~AUTHORS NOTE:: hey hey, I'm terribly sorry for the more than 2 month wait for this, but I had college papers and school projects and going out of town and other crap. So, again, I apologize and this story will take another roll - continually!

~Disclaimer: I don't own these sweet and innocent characters that we've all come to shape and mold like clay... but, as always, they don't belong to me. Just have fun reading and enjoy the moment.

~*~

*~ONE YEAR LATER~*

Sage scratched the inside of his palm, biting his lip impatiently. He was waiting for Ryo to get home.

"What time was his class supposed to get over with?" Sage almost yelled to Cye.

Cye looked at the clock. "About half an hour ago."

Sage cursed under his breath. "What is taking him so long?"

"Maybe traffic is really bad. It IS 5:30 you know."

Sage rolled his tongue under his upper lip. "Yeah. Maybe. I just want to leave!"

Cye smiled, his fingers rubbing the folded invitation. He opened it again, reading it to himself. 'A dance party you'll never forget.' It was an invitation to Mia's Christmas party. He, along with Kento and Sage, couldn't wait. "I wonder how Mia is..." Cye mumbled more to himself, but Sage replied.

"I know! I want Kento to finish getting ready and I want Ryo to get here so we can LEAVE!" Sage spoke all too fast.

Cye chuckled, "He'll get here." He turned towards the stairwell, "KENTO!" he yelled, "ARE YOU DONE, YET?"

Kento stumbled down the stairs, almost falling on his primped face, "Whoa- yeah!" He grabbed the sides of his suit, pulling himself in a confident stance. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Sage grinned, "Good." He adjusted his black tuxedo and green tie. "Now, where the hell is Ryo?"

"RIGHT here." Ryo said, stepping into the kitchen. His wide eyes followed him as he noticed all his friends in black tuxedos. "What's going on guys?"

"Get dressed!" Sage replied, a playful smile trailing his words, "We're going to a party."

-~-~*~-~-

Ryo followed behind his three friends into the house, trying to fix his hair. "Why didn't you guys tell me that Mia was throwing a party? I would've looked a LOT nicer than this!" he complained.

Sage looked back just before he got to the door, "You look fine, but," Sage straightened Ryo's blood red vest and pulled his black tie a little tighter, "There. NOW you look fine."

Ryo bit his lip, smiling, "Thanks."

Kento rang the doorbell. "Hope the party's bumping!"

Mia answered the door. All the boy's jaws dropped in shock. She was dressed in a sparkling red knee-high dress, dangling diamond earrings, and black strapped high-heel shoes..

"DAMN!" Kento shouted.

Ryo could only stare.

Sage smiled, shaking his head. "So, Mia, are you going to invite us inside?"

Mia smirked. "Of course. But I want you guys to meet someone." She took a step backwards, grabbing someone beside her. He was tall, had black hair, and amazing emerald green eyes. "Guys, meet my Fiance, Rylan. "

All the guy's mouths hit the floor.

Rylan gave a little wave and said, "I've heard so much about you four."

Sage had to hold back his smile. He had never seen such sparkling eyes before.

Cye nudged Kento's arm as they walked into the house, "Isn't it odd?"

Kento fused his eyebrows, "What are ya talking about?"

"How much Rylan looks like Ryo?"

Kento cocked a smile, "Heh. Now that you said something, you do have a point."

Sage was overcome by how many people were actually in the house. He had never seen so many faces and he had no idea how many friends Mia had. "Do you know all these people?" Sage almost shouted, hoping Mia could hear him over the crowd and music.

Mia gave him a flirty laugh, "Of course not! I just invited some people from work and... well, here's my party! Isn't it great?"

Sage smiled at her innocence.

"So why aren't you hitting the bar? I bought everything from beer to sake! Go!" Mia gave him a little push towards the wooden bar she had in her house, "Go get something to refresh yourself!"

Sage shrugged and walked over the to bar, meeting Ryo.

"What's with Rylan? Where the heck did Mia meet him?" Ryo grumbled, chugging a beer.

Sage pulled the beer away from him, "Stop it. You're here to have fun and whining like a little girl isn't your idea of fun... I should know."

Ryo stared at him from the corner of his eyes, perceiving that his eyes had a sort of weird twinkle to them, "Sage, you think Rylan's cute, don't cha?"

Sage could feel the blood rushing to his face, "What are you talking about-no!"

Ryo spit out a laugh, "Yeah, I know how you work, don't play dumb!"

Sage rolled his eyes, grabbing the bottle of vodka as he mixed it with some cranberry juice. "If that's what you think, then that's your problem."

Ryo bit his lip, holding back a menacing laugh. "See you on the dance floor."

Sage sighed, taking a sip of his drink as his eyes followed Ryo to the dance floor. But his eyes were soon matched with a set of green ones.

