Sebastian wasted no time and headed straight for his room. He quickly turned his backpack over and emptied everything onto his bed. Thankfully, homework was pretty light today so he knocked out his assignments rather quickly. He checked the time and saw that he had about fifteen minutes to go, plenty of time to grab what he needed, and head over to Delilah’s.

He placed his sketchbook and pencil set into his backpack and then finished stuffing it with some of the other art supplies that he had lying around. Once he was set, he went into the kitchen where he retrieved Delilah’s soup bowl off the counter. As he held it in his hands, a warm feeling came over him that caused him to smile.

She forgave me! To think that I was going to run away from it all. History didn’t repeat itself and we’re still friends! I should be more careful what I say around her… I don’t want anything like this to happen again.

This whole time, I questioned whether or not I was making the right decision. I wondered if I should have bothered making another friend out of fear that I would just get forgotten or be made to feel unwanted. But I’m tired of being alone. I’m tired of being miserable. I took a chance and I feel like it’s paying off for the first time in my life! That’s why I have to make the most of this!

Sebastian headed out and took the trip over to Delilah’s house. After a few minutes of walking, Sebastian ended up at her front door. He rang the doorbell fully expecting to see her on the other side; however, when it opened, there stood a well-built man around six feet, five inches in height with buzzed black hair in nothing more than a white tanktop t-shirt and blue jeans. The scruff on his face suggested that he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and his appearance gave off the aura that he could snap Sebastian like a twig in a matter of seconds. It was obvious that it was Delilah’s father.

“Who are you?” he said in a gruff voice.

“A-A friend of D-Delilah’s, sir. She i-invited me over,” he said with his voice filled with nerves.

“Did she? Hold on.”

He turned and called out her name, his voice so powerful that it rattled Sebastian’s brain. He turned back around and leaned up against the door frame, his arms folded, and looked at him as if he were giving him the once over.

“Stay there. She’s coming.”

A few moments later, Delilah came down the staircase directly behind her father. Even though she had seen him not all that long ago, she looked rather happy. When she approached, the man glanced over his shoulder and looked at his daughter.

“You know this kid?”

“Yes, Dad. This is Sebastian. He’s the friend I told you about. He sits next to me in class and he’s the reason why I started learning how to draw. I asked him to come over and give me some lessons.”

“Lessons? What kind of lessons?”

“Drawing lessons, Dad. God, you don’t have to worry. He’s really sweet and he’s not going to do anything!”

“What’s he doing holding one of our bowls?”

“I gave him the flu so I made him some chicken soup.”

“So, that’s why there’s no chicken left over in the fridge, huh? I see…” he said before he turned and looked at Sebastian again. “Come in.”

The man stepped aside and allowed Sebastian into the house. With one step inside the door, he could already feel her father’s gaze piercing a hole right through him. It was as if he were stepping onto a live minefield. Delilah accepted the bowl back from him and briefly went to the kitchen to return it. When she came back, she nodded at Sebastian to follow her upstairs.

“Hold it. I’m sure that he can teach you to draw down here. Take it to the kitchen.”

“Come on, Dad…”

“This is the first time I’ve met this boy and I want to keep my eyes on him. Kitchen. Now.”

“Dad! It’s going to be fine!”

“I don’t want to hear it! Get your butts to the kitchen table and…”

“That’s enough, dear,” said a female voice from the living room. When Sebastian turned his head, a woman was standing there who could have passed for Delilah’s older twin sister. “You’re scaring Delilah’s friend and it’s obvious this boy isn’t going to do anything. Just let them go up to her room. I’m sure the last thing our daughter wants is to be embarrassed like this in front of her friend.”

“Fine. I want your door open and I will be up periodically to check on you two.”

“No, dear. You won’t. Leave them alone and have some faith in your daughter. This is the first friend she’s made since we moved here. Don’t ruin this for her.”

“Tch..” he said under his breath as he left for the living room defeated.

“I’m sorry about that. My husband loves our daughter very much and can be a bit strict when it comes to her friends… especially if that friend is a boy. His name is Scott, by the way. I’m Catherine, Delilah’s mother. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi, Mrs. Yearwood. I’m Sebastian Saje.”

