Rejected At First Sight (Spinoff Series)

25

Ash

Sage and I both flung up the hoods of our rain jackets at the same time as we crossed the front doors to the school. Though my clothes were already drenched from the delayed walk inside. My hair was plastered to the sides of my face even as I tucked it behind my ear.

The rain hadn't dulled one bit as Sage and I ducked our heads down and began walking for the parking lot.

The words that Jay had spoken raged in my head. I realized what I wanted. What had he meant by that? A slight sort of heat raised to my cheeks despite the chilled water pelting my body. Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I noticed the tension spike through Sage's shoulders the moment before he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Sage?" I asked, my voice drowned out by the rain. I took a step closer to him and nudged his arm with an elbow. "Sage, it's kind of wet out here." I tried a smile but Sage didn't react.

Instead I followed his gaze until I saw what he was looking at.

"Holy shit." I said out loud though I didn't mean to. There was a silver civic parked in the middle of the lot, only a few spaces from where we stood. The hood had been dented, deeply, like it had been crushed by a boulder. But that wasn't the alarming part. Three slashes, almost two feet long were scratched into the surface, the metal torn, almost shredded. "What the hell happened?"

Sage finally managed to blink out of the stupor he was in. "Let's go." He said and looped his arm through mine and lead me to his car.

I looked back over our shoulders to the car. "What? Sage!"

Sage continued to guide me along until we reached his car, drawing out his keys and unlocking the passenger side and making sure I got in and closing the door before making his way over to the driver side. He got in and near-slammed the door behind him, the look in his eye made me hold my questions as to why he had pulled us away so fast.

It wasn't just shock, but a fear had rooted itself inside Sage's eyes. He didn't so much as turn music on or crank the heat up before pulling out his space, a hurry to get on the road. I didn't know why he wanted to leave so fast, but the urgency in his eyes made me pause.

When we were a couple miles away from school I pulled down my hood, trying my best to toss my hair over one shoulder. I flicked my eyes to Sage's face as he continued to look forward, only watching the road.

"Sage?"

No response.

I delicately placed a hand on his forearm, knuckles white on the wheel. "Sage." I said softly. His eyes flashed to my face and then back on the road just as fast. "Are you okay?"

His eyes softened just a bit, looking at me for longer than a second. "Yeah. Just a little spooked I guess."

"About the car?" I chewed my lip. "What do you think happened to it?"

Sage shook his head. "Probably just a bad crash."

I swept my gaze out the window, into the woods flying passed us. "But there were these deep gashes in the metal. Like... scratches or claw marks." I run my teeth over my lips again. "Do you think there's an animal big enough to make those marks?"

Sage sucked in a breath. "You don't know that it was an animal." He said and sent me a pointed look.

"Did we just not agree that there were claw marks in the car?" I asked.

"No, that was all you." Sage said, a brief amusement growing in his eyes.

"What else could they be?" I ask.