When We Fall

n i n e t e e n

.19 | saige
-not edited-

"SAIGE EVELYN LEXINGTON" I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep as my door comes crashing open, Emi barreling in through it, and Lilah filing in silently behind her.

"Don't pretend. We know you aren't asleep. Now tell us what the hell is going on and why we didn't know about it." Emi sits on the edge of the bed, a hard glare pinning me as I roll over to face the both of them.

"The first game is in a week and you just suddenly drop off the team? You expect Kaitlynn to lead us now? Saige seriously what is going on?" Lilah steps up that time, a look of concern evident on her face.

"It was the right choice. Like you said the first game is in a week and how many practices have I been too? Kaitlynn deserves the spot, she can do it better than I can at this point." I look back and forth between the girls, who stare down at me intensely.

"You know what, this conversation is not happening right now. We're having an official pow wow day, so get yourself out of bed and in the living room within the hour, or there will be consequences."

I smile at them, as memories start to flood through my mind, despite the conversations going to be had today that I'd hoped to avoid, it's been far too long since we've called a pow wow.

"No no no. That's not going to work. We aren't the boys, we don't have little 'bro talks' it needs an official name..." Emi throws her hands down and sighs exasperatedly.

"Girl talks? Chick convo?" Lilah throws out ideas as she flops back onto the bed.

Emi's mom pokes her head in the bedroom door, smiling at us, "I brought some snacks for you guys, how's your pow wow going in here? Catching up on everything?"

We all look back and forth between each other. And so it was born.

✩・✩・✩

Pow wow. A meeting of sorts that any of us have the right to call whenever we need to sit down, and all get on the same page when life. It involves snacks, blankets, and sometimes a little alcohol. Originally it was to keep up with freshman year high school drama, but now it's a staple of our friendship. No matter what happens between the three of us, we can call a pow wow and it's just a giant debrief on life.

We've never allowed the boys to be a part of the pow wow tradition, if they need to be brought in on something, it becomes an official debrief, with mandatory presence of all six of us to be able to happen. Nobody gets left out from anything.

Which explains how I find myself snuggled up on my couch an hour later, snacks upon snacks and drinks laying out on the coffee table, and light fruity drinks in hand. The goal of today isn't to get wasted, but have a clear mind.

Though I wouldn't mind slipping an extra shot or two into mine for this.

"So you quit the cheer team because you missed a bit? Come on Saige, this has been your dream forever."

Like quite literally, forever. It's how Lilah and I originally met, at a cheer camp with some of the high school girls when we were younger. We'd get big bows and learn how to do a pyramid, and eventually Lilah and I became inseparable. Her parents were doctors, and mine were always traveling, so her nanny would take us everywhere during the summer, and we stuck together until middle school.