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He doesn’t know how he got here, sitting on his green couch at 3 am with a glass of red wine in his left hand and his phone in his right one, deciding whether or not to call a number that he thought had left his memory.
Well scratch that, he does know how he got here. It was after a day full of unpacking in his new apartment, one with actual walls, that he found the 2013 Dalton yearbook at the bottom of one of his boxes labeled ‘books’. He didn’t graduate from Dalton but Nick still had sought him out and made sure he still got the yearbook. “I know you are not at Dalton with us anymore” Nick had said when they met at the Lima Bean a month before graduation years ago, “but i still want you to have it” handing him a book “so that you can add it to your collection of yearbooks. Plus there might be a surprise waiting for you.” And surprise did he get. All his Warbler friends - Jeff, Nick, Meatbox, Thad, David, and yes, Sebastian, had sent him well wishes and congratulations on finishing his senior year. And while he technically was not a Warbler anymore, he was always welcomed to hangout with them whenever he wanted. That was the last thing he heard from most of them though. Yes, he still texted Nick and maybe Jeff occasionally, but other than that it was radio silent from the rest of the group. Ok, so maybe that was his fault because he didn’t follow up with them, but ,when he sent a Facebook friend request to Sebastian back in May, when his relationship was at the brink of collapse, he at least hoped the green-eyed boy would accept it. Alas, he never did. He tried not to take it personally.
And why should Sebastian respond back? They didn’t talk much after the Michael incident even though Sebastian did try to contact him to apologize. He was stubborn and didn’t want to listen to him back then. In fact, the last time they talked was when he needed help with his proposal. Even then, the only response he got back from Sebastian was “Once a Warbler, always a Warbler. So, yes we will help you.” And it's no secret to anyone that Sebastian didn’t like his choice of husband -- well technically ex fiance now, so there was a wall put in place between them.
All he knows about the other boy is from the small updates he gets from Nick. Just last week Nick had texted him a picture of him eating a macaron, with a text saying “Sebastian went back to Paris, he brought me back these macarons that I love but Jeff ate half of the box. I love him, but do you see what I have to put up with? It's not my fault he ate the entire box Seb bought for him in a day.” And that was that. All he knows is that Sebastian is now living in Los Angeles, working in a law firm that specializes in human rights. He, at times, still wonders what his life would be like now had he transferred back to Dalton for his senior year. Would he and Sebastian start dating? Would he even be in New York? Would he be working at the theater? Questions that he understands will never be answered because he didn’t take that road.
So here he is now, sitting on his couch in his small apartment in New York City at 3 am with a glass of red wine in his hand while trying to get the courage to call Sebastian while the Dalton yearbook sits by his side.
Chugging the remaining red wine from his glass, he got up from his couch and dialed a number that he knew from memory. Hoping the other boy would answer him.
--
On the other side of the country, Sebastian is laying down on his back, arm stretching out to the other side of him, reaching out for his boyfriend of four years -- technically, as of a few hours ago, his fiancee. Except he couldn’t get to him in time as Eli got up from bed and walked to the door.
“Where are you going? Come back to bed”
“I am just going to get a glass of water”
“Fine, hurry up. Also, can you get me one?” - he yelled
“You have two legs, two arms and two hands Seb, get your own.” - Eli yelled back, chuckling and shaking his head at how ridiculous his fiance was being.
“I would if you hadn’t tired me out, plus you love me” -- Sebastian yelled across their apartment.
“I guess I do,” Eli whispered to himself
While Eli was in the kitchen, Sebastian got up from bed and started looking for his phone, not knowing where he left it during their hasty activities. Until he found it inside the pocket of his pants.
He grabbed his phone and crawled back to bed. Laying down again, he unlocked his phone and started to scroll through his photos from the proposal, figuring out which ones he wanted to post to Facebook. He hadn’t checked Facebook since April because he didn’t care much for it. He had several group chats with his friends where they gave him unnecessary updates so there was no point for Facebook, he also didn’t want to delete his account because he had family members he followed on there. So he just deleted the app from his phone. He knew his friends -- well just Thad and Meatbox, maybe NIck -- would start posting pictures of his proposal without his consent so he wanted to beat them, and thus here he is trying to decide which pictures looked the best.
