Breathless

1. Stairwell

"Hey, Sebastian, you need to see this!" Anthony Mackie shouts as he pushes through the crowd to get to me.

We've just finished another press tour and I'm heading back to my hotel room for the evening. I'm exhausted.

I sigh as he runs up to me, saying, "What's up?"

He hands me his phone, saying, "Check it out. You're trending on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram."

Chris appears just as I'm getting a good look at the main post and then the ones that followed it, all of them with some variation of #EvanStanIsOfficial and #ChrisConfirmed in them.

     I raise an eyebrow at Anthony. He scrolls down. My face flashes bright red with heat.

Oh my God.

"Hey, Seb! Anthony!" Chris waves.

     I've gotta be dreaming.

     This can't be real, right?

     He's walking right toward me, looking like he stepped off the cover of a magazine, oblivious to the fact that I'm aware of everything that he just said in his panel.

     I've gotta move and get my head together.

I toss the phone back to Mackie and scramble to turn on my heel, but he grabs me by my shirt collar and wrenches me back.

"What the hell has gotten into you?" He asks. "Isn't that what you've wanted?"

I bat his hand away, "I need a minute."

Chris tilts his head and raises an eyebrow, asking as he stops in front of me, "Did I show up at a bad time?"

The clip from Chris' panel, the one that ended just a few minutes ago, runs rampant in my head.

He confirmed it.

     Chris confirmed everything I've suspected him of for months.

Scarlett bounces over to us, beaming, "Hey!"

Chris nudges Anthony, glancing at me.

Shit.

Anthony shrugs.

Fucking shit.

     I need air.

I step back and before anyone can grab me, I'm gone. It helps to have been trained to be a master assassin — even if it was for my job.

After a few minutes of frantic walking, I slip into a stairwell and go up a few flights. Then I lean against the concrete wall, take a deep breath, and find myself sliding down the wall to the concrete floor.

It's cold, but I don't mind. I need it.

Okay, Sebastian, it's time to process what just happened.

     I can think now.

     I can breathe.

I was in my own panel, chatting away about the set, Chris, whatever. I was having a ball. Then I came out of my panel and Mackie got ahold of me.

     He shows me that Chris had been streaming my panel on the screen in his panel, giving the fans a running commentary with a goofy smile on his face.

When I mentioned working with him and how much he means to mean, he just smiled, rocked his chair back, and said, "I wish Seb knew how much I love him."