After a night of playing games and smoking weed with Sebastian and Sam, Celeste was ready to call it a night. Sam, as usual, was spending the night over at Sebastian's, but for Celeste, she looked forward to going home and being in private.
Sebastian walked Celeste out the door as Sam got himself ready for bed.
"How come Abigail is never invited to these things?" Celeste finally asked, after it had been on her mind for a while now.
"Abby can be... a bit much. Sometimes I need my space from her."
"Oh." Celeste wasn't sure how she felt about what he said. She wasn't sure if it was because of the venom in his voice as he said it, or if she felt some jealousy towards the purple-haired friend she was slowly replacing in the original trio. She couldn't help but imagine there be some sort of history between Sebastian and her.
"She's cool and all," he continued after seeing Celeste's defeated look, "but… it's complicated. Don't worry about it too much."
Worry?
"I'll see you later, k?" And instantly, Sebastian was gone, door shut, and Celeste standing as the warm breeze picked up and kissed her cheeks.
The walk home felt longer than usual as Celeste thought about Sebastian. She wondered what the night at the cliff with Zuzu City in the distance meant to him. And leaving his favorite hoodie with her. She was still unsure of where she stood with Leah, and now she was even more confused with the situation bubbling over with Sebastian.
I should just sleep. I'll figure things out tomorrow.
The next day, Celeste kept to herself on the farm. She had a lot of work to do, especially with the annual Luau coming next week and her needing to get a quality ingredient to contribute to the potluck soup. Mayor Lewis told her all about how the governor comes into town every year for the luau and Pelican Town's reputation is dependent on how good the soup tastes, or that's what Lewis told her.
Celeste was busy harvesting her red peppers when Shane showed up on her farm, uninvited and unannounced. This was a rather nice surprise, considering he was holding a knapsack with what appeared to be lunch for the two of them.
"Hey Shane!" She dropped the red peppers in her hand, overjoyed to greet her friend. "What're you doing here?"
Flushed, he used his free hand to rub the back of his head, the other holding tightly on to the knapsack as he launched it forward between him and Celeste. "I came to check on your chicks and thought maybe you could use some lunch."
Celeste was saving up to have Robin install a full kitchen in her home and she nearly had enough, but all the meals at Gus's saloon were costing her too much.
"That's so sweet of you! Go on inside and make yourself at home and let me just finish up here." Celeste started picking up the peppers she dropped, pulling the last few red ones off of the plant.
Shane made his way into Celeste's tiny home. There was a small table with two chairs in an area that looked like it could be a kitchen, with a plug-in cooler on the ground. She kept her forageables and fresh vegetables in this cooler, sort of like a mini-fridge, Shane thought to himself.
He put the knapsack on the table and went to the bathroom across the hall to wash his hands. The small bathroom was hardly big enough for him to fit, what with the toilet, bathtub, and tiny counter holding the sink. Celeste had a hairbrush by the sink, stray hairs trailing from the brush to the sink like vines.
After drying his hands, Shane inspected the rest of the bathroom out of curiosity. There wasn't much to see; she seemed to have kept most of it clean except for the…. What is that? Her underwear?! ON THE FLOOR.
He slapped himself and looked away. Don't be fucking weird. He made his way out of the bathroom, rolling his eyes and groaning at himself. Pink lace. Delicate. "Fuck."
He bumped into Celeste, who was making her way into the bathroom to wash her hands as he was exiting. "Gosh, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just real hungry."
"Just give me a quick second," he heard her say as she rushed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her and a quick spritz of the sink was heard. He heard cabinet doors open and close and she emerged from the bathroom, nervously smiling.
"Sorry about the mess. Let's eat." Her smile softened.
Lunch wasn't anything special. Homemade egg salad, one of Marnie's specialties. But Shane brought his homemade hot sauce to have inside of it. To his surprise, Celeste was excited to try it and she loved it.
"You made this? Wow, I just can't believe it."
After lunch, she offered Shane some of the hot peppers she just picked from her garden, insisting. "You can make tons of great hot sauce with these!" When Shane bashfully refused, "As a thank you for lunch! And for chicken tips!"
After lunch, they spent the afternoon in the chicken coop, Shane teaching her what he knew about chickens, exhausting her with information.
"I think we should call it a day. I'm started to get worn out by all this chicken speak," Celeste said once the sun started to caress the horizon.
"You're right, sorry. Thanks for the peppers. I'll see ya later, Celeste."
As Shane walked home, he bit into one of the peppers she gave him, tasting the sweet fire on his tongue. These definitely would make great hot sauce.
