It had been about two weeks since Savannah had went out for breakfast with Sebastian, and she had been frequenting the Skids' house fairly often; they had a lot of photoshoots to prepare for with their formal announcement of a new album. And the fact that they had said that this new album would be much heavier, much more "killer" than the first just kept the photographers coming.

   But, today, Savannah had a day off. Nobody had contacted her due to work-related matters, so she was lounging on her couch, eating some chips as she watched TV. She was convinced that she couldn't have asked for a better job; frequent off days, and the days she did show up, the amount of work she would actually have to do was small.

   But, her phone rang then, snapping her out of her TV-induced daze.

   She paused her show and reached for her buzzing phone. She saw that Rachel was calling.

   Wondering what he wanted, she answered it and raised it to her ear. "Hello?"

   "Sav, can you meet me at Percy?"

   Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion at both his impromptu proposal, as well as the stress in his voice. "Whoa. Why, Rach? What's up?"

   Percy Park was the name of the park that her and Rachel frequented. It was a really sweet, beautiful location to hang out; there was a huge play-set that kids were always climbing on, laughing gleefully, and there was a big field by it that the rockers liked to walk around in. In addition, there were a few picnic tables there that they sat at and occasionally ate lunch.

   They went there to have fun, and to unwind. This was why his stressed voice combined with his invitation threw Savannah off so much.

   "A lot," Rachel sighed out, his voice raspy with exasperation. "Just, can you meet me there? Please? I just need to get some air and rant to someone."

   "Yeah, yeah, of course. Nothing's, like, wrong, though, right? You're just wound up?"

   "Yeah. But, like, super wound up."

   "Enough said. I'll be there in ten."

   "Okay. See you there."

   "See you."

   Savannah hung up the phone and stood up, looking at her chips as well as her paused show longingly. While she loved Rachel and would do anything for him, he really had to rant at the wrong time.

   She got her keys and left the house, hopping in her car and driving to what she thought would be a normal bitch-fest, but what would end up being so much more.

   She arrived at Percy a few minutes later, turning off her radio after she parked. She could see from her parking spot that Rachel was sat at one of the picnic tables, head in his hands. He looked strange compared to the upbeat surroundings of the park; despite the lack of leaves on the trees, they looked vibrant and alive somehow. The sky was cloudless and blue, and the sun smiled its beams down on everyone. Kids were having fun, as usual, and the grass looked especially green that day.

   And, there Rachel was, a downer amongst the beauty.

   Savannah hopped out of her car, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to Rachel, who didn't seem to notice her approaching at all. The picnic tables weren't far from the parking spots at all, so that just proved how in his own head he was; he should have heard a car door shut.

   That made Savannah slightly worried. What trials was the poor man having to face for him to be so absorbed by them?

   She had gotten all the way over to him by this point, and he still didn't look up. She noticed that his black nail polish was chipping, revealing the natural nails underneath, so she commented, "You need to touch up on your nails."

   Rachel lurched, further solidifying the fact that he had not been expecting her. He removed his face from his hands and smiled at her, but something in that smile looked worn, tired. "Hey, Sav."

   "Hi, Rach." She sat down across from him, patting his hand. "Talk to me, man. What's going on?"

   He sighed. "I hate dumping my shit on you, so I apologize in advance for this."

   "Hey, I don't mind your shit. We're best friends; we share everything. Even shit."

   Rachel laughed, wrinkling his nose at her unfavorable phrasing. "Okay. So. . ."

   He paused, running a hand down his face. "Sebastian's been getting on my fucking nerves lately, and I don't know what to do."

   As soon as those fateful words had been uttered, Savannah felt a sharp ping in her stomach. It was an emotion she couldn't pinpoint, but it was strong, and it made her expression fall for a brief second.

   Over these past two weeks, Sebastian and Savannah had gotten even closer than they were before. They would laugh, they would talk. Sometimes, Savannah would even retreat from the others when her work was completed to go hang out with Sebastian.

They were definitely friends at this point, and to hear Rachel bad-mouthing him upset her. Sebastian was her friend, and she had grown to care about him a lot over the past three weeks.

She found herself to be in a predicament: if she engaged in this conversation, she'd feel disgusted with herself, since she'd be entertaining the idea that Sebastian was less than what he was. But, if she didn't, then she wouldn't be providing the support to Rachel that he needed.

Feeling stuck, she asked slowly, "Why? What'd he do?"

