Silver Lining ❥ daerin

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗: 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥

Calista woke up with a pounding headache, the kind that felt like her skull was in a vice grip. She groaned, burying her face in the pillow, hoping for some relief from the sunlight sneaking through the curtains. Her body ached, muscles tight and unyielding, the price of whatever chaos had transpired last night.

Piece by piece, fragments of the evening started to come back.

Drinks.

Way too many drinks.

Zyran laughing, Rhea talking about something, and Hiraya giving her that concerned look.

And then... Sage.

The fog in her head parted slightly, and she sat up, squinting at her room as if it could offer her some answers. The sheets were a mess, tangled up around her legs. She rubbed her temples, trying to soothe the ache, and tried to piece it all together. The more she thought about it, the clearer the night became.

It wasn't just any night. No, it was the night she'd decided—in her infinite wisdom—to get drunk. Really drunk. The kind of drunk that made her friends have to drag her into a Grab, completely buzzed out of her mind.

Calista flopped back down onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Shit," she muttered under her breath. *Why did I do that?*

And then it hit her—the reason for her sudden impulse to down one drink after another. Sage.

Of course, it was Sage.

Her new neighbour, the one who made her act like she wasn't the tiniest bit rattled every time they interacted. Sage, who was calm, collected, and kind of hard to read. And Calista had tried—really tried—to play it cool. But after spotting a girl at dinner who looked like her, her mind had spiraled, and that's when things went downhill.

She pulled the covers over her head, willing herself not to think about how she'd managed to drag Sage into this whole mess. It was supposed to be a chill evening with her friends. It was supposed to be about the race later today, but no. Calista had let herself get carried away, and Sage had ended up driving her beloved Pagani home.

The image of Sage standing in the driveway, cool as ever, while she'd been a drunken mess with her friends flanking her, came flooding back.

Smooth, Calista. Real smooth.

She remembered Sage coming into her house—into her room, for Merlin's sake—and how she'd tried to act like she had it together. Pretending she wasn't still buzzed, standing there in a sports bra, probably looking like a complete idiot while Sage politely handed her the keys.

The memory made her cringe.

She'd been half-drunk, trying to seem composed, and Sage had seen right through it. And the worst part? Sage didn't say a word about it. At all. Not one bad word against her. She was patient, calm, and kind of... understanding. That somehow made it all worse.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, her drunken brain convinced that letting Sage in would somehow make things less awkward between them. Now, in the clarity of a hangover, it felt like a huge mistake. She didn't know why she cared so much about Sage, but she did. More than she wanted to admit.

Calista sighed, closing her eyes for a moment and trying to will away the headache. She could still see Sage's face in her mind—her calm, curious expression as Calista fumbled through her words, pretending like she was fine.

I've got to stop drinking like that.

She sat up again, this time more slowly, and reached for the bottle of water her friends had thoughtfully left on her nightstand. Her throat was dry, and the cool water offered some relief.