Chapter Text
“Sebastian!”
The loud voice from across the room makes Seb jump. He’s sitting hunched over his keyboard on their kitchen table, haphazardly scribbling notes onto a loose piece of sheet music. Since school is coming up in just a handful of days, he’s been trying to get in as much practice as possible before all of his time is eaten up by homework and rehearsals. “What?”
Seb’s dad — Gabriel — saunters into the kitchen and turns on the tap, rinsing off his dirty hands and scrubbing them down. He hums from across the room and grabs the dish towel hanging on the stove handle nearby to dry them. “Well, I figured since your first day of school is coming up soon, I should probably give you…a pep talk? Some words of advice?” He wonders aloud as he pulls out a chair and sits directly across the table from his son. “I also have some good news to share.”
Seb glances up at his dad and furrows his eyebrows a bit. Usually, it’s his mom who does the annual first-day-of-school pep talk — he’s always been a little closer to her than his dad. They really don’t talk a lot — granted, they don’t have much to talk about since Seb’s interests tend to lie less on the sporty-wrestling-outdoorsy-macho side, and more on the theatre-singing-piano…well, frankly, gay side.
Very pointedly, he’s not actually…out to his dad yet. The rest of his family is a bit of a different story — he has a couple siblings around his age who he’s quietly out to. Still, he tries to never talk about it, and he thinks his mom probably has her suspicions. Still, she’s never spoken to him about them before either. His parents are just…of a different time, Seb supposes — sometimes Seb sees the way his father will stare down gay couples in public, or he’ll frown a little when news about them comes on TV — but that certainly doesn’t mean he wants to be the one to come out and try and take a chance on educating him. He’s never been overt about it, but…better safe than sorry. Seb would rather just bottle it all up and hide as long as possible. Forever, maybe, even though he knows that’s probably not particularly feasible. “You have…good news?”
“I do,” says Gabriel, giving Seb a grin from across the table. “Your mom thought it would be a good idea for me to do the yearly back-to-school pep-talk with you because…drumroll…” he pauses, tapping his fingers rapidly on the edge of their old wooden table to drum up some false anticipation from Seb, “I’m going to get to come with you to school every day until November!”
Seb only wrinkles his eyebrows in confusion. “But I’m getting my license soon,” he says, “and mom’s already said she’s still driving me until I do. We’ve been doing this since freshman year.”
Gabriel shakes his head quickly. “No, no. I’m going to be working at your school. Until the movie shoot wraps up. Our business is going to be running crafty on set, which is going to be in your school parking lot.”
“Okay, wait, I’m sorry, but what are you even talking about? What movie?”
Gabriel inhales deeply and slumps his shoulders at Seb’s confusion. “You don’t know?”
“About?”
“There’s going to be a High School Musical Reunion movie filmed at your school starting next week and wrapping in November. Since Smith Family Farms is a local SLC business, we were hired to help with craft services. It’ll be a pretty full-time gig for the business, so I’ll be there everyday for school hours, and you can help out after school.”
Seb swears he feels his blood run cold; he can’t even find it in himself to be excited about the brilliant reunion news he just got because his dad is going to be at school with him every single day for the next three months?! His only real safe haven? His school and the drama club have led him to some of the best, most accepting people he’s ever had the pleasure of knowing, and theatre gives him a place to show himself off — all the best parts of himself — and be confident without having to worry about toning it all down, just in case his family sees, the way he always has to when he’s around them. Not to mention he’s being expected to work it, too? While he’s busy doing the fall musical after school every day? After having missed getting to go to theatre camp in California with all of his friends to tend to the farm? “Are you sure you have to take this job?”
Cocking his head to the side, Seb’s dad furrows his eyebrows. “Yes, we’re taking the job, Seb. This will be great promotion for the business. Don’t sound so thrilled.”
“I am, I just…” Seb trails off, aimlessly doodling around on the back of his sheet music with the pencil he’s still got on the table. “And I have to work it?”
“Well, I would certainly appreciate it if you did,” he says. “What else do you have going on after school?”
“I—” Seb begins, but he cuts himself off. His father still doesn’t really know about the drama club — he thinks Seb just plays piano accompaniment for them as a favour and is only vague friends at best with a few of them that he doesn’t even know by name. He has no idea how the drama club has saved him over the last year — more namely, he has no idea who Carlos is, either. Seb wouldn’t be surprised if his dad just assumes this mystery boy (who he’s accidentally slipped up a couple times talking about) is a teammate from wrestling club and not his nearly year-long boyfriend whom he talks to until the early hours of the morning every day, and kisses, and is all but attached at the hip to at school, and goes on dates with, and always practices lines with, and kisses. The thought of his father finding out sends chills down his spine. “Nothing.”
Seb’s dad smiles. “Well, good,” he says, nodding and adjusting his glasses. “I appreciate it.”
“Yeah,” Seb says. His voice is soft. Either his father doesn’t notice how dejected he is, or he purposely doesn’t point it out to him. “Anything else? I was in the middle of practicing.”
Seb’s dad sighs as he stands up from the table. “I suppose not,” he says, exhaling loudly. “Well, junior year is the year colleges look at first for your grades, so you need to make sure to stay ontop of everything. Plus clubs, sports, volunteering, work, you know the drill.”
“Yes, dad, I know the drill.”
Gabriel stands silently for a minute, placing a hand on the back of the chair he was just sitting on. He seems deep in thought. “Hey, whatever happened to Natalie? She was a sweet girl. You two were good together,” he says, and a slight grin pulls on his face. Seb’s face burns red. “Or is this too embarrassing for you?”
