The blazing sun glared down on my face as I walked quietly alongside Sebastian down a narrow residential road. We were only about a minute or so into our walk, and though he was chatting and teasing like normal, there was something undeniably shifty about him today. It was like he was planning something.
Just as I was slowing down to get ready to cross a small road, Sebastian suddenly stepped closer to me and pulled my bag free from my shoulder without a word of warning.
Then, like it was a completely normal thing to do, he just threw my rucksack over his own shoulder, and just continued on walking.
I slowed down and gave him the oddest of looks. "And you took my bag, because....," I trailed off with a light laugh.
He turned to me and shrugged. "Because I felt like it. Can't a guy carry a girl's bag without being judged?"
"But you never carry anyone's bags, never mind mine," I said, as I looked him over with a chuckle.
"Well, I am now," he snapped.
Realizing it was probably best not to over-question someone who looked as though they were on the brink of losing their mind, I just chose to drop the subject.
As we turned a corner, I'm not sure if I was imagining it but I felt as though Sebastian was drifting a little closer toward me. That's when I felt his hand accidentally bump against mine. I expected him to quickly retract his hand, but he didn't. Instead, he left his hand in place, and let it continually graze repeatedly against mine.
Very distracted by it, I decided to spark up a conversation to try and take my mind off it. "So, how come you're picking Izzy up so late from preschool. Don't most preschools finish at three-thirty?"
Again, his fingers brushed up against mine, once again distracting me. "Yeah, they do, but the lady who looks after them, lets her stay half an hour or so later, so we have time to pick her up," he explained.
As his fingers brushed up against me for the fourth time, I was convinced he had to be doing it on purpose. Maybe it was his weird new way of trying to piss me off.
"My hands feel cold, do yours?" Sebastian suddenly announced as his fingers once again accidentally brushed against mine.
This time I was convinced Sebastian had officially lost his mind. I turned to face him with a cocked-up brow. "It's literally 25 degrees outside, how the hell are your hands possibly cold," I laughed.
"Well, they just are, okay. I'll show you," Sebastian said. Then this time as his fingers brushed against mine, he turned his palm around and slipped my hand right into his.
I instantly felt a strange fluttering feeling pass through my stomach as he closed his fingers around mine. Forced to stand closer to him, I was coated with the light smell of his lingering soap and aftershave that he must have put on during his shower after his swim.
Memories of the shower room naturally led images of his naked body to re-surface in my mind and that's all that I needed for my whole face to feel like it was burning up in flames.
Losing all train of thought as we walked hand in hand, I could barely even remember why he'd ever held my hand to begin with.
Finally, as my mind landed back on earth, I turned to him, shooting him a funny look. "Your hand feels the exact same temperature as mine."
"Hmm," was all Sebastian said in response while tightening his grip on my hand. He didn't even seem mad that he'd been proven wrong.
I was just about to question why he was still holding on when suddenly a car beeped at us. Turning, I saw a black sports car slow down to reveal three thirty-year-old-looking men whistling over at me from the car window.
"Bend over for us, bitch," one of them yelled out with a laugh before the car started whizzing off again.
Sebastian immediately ripped his hand out of mine, and quickly bent down and snatched something from the end of someone's garden. He threw his arm back as though about to throw something, and my eyes widened as I realized he was holding a rock.
"Woah, woah, no," Sebastian, I said as I quickly grabbed his arm and stepped in front of him. "You can't just throw a fucking rock at somebody's car. Do you want to get arrested?"
Sebastian took his eyes off the car and looked at me with his jaw locked tight. "Well, I'm sorry but how else are fucking Pedos going to get the message to fuck off?" he snapped.
I let out a stressed sigh. "Yes, Sebastian but that doesn't justify throwing a rock at their head!"
He rolled his eyes. "Relax, I was only aiming at their taillights. I'm not stupid enough to go to prison just for murdering those stupid cunts," he muttered.
Relieved to some extent that he wasn't aiming to injure, I calmed down a bit. "Whatever, Sebastian, they're gone now, let's just keep going," I sighed as I nodded my head for us to go.
Though Sebastian still looked pissed, he reluctantly chuckled the rock back into the person's yard and carried on walking.
This time as he walked, he kept his hands in his pockets, and rather weirdly, I kind of missed the feel of his hand wrapped around my own.
Sebastian spared me a curious look. "You are fine, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, yeah, of course, it was nothing," I answered easily. In actuality, the incident had shaken me a little. It was one thing when boys your own age yelled rude comments out at you, but there was something extra chilling about men near to twice your age doing the same.
It wasn't long before a red-bricked building came into view up in front of us surrounded by a cute little white picket fence. There was a bright colorful rainbow painted across the building and a small playground in the yard outside.
Sebastian led us through the entrance to the gate, and as we turned the corner, I saw little Izzy sitting on a picnic table in the playground, coloring away as a young red-haired woman talked to her and smiled.
It didn't take long before they noticed us, and soon little Izzy lifted her head, and her eyes spread wide in excitement as she spotted her brother.
"Hey, Iz," Sebastian greeted with a smile suddenly looking a lot more cheerful. Izabel let out a light giggle before leaping off the chair and speeding over to her brother.
"Sebby," she screamed as she wrapped her little arms around his legs. She was far too short to reach much of anything else, and it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen.
As Izabel turned to me, her smile grew wider. "Fifi you're here too, I've missed you," she yelled. I smiled back at her, realizing she was trying but sadly failing at saying, Phoebe.
"Aww, hi, Izzy. I've really missed you too."
