SageHe blinked at me, and for a moment, I thought I’d imagined the whole thing, that I hadn’t just blurted out an impulsive invitation like an idiot. My stomach sank as the silence stretched. I opened my mouth to backtrack, to wave it off as a joke, but before I could, he said,“You don’t strike me as the type to drink alone,” a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.I swallowed hard, my face heating. “I’m not,” I said quickly. “I just thought... you might want to…”He cut me off with a raised hand. “Relax, Sage. I’d like that. Okay.”I froze. “Okay?”He nodded, his expression unreadable. “Yeah, lead the way.”I swallowed hard, trying to process the fact that he’d actually agreed. My heart was pounding in my chest as I walked to the door, glancing over my shoulder to make sure he was following. My mind raced with a thousand questions. What does this mean? Did he really want to come in, or is he just being polite?God! Between the professor and his mixed signals, I would h
SageThe next day at school started like any other day. There was no Kaiden to bother me and even at that, I didn’t have the professor’s class today, so I threw myself into my other lectures with a sense of relief. It gave me time to think without the distraction of his piercing eyes or the lingering tension from last night. It was all I could think about in my head. My morning passed smoothly, and I actually felt lighter, as though nothing could touch me except my inner monologue.That was, of course, until the seniors cornered me again.I was leaving my last class, heading to grab a quick bite, when they appeared out of nowhere. The same group that Kaiden had chased off the other day. Their smug grins and predatory eyes told me everything I needed to know, they weren’t happy about their last encounter, and this time, Kaiden wasn’t here to save me.I was fucking doomed. I knew I shouldn’t have come to school today without Kaiden, who would protect me from these hoodlums now. They a
SageKaiden finally got a day off from his endless shoots, and the first place he decided to come to was my apartment. I didn’t have any lectures that day, so when I opened the door to find him standing there with his trademark grin and a bag of takeout, I was genuinely happy to see him.Food solves everything if you must know.“Miss me?” he asked, stepping inside and placing the bag on my counter without waiting for an answer.“Of course,” I said, shutting the door behind him. “It’s been two weeks? Thought you’d forgotten all about me.”He rolled his eyes and gave me a playful shove. “Don’t be dramatic. You know I’ve been busy. But hey, I’ve got the night free. Let’s do something fun.”I raised an eyebrow. “Define ‘fun.’”His face lit up. “The club. My friends are already meeting us there. Come on, Sage, it’ll be good for you to get out and let loose for a bit.”I hesitated. Clubs weren’t really my scene, and Kaiden knew that. But the look on his face, the excitement and eagerness to
SageThe next day, I didn’t waste time stewing in my thoughts. I had decided that confronting Professor Rivers was the only way I’d get the clarity I desperately needed. Did I do something wrong? Well, I was about to find out. After his final lecture, I waited outside his office, my pulse quickening with each passing second. As the last student trickled out of the hallway, I stepped inside.He looked up immediately, a small, polite smile spreading across his face. “Sage? What brings you here? I thought Novatech didn’t need you today.”“I know,” I said, closing the door behind me. “I came because I need to ask you something.”His smile softened, and he gestured toward the chair opposite his desk. “Ask away.”I sat down, clasping my hands together tightly in my lap. “I saw you last night. Downtown, near the club. I waved at you, but…” I trailed off, unsure how to phrase the rest without sounding pathetic.His expression didn’t falter. He leaned back in his chair, fingers laced togethe
KaidenI shook my head as I slipped into my car, gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. Not today, I told myself.Not today. Sage was clearly trying to pick a fight with me, pushing me away like it was some kind of sport. But I wouldn’t let him. I knew him too well to fall for that nonsense.I know I neglected him for a while but it was because of work. I hardly texted and I got that he was lonely for a while but that was no reason to act the way he did.Still, his words echoed in my head, prickling like needles under my skin. He had hit the nail on the head. Yeah, it might have looked like I was having fun with my friends but we were working.I was going to ask him what that performance back there was? Embarrassing himself in front of the professor? Was he that thirsty for the guy’s attention?I didn’t want to make it a big issue because I was already hanging on by a short thread because of the girl that was hitting on him.The thought made my jaw tighten as
SageI couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe. My mind continuously worked, stealing any chance I had for rest. Every attempt to close my eyes only brought more loud thoughts into my head. I was confused and it felt like everything was slipping out of my control.The one release I wanted was the fight with Kaiden but even he gave up on me. I knew I was being a brat but fighting with him would have given me the satisfaction I wanted. I wanted to beat myself up, I was so frustrated by what the professor said to me that I was going to say hurtful things to my best friend.It made me a bad person because in that instant, I didn’t care about him or his feelings. I care about feeling better. I was selfish.I hated what the professor said to me, it was hurtful and harsh. It made my chest so tight and it was difficult to breathe. All the times that we have spent together meant so little to him? I meant so little to him? I thought he was doing all of that because he liked me bu
KaidenHeartbreak. All through my life, I haven’t experienced what this was. Not even with the people around me. My model friends too have way too much time on their hands than to be tied down to one person, their words not mine.While I valued myself to be the type of person who can’t feel anything, I know what I was feeling right now was heartbreak.I also know it isn’t supposed to feel like this. It isn’t supposed to be so wrenching so much that I thought my heart would snap into two. I was so riddled with guilt that I sought out the one person I needed to talk to. I didn’t want to spend my free days fighting with him when his company was the only one I could tolerate.The moment I left the bar, I had one goal in mind, to make peace with him. The fight earlier had been stupid. I’d let my insecurities and jealousy push me into lashing out, and I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving things unresolved. He mattered too much to me.When I arrived at his house, the lights were off.
