HARD TIMES | S.STAN [ON HOLD]

21 | real life

xxi. making a mess

The door swung open at the Rhodes household, revealing Mrs. & Mr Rhodes and Ellie. Nancy smiled at the young blonde child, as the girl wrapped her around around Nancy.

"Nancy!" she said.

"Good to see you too" Nancy chuckled.

Ellie pulled away, and noticed the brunette man behind her.

"Sebastian!" Ellie exclaimed, hugging the man.

Sebastian wasn't a stranger to the Rhodes family. There had been many occasions, in the years of knowing Nancy, in which Sebastian had met Nancy's family. He had been coming to the Rhodes household since he was 13, it had been a while. He had even spent a few Christmas' at her house.

"Hey Ellie" Sebastian said, as the young girl pulled away.

"Okay, so me and everyone else will be back later. I'll call you" Nancy's mom said, pulling her thick coat on.

"I'm really hurt that I didn't get invited to this dinner" Nancy teased.

"Your fathers brother hardly ever comes into town with his family, let me enjoy this dinner" her mom said.

"Love you, pumpkin. Don't set the house on fire" her dad said.

"That was one time" Nancy chuckled.

"Bye" her mom said, before her parents both left.

"Okay, what do you wanna do?" Nancy asked with a grin, looking down at her cousin.

"Can we bake?" Her cousin asked.

"Of course we can" Nancy said, already walking into the kitchen.

Ellie skipped after her, and Sebastian followed the both of them. When Sebastian walked into the kitchen, Ellie was already sat on a kitchen stool and Nancy was looking through the cupboards.

"What are we making?" Ellie asked.

"Cupcakes or brownies?" Nancy asked.

"Oo, your brownies are to die for" Sebastian said.

"I thought you were on a diet?" Nancy chuckled.

"We won't tell anyone you ate brownies, Sebastian" Ellie whispered, making the two adults laugh.

The three of them started making the brownie mixture. When Sebastian dunked his hand in the bag of flour, Nancy hadn't even realised.

"Hey Nancy" Sebastian said, grabbing her attention.

"Yeah" she said looked away from Ellie and up at Sebastian's blue eyes.

Sebastian threw the flour at Nancy making her gasp and Ellie laugh her head off.

"Sebastian!" Nancy yelled, while Sebastian laughed.

Nancy grabbed the spoon from the mixture and flung it at Sebastian, covering his shirt in chocolate brownie mixture. Sebastian immediately stopped laughing, Ellie continued to laugh.

The pair turned around to look at the short blonde girl, and Nancy put the spoon on her cousins nose. Ellie stopped laughing but still had a grin on her face.

"Look let me get cleaned up quickly. Don't make a mess" Nancy said, walking upstairs.

"How long have you you and Nancy been dating?" Ellie asked.

"We're not dating. W-what makes you say that?" Sebastian said.

"You haven't see it yet?" Ellie asked.

"Seen what?" Sebastian asked, very confused.

"E!News did an article on you" Ellie smiled.

Sebastian pulled out his phone and turned it on to see notifications from his friends, but ignored them. He went on the E!News website before finding an article called 'SEBASTIAN STAN'S MYSTERY WOMAN'. He clicked on the articles and started to reading.

"Oh god" Sebastian mumbled.

"Yeah, so how long have you two been dating?" Ellie asked.

"We're not, don't trust everything you read" Sebastian said.

"Nancy" he yelled.

Nancy ran down the stairs and into kitchen. Her flour covered khaki top was now replaced with a striped top, and her hair was tied up.

"What's wrong?" Nancy asked.

Sebastian didn't say anything but only passed his phone. Nancy took the phone and read a few lines, before looking up. She glanced back down finishing the article.

"Oh, okay then" Nancy mumbled, not knowing what to say.

"I'm so sorry about this" Sebastian said, taking his phone back.

"What happened to people being friends? Does E!News know people can have friends?" Nancy said.

"E!News is a pile of trash. Oh, we have to be dating because we hang out. Where's the logic?" Sebastian said.

"We should clear things up" Nancy said, pulling her phone out of her jean pocket.