Chapter 36

Sebastian's POV

The hot rays of the sun woke me up. The light was creeping through the partially-open curtains and settling right on my face. I groaned and opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was Blaine fast asleep right next to me. His head was on my shoulder and his arm was draped around my torso; the light of the sun made his olive-skin look golden and his dark eyelashes even longer.

My lips curved into a smile as I craned my neck to get a better look at him. Something inside of me wanted nothing more than to touch him right now; but I didn't. Instead I looked at his watch that was on the end-table next to his bed, and sighed when I saw that it was later than I thought. I knew that I needed to wake Blaine up, or he might not be ready in time for the wedding.

"Blaine, hey wake up," I said in a low voice as I gently shook his shoulder. He mumbled something incoherent as his eyes fluttered open. As soon as he had shifted his position an inch away from me, I sat up and stretched my arms.

"What time is it?" Blaine yawned.

"Just past ten." I replied.

"Oh crap. I need to shower." He jumped out of the bed and ran into the bathroom. I chuckled when I heard a noise that strongly resembled that of someone slipping on a tiled floor.

I was halfway downstairs when a thought suddenly struck me…I never threw up yesterday. I ate something and I kept it down. Cooper is a genius. If he wasn't straight, I'd ask him to marry me. Ah hell, I'll ask him anyway.

I went straight to the fridge and ate a spoonful of custard. It tasted even better than yesterday. But I knew I was still going to have to be careful, at least for now. The first thing I'm going to do after I get an apartment, is find a shrink who can help me eat again. That is a weird sentence.

I headed over to the kettle to make my breakfast of choice: coffee. Well, it's probably more like breakfast of have no other choice.

I almost spilled boiling water over my hand when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. Had I slept with that thing in there? I smiled when I saw who the text was from.

Hey Sebastian, it's Dominic, although I'm pretty sure your phone comes with the ability to save contacts, so I suppose you already know that. Anyway, Hunter and Nick keep insisting that my 'mentoring' start immediately, and they (not I) were wondering if you were free today? Please say no, I think Hunter's just looking for a valid excuse to verbally abuse me; he's been giving me the evil eye since yesterday.

I laughed. It was really ironic that the new Captain of the Warblers happened to be the adopted brother of the former one. I thought about this for a moment, was I really in the mood to mentor someone today? No, not at all. But hey, getting on Hunter's nerves could be fun and it's not like I have anything else to do. Well besides house hunting. I replied with,

Sorry to disappoint you, but watching Hunter verbally abuse you and give you death stares actually sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than my original plans for the day. No offence; it would just be fun to see him glaring daggers at someone besides me for a change. So where and when should we meet?

"Which one?" I looked up to see Blaine at the base of the staircase, holding a tie in one hand and a bow-tie in the other. But my attention was focused on Blaine in his black-and-white tuxedo.

"Well, well, well, who knew a hobbit could look so good in a penguin suit?" I smirked.

"Would you please answer the question?" He gave me tired look.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the toadstool. The tie, it sort of makes you look taller."

"You're a jerk." Blaine said with a smile before he came to join me in the kitchen. I handed him the cup of coffee I had made for him earlier.

"Aren't you just the sweetest little birdie?" I smiled innocently.

"Bite me." He mumbled as he swallowed a mouthful of the warm liquid.

"When do you have to be at the church?" I asked him.

"In about 30 minutes." Blaine shrugged.

"How are things between you and the rest of the merry glee club?" I put my finger inside the fish bowl and tried to pet the fish, but every time my finger came close, both fish would swim away like their lives depended on it.

"It's better now. Everyone decided to put aside their differences and focus on the wedding this week. For a little while there, I think they all kind of forgot that they were mad at me." He replied.

"You do still realize that they have no reason to be, right? The way they're treating you isn't fair; you're not the bad guy in this scenario. That part belongs to me, and to the one's unfairly judging you for letting me manipulate-I mean convince you to help me."

"Very funny. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten anything. But I'm not going to hold a grudge when they finally come to their senses. I miss them too much." Blaine sighed.

"I think that'll happen pretty soon. When I find an apartment and move out, you can tell them that you kicked me out. They'll love you again." I heard my phone buzzing and looked around for it until I found it on the counter. It was another text from Dominic,

If you think you've been exposed to the worst of Hunter's glares, wait until someone (me) wakes him up at 6 AM on a Saturday. Once he actually had red lasers shooting from his eyeballs…yeah, we had to get him special glasses, like Cyclops from X-Men. I wish I was kidding about that. But fine, if you really want to spend your Saturday sitting in a corner whilst my lovely brother tells me how I'm going to bring the Warbler name to shame, then come to my (Hunter's) house any time you want. I'll send you the address now, I just have to double check it first.

