・❥・
logan.perez.fanclub: HI SAGE
sage.like.the.color: HI LOGAN
him: HOW ARE YOU?
me: I'M GOOD HOW ARE YOU?
him: I'M GOOD TOO THANK YOU FOR ASKING
me: NO PROBLEM
I have no idea why Logan texted me and why we're only texting in capital letters but for some reason it's making me laugh.
him: I HAVE SOMETHING TO ASK YOU
him: IT HAS TO DO WITH SAWYER
My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name.
me: ASK ME
him: OKAY SO WE ARE HAVING A CARNIVAL TONIGHT AND SAWYER HAS BEEN ACTING LIKE A PISS BABY SAYING THAT HE WANTS TO SEE YOU SO CAN YOU COME?
me: HE WANTS TO SEE ME?!
him: THAT'S THE ONLY THING YOU PICKED UP FROM MY MESSAGE?
me: YOU CAN'T JUST TELL ME THAT SAWYER MISSES ME AND NOT EXPECT ME TO OBSESS OVER IT
me: BUT YEAH YEAH I'LL BE THERE
him: FUCK YEAH
him: I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HIS FACE WHEN HE SEES YOU
me: WAIT
me: CAN MY FRIENDS COME TOO? SO THAT I'M NOT ALONE
him: OF COURSE THEY CAN
me: YAY OKAY WE WILL BE THERE
him: OKAY BYE SAGE SEE YOU LATER
me: BYEEEEEEE
❦
The girls and I just arrived to Atticus High School. Immediately after my conversation with Logan ended, I sent Peyton and Margot a text letting them know on the plans for tonight, asking them if they wanted to join. They both agreed instantly and now here we are.
"What do we do now?" Margot asks.
"Do we just walk in?" Peyton also asks.
"I'm not sure," I say.
"We don't go here so we can't just walk in," Margot clarifies.
"You know what, I'm just gonna text Logan and tell him that we're here. He'll tell us what to do," I tell the girls.
sage.like.the.color: HI LOGAN
me: THE GIRLS AND I ARE HERE AND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO
logan.perez.fanclub: HOLD ON I'LL BE RIGHT THERE
"He said he's coming to get us," I inform them.
・❥・
・❥・
"I'll be right back bitches, I forgot something in my car," Logan tells us, looking up from his phone with a suspicious smirk on his face.
"Do you need any help?" I offer.
"Nah, I'm good. I'll be back in a sec." He sends only me a wink and then makes his way out the exit towards the parking lot.
He doesn't send Reece or Orion a wink like he usually does which I find weird, but when I look at them, they don't seem to notice so I just brush it off.
The boys and I have been working the booth for a little while until our other teammates come and we rotate. Each sports team and club at the school has set up their own booth with games that people can play, with their own rules and prices.
Since we're on the basketball team, it would only make sense to make our booth the basketball one. We have two mini baskets set up next to each other so that people can go head to head with one another. The person that makes the most shots after thirty seconds gets a little five pack of temporary tattoos that you can stick on to their body with only the use of water.
The trade isn't really fair, the player paying money and getting the tattoos only if they win, but it's for a good cause because it helps our team out. The amount of money that each group makes from their booth goes directly to their team or club.
Since no one is at our booth at the moment, Orion and I decide to go against each other in a little shooting match. I'm about to make the game winning shot when Reece calls out my name making me miss my shot.
"Sawyer," Reece calls out. My attention flicks to him for a split second and the next thing I know, Orion is cheering in victory.
I turn towards Orion with a glare and flip him off. He chuckles.
"What's up Reece?"
"I think Logan might need your help after all."
"I was in the middle of a game, why couldn't you have gone to help him?" I ask him incredulously. He shrugs his shoulders and looks at Orion behind me with a certain glint in his eye.
I roll my eyes at him, turning around so that I can go help my stupid ass bestfriend. The moment I spot Logan, I notice that he isn't carrying anything, but he is talking to someone. I flick my gaze to the person standing next to Logan and I see the last person that I would expect to be here. I jog my ass towards them.
Before I can get a word out to Sage, Logan decides to open his big mouth. "Look who decided to join us," Logan says, waggling his eyebrows at me. I pay him no attention.
"How are you here?" I ask Sage.
"Logan invited me," she says, sending a little smile Logan's way. He sends her a wink in response.
Their little interaction makes my blood run cold. Logan invited Sage because he and Sage are a thing? No, no that's not possible. Logan knows my feelings towards Sage, he wouldn't do me dirty like that. Would he?
