𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗘-ᵗʷⁱˡⁱᵍʰᵗ¹

thirty

Sage was curled up in bed, a sort of limbo state between asleep and awake as she desperately tried to get a nap in. She groaned when she woke up slightly, feeling as someone climbed into her bed and laid an arm over her waist. "Paul, I hate you."

Her words were muffled by her pillow and her voice was barely audible, but she knew the boy caught it as he pulled her closer to him, and laid a soft kiss at the back of her ear. "It's nap time, go to sleep."

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "i was trying to."

"not hard enough. now shhh, start counting sheep." She grinned lightly and felt her mind drifting away again, and she found herself hoping she'd finally pass out.

When Sage woke up the sun was a quarter away from its setting point, She glanced at her clock groaning as she realized she only slept an hour. Paul's soft snores were filling the room and she smiled lightly as she moved closer to his warm body. For someone who was always cold, dating someone who put out so much body heat was her biggest achievement thus far.  The sound of someone walking up the stairs caused her to close her eyes once more, which was honestly what she would've done regardless.

Her door creaked open and she heard Sam's famous brotherly scoff, then a pillow was tossed at Paul, subsequently hitting her. "Ow! you asshole."

She immediately sat up as she spoke, rubbing where the pillow had hit her ear. "Stop sneaking your boyfriend into your room."

Sage glared at Sam as Paul lifted himself up confused. "Stop throwing pillows at sleeping people."

The older boy looked between the two before moving his eyes back to Sage. "Mom's downstairs, she wants to make dinner for us. If you two don't head down soon, I'm sending her up."

Sage's blood ran cold, she had yet to be around Alison since the discovery of her blood ties. She just nodded as Sam left her room, leaving the door wide open. The girl threw her upper body back down, causing Paul to look at her bewildered at the sound of skin slamming on pillows and a mattress.

"How did you not break your neck?" Sage just shrugged.

"I slam my head against my pillows every night to reshape them."

"You probably have untreated concussions."

"I'll survive." Sage lifted herself out of bed as she spoke, pulling the boy with her as she walked downstairs. She froze when she spotted Alison, causing Paul to bump into her and he immediately started whispering apologies. Alison smiled widely at the girl causing her to release a breath of air as she rushed to the woman, wrapping her in a tight hug.

She felt Alison's muscles relax as she hugged the girl back, and Sage quickly pulled away only to be met with Alison's parent face. The girl back up with soft smile, knowing Sam had probably muttered something about Paul being in her room. "Sage, Is Paul supposed to be in your room with the door closed?"

The girl shook her head, sending a glare to Sam. "Your son used to sneak girls into your house all the time."

The older boy stared at the girl in betrayal as she flashed him an innocent smile the second Alison turned to him. Paul and Emily's laughter filled her ears causing to to smile widely as she walked over to her usual seat at the table. She listened as Alison spoke to the boy in disbelief before she went into the kitchen causing Sam to glare at his younger sister as he sat across from her.

"I hate you."

"You love me, I had to do what I had to do. You're a big boy." She shrugged as she finished speaking, flashing Paul a smile as he set a glass of water in front of her. She listened as Emily and Alison spoke in the kitchen, and ignored the boy's conversation about basketball. Sports talk was going to be the death of her.

Kosumi's words from the previous day kept flashing in her mind, and once Sam and Paul's conversation froze she looked up at her brother.
"I think somethings wrong with Kosumi."

The two boys looked at her confused as Sam began speaking. "What do you mean?"

She froze, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to think of how to tell him without letting out Kosumi's secret. If they didn't already know, the old man didn't want them to know. "He was at the graveyard yesterday, and we got to talking about Posey. He had this coughing fit and then mentioned that living without her had been a long waiting game... I think he's dying."

The boys faces dropped as they looked at the girl. "I'm sure he's fine, If it makes you feel better we can go check on him tomorrow."

Sage just slowly nodded, her eyes locked on her napkin as she fiddled with the corner. Kosumi was the resident crazy old man, he was a pillar of their community, the one to keep their dying traditions and customs alive. As she remembered how aggressive his coughs were, she wasn't sure there would be a tomorrow. Before she knew it Emily and Alison were bringing the pots over to the table, setting them in the center for easy access, and Sage forced a smile as Emily passed her the bread rolls.

School had let out the day before Sage's dinner revelations, causing her days to drone on as she had no clue what to do with herself. It's always been weird to her, how much you can hate going to school but the second you get a few months of independence, you go insane with boredom. She was torn between sleeping the whole day, or actually attempting to be social, which was a wild idea for her. She checked the time with a loud groan. 10:30 am.

A huff escaped her lips as she looked around her room, the boys were out patrolling and Emily would just rope her into wedding planning. She glanced back at the phone in her hands and quickly sent a text to her group chat with the other secretive teen girls, begging for them to help her find something to do. A smile graced her face when she was met with three eager responses, causing her to shoot out of bed and change into something besides a ripped up shirt and stained white sweats.

Once she had her leggings secured around her hips, she slid on her socks and practically skipped down stairs, sliding on her shoes as she turned to Emily. "Im going out with the girls."

She didn't wait for a response, just grabbed her keys and shot towards her car— which could honestly break down at any second— rushing to spend away from the boys.