Snapshots of Promises

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dawn, when the sun rises and but the world is still, surrounded by the last tendrils of sleep, the morning mist laying like a heavy blanket around the quiet suburban neighborhood. Sage sat on her roof, the rough shingles holding the moisture that seemed to stick to everything at that hour, the morning dew had turned her long black hair into a veil of diamonds. Her long lashes sat just above her cheeks, the subtle twitching of her eyes sent the gathered dew dripping down her cheeks, not unlike tears. Still she sat unmoving listening to the mornings’ subtle song, the breeze in the tree softly swaying the leaves, the birds beginning to stir with the occasional chirp here and there. Her favorite sound though was the lazy music of the crickets, desperate musicians crying out to be heard.

Sages’ ears trained in on the sound on an approaching car, her eyes opened slowly adjusting to the morning light she watched her friend sit on the hood of her car. Alex had her eyes trained on Sage but she made no move to rush the smaller girl off the roof despite the cold, she watched and waited. Slowly to avoid falling Sage stood and watched as dew droplets rained off of her, her soft grey sweater furthered the cloud analogy in her head. In a silent greeting Alex rose a hand, Sage returned the gesture with slightly more emotion, before slipping into her bedroom window. Grabbing her school bag and her camera, Sage quickly padded down the stairs and was out the door as quickly and silently as possible.

“Hey Alex!” she called before nearly tripping on the untied laces of her boots, “Oh god, I almost died!” she laughed gripping her sweater in the middle of her chest. Alex made her way to Sage with long measured steps that Sage secretly envied ‘She doesn't even know how cool she looks when she does that’ she thought with a slight pout. Alex dropping to one of her knees brought Sage out of her reverie, quietly the brunete pulled sages foot on her knee and set about tying it.

“Please don’t die on me.” Alex said quietly her deft fingers making quick work of tying the first boot and she pulled the other on to her knee. “I hate most of our school, I’d probably kill most of them without you as a distraction” Sage snorted in surprise, the sudden humor in the mostly serious moment catching her off guard.

Alex patted her boot one last time before standing, “How’d you sleep?” The brunete asked looking at her shorter companion, blue met hazel, a smile spread across Sage’s face.

“I slept really well, but i had the weirdest dream!”

“What was the dream?”

The two of them began walking down the sidewalk leaving Alex’s car parked in front of  sages house; after Sage’s accident she was never comfortable in a vehicle. She had tried at first to ride in what Alex had called her baby but the anxiety had been bad enough that she had to be hospitalized due to stress, Alex of course had been nothing but understanding, if not understandably angry that Sage hadn’t spoken up sooner.

By the time the two had reached the front of the mom and pop dinner that they were regulars at sage was finishing her long winded tale of how she saved a race of plant people with a glow stick and a chihuahua in a sweater. “The the thing exploded but it was like a glitter bomb or something, and my face was covered in like this pink goop!” Sage cried, excitedly gesturing while walking into the dinner while Alex held the door open for her.

“Hey there strangers, did Sage have another one of her dreams?” Their usual waitress clair asked, pulling a blue robot shaped pen from her apron pocket. Alex nodded while Sage laughed, “It’s not a dream, I’m telling you, I’m destined for greatness” with a puffed out chest she slid into the booth with as much grace as she could. Unfortunately for sage, this meant she tripped half way down and plopped on the booth with a heavy “Oof!”

    A loud snort from Alex and the chittering laughter that spilled from clairs lips filled the diner with a companionable warmth. After a few deep breaths to recover from the sudden onslaught of laughter that she suffered, Clair clicked her pen and tucked a bit of her black hair behind her ear.

“What’ll it be this morning?” She said her eyes twinkling behind her green framed glasses.

“One apple juice, two iced waters, and one black coffee regular.” Alex said while digging in her backpack, with a satisfied huff of air she pulled out a blank notepad and a pen. Sage brushed her fingers across the top of the page, her eyes crinkled softly with the smile that spread across her face.

“What’re you drawing?” She drawled in a near whisper, Alex regarded her carefully before letting go of a rather long sigh. With a flick of her wrist she closed the book and put it back in her bag, never breaking eye contact. Sage pouted in the booth, feeling slightly put out, and cheated.

“Jerk.”

“Ouch, do you talk to you mother like this.”

“Only on days that end in ‘y’, but I will admit to saving some extra sass for you.”

A sly grin was painted across Sages face, Alex retained her usual mask of indifference but amusement danced in her eyes. Their eye contact became an unspoken staring contest, Sage was practically laying across the table, while she made faces in an attempt of distraction that was most definitely against the rules is some obscure staring contest handbook that someone went through the troubles of publishing somewhere.

“Here you are.” Clair said, placing a tall glass of apple juice on the table, Sage squeaked in surprise lost her grip on the table and banged her chin hard enough on the table that the table shook. One of Alex’s hand held Sage from falling of the table the other was holding the glass that despite having spilt a little was otherwise undamaged in Alex’s firm grasp. Sage hissed in pain, silently the glass transferred back to Clair’s hand. Once the glass was safe from eminent shattering Alex quickly but gently lifted Sages face to inspect her chin, Despite the rapid bruising and a minor scrape it was otherwise unconcerning.

“You okay?”

“Feels like I had an icepick lobotomy go wrong, but besides that yeah.”

“Here.” Alex handed Sage an ice cube wrapped in a napkin from one of the glasses of water. The shorter girl silently accepted the jerry rigged ice pack with a thankful grin, followed by a frustrated sigh when the smile spiked up her pain.

“Sorry about that Clair.” Alex sighed running a hand through her short blue hair, “Did anything break?” she asked looking around the table. “Not that I know of.”

Sage hummed softly, her eyes looking up at Clair apologetically "Sorry for the mess."