Chapter 28

For the rest of the evening, we ended up playing five more games or so before deciding to call it quits, and head home. And though I hated to admit it, I genuinely had a good time with him. He wasn't too obnoxious or annoying; he was just fun. The weirdest thing of all was that we never even ended up finding Max or Lara in the end, so our plan to 'ruin their date' ended up being an absolute failure.

Now the two of us were heading back in his car after having stopped for cookie-dough ice cream. I was still eating my tub, but Sebastian was forced to stop eating as he couldn't eat and drive.

"Hmm," I moaned, as I slid a particularly nice bit of my ice cream off my spoon and into my mouth.

"You sound like a porn star," Sebastian said simply and flatly.

I briefly stopped eating, to shoot Sebastian a dirty look. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Thanks, Sebastian just what every girl wants to hear," I spat sarcastically.

He took his eyes briefly over the road to smirk at me. "You're welcome," he winked.

I looked him up and down, unimpressed. "You know, you're awfully cocky for someone whose ice cream is melting. I hope you enjoy eating your slushy milk later," I laughed as I glanced down to his indeed rather melted-looking tub in the cup holder.

"How about you make yourself useful and feed me some then," Sebastian said with a smile as he nodded his head down to his ice cream.

"No way, I'm not feeding you, get lost," I laughed with a scoff.

Sebastian shot me a spiteful look. "Well, in that case, this is now confiscated. Before I got a chance to react, Sebastian's arm lurched across the center console and snatched my tub right out of my hand.

"Hey," I yelled.

I tried to reach to snatch it back, but Sebastian quickly placed it out of reach on the cup rest on his side of the door. Well, I technically could reach it but I didn't exactly feel like reaching over him and engaging him in a weird wrestling match while he was driving.

"You get it back if you feed me," he bargained.

There was a moment of silence as I sat staring at him stubbornly. "Fine," I finally mumbled reluctantly.

Snatching his tub from the cup holder, I scooped up as much ice cream as I could onto his spoon before leaning over him so I could raise it up to his lips. Sebastian instantly opened his mouth and slid it cleanly off the spoon. My fingers accidentally brushed his lips in the process causing my heart to embarrassingly jump up a little.

Three more times, I continued to feed him spoon after spoon like he was some kind of pharaoh. I could tell he was getting cocky about me basically acting like his personal servant, as his smile grew after every spoonful.

"Hmm, I could get used to this," Sebastian teased.

I immediately stopped and glared at him head-on. "And on that note, I'm done," I snapped as I plonked his spoon back into the tub.

"I've fed you now so pay up, and give me back my ice cream," I ordered as I held up an expectant hand.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and reluctantly returned my ice cream tub back to me.

The rest of the ride passed by surprisingly quickly and before I knew it, Sebastian was pulling the car through the familiar gates of my home.

Sebastian parked the car up nicely right outside the front of my house. Once he'd turned off the engine, I slowly unbuckled my seat before turning to face him.

"Well, this was...erm...interesting," I said with an awkward smile. It was all I could think to say. As much as I hated to admit it, I couldn't shake my awkwardness at the fact this very much felt like the end of a date.

"Hmm, yeah," Sebastian said, the expression in his eyes foreign.

Figuring that was as close to a goodbye as I was going to get, I reached for the door handle. "Wait," he said suddenly. "I''lll erm... walk you to your door."

My mind instantly alerted me that this was a weird request, especially for Sebastian, but I just shrugged in response anyway. "Okay, yeah, sure," I mumbled.

The two of us then climbed out of the car and took the short walk up the porch and over to the front door.

I came to a stop awkwardly in front of the door and found Sebastian had done the same.

I met his eyes and swallowed nervously under the heavy weight of his gaze. The way he was looking at me was strange and I wasn't sure I liked how it made me feel.

I cleared my throat and flashed him what I hoped was a polite smile. "Thanks for driving me home. I guess I'll see you at school."

As I reached for my keys from my pocket, Sebastian suddenly reached forward and stopped my movement by clasping my hand in his own.

"Hold on," he said.

I looked him over in confusion as I waited for him to say something. His eyes rocked back and forth between mine as though wrestling with the urge to say something. Any hint of the confident, obnoxious Sebastian was long gone, and in his place was someone who looked a little unsure of himself and nervous.

Suddenly whatever light in his eyes died and he shook his head and stepped back. He forced a stiff smile. "Actually, nothing, goodnight," he mumbled.

I gave him one last confused smile before finally letting myself into the house. Once I'd closed the door behind me, I leaned back against the door and felt my head swarm with an overall feeling of confusion. But after tonight, I knew one thing for sure: I would never for the life of me understand what the hell was happening in Sebastian Diaz's head.

