Chapter Text
Sebas
They sang together one time.
It was meant to stay that way. Yes, she had one of the most incredible voices he'd ever heard and yes, she was beautiful. That didn't mean he wanted to keep singing with her no matter how well their voices had melded together.
After their short week off in between semesters, Sebas had been allowed back into the school on a "probationary" basis that really wasn’t well defined or thought out. He'd scoffed at their weak attempt at having him face consequences. His mother had smoothed everything out using her favorite method, a fat check to the board of the school.
All of his friends were keeping their distance from him, even the ones that had been in The Logia with him. Really, he didn't consider any of them friends. They were more like convenient acquaintances with influential parents that his mom wanted him to, "cultivate a relationship with," her exact words.
Sebas didn't mind the cold shoulder they were giving him. What he did mind was MJ's "hellos" whenever she saw him. They weren't friends and he didn't appreciate the pitting. To be fair though he had noticed that she was an extremely nice person. Still, he didn't want to be friends with her when she was still friends with Jana and her crew or ever.
"Mr. Langarica," the stern voice of his math teacher cut through his thoughts. "Can you give us the answer to the problem I just told everyone to work on?"
No, he could not because he hadn't paid an ounce of attention since he had taken a seat in class. How could he be expected to solve math problems when he'd woken up that morning to a dm from one of the rising stars in the Mexican pop music scene. Someone had recorded and posted his performance with MJ and Katarina "Kat '' de la Mora had seen it. She'd loved it so much that she wanted to do a collab on her popular channel.
The problem was (and he'd checked), that she wanted both of them. Her channel had an immense viewership and it could lead to other opportunities and now that he had lost The Battle of the Bands he was looking for other ways to break into the music industry. His mother did not have any connections in the music industry and even if she did he would never ask her for help. He wanted to make it on his own.
"Which problem?" He finally answered before the teacher gave him detention.
"Pay attention, Mr. Langarica, I won't say it again. It will be straight to detention next time."
He hardly batted an eye at the threat. He was aware that every student's eyes were on him and he wasn't about to give them the satisfaction of seeing him stressed. As he was about to continue gazing out the window his eyes caught warm brown eyes staring at him. MJ remained twisted in her seat three rows ahead of him while everyone else’s attention had reverted to the front of the class. There was no overly friendly smile or awkward wave of her hand this time. Instead, her gaze held an intensity that stirred something in him. A feeling that he'd rather not examine now or ever.
Sebas' jaw tightened as he remembered the night of the party when she had flirted with him. He told himself he had only paid attention to her because she was like every other pretty girl that showed interest and who was he to deny them his attention. It wasn't because he'd been captivated by her voice since the first time he'd heard her sing or because she had large brown eyes that drew him in as a flame drew in a moth. The flame was both beautiful and deadly and better admired from a distance.
Sebas kept every one of his relationships casual and MJ didn't give the impression of someone who did. He didn't see her like that anyway. He didn't dislike her either. He’d meant what he had told her at the cafeteria.
He looked away first, not sure how long he had held her gaze, and then finally, after what felt like an eternity the heat from her eyes on him eased. The tension in his muscles subsided.
How was he supposed to ask her to do this collab with him? Sure she was friendly enough with him, but that didn't mean she would accept to work with him, especially with her busy schedule.
Soon after they came back for their second semester Jana and her gang accepted MJ back into their group after her supposed betrayal. In his opinion, MJ was just doing what was best for her. As winners of The Battle of the Bands, they were all busy working on their original songs. There was no reason for her to help the guy who left her alone in a jacuzzi. He still felt terrible about that though he hadn't known she was that drunk and he'd been absolutely wasted himself.
Sebas wasn't a quitter especially when it came to his career. He just had to get over his aversion to working with the goodie-two-shoes and ask her already. He decided to do it at lunch.
When the time rolled around he made his way to the large cafeteria. Before he entered he spun around having decided that it was too public a place to approach her and it wasn't the right time anyway.
In his haste, he ended up running into someone. “Watch where…,” his angry words were cut short by the brown eyes peering up at him through long thick lashes. “MJ…, what are you doing here?”
She gave him a curious look, “I go to school here and it's a hallway that leads to food.”
Right. “I…, you know what, never mind.” He ran a hand through his hair berating himself for acting so weird.
“You’ve really been distracted all day, huh.”
Shit. Had he really been that obviously checked out that even she noticed? He shook the thought away.
This was it. This was his chance to tell her about Kat’s proposal. “Yeah, actually there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Me?” her voice rose a pitch higher and her eyes grew larger.