A/N: Hello! So, I'm actually really excited with this story now that I have an idea of where it's headed. I hope you all enjoy, and I apologize in advance for the fact that this chapter really doesn't talk about Kurt at all. I just thought I should go into Sebastian's back story a bit. I promise that Kurt will play an important role in the big picture, but I've realized that there aren't many fics written mostly from Sebastian's point of view, so I thought I'd share this. Hope you all enjoy, and reviews/PM's are always appreciated. :)

xxx, Elizabeth

Chapter One

It was fall the next year before Sebastian realized how much time had gone by. He had spent much of the year in Paris, and he was just now returning. The return wasn't exactly something the boy was looking forward to, though. He had been expecting to spend his senior year in France, but his mother wanted him home.

Her reasoning didn't make much sense to him because he would be starting at a new school with a bunch of people he didn't know, and he would board, so his mom wouldn't see him very much either way. His dad had gotten a job as a senator, though, and he refused to have his son continuing to attend a public school when he could now afford the better, safer option.

His first day had gone exactly according to plan. He had moved into his room with the help of his parents and met a few new people. His roommate hadn't arrived yet, but he was informed the boy's name was Jeffrey Sterling. He had unpacked his things, and purchased his school attire. He had been shown around by a nice boy named David, who informed him about the Warblers.

His second day didn't go quite the same. Classes hadn't started yet, but David had invited him to sit in on a Warbler rehearsal to see if he was interested. Wes and a few of the other boys from last year had graduated, so the team needed some new members.

Sebastian had accepted, so he found himself walking into the room a bit intimidated by the fact that all the boys seemed to know each other. The intimidation didn't last long, though, because boys quickly began walking over and talking to him in interest. They all seemed to be in recruiter mode and were pestering him about joining the group.

All—that is—except one. There was a single boy standing off to the side of the room. Sebastian hadn't recognized him at first because of all the gel in his hair, but that build was very distinct. He was a bit smaller than all the other boys, but he held himself with pride and had a self-assured air about him.

And as soon as Sebastian recognized him, his eyes narrowed and he strode toward the boy without even realizing he had been in mid-conversation with another of the Warblers—the boy's name was Nick, he later recalled.

"Long time no see," Sebastian murmured as he walked up behind the small boy with a frown on his face. The boy turned around sharply upon hearing Sebastian's voice, cursing himself. His plan hadn't been well thought through. Of course, Sebastian would recognize him eventually. "Although, with all that shit in your hair, I barely recognized you."

And there it was. The signature Smythe smirk. He probably had a patent on it. The boy tried to walk passed, pretending to be unaffected. "Hello, Sebastian," he mumbled as he attempted to walk away.

"Blaine Anderson, that isn't exactly a proper way to greet your ex-boyfriend. Do you think?"

Blaine's eyes narrowed as he looked up at Sebastian. "After he disappeared for two weeks without telling me a word? I think it is."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, "You know, we never even broke up properly. I just came back and you were gone. Left a message on my phone saying we would talk later. I waited months for that talk, but it never came. My mom told me you transferred to some fancy private school after your dad found out what happened."

"He wanted me to be safe."

"Yeah, well not all of us can afford to be safe," Sebastian practically spat as his mind wandered back to that night when it all had started.

It was Winter Grove's annual Sadie Hawkins Dance. All the girls were asking boys, and Sebastian had been asked a few times by some of the freshman that didn't know about him yet. He found it endearing, but he politely declined their offers. Besides, he already had a date.

Blaine had asked him a few days earlier—they had already been seeing each other for almost three months, so, of course, he said yes. Blaine was the only other boy out of the closet at their school, and they had hit it off as soon as they met.

The smaller boy was a bit different, and it had entertained Sebastian to no end. He had silly little habits like jumping on furniture and wearing bowties almost every day. Sebastian would always tease him about his wardrobe and how he had to buy capris because pants would always flood his ankles.

They had driven to the dance with a friend of theirs and her date, and Sebastian's dad was supposed to pick them up later on.

The dance was fun—music was tolerable, food was decent—but when the boys decided to chance it and steal a kiss when no one was looking, things took a turn for the worse. A school bully who had been making snide comments toward them since even before they had started seeing each other had finally had enough. He shoved Blaine out of the way and punched Sebastian square in the jaw.

The teachers saw and escorted the boy from the dance, but Sebastian was no longer in the mood to stick around. He told Blaine, and the pair decided to call it a night.

They had been waiting outside of the school for the taller boy's dad to come pick them up when a crowd of boys from the school's football team surrounded them. Sebastian remembered being hit a few times, but eventually he had blacked out. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital and being informed that Blaine was in a room down the hall.

