Seb and Beau - 2. Chapter 2 - Seb

Checking the mirror for the fourth time, I wanted to make sure I was presentable for the interview I had today. My hair was cooperative this morning, thank goodness; not a cowlick in sight. I like the color of my hair, dark brown with natural highlights from the sun. I keep it short and usually cut in a style which is fashionable but manageable without too much effort. I honestly couldn’t be bothered; it’s just hair. But the business world demands that it be tidy.

My suit was dry cleaned and had all the right creases. I’d spent a lot of my savings on a tailored suit for when I started in the workforce, not that I’m tooting my own horn, but it looked good on me. I’m not what anyone would consider overly good looking, just an average guy, in good shape, but so definately not ugly. Although I do believe ugly is more on the inside than anywhere else. I do like my eyes though; they are a chocolate brown. Everybody should like something about themselves.

“Morning.” I chirped.

My boyfriend Royce was sitting at the breakfast bar eating grapefruit and reading from his tablet.

“Yeah,” he mumbled.

Royce didn’t even look up from his tablet.

“Everything okay?”

“Huh?”

He finally dragged his eyes away from whatever he was reading and looked at me.

“I just asked if everything was okay.”

“I’m trying to read, what do you need?” he asked disgruntled.

I shook my head.

“Nothing, nothing at all. I was saying good morning was all. Go back to your reading.”

I waved my hand at his tablet, so he went back to reading, eating and ignoring my presence once again. One thing Royce isn’t, is a morning person; but he isn’t usually this grumpy either. He’d been like this for the past week. It’s hard to escape him when he’s in a mood like this. We live in a tiny one bedroom apartment, but in a nice area. It’s the best we could afford as college students, both in our senior year getting ready to take on the world.

Royce had gotten up before me and had thankfully put on a pot of coffee. I rifled through the cupboard to find my travel mug. I moved things around looking for it when I heard Royce sigh.

“What are you looking for?” he said tersely.

Popping my head up from the cupboard so I could see him I answered, “My travel mug, I could have sworn I put it in here the other day.”

He pointed to the drying rack next to the sink. It was turned upside down, clean and dry. Yay! Now I wouldn’t have to stop and waste money buying a coffee. I don’t have extra cash to splash around. If all goes well with my interview today, we would need moving money.

“I borrowed it yesterday and washed it up by hand.”

“Ah, thank you.” I smiled.

“Mhmm.”

Royce had gone back to reading, but then his head snapped back up.

“What are you wearing?”

I looked down at my outfit.

“My suit, I have that interview today remember. At that place where Odie works. Connington Metal Industries. It’s a paid internship, and counts toward the last part of my degree.”

Royce rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”

“I thought you were okay with this. We talked about it; you said I should go for it.” I frowned.

“You should go for it. It’s pretty hard to come by a paid internship.”

“It is, I’m kind of excited about it. The only part I don’t like is that we’ll be apart for the rest of the school year. When we graduate, we can decide what we want to do together.” I smiled.

“Mhmm.” Royce hummed while watching me fill my travel mug.

“Okay, I better head out. I’ve got to hand in my last paper, for some reason I wasn’t able to upload it last night. Hopefully, the professor will accept the hard copy or she knows why it wouldn’t work.” I sighed.

“Good luck,” Royce said devoid of any emotion.

I smiled then quickly kissed him goodbye.

<>-<>-<>

Campus parking is always a nightmare; I drove around the parking lot closest to the engineering building hoping to get lucky. On my third whip around just as I was about to give up a car was backing out. Thank god, I’m not yet running late but who knows how long this is going to take. Moving as quickly as I could to the professor’s office without working up a sweat, it wouldn’t be good to turn up to an interview smelling like I came straight from the gym.

The professor's door was open with a few students lined up out front of the office. I guess I wasn’t only only who could send this digitally. As I waited in the line, I pulled my hard copy of the assignment along with the thumb drive I had it saved.

The TA came out to greet us.

“Morning, I’m gathering due papers. We’d like to apologize for the inconvenience; IT is looking into the issue now. If you are here to hand in your paper, please ensure you have a hard copy along with a digital, both should have all the normal identifyers”

The line moved quickly without any chit-chat. I hauled ass back to my car,. The drive back home to Lexington was over an hour if the traffic was good. Luck was on my side today; the freeway was clear with not a lot of traffic. I suppose it helps that school has already started and peak hour is over. At this rate, I should make it with enough time to have a sandwich and another coffee before my interview. I had the forethought to make a snack for the road. So all I have to do is grab a coffee and find a park to sit and enjoy.

<>-<>-<>

Stunned, I sat in my car. They offered me the job right on the spot. I have tonight to think about it and give them my answer tomorrow. This is fantastic, Odie was right, he said they were impressed, but after that interview, they were not only impressed with my resume and school grades but with me. Amazing, I started my car as I called Royce. Man, I’m excited.

Damn voicemail.

“Hey guess what? I got the job. I start Monday so I’ll be earning more money straight away. How cool is that, we’ll celebrate when I get home. Love ya.”

After ending the call, I started making my way home, my mind racing. I only have three days to organize the move to Lexington; if I take the job, of course, I’m going to take the job, how many people get the opportunity for a paid internship. It’s going to be hard being away from Royce for a couple of months, but at least Lexington is only an hour or so away, we can see each other all the time.

It was such a nice day out, I rolled down the windows and turned the radio up and sang my heart out all the way home, I didn’t even care when I got strange looks from other drivers. Who gives a shit, I just smiled, waved, and sang louder. I was in too good of a mood to care what anybody else thought.

