SEBASTIAN AND CHASE watched on as Reyna shoved yet another chicken tender into her mouth. Sebastian was more than aware of just how much Reyna could eat, but Chase was not. She was working on her twelfth chicken tender and that was something Chase never thought he would've witnessed. Reyna was a relatively small girl, and seeing her devour so much food in such a short amount of time surprised him.

"Are you not full yet, Reyna?" Chase asked her, throwing a fry into his own mouth.

Reyna shook her head and took yet another tender from her basket, finishing it before wiping her hands and pushing the basket away from her. "I will stop, however, so we can have a chat."

"You two don't need to chat; just eat your tenders and the two of us will talk," Sebastian spoke up, grabbing a chicken tender from Reyna's basket and shoving it towards her mouth.

Reyna gave him a look and shoved his hand away, though she took the tender anyway, which earned her a smile from Sebastian. Chase watched the two of them interact with narrowed eyes, memories from his years in high school filling his mind. He felt that familiar itch inside him resurfacing, but for the sake of himself and for the sake of the couple sitting in front of him he forced himself to contain it.

"So, what did you two get into after graduating? I know you went on to Rutgers, Sebastian, but the last time I saw or heard from you was at our graduation, Reyna," Chase spoke, nonchalantly chomping on a fry.

"I went to Tisch School of the Arts for acting," Reyna answered him. "Clearly."

Chase smirked and sipped at his drink, clasping his hands together on the table. "Must be nice, y'know."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Chase. "I'm sorry to say I don't know. What are you talking about?"

"Just you two—best of friends in high school turned world famous actors and lovers," Chase chuckled. "You're both living the good life. I have to say I'm kind of envious."

"But you work for Vogue," Sebastian retorted.

"I'll never be Bucky Barnes, though."

"He's not Bucky Barnes, though," Reyna muttered with a mouth full of food. "He's just a means to give the character a face and a personality, is all. Just as I am not Wanda Maximoff; I'm just a means to give her a face and a personality."

Chase raised a brow in question and looked at Sebastian.

"Comic book nerd who is very possessive over her favorite characters," Sebastian told him. "I would assume that you already knew that, though, given everything that happened only several years back."

Reyna looked over at Sebastian, a glare on her face. "Can you not?"

"I'm just making a statement," Sebastian defended himself.

"No, you're being petty again and I can't fucking stand it," Reyna countered with a roll of her eyes.

Chase smiled and shook his head in a reassuring manner, though Reyna had already fixed her gaze back on her food. "It's okay, Reyna. He only means well."

"Whatever," she grumbled as she grabbed her purse and got up from her seat.

Sebastian gave her a startled look and grabbed her wrist. "Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom," she answered before ripping her arm from his grasp and heading back into the restaurant, leaving Chase and Sebastian alone with one another.

Chase looked at Sebastian with a snide smirk on his face and sat back in his seat, taking a small swig of his drink. "Y'know, being so overly possessive the way that you are will eventually drive her away, Sebastian."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You're suffocating her; you're living in a past that you can't seem to let go of, and she doesn't like it," Chase informed him.

Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest. "She knows I'm only being the way I am because I love her."

"I'm sure she does, but as I've learned from personal experience, a woman can only take so much before they've finally had enough, and from what I'm gathering during this little outing of ours, Reyna's getting to that point and it's barely been three weeks since you two last ran into me," Chase explained to him.

"Reyna would never leave me, especially not because of this," Sebastian scoffed. "She's been with me for seventeen years, and even through all of the shit we've been through she's stayed."

Chase merely shrugged and tinkered with the glass in his hand. "I'm just saying, Sebastian. She's not the person she used to be; I'm sure you've figured that out by now. You're not the only person in her life anymore, meaning that she'll have someone else to fall back on if she does in fact leave you."

"She's not going to leave me," Sebastian told him, trying to convince himself more-so than Chase.

"Maybe not, but with the way things are looking right now, I wouldn't blame her if she did."

Sebastian gave him a hard glare. "Is that what your intentions are here? You know how I feel about you and her, so you're trying to use that to your advantage? Are you trying to separate us? Are you still holding a grudge over me because of what happened between us back at the stupid party? Are you still mad at me because of the way I protected her from what you were so willing to do to her?"

"The only one holding a grudge here is you, Stan," Chase told him. "I realized my mistake and I learned from it. I left it all in the past, including that party incident you're still so screwed up about. Answer me this question? Does Reyna even remember that almost-incident?"

"No, she doesn't," Sebastian answered with a shake of his head.

Chase smirked once more, feeling slightly happy with his answer. "Explains why she doesn't completely despise me the way you do."

"I don't despise you," Sebastian told him. "I just don't necessarily appreciate some of the things you said, did, and tried to do."

"It's been fourteen years and you still can't seem to let things go, Sebastian. And it's because of that you're slowly letting go of Reyna, even if you don't realize it yet."

Sebastian swallowed the lump in his throat and frowned. "Reyna won't leave me."

"Just be careful, Sebastian," Chase told him. "It'd be such a shame to sit and watch as you drive her away simply because you care too much about her."

Sebastian couldn't bring himself to formulate a verbal response, as he was much too flustered to even think about speaking. All he could do was sit and ponder over Chase's words, as well as concentrate on the fear of just how true they could prove to be.

_______________

SHORT CHAPTER, I'M SORRY
KIND OF INTENSE, I GUESS
ALSO SORRY