This is a continuation of the end of the book Quad. Enjoy! Please review!!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Quad. How sad. =(
Sage Wood's POV
Sage sobbed, quivering with weakness. A slight breeze blew, ruffling the grass by her knees. Slowly, the kids began to emerge from their hiding places, looking around warily, but Sage took no notice of them. She heard Nicole McClintock hurling insults at her Paisley, but was too preoccupied sobbing.
The police knelt down and ripped Paisley from the ground, clicking the handcuffs around her wrists.
"No! Wait!" Sage pleaded, throwing her arms up. "No, please, it's a misunderstanding --" She reached to grab the nearest policeman's arm in pleading.
He jerked away. "Nothing we can do about it now. Paisley Reed, you are under arrest."
Sage watched as they dragged her friend away, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. The breeze blew her hair around her face, strands sticking to the hot tear stains on her cheeks. Suddenly, Sage had never felt so alone.
She noticed a hand on her shoulder. When she whipped around, she saw it was Ranger.
"What do you want?" she hissed, feeling hostile.
"I'm sorry," he said, then walked away.
Sage stared off after him in awe. I'm sorry? That's it? That only made her feel worse. She looked around and saw Ken hugging Hayley as she wailed, covered in blood.
Brittany's blood.
Sage could not believe it. A group of police officers was gathered around Brittany's lifeless body. Her murdered body. Murdered by Paisley Reed.
No.
Somehow, Sage couldn't believe it. She didn't understand -- Paisley was harmless, she had always been. Sage stared up at Stone, who was frozen, just standing there, his face expressionless. She saw Christopher crying. But she didn't do anything. Instead, she walked away.
Walked away from the unthinkable.
She was shivering -- not because she was cold, because she was afraid. Afraid of everything. Paisley's words echoed in her mind, "Why? Why do people have to be so mean?"
Because they're humans with flaws. A lot of flaws, Sage thought.
She reached the front of the school. The area was a mob of crying kids, worried parents, and frustrated police. S.W.A.T. members were gathered around a van, whispering among one another.
"Sage!" someone called. It was her mother. She wrapped her arms around her daughter, holding her tight. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
"I'm not okay," Sage pushed her mother away.
"What?" her mother stared at her with wide, anxious eyes.
"Paisley did it," Sage said gravely. "She killed Brittany. She had the gun --" She couldn't bare to say anymore.
"Sage," her mother whispered. "C'mon, let's get out of here."
Sage swallowed hard. She didn't want to leave. She didn't know why, but for some reason she just wanted to stay. Something was tugging her to. But she complied, and followed her mother to their car.
She was still shaking with visible fear even as her mother pulled away.
"Sage, honey, I know it was traumatic, what you just witnessed. But it's going to be okay."
"No, it's not. Paisley is my friend. And now she's going to be in jail!" Her lip quivered.
Her mother didn't say anything, only pursed her lips and gripped the steering wheel harder.
"Sage, I'm pulling you out of school for a couple of days."
"No!" Sage countered immediately. "It'll be closed for a while anyway. For evidence and stuff." Evidence of a murder.
Her mother sighed, but did not object.
The rest of the ride home was quiet. Sage counted the trees as they passed. The shaking had stopped, but not the pounding of her heart, not the thoughts racing through her head. Sage tried everything to take her mind off of it. She studied the license plates of the cars in front of her. She watched crows flying back and forth across the sky. She tried to find pictures in the clouds.
The car ride seemed to last forever.
When they finally reached her house, it was like one hundred pounds had been lifted from her shoulders. One hundred pounds of the knowledge that her best friend had just killed someone.
Her mother opened the door and Sage ran up to her bedroom. She slammed the door and locked it, then laid on her bed on her stomach, face buried in her pillow, and cried. Cried like she never had before.