“What are you doing?” Eli said from the door
“Trying to figure out which pictures to put on Facebook. You know Thad and Meatbox will try to upload blurry and hideous pictures of us and I can’t have that.”
“When did Sebastian ‘I don’t care what other people say’ Smythe started to care about what people on Facebook saw of him?”
“I don’t care about the pictures of me” Sebastian said, rolling his eyes “I, however, care about the pictures Thad has of you. I can’t have my fiance looking all blurry. I need everyone to see how hot you are.”
“When did you become soft?”
“When I meet you” Sebastian said -- looking down at his phone once more.
Eli blushed. “Ok, well you can look at your phone another time. Come here, we have better things to do” -- Eli said wiggling his eyebrows.
“Oh, now you are talking” Sebastian said with a growl, putting his phone on silent mode so no one could bother him -- well just so Thad didn’t call in the middle of their activities -- and putting it facedown on their nightstand. Moving to where Eli was.
--
He tried not to be disappointed when his call went unanswered. He knew this was one of the possibilities when he called. Also, what was he thinking calling in the middle of the night. It's past midnight already in Los Angeles, Sebastian is most likely asleep. Not only that, but most likely the other boy didn’t want to hear from him. Either way, he called again but this time leaving a voicemail. Afterwards, he hung up, got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, leaving his cup of glass in the sink and walked to his new bedroom, sleep taking him over. Hoping that Sebastian would call back the next day.
--
After a long night of celebration, Sebastian woke up, stretching his arms above his head and looking at the gorgeous guy sleeping next to him. Never in his life did he think he was going to fall in love so hard for another person like he did with Blaine, but against all odds, here he is, engaged to the person who was able to repair his broken heart.
After placing a kiss on top of Eli’s sleeping head, he sat up and reached for his phone. He saw that he had a missing call and a voicemail but he didn’t recognize the number so he left it alone. Once again he began scrolling through his pictures until he found the perfect ones. After choosing 15 photos, he reinstalled the Facebook app and opened it. He saw a notification pop up and decided to open it.
Blaine Anderson sent you a friend request.
Holy shit, Blaine “killer ass” Anderson. What is he up to now Sebastian wondered. He hadn’t heard from him since senior year in high school. When he and the rest of the Warblers helped him propose to Kurt. He still regrets that their friendship was damaged during the whole Michael incident. They used to talk on the phone and text constantly plus it was fun seeing him get flustered by his flirting. Looking back at it now, he realizes that he must have fallen in love with Blaine and, for the first time, during one of those two hour long conversations about red wine and blazers. That is why he felt a sharp pain by his heart when Blaine asked for his help to propose to Kurt during their senior year. At the time, 17 year old Sebastian didn’t understand why he was hurting, but now 24 year old Sebastian did, it was his heart breaking.
And from then on, he moved on with his life. He opted out of going to Columbia University because he knew there was a chance of him running into Blaine and everyone from the New Directions. He didn’t want that. He wanted to mend his broken heart. So he moved across the country and joined Stanford University in California. During his junior year of college, after sleeping with countless other people and feeling like himself again, he met Eli. Eli was able to keep up with sarcasm and would actually flirt back with him. So, after much convincing from Nick, he decided to ask him on a date. And one date turned into two and then ten turned into him going with David to buy a ring. Feeling happier than ever with the boy that turned his cold heart into a soft one, he proposed.
Without responding to the request, he then went to his home page and uploaded the pictures. After being on Facebook for a while and responding to messages congratulating him and Eli, he put his phone back in the nightstand, deleting the voice mail and rolled over to wake up his beautiful fiance. Not regretting anything.
--
In NYC, Blaine was getting ready to go to the theater when he got a notification.
Sebastian Smythe has accepted your friend request
He couldn’t believe it. Sebastian must have heard his voicemail if he accepted his friend request. He hated how his heart skipped a beat when he saw Sebastian's photo. He was in the middle of sending him a message when he saw a post on his timeline.
Sebastian Smythe is engaged.
He had to do a double take. He didn’t realize how long he stared at his phone until he felt tears start rolling down his cheeks. After a while, he pulled himself together, typed congratulations under Sebastian's post, and wiped his tears away. He then made his way to the subway station, starting his new single life.