Finding You - LGBTQ+ Fiction

Chapter Two

1 day before leaving for Mallorca...

Like every Sunday, my and Seb's family gather at the local pub 'Starlight', where I sang three times with my band during college.

The owner, Chris, knows me well; I've talked to him before and after my performances. He is a young man in his 30s who turned an old abandoned dance club into our town's most aesthetically pleasing pub. He went for a rustic/minimal design with wooden furniture, plants on the windows and an open bar where everyone can look at waitresses make pints and pints of beer. I would have felt so much anxiety if people stared at me while I was doing my job, but Chris made the environment very welcoming for students, graduates, and people who had never worked.

"Your mum told me you are going to Mallorca tomorrow. Have you packed everything you need?" Chris asks me while I help him set up the stage for the band that is playing tonight.

"Yes, I'm enthusiastic! My first holiday without being my dad's baby girl," I say dramatically, laughing and pointing my eyes to my dad, who was animatingly talking to Seb's dad about football, I presume.

"Yes! I bet you are. You are a young adult now; you need to find your way and get lost in the world," Chris says like a brother telling his younger sister that it is time to start my journey and fly away from home... even if it is just for a week.

"I haven't seen Seb today. How come he is not at the usual Sunday meal?" We always come to Starlight for our Sunday meal, and Chris knew even before we did that Seb and I were in love.Storytime, Chris helped us confess each other's feeling the day he saw us awkwardly sitting outside Chris's pub, weirdly staring at each other because neither of us knew how to start the conversation... Sorry, I mean THAT conversation.

"I have no idea; he is acting a bit strange lately. Maybe he is stressed to fly, busy packing, or... no longer loves me?" I lower my face when I say the last sentence, like hiding from the truth or because I doubted the boy, I was completely in love. We sit at the edge of the stage with my legs swinging.

"Rachel... one thing that is LITERALLY impossible is that that guy doesn't love you. He could have more things going on, and he doesn't feel like sharing it with you right now" Chris leans his left arm on my shoulder to give me a friendly, reassuring hug. 

I walk off to reach my family as the food is served.

While I move the squicky chair, they all stare at me like I have something to hide from them."Ermh... Why have I your eyes on me?" I softly yet doubly ask all of them.

I heard a sight coming out from Seb's father, and he seemed pretty distressed about what he was about to tell me or ask me. I can feel the sweat coming out my underarms and my heart pumping like I have done a 4k marathon. And by a marathon, I mean my relationship.

"We are a bit worried about Seb. We don't know where he goes, what he does, the people he goes out with. We thought that maybe you knew?" Seb's mother kindly asks me while crossing the large table with her hands holding my right one as it is the closest to her.

"I don't know what to say. He doesn't talk to me either these past few days, and I have seen him since the other day at the park. I tried to call him, and his phone went to voicemail. I truly don't know what's happening." I tried not to tear up at what I had just said, even if it was making me extremely upset, his family was worried, too, and I didn't want to give them more pain.

"That's okay, Rachel. I am sure tomorrow he will show up!" Seb's mother reassuringly says to me but more to herself.

"Yes, I hope it, too," I whisper while smiling at her.