Chorus (Eleven)

Sebastian found me like that, sitting upright on the ground next to my phone replaying my worst nightmare. He had somehow come through the window, but my gaze was dead, focused on the wall in front of me.

I didn't take into focus his eyes, pleading with me to snap out of it. That was when he looked down at the phone.

He grew angry, like he hadn't seen the video yet. I was sure he had, he had to have seen it before.

It was everywhere, after all.

His voice was muffled, all of the sounds around me were. It was like I was under water and nothing I could do could pull me out of it.

I didn't know what was happening, I was panicking on the inside but on the outside I was stock still, almost like I was catatonic.

I felt a rush of air next to my ear and when the loud scream that penetrated my ear drums shook my entire body, everything came into focus for me.   I suddenly found myself face to face with Sebastian Jennings in my room sitting right in front of me, my head hurting from the loud noise that had just been blasted into my it.

"What was that for?" I demanded of him, wondering how he had snapped me out of the state that I had been in with a single slap and his presence.

"You looked like you were dead, I had to snap you out of it.  You're welcome, by the way," he said, and I suddenly realized just how dangerously close I was to his body.

His stubble had grown out a bit since I had last saw him, and the dark hair on his face made him look even more ruggedly handsome, in a more dangerous way.

His green eyes were staring into mine and I suddenly remembered the reason for my pain.  It was crazy to me how a few moments together with him like that could make me forget all of my sorrows, but the unmistakeable, unflinching and unforgiving white noise from the video could not be ignored any longer.

I pulled the phone up and looked at it for a moment.  The anger bubbled up inside of my chest, mixed with all of the frustration of the entire world seeing me at my very worst moment in my entire life.

I gave it one final look and threw it across the room, slamming against my dresser and then plopping to the ground in a pile of worthless garbage technology.

"Hey, if you didn't like my gift you could've just given it back-you didn't have to turn it into a pile of crap," he said, grabbing my hands in his.

I wanted to cry, to scream and throw a fit and go find whoever leaked that surveillance video from the school and beat the ever loving shit out of them, but I couldn't.

Instead, I cracked a smile at Sebastian's joke, and although the hurt didn't automatically go away, I still felt a bit better.

A knock at the door tore that smile off of my face and I immediately got into action, motioning for Sebastian to be silent and to crawl under the bed.

"One second," I shouted at whoever was behind my door.

I looked around for my bathrobe, not wanting my parents to see me in my going out clothes, otherwise they would watch me like a hawk for the entire rest of the night, never letting me out of their sight.

I was breathless by the time I got to the door and I was sure my cheeks were flushed to high heavens, but I threw open the door anyway and was surprised to find Josie behind it.

"Hey.  I came over to check on you and your parents heard a loud noise, I told them I'd check it out.  So what's going on?" she asked me as I just stared at her face.

I was stunned, expecting to be busted by my parents.

I pulled her inside, shutting the door and locking it and threw off my bathrobe once it was completely closed.

"Hey.  Listen, before you-" I started but she cut me off.

"And have you seen the media outlets lately?  That bullshit about you and Dylan, and his statement?  Bullshit, its all bullshit!!  They have no right to just dismiss any of it, he deserves to go to prison, to be taken to a dungeon and have his manhood sawed off with a very, very rusty knife.  No- a fork!  No!! A Spork!!  That way it will be even slower, so much more torturous!  And what about them calling you Sebastian's girlfriend?  I mean, its not like that wouldn't be the coolest thing in the world, but you guys barely know each other right?  And-"

"Josie!" I exclaimed at her, hoping to stop her rampage before she said something uncharacteristically embarrassing.

"What?  It's not like you haven't thought about it, he is so hot and-"

"Sebastian, you can come out now," I said, and her face paled.  She almost turned a shade of green.  It would have been hysterical if the ache in my chest hadn't come back.

"Finally," he said and upon seeing him emerge from underneath my bed, Josies eyes turned as wide as saucers, her blue orbs taking in the scene before her as if it were impossible, like Sebastian was some kind of alien or something.

"W-what?  I don't...?" she trailed off, clearly gobsmacked after seeing a celebrity of his status inside my bedroom, hiding underneath my bed no less.

"Josie, its okay.  Sebastian and I are..." I trailed off, not sure what we could call ourselves.

We were friends, I was pretty sure of that, but were we more than that because we had kissed in the hospital?  It was just one kiss after all...one mind blowing, speech numbing kiss that made my lips tingle just from the single thought of it again.

I saw a hand wave in front of my face and realized that I had stared off into space with my fingers lingering on my lips where I had felt the tingling in remembrance of the kiss.

"Hello, earth to Holly.  You were saying?" Josie asked me, wanting an explanation as to what was going on between her best friend and the superstar.

"We're friends," I said, looking to Sebastian for further clarity but he had an unreadable expression on his face, and he was staring off into space with his fingers on his lips like mine had been just moments before.

Was he thinking about the kiss too, just like I had been?  No, he had more important things to think about than one silly kiss between friends...

"So, how did this even happen?" she asked me and I realized that the last she had heard, Sebastian had said good riddance to me and told me to stay away from him basically.  She didn't know about him coming to the hospital to apologize and our kiss.  I definitely wasn't telling her about the latter with Sebastian in the room.

"He came to the hospital and we talked.  You know the beginning of the story, I told you how we met and all of that, remember?" I reminded her, not wanting to rehash that entire story in front of Sebastian who still looked deep in thought.  I wondered what was going on with him...

"Okay, so you're just besties with an international superstar, no big deal, nothing you'd want to tell me, you know, the girl who was supposed to be your best friend in the first place who you told everything to, the girl who did almost all of your homework for you while you were in a freaking coma, being tormented by your ex who you never told me was bullying you in the first place!" She said, starting it out sarcastically but by the end of her rant, her usually pale cheeks were bright red in anger and frustration.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you a lot, but I've had so much on my mind lately and before the...incident...I just didn't feel up to a girl's night slash gossip party.  Will you forgive me, please?  Because we have bigger problems at hand..." I trailed off, walking over to where I had thrown my phone.

There was a tiny crack in the top left hand side of the screen from where it had hit the dresser but other than that it was still in good shape.

I unlocked it and went to my news app and pulled up the video, making sure to turn the volume all the way down, and showed it to her.  If I heard that white noise again I was sure that I would snap.

She covered her mouth in shock and her eyes went wide, and I could have sworn I saw a tear well up in the corners of her eyes.  It was a rare sight, Josie never cried.  Like, ever.

When the video was done and I made sure to keep my face a perfect facade of uncaring, the only way that I could actually cope at that moment and time, keeping my emotions coiled up like a cobra, ready to strike and be set free at any given moment.

It worked better for me that way, keeping my emotions in check.  I didn't want them to get too out of hand.

"What are we gonna do?" Josie asked me, and that was when I saw Sebastian's head perk up from his state of half listening.

"We make them pay."

***

A/N:

Sorry it took so long today for this update but I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Sorry it was so short but I have so many good and evil plans for this book, you guys don't even know the half of it! (Insert evil smile here)

What do you think Sebastian meant when he said that he would make Dylan pay?

What do you want the revenge to be?

Don't be silent, I love all of your comments!

-Kristen :)