My Best Friend's Best Friend

Chapter 9: A Mess

The Solarion crew didn't get a chance to meet up for another week, which was probably for the best. Sebastian had a lot of work recently, and he'd been irritable from his efforts to quit smoking. But tonight he was looking forward to playing again.

"Alright, but if you couldn't be a Healer, which class would you want to be?" Sebastian asked. He'd been in town and was walking with Penny up the mountain, and they were quizzing each other's Solarion preferences. It was nice having someone to really talk about this sort of thing with; Sam and Abby just didn't get it.

"For the game, or like, to live as?" Penny scrunched up her nose as she smiled.

"To live as, I guess. Or the game. Whichever."

Penny thought carefully before saying, "I think in the game I'd like to be the Warrior."

"Really?" Sebastian said in surprise.

"Yeah, it'd be nice to pretend I was strong. That's not really an option for me in real life." She flexed her nonexistent biceps. Sebastian reached out to squeeze them and laughed.

"It's not funny!" she said, although she was laughing too. She grabbed his upper arms. "Yours aren't much better!"

"That's not fair, I wasn't flexing." Sebastian stepped back and tried out a few bodybuilding poses, leaving Penny snorting in laughter.

"So clearly neither of us could be a Warrior in real life," Penny said. "And I couldn't be a Bard, because I happen to be completely tone deaf. So I guess...Wizard? Or Cleric? What about you?"

But Sebastian didn't hear her. He was looking up the hill, at the bench next to the community center. Two people were sitting close together. It looked like they might be hugging...no, they were definitely making out.

"Let's give them some privacy," Sebastian whispered. He was going to turn around, but then he caught a glimpse of who it was.

Maru and Sam.

He couldn't believe what he was looking at. Sebastian glanced down at Penny, and her mouth was open in shock. She had definitely seen.

When the surprise wore off, Sebastian's blood ran hot. How could they do this to her? How could they go behind her back like this? Penny must be heartbroken.

He didn't give a damn that Maru was his sister and Sam was his best friend. He was just angry. Maybe angrier than he'd ever been.

Sebastian left Penny standing in shock and walked straight up to them.

"You son of a bitch!" he shouted at Sam.

The couple separated, stunned at Sebastian's sudden appearance. Sam stood and held up his hands. "Seb, listen, I know she's your sister, I was going to talk to you, just—"

Sebastian didn't stop. He went right up to Sam, cocked his fist, and punched him hard in the face. Sam stumbled back, holding his cheek.

"What the hell, man!" Sam shouted. "What's your deal? You don't even treat Maru like she's your sister, why are you getting all 'big brother' all of a sudden?"

Sebastian clutched his hand; the punch had hurt a lot more than he'd expected it to. "Maru being my sister is not even the tip of the fucking iceberg. This isn't about her, this is about Penny!"

"What?!" Sam shouted. "What does Penny have to do with any of this?"

"The two of you are her best friends in the world!" Sebastian pointed accusingly at both Maru and Sam. "How could you not know!" At that, Sam still looked confused, but Maru hung her head and looked at the ground.