“Evan! Get your lazy ass up!”
Someone was shaking me. I rolled over and grunted out something that didn’t make sense at all. Whoever it was continued to shake me until I forced my eyes to crack open.
“Rory, you better have a damn good reason for waking me up,” I growled.
“I do. Breakfast is ready.”
“Wow, it’s a nice day out!” I said cheerfully, jumping out of bed and shoving by Rory. I skipped up the stairs and into Murphy’s kitchen, where his mom was setting down a plate stacked with waffles.
I sat down and Rory sat next to me a second later. I glanced up and saw that Murphy was trying not to laugh at me. Sebastian had his face buried in his arms, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
“What?” I asked in confusion, looking down at myself.
My clothes were still on. I ran a hand through my hair, but it didn’t feel like it was very messy. I glanced back up at Murphy and Sebastian, wondering what it was that had them laughing at me.
Sebastian brought his head up, not meeting my eyes. “You, ah, you like to cuddle in your sleep Evan,” he said, coughing to disguise a laugh.
I felt my face instantly heat up. I heard Rory snicker next to me and elbowed him in the side, glaring at him.
“You knew,” I hissed, suddenly remembering him complaining about my night-cuddling habits.
Rory smirked at me in response. I pouted and glared at the table. Worst best friend ever! Gah. I should sue him for the emotional trauma this was going to cause me.
I felt a hand on my chin, and then Sebastian was tilting my head so that I was looking at him. He smirked at me.
“Hey, it’s alright,” he said, clearly fighting back laughter. “I’m sure your future girlfriend will love that.”
“Right. Girlfriend. Because I’m straight. Definitely not in the closet gay or anything. Totally straight. I love girls. Have wet dreams about them. Yep. Future girlfriend will love that I cuddle in my sleep,” I said, calm and casual as always. They would never suspect that I was gay as long as I kept my cool like that.
Sebastian pulled his hand away from my chin and let it drop back his side. “Right Evan,” he said, nodding at me and chuckling a little.
“Sebastian, hand me a waffle! I can’t reach!” Liam whined.
I jumped, having not noticed him sitting on the other side of Rory. In his Toy Story pajamas and with his messy bed-head, he looked absolutely adorable. But I knew the truth. I could see right to the core of that evil, man-stealing little child.
“Say please, Liam,” Mr. O’Doherty said as he sat down at the table with the newspaper in his hands.
“Please,” Liam added, batting his lashes at Sebastian.
Sebastian nodded and gave Liam an easy smile. He forked a waffle and placed it on Liam’s plate before handing the plate back to Liam.
“Thanks Sebby!” Liam said brightly.
Jeez, why did everyone in this damn family have a nickname for Sebastian?! For as long as I had known him (7 wonderful years), he had gone by nothing but Sebastian. And then Murphy and Liam, the infamous man-stealing O’Doherty brothers, show up and nickname him.
Liam reached his tiny arms towards the maple syrup, which was sitting next to me. I pretended not to notice him struggling.
That’s right, you friggin’ brat. Struggle in agony, so close to your goal, knowing you would never quite reach it. Live your life in depression, knowing how close you were, only to fail.
“Evan, quit being overdramatic. It’s a freaking bottle of syrup,” Rory said, snatching it and sliding it over to Liam.
Okay, either he could read my mind, or I was talking out loud.
“And no, you’re not talking out loud,” Rory said. “I’m just that damn good.” He shoved a bite of waffle into his mouth.
“Jerk,” I grumbled, going to grab myself a waffle.
I let out a little whine as I realized my arms were too short to reach the waffles. My stomach growled at my tiny arms and I pouted.
“Rory, can you hand me a wa-”
“Nope.”
“But I’m hun-”
“Don’t care.”
“Will you shut up and give me a-”
“No.”
“I can’t reach the wa-”
“Not my problem.”
I let out a frustrated sigh and gave up, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms. I glared at my empty plate. Maybe if I glared long enough, a waffle would appear.
A waffle suddenly appeared on my plate and my eyes widened. I…I was magical. I could make things appear with a single thought.
Okay, okay. Time to abuse the power a little. I glared at the waffle, willing it to change into a nude Sebastian.
“Something wrong with the waffle Evan? Did it insult you or something?”