He stayed in the hospital for almost a week, and his mom suggested that he take time off from school to go visit his aunt in Paris while he recuperated.

He hadn't thought of it as leaving Blaine, but a text message came, telling him that the bullies weren't leaving him alone.

Blaine's face softened, "Bas, I had to. I couldn't stay there after what happened. And it was even worse after you left. I tried to stay, but I came home with a black eye a couple days after getting out of the hospital. My dad had enough of it, so he made me transfer here. He told me I shouldn't talk to you because you might make me want to go back. Said my safety was important."

"Whatever, Blaine. I wasn't looking for an apology—not that that actually was one. I just wanted to get something straight since I'll be attending this school, too, now." Sebastian's face narrowed as he thought about all the unresolved problems between the two. "I just want you to know that I will probably never forgive you because I suffered through that hell that you ran away from for practically an entire school year before I moved to Paris. I don't like you. I don't want to talk to you, and I think it's best if we avoid each other at all costs."

Blaine crossed his arms. He hated that this was becoming all about Sebastian. He had suffered, too. "Sucks. You would've been a great addition to the Warblers."

"What?"

"If we're avoiding each other, you might have some problems. I'm the captain and lead soloist now that Wes graduated and David and Thad stepped down," Blaine said with a smirk.

Sebastian took a step closer to Blaine and looked down on him. "I'm not running. I think you'll be the one to back down this time. That's your thing, isn't it? Running away from your problems?"

Blaine's eyes shifted to the floor as he thought about it. In all honesty, he did feel bad about leaving Sebastian. At one point, he really did think he loved the boy, but this version of him was different. He didn't quite know how to explain it, but the boy changed a lot since that night at the dance. "I guess we'll see then."

"See you leaving? Sounds good to me."

Later, Sebastian was laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling when the door opened and scared the living hell out of him. He tumbled on the bed and onto the floor with a loud thud, then a groan of pain.

A boy rushed forward in confusion. "Hey, are you okay?"

The brunette looked up to see a full head of the blondest hair he'd even laid eyes on. "Y-yeah. Just a little surprised. I wasn't expecting the door to open."

The blonde smiled and offered a hand to pull Sebastian up off the floor. "Yeah, you'll get used to that after a week. The guys here don't exactly know what privacy is. I'm Jeff, by the way."

Sebastian's brow furrowed in confusion, but he thought back, and it turned into a look of recognition. "Jeffrey Sterling? You're my roommate, right?"

Jeff wrinkled his nose at the use of his full name. "Yes to the roommate, no to the Jeffrey. I go by Jeff unless you're my parents or a teacher."

"Sebastian Smythe," the brunette grinned. "It's kinda a mouthful, I know. My friends would call me Seb if I had any."

Jeff grinned. "Nice to meet you, Seb. I guess I'm your first official friend then. Should I feel special? Because I do."

The smirk was back before he could help it. "Oh, you should feel very special," he purred.

"Why should he feel special?" sounded a new voice from the doorway. A brunette walked in slowly with crossed arms and a grin on his face.

"Nicky!" Jeff practically screamed as he ran and jumped into the smaller boy's arms.

Nick smiled as he spun Jeff around before setting him back on the ground and kissing him softly. "Hey, Six. It's been too long."

Jeff grinned and cuddled into the brunette's embrace. "I was just about to come see you. Had to introduce myself to the new roomie first, though."

Sebastian waved awkwardly at Nick. "Hey, you're Nick, right?"

"And you're the guy that walked away from me to talk to Anderson earlier," Nick teased with a laugh.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing you've met the Warblers then? I'm one, too. I just was late to getting here this year. Family vacation was in Barbados this year."

"They didn't let me come after what your brother walked in on last time," Nick said with a smirk.

Jeff giggled and jabbed Nick in the side, "Nicky! I don't even know Seb yet. Don't scare him off!"

Sebastian grinned, "This is just kindergarten talk, trust me." He flashed back to the past year of random hookups in bars around Paris and summers in Ohio. No, this was definitely nothing new. "I'm guessing he's your boyfriend?"

The blonde nodded, "Yeah, he is. That's okay with you, right?"

Sebastian's brow furrowed for a second as he tried to think of why it wouldn't. "Yeah, why wouldn't it—oh." The tall brunette let out a laugh. "Right. Yeah, it's fine. Turns out we all play for the same team."

Nick tightened his grip on Jeff and smiled, "Good, but if I hear you're putting moves on my guy, we'll have words."

The taller boy just shamelessly scanned up and down Jeff's body and winked, causing the blonde to blush. "I'm making no promises."

