Chapter 39

CHAPTER39

At least he had his answer now, Sebastian thought as he glanced from the teenage girl who stood him up to-

“Why the hell are you glaring at her?” Sebastian couldn’t help but wonder as he found his brother glaring at Mikey.

“Because it’s less creepy when we both do it,” Jonathan assured him as he took his glare up to the next level by narrowing his eyes on her.

“Trust me. It’s still creepy,” Sebastian assured him as he glanced back at Mikey and found himself wondering how he’d screwed up this badly.

He should have waited.

He should have stuck to the plan.

He should have…

Christ, he should have known better.

“I’m going home,” Sebastian said, even as he couldn’t help but wonder why he came here in the first place.

“Looks like she had the same idea,” Jonathan said, making him frown as he glanced past their little sister putting Mathew in a chokehold in time to watch Mikey grab her backpack and head for the door.

“Someone should walk her home,” Mrs. Blaine murmured, sounding thoughtful as Sebastian’s gaze flickered to Braxton in time to watch him move to go after her only to hesitate and-

“Enjoy the movie,” Sebastian said, watching Mikey walk through the front door as he quickly got to his feet and went after her only to turn around with a sigh and pluck the can of Coke that Mrs. Blaine helped herself to out of her hand and handed it to Jonathan.

Making a mental note to tell Aunt Haley about her grandmother’s attempts to get her hands on caffeine later, Sebastian stepped over his little brother as their sister grabbed a bag of chips and proceeded to beat the hell out of him with it. A minute later, he was walking outside and wondering where the little pain in the ass was. Biting back a curse, Sebastian moved his ass and-

“You want to tell me why you’ve been glaring at me all night?” Mikey asked as she stepped out from behind a large oak tree.

“I need a reason now?” Sebastian asked, watching as she seemed to think that over.

“Normally, I’d say no, but with Jonathan glaring at me too…” Mikey said, letting her words trail off as she gestured absently back towards the house.

“Might have something to do with the fact that you stood me up tonight,” Sebastian drawled, watching her frown in confusion before he headed for the sidewalk, deciding that he’d had more than enough for one night.

“I’m sorry. What’s this now?” Mikey asked as she quickly caught up with him.

“We had plans,” Sebastian reminded her.

“We did?” she said, somehow sounding even more confused and managing to piss him off even more.

“You demanded that I spoil you,” Sebastian reminded her as they made their way towards her old school.

“I see,” Mikey murmured, sounding thoughtful.

“I’m sure that you do,” Sebastian said, more than ready for this night to end. He just wanted to go home, devour whatever was in the fridge and pass out so that he could wake up tomorrow morning and pretend that this never happened.

“That would explain why you looked pissed,” Mikey said with a heartfelt sigh as they made their way past her old school and cut through the park. “There’s only one problem with that.”

“And what’s that?” Sebastian asked, glancing down at Mikey to find her struggling to bite back a smile.

“You forgot to tell me when,” Mikey said, letting her lips pull up into a teasing smile that had him stumbling over a root as her words hit home and when they did…

“I told you,” Sebastian said as he thought back to their conversation the other night and-

Oh, Christ, he really forgot to tell her.

“You really didn’t, though,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head as she made her way to one of the picnic tables and sat down. “There was a promise of spoiling, but sadly, I’m really not feeling very spoiled at the moment.”

“Are you feeling like a pain in the ass?” Sebastian asked as he joined her.

“It’s not really a feeling. It’s more like a state of being,” Mikey said, making him chuckle.

When she didn’t say anything else, Sebastian looked over to find her watching him expectantly. “Well?” Mikey said, blinking at him.

“Well, what?” he asked, starting to become a bit concerned when she continued staring at him.

“I’m still in need of spoiling,” Mikey said as she gestured for him to get on with it.

“Of course you are,” Sebastian said, biting back a smile as he pretended to think it over. “I mean, I suppose I could take you to a movie next Friday.”

With a sympathetic wince, Mikey said, “I’m afraid that I already have plans.”

“And what plans would those be?” Sebastian asked, only to release a pained grunt when the little brat shoved her backpack in his arms so that she could rifle through it.

“The same ones that you have, I would imagine,” Mikey murmured as she pulled a baseball from her bag and began rolling it between her hands.

“And what plans would those be?” Sebastian asked as he dropped her bag on the ground between their feet.

Blinking, Mikey said, “The ones that you’ve known about since the beginning of the year?”

When he only stared at her, she said, “The camping trip?”

“That’s not for a few weeks,” Sebastian said, only to sigh when he remembered that they’d changed it to make sure that Mikey didn’t miss any games this year. “I forgot about that.”

“I can see that,” Mikey murmured absently as she stared off, looking lost in thought and-

“Why did you leave the sleepover early?” Sebastian asked, watching as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to him.

