"I could have thought I would find you here," admitted Seth, sounding a little judgmental at first. Then he looked around. "What do we have here?" A wide smile appeared on his face as saliva filled his mouth. "Damn! It all looks so delicious." He quickly noticed the cake section. But meat on the right side of the table attracted him more. Seth reached for the bacon but Dean, chewing a salmon sandwich, slap his hand.
"One of us needs to be able to jump off that apron," Dean said with half-full mouth.
"But," Seth protested, "bacon . . ." he cried. He then looked at the "healthy" possibilities. He grabbed a plate and put some vegetable on it. Why do they even put all that delicious but inappropriate food there, Seth wondered. Is it to remind them of the life they could lead if they weren't athletes? No, Seth realized when he saw Bray actually eating that bacon he craved for. Some people didn't care that much about the food choice they were making. Of course, as Dean pointed out, Seth needed to keep in shape to perform jumps and acrobatic moves.
"So you don't care for how you look when Sheamus lifts your shirt and people see your stomach?"
"No," Dean responded confidently.
"What about Renee?" Seth opened the tabooed topic.
"I think she's got better things to do than watch me getting beaten by Sheamus," he argued. Then he teasingly took a bite of a cupcake, just to annoy Seth.
"Maybe she likes to look at your body in private . . ."
"People do weirder things than that. Sometimes it's better not to know," Dean said nonchalantly. Not once had he looked at Seth or acted seriously.
"Screw you, Dean! Is it such a big deal to admit she's your girlfriend?" Seth immediately realized he said it louder that he meant to, but, to his surprise, Dean didn't get mad or anything. He acted casually, just as before.
"Here, have an apple." Dean placed it on Seth's plate. He looked at the cupcake and, knowing he wasn't going to eat more of it, he put it back on the tray. He didn't care he already ate some of it; he turned it so that nobody would notice at the first glance.
"You're unbelievable," Seth pronounced.
"Compliment?" asked Dean.
Seth just shook his head and laid the plate on the table with all the food untouched. He wasn't hungry anymore. He stepped back and then set down on the nearest chair secluded from other people. He watched Dean for a while and asked himself why he was being such a pain in the ass. He pitied Renee, but soon he realized he probably didn't act this way when he was with her.
It didn't take long for Dean to follow Seth. He sat down next to him, and he even brought him his plate. But what really cheered Seth up was that he spotted a slice of bacon among the "good food."
"I believe I speak for Roman too when I say we don't mind if you get curvy," Dean joked and at the same time sounded seriously.
"You're killing me."
"No, the bacon is. But it tastes good so who cares."
"No!" Seth sighed. "If you want to keep your relationship secret, okay, I get it. But once you've hinted me there is indeed something going on, I can't pretend I'm not curious. Can't you just tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"Oh, I don't know," he spoke sarcastically, "your shoe size. . . . Are you together? Are you in the state that you haven't really talked about it? Have you slept together?"
"I can't give you one answer for all these questions."
"I'm not asking you to. All I want is some factual information." Normally a person's reaction to the questions would give him some clue, but it never worked with Dean. He had a perfect poker face and he never showed the other person what he didn't want them to see. He was in total control.
But finally it seemed Dean would tell Seth the truth. Seth knew he couldn't bear not knowing anymore; he needed to know what was going on for his inner peace so he really hoped Dean would stop denying. Dean didn't answer immediately though; he kept Seth tensed. Then he opened his mouth just to say, "I think she likes me."
"You don't say," Seth replied ironically because it was the easiest way to handle Dean's attitude and lack of seriousness. It took a lot of effort for Seth not to scream or throw something at Dean. How he wished to take a cake and throw it at Dean's face. A punch would do, too. But if Dean wanted to keep this infantile behavior, Seth was willing to keep his questions simple if it would get him the answers. "And do you like her?" he started the hearing.
"Sure. What's not to like about her?"
"Good," Seth showed appreciation. He thought he would keep it simple and ask only yes and no questions. "Do you go on dates?" Although he already knew the answer, he wanted Dean to admit it.
"Yes." Dean smiled, but didn't say more.
"Are you or Renee dating other people?"
"I wouldn't say so."
"Hm." In fact there was only one question that Seth wanted to know the answer to. He just hoped that this time Dean would tell him the truth. "Have you slept together?" he asked quietly after looking around to double check if it would stay between them.
"That's personal. I don't ask you about your sex life," he counterattacked.
"Yes, I do sleep with my girlfriend. Now can you answer me? Please," he demanded.
Dean seemed to be considering if he should tell Seth the truth. Would Renee be okay if he revealed the facts to him, without her having a vote? Would it be fair? On the other hand, Dean didn't enjoy much these talks. He liked joking, making fun of others or driving them crazy, as long as he didn't need to be serious. Now it was time for him to be real and show emotions. Of course, Dean allowed Seth before to enter his dark cave of feelings, but moments like that were quite rare, and Dean was okay with it being that way. But the most important thing to consider was that there was no going back. Once the truth is out there, Dean's chance of hiding what happened between him and Renee is gone. Moreover, Dean knew Seth well; he wouldn't be satisfied with a simple answer; he would want to know more, all the details. These were the facts. Now it was up to Dean to decide what to do. He considered his options; there weren't many. Either he tells him or not.
Dean sighed. Seth patiently waited; he knew there was nothing he could do to encourage Dean to speak. His eyes were hypnotizing his. Somehow he remembered what he once read somewhere about staring into other person's eyes for longer than six seconds or something. The study, or the internet, says that you either want to kill them or have sex with them. Both were wrong and inappropriate at the moment. He was only anticipating the answer. Nothing more, nothing less, he kept reminding himself. How he increasingly wished for Dean to speak because these uninvited thoughts were getting ridiculous and Seth needed to get a rid of them. "Did you sleep with her?" he asked again, hoping it would take his mind off the sex or murder topic. Well, there was still sex, but the one he was interested in didn't involve him. Man, that sounded weird, he thought. He seriously needed to stop thinking about it and focus. Focus! Seth shouted in his mind.
"Okay. If you really need to know, I didn't sleep with her."
Now that sounded like a lie to him. But Dean said it convincingly. But . . . No, Seth thought. That cannot be right. Renee said . . . and then . . . No! He has to be lying.
Dean probably noticed Seth's confusion. He decided to wait for him to take it in and see what he says. If he has something to say.
"But that night . . ." wondered Seth.
"Yeah," Dean let him know that he knew what he was talking about.
"No," Seth kept repeating. Really? he asked himself. Was his idea of that night Renee didn't finish talking to him about all wrong? She spoke of it as if something amazing happened. And then Dean came and they seemed so happy, so into each other, as when two people spend that first night together. Was it all just to mislead him? Did something go wrong that night? Or was Seth's assumption correct and Dean was just lying again?