Rachel blindly stabbed the table with his finger, trying to scare an ant that was crawling along the wooden surface. "He's just so stubborn. He's always super gung-ho about hearing everyone's ideas and refusing the ones we don't like, but when his get refused, he just can't fucking let it go. He's always like, 'No, we have to do this! Come on, guys, this'll be killer!'"

During his impression of Sebastian, Savannah's heart began to beat faster with anger; Rachel was exaggerating his voice, and made it a lot higher and more nasally than it was.

   "And then," Rachel continued, "when we say no, he throws a bitch fit! He gets all pouty and gets super short and sassy with us. I wouldn't mind if that only happened once in a while, but Sav, it's every. Fucking. Day."

   Savannah hated hearing this. She could so vividly picture what Sebastian was doing right now: happily bumbling along, unaware that one of his best friends was bad-mouthing him. Maybe he was smoking a joint, maybe he was watching TV, maybe he was fucking crocheting. Who knew? But, regardless, he was unaware of Rachel's shit-talking, and probably even unaware about what he had done wrong.

She noticed then that Rachel was looking at her, expecting her to respond.

That feeling of being stuck returned. She eventually decided to try and defend Sebastian, that way she was doing one of her friends justice, while discouraging future bad-mouthing from the other. Besides, if this plan went well, Rachel would see the error in his ways and would realize:

Sebastian was Sebastian, and that was beautiful.

"Well," she began, avoiding Rachel's eyes and fiddling with her fingers, "maybe he just doesn't feel heard. Maybe you guys are too quick to dismiss him."

Because Savannah was staring intently at her slightly sweaty hands, she didn't see the expression Rachel made. If she had, her stomach would've plummeted.

Rachel had an expression of pure annoyance on his face. Savannah used to be such a good friend to vent to, yet all of a sudden, when Sebastian was brought up, she would immediately flock to his side.

Rachel was no fool. He knew why. Sure, he knew that Sebastian was a charming, handsome man that had ways of getting women to swoon over him. But, he thought Savannah was smarter than that. Smarter than to fall prey to his games. She knew that he was a wild child and a real piece of work, yet that didn't seem to matter to her.

Rachel huffed, resting an elbow on the table and propping his face up with his hand. He tried to dismiss the very obvious truth, thinking that maybe she was just trying to prevent feuds within the band. Or that maybe she just wanted him to hold positive views of his bandmates.

This sounded legitimate, except for the fact that whenever Savannah and Sebastian were together, her expression would light up. Light up ten times more than it did when Rachel or anyone else was with her. Except for the fact that she always looked a little flustered, and a little giggly, with him. And except for the fact that she had attended a party, something she normally hated, at Sebastian's request.

Yes, Savannah had started to develop a crush. Rachel knew it, and she did, too.

"I don't feel like we're dismissing him too quick," he responded to her, trying his best to ignore what he knew was true. "It's not our fault that his ideas suck ass, you know?"

Savannah looked up at Rachel, her brown eyes full of apprehension as she pressed her red lips together. "Do you think that the rest of you guys ever have sucky ideas?"

Unsure of where she was going with this, he nodded. "Absolutely. Why?"

"Does Sebastian ever dismiss them?"

Rachel tried to recall an instance where Sebastian had ever refused one of their ideas, but ended up coming up dry. If one of the others' ideas was shot down, it was by everyone but Sebastian, who would cheerfully exclaim, "yeah, yeah, yeah!" in approval.

Maybe it meant he had low standards, but maybe it meant that he just had a kind heart.

Rachel shook his head in defeat. "No."

Savannah allowed herself a small smile. "So, maybe that's why he gets mad. He's always supportive of you all no matter what, and you guys always shut down his ideas. You said it happens every day, right?"

"His bitch fits do, yeah."

"Well, that also means you guys refuse his ideas every day. That would get to be a lot for me, too. I wouldn't feel heard."

Rachel looked at her, the lovestruck fool, and sighed. "You're making it really hard for me to stay mad at him now."

She smiled shyly, unsure of how to respond.

That's when Rachel had an idea:

He wanted to know how far Savannah would go to defend Sebastian. So, what if he used Sebastian's most unfavorable moments to determine that? Hey, he would be killing two birds with one stone: being able to vent about issues that were bothering him, and confirming what he already knew.

"That's not all, though," he began.

Savannah inwardly sighed, but outwardly asked, "What else?"

"His partying." Rachel began to pick at his chipping nail polish, wondering how she would respond to what he was about to say.

"I'm listening."

