“Didn’t get in where?” Mikey absently asked as she grabbed a hand towel off the counter and carefully pressed it against his palm.
When he didn’t say anything, she looked up at him as she said, “You know that you can tell me anything.”
Sighing heavily, he said, “I tried to register for high school,” taking her by surprise.
“Really?” Mikey asked only to bite back a groan when he ground his jaw as he pulled his hand free with that look on his face that told her that he was about to shut down on her.
He was her best friend and she loved him more than anything, but sometimes, now being one of those times, she wanted to throttle him. Why did he have to make everything so damn difficult? Mikey had to wonder as she reached over and grabbed hold of his shirt before he could storm off and make her job more difficult.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said softly, using her hold on his shirt to pull him back.
“They feel that it would be in my best interest if I continued my education from the comfort of my own home,” Sebastian said, trying to shrug it off like it was no big deal but the look on his face…
“Can they even do that?” Mikey asked as she grabbed the antibacterial ointment, the small box of gauze pads, and medical tape that her mother kept well-stocked for moments like this from the medicine cabinet.
“The only thing that they have to do is provide me with access to a public education,” Sebastian said, watching as she carefully laid his hand in her lap.
“And they found a way of doing that without allowing you to step foot on campus,” Mikey guessed as she carefully applied ointment to his cut.
“The district has started to offer an online alternative for students who don’t want to go to school, which means that they don’t have to worry about trying to come up with an excuse not to let me go next year. They were kind enough to send me a link so that I could register, along with a reminder that I am not eligible for any extracurricular activities because of my expulsion,” Sebastian explained as she finished bandaging his hand while she watched him.
For a moment, Mikey didn’t say anything and then, she asked the one thing that they’d always avoided talking about.
“Why didn’t you go to Radcliffe when you had the chance, Sebastian?”
“Just drop it,” he said, pulling his hand away, and this time, she let him.
“Why didn’t you go to Radcliffe when you had the chance?” she repeated, refusing to let it go this time.
“Because Jonathan wouldn’t have been able to go if I had,” he admitted, taking her by surprise because she honestly hadn’t expected him to answer her.
“What are you talking about?” Mikey asked, watching him as he rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Sebastian said, looking as though he was debating whether or not he should say anything else.
“Duh,” Mikey said, even as she gestured impatiently for him to get on with it.
“Jonathan didn’t get the scholarship,” he said, dropping his hand away. “I did.”
“And you let him take your spot,” Mikey said, knowing she was right before the words left her mouth because that was just the kind of thing that Sebastian would do for someone that he loved.
“Okay, then why don’t you apply somewhere else? What about Latin Scribe High School?” Mikey said, knowing that Uncle Jason would do everything he could to get him in.
“I wouldn’t let my parents spend forty thousand dollars a year on tuition and you suddenly think I’m going to be okay with them spending fifty thousand?” Sebastian asked, shaking his head.
“Maybe you’ll get offered another scholarship?” she said with a hopeful smile.
“I won’t,” the stubborn teenage boy who was really starting to piss her off, said.
“How do you know?” Mikey demanded, wondering why he had to make everything so damn difficult.
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“What are you talking about?” she absently asked even as she tried to figure out how she was going to manage to talk to Uncle Jason about helping Sebastian apply without breaking her promise when he managed to take her by surprise and said the one thing that she’d never expected him to say.
“I’m going to wait until I turn sixteen and get my GED so that I can go work for Uncle Jared full-time,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal while she sat there staring at the boy who had clearly lost his mind and just in case he didn’t know, she decided that perhaps she should be the one to tell him.
Chapter 6
“Are you crazy?” Sebastian managed to get out before the crazed girl who had somehow managed to tackle him to the floor threw more facecloths at him.
“Yes!” Mikey hissed out as she blindly reached over, grabbed a handful of cotton balls and
Forced him to turn his head before she could make him eat the damn things as she continued ranting at him. “You are not getting your GED! Do you hear me, Sebastian Bradford? You are going to find a way to get your stubborn butt back in school and you are going to”
“What the hell is going on in here?” Aunt Kasey demanded, cutting Mikey off mid-rant.
Eyes narrowing in warning as she forced herself to release the handful of cotton swabs that he hadn’t seen her grab, Mikey slowly nodded her head and bit out, “This isn’t over,” as she climbed off him.
With one last glare, she turned to face her mother and said, “He called me a filthy Mudblood,” effectively keeping her word.
Without missing a beat, Aunt Kasey blinked at her daughter and asked, “Aren’t you?”
Nodding slowly, Mikey said, “We are no longer speaking.”
“At least he didn’t call you a Squib,” her mother said, making Sebastian bite back a smile as he got to his feet just in time to see Mikey narrow her eyes on her mother before she turned around and stormed off, leaving them to follow after her.
“Then I’ll go where I’m wanted, woman!” Mikey said with a huff as she grabbed her book, headed toward the front door, and
“Don’t forget a jacket,” Aunt Kasey reminded her, sounding amused as she watched Mikey pause by the coatrack, narrow her eyes on both of them as she blindly reached up and pulled Sebastian’s sweatshirt off the hook.
Mumbling what he thought was, “Filthy Mudbloods,” she yanked his sweatshirt on and shoved her book in the large pocket before she continued to the front door where she once again paused so that she could shake her head in disgust and mumble, “This isn’t over,” as she let herself out.
“That was my sweatshirt,” Sebastian said, unable to help but frown because he actually liked that sweatshirt.
“Yeah, you’re never getting that back,” Aunt Kasey said with a pitying look before she returned her attention to whatever she was doing in the kitchen.
“That’s what I thought,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he headed outside in time to see Mikey, who was adorably pissed, storm across the front yard, pause when she came to the street to look both ways, giving him enough time to catch up with her, and once she was assured that it was safe to go, she stormed across the street, up his driveway, and let herself in the front door.