wanna be | ej caswell

¹¹ worth it

"what's wrong?" nini asked. "rickys running late." nini rolled her eyes. "of course."

"and we're blocking the troy and gabi duet. ej is standing in." sage said quietly. nini's eyes widened before sage grabbed her arms. "girl, you've got this okay. it's just acting." nini nodded.

"I'll be right there if you need me." she smiled at nini. "thank you," nini replied quietly as sage wrapped her arm around her shoulder and they began walking.

[

sage willis:

oh this could end badly. ej what did you do.

]

sage had taken a seat next to ashlyn and shot a gentle smile nini's way as she stood on stage with ej. "is she okay?" ashlyn whispered, pulling her script up a little to cover the two of them. "she's more annoyed that anything, i let her have a little rant." sage replied. she could feel the tension in the room.

"well this is a choice," sage heard from over her shoulder both her and ashlyn looking to see gina smirking. sage tilted her head and shook it. "be supportive."

she turned around to watch nini and ej again, giving the girl a reassuring smile and also shooting one towards ej when she saw him looking at her, a silent plea for help in his eyes. eventually miss jenn stopped the two of them.

"i'd like you to get to his heart without cracking his ribs." the teacher remarked. "actually i wanna try something, it may help having our kelsi in the seat for this rehearsal i know it's just a basic run down but i think we need it." miss jenn turned to sage, basically pleading with her eyes. sage nodded. "okay, i don't know it off by heart yet but i can play at a glance, it won't be fantastic."

"we're just blocking so that's okay."

she stood up and walked over to the piano, smiling at seb as they switched places. she walked past nini and gave her a gently pat on the arm in reasurance. as she sat behind the piano on the stool and felt a hand ghost hers, looking up from the music she saw ej's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

she didn't know who's side she was on in this situation but she knew both of them were hurting and she hated it. she dropped her hand to the keys, playing one scale quickly to warm her hands up before she sent a smile to both of the people in front of her as miss jenn gave her a nod.

she started to play as nini and ej began to sing, the notes of what I've been looking for coming out as she pressed on keys gently.

miss jenn pulled them to a stop again, beginning to break down what nini had done as ricky walked in. sage sat behind the piano as the drama teacher gently ripped into ricky about being unprepared for rehearsal. sage frowned, able to tell from rickys demeanor that something was up with him but not able to see what. ricky turned to her general direction, looking to ask for something. sage reached into her hair and pulled out her spare pencil from her bun. her hair falling down her back as she passed it to ricky.

"when you come to rehearsal, you come prepared." miss jenn began. sage titled her head down, looking at her hands as miss jenn began her little sermon on the importance of being prepared. she looked up and over at ricky immediately seeing his demeanor drop. she tried to get his attention gently, succeeding and mouthing the words 'you okay?' to him. he immediately shook his head and she frowned gently, worried for her friend.

miss jenn had asked ricky to meet her in her office and dismissed the class. sage sighed, not moving from behind the piano. she gently called out to nini. "hey neens, raincheck on that lift home. i think I'm gonna stay for a bit and practice some of the songs." she smiled at the girl. "okay sage, if you get stuck or anything send me a text. I'm sure my mums will wanna come get you, make sure you get home safe." sage nodded. "i will, thanks nini."

ashlyn walked up to the girl as nini left, passing her waterbottle. "you want me to stay?" sage shook her head. "you can if you want to but I'm okay, just gonna practice and maybe dance."

ashlyn nodded. "honestly if it's okay I'll stay with you, ej was my ride and i don't know if i can handle brooding ej at the moment and we haven't had a jam sesh in a while." sage smiled. "okay."

"i am just going to fill my water bottle up though, be back in a bit." sage smiled at her as she ran out, laughing gently. she placed her hands on the keys again. a new melody coming to her as she played it. she stopped and ran down to her bag, grabbing out her beat up note book and set it on the piano the lyrics opened up in front of her as she began to sing the new lyrics she had written quietly to herself. a few seconds passed before a knock sounded on the door quietly. sage looking up and stopping playing when she saw ej there.

"hey," he said quietly. "hey." she replied. she could tell by his stance that he was about to crumble. she got up and walked over to him, his arms wrapping around her shoulders as she wrapped her around his waist. his head resting on hers. "I'm so stupid."

"I'm not gonna beat around the bush. you are." sage replied quietly. the two of them stood there for a few minutes before she pulled away. her heart feeling tight and sore from it. he looked at her, seeming almost hurt from her pulling away. "ej you can't keep doing this to me." he looked at her. "you can't keep playing with my feelings like this, you know how i feel and you moved on. give me time." she said as she turned her back to him.

"I'm still your best friend, you just need to give me time to come to terms with it all." she explained more as she grabbed her bag and ashlyns bag. "you made me think i was your first choice but i obviously wasn't." she turned around to him with both bags on her shoulder and lyric book in hand. she walked to him and grabbed his hand with her free one. "it hurts, you have to let me heal. I'll still be here for you but give me time to heal from that. it'll give you time to heal from and fix this." she leaned up and wrapped her arms around his shoulder.

"i love you ej and you gotta understand that." she let him go and walked out the door, ashlyn returning at that moment and grabbing her bag from sage, immediately sensing that the girl needed to go and talk. she nodded to her and smiled at her before they both left.

"you were and are still my first choice." ashlyn heard it but looked over and she could see sage hadn't and her heart was crushed. she hadn't seeing her friends like this.

but ashlyn was wrong sage had heard it and she clenched her hands tightly. and blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to stop the tears.

'then why didn't you wait.' she thought as she walked through the school and to ashlyns house.

the new song and melody in her song book burning to be played.

"you chose lego blocks not choices, to building your f*cking fortress."

-----

my freaking heart stop

i wrote the plot and my heart is breaking for my babies.

i added a new song to the playlist which is the one i say sage is working on in this chapter, lego blocks by neriah.

truly think it describes everything going on in the book at the moment. i promise some happiness will come soon but in the meantime enjoy this heart break and get ready for more ashlyn x sage content in the next few chapters. my fave besties are gonna go through it together and that's all i can say.

much love,

sunny <3