Celeste hadn't seen Leah since before the weekend and she was still confused about where she stood with her. They would usually be texting all day everyday whenever they weren't around each other, but since the call with Kel, it seemed Leah was giving Celeste some sort of cold treatment.
She decided to take a long route to Pelican Town today, stopping by Leah's on her way south past Marnie's ranch. When she knocked on her hard, wooden door and didn't hear a response, she assumed she wasn't home. She made her way towards the town, stopping by the beach to see if she might be there drawing.
She walked into Pelican town, passing the homes along the river and crossing the bridge towards the beach. The warmth of the sun soothed her tired muscles as she had spent a lot more time working on the farm since she wasn't going over to Leah's anymore.
She found the tall redhead, by the docks, sitting with her feet in the water and her sketchpad in her hand. She wasn't drawing though. She appeared to be sitting there, thinking. She was looking down at her feet in the water as the waves softly rocked underneath.
Celeste had silently approached Leah but she didn't turn around. When she was close enough to see that her sketchpad was empty, she called out to her.
"Leah, hey. Are you okay?"
Leah turned to look at Celeste, regret in her eyes.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you," she softly replied. She patted the dock beside her, signaling for Celeste to take a seat.
Celeste sat close to Leah, sitting with her legs crossed on the dock. She had a concerned look on her face as she peered into Leah's eyes which were now glossy from the tears that were building.
"I feel like I've been a horrible friend," Leah finally said, looking at Celeste with remorse.
Celeste grabbed on to Leah's hand, giving her a look of confusion but feeling disappointment in her chest as she anticipated what she would say next.
There was silence for a moment before Leah continued.
"Like, I've led you on," she finally said, her voice was so low in volume she was almost unable to be heard over the waves.
"What do you mean?" Celeste's voice cracked and she felt the tears build in her eyes as she saw one stream down Leah's cheek.
"I didn't want this to be something to ruin our friendship over..."
"Why does this have to ruin our friendship? You're confusing me."
"Exactly. I'm confusing you… I'm so awful." Leah was crying now, moving her hands from under Celeste's and burying her face into her palms.
"I don't… understand," Celeste said in dismay.
There was a long moment of silence. The salty ocean breeze carried the sounds of seagulls in the distance that filled the quiet space between the two women sitting on the pier. Unaware of what was going on, Willy exited his shop whistling to himself, walking north towards Pelican Town, oblivious of the tension between the two of them.
Leah pulled her face from her hands and stared at the ocean waves beneath her feet. She finally spoke up.
"I'm not over Kel. I don't know if I will be, can be." Leah sighed a long sigh, looking up at Celeste as she continued. "And I feel like I used you as a coping mechanism."
Celeste felt like she now understood. There was pain and sadness for a moment, but these stopped as she realized the guilt that Leah was currently experiencing.
"Leah," she grabbed onto her hands once again as she said this, causing the freckled strawberry blonde to look into her stern eyes, "this doesn't have to ruin our friendship."
Celeste sighed.
"I care about you and didn't expect any of this, but it doesn't change how I feel about you. You're my friend first. And I want to stay that way." Celeste shook Leah's hands as she said this in reassurance.
Leah grabbed Celeste and brought her close to her, giving her a hug in a moment of relief. "You are amazing. You're a wonderful friend."
Celeste tightened the hug between them, smiling to herself and letting go of any pain she held.
They sat there for awhile in embrace, the ocean breeze beginning to cool the air around them.
Leah then whispered in her ear, "I still think you're the prettiest gal in town."
They laughed and spent the afternoon chatting as friends, once again.
Celeste felt a sense of relief from clearing the air with Leah. It was so easy to resolve… everything with Leah felt natural and easy. She had never felt a friendship develop so fluidly effortlessly as it did with Leah. She just wished Kel didn't have such a hold on her. But then she remembered Dallas, and how she couldn't escape him. The engagement made it harder. It made it so that he had an excuse to shackle her to his side, guilt her for doing anything he disapproved of, and making her feel small and worthless.
Oh, what a relief. To not be gripped by his spell anymore. Stardew Valley gave Celeste a sense of safety that she never felt in a home that she shared with Dallas.
The Luau came and went in a flash. The governor was pleased by the soup and Mayor Lewis couldn't stop talking about it for over a week. It was his proudest day in a long while.
