The weeks flew by, Christmas was a small ordeal, we baked cookies- or at least tried too, we put up a tree, and opened presents. I was given a beautiful jewelry box from Gloria and Roberto, a box of chocolate from Ben, and a pair of earrings from Sebastion. I ended up getting everyone pretty simplistic gifts, I'd never been great at shopping for myself- much less for other people. I did, however, end up feeling pretty proud with my gift for Sebastion. I found it at this cute little shop downtown, it was an old music store that was filled with sheet music, I found copies of the songs I knew he liked and compiled them in a binder. To my relief I ended up being rewarded with a lot of excitement when Sebastion opened the binder, I knew it was risky considering the baggage that playing the piano brought up, but I knew he loved playing and I wanted him to keep doing what he loved.
Christmas was followed by a quiet New Years, I caught the flu and spent the day in bed. We originally had plans to go to a party but obviously, I canceled. Sebastion insisted on staying home with me feeding me crackers and watching bad sitcoms in the living room. As I warned him he ended up getting sick too, making both of us stay in bed for the remainder of vacation.
School was stressful as first semester started to fade into second, finals weighed heavily on both of us meaning that I didn't get to spend as much time with Sebastion as I would've liked. The time we did get to spend together was spent studying together or with Janie and Ben. Even though I didn't get the chance to spend alone time with Sebastion I was the happiest I'd been in a long time. It was funny, just being in the same room as Sebastion filled me with a warmth that I hadn't felt since my parents were alive.
On the last day of finals, I faced my final hurdle to jump: math. So far most of my classes had allowed me to study and avoid extream stress, all except math. It had never been my strongest subject and this year was no different, as usual, I found myself sweating and fidgeting behind my desk in my math class. When I had finished filling out the test I felt my shoulders slump in relief, it hadn't been as bad as I'd imagined but nevertheless I was overjoyed to have put it behind me.
I walked out of the school and met Sebastion behind the school. To be honest our clandestine meetings in secret places were kind of exciting. I smiled when I saw Sebastion leaning against the brick wall of the school it was just like when I first met him: I felt my heart start to flutter and excitement flood my veins. He turned towards me and I felt the excitement increase when he flashed me a smile. "Hi," I said, my voice sounding small and breathy.
"Hey Marie, how'd math go?" I smiled, he was always there for me, whether it was a math test or the death of my parents, he would support me in every possible way.
"It was fine, I think I overreacted a little bit," I said as I leaned against him, his body warding off the cold air.
"A little bit?" Sebastion said, I could feel his chest vibrate with laughter as he talked. "You were practically tearing your hair out!" I reached behind me to slap him lightly on the chest.
"Don't make fun, you were worried about physics!" I felt my face get red with embarrassment.
"Hey, I just think it's silly that you worried for no reason, you're brilliant!" I flushed more at Sebastion's comment and turned around to kiss him.
"You know I love you, right?" I said as I nuzzled into his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his cologne.
"And I love you, despite and because of all of your idiosyncrasies." I looked up to see him grinning playfully at me.
"If you want me to kiss you again you should watch your mouth," I said jokingly.
"No, please, forgive me, I beg of you!" Sebastion explained as he dramatically sunk to his knees. I rolled my eyes at his antics.
"I forgive you, you big idiot," He straightened up and I leaned into him as I spoke.
"Your big idiot," he said happily, leaning his head onto mine. "We should start heading home now, we don't want Ben to worry."
"Ok," I agreed, "but we're going out this weekend, it's been too long." He nodded his agreement as we started walking home.
When I got home I saw Gloria waiting up for us on the couch. I was surprised, recently she'd been working on a slew of paintings for a client. She was curled up on the couch with a cup of tea staring at Sebastion and me. I started to feel a little uncomfortable with the way she was staring at us so I quickly ran over to the closet to put my bag away. I heard Sebastion and Gloria talking in the living room while I went and freshened up in the bathroom.
"Hey guys, watcha talking about?" I said as I walked into the room.
"Finals hon, how'd your math exam go?" I guess Sebastion had inherited his observant nature from his maternal side.
"Eh, it was fine." Gloria shot me a knowing smile.
"I knew it would be." Wow, the apple really does not fall far from the tree.
"Mom, I've got to call back Mark, he thinks he failed out history exam." I rolled my eyes, Mark probably hadn't cracked open a book in his life.