I chuckled at Dominic's obvious tendency to over exaggerate and put the phone back down. When I looked up, I noticed that Blaine was watching me with a vaguely amused expression on his face.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"Who was that from?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Tom Cruise. Yeah, he wants to start a support group for terminal shortness. He's thinking of calling it BAA…stands for Blaine Anderson Anonymous."

"I think you're right, I am going to tell my friends that I kicked you out. Only, I won't be lying." He glared.

I laughed. "You do that."

"I suddenly realized how late I am. I'll see you when I see, Sebastian." Blaine tried to suppress a smile, but failed miserably.

"Have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." I grinned.

"There is absolutely nothing that you wouldn't do." He paused in the doorway to look at me.

"You have a point. Don't do anything a nun wouldn't do."

"Goodbye, Sebastian."

"Bye, Blaine." I said to an empty house. Knowing where he was going made it really hard to watch him leave.

**…**

The size of the Clarington house probably shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. From the driveway it looked to be about 2 storeys that had roughly 15 or so rooms, but it could have been more. There was an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the back, with an outdoor Jacuzzi 10 feet away from it. I had known that Hunter's family was rich, but this exceeded even my expectations. I parked my car next to a black Mercedes and headed up to the front door. It took me way too long to decide between ringing the doorbell and just knocking on the front door, but I eventually settled on the former.

A really pretty teenage girl answered the door. Her hair was a golden brown, just like Dominic's, so I assumed that she must have been Raquel. Her eyes were also the same shade of blue as her brother's. "Hey," She smiled, "You must be Sebastian. Come in."

"Thanks." I said as I stepped inside. My eyebrows went up at my first good look at the inside of the house. I was used to grandeur; I had grown up with it. But somehow I had never pictured Hunter living in a place like this.

"Yeah, it's really big, I know," She chuckled, noticing my stares, "I'm Raquel, by the way. Dom's older sister."

"I thought you two were twins."

"Oh, we are. But I'm five minutes older." Raquel grinned.

"No, you are not. We have no idea which one of us was born first." Dominic appeared from behind me.

"People say I look older."

"Older than you were three years ago? I agree," Dominic gave his sister a look then turned to me, "Hey, thanks for coming. Wanna meet my parents, Mary and Richard?"

"Sure. But I feel like I have to warn you, I have yet to meet someone's parents that don't dislike me." I chuckled.

"I find that hard to believe. Come on." He gestured for me to follow him. As we walked under the staircase into another section of the house, I kept glancing around at the photos, trophies and awards that lined the walls. The only pictures and awards that were up for display at my house were those of my father, grandfather or uncles. And now as I saw a picture of a little boy with a huge grin that could only belong to Hunter, it made me wonder if my family even had pictures of me when I was little. Sure, I had class pictures from different schools, but those contained at least twenty other children. The pictures that were taken on picture day were always thrown away by my parents. How had none of this never bothered me before?

"Mary, Richard, this is Sebastian Smythe. Sebastian, these are my adoptive parents." Dominic smiled at me. Mary and Richard were both attractive people and looked to be around 45 or so. Contrary to what I would have believed, Hunter looked way more like his mom than his dad.

"Hello." Mary smiled at me.

"It's very nice to meet you, son. Did Dom say your last name is Smythe? Is your father by any chance William Smythe?" Richard asked me. I considered saying yes, but then decided against it instead. I no longer wanted to be associated with that man.

"No, that's not my father." I replied.

"Oh yes, now I remember that he told me only had one son; Elliot, I think his name was. So I hear you were the Captain that had to stop down when my son joined the Warblers last year?" His enquiring smile was friendly.

"Um yes, but they needed a new leader anyway. I had a tendency to take competition a little too seriously." I smiled back.

"I would say Hunter suffers from that very same, uh, problem." Mary said.

"And they have to mentor me." Dominic grinned.

"Hey, I told you it was a bad idea." I laughed.

"I never disagreed. Speaking of which, we should probably get started." He suggested.

"It was nice to meet the both you." I said to Hunter's parents before following Dominic out of the room.

"They seemed to like you," He said as he headed upstairs. I followed. "But how come you told Richard that William Smythe isn't your father? Everyone knows that he is." He wondered.

"Like I told you, I don't like to acknowledge my relation to him. I'd rather just say I was a child of spontaneous conception." I shrugged.

