Freddie drove us home. He walked all the way from the house to the lake to catch Dougie and I sneaking out of the house. I felt embarrassed and Dougie, too. The worst of it is to see Freddie so upset, I cringe at the thought.
None of us said a single word to each other. Of course, Freddie drove back. I sat up in the front in the passenger because I wasn't going to let both of the brother be that close to one another. Who knows what will happen between the two of them? But things are going to get bad once we all take step into the house.
Luckily, nothing bad happened. It's probably about two in the morning and their parents are asleep. Good thing Freddie planned to get after Dougie once morning arrives so there won't be angry tired parents being woken up from all of the fighting going on. But I don't want to see nor hear what's about to happen in a couple of hours.
I don't know why Dougie didn't think this through. I knew that something like this would've happened...
The next morning at breakfast, I was the first at the table out of me, Freddie and Dougie. This is the first that I'm the first. Usually, either Freddie or Dougie would beat me to breakfast and barely any food would've been left over for me to eat.
I didn't have the appetite to eat. I was just worried and scared on what's going to happen, only if it ever happens. The thought of how Freddie was last night, guilt rushed over my body and my shoulders slugged down. I sat at the table, staring down at the top of the table, unfazed.
"Hey, good morning." I straightened up a little bit when I heard Freddie walk down the stairs and say something. Of course, it was to his mother. He didn't even acknowledge me at all, but still sat next to me at the table. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him carefully. Freddie didn't even bother to touch any of the food settled down on the table. Sooner or later, all of it was going to get cold and nobody is going to eat it.
Now I wondered: is Dougie ever going to show up? He never missed out on breakfast ever since I arrived that I have seen. He's always in a good mood, coming to the dining table. The goofy smile and his bed head of his; locks of ginger hair sticking out in every single direction possible.
Dougie sat in his usual seat: right across from me. He never made eye contact with me nor Freddie. I guess the morning was starting a little bit better than I thought it was going to be. I could be wrong in a matter of seconds, but I could feel the tension still going on.
He ignored the probably dirty look from Freddie as he started to pile up food on his plate. I took that as a signal just to start taking food and eating it since we all were sitting there, staring at the food. My hand reached out for the spatula to start piling pancakes up on my plate. And then all of the sudden, I pulled it back. I glanced over to see Freddie staring at me coldly. Once Dougie made the first move, it created a chain reaction towards me to make the next move and Freddie knew that it was going to happen.
"You okay?" Dougie asked me, a concern look on his face. His fork was in his hands, but he didn't start to eat as he was awaiting an answer from me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's n-nothing," I said quietly.
And then the awkward silence rolled back in. All three of us stayed where we were like we were statues. My eyes went back down at the table immediately after I replied back to Dougie's question.
"What? Are you really going to keep looking at me like that all day?" Dougie said, a little angry with the tone.
"Do I really not have the fucking right to?" Freddie hissed across the table, his fists slammed on top of the table hard and he stood up. A little gasp slipped through my lips and I flinched at the scene right in front of me. I knew it was going to happen. Why wouldn't it?
"Okay, I apologized for what happened earlier! You're taking all of this way too seriously, Freddie!" Dougie did the same thing as his brother and stood up.
"Taking it too seriously?! God dammit, do you not realize that you and Sage snuck out last night with each other? And I never knew about what was happening? I'm in a relationship with her and it seems like it's okay for you to do stuff with her that I'm not aware of. And by the looks of it last night, you two were having a great time."
The whole argument is about to get out of control and I don't want to see it. I made a quick dash out of the dining room and up the stairs to my room and locked the door behind me. Neither of the two followed me up as I can hear the yelling from up here from downstairs.
"And you're not going to get after Sage? She agreed on coming!"
I didn't want to hear any of this no more. It's only going to be a back and forth argument for who knows how long. And I know Dougie was going to use me as his defense because Freddie doesn't want to believe that I had to take part in what happened. But I did.
I wonder how many times I've gone up to this room and hide because of problems that have happened. Probably too many times to count, but it wasn't a lot in reality. I just find comfort on being alone and away from the world. I'm such a child because al of the time, I always love to run away from my problems. Why can't I at least go up against one like a brave person?
All of the yelling died down after what it seemed like to be hours. No doors were slammed shut or feet stomping across the floor. I wonder what's going on now? The house grew really quiet. A little weird, too. Lynn must've done something... I don't want to know, I just want the situation to slide on by.
Everything was quiet for hours. I was under the covers (no shocker) in that meantime. I dozed off for about fifteen minutes before I woke up, a little tired and annoyed. I didn't get enough sleep from when I returned back to the house, maybe I got about a couple of hours in.
My stomach started to growl and now, I felt miserable. No food, no sleep, no nothing.
I laid in bed for a few more hours until I couldn't take it anymore. This weird thing of me staying in my room was getting a little out of hand. I need to get outside right now. Feeling a little too claustrophobic in here even though this room is a decent size. I've always surrounded myself in this room for most of the summer.
And I hope I can get a clean getaway out of the house without no one taking notice. I threw all of the covers off of me and onto the floor and made my way to the door, unlocking it. Without hesitation, I opened the door and proceeded on. Only just a single step before I took it back.
Freddie was standing in my way at the door. I don't know how long he was been standing there, waiting for me. He didn't even bother to knock on the door like he usually does when he wants something from me.
"What?" I had a hard time speaking out from the fear. My feet started to take steps backwards, and Freddie took steps forward towards me. The both of us were now face to face, inches away from each other. I could see the anger from his body language, his breathing was fast and hands were balled up into fists.
