Relative Fiction | ✓

11

There were certain text messages that made your heart rate double when you got them.

"I need to talk to you" and similar variations. Then there was the classic "are you up?" notoriously followed by "come over."

That was Sage's go-to move, and despite the images I had in my head of AJ's smile that I clung to like a warm blanket in the dead of winter, bad habits were always the hardest to break. Without Hunter around to confiscate my phone, my resolve was a weak and crumbling wall that Sage easily busted through. Despite my head being heavy with sleep, I snuck downstairs and out through the back door, coasting along on my new skateboard under the light of the moon.

The moment I shimmied through Sage's bedroom window, she gripped onto my t-shirt and yanked me down into her, her lips colliding with mine and wasting no time exploring my mouth.

"Everything okay?" I breathed out in between kisses. We stumbled over to her bed and fell backwards into it. I liked the way her sheets always smelled like citrus and cigarettes and flowers, like a twisted combination of us.

"I just missed you," she said softly. "You weren't answering my calls, I thought something was wrong."

"Nothing's wrong," I insisted.

Other than the fact that I hadn't used in over a week and my body was dying to remind me, but every time I closed my eyes I saw AJ's gigawatt smile, and for those few moments it all washed away with the tide.

Sage raised an eyebrow at me, but melted into my arms when I pressed another kiss to her lips. After all the years of our rollercoaster relationship, I knew every dip and curve of her body, every birthmark and every scar, but for the first time, she felt unfamiliar.

She pulled at my clothes, but I couldn't think straight. For someone who never gave a shit about anything, I found myself second guessing my every move. It seemed like overnight I was suddenly hyper aware of every harsh line and angle of my body, aware of the dirt under my nails and the scabs on my knees. And even though I had someone else's lips on my skin, it made me wonder if AJ would even like all of my calloused, damaged self, down to the tiniest scar.

But as I laid in Sage's bed with her head resting on my bare chest, at that moment it was okay. It was all okay.

✗✗✗

I sat on the bar at the Ordinary and watched Stella flutter back and forth from the table of orchids to the baskets of tulips, like she was actually a butterfly collecting nectar. Or in Stella's case, a wasp.

She groaned and turned to face me with her hands on her hips. "Are you just going to sit there and stuff your face or are you going to help me?"

I took another bite of my bacon, egg, and cheese bagel from the deli down the street and shook my head at her. I couldn't remember the last time I had actually eaten real breakfast, but the gods had definitely blessed my sandwich.

"I'm gonna sit here and stuff my face, and I'm not making you a stupid ass corsage like you're going to prom or something. It's the fucking Fourth of July parade, which is not for another two weeks. Anything I make now will just die."

"I need to be prepared." She was so dramatic, sometimes I wondered why she didn't try and pursue an acting career. She'd be really fucking good at it. "I also need a backup, and a backup for my backup."

I ignored her and went back to my sandwich, but when I looked up at her again her eyes were still on me, cool gray and sharp, like steel.

"What?" I bit back.