Sage For three days, I stayed holed up in my apartment. I couldn’t bear the thought of facing the professor after what I had done. I had embarrassed myself and made a fool of myself at the same time. I was nothing more than a fool who had bitten more than he could chew. It’s been days after that but I still couldn’t forget how desperate I was begging him to fuck me. I mean I could have just laid on his feet and plead because what in the hell was that? What the hell had I been thinking? Marching over to his place in the middle of the night, pouring my heart out, only to be met with that cold, infuriating response. I’d practically thrown myself at him like some lovesick fool and yet, nothing moved him. I groaned, pressing my hands against my face as I lay sprawled on the couch. My phone sat on the coffee table, lifeless, its screen dark. I’d called Kaiden more times than I could count, but he wasn’t answering. It was as though he had vanished off the face of the earth. So becau
KaidenThe first thing I noticed was the cold. It was so freezing that it not only made me shiver, it seeped inside my bones, pried it open and lived there.I was so numb to my feet? I was momentarily disoriented. My skin prickled against the damp air, and my wrists ached from the rope that cut into them. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. Could barely think over the pounding in my skull.Where the fuck am I?The basement was dimly lit, but even in the low light, I saw machines, tall, humming monstrosities with pipes, valves, and containers, all reeking of chemicals. I didn’t need to be told what this place was. I’d seen enough of this world to know. A lab. A drug operation. But why was I here?I was naked. Tied to a chair. Exposed and humiliated.Fear didn’t come in a wave. It oozed in slowly, like smoke curling under a locked door.Footsteps echoed.I lifted my head, as much as I could, my neck stiff and sore. Desmond walked in like he owned the room, he actually did.I must have be
SageThe words the professor had spoken stayed with me like the aftertaste of something bitter I couldn’t spit out. He wanted to involve the police. He wanted to bring Raines into this. It was as if he didn’t hear a single thing I said, that he couldn’t accept what was right in front of him. Kaiden had left.Again.We stood in the middle of his living room, the air thick with the kind of tension that always came before something broke.I still felt like I needed to say something to him. He had spent the entire car ride grumbling.He didn’t say anything out loud but it was pretty obvious with the way he was clenching his hands on the steering wheel.The second we got home, I cornered him.“You should take it,” I said finally, crossing my arms.He stared at me, baffled. “Take what?”“The truth. Take it. Accept that he’s gone. That this isn’t some elaborate kidnapping or some villain from a noir film dragging him off. Kaiden left. He chose to. You seem to be mad at me for voicing out the
SageThe car ride was dead silent. The only sound was the quiet hum of the engine and the occasional click of the blinker as the professor followed Kaiden’s manager through the streets. I sat in the passenger seat, my legs bouncing, nerves coiling tighter with every turn the black car ahead of us made.The professor’s knuckles were white against the steering wheel. He hadn’t spoken since we pulled out of the parking lot, and I didn’t try to break the silence. It was thick with tension, too thick to cut through with words that didn’t feel entirely useless right now.And I didn’t know what to say to him. Finally, the black car pulled into the driveway of a large, modern townhouse on the outskirts of the city. The place was all sharp edges and sterile lighting. A place for people who wanted to look rich, not feel anything.I knew Kaiden was making money for his manager but I didn’t think it was to this extent.Wow.The professor parked across the street, cut the engine, and stepped out
SageI woke up with a tight knot sitting right in the middle of my chest. The apartment was quiet. No sign of Kaiden, and the sun had already climbed halfway through the sky.The sheets beside me were cold. He hadn’t come home last night.Rubbing sleep from my eyes, I wandered out into the living room, expecting maybe a note, maybe Kaiden sitting on the couch eating cereal out of the box like he did when he was too tired to pretend to be put together. But it wasn’t Kaiden I found.The professor sat there, hunched on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on his knees, fingers loosely interlocked. He didn’t even glance at me when I entered.“You’re up early,” I said cautiously, voice still raspy with sleep.His eyes lifted to me. They looked tired, more than tired. Hollow. “Did Kaiden come home last night?”I shook my head. “No. I thought he went to see you. He got your message, didn’t he?”His lips pressed into a line. “I went to his condo. He wasn’t there. I waited. His car was gone.
