Sebastian Bear (complete)

THIRTY-ONE

THIRTY-ONE

Madeline sat across from Mr. Bear, taking the short moment of silence to calm her thrumming heart. She glanced over her shoulder toward the house, where she could see Sebastian laughing hard at something Ezra said. She hoped maybe he would feel her turmoil and come to her rescue, they were a match right- shouldn't he feel her pain or something?

Mr. Bear studied her face quietly, puffing away at his cigar. She forced a polite smile, burying her hands deep in her hoodie pocket.

"Do you love my son?" That was quick. Madeline felt her eyes widen but she corrected them quickly. They had jumped right into it. She wasn't prepared.

"I do," she stuttered.

"I'm not mad at you," Mr. Bear explained. "I don't blame you for Sebastian staying so long, that was his decision. I'm just apprehensive about all of this. I'm not sure how it's supposed to work."

Madeline sighed. "I'm not sure either, Mr. Bear. I've talked to Sebastian about it and he just tells me not to worry."

"And do you listen?"

"I mean..." Madeline shrugged. "I don't know anything about this world. I barely know anything about my world but Sebastian seems to understand a lot more than most," she smiled. "I try to listen and not worry though."

Mr. Bear nodded and took a heavy puff of his cigar. The smoke curled around his beard and disappeared into the dark sky.

"You can't live here. I'm not saying that in a mean way. I'm saying that in the way that it's not physically possible. But again, you shouldn't even be able to be here right now," he took a deep breath. "I just don't want my son getting his hopes up and then all this goes to shit. It could very well go to shit."

He was somber. Madeline noticed the shift in his attitude as his eyes settled behind her shoulder at his laughing child who was really no longer a child. She didn't respond. She didn't audibly agree with him because she had already been over the scenario a thousand times. It could very well all go to shit, as he so eloquently put it. She assumed it most likely would. Her chest ached. She had just gotten away from the evil doubting thoughts that she'd been plagued with since their first kiss. Hearing them out loud from another person was something else entirely.

"Can I ask you something personal?" He was looking at her once more. Madeline nodded.

"Why did you need Sebastian in the first place?"

Why did she need him? She blurted it out without thinking. She told him about her mother's disappearance and then the sudden death of her father. She talked about the move from one place to another and the bullies at her new school. She then mentioned briefly the betrayal of her best friend Nolan Sinclair just a month before.

"I'm sorry for your losses," Mr. Bear spoke in reverent tones.

"It was a long time ago," she shrugged. "But thanks, Mr. Bear."

"You can call me George," he was stubbing out the burning end of that cigar. She smiled, genuinely that time. She knew he was still worried, his brow never quite smoothing out. "Shall we?" he gestured to the group of pleasant individuals listening to music inside their tiny stone home. She agreed, following her matches father back inside the house. Sebastian grabbed her by the hand and spun her in a circle. She gasped, eyes widening at her sudden lack of control. He tugged her close, forcing her to dance to the silly old song blaring through the unusual speakers.

"Oh, we are dancing!" Ezra shrieked, pulling Jackson to participate in the impromptu dance party. Mrs. Bear laughed when George offered her his hand. Gray rolled his eyes, chugging the last bit of amber-colored liquor down his throat, before disappearing out back for a lonely cigarette. Madeline didn't notice, her focus lay in the purple iris's of Sebastian Bear, his hands spanning the width of her lower back, his smile constant and contagious.