Wow, a rare chapter with Sebastian's perspective! Also, this is the song mentioned later near the end of the chapter just in case you want to listen along. The time stamp for the part that I go into detail about is 3:00
Sebastian's POV
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I exited my room but the bathroom was not my destination, instead, I was going downstairs to make sure the claims I made about my family would be true.
I entered the kitchen and almost all eyes went to me.
"Is Talon okay?" Carter asked. As I had assumed, the information had made its way around.
"He's okay for now, he had a panic attack, please don't ask him about it when we come back down okay? He's going to want to forget about it and is extremely embarrassed by the fact that you all saw." I said, waiting until I got agreement from everyone. I nodded and returned back upstairs, entering my room again to see that he was standing up looking out of the window.
~ it's pretty out there~ he commented, seeming like he was trying to fight off sleep.
I hopped back onto the bed and patted the space next to me, he saw and lay down next to me.
"Are you tired?" I asked.
~A little bit... I have extra trouble sleeping on Christmas...~
"You wanna try and nap before the foods ready?"
~ I guess we can...~
I smiled, getting up and turning off my lights and turning on my fan before lying back down and burying my face in the nape of his neck, breathing in his earthy smell. Shortly after, the hand I had laying in his chest helped me feel his breathing slow, he had fallen asleep.
I hoped one day he would find out just how much I had grown to love... and maybe soon I would gain the courage to make him my actual boyfriend.
With wishful thinking, I fell into slumber too.
Later we were awoken by Carter turning on the lights in the room.
"Boys, foods ready," he said. Talon sat up tiredly, his hair somehow completely messed up even though we only slept for like twenty-five minutes. I took my hands and ran them through his hair, trying to tame down the mess, he stared back up at me tiredly with half closed eyes. How cute could this boy possibly get?
"You heard him, let's go eat," I said, standing up out of the bed and stretching, the popping of my bones sounding through my room. I turned off the fan and turned around to see Talon still sitting down on my bed with the comforter piled up in his lap. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
~I don't want to get up...~ he signed, I laughed and grabbed his wrists, pulling him off the bed.
"Too bad baby, I'm hungry!" I said grabbing his hand and leading him downstairs, the smell of the honey glazed ham being the most prominent out of all the food. The kitchen was full of chatter.
"look who woke up from hibernation!" Aunt Christine said setting down an apple pie fresh from the oven.
"Ha-ha, it wasn't that long auntie," I remarked, glad that nobody asked Talon about his episode earlier. A few of them were giving him kind of weird looks but he didn't seem to notice.
"Alright everyone, just grab a plate and load up!" Carter said. We watched as most of the family crammed into the kitchen, waiting for it to die down a little so we didn't risk another panic attack.
Once it got that way we helped ourselves to the food and joined the rest of the family at the equally as crammed dining table, we had to pull in other chairs from around the house just to get everyone a seat. Talon and I sat at the short end of the table to avoid elbow rubbing, and even if it did happen, the next person to him was Elle, so hopefully, it wouldn't be so bad.
We started to eat as Christmas music played from the living room TV, Ellen was singing and dancing to it in her chair while she ate, Talon was humming the song in beat with her and she was smiling and giggling. I smiled at the cuteness overload and took another bite of ham.
"So Sebastian, how long have you and Talon known each other? You never mentioned him before." Caleb asked. He was the cool uncle, the kind who would secretly get you stuff your parents says no to, he's the one I had my first beer with, although, my parents don't know about that one yet. Maybe they'd be pleased to know that I didn't like it anyway. Anyways I was really close with him and people often said we looked like we could be brothers even though we actually weren't blood-related. In this family, it was easy to forget that I was adopted since everyone welcomed me with open arms.
I was first put into an orphanage after I was dropped on the towns urgent care doorstep. They couldn't track down my parents or any family for that matter, as far as I'm concerned I don't have any. Then I was put into an orphanage. I went through many foster homes and finally when I was eleven Carter and Andrew came along. They skipped the whole fostering process and instantly started the adoption process. I was told it was because they just had a feeling that i would fit right in, and I did, they raised me as if I was their own child and soon they adopted Eve and Armelle. We became one happy family and here we are now.
Back to the topic at hand, I tried to think of the number closest to the truth that I could remember. "Hum, maybe around five or so months? I'm not sure" I said to answer his question. I don't remember how long we have known each other so far because time with him is non existent to me.
"How's football going? Are you carrying the team like always?" He asked and I laughed.
