When the sun finally rose over Pelican Town, both Sebastian and Charlotte felt like they hadn't slept at all – and both of them weren't sure when they finally fell asleep the night before. Charlotte had been lying in Sebastian's bed, fighting the caffeine that rushed through her veins.
Sebastian on the other hand lay in her bed, scrolling through his phone, trying to find more about Zuzu Unity Service. The institution was exactly what he had thought of when observing the coin in Charlotte's jacket – but it could mean anything. Charlotte didn't seem like an addict to him. Hell, he wasn't even sure whether that woman had ever touched a drop of alcohol in her life. But what did he know anyway? His need to find out more about what led to Charlotte having this coin in her jacket was enormous. But at the same time, he felt bad. Like he was sniffing around in the secrets of a woman he didn't know. And when he thought about it, he was right. It shouldn't matter to him – it's not allowed to matter to him.
When Charlotte got up, her neck hurt and eyelids were heavy – but not as heavy as the strands of hair hanging into her eyes. She stretched and looked over into the mirror in Sebastian's room. The only way she would be able to feel more alive was after a long shower. So she went over to Sebastian's wardrobe, fished out a pair of boxers, and socks and swapped the eversame black hoodie for a black shirt – it was summer after all. She paired it with blue jeans and was ready to leave the basement when she noticed that she didn't have a clue where the bathroom was. When she opened the door to the stairs, she waited for a second. Was anybody up there? At least, she didn't hear any voices up there, so she slowly ascended. When she didn't see Robin behind her counter, she passed Demetrius' laboratory and faced three doors. Two of them should be bedrooms – Maru's and the parents' – and the one left should be the bathroom. Charlotte decided she would need to simply open them to find out what's inside. Before she opened the first door, she listened again but couldn't hear anything. So she opened the door and the moment she saw, that this wasn't the bathroom, she damned herself for not knocking. Why didn't she knock?
"Sebastian?", Maru asked, lying in her bed. She looked even more miserable than Charlotte felt, which was why Charlotte decided not to bang the door shut and run away.
"Are you sick?", she asked bluntly and Maru groaned.
"Yes, silly. That's why I'm here and not in the clinic.", she explained with an annoyed glance towards her brother – or Charlotte, but of course, she didn't know that. What would Sebastian do?
"I guess that's what they mean when they tell you not to bring your work home.", Charlotte joked. Maru smirked, even though she tried to continue glaring.
"Can I get you something? Tea maybe?", Charlotte offered and that was when Maru stopped glaring entirely. Instead, she raised an eyebrow.
"That would be nice?", she said, though it sounded more like a question.
"I'm having a quick shower and then I'll get you some herbal tea.", Charlotte explained. She had already left Maru's room when she peaked into it again.
"What's my towel again?", she asked, hoping the question wouldn't come across as stupid as she expected. Maru shook her head.
"Mum just cleaned all of them - take one of the dark blue ones.", Maru advised and Charlotte nodded. She thanked Yoba when she opened the door next to Maru's and found the bathroom inside.
Sebastian hung a towel over the mirror in Charlotte's bathroom. No way he would watch her body get undressed after intruding on her privacy by finding that coin. He took off her pajamas as quickly as possible and stepped into the shower. When he saw all the bottles of something inside, he insinuated whether it was worth it to wetten Charlotte's hair in the first place – but he knew that she would be even more annoying if he failed something she had already explained to him. If he had just listened.
Charlotte stayed inside the shower longer than she intended, but the water seemed to wash off every awake minute drop by drop. After she had washed her hair with hot water, she decided to take care of the rest quickly and cold. As if she could rub the foreign body off her with just enough soap, she stayed inside the shower until her chest was red and her toes started tingling. She sighed and stepped out, wrapping one of the darker blue towels around her hip. The darker towels seemed to be older than the light blue ones, which appeared much softer – but Charlotte decided, Sebastian could handle the slightly stiffer fabric.