---------------

"Yes mum, I am remembering to stretch before and after practice, relax," I laughed into the phone with a roll of my eyes. Cheer practice had only just finished a few minutes ago, and I was busy tidying myself up in the locker room while I talked to my mum on speaker. All the other girls had left leaving me alone to take the call.

It had been a week or so since I'd last called her, so I knew she'd kill me if I didn't pick up the phone this time.

"Good, because the last thing we need is you pulling another muscle again. As much as I love Max, he's not the best at handling doctor visits and medication and stuff. I still can't forget the time, he tried to feed you my eye medication."

I laughed at the memory. "In his defense, he was only ten at the time," I mumbled.

"Yes and I think ten is plenty old enough to know better," she spat drily. "But anyway, speaking of Max, he's telling me so much about his new girlfriend, Lara. He really seems to like her; I can't wait to meet her. She seems like she's perfect for him."

Instant guilt twisted away at my gut as I knew for the last few weeks, I'd been vigilant in my effort to break the two of them up. And for utterly selfish reasons. It made me wonder if I should even bother to continue with any more schemes, especially considering I wasn't even sure how much I hated Sebastian anymore. Are weird little 'date' last night had actually been somewhat enjoyable.

"Yeah Mum, she's great, you're going to love her," I mumbled honestly into the phone.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," mum added. "Max told me, she's also the sister of that Brazilian boy you used to play with. Seb, right? How's that going for you? I hope it's not too annoying interacting with him after you and him had that big falling out."

I instantly paused and had a little mini flashback back to all the weird things I'd been subject to over the past few weeks. Everything from being forced to sit on his lap in the car, to having him cock-block me at the beach.

"Nah, it's been fine," I said stiffly, lying straight through my teeth.

"That's good," she said brightly. "Anyway, sorry, Phoebe, but I've got to go, your father's still in bed, and we're supposed to start our hike soon."

"Okay, enjoy mum, and see you soon, bye," I said.

"Bye honey, won't be long till we're home." With that final word, I softly hung up the phone.

Leaning over the changing bench, I quickly packed up the rest of my stuff before shouldering my bag and making my way over to the door. Phone calls with my mum always left me with a feeling of loneliness once they finally did come to an end. As much as a phone call and letters provided a good chance to catch up, there was nothing quite like coming home to somebody to chat to.

As I swung the door open to leave, I came to an abrupt stop as I found Sebastian leaning up against the wall as though waiting for someone.

Noticing his wettened, slightly dripping hair, I realized he must have just finished his swim practice.

His eyes slightly brightened up as he saw me, and he straightened himself up before looking me up and down.

One look alone up and down my body, caused his lips to curve up into an amused smile. "Nice outfit," he commented.

Looking down sharply, my face burned, almost forgetting I was wearing my cheer uniform. It wasn't the most modest of all outfits and consisted of a small red crop top and skirt, that exposed a bit of my midriff and a more than generous portion of my legs.

It wasn't usual for me to wear it around school but we'd been practicing in uniforms for the upcoming game, so I figured I'd just save time and drive home in it.

"If you like it so much, I'm happy to buy you one," I joked as I looked him up and down in return.

Sebastian's lips twitched slightly at my joke. "Nah, I wouldn't want to embarrass you by upstaging you or anything."

Biting back my smile, I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, other than to perve on me, why are you here?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, actually...erm...I was wondering if you'd do me a favour?" he asked slightly nervously.

I narrowed my eyes, feeling suspicious of anything that involved Sebastian and a favour. "Yeah, depends?" I said slowly.

He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, you see my sister has kind of been asking about you and I was about to go and pick her up from school. So, I was wondering if you would erm...want to come with me to say hi and stuff?" he asked, finishing his words off with a heavy swallow.

Flattered that his little sister wanted to talk to me again, I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, why not? I'm happy to drive us if you want," I offered.

"No," Sebastian said sharply. "It's better if we walk," he insisted. "It's only a ten-minute walk to the school, and then I can just walk you home."

Confused about why he seemed so passionate about us walking, I gave him an odd look. "What's the point, when I have my car here?" I laughed.

"Because you know...it's good for fresh air, and exercise and stuff. And besides, I can just get Lara to drop your car off back at yours later, as she said she's going to pass by the school later this evening," he explained.

Feeling too lazy to fight him on such a weird request, I just shrugged. "Okay, fine then, let's walk."

And though he was the last person I'd ever thought would be walking me home, I took off out of the school, walking side-by-side with Sebastian. 

-----------

Hope you enjoyed and hope you like the new cover as well x

Next Update: Thursday


Comment