A Little Hope

21. My Youth

"My youth is yours,
trippin' on skies, sippin' waterfalls."
~Troye Sivan

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Sebastian's POV
When Jasmine and Rue returned, they were relieved to see that Savannah had come out of the amnesiac episode. Rue started crying when Savannah went to greet him with a hug, and Jasmine seemed happy to have her best friend back.

Wanting to keep her stress levels down for a while, we decided to stick with our original plan of going camping. We didn't have any of the necessities but we still wanted to go because it would be a good experience for all of us. Jasmine decided to stay back with Rue and back our bags while I took Savannah with me to the store to get supplies.

Savannah was slowly coming out of her headspace, which was a good thing. She was more verbal and was back to her usual cute bratty self who detested the famous booster seat.

"Nuh wan it, Daddy!" She exclaimed as I helped her with her seatbelt. Never did I think I would be joyful to hear those words again.

If this whole experience taught me anything, it taught me that I needed to be more vigilant with Savannah. I was more protective of her now, and it was starting to show. I was more stern with her when it came to stuff like eating and holding my hand when we crossed the street, amongst other things similar to that.

When we arrived at the store, I got a cart and told Savannah, "Hang on to this through the entirety of the store. Kapeesh?"

She groaned and responded, "Okayyyy."

I patted her head and said, "Good girl," which made her blush brightly.

She held onto it and we got into the store. The first item on the list was two tents. We went to the outdoors section to look when I noticed a familiar face staring hard at Savannah. I think he went to our school, but I couldn't say exactly. He was mixed and had emerald green eyes with short curly black hair. His hipster circular glasses say on his face well and made his jawline pop. He was dressed in slacks and a white button-up. You could tell he had money by the Rolex sitting on his right wrist.

I scowled when he made his way forward to tap Savannah on the shoulder to gather her attention. Oblivious as always, Savannah hadn't noticed the annoying pest staring at her, thus resulting in her jumping when he tapped her shoulder.

He laughed slightly, showing a set of pearly white teeth that I wanted to punch in. "I didn't mean to frighten you, my apologies," he said to Savannah.

Savannah blushed at this encounter and said quickly back, "Oh no, it's okay! I just didn't see you there. Can I help you with something?". She seemed to have come out of her headspace completely which surprised me. I was happy but also slightly agitated that it was this guy who had brought her out of it.

"Yeah, you can, actually. Are you Savannah Greene by any chance?" He asked her.

She eyed him suspiciously and responded, "Yes, I am. May I ask who you are?".

"Of course, I probably should've mentioned that sooner. I'm Gabriel. Gabriel Clarke. We went to high school together." Suddenly, it clicked. I had math with him back in freshman year. He was a quiet kid that didn't really draw attention himself, but still always seemed to be somewhat idolized because his dad was a famous lawyer.