Isolated (Stardew Valley)

Chapter Eighteen

HE ALWAYS LIKED winters, I remember him telling me once.

He didn't quite tell me, exactly. No, he was never so direct.

It was one of those rare moments where we found ourselves together, just the two of us, where Abigail and Sam had wandered off for the day and left us alone. The sun would settle, the Valley's ominous noises would dimmer down; it was only us.

Sebastian would stare off at the distance as he usually did when he was alone. He always wore a blank face.

I would wonder a lot of things about him. If his empty look was a cover for what went on in his head, noticing the way that strands of hair covered his face, sometimes even taking in the fresh smell of pine that came off him. I wondered why I bothered to stay with him when there was only silence and the patterns of our breathing.

These minutes of silence no longer felt awkward, but they soon became minutes I found solitude in.

And Sebastian did, too. He would share the small fragments of his life, the problems he burdened himself in. He would talk. He didn't do it for pity; he wanted—needed—someone to talk to.

One by one, Sebastian was peeling off the layers that kept him confined to his own world, his own pit of darkness. Each passing day cleared the dark clouds that surrounded him. He started to go out more, was nicer to his family. He started to smile.

So it was only fitting that Sebastian, a boy so cold but filled with inner beauty, should have a winter wedding.

"Hellooooo? Earth to June?"

Almost as if she had warped there, Maru was in front of me. The frizziness of her hair, her fogged up glasses, and curious look made me realize the present, that I was not reliving moments of the past.

It was the wedding.

The wedding ceremony took place right at the heart of town square with nothing but the arch marking its middle. Everyone formed a large crowd as they waited for it to start. It was freezing—the middle of winter's best—but not even the season's harsh breath could stop them from such an event.

I stood alone at the edge of the crowd, leaning against a lamp post amidst the excited chatter. The farthest I could be from the ceremony.

Maybe not far enough if Maru was able to see me sulking. She always was observant.

"Sorry, I think the cold is getting to me," I brushed off with a lie. I mustered up the best smile I could.

Maru raised a brow.

"Brrrr," I added for further effect.

This seemed to assure Maru. She stood on her toes and gazed ahead thoughtfully.

"Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that Sebastian is getting married," she admitted. "Mom was ecstatic. We all were! We just wanted the best for him, you know?"

The best for him.

He would marry Abigail, move out of a place he so badly hated, and start a new chapter of his own will. Months ago maybe he would have liked that.

But now knowing that this was what he no longer wanted, that it was all a desperate dream for the city, was marrying someone he didn't love and risking his future the best for him?

Sebastian would leave, despite whatever he felt, despite what he proclaimed that stormy night.

For all he was—lonely, asocial, miserable—he deeply cared for his friends and family. He didn't show it, but it was there. He would go through with the wedding if Abigail asked him to.