“What’s this?” he asked, throwing her a questioning look before he swiped open her phone.

“A love letter from my fan club,” Mikey said as he read the email letting Mikey know that she didn’t make the team this year and-

“This is fake,” Sebastian said, taking in the email domain that didn’t match the one the school assigned him before moving back to the email telling Mikey that after careful consideration, Latin Scribe High School has decided to rescind her scholarship after she failed to meet their standards. That, if she wanted to continue attending Latin Scribe High School that she needed to pay the sixty-thousand-dollar tuition by the end of the week, and if she couldn’t afford that, there were plenty of charities that could help people like her.

“The tuition is off by five thousand dollars. They misspelled Coach Jackson’s first name. The roster only consists of ten players when you’re required to have at least fifteen to play in order to avoid having to forfeit. They also only have one pitcher on the roster when Latin Scribe is known for having a team of five pitchers to avoid burnout and the one that they picked doesn’t know the difference between a fastball and a curve ball,” Mikey said as she reached down and grabbed her bag.

“Mikey,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he watched her stand up and start making her way towards the old tennis courts.

“Honestly, I should have seen it coming,” Mikey said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal as he caught up with her.

“You want to tell me why you lied to me?” Sebastian asked, only to add, “About your fan club,” when she sent him a questioning look.

Shrugging it off, Mikey said, “Because I have it handled.”

“It looks it,” Sebastian drawled as they cut through the old tennis courts and made their way to the sidewalk.

“I’m luring them into a false sense of security before I make my move,” Mikey assured him as they made their way to her house.

“And you’re doing a great job,” Sebastian said dryly.

“I know,” Mikey said with a satisfied sigh as they made their way around her house.

“I’m actually shocked that you’re being so calm about this,” Sebastian said, noting the way that Mikey absently rolled the ball between her hands, looking as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Swipe to the next email,” Mikey said, making him frown as he glanced back down at her phone and-

“Is this real?” Sebastian asked, looking back up at Mikey to find her smiling.

“Apparently, Uncle Jason took pity on us and called in a favor to get the roster early,” Mikey said, reaching over to pluck the phone out of his hand. “It came in a few minutes after the one my BFF sent.”

“Are you playing Dilmore’s team?” Sebastian asked as he considered her for a moment.

“Not this year,” Mikey said, slowly exhaling.

“What happened?” Sebastian asked, watching Mikey pout.

“The public high school dropped to a D3 division, which means, I’m not going to get my chance to make him regret what he put me through last year,” Mikey said, sounding disappointed, which was understandable given what Coach Dilmore put her through last year.

“That doesn’t explain why you left the sleepover early,” he pointed out.

“Have I not mentioned that I deserve to be spoiled?” Mikey asked, blinking up at him.

“I believe that has been mentioned once or twice,” Sebastian said dryly.

“Well, since you clearly weren’t going to spoil me tonight, I decided to accept a better offer,” Mikey said with a pitying look and a heavy sigh as she glanced back down at her phone and, after two swipes and a tap, handed it to him.

“A better offer?” Sebastian asked, frowning as he looked down at her phone and felt his lips twitch when he saw the picture of her baby brothers hanging out on the couch with their blankies and sippy cups.

“Mmmhmm,” Mikey murmured as he handed her back her phone.

“You really didn’t give me a chance,” Sebastian pointed out with a mock glare as he reached up to give her braid a playful tug before pulling his hand away and-

Found himself watching his fingertips as they slowly traced a path along her jaw. Her skin was so goddamn soft, Sebastian thought as a small moan had him looking up into a pair of beautiful emerald eyes. Keeping his eyes locked with hers, Sebastian reached for her hand and pulled her closer while a soft sigh had him swallowing hard as his gaze dropped to her lips.

For months, he’d imagined what it would be like to kiss her, wondered how soft her lips were, and now…

Now, he was going to kill his brother, Sebastian thought, forcing himself to release Mikey’s hand and step back as she mumbled, “Goodnight,” and headed inside as Jonathan joined them, leaving him standing there, forced to watch her go.

“You really should have kissed her,” Jonathan said with a sad shake of his head.

“Drop it,” Sebastian bit out between clenched teeth as he turned around and headed back the way he came.

For a moment, he considered going back to Uncle Jason’s house, but…

The hell with it, Sebastian thought as he headed across the street, praying that Jonathan went back to Uncle Jason’s house only to sigh when his brother followed him.

“She wanted you to kiss her,” Jonathan said as they headed inside and made their way upstairs to their room where Sebastian shoved the little bastard into the closet.

Ignoring his brother’s pained grunt, Sebastian dropped down on his bed with a sigh and-

“Is it something I said?”

-decided to grab the duct tape.