“Haha… you can just call me Catherine or Cat if you prefer. I may be polite here but I’m not the type for formalities. Now, run along. I’ll keep the bear in his cave.”

“Thanks, Mom!”

Delilah took Sebastian by the hand and led him up the stairs. He never expected her to grab onto him like that and it caused him to blush a little. When they got up to her bedroom, he took a look around and noticed that it was very similar to a boy’s room. Even though she had told him what she was like before, he still kind of expected to see things like pink bed sheets, curtains, dolls, and other things you would find in a typical girl’s room but there was none of that here.

She had the same gaming consoles as he did, her own anime and manga collection neatly tucked away on a couple of bookshelves, and her room had a navy blue and silver theme going for it. She had a few action figures of some of her favorite anime characters adorned on the tops of the bookcases. After taking it all in, he almost felt as if he were in a home away from home.

“Feel free to have a look around if you want.”

Sebastian approached her bookcases and started going through what games she had. She noticed that she had a copy of The Zero Eclipse, one of the RPGs that was on his list to buy. He pulled the game off the shelf and began to look over the back cover. Noticing that he had taken a keen interest in it, she walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Want to borrow it?”

“It’s still a new game. Aren’t you still playing it?”

“I haven’t started it yet. I’ve been busy with certain things,” she said with a little giggle.

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“Are you sure? I mean, I’d love to play it but if you haven’t started it yet, I don’t want to rob you of it.”

“If it wasn’t fine, I wouldn’t have offered. Don’t forget to take it with you when you leave… on one condition. No spoilers.”

“I think I can manage that!”

So he wouldn’t forget it, Sebastian slipped it into the front pouch of his backpack. That prompted him to pull out all of the art materials that he brought over. Delilah sat down on her bed so Sebastian looked around for a chair to sit on; however, she didn’t have one in her room. Suddenly, he heard a gentle tapping as she patted the bed as if to say ‘Sit next to me.’ He blushed a little as he took a seat while keeping about a leg’s width between them. Delilah grabbed her sketchbook and scooted over to where she was pressed up against his left side. Sebastian cleared his throat and focused on why he was there.

“So, before I can teach you anything, I need to see what you’re capable of. Don’t worry about how it will look, just go ahead and draw something so I can see what I can do to help.”

Delilah was a bit nervous because even though he had already seen a so-called finished drawing, he had never seen her method of creation. She took a deep breath and nodded before using a stencil to form her basic shapes for the head. Once that was done, she placed down her guidelines and Sebastian immediately noticed that they were a bit off but he let her continue anyway.

He watched her fill out the details of the eyes, nose, and mouth but she hesitated a bit when it came to the hair. It wasn’t that she couldn’t decide on a hairstyle but rather the fact that she already noticed some of her errors. One eye was bigger than the other, the mouth didn’t look right, and the nose seemed a bit off-center. She already knew that Sebastian was going to comment on that so she decided to just go for as simple of a hairstyle as possible.

Nearly thirty minutes had passed until she finished her sketch. She certainly wasn’t as fast as Sebastian was and her nerves also played a huge part in it; however, when it was all said and done, Sebastian smiled because he thought that it would be easy to help her with her mistakes.

“So? How bad did I do?”

“First, before I say anything, how long have you been practicing?”

“Less than a week…”

“Well, I’m going to be brutally honest with you here. For less than a week, you’re already better than I was when I had that much experience under my belt.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, I should have brought them with me but when I wanted to learn how to draw, I could barely make a half-decent stick figure. I was terrible at drawing. When I fell in love with anime, I knew I wanted to try that style but my results were nowhere near this level the first week. This tells me that you probably had the gift of drawing this whole time. I’m not saying you’re going to become a master tonight or even a month from now but I can already tell you have all of the fundamentals in place to improve a lot quicker than I did.”

“Do you mean that?”

“I do.”

Delilah smiled and right when Sebastian was about to give her her first pointer, there was a light knock on the door. When they turned their heads, Delilah’s mother was standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Sebastian. I’m about to get dinner ready and I wanted to know if you would like to stay and eat with us?”