The blank look on Nick's face caused Sebastian to burst out laughing. "Kidding, kidding. Don't worry about your boy. He's safe with me. There are two things I won't do. Girls and guys in relationships. Too complicated."

Nick laughed at that, "Good to hear. But I have to ask. What were you talking to Blaine about?"

Jeff cocked his head to the side. "You know Blainers?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know Anderson. He and I used to go to the same school. He's just as much of an arrogant asshole as I remember. Except now he wears gel in his hair." His eyes quickly shot to Nick's brunette locks that were currently held back by gel. "No offense."

Nick grinned, "None taken. But I don't get it. Blaine's pretty cool."

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, it's a shame he's thinking about transferring."

Sebastian smirked, "Well that was fast."

"What?" the blonde was confused. "No, you see, his boyfriend has been asking him all summer to transfer to this school in Lima. They are seriously the cutest couple I've ever seen. They almost make me want to throw up. Anyways, the boy used to go to Dalton, but he missed his school too much, so he transferred back. Blaine made this big ordeal about it, and made the Warblers serenade him at his school."

"Yeah, and then he came back here and moped around for the rest of the year," Nick added.

"Basically. And I guess it'll be good that we won't have to worry about that anymore. It was downright depressing to watch last year."

"His sad eyes make me want to cry sometimes."

Sebastian was clenching his fists so tight that his nails were digging into the skin on his palms. "Okay, I get it. You guys all love Blaine."

Jeff looked up, taken aback. "What did he do to you?"

"It's not exactly what he did to me. It's what he left for me to do on my own."

"Basically, we got the living crap beaten out of us by some jerks at our old school. We both ended up in the hospital, and were there for about a week. I took a break from school for a few weeks after that because my mom wanted me to get away, so I could heal properly. When I came back from Paris, he was gone. Mom told me he decided to transfer to some preppy private boarding school. Said he got beat up again while I was away.

"When I found out, I was scared to death of going back to school. It was terrifying at first. I was this scrawny sophomore that didn't even know how to defend myself. Any friends I had stopped talking to me because they were afraid they would get beat up, too.

"After a while, I realized it wasn't going to stop. I tried talking to the principal, but he didn't really care. No one did. And my parents couldn't afford for me to go to a school like this—even with a scholarship. So did the only other thing I could. I started working out. I joined sports—wrestling, track, lacrosse, fencing. Anything that could get me in shape. I bulked up pretty quickly, and I started boxing. I learned how to throw a punch and how to take one. I learned how to be quick on my feet.

"I learned to defend myself and never be ashamed of who or what I was. I trained myself to the point where I can hear the word 'fag' and not even flinch. I learned how to prove them all wrong.

"That changed me, though. I wasn't that scrawny, nerdy sophomore that everyone could pick on anymore. I was a lot tougher. Things didn't affect me as much, but there was one thing that kept fucking with my head.

"After Anderson left—he had been my boyfriend for about three months, then just disappeared—I just felt empty. I felt so alone—like no one understood me. I didn't know what to do, so I started going out. I'd meet random guys at bars all the time. I started flirting shamelessly all the time.

"It got worse when I moved to Paris to live with my aunt for a year. My mom was scared of how much I was changing. Thought that if I got away from that school, I'd go back to normal. The damage had already been done, though. I was never the same. In Paris, people were a lot more open about sexuality. I hooked up with people all the time. I'd get drunk almost every night. I barely did homework. I had friends, but they weren't real ones. They just hung out with me because I knew some of the right people.

"I would've stayed there for senior year. I thought it would have been fine, and that college would be different. Then my dad called. Said he got a job as a senator. Then my mom landed a job with some major design company. There was suddenly more money in our family than we knew what to do with, so he told me he wanted me to come back home. He could finally afford one of those fancy schools where I would be safe. So here I am."

Nick and Jeff listened through the story. Every so often they would share a glance or look up at Sebastian with sad eyes. Sebastian, for the most part, remained calm. He would run his fingers through his hair awkwardly on occasion, but he never dropped his façade of calmness. He looked up at the pair when he finished with a sad smile on his face, and the boys took that as their cue to stand up and wrap him in a hug.

It was the first time since Blaine had left him—unless you counted his mother or aunt—that he actually was hugged and felt accepted. That is, until he noticed Blaine standing in the doorway watching him with those same sad, brown eyes. The boy ran as soon as he caught Sebastian looking at him without saying a word.

When Sebastian woke up the next day, he heard the news that Blaine had filed for a transfer. He wasn't sure if it had to do with the fact that Blaine had heard what had happened, or that he really did just want to be with his new boyfriend. Honestly, he stopped caring a long time ago.