Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 70

Balthazar waves a hand dismissively. "Technicalities."

They chat for a while as they wait for their food and, because it's Balthazar, it results in lots of laughs. Finally, food comes and they eat and chill and all that stuff. Castiel gets the bill because god knows he can afford it.

"So," Castiel says as they're leaving the restaurant, "What's new in Maryland since last year?"

"Not much, actually," Balthazar tells him. "I think we've pretty much covered everywhere in the last four years. Unless you're looking for more food, but we just ate, so that's not gonna work."

"So now what do we do?" Castiel asks. "I came here under the impression I was going to spend the day with you, and I'm not giving that up."

"Hmm..." Balthazar takes a moment to think about it. "Actually, there's this fairly new club. It doesn't really get popular until nighttime, though. We could go back to my place for now and you could see the family, and we could go check it out later."

"That works," Castiel agrees.

~~

"Castiel!" Hannah says excitedly when she sees him, giving him a big hug. "I thought you weren't coming here 'til tomorrow!"

"Well, surprise!" Castiel replies. "Is your mom home?"

"She's at the grocery store," Hannah tells him. "She'll be back soon. And Ambriel and Hael are in their rooms, but I'm sure they'd come out to see you if they knew you were here."

"I got this," Balthazar says. He clears his throat, then yells, "Castiel's here!" He holds up a finger and mouths, one, two, three...

As if on cue, Ambriel steps into view. She walks downstairs and gives Castiel a hug, not dropping the phone in her hand. Great. Teenagers these days.

Ambriel is going into ninth grade now, and Hael twelfth; the same age as Anna. Hannah's going into eighth grade, which isn't much younger than Ambriel, but she's always been treated like the baby, so she didn't grow up as fast.

"You're early," Ambriel observes.

"What can I say? I suck at following schedules."

"I'm gonna go get Hael," Hannah announces, running up the stairs.

While they wait, Castiel turns back to Ambriel. "And what's new with you?"

"Not much," she replies with a shrug.

"Are you ready for high school?"

She shrugs again. "Meh. We're allowed to use phones and we don't have to use lockers, so it sounds like it's gonna be good."

"Always good to have an optimist around," Castiel replies.

"Did you like high school more than middle school?" Ambriel asks.

Castiel hesitates, then says, "I had it rough in school as a whole, so I just wanted out. You seem to be doing much better than I did, so you shouldn't have a problem."

"Were you friends with the drama-y people everyone keeps warning me about?" she asks.

"For the most part, my only 'friend' there was Gabriel, and even we didn't talk much."