"What the hell were you two doing? From what I saw, it seemed like you and my brother were having a great time with each other, Sage. Care to explain everything?" Freddie's words were venom and I didn't like it. His blue eyes were clouded with anger and I simply couldn't look at him in the face no more.
"I didn't know what was going to happen. Dougie told me that we were going to go to the lake, I guess something both of you do every summer for who knows how long? I just went along to have fun, I didn't know that there was going to be that much fun. And I didn't know what to expect." I should've known what Dougie was up to, even though it was really nothing bad at all. He was a completely different person from when I met him at the beginning, shy and everything. But seeing what I saw earlier, Dougie was a completely different person and it kind of scared me.
"How did you not know what was going to happen? Did you not think anything through? For damn's sakes, I thought there was something going on between the two of you! Because what I saw, there had to be." Freddie sighed in frustration and took a few steps away from me, his back now facing me. "Did you not even think of how frustrated I was going to be when I found out?"
"No," I said, honestly. My headed lowered to the ground, feeling the guilt pile up on my shoulders. But I did a little, but when Dougie and I were messing around in the water, I never thought of it at that point in time. I just thought we were having fun like friends in a way.
There was a reason why Dougie took me with him to the lake, just the two of us. So we could be alone and away from Freddie secretively behind his back.
"Freddie, I'm really sorry for what happened. I seriously didn't know..."
"Just save it, Sage. At the moment, I'm done with your clueless act, I'm not buying it."
I sucked in my breath and the tears started to well up in my eyes. This is my fault. Only if I said no, none of this would've ever happened.
"Just...change my ticket. I'm not going to San Jose with you because I know at the moment, you don't want me to go with you," I mumbled, sniffling a bit and wiping lone tear away from my cheek that had fallen. "Get me a one way flight back to Arizona."
"Stop messing with me. Stop the pity for yourself, Sage." Freddie was taken aback from my comment, trying not to believe what I just said. He knows I'm right, so why even bother to fight with me still when I'm only trying to make his life easier for him? On the bright side, he doesn't have to deal with me anymore.
"I'm not going to stay here in Canada either when the summer's over. You know I didn't even want to be here in the first place. And you know that I'm not going to Boston with Dougie one of the reasons because he doesn't know anything about what's going on with me. My father is the only reason I'm here and was going to go to San Jose with you. I rather be back in Arizona where I should've been for this whole damn summer. If I have never came, none of this would've happened and made all of your family's life a lot more easier."
"Sage-"
I shook my head. "Don't, Freddie." I took a deep breath. "Look on the bright side, you don't have to watch over me anymore. Because the both of us, it looks like we aren't even going to last much longer and I rather not fight the battle, let alone you don't either."
Freddie's head jerked up in surprise. His eyes were wide and his facial expression read confusion like he didn't understand what I said. He took a couple steps towards me, an arm outstretched in my direction. My response was stepping away from him and that stopped him dead in his tracks. "Why are you doing this?"
"You don't believe me, Freddie," I laughed a little, sarcastically. "So if that's how you feel at the moment, why do you still want to deal with me in the future if what happened recently with Dougie and I will run through your mind over and over? That is what you're always going to think about: something happened between him and I. And nothing didn't that I saw through my own eyes. We were just having fun like young people usually do."
His mouth fell open like an 'o'. Freddie was completely speechless. He was trying to find words and put them into a sentence but it wasn't working for him
"Please excuse me while I figure out this college transfer again back to ASU," I muttered and turned away. I didn't give another glance up at Freddie. It was over right there.
I grabbed a hold of my laptop that rested on top of my suitcase on the floor next to my bed and gently threw it down on the bed. I was about to lay down but I felt Freddie grab a hold of me by my shoulders and yank me around to face him. The tears were running down his cheeks, his lip quivered a bit holding back a sob.
"I'm not letting you go like this, Sage," he said in a shaky voice from the emotions building up inside of him. "Just don't. I should be the one sorry here because I was the dick head, treating you like this. I'm sorry that I got frustrated at your earlier only because I didn't know what happened with you and Dougie and it worried me that there was seriously going on between the two of you. I care about you way too much, Sage. That's how much I love you, I can't ever lose you, not like this. You know you can't go back to Arizona. You know that you're putting yourself in a perilous situation with your father out there. I'm not letting you go, let alone get yourself killed! Because if that happened, I'll be blaming myself for days on end because that happened to you just from my own actions. I know you're only saying something like that so you can put the guilt on me, and you did."
Okay, I really taken everything a little too far. When all of this was planned out in my head, I didn't know it would've gone on like this. Everything went differently in my head compared to reality. My thoughts thought all of this would've ended at me demanding the ticket change.
The sight of Freddie crying hurt me. I pulled him into a tight hug and rubbed his back to calm him down. A few sobs were let out here and there and finally, he calmed down.
"You know that I love you, Sage, right? I just thought-"
"I know you do. Let go what happened earlier, it was nothing, okay? Don't dread on this moment forever or else we're never going to be happy with each other anymore because of that," I whispered into his ear and then gently kissed his cheek. "I love you, Freddie and I'm glad you're taking me with you."
"I want to keep you safe. That's all I want. And I know you will be, I promise."
Everything between Freddie and I has been settled down, finally. We had our apologies to each other and we're good. Everything originally planned is still as it is.
A/N: Didn't see that coming? I didn't either. Everything is still building up, don't worry. I haven't forgotten Dougie, I promise. Just wait patiently and see what's coming up next in the next few chapters. They are going to be something and that's all I'm saying. Don't forget to vote and comment. I love to hear feedback! :)