"Who wouldn't believe that?" He chuckled, "Hunter isn't back yet, so I want you to actually teach me something before he gets here." Dominic lead me into what I presumed was his bedroom. It wasn't at all like I would have pictured it, the walls were painted dark blue; posters of Evanescence, Kiss, Seether, 30 Seconds To Mars, Linkin Park and Imagine Dragons lined the walls; his bedspread was black, and so were his curtains. This was the first time that it occurred to me that maybe Dominic had some things in his past he too would like to forget.

"I know it seems kinda…dark, but I just really like the colour black. I'm not a serial killer or anything, I swear." He laughed nervously.

"I like black too. Although, I might have been a little afraid if everything was red." I grinned.

"Then it's a good thing I got my room redecorated last week," his face went serious before he burst out laughing again, "Okay so, uh, mentor me." He stared at me expectantly.

"No pressure there. Well I never really had anyone tell me how to lead a show-choir group, and thinking back to some of the stuff I got myself into, I'm thinking that's a bad thing. My point being, I'm not really sure what to do; I had been hoping that Hunter would be here, that way I could disagree on everything he tells you. We would then just start yelling at each other, say some things about the other one's face and our posteriors; yeah, then it just gets ugly." I shrugged.

"Well as fun as that sounds, how about you just give me some tips and pointers on how not to suck." Dominic took a seat on his bed.

"Um, okay. If you don't want to suck, then I guess the best thing to do is to blow." My face was serious as I sat down beside him.

His instant reaction was a look somewhere between amused and disappointed. He arched an eyebrow as he continued to stare at me.

"Bad joke," I said feebly, "I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Jeff yesterday; you have to make everyone else think that you know what you're doing. I mean, even when you have no freakin clue what the hell you're doing, the best thing to do is to make others believe that you do."

"But what if that thing you're doing ends really badly and it becomes obvious that you were bluffing?" Dominic asked.

"Then you just hold your head up high and get right back on that horse. I made the mistake of exploiting my position and Hunter did that too, so it's up to you to break that cycle." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"Gain their respect; make them trust you. That way, even when you do mess up, they'll know that you didn't do it on purpose. That way they'll stand by you. Be their friend, not their enemy. I learnt that the hard way." I explained.

"Okay, I think I know what you're saying. But something just occurred to me."

"What?"

"It's not that long before I graduate. I'll only be Captain for a few months, and since we've already been disqualified from competitions, there isn't going to be all that much to do." He sighed.

"You've only been disqualified from Sectionals, and therefore Regionals and Nationals; but that doesn't mean there aren't less official competitions you can take part of. Trust me; a lot can happen in the matter of a few months." I smiled slightly as I thought to where I had been only two months ago.

"You're right, I'm looking at this the wrong way. I should be thinking how much I can get up to before I graduate." He grinned again.

"That's the spirit." I agreed.

There was a few seconds of silence before Dominic broke it, "Hey, can I ask you a personal question?"

I shrugged. I didn't like answering questions about myself.

"I heard that your family, uh, kicked you out…is that true? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, it was an insensitive thing to ask."

I considered this for a seconds, "Yes, it's true. When my father heard that the school was expelling me, he said he'd had enough of me and threw me out. But honestly, I'm just happy to be done with him and the rest of them too."

He didn't say anything, just nodded.

"Now it's your turn to tell me something personal." I smiled mischievously.

Dominic looked at me, then down do the bed as if he was contemplating something. He then looked up at me and said, "I once shot a man."

I kept my expression even as I looked at him.

"He was my foster dad when I was 12. Most of the time he was fairly decent towards us; us being his foster kids. There were four of us including Raquel and I. Anyway, one day he got really bad news and started drinking like a maniac; by noon he was pissed. I still remember I was reading a book whilst the other three were playing in the living room. I don't really remember what they were doing, but they were making a lot of noise, like kids do. And this guy, Damien, he got angry and in his drunken state thought it was a good idea to grab a gun and point it at the kids. He was yelling at them to shut up but they were so scared of the gun that they just started screaming. I could tell that he wasn't stable, and I was afraid that he would shoot one of them, so I ran at him and started wrestling him for the gun. I still don't know exactly how it happened, but the next thing I knew, he was lying on the floor bleeding. He didn't die, but he is going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life." Dominic explained.

"Do you feel guilty about it?" I asked.

He paused before nodding his head slightly. "Maybe a little; I know he would never have done something like that when he was sober."

"Don't be so sure." I said sombrely.

"Why would you say that?" He frowned.

"Answer me this: would you ever, drunk, sober or high, point a gun at a little child? Or anyone, for that matter, if you had no valid cause?"

