At 17 years old Sage Aurora never thought she would be stuck trying to rebuild her life and mending her heart.
Throughout her younger years she thought nothing could stop her. She was popular, free-spirited, and felt on top of the world. At least t...
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"What's up stranger?" The familiar voice of Steve Harrington greeted you as you hoisted your backpack over your shoulder. Steve was one of those guys from the basketball team, and he had changed a lot this past year. Something about him was, well, nicer. Maybe it was because he was graduating soon, or the fact that he realized his old friends were all douchebags. You reciprocated a smile as you two fell in step walking towards the school.
"What's going on Harrington? You still scoopin' cream in those short shorts?" You snickered.
Once realizing what you had said, you instantly regretted the words that came out of your mouth. This was just one example of how your social skills had severely diminished since locking yourself away this past year. By the look on his face he was not too keen on them either.
"Uhhh, yeah?" He cocked his head to the side as his face contorted. "I guess I am". He choked out a laugh and tried to make sense of your question. Before he could say another word you were already feverishly shaking your head 'no'.
"Please ignore me", you laughed. "I don't know why I said it like that". You shook the remaining self-deprecating thoughts out of your head and tried to change the subject. "That's fun though. I miss hanging out with you and the guys. How are they?"
You used to go to the bowling alley with some of the other basketball players every weekend last summer. It was almost a weekly ritual, until the incident with Chance happened. After that you retreated to becoming a hermit. But Steve never treated you differently. He always stuck around even if you pushed him away.
"The guys are good", he nodded to himself. "We are focusing on graduation and college so we haven't done much, but they're the same old crowd. You should come out with us sometime". His walking slowed as he came to a halt causing you to stop as well. "Seriously. You should. We miss you".
You knew going to a party all those weeks ago was a bad idea, but hanging with a group one-on-one with no place to hide seemed nerve racking. Although it was with a group you felt safe around, at one point.
"Yeah we totally should''. You faked an upbeat smile. You would like to hang out with old friends, but you could never get yourself to follow through. You were not the same person you were a year ago and no one seemed to get why you acted distant. They didn't understand why the Sage at school was a completely different person than the Sage at home. Trauma does that to a person, but no one understood because no one knew.
As Steve continued to discuss future plans a familiar blue camaro shot through the parking lot. You would not have noticed it, except for it pulled up right alongside you at high speed almost causing you to jump out of the way.
"Hey!" Steve yelled at the already known driver. Billy soon arose from his seat in his standard uniform of raybans and denim Jean jacket. Although he was wearing sunglasses you knew he was eyeing Steve as he closed his car door.