She combed her hair and brushed her teeth with the only black toothbrush in the cabinet – at this point, she knew that every cliché about Sebastian seemed to be true, so she figured it HAD to be the black one – and got dressed. She observed the other bottles and containers inside the cabinet and decided, Sebastian's skin was in desperate need of a good moisturizer and sunscreen – and she was sure, Robin wouldn't deny her son of any if he asked. So she applied some of those as well, before going to the kitchen and boiling some water.
"What kind of tea is this?", Maru asked after the first sip.
"Nettle, mint and honey", Charlotte explained and Maru looked at her brother skeptically.
"I didn't know we had that", she said and put the cup on her bedside table.
"We didn't – but there's a ton of nettle outside the house and we have some mint in the herb bed. And then I added some honey for taste.", Charlotte said and she noticed an impressed look on Maru's face.
"Well, thank you.", she said and tilted her head. "I didn't think you knew how to make herbal tea". Charlotte smirked.
"Well, let your brother surprise you from time to time."
When Charlotte arrived at her farm, she noticed that her crops hadn't been watered – nothing she had expected but she hoped that Sebastian was already awake. And that he had gotten more sleep than she had. She didn't knock when she opened the door and almost shrieked when she saw what Sebastian had done to her hair. It stood off her head in all directions, looking more like hay than her usually glowing red locks.
"What did you do?", she asked and Sebastian winced.
"Good morning to you too", he said and touched what felt like a nest. "Well that just happened I guess", he said.
"Didn't you blow dry?", Charlotte asked and crunched her nose.
"No, I just let the air do its job. And well, they are dry after all."
"Dry as Hay one might say.", Charlotte sighed. "You should wear them in an updo or a ponytail. You look messy."
"You mean, YOU look messy.", Sebastian replied dryly.
"That's even worse. But okay. I will tend my crops. You will need to go to Robin today and place the payment on the coop. If she asks if I need anything special - just the standard coop is fine. I will start with chicken only." Sebastian nodded.
"Fine. I need to finish a job anyway. I go to Mum and place the payment and then go downstairs and work."
"And your Mum won't notice when I go into your room?", Charlotte asked and Sebastian scoffed.
"Let that be my problem.", he replied. "Anything else?", he asked.
"Your dad sent you a letter. I put it on your desk.", Charlotte said and Sebastian's eyes widened a bit.
"Did you read it?", he asked with a slight tremble in his tone. Charlotte shook her head.
"Of course not. But your Mum found it in the postbox. She was worried. But I think I reassured her."
Sebastian sighed. Why did his father send a letter? Why couldn't he just send e-mails like any other civilized human? Or was it… Did he already… He needed to open this letter.
"I guess, I need to go. Today's Friday – I don't have any plans for today besides meeting Sam and Abby at the Saloon. If you don't go there, they will come to my place – so be there or they will interrupt me coding. Or in their eyes: Catch you coding on my computer in my room. We don't want that.
"You won't come as well?", Charlotte asked. Sebastian shrugged.
"Would anyone miss you?", he asked back. He realized how rude he sounded when he saw the hurt look on his own face. But Charlotte quickly pulled herself together.
"You're right. You can go now.", she said with a slightly colder tone to her voice. Sebastian decided it was best to just leave and get on with his tasks. What time was it anyway?
Charlotte tried to tend her crops as quickly as possible - she didn't want to risk any unannounced visitors to see Sebastian at her farm. But with every full watering can she carried across the field, she felt weaker and weaker. At least Sebastian would benefit from their body swap, she thought. He needed to work out, for sure. If he could be rude to her face to face, she could be rude to him in her head. Of course, someone would miss her, if she didn't come to the saloon. Well maybe not for one evening –but Sebastian couldn't just hide in his basement without anyone noticing. Alex would notice, at least Charlotte hoped so.
