Chapter 5. Schizophrenic?

Sage’s POV

Tattoos lick up Joe’s arms, the only thing I can make out is some writing. It looks almost blob-ish at this distance though. Rings sit on his fingers, making his hands look sexy. How are hands sexy? I don’t even know. His eyebrows are thick and black and it compliments is greenish blue striking eyes. His nose is pierced with a thin hoop and his lips are plump with a soft curve in his cupids bow.

As soon as his eyes meet mine, I snap my gaze to the dirt. I hope he didn’t notice me gawking at him.

Once everyone finds their own thing to do and work on, I crawl into my tent and do some deep breathing exercises.

It’s something my parents taught my siblings and I to do. It’s good for your heart because in order to live you must breathe. We focused on the breath of life.

My legs are crossed and my hands lay on my the sides of my knees with my palms facing upwards as I breathe and take in my new environment.

I left the door flap to my tent open so every now and then a small light breeze comes to cool me down.

The air is fresh up here in the Boonies, I’ve missed being in the mountains and I didn’t even realized it until I got here.

I didn’t grow up around this area of the Appalachian mountains, but I did grow up in Blue Ridge which is apart of the Appalachians but we’re not very close to it.

By the time I open my eyes, the sun has gone down behind the trees, making the sky an impeccable orange color while the ground is shadowed with a blue hue.

“Hey, babes! Want some dinner? The guys are putting together a fire,” Kehlani invites me.

I nod, remembering I haven’t eaten since the restaurant earlier today.

She helps me up by grabbing my hand. Her is about the same size as mine but a little more bony as she’s a little thinner than me.

We walk over to the middle of camp to find wood being piled on top of each other and Jayce sitting on the ground placing small flammable bits in between the wood so when it’s lit it stays on fire.

Corbin and Ryker bring wood and place more until it’s almost falling over every time.

“Oh, Joe,” Kehlani calls him over. My heart immediately begins to race, I didn’t even know he was outside! “This is  Sage, the girl I was telling all of you about.”

He walks up to us but my eyes are still trained on the dirt in front of me but I can feel him tower over me. This man reeks of dominance. It’s a little scary.

Kehlani nudges me with her elbow as if to reprimand me for being rude.

My gaze travels up his body, taking note of his all black clothing until I reach his mind numbing face.

He can’t be real. None of them, none of this can be real. I must be schizophrenic.

He smirks as I look at his through my eyelashes, making me hold my breath.

He hums and leaves our side. I finally breathe out with a loud sigh. So much for deep breathing exercises.

We all gather around the fire once it’s lit. I of course sit on the ground next to Kehlani and Ryker sits by my other side.

I actually feel safe with him. Maybe it’s because he was able to somehow magically help me fall asleep to make the drive here much faster. Joe sits in front of us so if I look up, I have to be careful to not make a fool of myself. Lynn sits next to him then there’s Corbin, Jayce, Thiago, and Karter. Jericho joins moments later with a large pack of hotdogs with buns.

“I brought these for you,” Jericho hands Kehlani her own pack of tofu dogs.

It’s so sweet that he remembered she’s vegetarian.

He takes his seat on the ground next to Kehlani and Karter.

We all pass around some wooden skewers to stab through the hotdogs and place them over the fire until they are as done as we want them to be.

I almost burn mine, liking my hotdogs to be charred and I notice Karter doing the same thing and I smile. Nobody else I know likes almost burnt hotdogs.

“Twins,” he jokes, “just don’t make eye contact with me while you eat it.”

I cough on air, making Kehlani pat my back while a few of the others laugh. But not Lynn, she just rolls her eyes at his antics.

“Okay, fine. If you insist on looking at me then I’m okay with that too,” he straightens his back and shoves his hotdog into a white bun.

I feel my cheeks blaze up, not liking the attention that Karter is bringing me. I catch Lynn giving him a look when Kehlani hands me a bun.

