I linked arms with Arrie as we paraded to our first class of the day. It felt like every typical Monday, a drag. I was tired from the constant internal fight over Thanksgiving break, trying to convince myself if Ashton really cared about me or not. To conclude the argument, I was still at a loss. Being at home and having the unavoidable urge to look out of my bedroom window into Ashton's, really fucking killed me. I caught a glimpse of him kissing Veronica and if I thought I was in a shitty mood before that, then I was definitely on a rampage now. My heart stung just a little bit watching how happy he looked with her and how he looked at her. Maybe if I stopped comparing myself to her more than half of my problems would disappear.
"I'm guessing your mom still isn't a fan of me." Michael remarked as he randomly met up with me and Arrie in the hallway. He was mentioning how my mom never once acknowledge him on Thanksgiving, but kept asking Luke every question possible, making him uncomfortable.
"That's okay, Mikey. I'm a fan." Luke rested his chin on Michael's shoulder. Him, too, appearing out of thin air. Ally was back so Luke was instantly in a better mood, meaning he wouldn't snap at us anymore and we wouldn't have to hide our laughter because we all had issues taking Luke serious when he was pissed.
"Thanks, Luke." Michael shrugged off the comment. Arrie laughed. I was too tired to even react to the usual nonsense.
"I kinda want to get your signature tattooed on my arm when I turn eighteen." Luke pulled out his mirror, doing his morning routine of checking his hair for the second time. It happened at least seven times before lunch time and then fifteen times after that.
"I would advise you not to do such a thing." Michael rolled his eyes at the blond with the mirror.
"Oh, okay." Luke's eyes flickered from left to right while he pondered after shutting his pocket mirror. "Well maybe I'll just create an altar for you in my house."
"That's better."
Satisfied with that answer, Luke slammed his mirror shut. He began happily bobbing his head to the music playing in his wonderful empty mind. "So, Lydia's parents have this house on the lake and they're letting her invite ten people to stay in it for New Year's Eve. I think we should go. It'll give me a chance to be with Ally."
"Will your mom let you go, Luke? That's the obvious question." It was a smart question for me to ask. Liz wasn't the most easily convinced woman when it came to letting Luke venture off on his own. Luke was still her innocent little baby that could get eaten alive by the outside world and she wasn't ready to let him loose.
Like, ever.
She would never let him loose.
"Well yeah, if I tell her you'll be there she'll let me go." Liz had a certain obsession with me, not like Sienna's obsession with Luke and I getting married, Liz's was more of a trustworthy thing. She trusted me in the presence of Luke to make sure her "baby" was not eaten alive and spit back up by the mouth of evil.
"It would be nice to get away from the city." Michael shrugged, totally okay with the idea. I wasn't opposed to it either. Dad still had work and Sam wouldn't be around anyway to celebrate, plus I was hoping Sienna would disappear too. "Who knows? Maybe we'll fulfill Luke's dream of a threesome while we're there." He said in a teasing voice. "Or foursome now that Ally is in the picture."
"How do you guys know about that...?" Luke whispered with fright.
"That was in your journal, Luke." Michael snorted. "It said something about creaming all over Sage's legs while I spank her and tell her she's been a "bad girl.""
"Oh my god, Luke!" I cried. "Does Ally know?"
"It's true, I'm sorry!" Luke began hyperventilating and nodding his head frantically. "I'm going to hell for writing those explicit things about you guys."
"I honestly wouldn't have expected you to write those things." Michael said. "Maybe something about hugging Sage and creaming on her with only that physical contact, but..."
"That's on page twenty-five..." Luke assured.
None of us talked during the rest of the trip to our morning class. It was already the most eventful Monday morning to date that the three of us had had, adding to it would most likely cause an argument or Michael would make Luke cry and Arrie didn't appear to be in the mood to break up an argument.
We pushed through the main hallway of the school kinda like those bad asses that ran the school because they were popular and everyone worshipped them (Elizabeth and Calum) except we were at the bottom of the social food chain and no one really took a second glance at us when we walked in. But maybe my mind was playing tricks on me because before my eyes was a group of students holding signs while walking in a circle and shouting some nonsense about me.
"Sage is number one in our hearts!"
"Team Sage!"
"Sage! Sage! Sage! Sage!"
"For just twenty cents a day you could contribute to stopping Ashton from dating Veronica!"
Reuben, the captain of the wrestling team, began handing out buttons to people who passed by him and agreed with him and his followers. Someone else, a protester I guess, was handing out flyers as well.
"Reuben? What are you doing?" I asked him as he approached me with a smile, holding a sign that said "#teamSage" on one side and "Veronica" with a big X over her name on the other side. The pride in his signs were evident and he had no problem being open with that pride either.
"Getting you your boo." He handed me a #teamSage button.
My Facebook profile picture was on the button along with "#teamSage." To say I was embarrassed would be the biggest understatement of this semester. It went into further territory than embarrassment, it was so bad I could not even clearly point out exactly what I felt.
Michael, Luke, and Arrie were being handed flyers and buttons too, but they looked happy about it. This was nothing to be happy about! This was downright rude. I'd never ask for something like this to be organized, not even against my worst enemy. You just couldn't do these things even if you were 100% against the couple you were trying to break apart. Sure it might be the biggest bullshit relationship since every relationship that King Henry VIII had, but it should still be respected in a sense.