Abigail and Sam were already at the pool table when Charlotte entered The Stardrop Saloon. She also saw Shane sitting alone at the bar, drinking beer. The shadows under his eyes were as prevalent as always and Charlotte felt deeply sorry that she wasn't able to go over and talk to him. She could – but he wouldn't listen to Sebastian, she expected. Charlotte knew it wasn't her job to save him, nor to change him. But she also knew what loneliness and drugs could do to a human and she wasn't allowing herself to watch what everyone else in this town seemed to ignore. But tonight, she was Sebastian – a person known to not care about anything or anyone.
"Hi, Seb!", Sam exclaimed across the pool table, already a queue in his hand. Abigail rose from the sofa and came towards Charlotte, hugging her slightly tighter than she would have expected from a good friend. Were Sebastian and Abigail more than friends?
"Hi.", Charlotte replied, trying to sound as much like Sebastian as she could. She once again noticed that she had no clue how he behaved around other people.
"Didn't see you the last two days. Like anywhere. Is anything fine?", Abigail asked. Charlotte shrugged.
"Lots of projects.", she replied and Abigail laughed as if she was joking. Charlotte decided not to respond to that.
"What have you guys been up to?", Charlotte asked instead. Abigail shrugged.
"Played lots of Prairie King, hid from the sun - Oh and I wanted to go into the Mines but Sam here didn't want to accompany me."
"Yeah because I don't want to be eaten by skeletons.", Sam declared and Charlotte smirked. She had heard of the rumours –Slime monsters and living dead in the old mines of the town. But when she had climbed down some levels to find ore, she encountered nothing but bugs, spiders and bats.
"Better not go down there.", Charlotte said because she found the climbs rather challenging – and she wouldn't want anyone to get lost down there. Abigail sighed.
"You guys are SO boring." Sam shrugged.
"Better boring than dead.", he replied. "And now we play!", he exclaimed and gave Charlotte the second queue. When was the last time she had played pool? Was Sebastian good at pool?
Apparently, he was. After the first game, Sam looked at his friend in disbelief.
"Where are you?", he asked, waving his head in front of his face. "Not at the pool table, it seems - you suck!" Abigail nodded.
"You do.", she reinforced unnecessarily.
"I guess I'm not in the mood for billard today.", Charlotte said and let herself fall on the sofa. Sam shrugged.
"Beer then?", he asked. She shook her head.
"No thanks." Sam tilted his head. Then he went over to the soda machine and bought three cans. Charlotte took hers and opened it. Before she took the first sip, she smelled through the hole. She almost pulled a face because of the sweet smell crawling into her nose. But after the pool incident, she decided she couldn't act any more strange in front of Sebastian's friends when she didn't want them to notice anything. But she was more nervous because of the talking she would need to participate in when she was too bad at playing.
Abigail and Sam were rambling a lot about their band and the games the three of them played – Charlotte tried her best to not say anything stupid so she listened most of the time and nodded when Sam looked at her questioningly or shook her head when Abigail shot glares at one of them. But then, the door of the saloon opened and Charlotte's eyes widened for a second, as she saw herself walking in. Abigail must have seen her gaze because she rolled her eyes.
"No need to drool", she commented. Sam turned his head as well and looked back to his friends quickly.
"I'm not drooling.", he replied quickly and Abigail looked even more annoyed.
"Both of you.", she said and Charlotte noticed how Sam's face turned slightly red. She was surprised to see Sam this way because she had never thought of him in that way.
"Should I talk to her tonight?", he asked. Abigail shrugged.
"You could get it over with. Go to her, let her say that she's not interested – and then go back to normal."
Sam looked at Charlotte, then over to the bar, where Sebastian was standing, seemingly unsure where to go. He still wore his hair in the same updo, Charlotte had fixed him in the morning. Of course, he didn't wear makeup but at least he wore something decent. She sighed. And almost choked when she noticed Alex making his way to Sebastian. Sam noticed it as well and stiffened a little.
"Well, I guess now you can't go to her anymore.", Abigail commented. "Wait. Seb, where are you going?"