I send Logan a confused look that I hope can express all of the mixed feelings going through my head. I'm guessing he reads my face because his eyes widen to the size of golf balls and quickly clarifies his intentions on inviting Sage.
"I invited her here for you, idiot. For me a little too, but mostly for you. You wouldn't stop complaining about how you missed Sage and were too much of a pussy to ask her to hang out, so I did it for you," he clarifies, going into a little too much detail. I send him a scolding look for outing me right here in front of her.
"'Sawyer has been acting like a piss baby saying that he wants to see you.' Those exact words are what Logan's fingers typed when he asked me to come. Your cover was blown way before I got here, Giant," Sage says, a teasing smile playing on her lips.
"Fuck you, Logan for calling me a piss baby. I call him that all the time, Sage, he stole it from me."
"Yeah okay, and I'm your whole personality so fuck off bitch. I literally invented you," Logan fires back.
"Oh yeah? Let's see how well you invented me when my fist goes flying into your ugly ass face—"
"O-kay," Sage says as she jumps into the middle of me and Logan. "Both of you need to put your little sword fighting dicks away and calm the hell down. You hear me?"
"I don't have a little dick," Logan and I both say at the same time.
"Both of you behave," she scolds, completely ignoring our previous statement. We both nod our heads obediently.
"Damn, baby Sage isn't such a baby anymore," Sage's friend Margot says, coming up from behind Sage and patting her on the shoulder.
"She a little feisty or whateva," her other friend Peyton teases, making them all laugh.
When the laughing has dialed down, Margot says with a clap of her hands, "Okay, let's go boys. Lead the way please."
We lead the girls to our booth and explain the whole gist of the carnival to them. Throughout the whole explanation they look at each other with giddy smiles. When the explanation is done, Peyton and Margot go their separate ways, but Sage stays at our booth.
"You're not gonna go with your friends?" I ask, confused as to why she stayed behind.
"I will in a second. I just wanted to play your guys' game first. I figured if anyone were to beat you it would be me."
"Actually," Orion speaks up from behind me. "I already beat him earlier."
"Oh, well, I'll be the first girl to beat you," she corrects.
"Damn okay. But, if your basketball skills are still as shitty as they were in elementary school, than I'm definitely winning this."
"Hey! They weren't that bad assface," she argues.
"Trust me, they were." She huffs out a frustrated breath but doesn't fire another one of her comebacks.
After Sage pays and her side of the court is set up, we're ready to start the game. Orion counts us down and then we're off. I'm making every one of my shots while Sage on the other hand has only made like two out of ten. She still has shitty basketball skills. Maybe I can give her a few tips one of these days.
After the timer goes off, and all of our points are counted, the winner of the round is announced.
"And the winner by a long shot is Sawyer!" Orion announces.
When I turn to look at Sage, I see that she has a little frown on her face, but when she notices my gaze, her expression quickly transforms into a smirk.
"I let you have that round, I hope you know that," she says.
"Oh yeah? Then let's go again." Her eyes slightly widen.
"Um maybe next time." Orion, Reece and I chuckle. "I'm gonna go with the girls to check out the other booths."
When Sage is out of ear shot, Reece speaks up. "You guys said that Sage was shy but from what I've seen she's the opposite. She's funny, feisty and scary all at the same time."
"I one hundred percent agree with Reece's statement," Orion adds.
"It's 'cause I bring out the worst in Sage," Logan says cheekily.
"Shut your mouth Logan." I turn to Orion and Reece. "She is a shy person, don't get me wrong, but we were all like best friends so she's still comfortable enough to be her feisty, funny and caring self with us," I explain.
"Even the way that he talks about her makes it so painfully obvious that he's in love with her," Reece says, directing his statement towards Logan and Orion.
"Right! That's what I keep trying to tell you guys," Logan exclaims.
"I'm not in love with her," I deny.
"Oh yeah?" Orion taunts.
"Yeah."
"Okay, so if you're not in love with her you wouldn't mind if I asked her out, maybe? Flirted with her a little?" he threatens.
"I wouldn't mind." Of course I would fucking mind.
"Alright, cool. Glad I have your permission, I'll be right back boys, wish me luck."
I step in front of him before he can go anywhere. "Back the fuck off," I grit out. He takes a few steps back and lifts his arms up in surrender.
"Yup, he's definitely in love with her," Reece confirms.