"I don't carry the team Caleb, but yeah we're doing good, we won our last four games but since its been winter we've been on offseason."
Caleb nodded his head with an 'ah' and Christine joined in from her conversation with Carter.
"What do you do on the offseason?" She asked.
"Whatever really, but mostly I hang out with my friends and this kid," I said ruffling Talons hair that I had fixed earlier. He put his fork down and playfully glared at me, fixing the mess I made.
"Do you do any sports Talon?"
He wiped his hands on a napkin and picked up his phone, typing for a little bit before his text to speech app spoke "Well I used to do track... I don't anymore though..."
"Why not?" Christine's husband questioned.
He hesitated before speaking, well before his phone spoke for him, "When I moved I just didn't have the motivation to rejoin." He said, and he wasn't really lying but I knew the whole truth. He moved to get away from the memories of his kidnapping, and when he moved here he obviously wasn't the same kid he was before...
"Oh, you should try and join again, I did track when I was your age, got me a lot of friends" Christine responded.
"What do you do in your free time Talon?"
"I paint a lot... That's mostly it"
"Hey... Last time you were here you said you would bring some art to show us" Andrew said pointing at Talon who blushed slightly in response and chuckled kind of nervously. I smiled. He's so shy sometimes.
"I forgot, I'm sorry"
"Promise you'll bring us some next time OK?" Andrew said laughing and finishing the food on his plate. Talon responded saying 'ok' blushing harder, he gets embarrassed when hes in the middle of all the attention.
"Don't worry, I can atest that they're really good" I advocated.
The rest of the dinner went like that, everyone in the family asking each other stuff as we all finished eating. After the dishes were put in the sink my grandma insisted that she rinse them off and put them in the dishwasher, much to Carters dismay. They bickered as they both tried to do them because each of them didn't want the other to have to do it.
Everybody kinda of split off, most people to the living room to watch a movie, including David, who I would normally hang out with because he was a cool dude, but before Talon arrived I had pulled him aside and asked him if he would let me do my thing, because I had plans for later, and him being him he accepted, only after making sexual innuendos to me about my request.
Talon and I went upstairs into my room to finally open the presents we had gotten each other.
I was excited for some more alone time with him.
We sat down on my floor and played rock paper scissors to see who got to give their's first, he won after I called for a best out of three and gleefully handed me what I assumed to be a wrapped up box.
I tore into the wrapping paper and lifted the top of the rectangular box. It was more long than wide and was labeled as a drawing tablet even though I was pretty sure that wasn't what was inside. It turned out to be a hoodie and a painting. The hoodie was black with the words 'Riot Society Japan' on the sleeve and a blue koi fish on the back next to small pink lotus flowers with the word 'Japan' written in a cursive style above it in a hot pinkish red colour. It was pretty cool looking.
The painting was a really cool blue and red dragon twisting around itself over wavy waters with a cherry blossom tree in the background, the petals scattered around the peice.
I finished looking over the picture with a smile, he really is super talented in art, this must've taken so long. I looked back up to him and saw him sign that it was my Chinese zodiac, I was born in the year of the dragon. I reached over and hugged him tightly, verbally expressing my appreciation and admiration of his work.
Then I gave him my gift, waiting in anticipation of his reaction. He was timidly opening the paper, trying not to tear it so much. I laughed quietly at him for caring so much.
When he finally got it off he noticed that there were actually two more separately wrapped items. He picked up the one on the top and pulled off the paper, revealing a white box labelled 'Bond Touch'.
He was kind of confused at first, reading the part on the bottom where 'one for you' was printed out. He pulled up the flap of the small box and set aside a little pamphlet with instructions.
~What is this?~ He asked me, picking up the instructions again and scanning them over.
"It's a touch bracelet," I said, pulling out my own identical box from underneath my bed behind me, mine had the words 'one for me' printed on the bottom. "When we put them on if one of us touches it then the other one will vibrate and light up, like a way to let each other know we're thinking of each other" I explained.
He looked at me intrigued, signing 'that's cool.' We then took a little while to configure them, charging the touch things themselves and getting the wrist bands set to our size. I had him open the other thing while we waited for the devices to charge.
This one was a thin folded canvas in plastic covering. I had gotten us a paint by number page to do together since I know how much he likes art, and if he likes it, I do too. The paint by number page was of fireworks over a lake. It was very intricate and I knew it would take a while to complete but that was quality time we could spend together.
