I'm finally done with my move, and finally had some time to sit down and crank this out. Two new characters are introduced here! I'm planning to include almost all of the main characters at some point, in some capacity. Thanks so much to everyone reading/reviewing/etc!
"It Ain't Right" by Current Swell
Sage made it home with just barely enough time to shower and change into real clothes after work. It had been a bit of a slow morning at the rec center, especially on the wall. At the end of her shift, Clint let Sage go for a quick climb, belaying for her. Then she practically ran home, having lost track of time.
After her quick shower, Sage tugged on a clean pair of her least holey skinny jeans and an old, faded navy blue oxford. The shirt was so worn and soft, it was almost as good as just a tshirt. Sage haphazardly rolled the sleeves while trying to cram her feet into her shoes without having to bend over. While through her desk for everything she'd need for her philosophy paper, Sage heard the front door open and close, and the sound of at least two voices, one for sure being Sharon.
Once Sage had her backpack in order, she slung it over her shoulder and left her room. Sharon and a friend of her's that Sage had never met, stood in the kitchen.
"Hey! Sage!" Sharon greeted her roommate. The other girl stood quietly and poised next to Sharon, wearing a polite smile.
"Hi," Sage replied, waving to her roommate and the stranger.
"Are you going somewhere? Maria and I were about to go get some lunch if you want to join us," Sharon explained.
"I'm Maria," the girl leaned across the kitchen island, holding out her hand. Sage reached out and took it, shaking it once, and noting Maria's very firm handshake.
"I'm actually about to go meet a girl I met in my philosophy class. We're gonna work on our papers," Sage said, grateful that she had a legitimate excuse to not tag along. Not that she wasn't too good or above, tagging along and being the third wheel. She was grateful that Sharon was kind enough to help Sage feel comfortable and welcome in a new school and town, but she didn't want all of her friends to be Sharon's friends.
"Oh, good!" Sharon replied excitedly, glad that her roommate seemed to be settling into the new setting fairly well. Sharon was half afraid that Sage wouldn't settle into her new life. She knew how unhappy Sage was, and how much she struggled at her last school. Sharon knew she had a controlling streak, and sometimes she wondered if maybe she was trying to control too much of Sage's experience. However,
"Well, hey, there's a SigEp party tonight, if you want to go with us," Maria, offered, turning to Sage. At the mention of the fraternity, Sage assumed that Maria was a friend from when Sharon was still in a sorority. Sharon tried not to laugh at the suggestion. She knew Sage wouldn't agree to go to a Greek party.
"I actually have plans tonight, but thanks," Sage replied smugly.
"Wow, aren't you the social butterfly," Sharon teased, though she was impressed.
"Relax," Sage laughed, "Bucky's just coming over to help build that piece of shit dresser," Sage explained.
"You mean Steve's friend, Bucky?" Maria asked, while Sharon smirked proudly.
"Yeah," Sage nodded. "Quit getting your hopes up!" Sage pointed an accusing finger at Sharon, then moved for the door. "I'll see y'all later."
Sage knew that Sharon would blow her evening plans out of proportion, and assign some grand romantic meaning to them. The only expectation Sage had for the evening was to sit on the floor of her bedroom, drinking beer and eating pizza, while watching Bucky attempt to assemble her dresser, and maybe sometimes handing him a tool or part. And that was only if he was still on for the plan, anyway.
To save some time, Sage drove to the library to meet her friend from class, Wanda. Being a Saturday afternoon, and the semester still being relatively young, she was pretty confident that she'd be able to find a close parking spot with little difficulty. Then, when she was done with Wanda, she could run to the liquor store and pick up a case of beer. The grocery stores in town only carried the usuals like Budweiser and Miller, but Sage was thirsty for Texas brews.
Sage regrettably took the stairs up to the fourth floor of the library, where she and Wanda had agreed to meet. Four hadn't seemed like a lot of flights of stairs to climb, and there was already a group of kids waiting for the elevator, so Sage thought the stairs would be quicker.
She was a bit out of breath and feeling hot when she made it to the fourth floor. There was a small common area with an empty reference desk, and the rest of the floor was obscured by rows and rows of books. Spinning slowly on her heel to survey what she could see, Sage realized she had no idea where to find Wanda, if she was even there yet. They agreed on 2PM, and it was five after. Sage was about to start wandering the stacks when the elevator doors opened behind her with a soft ping. Out of habit, Sage turned her eyes to the elevators and was relieved to see Wanda step out, smiling warmly as she hitched her messenger bag further up her shoulder.
