Neighbors at Night

12. Sage

I was a bit overwhelmed, to be honest.

I was way in over my head when I invited them to eat with me earlier (although - in my defense - I was only expecting the two to join me), but it had been an impulsive decision that I'd made in the spur of the moment.

I'd gotten sick of studying and had only been half-heartedly reading the textbook when Rafael and his friend suddenly appeared. I thought it might be a welcome change but now, as I stared at the group of four sitting across from me, it was a little unsettling.

"So you're Sage?"

I looked in the direction of the voice, meeting the gaze of a muscular guy with dark skin and complementary dark brown dreadlocks. "You've heard of me?" Was that even important right now? "Sorry-," I smiled apologetically, "It's nice to meet you," I trailed off when I realized I didn't know his name.

He grinned and I couldn't help but notice that his teeth were perfectly aligned and whitened. "You don't know who I am?"

I shook my head slowly, "No." I hesitated, "Am I supposed to?"

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if we were also seat-mates in one of my other classes considering I hadn't even noticed Raf sat beside me until he'd literally told me.

The guy laughed then and it was such a hearty sound, so strong and full of clear amusement, that it made me smile. "No, I guess not." He glanced over at Rafael with a secret look, "I'm Zach."

Just as I was about to respond with another nice to meet you, I was stopped short at the sound of different voice. "We might as well all just introduce ourselves now." It was the same guy Rafael had been with earlier; the tall one with bronzed skin, blonde hair, and lots of piercing's. He sighed, "My name's Kaden."

"Me now?" Jesus. Why were there so many of them? "I'm Theo," said with a big grin. Theo was clearly the youngest of them all, slim with buzzed hair and noticeably shorter in height than the rest.

I waited a brief moment, strangely expecting someone else to pop out of nowhere with another greeting, and exhaled with relief when there was no sign of another person joining. "Well it's nice to meet all of you. I'm Sage, by the way."

Theo rolled his eyes, although there was a small smile on his face. "Trust me, we all know who you are, dude."

I frowned thoughtfully as I looked over at Raf, who seemed to sink in his seat as his shoulders slumped and his head drooped. "You," I paused as I let my gaze rove over the group, "Do?"

Zach rested a hand on Rafael's shoulder, shaking it softly as he said, "With this guy, it's impossible not to."

Did he really talk about me that much?

Said person's head finally lifted, and I couldn't hold back my laughter when he glared at Zach. He muttered something to him that I couldn't hear fully, but it made the other two chuckle and me ever the more curious.

"So Sage," I met Kaden's inquisitive eyes, "What do you think of our good friend here?" As if to emphasize who he was talking about, he draped his arm over Rafael.

I blinked. "Oh- um." Talk about putting someone on the spot. "I'm not sure, I guess." He was nice of course, but that was such a boring thing to say. It was like calling a super model pretty; everyone was already well aware of it, so it was pointless to say it.

"Oof-," Theo visibly cringed, placing a hand on his chest as he peered past Kaden to see Rafael. "You hear that dude? She doesn't know how she feels about you."

Raf groaned as everyone else laughed and I watched on the sidelines, not really knowing how to react because while it seemed like they were just teasing each other, Rafael suddenly seemed a bit dejected.