My Bubblegum King - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

My impatience level was blowing up red and dangerous. I couldn't stop looking at my phone and time seemed to have slowed to a complete stop.
5:46 on...
"Like how can one minute take hours to go by?" I asked Sim, jumping out of my bed and walking around.
Sim tutted, this wasn't the first time I was asking the exact same thing. "Look away from your phone?"
"I can't," I walk back to my bed and tap on my screen. A loud groan left me as I saw the time was still the same. "I'm physically and mentally unable to."
"Someone would think you're wait for gamble ticket wins, a kind of lottery or I don't know, the announcement on the birth of your child across the country," Sim said waving a wooden spoon around.
"This isn't funny, six o'clock is taking it's damn time," I groaned.
5:47 pm...
"Just chill, come and see if I'm making progress in this salad. Your dad was a chef, right?"
Glancing at my phone one last time, I indulged Sim and walked over to the kitchen counter. Even his cooking space was neat. "I can't believe Seb got into a fight at work," my head was aching and now my eyes painfully stung with tears.
"Hey, he's alright. He called didn't he, that means he's alive and well."
"He had to go to the hospital," my voice cracked and the tears that had surprisingly piled up, rolled down one cheek. I quickly wiped it but if I've learnt anything from experience, it is that the act of wiping that first teardrop is the very act that opens the dam of tears. "I don't know if he's really fine or if he's lying to me so I don't worry or if he got into any other kind of trouble. And I- I just wanna be there right now."
I don't know when Sim crossed over the counter but before I knew it, I was hugging him and crying into his shirt. I was exaggerating, definitely but I couldn't help it. I was feeling this overwhelming feeling of helplessness and that the one time I could actually be there and be useful to Seb, I wasn't. I was in freaking college. And I know Seb dulls down the gravity of things for my behalf, he could get stabbed with a knife in the gut and tell me it was just a scratch, it barely met him. I needed to be there but I couldn't, I had a test the next day and mom would kill me if I just show up in town unannounced.
"Paxton, he's fine and you're gonna be video calling and confirming that in like five minutes. Do you want him to see your eyes all swollen and start feeling extra bad that he told you?"
"No," I started wiping my eyes knowing that Sim had a huge point. "He can't know I cried."
"Great, now distract yourself by helping me with this salad."
I chuckled, "you really care about this salad dude."
"I do and it's driving me crazy," he walked back to his bowl of veggies. "I feel like it's missing something, is the dressing done while it's in the bowl or after it's served? And do I add water?"
"Um, I know you definitely don't add water," I said, a bit confused. I didn't really know how to do a salad either. My dad was a big eater of actual food and whenever mum ate, it was either her first meal for the day or for drugs, so she didn't really have time for salad's either. Except when you go on dates... "You know you can just save yourself the trouble and order it?" I glanced at phone, no ring or light yet.
"I wanna know how to make it," Sim said. "Need to know."
"Then just ask YouTube, everything you need is on—" the ringing and vibration of my phone cut me off and I ran immediately surprising myself with my speed.
It was my much awaited video call and I picked it and ran into the bathroom, locking myself in so I don't disturb Sim and he doesn't disturb me too. Sebastian's face was flashing on the screen and I took a deep breath before answering, plastering on my sweet as a cherry smile. "Hey babe."
Have his face was off the screen like he was searching for something around and my anticipation to see his face was very well choking me. "Hey, howdy?" He sounded distracted and distant.
Howdy?!
I sighed, enough of keeping it cool. "Howdy? I'm freaking out over here and you're 'howdy-ing' me?"
I heard him sigh, "Sorry, I'm freaking out about you freaking out."
My heart caught in my throat, "is it that bad?" If it was I was coming home, test or not, parents or not.
"No no, it's just..." He drawled and I couldn't take not seeing him anymore. He clearly wasn't looking for anything, he was hiding.
"Sebastian Crown let me see your face!"
He sighed again and finally moved his head into the camera. My reaction, looking back on it, was pretty lit. I mean there was a couple thing Highschool Paxton would have done on seeing the deep slash above his boyfriend's right eye, cutting across his brow. It was swollen and red and looked stitched a hundred times, also looked terrifyingly painful. Anyway, I could have screamed, gasped so loud my mum would hear me or just straight up burst out crying but I didn't do none of this— I froze.
Sebastian pouted, "...I got stitches." I didn't say or do nothing. He hit the phone screen, the ring on his finger making a sound tap. "Flynn? Flynn, come on, do something. Scream at my hideous face, tell me I am ugly and you want to break up, Flynn." When I still didn't do anything, he groaned and moved his face away again. "You want to give me a heart attack is what."
I blinked back to reality. Really, his fear is him being ugly and me breaking it off? This guy...
"How much does it hurt?" I finally asked.
He reluctantly brought his face back, "Right now, not much because I'm kinda high on pain meds but before the pain meds... Hurt like a bitch."
"Do you know how many stitches you got?"
He shrugged, "they mentioned it but I was pretty high then too, so..." He smirked at me. "I'm really feeling this high thing, one good thing to come from this you know." I gave him the traditional 'are you kidding me, do you want me to stab your eye' look and he swallowed. "Nah, just joking."
I sighed, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed but calm too. "I'm so sorry."
