𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 | 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

8| Evermore.

8 | Evermore.

| 3rd POV |

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

"I have to go get a folder from the store before it closes," Rory sighed.

"Aren't you studying?" Sage asked, her feet swinging off the counter. "Yeah, but the store's only open for another 30 minutes."

"I can go for you," she said, jumping down.

"Really?" Rory looked up at her. "Yeah, sure. I have to get new pens anyway."

"I love you," said Rory, tossing Sage some money. "Anything else you need? Mom?" She looked to her sister then Lorelai.

"Oh! Sticky notes. I need some more for my self help wall," Lorelai nodded. "I'm good," Rory laughed. "Thank you."

"I'll be back in a bit," Sage called out, walking out the door.

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

Folder, pens, sticky notes,
Folder, pens, sticky notes.

Folder, check.

Pens, check.

Sticky notes, check.

Sage payed quickly, tossing the extra change she had in her pocket from various outings over the week into the tip jar.

She waved at the cashier, before grabbing her bag and walking outside, quickly wishing she had brought a jacket.

"Hey," she turned her head, seeing Jess walking beside her. She felt a smile tug on her lips at seeing him.

"Hi again," she said, "for real this time."

He smiled a bit, tucking his hands into his pockets. "What are you doing out here?' He asked, slowing his pace down so she didn't have to speed up.

"I had to get something for my sister for school, plus I needed more pens. I run out of ink so easily, frankly it's concerning." Sage fiddled with the strings of her hoodie, quickly realizing she didn't need to say half of that. "What about you?"

"Oh, yeah—same thing." He nodded.

"Mhm, sure," she teased.

"What?" He asked, walking backwards to face her. She shrugged, "you're a bad liar."

He fakely gasped, "I am not. I could be Fletcher Reede if I tried hard enough."

Sage scoffed, "yeah, whatever you say."

"Correct," he pointed something at her, an item dancing between his fingers. "What's that?" She tilted her head, as they both slowed to a stop.

"Oh, this?" He held up some kind of coin, pressing it into his fist for a moment. "Nothing."

He opened his hand, it was gone. "Just another disappearing act."

"I take it you're good at those?"

He looked at her. "The best."

She smiled, looking down for a few seconds. "Little tip?" She met his eyes.

"Hm?"

"If you ever want to talk to me again, don't you dare pull it out of my ear." Her words broke off with a smile. "I'm serious!" She exclaimed as he chuckled, "I'll never even look in you're direction ever again."

"So, I assume the nose is off limits too?"

"Unless you have a particular yearning for legos in your shoes, chunky glitter in some very unpleasant places, and car fluid in your eyeballs, I'd say so, yeah."

"Any place would wouldn't naturally find a coin, is off limits." She concluded.

"Got it." He nodded, hands in the air.

She turned, starting to walk again. He followed cluelessly, a small smile on both of their faces.

"So, what're you doing now?" He kept his eyes on her, while hers watched the ground.

Sage had a run in with a squirrel on the way here, and she didn't feel like reenacting it.

"I have some extra credit stuff to finish," she shrugged, kicking a pebble.

"Okay," Jess nodded, "then I'll leave you this last little trick." He waved a hand, gaining her attention.

He pulled something out of his pocket, handing it to her.

She glanced down, having to physically force herself to look away from him.

It was a book—no. It was her book. She knew because after an incident in 1st grade involving Jason Hawthorne stealing her book, and absolutely refusing to admit it was hers, resulting in Sage shoving him into a locker and her getting in trouble even though it was obvious his fault. So, ever since then, she's drawn a small heart on the bottom of her book spines. It's barley noticeable, but very telltale.

And this particular book, had a small heart on it.

"You stole my book!" She gasped, looking up at him. "And not just any book, my limited edition, Barns and Noble signature copy of Pride and Prejudice, my favorite book ever, so special I keep it away from all of my other books, literally sighed by Jane Austen, and even has a passage that she wrote herself, that took me years to find. You're ridiculous!"

Jess just shrugged, resisting the urge to grin. "I only borrowed it."

"That's not a trick, that's a felony, mister." Sage scolded, yet finding him oddly cute just standing there, staring at her, holding a book. He looked different than he did yesterday, more comfortable.

"I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you," he explained, holding it out to her.

She looked down, sighing, before softly grabbing it. She flicked through the pages, running her eyes along them. Specifically lingering on the handwritten words on every page.

"Darcy's an idiot,"

"She's way too good for him,"

Some things were underlined, or circled, others tabbed by light and dark brown sticky notes. Every page was filled, yet nothing was crowded. Everything looked like it belonged.

This time, Sage couldn't stop the smile appearing on her lips.

"Goodnight, princess," he said, looking her up and down as he turned away

"Goodnight, idiot," she responded, looking up fast enough to meet his eyes for a moment.

Sage read through the notes the entire way home, only managing to run into two trees instead of her usual four. That is what she called character development.

On the final page, under the closing words, the last thing he wrote was,

"I have a feeling, my fate with fall similar to that of Darcy's."

She didn't understand it in the moment, but something told her she would.

Eventually, at least.

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