That Summer

12. Seven Devils

12. Seven Devils

Sebastian and I sit down at a cute little café downtown for dinner. I decided that I haven’t seen him enough and I wanted to talk to him. Gage, Max, and Anna stayed home so that we could have some privacy.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in three weeks,” I say as I pick up my menu. He looks up at me and smiles.

“That’s practically the amount of time we’ve been here,” he replies.

“Yeah but now that Anna’s living with us, you’re with her all the time. I miss you.”

He rolls his eyes and takes a sip of his drink. “You’ll always be my best friend, Nell. Even Gage can’t replace you.”

“If I’m replaced by Gage for anyone, I will be highly insulted. By the way, do you know why he’s been moping around lately?”

He shifts uncomfortably, and his eyes dart around. “Yeah.”

I stare at him, waiting for him to continue but he doesn’t. “Are you going to tell me?”

He sighs and scrubs his hand across his face. “It’s not my place to tell. He’s got a lot of shit going on with it and he needs to be the one that tells everyone.”

I stare down at my menu as the waitress comes back over and order a sandwich. Sebastian orders some sort of soup thing even though it’s ridiculously humid and hot outside.

“Why did he tell you?”

“He was talking about it in his sleep and I confronted him about it the next morning. He was actually really honest with me. It’s really fucking him up, Nell.”

I want to know so badly what’s wrong with him. I don’t like seeing him upset about something, especially if it’s something bad like Sebastian’s making it out to be.

“Why won’t he tell anyone?”

“Because I don’t think anyone will forgive him.”

“Did you?”

He doesn’t reply for a few moments. “Not really.”

That surprises me. Sebastian is the most easygoing guy on the planet and the fact that he didn’t forgive Gage kind of scares me.

“But hey, we’re not here to talk about Gage the entire time.”

I nod and take a sip of my drink.

“Anna told me that I should ask you about Max,” he announces, giving me a look.

Fucking Anna.

“Why would she say that?” I ask, staring down at the table.

“Because there’s something that you’ve been hiding from me for awhile.”

I sigh and look back up at him. He’s watching me, patiently waiting for me to tell him what I’m so scared to even admit to myself. “I like him,” I mumble.

His eyes widen. “What?”

“I like him,” I repeat, a little louder.

“You…you like Max?”

I nod.

“God, I can’t believe this!”

“What were you expecting?” I ask, giving him a look.

He runs his hand through his hair. “I don’t know but it wasn’t that. You were the last person I expected to fall for him.”

“Why?”