Hi everyone! Here is another chapter for y'all. I am bringing in Sebastian's parents in this one. I really liked the two the played his parents in the Flash, so they are loosely based on them. As always, let me know what you think and if there are things you want to see or people you want me to bring in, let me know and I'll try to see if I can incorporate them.
The next chapter will probably be up in a couple days, but I'm about to get really busy until Monday so I'll do my best to still update regularly but please don't worry if you don't see a lot until after Monday. Please review and let know what you think. As a friend of mine used to say: Questions? Comments? Violent reactions?
Sebastian POV
Sebastian helped his mother make the bed and straighten things up in the guest bedroom while listening to her excitedly talk about an internship possibility that would strengthen his application to Harvard Law School. He listened in the sense that he could repeat what she said, but he didn't care.
"So, Sebastian, you haven't told us much about this girl that is coming over." Mrs. Smythe said as she dusted the already immaculate bookshelves.
"She's great mom," he said. "I think you'll really like her. But she's just a friend, we're not dating."
"I know sweetheart," she replied. "You told me already.
Sebastian looked up at her. "Yes, but I know you." He said. "Don't think I haven't heard about the calls to Grandma wishing for grandbabies even before I'm out of high school."
"Oh, you know how it is talking to your Grandmother." She said brushing it off. "But remember, a lot of people have gone through college with a family."
"And that is where this conversation ends." He said with a laugh.
He heard the front door shut as they finished the room. His father must be home. He walked into the kitchen to see Mr. Smythe dropping his briefcase onto the center island and reaching in the fridge for a beer.
"Hey dad," Sebastian said. "How was the meeting?"
"Long." Mr. Smythe said. "Has your day been productive?"
Sebastian shrugged. "Sure." He said. "Don't forget, Marley is coming over tomorrow to stay for the festival."
Mr. Smythe nodded taking a swing of beer. "I haven't forgotten." He said. "How do you know this girl again?"
"We met through Blaine," Sebastian said. "He used to attend Dalton."
"Is she a nice girl?" Mr. Smythe asked smiling slightly. "What are we to expect here? You've told us next to nothing about her."
Sebastian smiled. "She's really nice, really clean cut." He said. "I just don't want you to get an opinion about her before you meet her. You always said rely on your own judgement, not the opinion of others."
"True." Mr. Smythe laughed. "What time is she arriving?"
"I'm leaving in the morning to go pick her up." Sebastian said. "We'll probably be back around noon."
Mr. Smythe nodded. "Alright, we look forward to meeting her."
The next morning, Sebastian woke up before his alarm. He was anxious about bringing Marley back to meet his parents, he knew they would love her, but that wasn't what scared him about this meeting.
Pushing it to the back of his thoughts, he turned the alarm off on his phone and got up to take a shower. He went downstairs to make himself breakfast. His mom was on a health kick so there were not many choices of tasty breakfast foods in the kitchen at the moment. He was about to decide if he would just stop at a coffee shop on the way to Lima when his father came down stairs, looking a little rushed.
"What's going on?" Sebastian asked looking up.
"Something came up in one of the trials I'm working on." Mr. Smythe said. "I have to head in early. Don't worry though, I'll be back in time for dinner with your girlfriend."
"Still not my girlfriend!" Sebastian called out after his father, whom he just heard laughing as the door shut.
Sebastian took one last look in the fridge, making a face. "Screw it." He said shutting the door and grabbing his car keys.
He stopped at the Lima Bean on his way to Marley's getting a black coffee to wake himself up and getting a doughnut for himself and one for Marley. He picked her up a hot chocolate as he was leaving since it was so cold this morning.
When he pulled up to the now familiar little house, Marley immediately came outside, waving bye to her mom and then tossed her small bag into the back seat before jumping into the passenger seat, rubbing her hands together.
"Good morning!" She said brightly.
"Good morning yourself." He said laughing lightly. She was like looking at the sun in the morning, he wasn't used to morning people. "Here, I brought you something."
Marley's eyes lit up as he handed her the hot chocolate and she eagerly wrapped her hands around the warm cup and then smiled even more as he handed her the bag with her doughnut. "Yes! Thank you." She said happily.
"You're welcome." He said. "Got everything you need?"
"I think so." She said going over a mental checklist. "I'm so excited for this festival! Oh, Blaine said that he and a few of the others might swing in today or tomorrow to check out the festival as well."
"That's fine. Trent and a few of the Warblers are going to be out as well." Sebastian said. "Most of the stuff doesn't start until this afternoon so I thought we could drop your stuff off at my house, have lunch with my mom and then head over there."
"Yeah, sounds good." She said subtly smoothing her hair a little.
Sebastian reached over and grabbed her hand. "You look beautiful." He reassured.
She smiled and continued to hold his hand for a few seconds longer without thinking about it.
Marley POV
They sang along to the radio the entire drive to Westerville and talked a little bit about what they could do at the festival. They pulled into a gated community, Sebastian reaching out the window to quickly punch in the code and continuing on, Marley stared out the window at the expensive looking houses. When they finally pulled up to Sebastian's house, Marley was surprised to see the large building with a stone exterior and massive windows. They pulled into one of the spots in the three-car garage connected to the house. She noticed another garage in the back that wasn't connected to the building but didn't ask what was there.
"Wow, your house is huge." She said softly.
Sebastian looked at her. "Don't be nervous." He said gently.
"You say that…" she said looking up at the building.
He reached out and squeezed her hand again. "They'll love you I promise. How could they not?" He said.
She smiled gratefully at him and squeezed his hand once before they got out of the car.
The garage entered into a laundry room that lead into a hallway that turned into either the kitchen on the left, the living room on the right, and going straight into the foyer. Across the foyer, exactly opposite of the kitchen was a large dining room with an 8-10-person dining table. The foyer held the curving staircase.
