Lars and Sadie

Chapter Nine

Sadie's POV

"Steven...?" I stare at a towering teen, who's smile hasn't changed in years. He wears a pink lettermen jacket and a baby blue shirt. The shirt has a big yellow star.

Steven Universe.

The tears swell up in my eyes, not thinking I would ever see this jolly kid again. "Sadie!" He yells, running towards me. He almost crashes in to me as he engulfs my body in a big bear hug. "Oh my God!" He practically squeezes the air out of me, but it feels so nice. I hug him tightly back.
"Hi Steven, it's so good to see you again!" He releases his grip on me, and his eyes are also teary. He wipes them away.
"How are you? How long are you in town?" He gasps loudly, "Are you going to work at the Big Donut again??" I can't help but smile at his enthusiasm.
"Woah one question at a time!"
"Lars! Can you get us two donuts, please! I'll pay for them." Steven leads me to the table he has set his stuff out on. He has multiple text books and even a laptop. "Oh, sorry!" He grabs his stuff and moves them to the side. I sit down at the seat across from him. He looks at me with such excitement and joy

I missed his energy so much

"Well, I'm doing good, and I'm in town for about a semester. My mom is having knee surgery in a bit so I'll be here to help her after surgery. And well," I glance at Lars as he hands the both of us donuts, both wrapped in napkins so our fingers don't get sticky, "I've been thinking about reapplying for winter break." Steven looks at me with stars in his eyes, and Lars gives me a surprised look.
"Really??" They both say at the same time. I nod,
"Really!"
"Wow that's so exciting!" Steven exclaims, "Are you excited Lars?" We both look at Lars, and he seemed to be somewhere else in his mind, not responding to him. "Lars?"
"Hm?" He turns, and realizes what was going on. "Oh! Y-Yeah, really exciting! I'm going to let you two catch up." He then escapes to the breakroom without saying another word. As Lars vanishes, Steven turns to me, 

"So what's college like?" For several minutes Steven asks me questions and I give the best answers I can muster, but truly I want to ask him some questions. Before I can ask, Steven asks, "How are you and Lars doing?"
"We're...good," I say, "Nothing new, really." As I take another bite of my donut, Steven gives me a curious look.
"You're lying, I can tell."

I can't lie to him

"All I can say, is that we've made up since the last time I saw him."
"Well, I'm glad you're back...he really needed you here."
"What do you mean?" I ask, taking a big bite from my donut, realizing how hungry I felt.
"When you first moved away, he hid away from everyone. The Big Donut was closed for months. And when he started showing up around town again, he would only come to work. I tried to urge him out more but he wouldn't budge. He only recently started hanging out with me again."
"Oh, wow." That was a lot of information to unpack. "He didn't tell me that..."

While we eat our donuts, Steven doesn't try and budge for anymore questions from me, so I take this as an opportunity. "Now it's time for me to ask the questions: Where are the crystal gems?" Stevens eyes begin to look sad, as he thinks of the answer to give me.
"Well, right now they're on a mission. But it's too far out in space for me to have gone- plus Pearl wanted me to stay for school. They were basically going to go through time and space for this mission."
"When are they supposed to be back?"
"Garnet said they would be back in a few months, but its only been a few weeks," He sighs, "I miss them so much." He stares sadly at his half eaten donut, not knowing what to do with his overflowing sadness. 

Poor kid...

Grinning, I lean towards him, "Next question: How are you and Connie?" That instantly lightens up his mood, and I spot a light blush appearing on his face. He goes to his phone in his back pocket, and hands me his phone. It turns on, and it's a big selfie of him, and the gems. Then, I spot a young woman, Stevens arm wrapped around her waist. "We've been dating for almost a few months now."
"Aw, that's amazing Steven, I'm happy for the two of you!" I hand him back his phone. 

The two of us continue to talk and chat. Customers come and go, which brought Lars back out to us and he tries to chat with us when he can too. After an hour or so of catching up, Steven says he has to go help his dad at the car wash. He grabs his things, and gives me a quick hug goodbye before sprinting out the door. I sit back down, and turn to Lars, who was looking right back at me, with a soft smile on his face.

Lars POV

I couldn't help but smile at her. Life seemed so complete now that she's back in town. "What are you smiling at?" Sadie asks me, as I realize I'm looking right at her. 
"Oh, I-I was just," I couldn't help but feel a little flustered. "I was just admiring you, that's all." Sadie looks away shyly, and I continue with my daily chores around the store. 

I grab a broom, and begin sweeping near the front door of the shop. Eyeing Sadie, I see she's on her phone. Slowly, I begin sweeping towards her, trying not to make it obvious. Before I know it, I'm right next to her, sweeping the air. "Hey," I whisper to her, even though the store is empty. She perks up, and smiles. She whispers back,
"Hey" I couldn't help but smile again at her cuteness.

She makes me feel so happy

"What are you doing tonight?" I ask her, completely stopping my sweeping now.
"I'm not sure," She says back, "I can check what my moms doing." As she goes to her text messages, I wait patiently. I balance the broom, and rest my hands and chin on the point of it. "I just sent her a text," She says, and looks up at me, "What?" I shrug,
"Nothing." It goes quiet between us, except the low buzz of the lights. "You're...just so beautiful." It might've been stupid of me to outright say it, but I couldn't help it. She is, and always has been, so beautiful to me. The sweetest soul and the kindest heart. A light blush begins to form on her face.
"Oh, stop," She says, embarrassed. My body slowly begins to lean closer to hers,
"But it's true, I've never known anyone as beautiful as you..." She looks at me, and our faces are just mere inches apart.

I want to kiss her so bad.

We're so close that I can feel her breath on my lips. Suddenly, there's a ding from the door and I perk straight up, acting like nothing was about to happen.

Crap!

A whole crowd of people were heading in to the shop, and I knew I was going to be busy for awhile with dealing with them. I hesitantly prop my broom against the wall and go to the cash register. "Hi, welcome to the Big Donut, what can I get you today?" As I start to get in to my mental script of dealing with each customer, I can't help but look back at Sadie, making sure she doesn't leave. However, it seemed like whenever I dealt with one customer, two more would come in. It was an endless current of customers.

Why does everyone want a donut today?

From the corner of my eye, I see Sadie typing on her phone. Then, she stops and gets up.

No! Don't go!

She turns back to me, and I try to wave at her, but I hold a donut in my hand. "Sir, can I please have my donut?" The customer asks me. Embarrassed, I hand it to him. The door chimes as Sadie leaves, and I feel my heart ache a little.

I wish she waited...

As the customers come and go, it feels like the rush of people is starting to die down. As I help the last customer, I give them a tired smile, and wave to them as they leave. "Finally." I mumble to myself, leaning against the donut case. Grabbing my phone from my back pocket, I see that I got a text from a familiar number. It said that they would be back when the store was closed. At the end, there was a red heart.

Sadie

I save her new number in my phone, and felt excitement for the end of my shift. However, it felt like time was going ten times slower.

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