Santana drove her car to her house, Sebastian sitting in the passenger seat on his phone. It was completely silent as she drove, neither one to fond of the idea of talking to the other right now. Santana glanced over and saw Sebastian was scrolling through his camera roll, looking at a picture of him, an African American teen girl and an African American adult all smiling happily. She glanced over again and saw the twinge of sad-happiness in the boys eyes which filled her head with even more questions than before.
What was he hiding?
Was he really mean and completely cold hearted?
Why? Why was he like that?
She parked her car at her house. "When we get inside, just let me do the talking. Okay?"
"Yeah." He mumbled back as he opened his door and climbed out, Santana doing the same. She led him up to the house and opened the door, letting g the boy inside. "Abuela, This is Sebastian. Could he stay the night. He's been locked out of his house and his parents are already asleep."
Santana's abuela has calculating eyes that roamed over Sebastians features. "One night." She permitted.
"Thank you, Abuela." Santana said.
"Thank you." Sebastian said, his voice genuine. Abuela just nodded in reply and Santana dragged Sebastian to her room. "Alright meerkat, you have to explain to me what the hell is going on with you right now." She demanded. To her surprise, Sebastian just sighed. "Can I sit?" He asked as he gestured to her bed. She nodded and the two each sat down.
"What do you want to know? I'm an open book for one night only."
"Let's start with Iris."
"Iris..." he repeated. "Iris is my best friend, Always has been." He took a deep breath. "After my mother was murdered and my dad went to jail, her Father took me in and raised me, Iris now being my foster sister." He explained.
"I-I don't understand. Your mom was... murdered?"
"Yeah." He breathed out. "The police say my Dad did it but that's not true. I saw what really happened that night."
"Well then why didn't you tell them? What happened?"
"I did tell them! No one believed me. No one ever believes me. And no, I won't tell you because you'll just be the same. After all, what I said was the impossible." He replied, his voice raised at first but he calmed himself.
"Okay..... uh, what about the phone call? I thought that was with your Dad."
He chuckled darkly, looking down before meeting her eyes. "That was not my Dad. My dad would never be like that. The person you heard was Richard Smythe, one of my Moms old friends." There was a haunted look in his eyes that left Santana feeling cold and a bit scared if she was being honest. "He agreed to take temporary guardianship of me during my high school years after bullying in Central City became too much. I took his last name, he made me Sebastian, and things just sort've... happened." Santana could tell there was so much he was keeping from her in this moment.
"What happened to being an open book? Look, what if I make a promise too? No matter what happens or what you tell me tonight, no matter how bad it is, I won't tell unless you want me to."
Sebastian looked at her and could see she was being completely serious. That's when he broke. He told her about the Lightning Man. Tony Woodward. Joe and Iris. His nerdiness. How Richard blames his mother's death on him. How he was only mean to everyone because Richard said he had to be. How he wasn't even gay. How he cried every night after he did something bad. How he had panic attacks. Everything. And she listened. She just sat there and actually listened to every word that left his mouth and by the end, he was crying and Santana had wrapped the boy in hug, trying to keep her newfound tears at bay as well.
After a few minutes she pulled away to see how broke Sebastian looked. She compared his two different lives in his story and even with his parents, the bullying, everything, He seemed like he would rather be Barry. He seemed happier when he was Barry.
"Hey, I'm gonna help you." She assured him. "Barry, I'm gonna help you with everything. We're gonna get you away from Richard. We're gonna get you back to Joe and Iris or at least through High School. And I promise, once all of this is said and done, I will hep you find your moms killer. I'll help you find the Lightning Man."
"You-you believe me?" He asked, looking at her with a tear stained face and a twinge of Hope in his eyes that wasn't there before. She had only seen this genuine emotion when he was talking to Iris. He trusted her. And now she trusted him.
She nodded, a gentle smile on her face. "I do. But let's figure this out first before we get to that. Barry, I think you need to talk to Joe about Richard." The boy merely nodded and pulled out his phone.
"We can do it now, I guess. I feel like this is one of those now or never situations." A light chuckle left Santana's mouth. "I'm right here, Barry. I'm right here."
Still got no idea where I'm going with this but it's headed... somewhere. Anyway, I've had this part started for a while so I kinda just finished it. Lemme know what you all think I guess. Stay Safe.