As they walked in, their shoes made soft sounds on the hardwood floors.
"Wow." Marley said again as she stared, a little overwhelmed at how nice the house was.
She was distracted, staring around at everything, and she missed the small frown on Sebastian's face. When she turned back to him, he smiled slightly.
"Sebastian?" A feminine voice called from upstairs.
"Down here Mom." He called up as he set Marley's bag on the floor in the foyer and took her jacket.
Marley watched as woman wearing an expensive looking business dress and pearls walked down the stairs, her heels clicking loudly. He auburn colored hair was twisted up high in her head, and she seemed a little intimidating until she reached floor level and smiled at Marley. Now Marley could see where Sebastian got his smile from.
"You must be Marley." The woman said. She immediately pulled Marley into a tight hug.
Marley returned the hug in surprise catching Sebastian's smile in the corner of her eye.
"Marley, this is my mom Colleen," he said. "Mom she's gonna have to breathe eventually."
Colleen let her go but continued to hold onto Marley's shoulders. "I'm so glad to finally meet you." She said. "My son has not stopped talking about the girl that he met at that Dalton party."
Marley gave Sebastian the side eye and he looked away. Obviously, a nightclub isn't where you are gonna tell your parents you were, or where you met the girl you're bringing into their house.
"I'm really looking forward to getting to know you." Colleen said continuing on, not having noticed the look.
"I'm excited as well Mrs. Smythe." Marley said smiling back.
Colleen beamed at her. "I'll let Sebastian show you to your room and I'll get lunch ready. Are their any foods you can't eat?" She asked.
"No, I'm fine with anything. Thank you." Marley said.
Sebastian picked up her bag and motioned for her to follow him up stairs. He gave her a brief tour of the upstairs, the stairs split into two hallways with two bedrooms on each side. There were six bedrooms technically but only four were used as bedrooms; the master was his parents, his was the second largest on the opposite side, there was another room that was being remodeled next to the master, and then the guest room which was next to his room.
"Mom and Dad use the other two bedrooms as their respective offices." Sebastian explained as he put her bag in her room. "They're both downstairs though."
"Your house is amazing." Marley said sitting on the bed, surprised as it was softer than she was used to.
"It's okay." Sebastian said. "Trust me, I'd rather live in a house like yours. This is way too big for three people in my opinion."
"Have you always lived here?" She asked.
"No," he said. "When we lived in Paris, we were in an apartment that was big enough for three people, and before that, we lived in a smaller brownstone in New York."
"That all sounds so cool." She said with a laugh.
He laughed too but she saw the wistful look on his face. "I don't know, those just felt more like home." He said.
Marley stood up. "Mom always said that home was about the people not the building." She said thinking about all the less than pleasant places they had lived before.
Sebastian thought about it. "You're right," he said. "Thank you for your wisdom Miss. Rose."
She rolled her eyes at him and smiled.
"Come on," he said. "Mom probably has lunch ready."
The three sat around the island in the kitchen to a very informal lunch of baked tacos with guacamole and other fixings and Mexican rice. Marley learned that Mrs. Smythe ran a marketing company that had contracts with big name companies all over the world, that was the main reason they lived in Paris for a short time.
"What does your mom do Marley?" Colleen asked.
"Right now, she works in the cafeteria at McKinley." Marley said. "She actually worked in the marketing department of an architecture company in Chicago before they had layoffs. That's when we moved to Lima."
Colleen nodded. "Hey, I absolutely respect a mother who does whatever it takes to care for her child." She said seriously. "When Sebastian was little, and his dad was still building his career I worked at a dingy little restaurant all hours to help provide s well."
Marley smiled. It was a relief to meet someone who wasn't judging her mother or her for their situation.
"What about you Marley?" Colleen asked. "Sebastian said you are in glee club with Blaine."
"Yeah," Marley said. "I transferred to McKinley about a year ago, but I didn't join glee until this year. My friend Santana suggested I join when we sang together in our production of West Side Story."
Sebastian sat up like something just clicked. "You were Rosalia." He said.
"You just now realized that?" Marley laughed. "I was also the understudy for Maria, but no one wanted to tell Rachel that."
Sebastian laughed. "Yeah I could see that going over well." He said.
"So, Marley, I know you're a sophomore but are you thinking about college at all?" Colleen asked.
"Well, actually, I just found out yesterday that I'm being allowed to jump ahead in school." Marley said. "I took a few extra tests before the break and they are letting me finish the year as a junior when we go back after winter break."
"That's great." Sebastian said.
"Yeah, a little weird though." Marley admitted. "But as far as college goes, I honestly hadn't thought that far ahead yet. This all came up really fast."
Colleen nodded. "Understandable. Well, something to possibly think about, there is this great exchange program where students heading into their senior year can go study abroad for half of the school year or even all if you choose to. Sebastian was deciding where he wanted to study. We can help you get signed up for the program as well." She offered.
"That would be amazing," Marley said. "But I'm not really sure we could afford a program like that."
"They have wonderful scholarship opportunities, you just have to write an essay." Colleen said. "If you're as smart as Sebastian says you are I'm sure they would accept you into the program. I think everyone should have the chance to travel and study abroad at least once."
Marley chewed on her bottom lip slightly. That would be amazing. "I'll ask my mom."
Colleen smiled. "Great. You guys go have fun at the festival and I will have the information for you to take home before you leave here." She said.
"Thank you, Mrs. Smythe." Marley said as they helped clear away the plates.
Colleen smiled brightly at her. "It's absolutely my pleasure Marley."
Marley couldn't help the excited feeling that bubbled in her chest as they walked out at the possibility of studying abroad, and possibly with Sebastian as well.
