LOVERS | sean lew

xix.

"Afro circus! Afro circus! Afro circus! Afro circus! Afro circus!"

"Julian, shut the fuck up." Josh Killacky groaned, craning his head slightly to glare at the boy. "It's the ungodly hour in the morning, and you're out here looking like you're on drugs. Please, sleep forever."

"It's 8AM, don't get your heebiejeebies in a twist, Joshie!"

Killacky groaned again, giving up with trying to tame the hyped up boy and returned to actually trying to get some rest on the cold floors of the studio.

"What's gotten into him, anyway?" Sean chuckled from the corner of the room. "His song choices become a lot shittier when he gets in the mood."

"Will allowed him to choreograph a routine for today." Nat appeared in the doorway with cups of coffee in a bag, alongside Sapphire. "You can say he's excited."

"Very excited," Julian corrected. He bounced over to wherever Nat was and immediately grabbed the coffees from her hand to help her up.

"Where are the others?" Bailey asked, waking up from her nap on the floor. Kenneth, Kaycee, Tahani, and Josh were all sprawled out around her, fast asleep.

It was another one of those early calltimes for rehearsals. The production team still fixed the locations, props, schedules, final scripts, safety procedures, and costumes for the whole movie, so the rehearsals were put in first.

The calltime was 7:30AM, and now that it was 8AM, they still haven't started because of how Tati, Charlize and Lexee weren't around, and how the adults were probably stuck in traffic.

Sapphire walked over to where Sean was, and immediately plopped down on the spot beside him to steal the hoodie draped on his lap.

"That's the 13th hoodie you're going to steal away from me." Sean tried to look annoyed, but he actually loved seeing Sapphire wearing his clothes that are extra oversized on her. "Someday, you have to start paying me for them."

"Nah, you already got enough coin in your pocket." The girl winked. She pulled the Champion hoodie over her head, immediately inhaling the boy's familiar scent. "Hug me."

The boy rolled his eyes at her softness, but he didn't hesitate on bringing his arms around her small frame.

He pulled her on his lap, facing her body towards his as she involuntarily wrapped her legs around his waist. Her head instantly found its comfortable spot on his shirt clad chest, nuzzling in them as she inhaled his scent. His hands rested around her waist, and his face was buried in the crook of her neck, slightly grazing his nose on her collarbones.

"Afro circus! Afro circus! Afro circus!"

"Julian, shut the heck up!" It was Nat this time who complained. "I'm going to throw away your phone soon enough."

"Ouch. Why can't we be cute and cuddly like Saph and Sean?" The mentioned couple couldn't see but they were pretty sure Julian's bottom lip was jutted out in pity. "Look at how couple-y they are!"

"First of all, ew," Nat scoffed, but she moved closer to Julian to give him a hug, "but last of all, I still love you though."

Suddenly, a choruses of highpitched laughter caught their attentions. It was Tati, Charlize and Jordyn by the door, huddled almost close to each other like they were gossiping. They erupted in laughter again, like they shared an inside joke of some sort.

"No, dude, like seriously. I thought it was my friend so I smack-cam-ed her with this mayonaisse thing," Jordyn added, "and guess who got suspended for a week."

"I'd die if that would happen to me." Tati's face was a mix of amusement and disgust. "Imagine a stranger smacking you in the face with mayonaisse."

"Agreed. I would go crazy," Charlize agreed, and they all burst out laughing again.

This caught Sapphire's attention as she craned her head up and turned to face the three girls with a slightly puzzled look.

Huh, so they're hanging out now.

"Hey, Kaycee. I found some tootsie rolls outside on the tables. Remembered that you liked it so here." Jordyn flashed a smile, and tossed the candy in the sleepy girl's direction.

Kaycee yawned and slightly frowned at the action, but she let a small smile spread on her face as she said, "thanks, J!"

But Sapphire didn't miss the tiny hint of suspicion that passed over her face as Jordyn shot her one last smile.

That shocked Sapphire the most. Kaycee was the nicest and the kindest among the bunch — she was probably the purest one out of all of them — and she never had a single mean strand in her body. But the hint of doubt that wavered had to mean something.

"We brought pizza for everyone, too!" The blonde haired girl cheered, motioning to the pizza box in her hand that nobody noticed that much at first. "Never too early for good food, I guess."

Everyone immediately stood up at the mention of food, except for Sean and Sapphire who sat beside each other now.

Sapphire didn't want to be mean. But the sudden acts of kindness hit a suspicion spot in her bones, and she couldn't help but question if this is genuine or not.

"See, maybe she couldn't be that bad, S," Sean regarded beside her, nudging her slightly with his elbows, "I mean, what she did was shitty. And I'm not asking you to actually forget about what happened because let's face it, that was beyond the line. But hey, maybe people can change?"

Sapphire wanted to snort out loud at how ridiculous that sounded, but that would be rude, and would raise suspicion that they hadn't actually made up yet.

She never told anyone about her and Jordyn's supposed talk, and she felt bad for lying — especially to Sean. She needed to tell him that one of these days, but not now. Everything's too hectic, and adding drama would make things a little more hard to cope up with.

The girl shrugged instead, too lazy to even say a word.

"You'll warm up to her soon enough. If you actually stopped murdering me in your head before, then this wouldn't be too hard to do now."

That's when Sapphire burst out laughing. "Right, right."

The boy suddenly jumped up, outstretching his hand towards Saph with a huge grin. "Now pizza, my lady?"

Despite the laylow suspicions she had over the Jones girl, she still admittedly did want pizza, too. Who would miss out on good grease and flour with tomato sauce and no pineapples?

"Always, and forever. Pizza."

"I love you, too." Sean scoffed, hauling the girl up to her feet.

"I guess I love pizza, too."