The first question I got asked when I got home was kind of expected. I walked in the front door, only to have my dad ask, "How was school?"
I shrugged as I took off my shoes. "It was okay. Lauren and Tanya were there and they were excited I was back."
"And how about Sebastian?" Dad asked. "Was he there?"
"Uh, yeah, he was," I said, hoping he didn't want me to talk about Seb. I really didn't want to go into detail about how he basically hated me. Though, I knew it wouldn't last. Call me cocky, but I knew there was no way Seb would stay mad at me.
Hopefully.
Luckily, he didn't ask any questions about Seb. "By the way," he said. "Our next door neighbors invited us over for dinner. We'll be going there around five."
"Okay," I said. "I'll just get my homework done then." I hated that I had homework on my first day at the new school. And I fully blame Seb for that. He was also in my English class, as well as AP calculus and culinary arts, and he was being a huge jerk. He sat behind me in English and was constantly putting his feet on my chair while I was sitting on it and when I finally decided to tell him to move it, we got in a huge argument and my teacher gave the two of us extra homework. He did not go easy on the new student.
I went to my bedroom and had to move a few boxes off of my desk before I sat. I still had a lot to unpack, but I was hoping it wouldn't take too long because I hated having clutter in my bedroom.
I pulled my English notebook out of my bag and tried finding a pencil, but like I said, I had a lot to unpack. It took me a long time to find one but when I did, I sat down and began working on my homework.
I finished it just as Dad called me downstairs, saying that we were heading off the our neighbors. Making sure I had my phone with me, I went downstairs where Mom and Dad were putting on their shoes. I put on mine as well before following them out the door and to the house beside ours.
A man who looked about my dad's age answered, giving all of us a smile. "Please, come in," he said, opening the door wider for us to step inside. When we were getting in the house, he went towards the stays. "Boys! We have guests here! Please come downstairs!"
Almost immediately, a boy came down the stairs and when I saw him, I officially hated my luck.
Standing in front of me was Dax Smythe, Seb's younger brother. It was weird that I was able to recognize him when I first saw him, but I didn't even recognize Seb.
I had never met Seb's dad before, so I had no idea I was in Seb's house until I saw Dax. I didn't even know if Dax recognized me. Seb didn't at first, so there was a chance Dax didn't.
Then Seb came down the stairs, his eyes turning cold as soon as he saw me. However, he didn't say anything to me. He just looked at his dad. "Can I go upstairs now?" he asked.
"No," his dad said. He then looked at my parents. "I'm Clark," he said, mainly to me and Mom since neither of us met him yet. "These are my sons, Dax and Sebastian."
It must have not clued into my parents' minds that this was my best friend, not some other Sebastian, because they didn't even say anything. "This is my daughter, Artemis," Dad said to Clark
"Artemis?" Dax suddenly asked. "As in Sebastian's Artemis?"
"She's not my Artemis," Seb said coldly.
"But you had a best friend named Artemis," Dax asked before looking me over. He then smiled. "It is her! I recognize her now! It's nice to see you again."
"You too, Dax," I said, which caused Seb to scoff.
"Sebastian?" Mom asked. Seb used to come to my house all the time when we were best friends, but seeing how much Seb had changed, it wasn't shocking that neither Mom nor Dad recognized him right off the bat. Even I didn't. "It's nice to see you again."
"You too," Seb said, but I was pretty sure it was only out of politeness.
"You all know each other?" Clark asked.
Mom nodded. "Yeah, Sebastian and Artemis are best friends since they were five."
"Were," Seb corrected. "We were best friends."
None of the adults noticed the harsh tone in Seb's voice, but Dax did. He looked back and forth between the two of us, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Well, dinner should be ready," Clark said. "Let's all go to the dining room to eat."
Dad and Mom offered to help Clark setting the plates for dinner, so he told Seb to show lead me to the dining room. However, as soon as the adults were out of the room, Seb crossed his arms and looked at me. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked.
"You're dad invited us for dinner," I said. "We live in the house next door."
Seb scoffed. "Great. So now I have to put up with you here as opposed to just school?"
"Why are you so mad at me?" I asked.
"I told you why," Seb said. "You left me without warning. You moved across the state without telling me. We could have at least kept in touch but you decided to cut me out of your life completely. Like I said at school, don't talk to me."
I watched as Seb walked away to another part of the house, probably the dining room but I wasn't in the mood to follow him quite this second. Did I feel bad for not telling Seb I was moving? Yes. I thought about him everyday, wondering how he was doing.
It was a bad mistake on my part.
"Don't take it personally," Dax spoke up. "Seb has always had the temper."
"Not when we were best friends," I pointed out.
"That's because you were the one to keep him calm," Dax said. "But after you moved, he just lost it. He hasn't been the same for a long time."
"He changed a lot," I said. "I didn't even recognize him when we bumped into each other at school. Do you think he'll forgive me?"
"Yeah, I think there's a chance," Dax said. "He's probably too shocked right now that you're back, but give it time and you'll probably be best friends again. Come on, I'll show you where the dining room is."
He led me to the dining room where a table with six chairs sat; one at each of the smaller ends and two on the other sides. Seb was sitting in one of the chairs in pair, looking at something on his phone. I got to say, it was very tempting to sit beside him because I knew it would irritate the crap out of him and I could use that as my revenge for what happened in English. However, he was already pissed at me as it was.
"You could basically sit anywhere except there," Dax said, pointing to one of the chairs at the end. "That's my dad's chair."
I nodded, looking at the chairs to find a sit.
Screw it. I was going to irritate Seb.
I sat down in the chair beside him which resulted into a nasty glare from him. "Go sit somewhere else," he snapped.
"I would, but you seem to hate it when I move, so I'll stay here," I said.
His glare turned even nastier, if that was even possible. "I don't care if we were best friends since we were five," he said. "Nothing you say or do will ever make me forgive you for leaving without telling."
"That's what you think," I said in a sing-song voice.
"No, that's what I know," he said. "I'm serious. You lost my trust."
"Seb, can't you just get over it?" Dax asked, sitting in the chair on the other end. "She moved away, she's back. Be friends again."
"Stay out of it," Seb snapped. "I am not going to be friends with her again."
That's what you think.