Wanda was a relatively quiet girl, and Sage hadn't originally thought much of her when she sat in the desk behind her the first day of their philosophy class. Sage appreciated her style, including her commitment to knee-high boots while it was still technically summer. And then Wanda started participating in class discussions. She was incredibly smart, and had a very deadpan sense of humor, plus the coolest accent Sage had ever heard. After siding with each other on a few discussions turned debates, they formed a mutual appreciation for the other. Small talk before and after class turned into real conversations, then phone numbers were exchanged in case either one missed class and needed notes, and then Wanda asked if Sage wanted to study together. Sage was already counting Wanda as a friend.
"Glad to see you didn't get lost," Wanda greeted her, leading Sage to the right of the elevators.
"I managed to survive," Sage joked, following Wanda past shelving full of books to another common area, furnished with several large worktables and a few clusters of armchairs.
"Function or comfort?" Wanda asked, turning to Sage to pick where they sat.
"What the hell, it's the weekend. Comfort," Sage answered, heading straight for the closest cluster of armchairs.
Neither one of them really needed help with their papers. They spent a short time talking about their topics, which quickly dissolved into gossip about people in their class, and how Wanda had seen their professor buying tubs of chocolate frosting at the grocery store a week ago.
Wanda already had most of her research pulled together and worked on annotating and creating an outline. Sage was way less prepared, and still had quite a bit of research to do. Most of her afternoon was spent searching through online academic archives and bookmarking promising looking articles. Sage found that finding decent source material was the hardest part. She was an efficient reader, and a good writer. She actually rather enjoyed research papers because of that.
Time kind of flew, and before she knew it, it was almost five. Wanda had to get going, and quickly packed up her things.
"Have you ever been to Sushi Café?" Wanda asked as she zipped up her messenger bag.
"No! My roommate has told me about it, though," Sage answered.
"They have a really good lunch special," Wanda said, "we should go before class sometime." Sage could tell that putting herself out there and making the suggestion was a big effort for Wanda. Sage smiled brightly, though, happy to make a new connection.
"Totally! Sushi actually sounds really good," Sage gushed. "Can we go Tuesday?" Wanda returned her smile, they confirmed their sushi date, and then she was gone, leaving Sage alone.
On her way out, Sage took the elevator this time. Once at her car, she put her backpack in the floorboard of the backseat, and pulled out her wallet and phone. She climbed into the front seat and started the car to get the air conditioning going while she checked her phone for any messages, and to send one to Bucky.
'Done at the library. Come over anytime after six. #212' She figured that would give her enough time to run to the liquor store and make sure she didn't have any dirty underwear on the bathroom floor.
Sage ran to the liquor store, leaving her phone in her car. She already knew exactly what she wanted and didn't anticipate being inside for very long, so she left her phone in the car. Inside, she picked up a six-pack of Karbach IPA and a six-pack of Rahr and Sons blonde lager, both two of her favorite Texas beers.
Once back in the car she checked her phone, expecting some sort of confirmation from Bucky, but she had no new messages.
At home, Sage tore through the apartment, thankful that Sharon wasn't home so that she could surface clean without judgment. She threw all of the dirty dishes in the sink into the dishwasher, swept all of the makeup and hair accessories on the bathroom counter into an open drawer, pulled the shower curtain tightly closed to conceal how messy the bathtub was, and haphazardly made her bed. After all that, still no new messages, and it was five till six.
Sage sat on the edge of her bed and sighed dramatically. 'Typical dudes,' she thought.
Grabbing her laptop and a still kind of warm beer from the fridge, Sage settled into the sofa. She made sure the volume was up on her phone so that she'd hear any notifications, and set it face up on the cushion next to her so she could see it, too.
While idly surfing the Internet, Sage found herself glancing down at her phone every few minutes. She sighed again.
'Are we still on? I'm ordering pizza soon' Sage texted him again, hoping that a new notification might grab his attention, just in case he missed the first text from almost two hours ago. She ordered an extra large pizza, half peperoni and half what she liked, just in case his tastes didn't align with hers.
Before she knew it, the pizza arrived and she still hadn't heard from Bucky. She started to get worried and tried to call him, but the call went straight to voicemail, meaning his phone was off. Sage swore in frustration, and started on the pizza and grabbed a fresh beer.
She didn't bother leaving a voicemail. The fact that his phone was off pissed her off enough to not want to leave one. After devouring her first slice, Sage stripped off her jeans and changed into comfortable pajama shorts.
By 8:30, Sage was three beers deep and full on pizza and determination. She sat down on her bedroom floor, phone sitting next to her, and hunkered down to work on assembling the dresser by herself.
A little after 9, Sage decided to send Bucky another text, just in case.
'Don't worry if something came up, I think I can get this done without you.'