For a moment, Sebastian didn’t know how to react. He never expected an invitation like that to be presented to him; however, he figured that since he had Delilah over his house, the least he could do would be to return the favor.

“Sure, I’d love to. I’ll just tell my mom that I’ll be eating here tonight.”

“Sounds great! Do you have any food allergies or anything that you can’t eat?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Again, call me Catherine or Cat, haha. But that’s great! We’re having Scott’s favorite tonight, beef stew. I’ll make a little extra so that there is plenty to go around! I’ll let you guys get back to what you were doing. I’ll call you down when it’s ready… shouldn’t take too long.”

Delilah’s mother excused herself while Sebastian pulled out his phone and sent his mother a text to let her know he wasn’t going to be home. With that out of the way, Delilah put down her sketchbook and folded her hands on her lap.

“We should probably pick this up after dinner. If mom says it won’t take long, then there isn’t a point in getting too deep into things before we have to go eat.”

“That’s true but… It’s only a quarter after four. Your family eats a bit early, huh?”

“That’s my Dad for you. Whenever he’s home from being on base, he likes his dinners early. If he doesn’t eat by five, he gets a bit cranky.”

“Ah. Sorry if this seems insensitive but your Dad is pretty rough around the edges. Aren’t you afraid to mess up or something around him?”

“I can understand that given your first impression of him but he’s not actually like that all the time. He’s only acting like that because you’re a boy and I’m his baby girl. He’s just being overprotective. When it’s just us, he’s very attentive, always willing to help, and will never turn down an opportunity to listen to our problems or anything like that. He’s a great father and I’m sure he’ll open up to you a bit more once he trusts you.”

“I see.”

I guess he’s right not to trust me right off the bat. I wouldn’t trust me either after some of the things I’ve said to myself. I need to make sure Delilah never finds out about any of that.

“So… since we have a little bit of time to kill, do you mind if we have a bit of a serious conversation?”

“Um, sure? What about?”

“I kind of opened up to you so I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing the same? What happened between you and Bryce?”

I mean… It’s true that she did tell me a bunch of personal stuff and what happened between myself and Bryce was all Bryce’s fault but… it still doesn’t change the fact that I lost control and beat him half to death nor does it change the fact that I hit a woman… even if it was an accident, I’m still guilty of that. It’s more than just Bryce, though. It’s my father, too. It’s not what they did that I have a hard time talking about… It’s how they made me feel… It’s the kind of person they turned me into. That’s the part I’m embarrassed to talk about.

“It’s… a pretty long story but… I’ll summarize it by just saying that he, Kayla, and Shiloh all pretended to be my friends until one day when they felt as if they didn’t need me anymore. They tried to quietly phase me out but… when I discovered their true feelings… I… I lost control and…”

“You fought, didn’t you?” she asked to which Sebastian replied with a nod. “But if Bryce did that to you, why was he so angry with you when he saw you becoming friends with me.”

Even though I relived my memories in that dream, they weren’t complete. I still remember what happened when Bryce came back to school after our fight. I still remember his words as clear as day. I guess I can tell her. I mean, it was just an accident after all. Plus, I can still avoid the parts that I don’t want to talk about.

“During the fight, Kayla grabbed me by the shoulder to get me to stop hitting Bryce. On instinct, I spun around and accidentally hit her in the face. I… ended up breaking her nose… When they both returned to school, Bryce was furious and told me that if he ever caught me becoming friends with a girl ever again, he would make sure that they knew the truth about me… but… It’s not true! It was just an accident! I never meant to hit her… so… please don’t think I would ever hurt you…”

“Don’t worry. I believe you. You said it yourself. You felt someone grab you and you spun around. They were probably closer than you thought they would have been and you accidentally hit them. It’s not like you consciously threw her against the wall or anything, right? So… there’s no reason for me to think that way about you.”

“Thanks…”

“There is one other question I’d like to ask. I told you that I picked you out because you had a different aura about you but… something felt off when I talked to you. You seemed nice enough but the look in your eyes always said otherwise. Plus, you were looking out the window during my introduction. I once apologized to you because I thought that I was a bother. I didn’t just say that because it was a knee-jerk reaction. It was something that I felt since we started talking. I just want to know if I was ever a bother to you?”

