worse, plagued by images of the shadow-thing with red eyes. It had grabbed for her a couple of nights in a row and she’d managed to escape, but for two nights now, she hadn’t. Mak’s brain didn’t seem to want to hold onto what had been done to her in those dreams, but twice now, she’d woken up with scratches and bruises that she knew hadn’t been there before. Mak felt like she was going crazy. It was a cold comfort that she wasn’t the only one -- the fact that it was happening to Sabrina and Hunter and the others too just made it even more real and terrifying.
But life had to go on, right? She couldn’t shut down until they figured it out. So she went to school, and she tried to be present, but she felt kind of zombie-ish. Ms. Gaines had another tutoring assignment for her, and Mak was a bit relieved to read Sebastian McCarthy’s name. They were on friendly enough terms, so he would at least be easier to work with than Jules Cooper. Mak showed up at the school library after the last bell had rung, looking around for Sebastian so they could get started.
Sebastian hurried to the library, backpack thrown over one shoulder as he made his way down the hall. Every few feet someone stopped him to talk and he was forced to dismiss them to keep moving, not wanting to keep Mak waiting. It was the only day all week that he could afford to miss football practice and he needed to make the best of it. At least there was the game and the dance at the end of the week, which was something to look forward to. Not that he’d figured out what to do about the dance. Usually he was on top of it, but he’d been putting it off so long that it was probably too late to ask anyone. Maybe he could work with that. It would be fun to go and hang out with friends without the pressure of entertaining a girl. But there was also the fear that it would attract the wrong kind of attention. Or the right kind, depending on how you looked at it.
He put it out of his mind as he turned into the library, flashing Mak a wave and a smile as he caught sight of her. Science had never been his thing, but physics seemed especially determined to kick his ass. It was just the right combination of science and math and word problems to make his head hurt just by thinking about it. But Mak was good at it. She always found a way to make it all make sense. “Hey,” he said, dropping his bag in one of the chairs. “Hope you haven’t been waiting long. How’s it going?”
Sebastian was one of those guys who was Cool and Popular, but still nice to everybody, which seemed rare. Mak hadn’t exactly been bullied much in her school career, but there were still football players and cheerleaders who sometimes made snide ‘carpet-muncher’ remarks in her direction sometimes. It could be a lot worse, but she was always happy to find someone who seemed genuinely kind, and Sebastian was one of those. She smiled faintly from the table she’d grabbed for them as he approached, her own physics book and notes already out. “Hey, no just a few minutes,” Mak assured him as he settled in. “It’s going okay. You?” Pretty much nothing was okay, but Mak wasn’t going to lay all her weird problems on him. She just hoped she wasn’t too braindead to be of any help.
“Mildly stressed?” He said with a little laugh. “This week’s kinda...it’s fun, but it’s a lot right now, you know?” Sebastian wasn’t good enough at football to be looking at any kind of a scholarship, but there was still the pressure of winning the Homecoming game above all the others. Plus, there was Homecoming itself. And school. Which really didn’t come last, but sometimes felt like it did. “It makes me wish I had more filler classes. I envy people that get to be teacher’s aides.”
For a second Mak couldn’t place what would be stressful, then she remembered that it was Homecoming week and that mattered to people like Sebastian. Usually she was at least thirty percent full of school spirit, but this year ... being haunted by some demon ghost thing kind of put a damper on all that. Mak was lucky to remember what day it was right now. “You’ll make it through,” she told him with another small smile. “And we’ll win on Friday and it’ll be awesome. And like, you’ll ace physics because I’m totally the best teacher ever, of course.”
“If I do, then it’s all because of you,” Sebastian smiled. He wasn’t so much worried about failing, but he needed at least a B in the class. It was already doing more damage to his GPA than Algebra II. “So are you going to the game? Or the dance?” He asked, the question on everyone’s lips, usually followed by who they were taking. He often wondered what it was like for her to be out, to be able to ask who she wanted. To be herself. But it always felt like asking would attract the attention back on him, so he tread carefully.
Mak smiled back a bit more easily, because his words sounded genuine, like he would really attribute success back to her. That was always a nice thing to hear. If he was really bad at it, she doubted she could drag his grade back up to an A, but she would definitely try. Sebastian seemed like the kind of guy who would actually listen to her and put effort into it. “Yeah, probably both,” she said. Mak didn’t actually know anymore if that was true, but it wasn’t like she could talk about why not, so ‘yes’ was easier. “How about you? I mean, like duh, I know you have to be at the game, but is it like, in your football contract that you have to go to the dance too?” She grinned at him a little.