Sage couldn't decide if she was too harsh, or not harsh enough. The text was a little passive aggressive, but she thought he deserved it, at least a little bit. She was annoyed that he asked her to hang out and agreed to their plan, and then completely disappeared. She was also a little worried. Bucky didn't seem like the flaky type; she doubted that he forgot, and she wondered if something unexpected came up.
Focusing all of her energy into the dresser, Sage actually got into a good groove. Now that Bucky had officially flaked, she was determined to prove that she didn't need his, or anyone's, help. By 10 PM, she was completely done. She struggled to push it into place under the window, then took her time deciding which drawers would hold what.
To celebrate the completion, Sage grabbed another beer from the fridge and sat down to watch a movie. She looked at her phone for the first time in almost an hour, half expecting some sort of apology text from Bucky at the least, but found no new notifications.
Sage settled on Kate & Leopold. During the butter commercial scene, a soft ding grabbed Sage's attention. She scrambled for her phone, surprised by her own eagerness, and even more surprised by the disappointed feeling at seeing a text form Sharon, and not Bucky.
'Spending the night with Maria. I'll be home sometime tomorrow afternoon!'
Sage rolled her eyes and texted back a quick response. As soon as the movie was over, Sage went to bed. She tossed and turned for a while, realizing that she was more upset and affected than she would have expected.
On one hand, she and Bucky hadn't known each other for all that long. He didn't owe her much of anything. She was the low man on the totem pole, compared to all of his other friends. She also didn't have the full story, or any of it really. Maybe something happened that she didn't know about. She couldn't help but create a laundry list of possible scenarios, each one worse than the last.
And on the other hand, it was just plain rude. Even if something had happened, he could have at least texted her. If he was dead in a ditch somewhere, someone would have texted her about it. Probably. Or someone would have texted Sharon about it, who would then text her about it. The point, though, was that Bucky completely bailing was rude.
An annoying ringing sound woke Sage up, but she struggled to regain her mental faculties. It took her a long time to realize that her phone was making the ringing noise. It was daylight, meaning that Sage did finally find sleep. She was groggy and grumpy, and croaked out an angry 'fuck' when she knocked her phone off of the nightstand and under her bed.
It finally stopped ringing, and she rolled over, dangling over the side of the bed as she blindly felt around for it. She slid it out, flipped it over, and swore again at the notification for a missed call from Bucky, and that it was just past ten.
In frustration, Sage slid her phone back under her bed. She didn't want to call Bucky back. She rolled fully out of bed and started towards the bathroom, but a knock at the door stopped her in her tracks.
Sage wasn't expecting anyone, and she started to think that maybe Sharon was home and lost her keys. She changed her course to the front door, and swore for the third time when she looked through the peephole to see Bucky.
"I heard that," he called through the door.
Since there was no way she could just go back to bed and pretend like nobody was home, she opened the door and wordlessly fixed him with a dirty, withering glare. He held out a box of donuts in offering.
"I'm a rat," he said sheepishly.
"A big fat, greasy rat with cheese," Sage agreed, crossing her arms and leaning against the door jam. She wasn't going to let him in and charm is way out of his indiscretion.
Being a Texan, Sage was rough and tumble. She could traipse through the mud and shoot a gun. But she was also Southern, and that meant a certain regard for courtesy and decorum. Basically she was into manners. And ghosting someone when there were plans was rude.
Bucky wordlessly opened the top of the box to reveal a variety of donuts, and a few kolaches, which were worth more than gold to Sage. But she held her ground.
She stared down at the contents of the box, then stared back up at Bucky, waiting for him to say some more.
"I'm sorry I disappeared last night," he finally said. Sage wasn't going to even think about letting him off the hook until he actually said those words.
"I'm glad you're not dead," she finally said, though from her tone of voice, Bucky could tell she was anything but glad.
"Something came up yesterday, and I know it's a shit excuse, but I brought you breakfast, and I'll build your dresser, and any other piece of furniture you want," he explained.
"I finished it last night," Sage told him. She took the donut box from Bucky. His face fell, and she could see the tension in his shoulders drop.
"I'll make it up to you," he promised. Sage sighed.
"It's OK," she shrugged. "Look, I've got work in a little while and I need to get ready, so I'll see you in class on Tuesday?"
"Yeah," he stared. "Promise I'll actually show up," he tried to joke. Sage half-heartedly smiled, but it was pretty obvious to Bucky that she was still pretty hurt. They said a quick goodbye, and Sage locked the door, dumped the box of donuts and kolaches on the kitchen island, and went back to her room. She lied to him when she told him she needed to get ready for work. She had the day off, but now that she was thinking about it, going to the rec center seemed like a good idea. She could stand to work off some frustration on the climbing wall.
Sage was grateful that Clint also had the day off, and that she didn't have to see him. She knew she wasn't hiding her bad mood well, and she didn't want him bothering her about it.
