Passion | | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Six

"The door to the small home in Feldcroft slammed shut, making Sebastian jump in his seat. He peeked his head to the side to see who it was. Per usual, the only person to ever come to this house was a fellow resident of said house, his girlfriend Astoria. But unlike the other times when she had simply come home, she looked angry this time.

Normally when Astoria would enter the house, there was the usual exchange of a "hello" and maybe a "darling" or "love" thrown in there. A kiss on the forehead or cheek, but none of that was there this time. It was just a silent, but angry slam to close the door.

"What's going on?" Sebastian asked, now fully standing up from his seat. "Did something happen with Mr. Hawkins?" Astoria had gone to meet with a man for her inquiries about the world of exploring, and from the look on her face, it hadn't gone too well.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Astoria said, her words almost coming out in a huff of annoyance. Sebastian knew he wasn't the problem here, but sometimes when Astoria was upset, he simply caught onto the emotion. He reached out and grabbed her hand, tenderly motioning for her to look up at his face. Astoria looked up, but her expression stayed the same.

"You don't have to talk about it," Sebastian said softly, with a smile. "But if I can do anything to help, just let me know."

Astoria sighed and nodded, not even actually answering him verbally, instead she just let her hand slip from his and went to sit down on their shared bed in frustration. So many times she had old, intolerable people tell her everything she already knew, in advance to try and make her seem stupid, or that she wasn't cut out for the job she had so desperately worked towards since she was Fifteen-years-old.

Sebastian knew how much it frustrated her, so obviously he was empathetic toward his girlfriend. He knew the feeling of people saying he was incompetent to achieve many things, one of those people had been his own uncle. He sat down on the bed next to her, putting his hand on hers. "Look, whatever those guys had to say, it's not true. Don't let them get the best of you."

Astoria looked up, trying to avoid his gaze. She knew she wasn't helping the situation– which is why it was a bad thing. She knew Sebastian was right, but for some reason, she just wanted to stew in her own anger. Her eyes cast around the house, trying anything but to look at him. A lot of things had changed in the past few months for both her and Sebastian and the weight of it all was slowly crushing the both of them.

Astoria had officially moved in with Sebastian after graduating a few months ago, both of them were already starting to work on their future careers but Astoria's had come with more bumps in the road due to the prejudice of the uptight men and women around her who had no sense of adapting anything in their mind.

Anne had come back one night randomly, it was rather emotional. Sebastian cried for hours and hours upon her return, all of them did; then they cried a little more when the news reached Ominis. Anne hadn't decided whether she was going to move back to Feldcroft yet, but she had stuck around staying in a house with a guest room for quite some time so that she could reconcile with her twin brother.

"Astoria... are you listening?" Sebastian spoke, breaking her train of thought.

Astoria let out a sigh. "Yes, I'm listening. And I know, I know that, but it doesn't take away from how infuriating it is when I keep getting told the same things over again. I'm too young, I'm too open-minded, I'm too ambitious, you can't be in a 'man's field of work', you can't succeed in your endeavors. It's just so infuriating."

Sebastian frowned slightly. "It'll be okay Astoria, you'll find somebody who's open to working with you." He said, trying to sound enthusiastic for her.