Dawn broke with Quinn's arm draped lazily over Sebastian's chest. The first ray of sunshine penetrated his eyelids, and he fluttered them quickly, allowing the burn to set in as he urged himself awake. He could feel the hangover creeping up on him, but a bit of alcohol was still raging its way through his system. He only had an hour or so before the rest of the day felt like hell, and he planned to utilize it. Sebastian rolled out of bed on his side, grabbed his underwear off the floor and pulled them on. Quinn was a light sleeper and already began rubbing her eyes.
"Good morning to you too,' she said, her voice not showing a shred of grogginess.
"Get up,' Sebastian said, looking back over his shoulder at the girl. "You're helping me clean this house."
The two came out of the room, sparing no noise, and were greeted almost immediately by someone passed out on the wall beside the door frame. Sebastian nudged the boy with his foot and told him to leave. He and Quinn walked down the stairs to revel in the remnants of madness from the previous night. He braced himself for the mess, and was, therefore, not surprised by the chaos that had been left over. The front door, at least, was closed. Beer bottles, empty cups and lost pieces of clothing were strewn over the floor and furniture and stragglers slept on the couches, on the wood and a few, under blankets, on the poolside outdoors.
"Everybody needs to get the fuck out,' Sebastian shouted at the top of his voice, opening his front door and motioning for the rising teenagers. His face was stoic. He left Quinn there to guide the sheep and retreated further into the house. No one was in the sunroom, and, luckily, it was seemingly untouched. Down the stairs, into the basement, he could hear hushed voices and was surprised to see Hunter, awake, likely to have never slept, talking to a girl and some jock from school.
Sebastian motioned to his cousin to wrap it up as he put his hands into the pockets of his pajamas. "Why are you still awake?"
Hunter shrugged. "It's the New Year. We had to do it right."
Sebastian turned his nose up at the boy. Hunter was usually cool, calm and collected— usually the one admonishing him for partying. He was confident why Hunter had decided to go so big that night, it wasn't their first New Year's Eve party, but he wasn't interested enough to ask. Why shouldn't he have a good night?
"Welcome to 1996,' the unnamed wrestler said, opening his arms wide and sharing a cheeky smile. Sebastian stared at them blankly. The silence in the room caused the three who had been there to shuffle, clean up the ruin directly in front of them and turn towards the basement stairs. Sebastian's eyes tracked them all the way there.
"You're staying to clean, right?"
"I need to sleep,' Hunter said with a chuckle.
"You should have been to sleep six hours ago, what the fuck is wrong with you? Get up, get these people out of my house,' Sebastian said, irritated. He walked over to the first guest bedroom, kicked everyone out, and then walked to the second guest bedroom and did the same. In total, there had probably been twenty-five people still at his house that morning and after a rough shove and twenty minutes, there was only Sebastian, Quinn, Hunter and the two people Hunter had greeted the sunrise with in the basement. The front yard was as much of a wreck, plastic and paper everywhere, and a tire mark that indicated someone had been doing tricks the night before.
"Do I really have to help?" Quinn asked, her arms crossed.
"Yes,' Sebastian said, his head throbbing. They all stood in the front yard, regretting the events of the past night. Everyone looked worn down and hollow and likely felt it too.
In the end, they had filled six garbage bags of trash and mopped all three floors of the house. Sebastian had done his best to filter out what appeared to be throw up from the basement pool and washed all the blankets and coats that the partygoers had pulled outside in the winter cold. It was a marvel no one had frozen to death the night before.
Hunter was in the living room, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. "Is that all?"
Sebastian shrugged. "Did you check the wine cellar?"
"You locked it, didn't you?"
Sebastian nodded. "It's not beyond reason for me to think someone would've broken into it last night… where the fuck were you at? Why did my house look like that?"
"It's not my fucking house,' Hunter dug in. "Where were you at? It's not my responsibility to make sure your shit doesn't get fucked up. You disappeared way before midnight, you cocksucker. Lay off."
"Lay off,' Sebastian laughed under his breath. "That's the last fucking time we're doing anything over here, you can thank yourself for that."
"How the fuck is it my fault your house got trashed, Sebastian? It's clean. What do you want? An apology? How many times have I had to clean up my place after a party— do I ever blame you? Do I ever hold you hostage to clean my house? No. I let you pick up one or two things and then go fuck off and take a nap somewhere. You're about to piss me off."
"YOU WERE AWAKE THE WHOLE NIGHT. That's the problem! You watched some freshman that shouldn't have even been here throw up in my fucking pool while you were getting high. You didn't think to consider what I'd have to deal with this morning once,' Sebastian shouted. Everyone was in the living room trying to avoid participating in the argument, but with Sebastian's last outburst, Hunter stood quickly and the boys moved towards each other as if to swap blows. The other boy in the room jumped forward quickly to push Hunter back, and the latter relented swiftly. He grabbed his keys from his pockets.
"Fuck you. Don't use the word 'consider' with me ever again. Are you fucking mental? You are the most inconsiderate, self-centered child I know, and I mean that. Every thing, every one? A pawn to you. Just like your fucking daddy. Weren't you the one crying to me about how no one likes you anymore? No one wants to be your friend, everyone hates you. Grow the fuck up. I am your only friend. Your only fucking friend, and you want to get in my face about your house being dirty. You blow my fucking mind, do you know that? Grow the fuck up, Sebstian."
Hunter walked out the door, the nameless girl and boy behind him. Sebastian fell onto the couch with a loud sigh, and he could feel Quinn's eyes on him.
"Are you okay?"
He shrugged. "I never said all that. That 'no one likes me' and 'everyone hates me'. He's just saying shit to try to hurt me."
Quinn stood and walked further into the living room, taking a seat opposite of Sebastian. "Hunter is a good person. He's the only one that's stood up to you when you've insulted me in front of everyone. Maybe listen to what he has to say."
"Holy fuck."
"What?" Quinn asked, her eyebrows perking up as she pushed herself back.
Sebastian saw the curiosity in her eyes as the horror amounted in his own. "I have to meet my new tennis coach today— holy fuck, holy fuck— fuck! We have to go. Now."
Sebastian pulled swiftly into the recreation center parking lot, nearly hitting the curb. He could see even from his car that the man's arms were crossed, a frown etched into his eyes, mouth, forehead and posture. "You're late."
A fucking Russian?
"I know, I'm sorry,' Sebastian began.
"Your father told me to let him know if you were even a second late,' the instructor began, doing jogging heel touches on the back line. Sebastian mirrored him, four ibuprofens and an energy drink rattling around in his stomach.
"Maybe we can keep that one between us,' Sebastian shouted from the other side of the court.
"He told me to tell him if you said that too!"
Author's Note: I wanted to do two quick updates so that the next time, in your waiting, you can anticipate a chapter that picks up where Chapter 28 left off. Originally, Chapters 29 and 30 were all supposed to be Chapter 29 and at least half of what will be Chapter 31 was supposed to be in Chapter 29 as well, but I thought the transitioning would be a bit off (and I was itching to update). Doubly, I think Chapter 31 is going to take me some time to write. There are three big chapters in this entire story that I've already worked out the dialogue to, months and years before they've been written, and Chapter 31 is one— a lot of the story banks on some key things the two will say to each other, so I want to be careful. It is coming however, hopefully, sooner than later (before the end of March, undoubtedly).