"Izzy, it's Phoe-Be," Sebastian corrected softly, with a laugh.
I turned to Sebastian. "Hey, I'm just glad it's not Pee, pee. My little cousin used to call me that all the time," I said with a light snort.
"Noted, Pee, pee," Sebastian said with a wink.
"It's Fifi, Sebby, get it right!" Izabel, corrected him, with a frown.
"Yeah, Sebastian," I teased, as I looked him up and down in amusement.
Just at that moment, the red-haired teacher, I saw sitting with Izzy before slowly approached us with a smile. "Oh wonderful, are the two of you Izzy's parents?" she asked with a polite smile.
My eyes widened instantly, and I quickly shook my head. "Oh god no, he's her brother, and I'm just his friend," I explained with a smile as I nodded my head over to Sebastian.
"Oh, I'm sorry, you guys just seemed to act very family-like," she apologized, with an awkward smile. I wanted to ask her what seemed, so family-like about a so-called mum wearing a cheerleading uniform but then I quickly realized she probably thought we were teen parents.
"Yeah, it's fine, no worries at all," Sebastian quickly reassured her with a polite smile.
Little Izzy cleared her throat. "I agree Mrs. Bell, I think Sebby and Fifi are very much like mummy and daddy. I even heard Sebby talking on the phone and he said that Fifi acts very sweetly to me and that it's annoying for him because it makes her hotter."
I plucked up a single brow.
"He also said-"
Sebastian cut her off by putting a hand gently over her mouth. "Yeah, I think that's definitely quite enough, he said with a tight nervous laugh. "Umm, der, bloom, mur," Izzy continued to mumble through his hand.
"Anyway, thanks for looking after Izzy Mrs. Bell, we'll now be off," Sebastian said quickly before starting to steer Izzy away.
I gave a quick goodbye myself before following Sebastian to the exit. Once we were out the gates, Sebastian finally released Izzy's mouth.
She crossed her arms and threw Sebastian a furious look. "Your hand is salty!" she accused.
Sebastian let out a heavy sigh. "Yes, well it wouldn't have been salty if you weren't trying to lick it," he grumbled as he wiped his clearly saliva-soaked hand, up and down his jeans.
"Humpf," Izzy grumbled as she stomped down her little foot. "Guess what, I don't want to walk with you anymore," she cried before she stuck her little tongue out at him.
Then turning around, she power-walked off ahead of us. Luckily for us, her tiny little legs didn't create much of a distance between us so Sebastian and I just hung back and let her sulk up ahead of us.
Sebastian then quickly turned to face me and gave me a cautionary look. "Hey, and before you get cocky, I didn't call you hot on the phone. Izzy just struggles to understand names and conversations. I was talking about somebody and something else," he explained quickly.
Though I knew he was likely telling the truth, I decided to play with him by throwing him a teasing look. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Sebby," I joked.
Clearly knowing I was trying to piss him off, he gave me a dry look.
Izzy, clearly bored with marching on ahead, finally slowed down and started walking alongside us.
Looking up at me, she blinked at me with those big brown eyes. "Fifi?" she asked.
I smiled down at her kindly. "Yes, Izzy."
"Why are you dressed like that?" she sang.
"Oh, it's my cheerleading outfit. It's a club I do at school," I explained. "It's basically a sport where you do dances, and flips and all kinds of exciting things like getting people to throw you up into the air."
"Wow, that sounds so cool," Izzy gasped in awe. "I want to be a cheerleader!"
"Yeah, but if you become one, you've got to be careful. People can get seriously hurt doing some of those tricks," Sebastian added in warning, clearly over-protective to the max.
"Calm down, grandpa, she'd be fine," I said, rolling my eyes. He was right in the sense I had suffered some injuries over the years, but that kind of stuff didn't happen to everyone.
"Fifi?" Izzy asked in song, once again.
"Yes," I answered with a light laugh.
"Why does my brother look at you like this?" Then turning around more to face me, she gave me this weird crazed, half-demented-looking smirk, and started looking me up and down with what I believed was her attempt at sultry eyes.
As Sebastian's face instantly turned a palish white, I let out a snort and almost lost my shit then and there.
"I don't know, Iz I've always figured it was down to some kind of disorder," I explained.
As Izzy started giggling, Sebastian again, shot me a passionately dirty look.
"Fifi?" Izzy asked sweetly again. Sebastian looked like he was ready to shoot himself at this point, and if I got entrance into his head, I'd bet you he was experiencing major regrets of ever agreeing to let me come on this walk.
"Yes, Iz," I replied with a smile, more than enjoying myself.
"Sometimes Sebby and Leon talk about you and say-"
"Okay, uh-oh, nope, no more question," Sebastian quickly intercepted, shutting down a question that he clearly knew was going to end badly.
"Umm," Izzy grumbled as she stuck her lip out.
Despite's Sebastian's request, the questions did not end and Izzy proceeded to continue questioning the life out of me while also accidentally insulting Sebastian in the process. It was brilliant! My personal favorite was when she asked me why she saw Sebastian secretly trying to take a picture of me like a creepy person.
By the time we got to the gates of my home, Sebastian's pride was absolutely in shatters from Izzy's constant humiliating questions. I, on the other hand, was on an absolute high.
When it was time to say goodbye Sebastian gave me a stiff nod, while hardly able to look me in the eye. Izzy on the other hand waved me off with a great wide smile, and an enthusiastic wave. "Bye," I laughed.
Once I entered my house, I couldn't stop smiling. Who knew a simple walk with Sebastian could have ended with so much fun. Well, for me at least...
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Next Update: Thursday