The midsummer's storms were bringing a lot of humidity and rain, littering the shore with all kinds of seashells and trash. Celeste found herself spending a lot of time with Elliott, cleaning up the beach after each of these storms. Elliott had a cabin on the beach where he spent most of his time writing his novel and playing the piano. Having the ocean as your front lawn made for a lot of creative inspiration, and the clutter on the beach shore made him feel like his mind was cluttered, so when Celeste saw him picking up litter during one of her beach runs, she had to help.
Between tending to her crops and chicken, fixing up the community center, and cleaning up the beach, Celeste felt like she was needed and valuable. She was starting to forget about who Dallas was and she felt like she really had friends in this town. Really.
Summer was passing by quickly. She was spending her late-summer afternoon fishing on the dock, watching the storm clouds in the distance darken the horizon as the waves started to pick up under her fishing pole. After using her last of her bait, she walked into Willy's shop at the pier.
"The weather is starting to get pretty nasty, eh?" she heard the bearded man say as she opened the front door to his shop.
Celeste laughed softly. "Oddly enough, I really like when it rains."
She headed for his counter, grabbing a can of bait on her way forward. The first drops of the rain began to fall as she pulled out her wallet to pay Willy.
The pitters and patters of the heavy raindrops hitting the roof of the small building echoed in the shop.
"Well, I'd better be on my way now, before the weather gets too bad." Celeste put the can in her bag and winked at Willy and made her way outside into the warm rain, pulling her jacket hood over her head.
As she reached the end of the dock near the shore, she saw a dark figure standing near the edge of the pier by the ocean on the other side. The raindrops had softened from the first hard drops to a light mist, making the view hazy and unclear.
With great concern, Celeste quickly walked towards the figure. Before long, she realized it was Sebastian. He was holding an umbrella and standing alone, staring into the bleak horizon, muddled by the rain pouring heavier now.
Hearing her heavy footsteps, Sebastian turned around to face Celeste and grinned. "Hey, I'm surprised to find you out here in the rain."
"I'm surprised to find you out here in the rain," Celeste retorted. Sebastian chuckled lightly, motioning for her to join him under his umbrella. It was meant for one person, her needing to stand very close to not feel the warm raindrops on her face.
He looked back at the horizon, quiet for a moment as the rain began to pour heavier again. The sound grew heavier as the drops fell into the ocean, resounding in the air, coming in waves like the ebbs and flow of the sea.
Sebastian broke the silence between the drops that fell. "I like this weather… it makes everyone disappear, you know?"
He inched closer to Celeste, his shoulder brushing up against hers. "Being around people makes me feel…anxious."
He turned to look at Celeste, clutching the umbrella handle with his right hand and using his left to softly hold on to her arm as she turned and looked in his eyes.
"I don't feel that way around you, though," he continued, his deep brown eyes gazing tenderly into her green eyes.
A large gust of wind came from under the pier, causing Sebastian's umbrella to blow inside out and allowing the large drops of rain to hit the two of them. Unphased, he continued to stare at her, smiling his rare smile. "We're getting soaked…" Even though they both wore their jacket hoods over their head, the rain had immersed them, causing their wet hair to stick to their foreheads and drip down their faces.
Celeste bit onto her lip, rain pouring down her face.
Slowly, Sebastian leaned in for what would be their first kiss. His lips were soft and warm. He let go of the umbrella, allowing it to blow across the pier as he wrapped his arms around Celeste.
The rain softened and slowed as Celeste leaned into the kiss, pulling Sebastian closer to her. As the rain stopped, they broke apart, laughing at their appearance.
"We really should get out of this weather," Celeste said, grabbing Sebastian by his hand and leading him off the dock. He grabbed his umbrella on the way, holding tightly onto Celeste's hand with his other hand, as they made their way north towards Pelican Town.
Walking through town, hand-in-hand with nobody to see, Celeste stopped at the fork after Harvey's clinic and turned to look at Sebastian.
"You should come to my place. Until the rain stops at least… it's closer than your home." Celeste struggled to sound confident as she said this, exposing her bashfulness.
With a smiling agreement, Sebastian was pulled to Celeste's home, covered in mud as they arrived at the front door.
"So, I know you haven't seen my place yet, and it's nothing great but… at least I have a bathroom now!" She smiled a big smile, remembering the time she spent in Sebastian's home before she had the bathroom his mother built for her.
"You can head into the shower and I'll find you some clean clothes."
Sebastian looked at Celeste confused, wondering how she could accommodate for him to stay, but knowing that regardless he wanted to stay and spend this time here with her right now.
"It might not be your style, but it's better than … nothing. And your mom was nice enough to install a small washer and dryer when she did my bathroom! So I'll wash your clothes while you shower."
