𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 | 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

43| I Knew You Were Trouble.

43 | I Knew You Were Trouble.

| 3rd POV |

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

"So, tell me," Sage began, taking a sip of her coffee. "How was Notes of a Dirty Old Man?"

"Fine." Jess said.

"Fine? It was so good! Plus, it's by Bukowski, I thought you loved him?" She asked, tilting her head as she sat next to him on the bench.

"I said it was fine, Sage." He snapped.

Sage's eyebrows creased at his tone. He'd never really talked to her like that before.

"Is everything okay? Did I do something wrong-" she reached out towards his hand, but he pulled it away. "Don't touch me right now."

Her face fell. He always wanted her to touch him. He was always touching her.

Whether it was her hand brushing his, his arms in her waist, hers in his hair, whatever. He loved when she would touch him.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled.

Her mind stared to backtrack, going over every conversation they had recently, every interaction, looking for anything she could've done wrong or messed up.

"Do you want to talk about anything? We can go somewhere-"

"Sage, I don't want to yell at you, but I'm trying really hard not to snap right now." He said, his first clenching, then releasing. Over and over.

She nodded, looking at her hands.

Suddenly, Luke walked up to them, clearly not happy. "Jess."

He rolled his eyes, looking up. "What?"

"I told you to take out the trash. Guess what? You didn't. I told you to give Ceaser his paycheck? You forget about it, and leave it upstairs. When I tell you to do something, Jess, you do it." Luke seethed, his arms crossed.

"Whatever," Jess said. "Don't whatever me, Jess. I'm the adult here. You have to listen to me-"

He scoffed, "fuck off, Luke."

"Jess," Sage looked at him, confused. "Can I talk to you?" She asked.

He didn't respond, simply standing up. She grabbed his arm, pulling him a few feet away while Luke attempted to calm down.

"What was that?"

"I don't know what you mean." He shrugged, biting down on his tongue.

"Yes you do, don't play dumb. You've been in a mood all week. I've tried to ignore it but—Jess," she laughed, "you're being really mean. Especially to Luke."

"Forget it, Sage."

"No, I'm not just gonna ignore this. You've been horrible to everyone for days-" she said, her eyes searching his face. "What can I say? I'm on my period." He rolled his eyes, looking away.

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are, yeah." He quipped.

"Jess, I'm being serious here. God—thmgs we're going so good, I can't believe you sometimes! Are you even listening to yourself?"

"I'm walking away now." He nodded, but she grabbed his arm. "No, no you can't just run away from this. Not until you tell me what the hell your problem is?"

"Right now? You are."

She shook her head, "you don't mean that. Not really. You're just pissed off, so you're taking it out on me." She said. "And that's fine, I can handle it. But there was no reason for you to snap at Luke like that. Absolutely none."

"Sage, I really don't want to have this conversation right now." He sighed.

"Well, that sucks. Because we are." She replied, crossing her arms.

"Listen," she breathed, "I don't know what's going on with you, but you need to talk to me. I know this is new to you, and I understand that, but that's not excuse to snap at everyone."

"Why can you just drop it?" He asked, exasperated.

"Because, Jess, I've been dropping it all week!" She exclaimed.

"I haven't said anything to you about this, but I'm not just gonna let you yell at people anymore." Sage took a step towards him.

"Why does everything have to be so exhausting with you?" He snapped.

She stepped back, watching as the slightest bit of regret crossed his face. "This—this wouldn't even be a problem of you hadn't made it one. I asked you to drop it. If you can't do that, I'm leaving."

"Jess—"

"No. Not right now. I'll see you later," he turned around, walking away.

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

"I don't know what I did, Rory." Sage sighed, leaning back against her pillow. "You didn't do anything. It's not your fault he sucks."

Sage resisted the urge to defend him, slamming her eyes shut. "I just want him to talk to me, you know? Things were going fine for weeks, and suddenly, he snaps." She whispered, her voice shaky.

"Maybe—" Rory paused. "Maybe you need a break."

"From him?"

"Not him in general, just you two together. Maybe he wasn't ready. Maybe both of you weren't ready." Rory suggested, leaning her head on Sage's shoulder.

"Yeah, maybe. I still wanna be there for him though. At least as a friend."

Rory nodded, "that's good, Sage. I know you care about each other, but you both have some things should gotta work out, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I guess."

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