"You motherfucker." I lightly shove Orion. "You were fucking testing me."
"Yeah and you failed, pussy."
"Whatever guys, this didn't prove anything."
"Mhm, sure it didn't."
The rest of the day goes on like this, the boys teasing me and me trying to ignore them and convince them that their assumptions aren't true. Everytime that I deny it though, they always threaten to flirt with Sage and then I explode and they tease me all over again.
The good thing about the whole thing is that the girls were entertained the whole time, playing at all of the booths. I think they made some new friends too with the girls from the book club. They spent a lot of their time hanging out over there and even helping work it a little too.
Every time I looked over at Sage she had the most beautiful smile on her face and it just made my heart beat a little faster. I've missed her so much. Although we weren't hanging out too much during the carnival, I just enjoyed being in her vicinity; being able to see her smile or hear her laugh.
Damn, I do sound like I'm in love with her.
The night has finally come to an end and the boys and I are cleaning up our booth, stashing all of the money that we made away, dismantling the baskets and putting all of the mini basketballs away in a bag. It's not until everything is packed up that I notice that the girls aren't anywhere to be seen.
"Where did the girls go?" I ask the boys.
"They went to the bathroom. Said they wanted to put on the tattoos that we gave them," Orion answers, not looking up from his phone. I mumble a thanks and then make my way to the nearest bathrooms.
I know I'm close when I hear the giggles coming from the bathroom. Before I barge in, I decide to knock to make sure it's clear.
"Who is it?" someone calls out from inside the bathroom.
"It's Sawyer," I respond.
"Come in."
"No, don't." It's too late though because the door is already open and I have a clear view of inside the bathroom.
I expected to see the girls putting the fake tattoos on themselves, but what I didn't expect to see was half of Sage's bare torso on display. Peyton is holding Sage's shirt up while Margot is crouched in front of Sage I assume putting one of the tattoos on her. But, every time that Margot tries to get the tattoo on Sage, she thrashes.
"Sawyer, we need some help over here," Margot says.
"No we don't," Sage denies, not being able to meet my gaze.
"Yes we do," Margot insists.
"How can I help?"
"You hold Sage steady," Peyton instructs.
"You guys, this is ridiculous. We don't need three people to put a fake tattoo on me," Sage grumbles.
"Sage is right. We only need one person. Let me try to help her and if I can't get it then I'll call you guys for your assistance," I offer.
The two girls look at each other and smirk before turning to me and giving me a nod. Margot stands from her crouching position and Peyton drops Sages shirt before they walk out of the restroom. Sage's arms immediately go to her torso, hugging herself.
"You don't have to do this Sawyer. The girls and I were just messing around," Sage mumbles.
"It's not a big deal, it's just a little fake tattoo." I reach for the small tattoo that's on the sink and show it to Sage. "Is this the one that you wanted?" I ask her. She nods.
When I have the wet paper towel in one hand and the temporary tattoo in the other, I turn to Sage. "Do you want the tattoo in the same spot that you did earlier?" My nerves spike up when she shyly nods. She starts to lift her shirt up but stops halfway and drops it back to his normal position.
"Don't judge me, okay?"
"Why would I judge you?" I ask her, confused.
"I don't know Sawyer, just promise me you won't, okay?"
"I promise," I say, as I look her directly in the eye to show her how serious I am. "Are you ready?"
She blows out a little breath and then mumbles, "Yeah."
"Lift your shirt for me, please." Her shaky hands grab the hem of her shirt, lifting it, stopping just below her breasts.
I suck in a sharp breath, my hands starting to turn shaky with all of her tan, smooth skin on display. I wipe the oncoming sweat from my hands on my pants and then begin.
I slowly swipe my fingers over the skin below Sage's breast. She releases a shaky breath and sucks in her stomach a little bit. The action was so subtle that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't so aware of her every movement.
"I saw that Sage," I accuse.
"Saw what?" she questions innocently.
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Do I though?" Always the stubborn one.
I rest my hand on her hip and move it up and down slowly in a comforting manner. She looks down at me with widened eyes. "You don't have to hide from me. I won't judge you or think any less of you, remember? I promised."
"People don't always keep their promises," she murmurs.
"Well I do, especially the ones that I make to you." She doesn't respond, just moves her gaze towards the ground. "Okay, I'm gonna start now."
I remove the plastic peel from the tattoo and then line it up on Sage's skin to make sure it's not crooked. When I can guarantee that it's in the perfect position, I place it on her skin.
