Floating (boyxboy)

Nose to nose -23-

Chapter vingt-trois -Nose to nose-

Song: Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind? (Tame Impala)

I blinked. "Peter?"

He looked suprised to see me but I was more suprised to see him shirtless. I didn't say anything for a moment, trying not to jump to conclusions. "Is Sebastian here?" My voice sounded weak and soft. I was sure I must have looked awful, my eyes still felt puffy.

"Sebastian?" He called.

"Who's at the door?" I heard Sebastian's voice carry to the doorway and soon he followed after it. He was also shirtless and I found my eyes darting between the two of them, their flushed faces and guilt wafting off of them. "Cameron?" He looked a lot more hand-in-the-cookie-jar than I would have liked.

"What's going on here?" I jammed my hands in my armpits. When neither of them replied I felt the stupid tears welling up in my eyes, and in an effort not to look like more of a baby than I was, I spun on my heel and stomped off the porch, ignoring Sebastian calling after me.

Two hours before

[POV: Sebastian]

Recently, I hadn't been sure what to do. I snapped at Cameron and I'd opted to let him apologize because he was wrong, but I was starting to wonder if maybe I had been too. We had to start getting better at resolving conflicts better instead of just ignoring each other, I realized. Every time something happened we just...separated. Which I was starting to realize I hated.

I had been in a perpetual stormy state since he disappeared from my messages, the lunch room and the quiet walls of my house. I hadn't realized how much time we really spent together and how happy he made me feel. I still sat in the lunch room every day and chatted with others but I felt almost as lonely as I had when I got back here. That first week when I was trying to get myself oriented was hard, my English was a pretty rusty and I missed my family so much.

I had been feeling so down that I was a little reluctant to answer my phone when I saw Peter calling me, but I eventually decided to. "Hello?" I said.

"Hey Sebastian, I was wondering if I could ask you a favor?" As much as I didn't feel like talking, the nervous and jittery edge to his voice kept me on the line.

"Um, maybe what is it?"

"There's this guy I like and I have no clue what to do and I was wondering if you'd help me out?" I wanted to say no so I could continue feeling angry and upset but I thought about my mother, and how she always told me to give everything and everyone a chance.

So in an effort to help and maybe to selfishly make myself feel, I told him yes, and thirty minutes later we stood in my kitchen. He was leaning quietly against the counter. He hadn't said much since he got here which was uncharacteristic but I didn't much feel like talking. He was dressed in a slouchy gray sweater which was unlike the usual band T-shirts I saw him wearing but, it was freezing outside. His blue hair was getting long, his warm roots starting to show through. He looked like a preppy kid superimposed over an image of an emo kid circa 2009.

Realizing I was distracted, I checked the oven to see if the pastries were done. They were, so I switched the oven off. Alice had taken to pity baking after realizing that I had been in a sour mood, but she hadn't proded, suprisingly neither did Noel. The both of them had spent more time out of the house recently, probably in an effort to avoid my bad mood. I did not take it personally, I had been moping.

There was also a pot boiling on the stove, decided to check it. I peered inside of it and gave a bitter laugh. It was garbure. What Cameron and I had together a night forever ago. I grabbed a bowl from the counter and started ladling some into a bowl. If Peter didn't it I'd take it up to Robert. I turned to give it to him and I was suprised to run smack into him, successfully spilling the warm vegetables on both of us.