Sebastian

Aleah walked past Nathan and I to walk out the front door to take the call she was getting, muttering a quick apology before shutting the door. She wasn't covering her screen, and curiosity won the best of me as I looked down and saw Sperm Donator was lighting up her screen.

Once the door was shut, I let out the snort I was holding in and played it off by rubbing a finger under my nose when Nathan raised a brow at me.

"Allergies."

"Mm."

Baby Brit took hold of my hand and dragged me up the stairs and into her room, leaving her brother to get himself a snack in the kitchen. Without me. Good thing I had already eaten a protein bar before coming. Though, I was already getting hungry again.

Having to eat a snack every hour was kind of annoying, but it was a given with how much I worked out. It was my therapy. And I wasn't going to give up on the only thing keeping me sane.

"Can you help me?" Brit looked up at me with her big brown eyes, looking like a sad puppy. Those eyes were the reason I went broke immediately after getting a check.

"Of course, princess." I knelt down to her level. "What do you need help with?"

"A letter for Aleah."

I nodded, watching her gather up some of the materials she wanted to use for said letter.

"Letter? For what?"

She frowned for a second, remembering something. "I want to say it's okay to be sad. Mommy and Nathan get sad too. And that I don't want her to leave me again."

"Sad?" The girl out there showed no sign of sadness. She looked like the life of the party if anything.

"Mhm." She dropped one of the crayons and I picked it up for her, setting it on her little working table. "You get sad sometimes too."

I snapped my eyes up at her and tried my best to hold back my own frown. The way this little girl read people was quite scary. I've never shown I was sad in front of her. I guessed kids could sense vibes.

But still.

I didn't appreciate getting read like an open book by a five year old. Especially when I tried really hard to hide any of my true feelings.

"I'm not sad, Brit," I forced a chuckle, yet the second it came out I knew it wasn't believable.

She narrowed her eyes at me, then shrugged to give me my way. "Okay."

I hate it here.

"I just don't know how to spell yet. I need help writing it."

I stretched my hand as I sat my ass down on the ground in front of her table. "I don't have the best handwriting."

"That's okay."

• • •

"Hey, man, you good?" Ryan waved a hand in front of me as he handed me another beer. "You've been dozing off half the night already."

I blinked my thoughts away and tilted my head back to chug the whole beer down. "I'm good. Just a bit stressed about work." Not a full lie.

Truth was, I couldn't stop thinking about Aleah. Not because I was interested in her. Never that. But because I watched Brit hand her the letter I wrote for her. She read it in front of me. And she knew I was the one who wrote it.

I didn't think she liked that I knew so much about her already. I wasn't even sure I liked that either.

I learned she lost a sister and that it hit her hard. I also learned that she got panic attacks. At least that's what I figured with the way Brit described the one she saw happen.

And the way she looked up at me when she finished reading the letter reminded me of my mom. With her eyes glossy with unshed, stubborn tears and a quivering pout.

Only if it were my mother in front of me, I wouldn't have held back the strong urge to rush over and hug her. The only woman that saw that side of me was my mother now.

I just didn't understand why the feeling was so strong with her. I didn't even know the girl deeper than what I've heard others say about her.

Yet what Brit revealed about her seemed spot on with the way she reacted.

"Um," a hand waving in front of my face snapped me out of my thoughts again. "You sure you're good?"

Nathan looked up at me from his spot on the couch and smirked behind his bottle. "It's been years since a girl had you zoning out like that."

Ryan took a double take between Nathan and I, looking more than lost. "What the fuck? A girl?" He looked down at his nearly empty bottle and swooshed the remaining contents inside to check for something. "Well I'm not drugged, so I know I heard that correctly. But I still gotta ask to make sure because what? Seb likes a girl?"

I scrunched my face and shook my head as if they just accused me of murder. I would never. "You of all people know that would never happen."

"Which is why I'm confused, motherfucker."

I rolled my eyes and flipped Nathan off when he started laughing. "I don't like the girl, and I'm not thinking about her."

"I saw the way you would look at her." The asshole looked smug. "And this is the longest you stayed over. You didn't even go to the gym."

"That means nothing," I grumbled. "I had already went this morning before work."

"Mm, right." The way Nathan looked proud was annoying me. "So why are you still here? You usually leave as soon as Brit goes to sleep. She went to bed three whole hours ago."

"Don't doubt me. I've never given you reason to."

Ryan set his bottle down and took mine from me to set it next to his. I eyed them to make sure exactly which one was mine.

"So who is this girl?"

Groaning, I took my bottle back and chugged what was left. "There is no girl."

"It's Aleah." Nathan butted in anyway. "I thought that was more than obvious."

"Clearly not obvious enough." Ryan scoffed. "So, you mean the girl upstairs? Your little sister's babysitter?" He lifted a brow at me when Nathan nodded his answer. That left Ryan looking even more confused. "Listen, I don't blame you. You don't need to be ashamed of falling for her. I get it. That girl's nearly perfect."

"Nearly?"

Ryan smirked as he uncapped another bottle, winking at me as he pressed it to his lips. "No one's actually perfect, buddy."

"Doesn't matter anyway, because I don't like the girl. I hardly even know her."

I didn't even understand why they were so persistent about the topic.

"Can you blame us when you've never even spared any girl a second glance before? Hell, you never held any kind of conversation with anyone if it wasn't profesional. Little mister scared-of-girls."

I scoffed. "I'm not scared of them."

"Right, and I'm a virgin."

When I eyed Ryan for his comment, he coughed and looked away as he kept drinking his beer. "Okay, I'm done."

"If anything I'm just... curious about her." I decided to admit it to them to stop them from assuming anything further. I couldn't like someone I didn't know.

Was I attracted? Sure, who wouldn't be. But I didn't know her enough to like her.

And I wasn't planning on knowing her enough for that.

Especially when she had that many men going after her. Counting the party incident and what Ryan said about her.

She wasn't new to attention, that was obvious. And I wasn't gonna be added to the list of men chasing after her. Ever.

"Curious, huh?" Nathan bent forward in his seat and rested his elbows on his knees, letting his drink hang in his hands. "Well, we've been friends since middle school, what do you want to know?"

Although the idea of getting information from him was tempting, I held back for the sake of avoiding getting clowned even more from my idiot friends. I wouldn't doubt they'd do it in front of our other friends either when we hung out.

Yeah, no thanks.

"Not that curious." Leaving it at that, I walked away from them and went up the stairs to use the bathroom.

I would've went straight to my friends when I was done, but the sound of muffled cries coming from the guest bedroom stopped me in my tracks. The room was two rooms away from Brit's. Far enough away but close enough that she'd be able to hear if Brit needed anything.

That also meant she was probably using a pillow to muffle her cries.

Without thinking, I reached out for the doorknob then thought better of it and pulled away. I lifted my fist a few inches away from the door, but also decided to back away after a few seconds of debating to knock.

Groaning, I forced my legs to walk away to go back to my friends, her sounds of distress getting quieter and quieter.

I felt bad. But she probably wanted her space and I needed to mind my business anyway.

For both her and my sake.