I'M NOT HERE | s.stan

007. this was your idea

I pull down the hem of my dress as much as I could before I went downstairs to greet the guests. Sebastian was already there, mingling with the guests. I spot the daughter, Angel. She had grown a lot. She must be at least 15 by now. She's the one that sees me coming down the stairs, and smiles.

"Oh, everyone, Katherine's here!" She exclaims. The Jamesons all rush to come and greet me. Caleb, the older son, eyes me up and down. I could almost throw up. What a pig.

Because of all the unwanted attention I was receiving, I almost failed to notice Sebastian staring at me. But I see it, and I suddenly I feel insecure in this dress. Maybe I was too fat to wear it, or my complexion just wasn't good enough. Eventually my worries are riled up to an all time high when he strides over to me, wine glass in hand.

"Hey, you-uh you look really nice." Sebastian says awkwardly as he scratches the back of his head. I give him a little smile, "Thanks, you look good too." He really did look good. Sebastian had worn a clean white shirt, with the collar wide open as always. To match his top, he wore some light blue dress pants which were folded above his ankle. Topping him whole ensemble were a pair of chocolate brown loafers. Not many guys could pull the look off, but he looked elegant.

I furrow my eyebrows, this was probably the first time I had ever actually thought he looked nice. "Kay?" He says, waving his hand at my face. I snap back to reality and realize I looked like I had been glaring at him.

"Katherine!" I hear a familiar voice say. Both Sebastian and I turn around to see Caleb and his sister, Angel, beaming at us. "We have seen you guys in so long." Sebastian says politely. Angel giggles at him, "I know right?" Okay, she was definitely flirting with him. She twirled a strand of hair in her hand, and continued to stare at Sebastian while he made conversation.

"Katherine, how are you?" Caleb asks as he walks up to me. For a moment I almost thought he was being genuine. I knew his type, I read them in books. The smooth talking player type, god I hated him. Maybe I was being unreasonable, but who cares, really?

"Caleb." I nod and acknowledged. I hoped to god that would have been the end of it, but I knew it really wasn't. He smirks, inching closer to me as we sat on the red, velvet couch.

"You've...grown, quite a lot." He says, smiling. I nod, "Yeeeep. I have." I say.

"Dinner, everyone!" Mother calls out from the dining table. I almost sighed in relief, before Caleb could say anything else, I dart to the dining room. My mother and father were seated on each end of the table, while the Mr. and Mrs. Jameson were right next to each other. Caleb was beside Sebastian, who was sitting right in front of Angel. She was next to me.

Everyone started to dig in and I was quite hungry. Tonight's meal was a huge turkey, I have no idea why, it was just rich people stuff, I guess. Usually, normal people would have a turkey on Thanksgiving or something.

Well, Thanksgiving or not, I loved to eat it. I grab a piece for myself and savour the taste. As much as I hated it here, I could never afford to eat something as good as this with my own money.

"So, Katherine, how's school?"

I look up from my plate, mouth full of meat. Out of the corner of my eye I see Sebastian chuckle, and I mentally strangle him in my head. I'm not really sure what to say. I couldn't just be like: 'Oh, well school sucks because I never get enough sleep and the pressure of being in an ivy league college is literally eating me alive'

"It's....good" I say.

-

After dinner, I was told to wash the dishes, something I hated doing. Any other chore would have been okay, but the fact that I had to touch someone else's food repulsed me. Sebastian hung around my sister and I well enough to know that I hated it, so he offered to help. But I knew he wasn't only helping just out of politeness. I knew he had ulterior motives in mind.

"So, how are we going to go through with this...plan?" He asked, scrubbing a plate. I paused for a moment because I didn't know what he was talking about at first, but then I finally understood.

"Well, I don't know! It was your idea." I say as I wipe the plate he hands me. We stare at each other for a moment, both of us searching for something to say about the situation.

I never really realized how blue his eyes were. They were piercing! Probably some of the bluest set of eyes I've ever seen.

"Okay, we'll do this. Give me some dirt on Killian."

"Josh? Um..he likes pineapple on pizza." I reply, there wasn't much dirt on Josh. He was your typical boy-next-door. He was really honest, and stayed true to his word. The only two things Josh and I ever disagreed on was if Beyoncé was better than Rihanna and if pineapple on pizza was a good thing.

"Okay..." Sebastian trailed off, "That's not necessarily something I can use against him to make Joane dislike him."

My eyes widened, "Wait! Your genius plan is to make them HATE each other?" I exclaim, emphasizing on the word genius.

"Yeah?" He replies, timidly. I roll my eyes at his response.

"Seriously?"

"Do you have a better idea?" He asks sassily. I look back to my family and the guests on the couch. Sebastian stares at me expectantly.

"Not here." I say, dragging him by the arm to the patio outside.

"What?" He hisses. I sigh, I had been planning this for a while. I even trashed it, because it wasn't really something I was comfortable with. But hearing Sebastian's awful plan made me reconsider.

"Let's start...fake dating." I finally say. He squints at me, then his eyes widen.

"Wait- What?" He squints again, I don't think he has processed what I said. "Fake dating?" He repeats, I nod affirming it.

Sebastian bursts out laughing. "Y-you're joking, right?" I shake my head, the same way I nodded before. Then his smile disappears from his face.

"F-for what? If she knows I'm taken, especially by you, she'll never try to go for me!"

"Ah!" I say, "That is exactly why I'm letting us do this. See, Joane always wants what she can't have. If I have you, she'll try to get you even more. She never lets me have  anything." I explain, I say the last part as quietly as I can. For a split second, I notice a little bit of pity in Sebastian's eyes.

"What's in it for you?" He asks me. I smile at his question and pace around confidently.

"Well....the other thing about Josh is," I start, "He doesn't like it when I hang out with other people. Mostly because he's too used to just me. We ALWAYS hang out."

Sebastian still doesn't get it, so I continue.

"He'll be super jealous when I hang out more with you. Like remember last week? When he had pinkeye and instead of him, you came along with me to help me with groceries? He was livid."

Sebastian nods slowly, then a bit faster. Now he gets it. "Okay, well, I guess this is better than making them hate each other."

"Totally." I laugh. He shuts his eyes tight and sucks in his teeth. I have no idea what he's doing.

"This is so stupid, then again, when have I done anything smart?" He says to himself.

"You're right about that." I confirm triumphantly. He sighs and closes his eyes, then sticks out his rather large hand.

"We keep this going until this works, deal?" He says, I nod silently and take his hand.

"Deal."