Sebastian’s amused voice pierced my thoughts and I looked up. He raised an eyebrow at me, a small smirk on his face.
“No, it didn’t insult me. Waffles can’t talk you moron. I just discovered that by glaring at my plate, I can make anything appear,” I said, rolling my eyes at his stupidity.
“I hate to rain on your parade, but I put it there. Your stomach was loud enough to wake the dead,” Sebastian explained.
He put the waffle on my plate? Okay, so maybe I wasn’t magic. But Sebastian was obviously trying to flirt with me and impress me. Aw, he was so sweet! He knew me so well! Food was the way to my heart. Sebastian and I were obviously meant to be together.
I opened my mouth to respond to him, maybe even confess my deep love for him, but then my stomach growled. I snapped my mouth shut and immediately grabbed my fork and the syrup, getting to work eating my waffle.
“Whoa, you’re fat Evan,” Liam said, watching me eat.
Yea, and you’re a man stealing whore you friggin’ brat. And if my mouth wasn’t stuffed full of waffle, you bet your ass I’d be saying that to him.
“Liam, it’s not polite to watch people eat,” Mr. O’Doherty said without even bothering to look up.
I looked down at myself. “I’m not fat. I just eat like a fat person,” I said defensively.
“Yea, you’re actually pretty skinny,” Sebastian said. Aw, how cute. My man was jumping to my defense!
“Murphy, can we play Twister again?” Liam asked, completely ignoring me and Sebastian. Rude little brat. The best part of him had obviously run down his mother’s leg.
“No Liam. You have a dentist appointment today. Besides, the big boys don’t want to play Twister,” Mrs. O’Doherty said, entering the room.
“I want to play!” Liam argued furiously.
“It’s nice to want. Now come on; you’ve got to get dressed,” Mr. O’Doherty said, setting the newspaper down and standing up. He forced a viciously protesting Liam to his feet and slung him over his shoulders, carrying the screaming little boy down the hall and out of sight.
“Oh Liam,” Murphy said with a sigh, shaking his head. He turned his attention to us. “So, what do you guys want to do today?”
“We could swim?” Sebastian offered.
“Or we could totally not swim. We could stay dry. Staying dry and out of the pool is fun. Let’s just not swim. Swimming is for squares,” I said quickly.
“Why don’t you want to swim?” Sebastian asked curiously.
“I just don’t want to. I’m totally not afraid of water or anything. Nope. I love water. Aqua, in Spanish. I’m not terrified. I just…I DON’T WANT TO SWIM. GOD, STOP QUESTIONING ME!” I said, careful not to raise suspicion. I could not let them know I was afraid of water. They’d laugh at me.
“Right. I guess we won’t swim then,” Sebastian said with a shrug.
Phew. Thank god I was such a master when it came to words. If I had gone about that the wrong way, Murphy and Sebastian might have become suspicious and figured out I was afraid of water.
“We could go to the park and take some shots on the soccer field,” Murphy offered with a shrug.
We all nodded. After we finished eating, we got dressed and brushed our hair and teeth before pulling on shoes and leaving Murphy’s house.
“We’ll shortcut through the cornfield,” Murphy said as we exited his neighborhood.
“Cornfield?” I asked, fear shooting through me. Why, oh why, had my idiot of a father made me watch Children of the Corn when I was little?
“I swear you’re afraid of everything Evan,” Rory said as the cornfield came into sight.
“Rory, not funny,” I groaned.
“It’s okay Evan. I’ll fight off the evil monsters in the corn for you,” Sebastian said, laughing at me.
AW HE WAS SO SWEET! HE WAS GOING TO PROTECT ME! Look at my man! Being a…well…a man! A big, tough, sexy man.
We entered the cornfield and I pretty much flung myself against Rory as my head whipped around in all directions to make sure nothing was coming. Rory sighed, but didn’t shove me away from himself.
As we came to a narrow break in the corn, I slipped behind Rory and followed him and Murphy. Sebastian had wound up walking behind me. He was texting on his phone, not even paying attention to any of us.
I was so distracted by my thoughts of murderous children in the corn, that I didn’t notice the fallen stalks ahead of me. My foot caught on them, and I found myself falling sideways rapidly.
An arm wrapped around my waist and I yelped. Sebastian looked at me and raised an eyebrow as he put his other arm around my waist and pulled me up so that I was steady on my feet.