I told him that I wanted us to work on it together and he smiled, picking up one of the brushes that came in the package and telling me we should start it right now. He started with number one on the right side of the page and I started with number 2 on the left while the bracelets charged.
I tried to be as neat and inside the lines as he was but I proved less experienced in painting. We made small talk, me talking to him and him pausing his painting to sign back. We talked about things at school which soon turned into us making funny jokes and finding funny memes.
I showed him one that I found on Reddit when he was in the middle of drinking a cup of water, causing him to laugh and spill it on himself. He made a noise of surprise as the cold liquid seeped into his shirt.
He leaned over and placed the cup on my bedside table, pulling the soaked front of his shirt off of his skin.
"Do you want to change?" I asked, knowing how uncomfortable wet clothes can be.
~Please~ he signed. I told him to go into my closet and pick out any of the shirts to wear. He took his phone out of his pocket and set it down, going into my closet and cracked the door closed. My closet wasn't a walk in closet or anything, but it was big enough for him to be able to stand in there and quickly change shirts.
He could've just grabbed one and changed out here but I knew he was insecure. I wish he wasnt, I'm lucky that he even gained the strength and courage to touch me.
While he was in there his phone buzzed. I picked up to see what it was.
"Hey your mom just texted and asked 'theres no counseling this week right?'... You go to counseling?"
He came out of the closet wearing my navy blue football hoodie, it has my last name and my football number, fifty two on the back and our school logo on the front. A surprised nervous face took over his features.
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Talons POV
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"Hey your mom just texted and asked 'theres no counseling this week right?'... You go to counseling?" Sebastian's voice said from the room.
I slid down the hoodie I had picked out the rest of the way and pushed open the door. Of course, my mom has to text me about something I haven't told him yet when he checks my phone... just my luck.
What if me confirming that I go to counseling makes him think I'm crazy? I hesitated to answer.
~Yeah... I do~ I signed slowly, nervous of his response. He nodded his head.
~Does that make you hate me now?~ I signed timidly, biting my lip. Maybe this dream ends here.
He looked up from my hands to my eyes, with a wide eyed surprised and confused face. "What?" he asked.
I sighed and signed again my question... ~Do you hate me now?~
"Wha-? Of course not!" He said seriously, standing up and walking over to me. He grabbed my fiddling hands in his. "Why would I hate you for that?"
I slightly tugged at my hands and he let go. I signed to him, ~because now it confirms that I'm weird and crazy...~
He looked deep in my dad eyes, "No it doesnt mean that at all, you know what it does mean? It means that you're being brave by telling your story and trying to get help. Talon I would never hate you for doing that, believe me."
I sighed in releif at his answer feeling all but a slight tinge of my paranoia fade away when he hugged me tightly.
I'm being irrational.
We checked on the charged bracelets and then set them up and tested how they work, it was cool and now I would be able to know he was with me all the time.
We painted some more when he started to play some music on his phone. It was starting to get dark outside since it was around six thirty.
He turned on his LED lights that were hung at the top of his ceiling, they synced to music. He put his Spotify playlist on shuffle and went back to painting for two songs, until a song called 'Never Catch Me' by Flying Lotus came on.
"I love this song!" he exclaimed, standing up and holding out his hand to me.
~What are you doing?~
"Get up and dance with me!" he said smiling, his straight white teeth peeking out.
~I can't dance~ I said shaking my head with a small smile.
He scoffed, "Everybody can dance, you just have to move how you feel, let the music course through you!"
I laughed, ~you make it sound like we're in a movie~
"And what if we are?" He questioned sarcastically, finally giving up and grabbing my hands, pulling me off of the floor and trying to get me to join him.
The songs beat picked up and he swayed my arms with him as he danced. I fell in step and we soon were kind of just dancing in no paricular way. Sebasian was singing along with Kendrick Lamar's part when the beat slowed down a bit.
"My favourite part" he hummed, smiling. The guitar came back in and then soon turned to drums causing Sebastian to pick up his speed. I laughed trying to keep up with him and not doing so well in my attempt.
By the end of the next song we both sat on his bed tring to catch our breath. We both layed back with our feet dangling over the edge when he turned to me, cool breath in my face.
"You know... Ive been meaning to ask you..." He trailed off
"Hmm?" I hummed in question.
"How about we go on a second date? Like an official second date." He said, putting his hand in my hair and coming through it.
My smile grew larger. I was so glad he asked me to come over today, I had forgotten about the horrors this day represents in my mind, except for that one incident earlier. He made me feel so good.
So of course, I signed, 'yes.'