Star Light Star Bright

Chapter 20

I had a hard time falling asleep after that, with all the thoughts rolling around in my head, but after a good fourty-five minutes of going in complete circles, I had finally worn myself out and crashed back on my pillow.

When I woke up I had two missed calls.

The first was from Sam. I quickly listened to her message.

“Hey, Sage. I’m just calling to see how the party went last night. Don’t know why you’re not answering your phone. Hope you didn’t have to much fun last night. You’ll never hear the end of it if you did, I swear to god. Alright. Well. Call me back as soon as you can. Love you. Bye.”

There was a click then the recorded message from the lady came on. “Please hit 1 to replay your message, hit 7 to dele-.” I knew the drill and hit seven quickly then called Sam back. I didn’t want to hear what the other message said quite yet.

“Oh my god, Sage, I was getting worried.” Sam’s voice broke through the rings quickly. “You always answer your phone. I was afraid you had gotten in a car crash or something and died!”

I tried to make my laugh as convincing as possible. “Trust me, you’d know if I had died. I’ve be over there haunting your ass,” I teased, but it came out half hearted.

She didn’t laugh. “Sage, what’s wrong?”

Leave it to Sam to be able to tell something’s wrong over the phone and from two sentences none the less. “Nothing,” I lied through clenched teeth.

Sam laughed without humor. “You think I can’t tell when you’re upset, you’re deluding yourself. I’ll be over soon. Don’t do anything stupid in the meanwhile.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Alright. I’ll see you soon. Bring frosting.”

There was a smirk of a laugh on the other end of the line, before it clicked and went dead.

I sighed and let my head fall into the crook of my arm. It was time to listen to the other message, no matter how long I wanted to avoid it.

I dialed back into my voicemail and hit play.

“Sage,” a shaky voice played through the speakers. “This is Kyle. Listen, we really need to talk about what happened… I… I didn’t know what I was doing, and that was totally irresponsible of me. Please call me back so we can talk. I’d rather actually talk to you than leave an apology as a voicemail… so uh… yeah. Just call me back. Please.”

My hand fell away from my ear, and my phone fell onto the pillow beside me. I hit the end button, not bothering to delete the message.

There was a knock on my door that made me jump. I blinked my eyes a few times and put on a fake smile then called out, as cheerily as possible, “Come in!”

My mother pushed my door open and stuck her head in. She raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Why so cheery this morning? I thought mornings were your thing.” Crap. Of course my mother would call me out on that.

“Oh, you know.” I waved my hand in the air, stalling for time. “Sam’s coming over. I have to be in a good mood for her, or she’d kill me.” I laughed without humor.

My mother eyed my suspiciously and sighed. “Alright. Just make sure she doesn’t stay for too long. You are still grounded.”

I nodded and watched her watch me. “Is there something you needed?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

She shook her head, but continued to watch me. “I love you.” She said with a smile.

I returned it quickly. “I love you to mother.”

She nodded and started to close the door. I lifted the phone off my pillow and started to dial Kyle’s number, but the door opened again quickly. “I came up to tell you it’s time to wake up.”

I laughed and gave her a crooked grin. “That works better when I’m asleep.” I noted, and she nodded with a laugh. “I’ll be down in a sec.” I replied quickly and she closed the door behind her with a soft click.

I lifted my phone up again, dialed Kyle’s number, and lifted it to my ear. The first ring made my stomach drop and every ring after that made it harder and harder for me to breath. Thereas a click on the other end of the line and a familiar voice spoke softly. “Hello?”

I opend my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“Sage?” Kyle asked again. I realized I had been holding my breath and try to let it out slowly, but it came out quick and raggedy. “Sage, I can hear you breathing,” Kyle said calmly. “But I guess, you don’t need to say anything. I’m the one that should be apologizing.” He took a deep breath.

“Sage. I don’t know what I was thinking last night. I was just so nervous and seeing you dressed up like you were made my head spin, I was so nervous. I already wasn’t thinking straight, and I thought that maybe if I had a drink it would calm my nerves, so I had one and then another one and then another one.

“At first I didn’t even realize it was you that had run into me, but as soon as I did my mind went completely blank, I was drunk both literally and figuratively, by you.”

He paused and I think he expected me to say something, to tell him everything was going to be alright and that I forgave him, but I stayed quiet.

“Then the idea that you’d have to change just… struck me as such a good motherent to do… to do something completely stupid.” He sighed and when he spoke up again his voice sounded defeated. “I blew it Sage. And I’m sorry for that.”

“Ok.” I breathed. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. What else was there to say? What he had done wasn’t ok and I wasn’t planning on forgiving him.

“Sage,” His voice was soft and dejected. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?”

I immediately snapped to attention, my jaw falling open. “A what?!” I yelled. The noise hurt my ears after listening to Kyle talk so softly, but I couldn’t help myself.

“A boyfriend,” Kyle replied calmly, thinking I hadn’t heard him.

“I don’t,” I insisted a little to forcefully. I took a deep breath and tried to make my tone a little more composed, but it didn’t help much. “Who told you that?”

“Your… boyfriend,” Kyle spluttered out, obviously confused.

“Did you get a name?” I demanded.

“Umm… No… Maybe… It was kind of hard to listen to what he was saying while he was attacking me. I think it was Cross, or Chris or something like that. Oh tell him thanks for the black eye and the swollen lip also.” He added the last part with a scowl and a sneer.

My hands clenched into fists, turning my knuckles white. “I’ll make sure to do that.” I sneered back. “You deserved it.” I quickly hung up the phone. My head was spinning, while voices screamed at me to do something. I was conflicted between rushing downstairs and punching Chris, for telling Kyle he was my boyfriend (the thought made my heart beat slightly faster), and rushing downstairs to tackle him into a hug.

Neither of them really sounded like a good idea, so I sat on my bed with my fists clench and my jaw tight, until Sam arrived minutes later.

The door to me house downstairs opened and closed quickly and there were footsteps on the stairs. My mother yelled her hello’s and I laughed realizing Sam had let herself in without making any kind of announcement first. She didn’t respond to my mother, or at least not a response I could hear.

A few seconds later my door flew open and she launched herself onto my bed, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. “Oh sage.” She cooed. “Everything’s going to be ok.”

I tried to answer but she was squeezing all the air from my lungs and I was finding it hard to breath. “Sam.” I croaked out. She understood and let go quickly. She reached into her bag and pulled out a can of vanilla frosting. “Here you go honey.”

I laughed and took the frosting from her, setting it on my bedside table.

“Now tell me what happened, and we’ll figure out a way through this.”