me but comfortable as shit to lay around in.
I hold the door close so she can’t see into my barren and shameful room but she doesn’t bat an eyelid over it. “Sorry for dropping in unannounced, but you are impossible to find online. Hell, even your phone number is, like, CIA-level protected! Does Sage even have it? She doesn’t pick up my calls anymore, so I couldn’t get it from her anyway.”
God. “Uh, okay… what can I help you with?”
She glances around the empty hallway, looking uncomfortable and a little sheepish, “Can I come in? I’m not sure Sage would want me airing this out in public with all of the bullshit that she deals with on a daily basis.”
Dammit.
It’s like she knows that Sage is the only reason I would ever let some strange girl into my space, because that girl is everything to me. “Fine, come on in.”
Gracie grins and steps around me, looking around at the barren space with that same curiosity she’d shown my appearance. The thing is, it doesn’t feel like she’s judging me, it’s more that she’s cataloging everything and storing it away in case she needs it, and that’s still not something I want to get behind.
“No offense but I’m busy, you have like three minutes before I’m heading back to my books.”
She grins at me and then lays it all out there. “Sage’s birthday is this week. Her parents are throwing a big party, inviting half the Council and a whole slew of people that couldn’t care less about our girl turning nineteen. I need you to come along. I don’t think Sage was going to ask you to come because she wouldn’t want to inconvenience you, and the whole thing is going to be a dumpster fire, but you have to come.”
Sage had mentioned it to me and when I’d offered to come, she’d said no. With her dad’s Bonded Maria working for North, Sage didn’t want me to have to deal with the animosity that will inevitably be there for me.
I shoot Gracie a look and she winces but immediately jumps in with her reasoning, “Listen, I don’t want to ask this anymore than you want to be asked, but Riley and Giovanna are going to show up and make the whole night a living fucking nightmare for Sage, and I’m done taking the backseat on this bullshit. She’s… I dunno, not stronger I guess, but more resilient now that she has you, so I feel less weird for trying to support her through this.”
I do my best not to openly side-eye the hell out of her because Sage has already told me that all of her friends abandoned her over Riley and Giovanna, so why is Gracie suddenly trying to be all up in her shit?
It doesn’t feel genuine to me at all but that only makes me want to attend this party more, because Sage needs backup.
I sigh and wave a hand at her, “Fine. I’ll talk to Sage about it and let her know I’m going.”
I say it like it’s easy, like I’m not going to have to beg pathetically to North to get a pass to go. I don’t trust this girl, so I’m not going to give her any details of the mess of my bonds.
The Gifted community already has too much to say about it.
When I call North the next morning he takes my request better than I expected, and that's my first real warning that this isn't a party I want to be attending but when I speak to Sage about it before classes, the look of sheer relief on her face is enough for my inner stubborn bitch to kick in.
I'm going, even if it kills me.
I keep my head down and focus on my classes for the rest of the day, forgetting about the party until I split up with Sage to head off to TT and Gabe jogs to catch up with me. My hackles immediately rise because we’ve come to an unspoken agreement where I don’t lash out and bitch him out for stalking me just so long as he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t get too close to me.
My bond enjoys his closeness too much and it’s terrifying to me, the thought that I’m going to leave him again the second I can and lose this feeling of peace and contentment… unbearable.
So I keep him as far away from me as I can manage without facing North’s