Gods and Monsters

Ch. 8 A bad man

"Okay, you've narrowed it down to three pairs, which ones are you gonna choose?" Marlo placed his hands on his chubby cheeks and sighed dramatically.

"Well..." he dragged out. Sage smile at the older woman who had her brows raised. They patiently watched Marlo as he looked between the three pairs of frames. "These ones are like Eli's but these ones are purple, which is my favorite color." He told the lady, looking up at Sage for help. Sage shrugged, letting him choose. "And these ones will go with everything." He huffed, overwhelmed by the hard decision.

They sat for eight minutes as Marlo put each pair of glasses on and stared at himself in the small mirror. In the end he picked the black wayfarer glasses. The lady looked relieved and quickly took them before he could change his mind. They'd have to come back next week to pick them up because they had to order the lenses.

Marlo held Sage's hand as they crossed the street, and waited at the bus stop.

"I can't wait to get them and show everyone!" Marlo giggled, bouncing around.

"You'll be able to see better too." Sage reminded him. The five year old laughed and leaned against his legs, full of energy.

"And I'll be like, like Clark Kent!" He squealed, crawling up on the bench to get on Sage's lap. Sage laughed, trying to fix Marlo's dark curls that were sticking up all over the place.

The eye exam didn't take as long as he expected it to and it was still early, only eleven but he decided to just head back home instead of taking Marlo in late for school. Sage figured the two of them could spend the day together, Marlo needed it. The five year old could get clingy when feeling abandoned and sadly, that was more often than not. It's why Sage tended to smother his youngest brother with affection when he could, trying to make up for the time he spent away. The twins weren't so bad because they had each other and Elias was older now, only wanting to be around his friends.

Back home, Marlo and Sage made Lego towers and when they got bored of that, Sage brought down his art supplies and let his little brother go crazy. Marlo had started with a paintbrush but finished by finger painting. They ate grilled cheese, Marlo's favorite, and then watched the Spider-Man movies. The ones with Toby Maguire because none are as good as those. Marlo fell asleep during the second movie so Sage took the time to clean up the house as much as he could.

Marlo was still asleep when the twins burst in the house with Elias following behind.

"Sage! Eli says a storms coming." Aurora exclaimed, her eyes wide as she ran into him for a hug. She's never liked thunderstorms, even as a baby she'd cry. Mia was the complete opposite and usually had her face pressed against a window to watch. Sage had to fight the stone faced twin for a hug but once he got his arms around her she caved, knowing she liked the attention as much as the others.

"You'll be safe here." He assured her, turning to Elias who had gone straight for his laptop. "I have to get to work, make sure everyone does their homework." Elias waved him away and Sage shouted bye to everyone before rushing out the house.

The sky had indeed darkened with dark gray storm clouds and Sage made it just in time to the Pizzeria before the skies opened up and it started pouring. Storms meant the restaurant was either busy or dead, today it was the latter and that left him with no tips.

Lightning flashed followed by the rumble of thunder and the strong winds made the lights flicker. Sage was leaning against the front counter listening to Gina describe in explicit detail everything she did the night before. His face was burning, not use to hearing such things but he couldn't deny that he was interested in what she was talking about.

"He was like a animal," she purred. "And when he wrapped his mouth around my–"

Gina was cut off when the bell on the door rung, her lips pulled up in a smirk and Sage turned around to be greeted by two very muscular, very wet, men. Of course one of them he knew and the sight of the transparent white shirt clinging to his defined torso made him practically drool. He was so distracted by his body that he didn't notice those amber eyes narrowing on him.

"Where were you today?" It took a moment for Sage to pull his eyes from the man's chest and to his face.

"Yeah?" Sage breathed, watching Brandon's nose flare slightly as he leaned across the counter, bringing their faces closer together.

"You weren't at school and when I called your brother said you were here."

"Oh..." Sage blinked, coming out of his daze. "Oh! Y–yeah, um...Marlo had an eye exam."

Brandon's brows furrowed before his bright smile made an appearance. Sage knew for a fact after going out with Brandon that he definitely had a crush on his new friend. It was kind of cliche, one of those things you always hear about, A gay guy falling for his straight friend.

"What time do you get off?"

"Nine." He answered without much thought. Warmth spread across his face and he turned to Gina to distract himself from staring at Brandon. Sage's eyes widened in shock at seeing the girl practically crawling across the counter to attack the guy's mouth. Thunder boomed, making him jump and turn back to Brandon. "Sorry, did you want a table?"

Brandon chuckled softly and shook his head. "No, Nate had plans to come by and I decided to tag along."

Sage nodded, standing there awkwardly as they listened to the sounds of their friends sucking each other's faces off. After awhile he couldn't take it any longer and dashed off to the bathroom.

Staring at himself in the mirror, Sage exhaled shakily. Being around Brandon always felt intense and he didn't even have to do anything. Just being near him had his heart rate accelerating and his palms becoming damp. Then he'd look at him with those intense amber eyes and flash a disarmingly bright smile and Sage was done for.

Splashing water on his face, the war of razor winged butterflies calmed in his belly and he could breathe easier. Sage pulled out paper towels to dry his face and tried to prepare himself to go back out there and face the guy. He should call home to check on his siblings and make sure everyone was okay.

With that resolve, he threw away the paper towels and was about to exit when the door opened making him stumble back.

A man entered, his face covered by long brown hair and his figure hidden under a black trench coach. Sage mumbled an apology that was ignored as a stall door was slammed.

When Sage got back to the others, he was thankful to see that Gina was no longer attacking that guys face but was instead on the phone. She held it out to Sage once he was within arms reach and he raised his brows in question.

"Your sister is a little brat." Was all she said.

"Hello?" Sage's brows furrowed when he heard what sounded like crying in the background. He figured Aurora was upset because of the storm.

"Sage!" Aurora shouted, making him pull the phone from his ear a little.

"Rory? What's going on? Is that Mia crying?" He couldn't think of anything that would make Mia cry. The girl had sprained her ankle falling down the stairs and had laughed when it turned purple.

"Sage!" Aurora repeated, sounding like she was going to start crying herself. "There's a man, Mia said there's a man outside and he's a bad man!" Her words only confused him further.

"Where's Eli? Give him the phone."

Sage looked up to see the others staring at him and he turned his back towards them, listening to the shuffling on the other end of the phone.

"Sage?"

"What's going on?"

Elias sighed. "I don't know! Mia just started crying and talking about some man outside with a gun. I looked outside and there's no one even on the street, it's pouring down raining!" The younger teen sounded overwhelmed and Sage glanced around the empty restaurant.

"Okay, make sure the doors locked, I'll be there soon."

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