If you had asked me this when we first met, I probably would have taken that opportunity to tell you to go to hell. It would have been a lot easier without knowing anything about you. But now… how can I even tell you the truth about what I thought about you? I can’t do that to you… Not now… not after everything. Plus, this is the part I don’t want to discuss. Maybe I can find a better time to say what needs to be said. I just feel if I do it now, it’s going to come out wrong and ruin everything.

“Delilah… I promise that there will come a day when I can give you a proper answer but… It’s not today. There are some things about my life that I would like to share with you but… I’m just not ready to because I just don’t know how you’re going to react when you hear it. The last thing I want to do is lose you as a friend all because I couldn’t explain myself properly. I know that sounds like I did think of you as a bother but I’ll ease your mind and tell you this much… No. You weren’t a bother to me and that’s the truth. I can’t tell you why just yet but you were more like a guiding light than anything.”

“That’s fine. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here for you.”

Delilah went to place her hand on top of Sebastian’s when there was a knock on the door. Catherine had returned to let them know that dinner was ready. They headed down to the kitchen where Scott had already fixed himself a bowl. He waited for everyone to be seated and asked to hold hands.

“In this house, we say Grace before every meal.”

Sebastian nodded and nervously joined hands with Scott and Delilah. Scott said Grace and began to dig in. As they ate, he took it upon himself to drill Sebastian was a barrage of questions. He asked him everything from his favorite foods, and where he lived, all the way down to his GPA. It was as if he were building a mental portfolio of him but despite the interrogation, Sebastian answered his every question truthfully. The more Scott learned about Sebastian the softer his tone got.

After dinner, Sebastian made sure to thank Catherine for the food. Delilah led Sebastian back upstairs to her room where they planned to resume working on her artwork. He began to explain some of his methods for drawing lines. He noticed that she had been holding her pencil a bit too stiffly and said that to create smoother curves she should release some of the tension in her wrist and let the pencil flow naturally. He said that wrist control was very important for the hair as quick, loose strokes gave the hair its thin look.

He also gave her tips on how to make the eyes the same size in a frontal view as well as how to compress an eye so that it looked natural in a three-quarter turn view. He had her practice a few times and even though the words reached her ears, she had a hard time putting it to practice. He leaned over without thinking and wrapped his arm around her, clutching her left wrist. He then moved both of their hands so that she could get the feel of a quick line stroke. He was so close that she could feel his warmth perfectly. She began to blush and almost lost concentration until he told her to give it a try without his help.

She snapped out of it and tried to mimic the same motions. When she did and saw the difference in the results, her face lit up. By the time they were done, the sun had begun to set.

“It’s getting a bit late. I should probably get going. After all, we still have school tomorrow.”

“Thank you for everything. I feel as if I learned a lot! I’m going to keep practicing!”

Delilah walked Sebastian downstairs where he announced that he was heading home. He, again, thanked them for having him over for dinner and made sure to compliment Catherine’s cooking. Scott offered him a ride home but he said he only lived a couple of streets over so he would be fine but thanked him for the offer. Delilah walked him outside where she gave her goodbyes.

“Say, want to walk to school together tomorrow?”

“Sure. I usually leave around 7:30.”

“I’ll meet you at the corner at that time then. Have a good night, Sebby.”

“Sebby?”

“It’s a nickname I picked out for you. Is it too much?”

“I think it’s fine!”

“Cool. See you tomorrow, Sebby!”

Delilah went back inside. When the door closed, Sebastian headed back home. On the way, he reflected on everything that happened.

If there ever was another clue that suggests that she likes me as more than a friend, it’s the fact that I now have a nickname. Although, I will admit… It’s kind of cute-sounding. I swear… one day when I can find the words to tell you everything, I’ll repay that kindness but… the truth is… I’m still testing you. Granted, you’re passing with flying colors but a little part of me still has trouble letting go. I guess that’s only natural, though. For some reason, I feel as if everything is going to be just fine this time.