Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 58: Bad Influence

The drive to Oxford was about an hour. Grace filled her parents in on all the hot gossip of reception as well as explaining the reading she had to do for homework. When they got to their old house in Oxford, they nocked on the door, but there was no reply. Grace pouted sadly, however, Jim still had a key and he unlocked the door, letting them in. They called out for him but there was no reply, so Grace immediately began to run up the stairs.

"He's probably in bed."

She ran up into Seb's room and surely enough, Seb was lying in his bed, fast asleep. Grace giggled madly, before jumping onto the bed, pulling him out of his slumber.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!" She yelled and he groaned, swearing under his breath, "what does that mean?"

"Ask your mother," he replied, still groaning. It was then that Grace noticed he had purple bruised over his face and body.

"What happened to you?"

Seb chuckled, "you should have seen the other guy."

He reached for, and then lit a cigarette as Grace hugged his neck happily.

"I missed you, Sebby."

Sebby grinned, "you saw me last week."

"I have so much to tell you." She said excitedly and Seb raised his eyebrow, "you know that mean boy I was telling you about?"

"Yeah, what was his name?"

"Will," she replied, "I punched him today."

Seb then smirked and gave the girl a high five, "that's my girl."

He grinned again as Astrid walked into the room and rolled her eyes at Seb.

"Seb, why are you still in bed?"

"I had a big night last night."

Astrid scoffed, "yeah, I can see that. What happened to your face?"

"You should have seen the other guy?" Grace interrupted and Astrid frowned.

"Get out of bed tiger, and put some clothes on." Astrid left the room and Grace frowned.

"Why did mummy call you 'tiger'"

Seb just shook his head, "I honestly have no idea."

He then told her to go back downstairs, letting her know that he'd be down in a second. She nodded and skipped back downstairs into the kitchen where here parents were already making themselves at home.

"Mummy?" she asked with wide, curious eyes.

"Yes, Gracie?"

"What does 'fuck' mean?"

Astrid widened her eyes in anger, however Jim just laughed. Astrid then paced to the bottom of the stairs and shouted up them at Seb.

"For God's sake Seb! We were trying not to introduce her to swear words!"

Back in the kitchen, Grace decided to ask her father the same question. Jim just responded with another 'ask your mother' to which Grace sighed.

"Why did mummy call Seb 'tiger'?"

"You got a lot of questions today, huh?" He smirked and Grace shrugged, "'cause he's like a tiger, I guess. It's sort of just stuck throughout the years."

Grace nodded, "What are you?"

"Hmm?"

"What animal are you?"

"I'm a spider," he said, "or a thieving magpie. Take your pick.

He then approached her and began to tickle her, pushing her towards the chair. She giggled loudly and sat down just as Seb walked in with a very angry looking Astrid Wingham.