"I'm gonna use the towel now. It's probably gonna be a little cold so just beware."
"Okay," she all but whispers.
The second I press the cold towel on Sage's skin, she flinches and steps back a little from the sudden feeling. I use the hand that was resting on her hip to pull her back into me. Before I can convince myself that what I'm about to do isn't friendly, I press a little kiss on her stomach to show her that I'm here for her. Her whole body erupts into goosebumps.
Even though all I'm doing is sticking a little temporary tattoo on Sage's skin, I can't help but feel like this is more than that. I can feel the vulnerability rolling off of Sage in waves, yet she's still here exposing a part of herself to me and letting me touch her in a place that other people normally wouldn't. She trusts me and there isn't anything I love more than knowing that she feels secure enough with me to do this.
When I've held the wet towel on her skin for about thirty seconds, I remove it and then slowly take white paper off, hoping that all of the tattoo has stuck to her skin.
"I'm done," I tell her, but before I let her go, I press one more kiss to her stomach.
She walks to the mirror with blazing cheeks and looks at her new tattoo. I actually did a really good job, not gonna lie. It's in the perfect place and all of the tattoo stuck to her skin. It honestly looks sort of realistic. The little vines of flowers perfectly swoop the bottom of her breast. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to get a tattoo like this one when she's older because it looks really good. It suits her, actually.
"It looks really good on you." Our gazes meet in the mirror and she sends me a shy smile.
"Thank you. I think I want one like this when I'm older, I really like it."
What did I say?
"Okay I think we can go back to our friends now, let me just clean up really quick." She walks over to the sink and cleans all of the splattered water off of the sinks and picks up all of the paper towels that we used. Once everything is set the way that she likes it, we make our way out of the bathroom.
The second we step outside, a cold breeze blows through us and Sage wraps her arms around herself. I immediately lift my hoodie over my head and hand it over to her.
"What are you doing?" she questions, looking at my hoodie.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Giving me your sweater," she answers.
"You weren't stubborn this time, that's the first." She sends me a glare but continues to stare at my hoodie. "Sage, take the hoodie," I insist but she just shakes her head. "Why won't you take it?"
"It's embarrassing."
"Why would it be embarrassing for you to wear my hoodie?" I ask, trying to hide the hurt that's in my voice.
"That's not the embarrassing part."
"Then what is? It's just a sweater." She mumbles something too low for me to hear. "I'm gonna need you to speak up for me."
"You're really gonna make me say it?" I give her a firm nod. "It won't fit me."
"What do you mean?" Why wouldn't my sweater fit her?
"Sawyer you know what I mean," she says, her cheeks coloring in... embarrassment?
"I don't actually. Why wouldn't my sweater fit you? I'm a big dude."
"You're not big, you're tall, there's a difference. You probably wear like a size small or something, I'm a large on a good day."
"I'm kind of offended that you think I'm a size small," I tease trying to lighten the mood. It doesn't work though because Sage still has that embarrassed look on her face. "I wear a size extra large, Sage. My sweater will fit you, just put it on, please. I don't like seeing you cold like this."
"But—"
"No buts. Put it on." She begrudgingly grabs the hoodie from my hold and puts on. She's drowning in my sweater.
"Wouldn't fit you my ass. You're literally swimming in it."
She punches my arm. "Shut up."
"I don't ever want you to be embarrassed or ashamed of yourself, okay? I don't like knowing that you think so little of yourself. Everyone is special and beautiful in their own way," I express.
"You just indirectly called me beautiful, you know that?" She has a little smile on her face now.
"I'm well aware." She rolls her eyes and begins to walk in the direction of the carnival.
I don't let her get too far though. When I catch up, I wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull her into my chest, pressing a small kiss on the crown of her head.
It's moments like these, where I realize just how much I missed Sage. I hope she and all of her stubbornness stays like we promised.
Word Count: 3546
author's note:
HI HI HI HEY! Chapter 8 is here YAYAYAYAY! I'm sorry about the delay but this was a much longer chapter than any of the previous ones. It took me a while to focus but I was finally able to sit my fat ass down and get it done. I'm happy with how this chapter turned out. I know that I said that I was working on the friendship aspect of Sage and Sawyer but I couldn't help myself I needed to get a cute little moment in there. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!!
Be sure to let me know your thoughts on the book and characters :)
I love you and I am proud of you. I hope that you have a beautiful day <3
elisa <3