Seb groaned, throwing his head back, "for what now?"
"For- for- I don't know. Not being there."
"Hey boyfriend," he called gently, then gestured to his face. "None of this is your fault. It the fault of a highly drunk piece of shit who couldn't get NO as an answer and had a knife. Not yours, okay and I'm a hero, you're dating a heroic Prince."
That made me smile. "A nearly blinded Prince you mean."
"That too," and then we chuckled before I caught myself realizing I shouldn't be laughing and Seb stopped too. "Next time, I'd just... Dodge better."
"Next time, Sebastian..."
"No, really, if I had a chance to change my actions the night it happened, I'd do everything all over again. That girl was so frightened and if I hadn't stepped, I don't know what would have happened," he said. "She came to the hospital to see me and she's calling and checking in. She's a really sweet girl."
"Awn," I couldn't help smiling again. "Okay I am dating a heroic Prince."
"Now you're talking."
"But like what about the bar, did they say anything? Are you still going to work there? I vote no, let someone else become a hero, you've almost lost your eye."
"I'm still working there Pax," he ignored my loud groan. "They are bringing in security though, so it's gonna be so much more safer."
I nodded, "I hate that I'm not there. Can you even see well?"
"Yup and stop seeing it as me almost losing my eye," he came closer so I can get a better look though I can't say that I appreciated it. "Look at it as me getting a cool badass scar. Check this out, are you seeing the way it's slashing through my brow? I've always wanted to do that slash across my brow but I've never had the courage. Now if everything goes right, I'd have it permanently. I've become way more badass, scars do that to you."
"Hm," I nodded, humoring him. "Are you saying I should go fight someone too because I've always wanted to be badass."
"No no way," the switch to seriousness was hilarious. "Why would you want to look badass? You're cute and perfect."
I burst out laughing at his seriousness. He acutely gave me the middle finger, "oh and Flynn, this is enough. You freaking out for me and caring for me, it's more than enough and I love it and you."
I sobered up, "I love you too, please be more careful."
"Of course, anything for my babe."
I blushed, "oh and fuck you too."
"I'd love that, I've never really tried distant video sex." I heard an unzipping. "I'm ready when you are."
"I didn't mean that!" I shrieked, shutting my eyes. I'm too horny to jokingly see Sebastian's dick right now. No way. "Sim is right outside the door, oh my God."
He burst out laughing and I heard the zipping sound again. "Fine, virgin."
I blushed so hard, I was worried Sim could feel the heat emitting from my face, then muttered. "You know I'm not."
He smirked, winking at me. "Fine if we aren't going to have video sex. Then enough about me, how about you?"
I sighed and launched into the story of the events I could remember and haven't told him over the days or weeks. I talked about Sim, Ryder and my classes. I talked about the none ending assignments and how Ryder is a hero juggling her part-time job with it. Sebastian said I could juggle too if I wanted, I was strong like that. Then I remembered the dance group friends we made and I told him about them. About how Fern is Cuban mixed and how he acquired a bit of an European accent while backpacking through it after highschool. About Stella and how she's like a black woman activist, black person even, Stella sees race in everything and just the one meeting with her started making me see and imagine things a bit different, in ways I've never thought of. And how it's so weird that apart from Sim, I've never had any black friend. There are no black families we personally knew back home too, it's weird. And then about Nancy and how she wanted me to dance.
"Well, you are an amazing dancer, Michael Jackson," he winked.
I rolled my eyes with a smile, "maybe but on the dance floor. Surrounded by drunk bodies who are probably not seeing me and even if they are, I am supposedly drunk. I've never danced without it being in my room alone or at a party, I don't think I can dance dance. People start that at a very young age."
"And you're 18 going on to 19, that's pretty young still do me."
"Yes but me," I gestured to myself. "Dancing?"
He chuckled calmly, "okay, take a deep breathe," I did. "It's not a life and death decision, okay? She just offered, you can and have every right to say no. Think about it, if it isn't something you see yourself doing, then simply tell her no and you guys still be friends. If it's something you think you can do, or if you have no idea, then take her up on her offer, find the free time and check the place out and get a feel of the whole dancing thing. You can still say no and back out anytime."
"Okay..."
"And if has to be something that doesn't mess up your schedule, something you can juggle with schooling with distractions. It doesn't have to be a career profession thing, it can be a hobby thing."
I smiled at him, "you see me dancing?"
"Flynn," he smirked. "You know my answer."
I shook my head shyly, "no I don't." I chuckled. "Hit me with the cheesiness."
"Okay," he cleared his throat. "I see you doing anything you put your heart into."
"Ah," I moved back holding my chest like I was hit with a bullet. Then laughed and curled myself together on the cold tile of our thankful to Sim very neat bathroom, "really?"
"Really, in case you haven't heard me say it; you're perfect."
I bit my lip, my heart doing a break dance of it's own too. "You're perfect and..." I drawled. "I'm not just dating you for your looks, my Prince. I'm also dating you because you blow my world away every single second with you, because you're amazing, because I love you so much and because I can't even find the reason why I love you this much."
He smiled, looking like I was looking— bewitched. "always me?"
I nodded, "always you."
That was a promise that as I made it, I was very sure I would keep it. Life is indeed full of surprises.