Me, You, and Mason

26

Maybe I should call him over, she thought.

With bile scented breath and fatigue that weighed heavier than usual, she didn't feel up to it in the slightest.

And as she peeked out from under the rubble of blankets and bedsheets, her eyes slinking along her disaster of a room, she scoffed.

He can't see me like this, she decided.

But Sage had made his own decisions.

Given the abrupt nature of his termination, he was reeling.

He couldn't believe how easily he was kicked aside, how quickly his golden ticket out of Mason had been revoked.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair interpersonally.

It wasn't fair business!

But Dime seemed to be quite the politician, and apparently Kyro was the perfect lobbyist for him.  Schmoozing and putting a bug in his ear that ultimately bit Sage in the back.

The DJ's loyalty had been laid already, and Dime abided by that. After all, the game was all about serving who serves you, right?

At least that's what Sage remembered of his 4th of July conversation with Dime.

Sage hated how much he'd compromised on his mission to "make it." In the end, it only kept him chained to this place.

In the end, it only put a crack in what had become a shattered friendship with Ken... and now he couldn't even make amends because Ken was gone.

And he wasn't too sure if he'd ever see him again.

That thought is what led him back to Darcy.

He rounded the Graham's parking lot and noticed her car wasn't there. Upon going inside and asking if she'd been in today, he soon learned that she called out for the week.

He weighed the option of going to her home.

He knew that he was the last person she wanted to see right now, and he definitely would face her wrath once she saw him. But he didn't want anyone else but her.

He followed his heart's path and landed on her doorstep.

Locks thudded and clanked before the door creaked open to unveil Aria.

"Oh, hi, Sage," she gave a small, polite smile while clipping a name tag onto her shirt.

"Hey, uh... Is Darcy here?"

"Yeah, I think. It's been pretty quiet around here, and I haven't seen her in a few days, so I'm almost not sure," she chortled to cut the sharpness of such a sad revelation. "But, um, you can knock and see."

The door widened.

Sage stepped inside.

"I'm actually on my way to work, so I'll probably catch you on the flip side," she stated while fiddling with a bundle of keys. "If she's not here, just lock up, okay?"

She tossed him the house key.

Never having been all that athletic, he surprised himself when he caught the tiny object.

"See ya!" She was halfway out the door before he could respond.

He kept the key tight in his grasp as he knocked on Darcy's closed bedroom door.

Silence.

He checked his phone for the time. It was nearly 1:00 in the afternoon. The lack of light seen under the door led him to believe that if she was here, she was definitely asleep.