<>-<>-<>

Good, Royce is home. I parked into one of the spots reserved for our apartment. Royce’s Audi was parked in the other one: a gift from his parents when he graduated high school. I grabbed my job packet, wallet, and phone and almost skipped with excitement to the elevator.

As soon as I entered the apartment, something was off. I spotted a sweater slung over the arm of the couch haphazardly, out of habit I picked it up to put it on the coat rack. It was made of a cheap blend, Royce wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this, and it definitely wasn’t mine. A pair of runners lay scattered in the hallway – What’s with Royce, he is usually so anal. The I heard grunts and groans coming from the bedroom. My chest heaved, and my head swirled with confusion – and now rage – my body started to shake. I rammed the bedroom door open with my shoulder.

“Ah fuck, ,” I yelled holding my shoulder as pain ripped through it.

Royce and his new bed buddy sprung apart.

“Ah fuck, that hurt,” the stranger yelled as he was thrown forward into the bed head and Royce sprung off the bed standing naked covering his junk staring at me wide-eyed. The other guy now sat up rubbing his forehead, growling at me. “Who the hell are you?”

“Sebastian!” Royce said surprisingly, “You weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow.”

“GET.OUT!” I growled at the guy in our bed.

I recognized the asshole too, he was the prick I handed my paper to this morning, the TA for my professor. Motherfucker!

“Seb –”

“You get out too, Royce,” I said calmly.

My voice was eerily calm, but inside I was shaking. How the fuck could he do this to me; to us? In my rage, I pushed them both out of the bedroom, and out of the apartment, my shoulder throbbing the entire time. Royce looked stunned as the front door slammed in his face with a loud echoing bang. Leaning against the door, I bent over with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath and sobbed.

Royce started banging on the door.

“Let me in Sebastian; I’m naked.”

Bang, bang, bang.

“Sebastian, I’m not kidding around. Let me the fuck in.”

“Go away Royce,” I called through the door.

He kept banging; I walked away from the door ignoring him.

It was time to get the hell out of here. I stormed back to the bedroom grabbing my luggage bag from the bottom of the closet. I blindly ripped my clothes from hangers and threw them in the suitcase. I then emptied handfuls of my underwear, t-shirts, and sweats into the bag. The adrenaline finally wearing off, I sat down on the bed next to my suitcase and wept, I sat sobbing; feeling sorry for myself. At least Royce finally stopped banging on the front door. Asshole.

I pulled myself together as best as I could, took a quick walk through the apartment and grabbed anything of sentimental value. Not that there was much, my Grandfather’s pocket watch, and a few photos of me and, my sister Katherine. I put them in my suitcase, zipped it up and put it by the front door, then grabbed a garbage bag and gathered my shoes inside. Once I’d done that, I found myself standing by the front door looking around the apartment for anything I thought I might need.

My laptop was sitting on the table beside the couch; I gathered my electronics, laptop, tablet, my electric razor. Somehow I managed to fit it all in my computer bag , along with the charging cables. I also I gathered every possible cable and plug that could charge anything in the apartment possibly even the base to the coffee machine, the phones, and the cordless landline phone – Fuck him!. I even “accidentally” packed the charger to his laptop and cell phone.

When I swung the front door open, two uniformed officers were standing with Royce; one had his hand poised ready to knock on the door. Royce had one of those silver blankets that emergency services use wrapped around his waist.

“Oh good, you can help me,” I said directly to the officer.

I handed him my suitcase and the bag with my laptop, I reached back into the apartment and grabbed the couple of garbage bags with my shoes and the cables from the house. The officer had a stunned look on his face while the other looked amused.

“Apartments all your’s asshole, I’ll be back for the rest sometime over the next week. I’ll let you know when.”

I pushed my way through them, turning to the officer still holding my stuff. Royce stood there silently watching me in disbelief. That tells me everything I need to know, doesn’t it? No excuses, or apologies, nothing but silence.

“Well, come on, I’m sure you’re a busy man,” I said to the officer with my head held high.

Thank god they couldn’t see me shaking, or feel my nausea. The cop blindly followed me with a shrug of his shoulder. I guess they were happy for a peaceful outcome. I opened the trunk and started shoving my stuff in; the officer gently put the bags he was holding into the back of my car for me.

“Now just to be sure sir, there is only your belongings in these bags, and you haven’t destroyed anything in the apartment?” He asked me.

“That’s not who I am. He’s the asshole, not me.” I sighed.

He narrowed his eyes at me making nervously shift in place.

“Is the stuff in those bags only your personal items?” He narrowed his eyes at me.

“Maybe.” I chewed on my bottom lip. I was going for cute and naughty.

The officer stared at me until I caved.

“Fine, I might have taken all the cables to anything electronic, he won’t be able to charge anything, watch tv, or make coffee. That’s all! He’s lucky that’s all I did after catching him in bed with another guy.”

The officer’s mouth was curled up at the ends like he was trying to hide his amusement.

“What would you have done?” I asked the officer hugging myself as I looked away.

“Probably shot him,” he chuckled.

My head snapped back to the amused man in front of me.

“Thank you, Officer…” I looked at his badge. “Officer Vernon.”

I slammed the trunk closed and took the keys out of my pocket.

“You’re welcome, now you best get out of here,” he said firmly before walking off. He turned around walking backward pointing at my car. “Nice car by the way. ’68 Camaro?”

“It’s a ’67, thanks,” I mumbled getting into the driver's seat.

I didn’t hang around. I just started up my baby, and we left.