After Sebastian showered, he put on the clothes Celeste had left for him: a large black t-shirt and some loose shorts. She quickly hopped in the shower, still wearing the wet clothes that stuck to her skin. After she finished, she also put on a large t-shirt and some shorts and saw Sebastian laying on her bed, glancing at his phone.
"Hey."
Sebastian looked up at her and smiled. "Hey." His hair was still wet, plastered to his forehead but moved away from his eyes. He shifted in the bed close to the wall to make room for Celeste to enter the bed. He put his phone down to his side and smiled again and she sat down next to him.
"Thanks for letting me come over. Your place is… nice."
"You don't have to lie," she said. "I literally have nothing in this little bungalow." She laughed slightly as she dropped her body on the bed near him, mere inches apart. She was quite for a little bit before she faced Sebastian, who was looking at the ceiling as she said, "What brought you to the valley?"
Sebastian's face grimaced. He turned to look at Celeste and sighed. His eyes were examining hers as he shifted his body to lay on his side and face her.
"We had to get away from my dad."
Celeste gave him a concerned look, turning to her side to face him as well.
"I was young, maybe three or four," he continued, slightly looking down at the mattress. "I don't remember much, but I remember he was a mean man. He never laid a hand on me, but my mom told me about how much he would hurt her. How much she feared for her life. It makes me angry." Sebastian's teeth started clenching as his hand rolled into a fist.
Noticing this, Celeste softly grabbed on to his hand, him unraveling the fist as she intertwined her fingers with his. He looked up at her, finding the courage to continue. "I never saw him again. And it's a good thing, too. The things I would do to him if he ever came near my mom again." Sebastian sighed as Celeste let out a small smile to comfort him, her hand still holding on to his.
"We moved to Pelican Town and my mom met Demetrius shortly after. He was studying the different fungi in Cindersap forest. My mom quickly got pregnant with Maru and they got married shortly after." Sebastian rolled his eyes as he said this. "But she's happy now, and that's all that matters."
The words sounded so sweet as they came out of Sebastian's mouth. As much as he butted heads with his family, it was clear that he loved them all.
Celeste felt herself inching to Sebastian. This was the closest and clearest view she's ever had of his face, and she was quickly examining every detail in the silence they spent together. She once again noticed the soft freckles on his porcelain face that he got from his mother, Robin. His brows were dark brown, not quite matching the black of his hair that he often dyed. She looked at his dark eyes, his lashes were long and delicate, making his eyes irresistible. His face was so soft and sweet when his hair was pushed away enough to see it all. He had a thin nose that was slightly concave, feeling feminine on his gentle face, with a small rhinestone on his left nostril, something she didn't really stop and notice all those times she saw him before. Although his lips were thin, they appeared soft and moist. She kept her gaze on his lips for a while.
He let go of her hand, causing her to break her stare. He was looking down at her as he put his hand to the small of her back and pushed her closer to him, closing the little space there was between them, his lips meeting hers. She felt them once again, and they are soft.
His hand trailed up the back of her shirt, touching her skin. He could feel the bones in her back; the fat had been melting off of her from her increased activity since moving to the farm. But he didn't care because she was beautiful. And he hoped that she wouldn't see the boniness in his body as a problem either.
Celeste lifted her hand to Sebastian's face, running her fingers through his damp hair. She brushed her fingers across his ear and down his jaw.
Her mouth opened as the kiss transformed and ignited. He followed her lead, softly brushing his tongue against her lips. His hand was trailing up her spine, stopping at the center of her back where her bra strap was securely fastened. Her tongue slowly danced with his as she moved her hand back towards his hair, softly grabbing it.
Her phone then began to vibrate on the mattress, stimulating the session before knocking her back into reality and crumbling the mood.
She then pulled her face away and frowned. His eyes slowly opened to look up at her as she was sitting up.
She looked at her phone to see an unknown caller. She quickly flashed Sebastian a look of confusion before answering the phone. "Hello?"
Her face went pale. She grabbed onto the sheets of the mattress with her free hand, making a fearful fist. Her heart was beating so hard, it was almost visible under her shirt.
"You thought you could get away from me, Celeste. But I've found you."
She dropped the phone to her lap, beginning to hyperventilate. Sebastian stared at her with concern, sitting up and picking up the phone.
He held it to his ear, hearing as Dallas continued:
"…it won't be long until we see each other again. Just you wait, buttercup."
Dallas began to laugh and hung up the phone. Sebastian was lost in a trance as he stared at Celeste's frightened expression. The dial tone became so loud that it echoed in the tiny cabin.
How the fuck did he get her number?