Beyond the Black Curtain

Chapter 4 - Putting Up Walls

A/N: I forgot to mention at the start of the story how this will be batches of chapters Rae's POV and Sebastian's POV. This was written without a specific flow in mind and I was just going by instinct as to what the characters were wanting to do.

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Sebastian

I could practically feel the tension and anger radiating from Chris' body as soon as we got inside the elevator all the way to our shared room. I already knew why, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting to my dickhead tendencies. Chris knows me so well, he might as well be my brother for real.

He knows how attracted I am to Rae and that the way I reacted to her today was my defenses pulling up a wall to protect me from the fact that after the most amazing afternoon of my life, I would never see her again.

"Why am I not surprised?" Chris finally spoke behind me, exasperation clear in his tone. I kept my back to him as I took a long swig of water to try and calm my nerves. "You know, for once, I actually thought you were gonna do something about your feelings. I purposefully left the two of you alone and you wasted no time pushing her away. God, Seb, I swear, you're such a fucking pain sometimes."

I could hear the utter disappointment in his voice. That makes two of us, I thought bitterly to myself. I set the bottle down and finally faced him.

"All I could think about at the ice cream store was to kiss her, you know?" I finally said, my voice just barely over a whisper. Her face as she sat there in front of me was seared in to my brain, I thought it would be the only thing I'd see when I close my eyes. Rae was different. Way different than any of the women I've dated. I never realized she was the one I was looking for until she collided into me that morning. She was funny without trying too hard, confident without being self-absorbed but most of all, she saw me for who I was, and not what the world saw. When I held her hand, it felt like I was just Seb from New York, not Sebastian the fucking movie star.

"I'm too damn scared, Chris. I've never felt anything like this before for anyone this fast. I didn't know what to do...shit, what if that was it?" I asked Chris and I felt panic rising from my chest. He narrowed the gap between us and he pulled me in a hug.

"You're a dumbass, but not a hopeless one," he pulled away and I can see the wheels turning in his head. "Josh has her number and if I'm not mistaken, I overheard them making plans to get cocktails tomorrow evening at one of the bars up top. Maybe we could ask Josh to cut their drinks short so you could get a move on before we leave the next day."

I breathed a little sigh of relief at this and mentally thought of what I would say to her tomorrow. I smile a little, my excitement building at the prospect of seeing her again. I don't know what would happen to us after tomorrow night, but what I do know is that she needs to know how huge of an impact she has made on me despite the fact that we just met.

I step out of my room and find Chris in the common area of the huge suite, his head down while his shoulders occasionally shook from what I can only assume was laughter.

"What are you laughing about, punk?" I ask as I plopped down on the couch beside him. I felt bone tired, having just come back from a series of press conferences for Infinity War. The movie was due to come out in Asia first that's why Chris and I were asked to do this last minute junket. Marvel wanted to make sure that we were able to get across the message the Russos sent out last week about keeping the excitement for everyone by not spoiling the movie for people in the US and anywhere where the movie won't be shown until the first week of May.

Chris' laughter suddenly slowed down to a shit eating grin when he got to a different set of pictures. Growing impatient at him ignoring me, I snatch his iPhone to try and see for myself.

My eyes grew wide upon seeing the camera roll. It was pictures upon pictures of Rae and I at the colourful abandoned housing block. Most of it were candid shots—Rae looking up towards the apartment blocks, Rae and I laughing over something as she was holding my arm on one hand and her stomach with the other, among others.

But what knocked the wind out of me was the series of pictures Chris was able to manage to take discreetly of me grabbing her hand and interlocking it with mine. Our eyes were locked onto each other like there was nothing else around us. She looked brilliantly radiant, her dusky hair softly blown by the wind, her cheeks naturally flushed and her smile that could rival the brightness of the fireworks of the fourth of July. I was grinning from ear to ear, so much so that it looked like I was closing my eyes. At the time I knew I didn't because I couldn't keep my eyes off of her.

"If you only hadn't just met her today, I'd say you're in love with her, judging by the pictures," Chris said gently, causing me to whip my head in his direction it nearly gave me whiplash.

"Am I?" I asked, more so to myself than to my co-star slash best friend. Is that even possible?

"You make it sound like it's not supposed to happen," Chris responded, snatching back his phone from me. "I mean, look at this," he showed me another picture, this time it was taken from Udders, when he left us alone. She was looking down on her cup while I was fixing her a soft stare. It was probably that moment when I wanted to kiss her, god, I desperately wanted to know what she tasted like. I mentally kicked myself. If I wasn't so goddamn selfish, I probably would've been kissing her goodnight right now instead of just imagining how it would be like.

Everything seemed to be going too fast, and the panic I felt earlier began bubbling up to the surface again. I didn't realize I was taking shallow breaths until Chris grabbed me by my shoulders.

"Slow down, Seb, you're gonna give yourself a heart attack," Chris' voice was soothing and it helped me to slow down. "You're going to see her tomorrow, just make sure you don't make a complete ass of yourself and you'll be alright."