‘Here’s the key to the house.’ Seb threw her a bunch of keys and lifted Holly in his arms, not without grunting a little because of his friend’s weights ‘Go ahead and open the front door for me, please!’



Shadee jumped over the flowerbed, walked down the perfect-cut, bright green lawn and climbed the few stairs to the pretty porch.

‘Need help carrying her?’ she turned back to Sebastien and watched him waddle to the house.



‘No problem!’ he panted, walking through the now wide opened window. He walked through the dark a few meters, then climbed a modern set of stairs to the next floor ‘Her room is upstairs.’

‘Oh.’ Shadee raised a brow ‘You seem to know your way around the house pretty well!’

Ignoring the sarcastic remark, the boy walked up the last two steps and hurried over to Holly’s bed where he gently placed his sleeping friend, grateful to have gotten rid of the weight.



‘There you go!’ he whispered and covered Holly with a light blanket ‘You’re gonna be okay now, just a small headache in the morning, but you’ll get over that!’

‘I don’t think she can hear you; she’s sleeping!’ Shadee snapped, unable to contain herself at the sight of Sebastien getting so cuddly with Holly.



‘Can’t you get over this already?!’ Seb snapped back, trying not to raise his voice above a heated whisper ‘I was just trying to revenge you! I didn’t mean to upset you! You know what you’re doing? You’re defending him! After all he has done to you, you’re defending him!’ he shook his head angrily, turned to Holly one more time to give her a quick kiss on the forehead, then headed back for the stairs, without even looking at Shadee.



The girl remained for a few more moments on the spot, listening to Sebastien leave the house. He had kissed her! He had given Holly a kiss on the forehead! Did that mean what she thought it meant? Were they…together? Were they…an item now? What a stupid boy Sebastien was, she hadn’t snapped at him because of the “Dirk” incident!

Two fat tears made their way down the girl’s cheeks, tickling her chin unpleasantly.



Shaking her head, and wiping her face, Shadee walked downstairs too, locked the door and hid the key in the flowerpot standing on the porch.



‘What took you so long?!’

She shrugged and sat down silently. Sebastien stuck the ignition key roughly and directed his hand towards the gear stick, when a soft touch made him start.

‘I’m sorry.’



‘Why are you crying, Shadee?’

‘I-I’m not!’ the girl rubbed her eyes energetically, trying to stop the flow ‘I just-I wanted to- I know this is the worst timing in the world and I should have told you sooner - much sooner – but I only just realised and there’s also Holly and that makes me a very bad person and I know-I should better keep my mouth shut right now, but it’s hard, watching you and seeing how she-I cannot go on like this-I really want to stop, but I can’t and it’s hard and it’s simply-it’s eating my soul and -’

Pure heaven, the most wonderful feeling she had ever felt, no matter how many times she would have seen this in books, no matter how many times she would have read a description of it in corny romance novels, nothing could have prepared her for Sebastien’s soft, sensual kiss. Nothing in the whole world mattered any more, just that the kiss lasted for ever. But it didn’t.



Opening her eyes as slow as she could, Shadee found herself feeling guilty as she had never felt before.

‘We shouldn’t have done this!’ she screeched nervously, shaking her head ‘No! I knew I should have kept it a secret, taken it to the grave and let you and Holly be happy together!’

‘It’s okay!’ Sebastien tried to calm her down ‘You don’t have to-’

‘No! It’s not okay! I shouldn’t have done this! I betrayed Holly, I hurt her, I-I have to go!’



Before she could dash out of the car, Seb grabbed her wrist tightly and pulled her back into her seat ‘Sit and just listen to me! Calm down! You don’t have to worry yourself about anything! This whole thing was part of a plan, I plan I had schemed a while ago!’



‘But-’

‘Let me talk and you’ll have your answers! I fell in love with you, Shadee! I fell madly in love with you in 9th grade! You were the only one in that class that ever looked at me, the only one that cared! I didn’t want to, believe me I didn’t want to get attached to anyone, but you were the one that changed my life for ever! Unfortunately, you only saw me as a friend and, while my love for you grew with each day, you were still not interested in anything romantic with me! I was about to give everything up and just leave everything as it was, even though Holly told me to continue fighting for you.’ Seb took a deep breath ‘But then, I had an idea! One last idea to be sure that you really didn’t love me. I asked Holly to pretend to have a crush on me and tell you everything, say how wonderful she thinks I am, how she’d like to spend the rest of her life next to me. If this didn’t make you jealous or moved you in any way, it was my cue to get over the whole thing. But you did seem to change! Sometimes it was obvious, sometimes you acted like you didn’t care, but it gave me hope! And here I am now! Before you ask a gain, the answer is no, Holly has never had a thing for me and I’ve never had a thing for her, even though she’s a wonderful girl!’



Shadee opened her mouth to say something, then closed it back. Everything hit her like a truck on an open highway. The meaningful looks and had spotted between her two friends, all the things that seemed to contradict each other, Holly’s exaggerated love words…and Sebastien all to herself! Without any feelings of guilt, without any hiding and secrets! Everything was now in the open! Finally, relief!


Ahem...first of all, sorry to all Holly/Sebastien "shippers", it was never meant to be a relationship between those two. But Holly doesn't get hurt in this thing, so it's okay, isn't it? :egg

And second, I know there's a lot of sap But I hope you enjoyed!