The Anti-Social Social Club [Stardew Valley Sebastian x Female Player (OFC)]

Chapter Four

After my interaction with Sam the other day, I was growing increasingly excited to see him at the saloon on Friday night. I knew I had to stay focused on the farm and continue getting the work done that I needed to, but I couldn't stop thinking about that mysterious piercing in his mouth, or the way the bridge of his nose grew pink whenever he saw me.

Sam was everything I wasn't. He seemed to have so much life in him; so much pure innocent energy that I lacked. My heart was darker than the inside of a bat cave. I had too much weighing on me to even allow me to keep my head up. Maybe that was what I needed though—someone like Sam who could turn my darkness into light again. Maybe Sam was the one to remind me why I came back here; what joys the valley always had for me and to teach me that I could allow myself to have that again.

Friday came quicker than I expected. I remembered how slowly time moved in Stardew Valley like everyone here was on a different timeline than the rest of the world. By noon time, it felt like it was supposed to be three in the afternoon. Filling the hours here was difficult to start. I really had no true friends yet that I could call up and ask to hang out with, so I mostly filled my days by taking walks, continuing to clean the farm up, taking more walks when I got too tired of working and spending many hours alone in my very empty farmhouse.

I made sure to look nice for the saloon tonight. Not only would Sam be there but Emily had said that practically the whole town shows up to the saloon on Friday nights and I wanted to make a good impression. With how small Stardew Valley was, I knew everyone had probably already heard about me if they didn't already know me from when I used to visit grandpa as a child. I knew people talked and even Jodi had said the same thing as Lewis: a new farmer in town was stirring up quite a buzz of excitement.

As I approached the saloon, I saw a couple of people walking in, illuminated by a small lamp fixed to the exterior of the building just above the door. I didn't recognize them so I probably hadn't met them yet, though I found it strange that in almost one full week of being here, I hadn't met everyone yet. During Lewis's long rambling on our journey from the railroad tracks to the farmhouse when I first arrived, I remember him mentioning that Stardew Valley was home to only twenty-eight people—now twenty-nine. In a town of only twenty-eight people, how hard could it really be to meet each of them?

The inside of the saloon was cozy and much different than I expected it to look. The bar was right in front of me just a few feet away. There were small, round bar tables set up all around the open space and a large fireplace in the back corner with a fire blazing inside of it that enhanced that cozy feeling. There was the faint sound of old-timey music playing under the hum of chatter and small talk.

"Stella!" Emily called my name and all I could really feel content about was the fact that Emily had actually remembered my name this time. I waved, approaching the bar and leaning against it as I pressed my bare forearm against the smooth, resin coated surface of the wood.

"Hey!" I replied back with a smile. I watched as the older man with the extravagant mustache next to her smiled at me as well.

She looked back and forth between us. "Stella, this is Gus. Gus, Stella." She introduced us. "He owns the saloon." She informed me.

Gus's eyes narrowed slightly at me, as if my name had sparked something in his mind. "Stella, you say?" He asked and I nodded. "You Charlie's granddaughter?"

My grandfather's name pricked my ears as it left Gus's lips. I hadn't heard anyone call Grandpa by his first name in a long time. The name sounded foreign to me as I had always just known grandpa as grandpa.

"Oh, um, yes. I am." I answered him. "I moved into his farmhouse earlier this week."

Gus looked at me a little longer with his eyes still narrowed before his expression lightened, his brows lifted and a smile spread across his face, just barely visible under his grand mustache. "Good for you." He said, "Glad to have you in the valley."