“You fall down a lot, don’t you?” he asked.
“No! …Okay, maybe,” I grumbled, glaring at the stupid corn stalks. How dare they fall down and try to embarrass me in front of Sebastian!
Sebastian bent down and picked up his cell phone. He must have dropped it when he moved to catch me.
Aw, I was more important than his phone! I knew he loved me!
“Sebastian? Evan? Are you guys okay?” Murphy called from up ahead of us.
“Yea, we’re fine. Evan tripped. That’s all,” Sebastian assured.
He and I walked back over to Rory and Murphy. We finally managed to make it out of the evil cornfield and walked all the way to the park.
Murphy got a soccer ball out of the supply shed, and the four of us went up to one of the soccer fields together. Murphy passed Sebastian the ball and moved to defend the goal.
I watched as Sebastian drove his foot against the soccer ball. It flew effortlessly through Murphy’s hands and into the corner of the net.
Murphy grabbed the ball and tossed it back to us. Sebastian trapped it with his foot and kicked it over to me.
“You’re turn Evan,” he said.
Okay Evan. This is your big chance. I could totally impress Sebastian with my athletic ability right here. I mean, how hard could I possibly be to just kick the ball past Murphy?
I pulled my foot back and eyed the goal. The left corner. I would shoot for the left corner, score, and get laid by Sebastian tonight. Yea, sounded like a good plan.
I back up a little and ran forward to kick the ball. My foot shot out to connect with the ball…
And missed.
I let out a helpless cry as I stumbled off balance and fell backwards. My face heated up as I felt someone’s arms hook under my armpits to keep me from falling. I didn’t have to look to know my man had saved me once again.
“Oh Evan. You’re hopeless,” Sebastian said, laughing.
I blushed harder as I realized that Murphy and even Rory were laughing at me. Sebastian righted me and pulled his arms back to his sides, still laughing.
“Shut up,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands.
Hands firmly gripped my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face. Sebastian grinned at me, fighting off more laughter.
“Sorry Evan. I don’t mean to embarrass you by laughing. It’s just…well, you’re pretty amusing,” he said, releasing my wrists and taking a step back.
We took shots for a while. I didn’t even manage to score once. Well…soccer was stupid anyways. Damn foot fairies.
“It’s getting kind of late,” Murphy said, tucking the ball under his arm. “Seb, don’t you have to leave soon?”
Sebastian checked the time on his phone and nodded with a sigh. “Yea, I have to head out as soon as we get back to your house Murphy.”
Oh. Well, if Sebastian was leaving, then so was I. I didn’t want to stay there with Murphy and Rory! They were boring!
Murphy tossed the soccer ball back in the supply shed before leading us towards the cornfield. I huddled back up next to Rory as we entered the evil cornfield. This time, I made sure to watch my step.
We got back to Murphy’s house and gathered our stuff. Murphy walked the three of us outside and waved to us.
“Bye guys!” he said.
“Bye,” we all called back.
“Why are we leaving again?” Rory asked as we threw our stuff in his trunk.
“Because Sebastian’s leaving. Duh Rory!” I said impatiently. He could be so stupid. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why I was friends with him sometimes.
“Bye guys. See you in school on Monday. And Evan…be careful not to fall out of the car on your way home,” Sebastian said, coming over to us.
Look at that! He was concerned about me. Oh, we would make a wonderful couple once he finally got the balls to ask me out. Ugh, his shyness was driving me crazy. He had to just ball up and ask me to be his boyfriend already. I couldn’t wait forever!
Sebastian got into his car and pulled out of the driveway, disappearing down the street. I got in Rory’s car and turned the music up as we pulled out of the driveway.
Okay, so I was starting to get past the whole freeze-phase when it came to talking to Sebastian. And he thought I was amusing, which obviously meant he would talk to me more. That, and I was Evan Sudlow. Everyone wanted to talk to me. Duh.
But now I could work my way up the ranks with Sebastian. Within a few weeks, I would use my charm to work myself from amusing acquaintance to passionate lover and beloved boyfriend of Sebastian.
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A.N.- Thanks for helping me out yesterday everyone! I think Wattpad is working again? All my votes are back on my page, and yesterday's chapter stayed up, so hopefully that's a good sign.