"Alright hon, I wanted to talk to Marie for a second anyways." I felt my body tense, what the hell did she need to talk to me about, did she know about our relationship? "Marie I wanted to talk to you about your friend Anna." Oh god, she knew, she was going to send me away, what was I going to do. "I heard your conversation last night in your room." Wait, what? Last night all we did was talk about how much we missed one another, we only talked about Sebastion and me when I knew we were in absolute private.
"Ok, what about our conversation?" I asked hesitantly, still unsure if where she was going with this.
"I can see how much you miss your friends from home so I have a present for you." I raised my eyebrows in question to what she meant. "Over spring break I'm sending you and the boys to Florida." I couldn't help it, I screamed in excitement.
"Oh my gosh, really!"
"Yup, I don't want you to go by yourself because the trip is undoubtedly going to bring up some painful memories, I hope you don't mind that I'm sending the boys." I frantically shook my head in response, still too happy to for a coherent sentence.
"I've got to go call Anna," I said suddenly.
"Go, go, she's going to be so excited!" I nodded and bolted up the stairs and into my room.
Anna, as I expected was ecstatic when I told her the news, however, I think she was slightly more excited about meeting Sebastion than she was about seeing me. I still couldn't believe that Gloria was going to send Sebastion with me, it was going to be romantic, and fun, and, and, oh god, how was I going to keep Anna from completely embarrassing me? Oh well, I wasn't going to think about that right now, instead, I went online to check my grades, trying to see whether or not my math teacher had graded my test, yes it had only been a couple of hours, no it didn't matter to me.
After checking my grades, unfortunately, with no success, I went to find Sebastion. After a couple of minutes, I found Sebastion at the soccer field, I quietly walked up behind him and stole the ball from underneath his feet. I turned around to face him, keeping the ball moving between my feet. "So your mom just gave me some news," I said smugly, as I looked at Sebastion's shocked expression. Sebastion rolled his eyes at me.
"And you couldn't have told me this without messing up my practice?" I laughed at his disgruntled expression.
"Nope it was absolutely and completely necessary," I said as I stepped towards him. I left only a few inches between us.
"Are you trying to distract me Marie?" Sebastion asked me, quirking an eyebrow and looking down at the ball I was now holding between my feet.
"Maybe," I said, looking up to meet his eyes. "Is it working?" I asked, letting a smile stretch across my face. Both of us stood just looking at one another, I felt a now-familiar heat flood my body. I leaned in closer to Sebastion, anticipation taking over my body. Just as our lips were about to meet Sebastion slipped his foot between my legs, stealing the ball easily due to my distracted state.
"Nope, but I think it worked on you!" Sebastion said, a mischievous smile stretching across his face.
"Love you too babe," I said sarcastically. "Now do you want to hear my news, or not?"
"Yes Marie, tell me what's going on." I lay down on the grass, enjoying the rare sunshine that was beaming down on the field. Sebastion lay down next to me, resting his head on my stomach. "We're going to Florida," I said happily, hoping that he'd be as happy as me.
"We're what!" I smiled at his happy expression. I explained our situation to him, feeling my own happiness increase as his smile grew wider and wider. "That's amazing Marie, we're going to have so much fun!" We stayed at the field until the sun sunk behind the tree line, talking about our upcoming trip, playing soccer, and yes, we kissed a couple of times.
The next few weeks past by quickly and before I knew it crocuses were peeking out from the ground and February was coming to a close. My birthday had passed, I made it clear that I didn't want to make a thing out of it. I'd created so many traditions with my parents and I didn't think I could go through making new ones. It felt like some sort of betrayal to my parents, Halloween was one thing, but my parents had always made my birthday a day to share their love with me. It didn't necessarily mean going to a fancy restaurant, sometimes it meant us all cuddled up on the couch with the newest rom-com (a true sign of my father's unwavering love). Regardless of what we did it always made me feel special and loved.
Gloria and Roberto seemed to understand, they bought me a cupcake but didn't ask me to do anything further. Sebastion bought me a beaded necklace that I'd been admiring in the nearby second-hand store.
The weather was getting warmer, but the rain was unrelenting. I spent lot's of time daydreaming about the sunny beaches of Florida. I walked to school every day, internaly crossing one day off my calender counting down the days until March 27th. Let's just say that I had never been so excited to get on a plane. I had spent the weekends talking with Sebastion and Ben, outlining what I wanted to show them, where I wanted to take them, and what experiences that I wanted to share. I only wished that I could've told everyone about my relationship with Sebastion, that he could meet my parents, and that Gloria wasn't forced to take me in. I shook my negative thoughts off, this trip was going to go perfectly.