Even though she climbed the wall the day before, Sage followed a different route to keep her mind focused on the activity, instead of how shitty she felt. Whenever she reached the top of a climbing wall, she liked to take a minute to enjoy the view. While looking out over the gym floor, Sage was pretty sure she could see Steve and Sam walking towards the basketball courts. On her descent, she briefly considered going over to say hi, but decided against it. Spending the rest of the day alone, not talking to anyone, was pretty appealing.
As soon as she was home and showered, she sealed herself away in her room, loudly listening to the best of Johnny Cash.
Sharon came home to a dark apartment and the sound of "Aint No Grave", and she knew to leave Sage the fuck alone. She thought maybe she'd catch a glimpse of her roommate later in the day, but the music finally stopped playing around 9, and Sage's room went dark. Sharon didn't see her until the following night.
"So I had lunch with Steve today," Sharon announced, sitting down on the sofa next to Sage with a fresh bowl of popcorn. Sage had her feet propped up on the coffee table, painting her toenails a lemon yellow.
"Are you guys like, official now?" Sage asked, laughing at the idea of Sharon and Steve having "the talk."
"I mean, we haven't fully discussed it yet," Sharon shrugged. "Anyway, he told me about what happened Saturday night," she segued.
"What happened?" Sage asked, not catching where Sharon was going.
"With Bucky," she clarified, and paused, waiting to see Sage's reaction before going on. She wasn't sure how much Sage knew, if she knew anything.
"Oh," was all Sage uttered. She didn't really care to hear Steve's excuses, or Sharon's take on it. There wasn't much to interpret, as far as she was concerned. After thinking about it all day Sunday, Sage decided not to think about it anymore. The fact of the matter was that she and Bucky really weren't as good of friends as she thought.
"Were you mean to him?" Sharon finally asked. Steve had told her how Bucky came over the next day to apologize, and that while she didn't slam the door in his face or curse him out, it still hadn't exactly gone well. And he felt like shit for it.
Sage looked up and fixed Sharon with an exasperated stare.
"I'm just asking because I know how you get! And I think you should cut him some slack," Sharon defended Bucky. Sage sighed, and went back to painting her nails.
"Fine, I will. I'm just mad because I feel like an idiot," Sage admitted.
"You do?" Sharon urged her on.
"Yeah, like I guess we were on different pages. I kind of thought he was- I thought- I don't know," Sage's shoulders slumped and she dropped her forehead to rest on her knee. She didn't know what she thought.
Well, she knew, but she didn't want to admit to Sharon that she thought that maybe Bucky was into her and something was going to happen, and her feelings and ego were wounded. Sage didn't need to express any of that, though, because Sharon caught on pretty quick.
"I can tell he's obsessed with you, he's just not good at this stuff. I haven't known him that long, but for as long as I've known him, he's never dated or had a girlfriend. At least not that I've heard about," Sharon explained. "Plus he's got a lot of shit he's going through. I don't know how much he's told you."
"Like how he was in the Army? That's literally all I know," Sage supplied. Bucky wasn't the first military guy she knew. Her first semi-serious college boyfriend had been an ex-Marine, and he had a whole truckload of baggage. So she could guess what Sharon was getting at.
"From what I understand, he's gotten a lot better, but that kind of stuff takes a while to shake off, you know?" Sharon said.
"I get it," Sage replied. She really did. Sharon finally dropped the topic, and moved on to telling Sage about the frat party she missed.
She didn't know why, but the next day in class, Sage sat in the very last row of the lecture hall, behind a group of girls to blend in with. She paid extra attention to Professor Phillips' lecture and took better notes than usual. At the end of class, Phillips and Bucky started returning the graded essays. They had the essays divided into different sections, based on numerical order. All of the students got up at once and mobbed the front of the lecture hall to find their designated pile of essays, then stood in line to go through them.
Standing behind the desk, Bucky tried to pick Sage's face out of the crowd. He didn't know her student ID number, so he didn't know what pile of blue books she'd be lined up in front of. The crowd slowly trickled out of the room until nobody was left. There were a few unclaimed blue books left by absent students.
Bucky had fooled himself into thinking he was forgiven and that she wasn't really that mad, that moving past his complete screw up would be a lot easier. But he had a feeling that him not even seeing a glimpse of her was a sign. He tried not to read too much into it, he really did, but he also had a feeling that it wouldn't be so easy to go back to how things were before he had a near complete mental breakdown and blew off the girl he was too scared to admit he really liked.
He felt even heavier than he already did as he gathered the unclaimed blue books and left the lecture hall. Sage was already across campus, on her way to meet Wanda for their sushi date.