"No. No, I wouldn't. At least not while I'm in my right mind."

"Alcohol just kills your inhibitions, not your own personal morals. It can't make you do something you're not emotionally or mentally capable of doing. Trust me, I know a lot about people who use being drunk as an excuse; hell, I used it as an excuse for them. But then…I guess I grew up and reality slapped me in the face. And then I wished I could go back to my ignorant beliefs, but it was too late." I shrugged.

"You know what I can't figure out? Whether you just think you know a lot, or if you do actually know a lot." His lips curved into a smile.

"Definitely the first one." I grinned.

"You know, I don't think so. I think you've been through a lot…which is saying something, since you're not even old enough to vote yet." Dominic smiled solemnly.

"I've had a fairly active life, yes." I agreed, although I doubted that he meant it as the joke I did.

"You know, if it hadn't been for my sister, I would have tried to kill myself…too." He said the last part softly.

It didn't take me even a millisecond to catch on. "Who told you? Who told you?" I said slightly louder than I had initially intended.

"No one had to, Sebastian. I was there that night; I saw you being loaded into the ambulance. It wasn't all that hard to put two and two together." He explained.

"Why would you bring that up?" I had half a mind of getting up and walking out of here right now; I was not in the mood to be judged again. And yet…there was something about this guy's courage that intrigued me. I had never met anyone who had the nerves to ask me something like that so bluntly. It made me wonder.

"I didn't mean to offend you, I just wanted to let you know that I know. That we've all done things that we wish we hadn't, or wish we'd done better," He gave me a questioning look, which I ignored. "Some of us have done things to ourselves that we wish we hadn't. I don't like judging people. I mean, I wouldn't like anyone to make unfair judgements about me, so I like extending that courtesy."

"You said us," I pointed out, "What have you done to yourself?" I knew my bluntness was verging on insensitivity, but I felt slightly defensive at the moment.

Dominic's face was unreadable as he stared at me for a few seconds, obviously contemplating whether or not he should be honest with me. He went with option number one, "I was-am very masochistic. I would go out of my way to find ways of hurting myself. From picking fights with violent bullies to playing with fire and even crazy things like burning my skin with acid from a school's bio lab. I did anything and everything; I would often spend hours thinking of new and creative way to do it without putting myself in any real danger. I remember times when I would be locked inside a room with no way for me to get out. This would drive me crazy; I'd grab the sharpest thing I could find and cut myself in places that wouldn't be visible to anyone but me.

But my sister found out what I was doing and begged me to stop. I told her to leave me alone to live my life the way I wanted. She said that what I was doing wasn't living; it was punishing myself for things that were beyond my control. She started crying and threatened to do the same to herself if I didn't stop. I knew she was bluffing, but it made me realize how my actions must have made her feel. So I stopped. Sometimes I feel sick when I think of what I did to myself." He explained.

The more he spoke, the more I realized that he understood. He was the first person I had ever met who came close to understanding some of the things I had felt, some of the things that I had forced myself to endure. I'd never done anything as severe as some of the stuff he mentioned, but I had chosen a different method to accomplish the same goal. A goal that seemed pointless now, but there had been a time when it had made sense.

"So I guess we're both messed up, huh?" A smile slowly crept onto my lips.

"Maybe a little," He concurred, "But you wanna know the really sad thing?"

"What?"

"I never actually stopped hurting myself," He admitted, "I just found other ways of doing it. Less physical ways."

"Like what?" I asked curiously.

"Like this," My breath hitched when Dominic brought his lips up to mine. He started off kissing me softly, but it became more demanding when he noticed that my lips were returning his gesture. I didn't really know what was going on; no one had mentioned that Dominic was gay. But there was no arguing that he was quite the talented kisser.

I put one hand on the back of his neck and other was holding onto his elbow. He did me one better and placed his right hand on my lower back, pulling me even closer to him. I let my hands roam over his chest, taking the time to trail my finger down his neck. I grinned when I heard him moan.

"Not to interrupt or anything, but I doubt this is what Sterling meant when he suggested that you mentor Dominic, Sebastian."

Dominic jumped away from me so quickly that he almost fell off of his own bed. I just sat there wondering what had just happened.

"You weren't meant to see that." Dominic told Hunter.

"I bet. I'm not going to get involved in whatever the hell this is; my mom sent me to ask Sebastian if he would like to stay for dinner." He cast an amused look in my direction.

"Um," I considered the alternative, which was spending the night by myself at Blaine's house, "Sure."

Hunter continued looking amused as he exited the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

"What did I just do?" Dominic blinked at me.

"I was wondering the exact same thing." I replied.