“He means well, he’s just dumb,” Kehlani laughs.

Karter places his hand over his heart, “I’m offended,” he gasps.

“How about you look at me while you eat it Karter,” Jayce raises his dark blond eyebrow as her challenges Karter.

A devilish smirk ticks on Karter’s lips as he turns towards Jayce.

No way he’ll do that.

He holds his finger up, “just need some ketchup,” he says as he spurts some ketchup onto his hotdog.

I take a small, quick bite of mine and look around to make sure nobody is looking at me. Karter made me all self conscious.

A hand is set on my back, pulling me towards them.

“Nobody is watching, just eat and enjoy Jayce putting Karter in his place,” Ryker says quietly, putting my mind a little more at ease.

I nod, taking another bite as I watch what’s about to go down.

Lynn and Corbin laugh, seemingly in their own world. They are so cute together…and apart but together as well.

Karter places the hotdog at his mouth, opening it slowly as Jayce watching with a smile that says ‘try me’.

He lets out a fake moan as he bites into it, sending everyone into a fit of laughter, except Joe. He just looks like he’s brooding.

Joe doesn’t exactly look like he belongs out here, he looks like the type to drive fast cars and own scary looking dogs.

“You have to try this, please?” Kehlani holds out her hot dog to me, “nobody else tries my food, I swear it’s good.”

I giggle and take a bite while she’s holding it, I hear someone clear their throat. I’m reminded that a whole group of people are around me and since Karter made a suggestive joke about the hotdogs, everyone is having those dirty thoughts.

I don’t know much about sex, but I could tell it was something dirty by the sound of his voice.

“Good right?”

I nod, it smelled brothy and is a little rubbery against my teeth but the taste isn’t horrible, “I don’t hate it.”

Ryker chuckles, “nice job, letting her down easy.”

I giggle and continue to eat until I’m finished.

Some of the guys eat more, but I’m not the biggest fan of hotdogs so one is enough for me and I’ll have some snacks or something later tonight.

We all chill out by the fire for a while, the warmth is a nice contrast against the cool mountain night weather.

I just realized that I’m basically all up in Ryker’s grill and I think Kehlani likes him or they are together or something, I don’t know but I don’t want to overstep or start any drama, especially with Kehlani because I love and respect her.

I wiggle out of Ryker’s hold, feeling cooler as his warmth is no longer around me. He makes no moves to pull me back which I’m grateful for.

“I think we should play a game so we could learn more about our knew friend here,” Corbin suggests, “but first I’m going to grab the bud,” he abruptly stands from the ground.

Oh, they are going to smoke.

I’ve never smoked anything or even drank anything. Not trying to sound like a nun, but I guess I’ve never done anything remotely adventurous except leaving home.

Kehlani takes the leftover hotdog packs and runs them into the RV, leaving me alone with all these people so food doesn’t spoil.

Thiago takes Kehlani’s spot and he smiles at me softly. He’s like a big puppy dog.

“How’re you feeling, princesa?” His accent rolls off his tongue, making me feel oddly giddy.

Heat rises to my face, “I’m oka-kay.”

He smiles, placing his on my leg. My sun dress lifted a little from being sat on the ground with crossed legs so his skin is directly right above my knee.

Lynn smiles at me and returns talking to Joe. I haven’t heard him talk yet, but I think that if I did, I might die. So far, Corbin has one of the most attractive voices I’ve ever heard.

Where did Kehlani find these people in North Carolina. It’s not like it’s full of attractive people.

Kehlani and Corbin come back at the same time, she notices Thiago in her spot but instead of making a fuss, she sits where he was before.

Corbin reveals a large zip lock bag of green oblong shaped things.

“That’s all you got? We could go through that in a day,” Lynn complains.

Corbin laughs, sending my stomach into a frenzy of butterflies.

“Don’t insult me, this isn’t even a fraction of what we have.”