"He's a borderline druggy, man. He's always snorting shit. Or smoking shit. Hell, he's even taken pills before." He shrugged nonchalantly, as if he was completely unaware of her feelings. "It gets to be a lot, you know? I feel like he's always high when I want to talk to him. Or drunk. Or with some bimbo."

That last part hit Savannah hard, and Rachel could see her calm expression falter for a split second before becoming rigid once more.

Like Rachel, Savannah was no fool. She knew what went on in the rock industry behind close doors. Hell, even behind open doors. But, that statement still managed to rip her up inside.

"It's rock 'n' roll, man," she got out, shrugging. "He's just doing what everyone else is doing. Just because you're anti-drug doesn't mean that everyone else will be. Yeah, I get that it could be annoying to see him. . .occupied all the time, but that's just how it is in this industry."

"He blows off band meetings because of it."

"The rest of you probably have, too."

"Okay, well, he always gets into fights." He knew that it was probably apparent that he was just chucking random things Sebastian had done into the conversation to see how Savannah would react, but he didn't care. He wanted to hear this.

"And you don't?"

Rachel knew then that if he wanted to vent about Sebastian, he would have to do it elsewhere. There would be no budging Savannah on this matter, and he couldn't help the small smile of amusement that appeared on his lips. Yes, he hated the idea of her liking Sebastian, but he found it slightly funny that she would try to rebuff everything that was said with some sort of turnaround, or straight up denial.

   "What?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

   Still smiling, Rachel shrugged and looked at her slyly. "I don't know. It's just like. . .you're in love with him or something," he teased.

   He knew that Sebastian was bad news. Hell, everyone knew Sebastian was bad news. And, he knew that he would kill the fucker himself if he had ever laid a hand on Savannah.

   But, another part of Rachel thought that this, this whole act of defense on Sebastian's behalf, was a little adorable. Taking out the plentiful qualities that Rachel hated in Sebastian, him and Savannah would be a cute couple.

   And, while he would never want them to be a couple, he knew of Savannah's feelings. So, why not tease her with them?

   Savannah tried her best to keep her expression neutral at his statement. She rolled her eyes and absently scratched at her wrist. "Oh, give me a break, asshole. Can I not stick up for someone without being in love with them? Rach, nobody ever looks at things from his perspective. Someone's gotta do that."

   Rachel kept smiling, not at all believing her. When he ranted about another mutual friend of theirs, Savannah would always take his side no matter what. Fuck the other person's perspective. This sudden change couldn't have been a coincidence, and both of them knew it, too.

   Savannah wouldn't say that she was in love with Sebastian. After all, they had known each other for only three weeks. Love takes a while to blossom. However, she definitely liked him, and she wanted to hit herself at how obvious that fact was.

   Still, she would keep denying. If this whole conversation was anything, it was a wake-up call. She could not openly show her affection to Sebastian, otherwise she would get dragged into his battles. Because, what if this conversation had happened over something more serious? Instead of Rachel's half annoyance, half amusement, she would be getting all anger. And, maybe even termination, if she let her feelings get to be her top priority instead of her work.

   So, she looked at Rachel and asked with a smile, "Why are you still smiling?"

   "Because I think you're full of shit," he responded bluntly.

   "Okay?" She shrugged with faux indifference, hoping that it appeared legitimate on the outside. "I don't really care what you think. Believe it or not, I'm not into Sebastian like that. I just wanna stick up for a friend. If you don't wanna believe it, that's fine. But, I'm telling the truth."

Rachel squinted his eyes, running a hand through his brown locks. "I don't." He shrugged. "But I guess that's my prerogative."

"It is." Savannah clicked her black nails against the table absently. "So, is that all you wanted to talk about today?"

"Yeah, but I can see you're pretty useless in this regard," he said teasingly, standing up. "Do you just wanna walk around, then?"

Rolling her eyes at his statement, she stood up, too. "Yeah, I do."

"Cool."

The pair then began to walk around the field, chatting about things that were less offensive to Savannah. It was nice, and Savannah felt proud of herself. She had stuck up for someone she held dear. Sure, it had been at the expense of Rachel catching on, but still, it felt worth it in this instance.

Rachel looked down at the comparably small girl, and he made a vow to himself then:

He would stop her and Sebastian from being involved as best as he could. He needed to protect her, and, at the moment, there was no better way than preventing this courtship. Sebastian would surely use her, find some way to break her heart. And Rachel didn't want that.

How would he do this? He would have to think. It couldn't be too obvious, or else that would encourage her and Sebastian to sneak around together.

But, he would think of something.

He had to think of something.