“No, dad,” Seb says. He curses his skin — surely his whole face, all the way to the tips of his ears, is burning crimson by now. Still, his dad doesn’t say a word. After all, ignoring what they don’t want to acknowledge and pretending it doesn’t exist indeed runs in the family. “We broke up last year, and she’s moving schools this year. And…I wouldn’t exactly call her sweet...”
“A whole year ago?” His dad exclaims, surprised. “Huh. And you never told me?”
“I…guess it never came up.”
Seb’s father eyes Seb and the way his eyes are downcast at the sheet music still idly sitting on the wooden table in front of him. “Well, I’m sorry to hear.”
“Thanks, dad,” Seb says. “I’m over it, though. Is that all?”
“Sure, kid,” he says, turning his back on Seb, beginning to walk out of the kitchen. “If you find…if you find somebody, be safe! And make sure your grades don’t slip!” He calls as he walks out.
Seb groans and removes his glasses, setting them beside his keyboard and resting his head in his arms crossed on the table. How could this possibly be his best school year yet with his dad breathing over his shoulder every day at school when he has no idea the double-life Seb lives there? When he doesn’t know about the theatre club or any of his real friends, Sharpay or Carlos.
God, Carlos.
Seb’s heart sinks. Carlos, his basically perfect and completely unassuming boyfriend, who has no idea he’s not out to his dad yet because of how ashamed he is; it was hard enough coming out to himself, and the rest of East High a couple of months later, never mind his macho, stone-cold father. Carlos, who’s so unabashedly confident and boundlessly proud of who he is, who never seems to falter, who doesn’t care who sees him or what they have to say; who at least comes from an accepting family, and can lean on his parents when need be.
Carlos, who’s inspired Seb every day to step into himself for years now. Carlos, who would probably never understand.
Carlos, who, now, he'll probably have no choice but to distance himself from this year if he’s going to be working alongside his dad at school every damn day.
Plus, if he has to work every day after school until this film wraps in November, there’s no chance he can even appear in the musical — he won’t have time to attend rehearsals. Seb’s head begins to feel sore. His options are really starting to sound like one, finally, come out to his (terrifying) dad, rebel against the family business to appear in the fall show, and possibly face…who knows what kind of consequences, or two: lay low, work during the fall, and distance himself as best he can from Carlos and the rest of the theatre kids for a couple of months.
He squeezes his eyes shut. If this were Carlos, he knows it’d be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, a Smith family skill is avoiding, avoiding, avoiding until you possibly can’t anymore.
Seb picks his head up and slips his glasses back onto his face. At least it’s only for a couple of months, and then he’ll be able to return to normal school. Maybe he can blame his distance on the documentary aftermath — he trusts Carlos, of course, he knows the documentary must’ve been a complete falsification (he’s seen enough reality television over the past year with Carlos to know), but maybe it’d be a good idea to… play it up a little bit.
Just for a couple of months.
There’s no reason to feel guilty about this, Seb tries to assure himself, but somewhere deep down, he knows it’s not working. He’s just going with his best option — he’s not ready to be out yet. Frankly, he’s absolutely terrified of what Carlos, the most perfect, confident, proud person he’s ever met in his life, would have to say upon finding out his boyfriend has basically been lying to him about the double-life he’s been living, and the true state of his family the last year of their relationship.
Seb brings his hands up to his keyboard and begins to plunk out some thinking jazz.
Usually, it helps him feel better. Today, though, it sounds like dissonance, and it feels like guilt.
“Have either of you heard from Seb yet?” Both girls groan loudly in response. “What?”
Kourtney finally sets her phone down on the duvet and looks at Carlos, who’s lying across the foot of her bed. She reaches out both hands and grips Carlos’s jokingly as if she’s giving him difficult news. He furrows his eyebrows at her. “Honey, we still haven’t heard from him since you last asked five minutes ago.”
Carlos groans and rips his hands away from Kourtney. She pulls a face and rolls her eyes at him. Ashlyn looks up at the two of them, away from her phone for a minute before she rolls her eyes and returns to…whoever she’s messaging. “I just don’t understand why he’s not talking to me. I told him the documentary stuff was all fake, but he still thinks I cheated on him — which I would never do, by the way — and he didn’t even show up to school today, and he’s not talking to anyone else that I’ve heard, either! What if he doesn’t even join the show because of this? His favourite thing ever? How petty.”
Ashlyn groans, too. “I’m sure he just needs a bit more time to himself. He’s…shy, kind of, you know? Reserved. You should just find him tomorrow and talk to him.”
“Time to himself for what, though?” Carlos rolls his eyes and lies on Kourtney’s bed near her lap. “And I’ve tried texting, like, a million times, but I didn’t do anything. He won’t listen to me, and he would realize he has no reason to be icing me out like this if he would just actually listen to me! Look, if I don’t hear from him within the next five minutes, he’s officially turning this into a feud.”
“God, I hate boys.”
“It’s him who’s acting stupid, Kourt!” Ashlyn looks up from her phone at that, and she and Kourtney share a wordless look with each other. “I’m serious!”
“And I’m serious, Carlos, you’re obsessed. Just give him some space. He’s probably really overwhelmed with the documentary and everything. I’m sure he’ll be at school tomorrow, and he’ll come to you soon.”
Carlos frowns. “Well, sorry if I don’t want my boyfriend and also, like, literally the entire world to think I’m a cheater!”
“Well, only sixty-three countries.”
“Not helping.”