"Are you okay?" Rylan asked as he took a swallow of his drink, never letting his eyes leave Sage's. "You look a little troubled."

Sage blinked himself out of the trance, "Yeah, just fine. There's so many people here that I'm just waiting for someone-"

"Waiting for someone to do what?" Rylan replied, question lingering in his eyes.

Sage shrugged. "I don't know. But enough about me, how did you and Mia meet?" He looked to the floor, rubbing his arm with his free hand.

Rylan chuckled at Sage's uneasiness. "Ah, well. We work at the same place and one day, we just bumped into each other, literally." He smiled brightly as though he had made a clever joke.

"That's weird." It was the only thing Sage could make out.

Rylan laughed, "How so?"

"I don't know. It just seems like you're not quite Mia's type or something. I've known her for awhile and-"

"You don't think I'm suited enough for her?"

Sage was stumbling for words, "No, it's not that, its just-"

"I think I know what you mean. You are... Sage, am I correct?"

"Yes, and what do you mean you know what I mean... or think?" Sage nervously rubbed the back of his neck, dumbfounded, "Does Mia talk about me or something?"

Rylan laughed out-loud, "Slow down there. I know what you mean because she told me about Rowen."

Sage got quiet and stared at the ground.

"Bad subject, I know. I apologize."

"No, its okay. You just think I'm hitting on you." Sage's voice remained quiet as his eyes remained glued to the floor.

Rylan sighed, smiling. He put his hand on Sage's shoulder. "Sage, it's alright. I used to be like that too. In fact, I take it as a compliment. But Mia... she's just a wonderful woman. She's turned my life around."

Sage felt the blood in his head returning to the rest of his body. "Mia is one-of-kind."

"Its a whole different ball field but its definitely worth the try." Rylan ended his sentence with a sweet smile. "Now, you go and have fun tonight and maybe we'll have a talk later or something." He held up his glass, grinned, and started walking towards Mia.

Sage let out a huge sigh. 'Glad that's over with'. His attention focused back on the dance floor, a smile tracing his lips as he saw Ryo. As usual, he was making a fool out of himself.

"C'mon, Sage!" Ryo shouted, noticing that Sage was staring at him. "Join me!"

Sage shook his head, laughing. "Maybe I will after I'm caught up with you in drinks!"

Ryo didn't take no for an answer. He whispered something to the girl dancing next to him and the girl smiled. She started to walk over to Sage.

"Oh no. Sorry, I don't dance," Sage tried miserably to avoid the girl's grasp, but she grabbed onto his arms and dragged him out to the floor.

"C'mon, dance with me!" She shouted, grabbing his hips and pushing them side to side.

"No, no, no!" Sage pried her hands off of him and tried to get away but Ryo was next to him now. Ryo grabbed his waist strongly, whipped him around, and held onto his face.

"Sage, you need to be more care-free. Stop being such a tight-ass."

Sage was appalled, "Wh-what?"

"Even though you DO have a tight-ass, you need to stop acting like one." Ryo smirked, locking his glazed eyes with Sage's.

Sage's mouth dropped, "Ryo-"

"Shh." Ryo pressed his index finger against the softness of Sage's lips. His smile turned sweet to mischievous.

"Ryo, you've had too much to drink already and I don't think you should be looking at me like that." Sage replied sternly.

Ryo shook his head, "I haven't had more than a couple of drinks and I always look at you like this. I guess its just taken you this long to notice."

Sage felt something crawling up his throat. "Excuse me?"

Ryo rolled his eyes playfully. Then he leaned his head forward and pressed his beer flavored lips against Sage's. He ran his hand smoothly through Sage's hair and then, without any notice, shoved his tongue into Sage's mouth.

For one intense second, Sage felt blackness everywhere. All his insides numbed with immeasurable guilt. A guilt he still had for Rowen.

Sage pushed Ryo off and held back the instinct to punch him. His eyes were red with confusion and hatred. "What the hell?!"

Ryo cocked his head to the side, "Isn't that what you wanted? All those times that you flirted with me?"

Sage was disgusted. All the words that boiled in his mind wanted to come out, but he didn't have the heart to. Instead, he just stood there, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

Ryo squinted his eyes. "Oh... so I'm not as good as Rowen or something?"

Sage felt like the wind was knocked out of him. He was suffocating. Starting to feel lightheaded, Sage found feeling in his legs and stormed out onto the back porch.

He gripped the wooden gate so hard that his hands went numb. He felt like being sick. It was almost this dark guilt lurking in the back his mind and he wanted to cry. He thought about what Ryo said, 'I always look at you like this. I guess it's just taken you this long to notice' went over and over in his mind. He was every emotion at the same time and it didn't take long for him to black out.

