Breakfast was warm, fragrant, and loud in that Sage way—plates clinking, her cheerful chatter filling every silence like sunlight spilling through open curtains. I smiled when I was supposed to, ate what she set in front of me, even laughed once when she teased me about “sleeping in like a spoiled princess.”
But my mind… wasn’t there.
It was still perched on a rooftop under a new moon, still watching silver-lit hair stir in the breeze.
The drive to school blurred past in streaks of orange and gold leaves.
Sage’s truck rolled into the school parking lot, crunching over the gravel. I leaned slightly forward, bracing myself as we came to a stop. A sense of tension clung to me—half nerves, half anticipation.
Then a familiar hum reached my ears, low and steady. Tyler’s motorcycle slid up b
