Page 196 of Sebastian's Baby

“I’m not surprised; Lita’s amazing.” I smile at Lita, and she flushes pink.

“I was thinking…” Hayden trails off.

“Did it hurt?” I ask quickly.

“Very funny.” Hayden rolls his eyes. “I mean, since we’re all here, I was wondering what everyone thought if Lita made a longer game for the website. If you want to, of course, Lita.” He smiles at her as he waits for her response.

“Ooh, that’s a brilliant idea,” Gabriel says.

It really is, and as much as I like the game she made about me, it would be pretty damn cool to have a longer game about the whole band. Especially considering the one she made just about me already crashed the website. Obviously, the fans would love more of that. I love that Lita is as skilled as she is, and I want to show off her skills to the world.

“Can I think about it?” she asks, and I look at her to see she has a frown on her face.

“Of course. We’d pay you as well,” Hayden says. “I mean, that’s what I was thinking; we’d commission you to make a game. We wouldn’t expect you to do it for free.”

“Shit, we should actually pay you something for the birthday game,” Harrison points out.

Of course, he’s right. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. She must’ve spent ages making it and we just went and put it on the website without paying her for her work.

“No, no, that was Sebastian’s birthday gift!” she says quickly.

“Yes, but we appropriated it for other purposes. You deserve to be paid for that.” Hayden gives her a smile.

“Oh my god, please stop.” Lita starts jiggling her leg and rocking slightly in her seat. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before she stops moving. “Sorry, it’s just that it’s not about the money. I need to check with Silicon Street if I’m even allowed to freelance, particularly since I’m on early maternity leave. I probably should’ve checked before we put the birthday game on the website, but as long as I haven’t been compensated for it, that should be okay anyway.”

Harrison looks at me before he looks back at her and says quietly, “That makes sense. Sorry, Lita.”

There’s an awkward silence, and I’m not sure if I should fill it. I can tell that Lita is uncomfortable with the conversation, so I should take the attention off her.

But she speaks before I can and says, “It’s fine, Harrison. I actually love the idea, Hayden, but I probably couldn’t do it alone. The graphics on the birthday game weren’t brilliant because that’s not where my talent lies. I told Sebastian that if I’d known other people would play it, I would’ve done a lot of things differently, and I meant it.

“It would depend on what your goals are with the game you wanted me to make. Whether you wanted to monetize it, either through microtransactions or people paying for the game as a whole, or if you wanted it to be something free for the fans. That all really, really depends on whether or not I can even freelance, though if you don’t pay me, I can probably do what I want, but I need to check.”

I stare at her, reminded once again how absolutely amazing she is. Her mind is such a wonderful thing, and Harrison was right the night we met. She’s definitely too good for me. All I can do is play guitar and write some songs, but she thinks of these amazing, weird, and wonderful things that I could never do or think of.

“Already, you’re a thousand miles ahead of what I was thinking,” Hayden says with a smile at Lita. “I just thought, ‘that game was cool; we should have a longer one.’ I hadn’t even considered whether or not it would be paid or free.”

“That’s why you make music, and I make video games,” Lita laughs.

The conversation moves on, and Lita relaxes when she’s not the center of attention anymore. I grab her hand and squeeze it. She looks up at me, and I smile down at her.

“So, have you two worked your shit out, then?” Blake asks and nods to our joined hands.

The air in the car grows tense, and Lita asks, “What do you mean, Blake?”

“Well, Sebastian was busy picking up chicks at clubs the last time I saw him, and now you two are all loved up again, so…” Blake shrugs.

I glare at him because it’s not even close to true. The last time he was at a club with me, Ididdance with a woman, but that’s as far as it went.

I’m about to tell him to fuck off when Hayden growls, “Blake, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but Lita has never done anything to you. Can you please stop?”

I'm surprised, because it’s so rare for Hayden to get angry at someone, let alone to call Blake out on his bullshit. He’s one of the most chill people I know.

Blake looks at him quickly, then sulks, “I was just asking an honest question.”

“Fuck off, as if you didn’t know that you were being rude as shit.” Heather glares at him.

I’m about to join the conversation, but Lita’s body tenses up, and she stares out the window of the car. I feel terrible that she’s uncomfortable, and I’m so pissed at Blake for upsetting her. I squeeze Lita’s hand and stroke her skin with my thumb.

---