"He...hello?" Sabastian answered the mobile phone in his pocket which he didn't charge last night

"Sabastian! Where the hell have you been? Why haven't you picked up the phone? I.. we've been so worried about you?" Theresa's voice came over the phone

"Huh? Theresa?" Sabastian mumbled, He hasn't heard her voice since he found out that she was with Layton. In fact he had been avoiding her calls since then

"Sabastian! Where the hell are you, man! We were so worried about you!" Layton grabbed the phone and took over

He was the last person he wanted to hear from. But he sounded concerned about him, much like he remembered. Layton was his best friend and talked to him every day for many years after all. It was Sabastian that had suddenly isolated himself and avoided both Theresa and him after he found out about them

"I... I just got up. I'm in my room" he answered, not telling them that he was staying only several doors away

"Then get down you, man. We're having breakfast! " Layton said

It was an awkward situation all around. Yes, they got together behind his back, But they had fallen in love, and who can blame them? It's not like Sabastian and Theresa were married.

Sabastian felt betrayed by them nevertheless, and he felt cheated by Layton for cheating on that maths final. But was it really cheating? Fighting for every point was what they've always done. Maybe it was him who didn't fight hard enough to win.

"Where was he? Is he here?" another voice could be heard from behind. It was Jason, one of his close friends who came on the trip

In fact, the whole group were close, and Sabastian had been isolating himself the past few weeks. He even sabotaged his seating on the plane so that he wouldn't sit with anyone

"Come on Sabastian... come down" a concerned Camie could be heard saying. Sabastian remembered that he's known Camie since kindergarten! They were literally neighbors as she lived a street away

"O.. ok. I.. .I'll brush my teeth and come down" Sabastian answered

"We'll wait for you. Come soon" Layton said

Sabastian promised and hung up the phone

He stared at his phone. 78 missed calls and over a hundred messages? Why didn't he hear anything?

He realized that his battery was low as he didn't charge it and took out his charger from his luggage and plugged it in

He stared at dressing mirror in front of where he was charging his phone and looked at himself

He looked haggard, wearing the same clothes since getting on the plan in Dallas

Suddenly, he burst into tears, unable to keep his emotions in

He felt loved... his friends missed him. He had isolated himself from them for weeks, and was about to just skip on coming to Europe.

But his parents had already paid for the trip and given him a generous amount of pocket money

He hasn't told his parents that Theresa had broken up with him, and wanted to act as if everything was normal. This trip was something his parents knew he had planned for over a year and he had always talked about it and asked them for it as a reward

His parents knew him and his close friends had been planning this together for a long time now, and it was weird if he suddenly didn't want to go

He quickly washed up and changed, before going down. He was still nervous. How would his friends treat him? These were friends he had known practically his whole life, many from childhood

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But he had isolated himself from them, and avoided everyone since they received their results nearly 3 weeks ago

*Ding* the elevator door opened to the lobby of their 4 star hotel

"Sabastian!" a voice called him

It was Davis, who was just returning from the restroom and he put his arm around him

"Where the hell have you been, buddy! We were looking for you all day. Theresa even tried to file a missing person report, but the police wouldn't take it unless you were missing more than 24 hours" Davis blabbered on

Davis was the high school soccer captain, and his first bully when he attended playschool, having taken his Tickle Me Elmo doll from him and not sharing. That was how far back they go

David brought him a round table with 8 chairs on it. Everyone was there having breakfast

"Sabastian!" everyone called out as Davis pulled an extra chair for him

Sabastian looked around at the familiar faces looking at him with smiles, but yet a look of concern of where he was yesterday

Davis pulled his chair to sit between himself and Jason, and he recognized the rest

There was James, as well as Camie, Tanya and Jean. And right on the opposite side of the table, there were Theresa and Layton sitting next to each other

Although they came from a prestigious school full of smart students, they were all good looking and were also active in sports and other activities

Only Sabastian looked like a bookish nerd, but honestly looked quite good looking if not for his thick glasses and his style of dressing. His parents had given birth to him late, as he was the youngest child, his next youngest sibling being 15 years older to him

As such... his mother dressed him much older due to being from a much different generation, wearing proper shirts, vest and ties when his other friends were dressed in band t-shirts and more contemporary clothes

Theresa go up and ran to hug him, while Layton walked over to pat him on the back

It wasn't as if nobody knew how devastated he got he found out about their relationship. But they were in love and couldn't deny it. But everyone had always liked Sabastian and he had avoided them all

It was Sabastian himself that felt as if the whole world had collapsed on him, and that everything was going against him.

He started to fit in again as they had breakfast, and they exchanged stories about seeing the sites of Lisbon, while Sabastian explained he had visited Coimbra University and spent all his time in the library

"That's so like you, a library. Hah!" Davis said slapping him on the back and laughing

They started discussing their plans for the day, as they wanted to enjoy everything the can. They were leaving for Madrid tomorrow afternoon so they wanted to make the most of their time in Lisbon

The girls wanted to visit Feira da Landra, a flea market that has been open since the 13th Century. And the guys wanted to go to the infamous Capela dos Ossos, or Church of Bones in Evora which was 1 1/2 hours away by car

Sabastian decided to join the guys to the church, as going to a flea market didn't sound interesting to hm. He was a bit disappointed that Theresa and Layton were going to the market but they were probably going to spent time finding romantic gifts for each other or something anyway. Or at least, that was what he would have done with her

The plan was to meet up later at tea time to see a museum or two, then have dinner at Casa Independente and check out the bars after

Everyone agreed with the general plan and split up after breakfast

Unexpectedly, Camie wanted to see the bone church as the flea market didn't interest her. She swapped with James who wanted to buy a gift for his mother

So Sabastian joined Davis, Jason and Camie in a 1 1/2 hour cab ride to Evora to see the Capela dos Ossos.

David sat in the front passenger seat because he was a rather large and muscular guy

Camie sat between Sabastian and Jason and Camie nagged Sabastian's ear off the whole journey

She scolded him about his anti-social behavior for weeks, acknowledging that Theresa and Layton's so called betrayal, but scolding him for cutting the rest of them out

Sabastian sat quietly as she grilled him, and Jason and Davis sat quietly, secretly pitying Sabastian for Camie's incessant scolding

Davis and Jason themselves wanted to talk to Sabastian about it, but no one was better at this than the red headed fury that was the debating champion Camie Lynn Smith

But everything that Camie said had hit the spot. She was insightful, understanding everything that Sabastian was feeling. She should become a psychiatrist or something, and before long Sabastian broke down in tears

"I think you should stop now" Davis said to Camie, gesturing at Sabastian who had started sobbing

Camie looked at him and hugged him, leaning her head on him. Jason patted his shoulder by putting his arm behind Sabastian

Sabastian felt stupid. This heartbreak was but mere puppy love. He knew that he would face further heartbreaks and this would be nothing compared to that. But nevertheless, this felt like the world had crumbled around him

He was also surprised at Camie. She had fiery red hair, and had a short hair cut, dressing like a tomboy most times. He had always assumed she was a lesbian or something

But now, with hugging him and comforting him, he felt... weird

She looked up, and their faces were mere inches from each other

"I.. I always thought you like girls" Sabastian blurted out

"Bastard. What are you talking about?" Camie said, pushing his face away as Davis and Jason laughed

But nevertheless, she blushed and the rest of the cab ride was awkward. Jason and Davis teased them the rest of the ride there