Better than him

Sixty-Eight

-Piper-

As soon as the sun went down and the garden lights came on through the window, the masquerade ball had turned into your run of the mill dance/party.
Girls shagged off their heels and were dancing barefoot with their friends or their dates. Guys had removed the overcoat of their suits and were now dancing in their dress shirts. And then there was Sage, he had shown up clad in all black. A black suit, black dress shirt, black pants, black shoes. The only think that wasn't black was his shiny dog tag that caught my eye once in awhile.

Feelings I didn't even know I had had pushed themselves to the forefront of my mind. All because of a one on one therapy sesh in the middle of a prissy dress store.

Ive been trying so hard to suppress these feelings, to ignore them. To treat them like forbidden taboo that will only cause a scandal.

Sage is my best friend, I don't know how he worked his way up to that title but he is. It's be stupid of me to ruin that-.

All my movements stopped when he motioned me over with his beautiful smile turning up his lips.

"You okay?" Jackson said, leaning down, so I could hear him better over the loud bumping music. He placed his hand on my shoulder for emphasis and the sudden touch made me turn my attention to him.

"Oh um what?" I answered, pulling myself out of my momentary daze.

"I said, 'what are you-'." His voice fizzled out as he caught wind of where I was looking and followed where my eyes had been.

His mood switched almost instantly and I felt the room suddenly become a little more suffocating. His jaw clenched as he stared at Sage, his grip on my shoulder becoming a little too tight.

Instantly I felt anxious to get away, to remove myself from the situation. There was still a little bit of hope inside me that Jackson wasn't gonna do anything, after all alcohol isn't in the equation and there are people around.

"Jack." I whispered, grasping his wrist and tugging it a bit to pry it off.

"What are you looking at him?" His accusing glare turned to me and he pulled me close by my shoulder. We were so close that his hot minty breath was fanning my face and his heaving chest was pushed up against mine.

"It's not like that."I've said a variation of this so many times and everytime I was telling the truth until now.

"You expect me to believe that when this whole room can see you drooling over the fucking school reject."He spit with venom, his voice was dangerous , low enough for only me to hear but loud enough that my ears rung in alarm.

"Watch it." I gritted my teeth at the insult, "And calm down, we are in public."

My last statement was brushed aside as his hand left my shoulder and clamped onto my jaw. I tried to stay calm and not make a fuss because if I did it'd draw attention from the crowd around us. Some people were already looking our way, but didn't seem to care enough to keep watching.

"I should have never allowed you two to be near each other. You won't let me touch you, but you let him?."He said, and I let out an unwanted whimper as my jaw began to hurt.

"That's rich."I swallowed out bitterly.I'm the cheater?

Just as tears were beginning to form in my eyes, the pressure of my face was released. Through glossy eyes I saw at the crowd parted ways as Sage grabbed ahold of Jackson's shirt collar.

"Piper are you okay? What's going on?" I heard Leah say but I didn't have an answer as I stood dumbly next to her.

Sage didn't waste time spewing insults or getting Jackson even more riled up than he already was, he just grabbed hold of his shirt in one hand and started repeatedly punching him with the other.
Seeing a fight in person is way different than when you see it in person. In the movies someone gets in the middle of the fray and tried to pull the dude off, as the crowd cheers them on, but none of that was happening.

Sage was landing blow after blow to his face, while the crowd stood in stunned silence. The music cut out and the teachers chaperoning were trying to push their way to stop what was happening.

I've seen Jackson get into fights multiple times before this and he never had a problem holding his own but this time, he struggled between defending his face and trying to get Sage off of him.

I jumped a bit and my hand flew to my mouth once I heard a sickening crack sound, telling me that Sage had broken his nose.

"Sage." I said, willing my voice to stay steady and void of emotion. Sage's fist paused in mid air and instead of landing another punch, he grabbed hold of Jackson's jaw.

"Touch her again and I swear to god I'll kill you." The weight of his words set a shiver down my spine and I could see Leah give me an alarmed look in the corner of my eye.

Jackson stared up at him blankly, his eyes completely unfocused, Sage didn't even wait for Jackson to fully come to before he dropped his head back onto the floor and gave him two slaps on the cheek for good measure.

Without a word Sage turned to me and grabbed my hand. I didn't even get to say anything as he dragged me away from the crowd, my confused friends hurriedly following behind.
"What was that?"

"Piper are you okay?"

The kept hammering us with questions until Sage abruptly stopped and faced both girls.
"Go back to the dance."

He ordered in a way that made both girls give him a mixture of surprised dirty looks. Sage didn't seem to care and just gently tugged on my hand and kept walking. Hastily before we disappeared from the dance all together I called back to my friends.
"I'll see you later, and I'll tell you everything."