To Write a Love Song

Prologue

Broken.

That’s how he felt as Sage pulled at the necklace, pulled, but never pulled hard enough for the chain to snap. ‘Damn him’ the boy thought bitterly as he got up from the steps. Damn him for the drinking, damn him for the parties, and damn him for leaving. Sage felt tears welling up in his crystal blue eyes, but he refused to let them fall, not over him. It was all his fault, for going to the party, for being the addict, for passing out and dying there on the bathroom floor, leaving Sage Garret single and alone. What was he supposed to tell people when they asked if he was seeing someone?

 ‘Oh, no I’m not actually. My boyfriend overdoses at Nicki’s party last month and I still haven’t really gotten over it. You see, when you look past the drugs, cheating, and all the lies that he told me, he was a great guy.’

Yeah, because that wouldn’t get him locked up in the mental ward. No, not at all. Sage sighed as he pulled at the necklace again. It had been a gift…a gift from him, bit a gift none the less, and he still loved it. ‘Jake’ Sage thought as he looked down at the pentagram around his neck, then at the light and tight pink jacket that he seemingly always wore. Boy, how both of those things had driven his mother crazy when Jake had first given them to Sage.  

Even Sage’s brother, open about anything Kaiman, had frowned when he saw the necklace around Sage’s neck. “Sage…I don’t think you should be seeing this boy. He’s trouble. Now you know that I support you in basically everything, but Jake…I can’t support that. He flirts with danger and he never wants to stop. We both know the rumors about his drug use aren’t just rumors and…Sage, I just don’t want you getting mixed in with that kind of crap. You’re my brother, and I love you…I can’t watch you just…destroy yourself over someone like Jake Bishop. Please…”

 But, of course, Sage had ignored him. He had been doing a lot of that lately it seemed. People told him Jake was bad, Sage ignored their warnings.

He saw the way Jake looked at other boys at school, at the park, on their dates, and yet Sage had ignored it. There was even proof that Jake was cheating on him, but Sage looked the other way, too desperate to hold onto the love that he wanted, the boyfriend that he had fought so hard to keep in his life, and now that was all gone.

 Jake hadn’t broken up with him, didn’t have enough balls to face him down, do, the bastard hard to go and die!

 That was it, the tears fell as if a dam had exploded in Sage’s eyes as the blue eyes blonde punched the wall, pleased when he saw a few cuts on his knuckled. “Damn you Jake…” He muttered softly before punching again, this time softer thanks to his new injuries. This was it, the day of Jake’s funeral. Sage was all dressed up, prepared to go and say his final fairwell to the boy he had cared for so deeply, and yet he couldn’t even bring himself to leave the front porch of his own house, that was how pathetic he was.

Even after everything that had happened between Sage and Jake, after everything that Sage claimed Jake was to him, he couldn’t even bring himself to actually go the boy’s funeral. But then again, how could he really, knowing that Jake’s parents would be there, and the rest of Jake’s family.

What would they see when they looked at Sage? A dark chuckle came from Sage then as he thought about it with a small shake of his head. They would see a party boy of course. They would see the boy that took their son, grandson, nephew, and whatever else, down a hard path that led to his death, but that wasn’t the case.

However, Sage wasn’t cruel enough to tell them the truth. He would never do something like that. Ever. No, Jake’s family would never know that everything was the other way around, that Jake was the one leading people down that dark path and that his own actions had been what caused him to die.

Die.

Die and leave Sage alone to deal with his death, that was fantastic. There had been a lot of rumors lately, some that Kaiman had chosen to ignore, and some that he just couldn’t ignore in school. Everyone seemed to think that Sage would be the next Jake, leading people to parties, to drugs, and eventually to death, but that wouldn’t happen.

Sage was done, the young boy of sixteen was sure of that. He had disposed his of last dose of E last week when he learned of Jake’s death.  How could anyone think that he would want anything to do with that stuff, drugs in general, when they had taken the life of his lover? Granted, they weren’t the perfect couple and yet…Sage had felt happy knowing that Jake wanted him as his own.

To feel wanted, and needed, that made Sage know that he was alive and now….all there was to him was a broken and empty feeling as he looked around at the pendant around his neck. Jake had given it to the boy one their two month anniversary, saying that he wanted Sage to have something special to remember him always. It wasn’t until now that Sage realized how precious the necklace really was. Now, it wasn’t just something to remember Jake by until he saw him the next day, now it was a goodbye present from the boy that he would never see again.

Sage had a small smile on his face as he turned back around, and headed inside, but he didn’t get far before the young boy stopped and looked into a mirror hanging in the hallway. Pale skin that seemed to scream ‘I don’t get out much’ and light blonde hair that, compared to his mother and Kaiman, made Sage look as if he were adopted.  If it weren’t for his crystal blue eyes that he shared with his older brother, Sage would be certain that he wasn’t really a Garret at all.

What had Jake really seen in him? A sap? A quick and easy time? What had made the boy do this, leave him like this? Sage shook his head, watching the bangs sway a bit in front of his eyes. What had really made Jake choose drugs over a life with him, over love?

He would never know…or maybe he never did want to know. Sometimes, things were better left unsaid after all, and by the looks of it, Sage would never get to hear the answer.