Burning Sage

Chapter Thirty Nine

Sage sat on a two seater couch in Junior's lounge on Monday. It was the first week of school break and she planned to spend most of her time at his place.

She held a pensive look that would switch to hurt then to anger.

The television was on, playing Brown Sugar, Sage's new favourite movie but her thoughts denied her concentration.

Junior walked in with a bowl of popcorn, a tub of chocolate cookies ice cream and a jar of pickles, as requested by his girlfriend and he studied her face.

After placing the foods on the coffee table he sat by her and waved his hand in her face.

She snapped out of her trance then faced him, "What's up," she looked at the coffee table and squealed before reaching for the tub of ice cream.

"What's up with you? What's on your mind?" He asked watching her dig into the tub.

She placed a spoonful of ice cream and moaned as the cold deliciousness tickled her taste buds and satisfied a deep craving.

Junior raised an eyebrow, getting aroused by Sage, "Ma," he said.

"Mh," Sage responded licking the spoon, "What did you say?"

"Damn, okay," Junior wished he was that spoon in her hands.

He shook his head, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing right now," Sage dug into the tub with happy eyes, "What could be wrong when I'm eating the most delicious ice cream in the world?"

Junior chuckled, "You were zoned out a moment ago," he pointed out.

"Oh! That," she sighed and dropped the spoon into the ice cream.

"I didn't mean to ruin your snack," he said, scooting closer to Sage.

"Am I too soft?"

"What?" Junior gave her a quizzical look.

"Am I too soft?" She repeated.

"Where's that coming from?" He asked.

"I mean, people find it easy to hurt me," she looked down at the circles she drew in the ice cream with the spoon.

"Who hurt my baby?" he held her close.

"Yesterday I overheard Letoya and Trisha talk about how they knew Ashley was the one to leak my drug habit," she looked up at Junior with teary eyes, "Why wouldn't they tell me? Why did they let me trust in a person that they knew didn't have good intentions?"

Junior's heart ached, seeing Sage cry, "Baby, I don't know," he started, wiping the tears that flowed from her eyes, "But please don't take this to heart," he begged.

"I'm hurt," she pointed to her chest, "I trusted them, and they hid such for the longest time," she croaked, "If I hadn't heard them, I wouldn't know," she failed to fathom why her stepsister was sneaky but the odd behaviour made sense, the more she thought about it.

Junior held her, getting a wiff of a vanilla scent from her hair, "I'm sorry Ma," he kissed the top of her forehead.

Sage wiped her face, "But you know what? I'm glad I found that out, now I know who to trust and not to," she said, reassuring herself, "I won't even waste my energy investing in the whys," she smiled.

"That's my baby," Junior joined in her smiling, "Know that I got you though," he said and pecked her lips.

"You better, or else I will feed you to dogs," she threatened lightly as she went back to her ice cream.