“Definitely the game,” Sebastian nodded with a little laugh. “Coach would have my ass if I skipped out. The dance, not so much. But it’s kind of fun to get dressed up and maybe party a bit afterwards.” Which was the whole reason to go to the dance if he didn’t have a date. It would be weird to attend an after-party, but not the dance itself. He didn’t want to miss out. “Who are you going with?” he found himself asking as he opened his book and got out his homework. He didn’t want to waste her time, but he found it hard not to stall when it came to physics.
She very nearly said Sabrina without even thinking about it, because that was what she really wanted, but they hadn’t even talked about it and Mak didn’t want to assume. Too much scary shit had been going on for it to come up. “Oh, um, I’m not positive yet,” she admitted with a little laugh. Mak made a ‘what can you do’ sort of face and spread her hands. “Maybe this girl, maybe my friend Hunter, if she says no. You know Hunter Barrett, right?” Not everybody did, even though his dad was the sheriff. Though now that he’d started school with all of them for the first time, Hunter seemed to be getting around. It was good, even if Mak sometimes still wanted him all to herself.
Sebastian knew Hunter. Well, not really. They’d never actually talked. But he’d seen him. How could he not see him? Sometimes he had to make an effort not to see him because he knew eventually he’d be caught staring. He’d seen him over the summer, but then Hunter had been hanging with Jules and he’d been trying to give her some space. She’d warmed up to him again since then, but early summer had been awkward. Breakups did that. Sebastian opened his mouth, but was lost for words for a second. “I-- Kind of? Mostly in passing. He seems like a nice guy though.”
Unaware that there might be more there than met the eye, Mak nodded and smiled. “He is, he’s my bestie. He’s really fun, you would like him.” Maybe she didn’t know Sebastian well enough to say that, but really, everybody loved Hunter. He was just a doll like that. She almost told Sebastian that they’d been at Jules’s party, maybe he’d seen him, but then she remembered hearing that they’d broken up, so she bit her tongue on it. It was impossible to keep up with the popular kids’ social lives. “Pretty sure he’ll be at Homecoming with or without me, so ... yeah,” she said, then gave a small laugh at herself. Trying to play friend matchmaker and all. “Who are you taking, anyway?” She opened her own physics book just to prepare for the end of chatting.
“You’ll have to introduce me,” Sebastian said before he could think better on it. Because why not? Talking to a cute gay guy shouldn’t be any more difficult than talking to a straight one. Really, it shouldn’t. But there was a reason Sebastian liked girls so much and it wasn’t that he was trying to hook up with them. “I kind of forgot to ask anyone,” he said with a little cringe. “It seems a little late now. I mean, I could? But I figure I could also go solo and have a good time. There wasn’t really anyone I wanted to ask anyways.”
Mak lifted her brows at him in surprise when Sebastian said he forgot to ask anyone. Homecoming was shoved down all of their throats for a week straight, the dance was all a lot of people talked about, she wasn’t sure how that was possible. But if he hadn’t had a target in the first place, she could understand the procrastination. “Dude, solo dances are the best. You don’t have to keep up with anyone, you know? Just work the crowd and stuff, no pressure. But yeah, totally, I’ll introduce you to Hunter. If you end up rolling solo you can come hang with us dorks and everything.” She flashed him a little grin. That was doubtful, they were kind of on different social stratas, but hey maybe it would be fun.
He could see the surprise, but was used to it at that point. Being on homecoming court without a date wasn’t exactly normal. If he’d asked early enough, it would have been easy to secure a date. But there were expectations. It wasn’t as bad as prom-- Lord knew what he’d do when that came around-- but Sebastian wasn’t up for leading another girl on, especially if it would end up with a ruined friendship. He was lucky Jules seemed to have gotten over it as quickly as she had. “I’m really, really hoping that’s the case,” he smiled. “So maybe save me a dance? And if you’re not doing anything after, you should come party with us. You and Hunter and whomever you want to drag with you.” He’d vouch for them, no matter where they ended up.
It was so sweet of him to offer, it made Mak feel a little over emotional all of the sudden. She knew that came from all the stress and terror she’d been under, but knowing didn’t make her feel it any less. It felt so different from Jules Cooper inviting Mak to her party -- there didn’t seem to be a snide bone in Sebastian’s body. Mak wasn’t even sure who ‘us’ was, or if Sabrina would want to go, or if Sabrina was even going to Homecoming, or if they would all be eaten by this shadow monster before then, but it was still nice to be invited. “Hey thanks, might take you up on that,” she said as steadily as she could, giving Sebastian another smile. Mak swallowed and gestured toward his book and homework on the table. “Okay, come on, tell me where you’re having trouble.”
Sebastian had the sense that maybe something was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on what or why he thought so. But then Mak was smiling and the feeling was gone and Sebastian wasn’t even sure it was there in the first place. “Awesome,” he smiled, then nodded, leaning in to get started on his homework. He knew she’d figure it out and hopefully find a way to explain it that made sense.