A Walk in the Light | Sebastian Sallow

2. Eighteen

            Sebastian slams his mug on the table and cheers, pointing at Tarrick tauntingly as he waits for his roommate to finish his ale. "Merlin, it's going to be a long night," Anne chuckles.

"At least you won't have to take care of either of them," Imelda retorts.

"And I won't ever again. Allie takes care of him enough. I hear it nearly every night." My face immediately flushes as Imelda gasps.

"Do you never sleep?" I shoot back.

"Hard to when that's going on above me." She lifts her mead to her lips with a teasing smirk.

"I'm suddenly thankful that Tarrick's family is wealthy, and he has his own quarters," Imelda mutters.

Anne and I glare at her for her comment. "I'd like to think saving the wizarding world twice has its own financial benefits, does it not, Allie?" Oh, Anne. The only person who was brave enough to continually put Imelda in her place until Fifth Year, when the torch was passed to me. It's probably why the three of us are friends now.

"I certainly wouldn't have to work this summer if I didn't want to," I comment. "But I took a job at the bookstore down the street out of boredom."

"Won't know what to do without your better half?" Imelda teases.

"Not really," I admit. "And what about you?"

Imelda shrugs. "I plan to spend some weeks with Tarrick's family until the World Cup. I'll be working the matches with the Irish National Team as a Junior Announcer. What about you, Anne?"

"The family down the street needed a nanny over the summer. Really lovely people, some of Theo's new coworkers. So, I'll be with them on the weekdays and will travel to most of Sebastian's matches with Allie on the weekends," Anne explains.

The boys, situated at the table behind us, explode in laughter at something and clink their mugs together in a cheers. Nerida returns from the bar after far too long of a trip for our next round of drinks. "Sorry, the bartender is fit," she gushes.

An arm wraps around my shoulders, across my chest, and tugs my chair backwards until it leans against the table behind us. "Sebastian, gods, have some decorum," I scold, gripping his arm for support as the chair teeters on its hind legs.

"Hi," he greets. His drunken smile overtakes his entire face, eyes glassy and glistening under the dim pub lights. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

He beams at me and pushes my chair back into its rightful place at the table of girls. Nerida sighs dreamily as she watches the two of us. "I can only aspire to have what the two of you have."

Anne snorts, knowing full well what we've been through, but I throw her a warning look. "Trust me, it hasn't come without its challenges, and I know a summer apart will test us as well."

"Of course it will, have you seen what those workouts have done to him? Merlin." My eyebrow piques with interest at Nerida's continued lack of filter. Though, I have always shared with her most everything about my relationship with Sebastian to that extent. I told her all about our nights in the Room of Requirement after everything had settled. She'd been one of the biggest supporters for Sebastian and I to finally start courting.

And also, she's painfully right.

Sitting at the table behind me is no longer the teenage boy I fell for, and while he hasn't been for quite some time, he certainly looks more and more like a young man every day. Even in the few weeks at the end of the school year, I watched the year's events transform him. The trauma of our Easter break and the year prior aged him beautifully, and I could already stare at that charming smile all day. Now, with his face leaned, what must be another inch in height, and the trim, agile muscle he's formed, he's precisely what I'd envisioned when I picture us three more years down the road. He looks mature.