Lynn leans against Joe with a smile of victory on her face. It makes sense that they are together. Lynn is beautiful and Joe is…well attractive as hell. They compliment each other, Lynn may have blonde hair but she looks like a rocker chick in some ways.

Corbin hands Joe a small box that he pulls these small papers out of while Corbin packs the green stuff that I assume is weed into a black bowl, the fire illuminates a blueish glittery shimmer on the black glass.

Joe puts some into the paper and rolls it up, sticking his tongue out and licking the ends to seal it.

Corbin is the first to light up then Joe follows right after.

The smell immediately reminds me of the sweaty locker room at the gym when I went that one time. It wasn’t the locker room that never made me return to the gym, it was the aching muscles the day after, but the smell was still rank.

Ryker pulls me back into him, “don’t feel pressured to do anything. But if you do decide to do this, I’ll babysit.”

I giggle, “babysit?”

He nods, “just to make sure you’re not going to freak out.”

I shake my head. He barely knows me and he’s trying to ‘babysit’ me.

Joe and Corbin both take two hits before passing it along to the person next to them.

Karter and Jayce take it upon themselves to make silly faces at each other, not even knowing that they are entertaining me until Corbin grabs my attention.

“Truth or dare?”

He looks directly at me, using a voice deep enough to make me want to just listen to him speak but I know I have to reply.

“Dare,” I blurt. My hands shoot to my face, I want to slap myself for not picking the safe answer but I panicked and said something I regret.

Kehlani’s eyes grow wide and everyone else looks at me slightly slack jawed, except Joe, he just smirks.

“Be nice, Cor,” I hear Lynn whisper over the crackling fire.

“I dare you to go for a walk with me in the morning.”

I sigh a breath of relief, I thought it was going to be something super embarrassing, usually that’s how dares go. “Done.”

The long stick thing that has the weed in it makes it’s way to me in Thiago’s hand.

I take it between my fingers, feeling Ryker’s finger rub soothing circles into my side.

“Your turn to ask someone, Sage,” Lynn reminds me.

“Oh, um- Kehlani?” I ask as I inspect the thing in my hand.

“What’s this even called?” I question Ryker as quietly as possible. I’m happy nobody heard me ask, I would’ve probably been made fun of for not knowing.

“A blunt,” he hushes back, “if you don’t want to try it then don’t be embarrassed to just pass it on,” he reassures me in a tone that makes me feel so safe.

“Truth,” Kehlani answers me.

I hold the blunt in my hand, debating on hitting it. I watch as Jericho takes a puff from the pipe, blowing out a cloud of white-ish smoke.

“Um, what is something you swore you’d never do?”

The question comes to my head as I realize I promised my parents that I’d never do anything to intentionally put myself in danger. To them that was probably be falling for the governments propaganda or somehow getting involved in a gang. But I’ve never expressed the desire to partake in drugs so they’ve never been worried about it. Would they be worried about it?

“I swore I’d never force myself to do anything that my heart was against.”

I bring the blunt up to my lips, making Joe fix his eyes on me. He probably wasn’t expecting me to actually take a hit.

As it’s on my lips, I remember how his tongue was swiping across the blunt that is now in my mouth and for some reason, my core clenches around the air.

A quick inhale and exhale has me coughing up a lung. Ryker rubs my back, trying to help alleviate the weird feeling in my lungs.

“Here,” Thiago hands me his water bottle, “drink some, it’ll help.”

I take it without caring that his mouth has been on it and start taking small sips until the tickle in my throat is gone.

“Proud to have popped that cherry,” Lynn laughs, “how was it?”

I shake my head, passing the blunt to Ryker, “horrible, how do y’all smoke that?”

Jayce laughs, “it’s not like that regularly. Next hit will go down easier if you’re willing to take another one.”

I shrug and return the water bottle to it’s rightful owner, “thank you,” I tell Thiago to which he gives me a cute smile.

“Joe, truth or dare?” Kehlani pokes the lion.