"Are you okay?"

Sage groaned, fluttering his eyelids.

Someone shook him a little. "Hey. Wake up. Talk to me!"

Sage focused on bright blue eyes. They looked like Rowen's. "Huh?"

"Oh, good! You blacked out... I don't know if you've had too much to drink or not, but you hit your head pretty hard on the ground. Can you see how many fingers I'm holding up?"

Sage counted three small fingers, and noticed that there were rings on each of them. He sat up and finally saw the face that the pair of blue eyes belonged to. She was young, with short golden brown hair and bright pink lips.

"Are you okay now? Do you need something to drink?"

Sage pressed his hand against his forehead, "No, no more alcohol."

The girl laughed, "No, I meant like water or orange juice. It'll help a little. And do you need some ice?" she lightly brushed her hand against the side of Sage's head, "You have quite a bump there."

Sage returned the girl's smile truthfully. "No. I'm fine. Thanks, but I just need to sit here for awhile."

She paused, looking deep into Sage's eyes, trying to read them. "Something's bothering you... anything I can do to help?"

Sage returned her stare, "No, it's not your problem. I'm just too stupid sometimes."

She bit her lip, "It's not your fault."

Sage cocked an eyebrow, "How do you figure that?"

"I saw you when you came out here. You grabbed the railing and looked around a lot like you were paranoid. Then you looked sick. You're face got really pale and you fell over backwards." She paused to take a breath. "I don't know about you but the same thing happened to me when I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me."

"Well..." Sage started, finally awake and aware, "It happened kind of like that. More a guilt trip than anything."

"So you cheated on your girlfriend?"

Sage pursed his lips, "Something like that, except I didn't make the moves."

The girl smiled, showing she understood.

"You know," Sage started, staring at her amazingly familiar eyes, "You look really familiar. What was your name?"

"Gabrielle."

Sage huffed, "And we've never met before?"

She shrugged, "I don't think so. You don't really look all that familiar."

"Maybe I've seen your face before. By the way, name's Sage."

Gabrielle nodded, "Well, now that we're acquainted, do you want to go inside and get some water? I'm still worried that you hit you're head a little too hard."

Sage smiled, "No, it's really okay. Just help me up." Sage outstretched his arms.

Gabrielle got up and pulled Sage to his feet. But all the blood rushed to Sage's head again and he felt a little light headed.

"Yeah," he mumbled, stumbling a little, "I might need some water after all."

Gabrielle chuckled softly and helped him inside, letting him lean on her shoulders. She walked slowly over to the bar and filled a cup full of water.

"Here," she said, "drink."

Sage gulped down as much as he could before he had to break to breath. Then he set the cup down and took a deep breath. Gabrielle handed him an aspirin and Sage took another gulp.

"Do you feel better now?" Gabrielle asked, smiling slyly.

Sage nodded, "Much."

"Good. Now, do you want to go sit down somewhere and relax for a little bit? Like over in the living room by the fireplace?"

Sage smiled and agreed. He started to follow her into the living room, but took a sudden halt when his eyes found Ryo's.

Gabrielle picked up the hostility coming from Sage and stood a little closer to him when Ryo approached them.

"Sage," Ryo started, pausing to find words, "I just want to say, I'm sorry."

Sage's only reply was the glare he tore into Ryo's eyes.

"I just thought that things could be different between us-"

"Ryo, I want you to meet my girlfriend, Gabrielle. Gabrielle, Ryo."

Gabrielle looked at him strangely, but quietly agreed to play along with whatever game her new friend was playing. "Nice to meet you, Ryo." She said, nodding her head.

Ryo was lost for words, "Girl friend?"

"Yes," Sage's violet eyes were locked in an icy stare, "girlfriend."

Ryo cleared his throat and made a gesture towards Gabrielle, showing he understood. Then he coughed a little and walked passed them, quickly.

Sage brought out a competitive chuckle and continued to walk over to a couch in the room.

Gabrielle ran up and sat next to him, her face a smile of confusion, "What was that all about?"

"Nothing. I just needed to get him off my back-" Sage quickly found Gabrielle's eyes, "No offense to you or anything, I didn't mean it like that."

"None taken. Hell, I would be your girlfriend any time." She followed with a playful laugh.

Sage smiled sweetly, "Thanks for playing along."

She nodded, "So, who is your real girlfriend anyways?"

Sage stared into the fire, that sweet smile still lingering on his lips. It didn't even seem like he had heard her. His eyes diverted to Mia and her new Fiance, Rylan, who were talking quietly on the couch next to them. Her legs were draped over Rylan's lap and every other few words they spoke, they kissed. It was like they were meant for each other.

'They look so happy.'

"Sage?"

He turned and faced her, gazing deep into her ocean blue eyes. "You are."