"What are you talking about?"
"Boycott Veronica! No more Veronica!" Reuben shouted at a scared freshman who jumped and dropped all of their books. Reuben nodded in satisfaction with himself.
"Reuben!" I grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to face me, hopefully putting a point across with the death grip I had on his shoulders. "I know freedom of speech is a thing in the US which I'm sure you're taking advantage of, but for God's sake, Veronica has feelings too, you can't do these kinda things."
To multiply the embarrassment or whatever I was feeling, an angry Ashton was walking up behind Reuben. Honestly, angry Ashton would hands down be my favorite Ashton. There was something so...hot about the look on his face like he wanted to punch something and the way his hair would messily fall down from being pushed back. I mean I'd be completely happy having an angry Ashton shove me against a wall and kiss me.
Forgive me.
"Sage, I need to talk to you, now."
"Team Sage! Team Sage!!!!!!!!" Reuben yelled like a maniac to Ashton.
I rolled my eyes, grabbing Ashton's arm and dragging him away from the protesters of all things Veronica. Veronica wasn't even that bad, she was sweet like deep down she was really sweet, but since her and Ashton hit it off she acquired a slight amount of bitchiness and a big hatred towards me.
"What's up?" I pressed a shoulder into a random locker, crossing one ankle over the other, going for a casual stance to play off any of this nonsense. I had nothing to do with it, so I didn't feel guilty.
"Is this another one of your schemes to make my life miserable?"
"I'm not behind any of this!"
"Why can't you understand that I'm happy?!" He slapped a hand against a locker, leaning his face into mine.
"But are you really?" It was serious question. If he was really happy he wouldn't have tried to basically fuck me in Luke's guest bedroom. Nor would he be paying attention to anything Reuben and his little followers were doing. Reuben was pretty ignorable any other day of school, so a small protest should be ignorable as well.
"I love Veronica! So accept that!"
I couldn't help but let out a snort even though hearing that pierced my eyes with tears. "Do you really? That's cute."
"And just because you have some weird obsession with me, doesn't mean that I'm going to dump Veronica for you."
"Sage!" It was Evelyn. My dear blessed Evelyn. She looked a lot better than the last time I'd seen her. The color had reappeared in her face and her hair lied in soft waves. Instead of her glasses, she chose her contacts for a change. I could immediately tell things were better in Evelyn-Land. "Are you going to Lydia's for New Year's Eve?"
"I've had like five minutes to consider the idea, so I can't give you an answer. Why?" I looked to her ignoring Ashton. "Are you going?"
"Yeah," She gave Ashton an ugly look before turning her back to him. "I have some cool things planned out, so you should definitely go."
Ashton cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Eve, but I was having a conversation with Sage."
Evelyn rolled her eyes at the nickname only Calum was allowed to call her. Eve belonged to Calum always.
"I think your conversation was over with Sage."
"I haven't gotten to the main point in the conversation."
"The main point," Evelyn continued to have her back facing Ashton. "Ashton is in love with you, but for some shitty reason Calum thought it would be a good idea for Ashton to date Veronica for the sake of Elizabeth." She finally faced Ashton, turning on her heels. "You'll thank me later."
-
"Hi Sage!" Sadly, Calum had caught up with me after first period. Like Ashton used to, Calum waited for me outside of my class and any time you see Calum outside of your class it was a universal rule to run in the opposite direction and avoid him at all costs.
But my legs were not moving fast enough to disappear in a crowd of sophomores that were getting their new school IDs that were months delayed in being given out, and the students had no sense of what a line was.
"Hello." I said between a teeth-clenching smile.
"Going to the library?" He tugged at his tie.
"Yes, why?" Anyone that knew me knew I was always in the library during my off-period, if I ended up being somewhere else it could practically throw people off.
"Ashton said the library is his spot for the off-period and would appreciate if you found somewhere else to hang out." Calum didn't know what it was to talk in a sweet voice, he only knew how to sound like he was scolding you for not following his orders. He had a lot of working to do on himself, that was for sure.
"The library was my off-period spot way before Ashton decided to show up at this school." I kept my eyes ahead while talking to Calum because I didn't really want anyone to know that I was actually talking to Calum or giving him the time of day. Really, I just didn't want the school to be talking about me any more than they already were.
"Oh my God, I know, okay? Ashton's just being a whiny bitch because of the Team Sage thing." Calum groaned. "Reuben could've at least done a Team Calum campaign just because I'm like ten times better looking than you, but whatever."
I shook off the comment, quickening my steps to get to the library faster.
"Don't go to the library!" Calum shouted to me right before I opened the library's door.
If Calum Hood believed that I was going to listen to a thing he said, he was damn crazy. I was not Elizabeth, I was not any one of his friends that held him on a throne. Calum would be the last person on earth I would listen to.
"I thought Calum told you not to come in here." Ashton pulled out the seat next to me, plopping down and crossing his arms. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and his tie lied lazily against his torso and wasn't even pulled up all the way. Purple lipstick stains were all over his chin and his neck, giving me a vibrant idea of how he spent his first period, making up the team Sage thing to Veronica.
"Just pretend like I'm not here."