KaidenMy phone buzzed again.I glanced down at the screen through the strobing lights of the after-party. The text was from the professor. “Are you home?” Something about him checking up tugged at my heartstrings. My chest tightened and I wanted to go home even more.Being here was challenging for me. I wasn’t home. I was at the kind of party that used to thrill me. A rooftop venue in the city, neon lights flickering against polished glasses, expensive perfume clouding the air, and beautiful people, too many beautiful people. Some I recognized from the runway. Others from TV. All of them orbiting around free liquor and someone else’s fame.I would have been delighted to have all these people around me,But none of them looked like Sage.None of them carried themselves like the professor.I leaned against the balcony railing, letting the air hit my face. I didn’t belong here. Not really. Not tonight.Months ago, I would have been thrilled to be here but right now, I wanted to be hom
KaidenThe clink of glassware and soft instrumental music floated through the private dining room, but I barely noticed any of it. My attention was locked on the man seated across from me, Desmond, the so-called sponsor, though I knew better now. He wasn’t just another businessman looking to capitalize on talent. He was the distributor. The puppeteer behind the chaos circling my life.Martin couldn’t stop talking. “You know, this whole thing… it’s a damn miracle. The sponsor paid for the new condo in full. Quietly. No credit checks, no delays. Even Sage’s outfit, hell, the professor’s tux too, he took care of it all. Who does that?”He kept saying all the things that I didn’t want to hear. Didn’t he know that I was terrified?I kept my gaze fixed on Desmond. He smiled faintly, swirling his wine like he had all the time in the world. I didn't trust that smile. It was too smooth, too practiced like everything about him.I was skeptical to be here even though I had no choice. I didn’t w
KaidenWhen we got home, Sage was still trembling in my arms.I guided him gently to the living room couch and sat with him, wrapping the throw blanket from the armrest over his shoulders. He hadn't spoken much since we left the boutique. The only sounds were the occasional hitch in his breath and the way his fingers clutched the fabric of my shirt like he needed something solid to anchor him.He really was scared, I can’t imagine how terrified he must have been. Hearing that so close to him must have pushed him off the edge. I hated seeing him that way.“I’ve got you,” I murmured. “You’re safe now.”He leaned into me, his body slowly relaxing as he drew warmth from my presence.“Kaiden,” he whispered, eyes fluttering. “I don’t understand why this is happening. Why me?”“Because you matter,” I said. “More than you know. And I swear, whoever’s behind this won’t get close to you. Not while I’m breathing.”Eventually, his head dropped to my shoulder, and his breathing slowed. I held him
SageIt was entirely unfair for someone like Amir to be real. Tall, lean, with chiseled features that looked like they belonged on a movie poster rather than in a security file, and a voice that dripped with smooth, practiced calm. He was the kind of handsome that made your thoughts scatter just a little if you looked at him for too long.And I was doing exactly that.“Mr. Amir, right?” I asked, extending a hand, hoping my voice didn’t tremble like my fingers did. “I’m Sage.”He nodded, his grip firm but not overbearing. “I know. It’s a pleasure.”He smiled and I don’t mean the empty kind people give when they’re on duty. It was warm. Polite. And it made my stomach flip in a way I hadn’t expected.But as he turned toward the room, I caught sight of Kaiden and the professor.Both of them were glaring.I blinked.Kaiden’s jaw was tight, eyes narrowed like he was assessing a threat he didn’t like the look of. The professor, arms crossed, stood with the energy of a man who’d already decid
KaidenWhen Martin dropped me in front of the professor’s house. I barely waited for him to drive off before I dug out my phone. My fingers hovered over the screen for a moment before I hit Bryan’s name.He was the only one who was making an attempt to help me right now. He answered on the second ring, his voice calm and clipped, like always.“Kaiden?”“Yeah, it’s me.” I moved to the far side of the room, away from the windows, and lowered my voice. “Something weird’s going on. I need to tell you about it.”“What kind of weird?” His tone sharpened immediately.I told him everything. The prepaid boutiques. The law firm. The condo being bought out. The way no one could or would tell me who was behind it. I could practically hear him frowning on the other end of the line.“You think it’s Sage?” he asked quietly.“No,” I said quickly, too quickly. “I don’t know. I mean—I don’t want to think that. And it’s not the professor either. I know that much. They would tell me if they are trying