BONUS #1 (Part 2): Drunk Conversations

"Chug! Chug! Chug!"

The blonde imp known as Sage Dewirth shot upright. At first, she didn't recognize where she was. Then she saw half the population of her senior class in the room and she remembered she'd dragged herself to Louie Steffenson's after party in an attempt to cheer herself up. Of course, that attempt included a fuck ton of alcohol.

But then she may have had too much tequila and passed out on the couch. Thankfully, she didn't wake up with a Sharpie dick scrawled across her forehead. She did, however, wake up to an ear-shattering chorus of chug, chug, chug.

She managed to get up and weave her way through the mass of partygoers. Being a newbie to the Steffenson estate, she tried a couple of rooms before she finally got to the empty kitchen.

Her throat felt like the Sahara and she badly needed a drink that did not contain a drop of alcohol. No siree, her alcohol threshold was filled for the night. Rummaging through the cupboards, she was getting impatient. "Where the hell are the cups?!" she stressed.

When she couldn't find any, she rushed to the sink and turned on the tap. Cup or no cup, she was getting that water in her mouth. So she leaned down and slurped directly from the faucet. Oh, if her ex could see her now.

"Better," she muttered to herself.

Having quenched her thirst, she decided to go full Goldilocks on the Steffensons and went out to find a bed.

Finding a place to continue her nap was even more challenging than her quest first water. It just seemed like every room she opened had couple in ongoing matches of naked wrestling. She was just about to throw up from the sights when she rushed up another flight of stairs.

She found herself in what seemed to be the hallway leading to the attic.

"Hmm," she mused as she walked closer to the door, "quieter up here."

The attic door creaked open and Sage tiptoed inside. She couldn't find the lights and there was only the faint shine of the setting sun illuminating the place, but as she went there to sleep, she didn't bother finding other ways of brightening up the place.

Luckily, she found a mattress on the floor with a cozy-looking duvet on top of it.

"Jackpot," she murmured to herself. She yawned and stretched before sitting on the far edge of the mattress to take her shoes and sling bag off.

For the first time that day, Sage let her shoulders slump. Now, with noise of the party barricaded at the door, the memories of her fresh breakup came flooding back to her. Diego. Even the thought of his name was enough to make her heart sink.

In the darkness where no one could see her, she finally let the hurt settle in. She finally let those stubborn tears roll down her cheek. In a burst of anger, she lied down the mattress – her back colliding forcefully with the duvet.

"GAH!" the duvet exclaimed and buckled under her.

Sage straightened back up with a shriek.

She crawled away from the mattress that the "duvet" had transformed into a boy when hit by the faint light. And it wasn't just any boy...

"Jettison!" she growled. "What are you doing here?!"

Trevor squinted at her. When he couldn't put a finger to who she was, he leaned his head to the side and asked, "Do I know you?"

Sage scoffed and wiped her face. "No," she lied and sniffled when goo threatened to run down her nose.

Trevor pouted. "Are you crying?"

Sage sniffled again. "No," she also lied again. "The room's dusty is all."

"You are crying."

"Yeah, and you are drunk."

He chuckled at the reply. "Prolly. But it's a party. It's okay to be drunk," he said, skimming his eyes over the girl sitting on the floor. "It's okay to cry, too."

"I told you I'm not crying." Ever the stubborn ass, Sage got up and was about to walk to the door. "It was nice bumping into you, Jettison, but I gotta go."

When she opened the door, the light hit Trevor's nearly innocent-looking face, staring up at her as he sat cross-legged on the mattress.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked in earnest.

There was something – in the voice, in the question or in the owner of both – that disarmed Sage. Suddenly she realized that all she wanted at that moment was a shoulder to cry on. Even if the universe was only providing a drunken shoulder, she'd take it. So, she closed the door and walked back to sit beside Trevor.

There were a few awkward ticks of a grandfather clock before Sage finally chuckled and said, "I broke up with my boyfriend." She laughed even more when the absurdity of the situation got to her. Was she really going to share her aches with the drunken guy she admittedly had a tiny crush on?

But Trevor looked at her with sympathetic eyes and nodded for her to go on. So she spilled her entire heart on the mattress – all blood and sinews – while the green-eyed boy listened. Of course, there were times when her voice trembled. Trevor shocked her by reaching out to hold her hand. She didn't recoil.

"He told me it's because he has to go back abroad," Sage added.

"Did he tell you he couldn't handle a long distance relationship?" Trevor asked.

"How'd you know that?"

Trevor snorted back laughter. "I've had to tell a lot of girls some bullshit to get out of things."

"Quite the Casanova, aren't we?" she teased.

"With this face? Who wouldn't budge?"

Sage shoved him in jest and they laughed it out. "But, yeah, he did say that," she finally answered. "It's such bullshit, though. He has absolutely no reason to go back abroad."

"What d'you mean?"

"Just a week ago he said he'd never leave," she answered. "'Said he had everything he needed here. Even though we fought a lot, he promised me he'd always stay. Then when we hit rough patches, it was just so fucking efficient that he 'needed' to leave."

"When's he going?"

"Fuck if know," Sage replied, laughing bitterly at the fact.

"You sure he's leaving because of you?"

Sage glared at him. "You ask a lot of questions when you're drunk."

"I probably won't remember them in the morning so answer anyway," he said with a sly smile.

Sage laughed and rolled her eyes. It was probably because Trevor made her laugh when she thought she'd lost all facial functions to do so that she humored the guy.

"Yes, Trevor, I think he's leaving because of me."

It was quite for a while. Trevor played with Sage's hand – his finger tracing a circle over her knuckles. Then he sighed and said, "You know, sometimes, people choose to leave when feelings they don't want to feel anymore choose to stay."

"What do you mean?"

Trevor shrugged. "You did tell me you fought a lot. Maybe he got tired of it, and no matter how much he loves you, he had to put an end to all the fighting. Even if it meant leaving."

Sage looked at him with scrunched brows. "You say less dumb shit when you're drunk," she commented.

"The power of Jack Daniels," Trevor said, which prompted her to laugh again.

When the laughter died down, her shoulders slumped and she muttered, "I just wish I could have been a better person for him, you know?"

"Naaah," Trevor quickly droned. "You don't have to be. You're perfect the way you are."

Though cringing, Sage couldn't help but smile at him. "How would you judge that? You don't even recognize me."

Trevor smiled. "I don't have to. You sound pretty perfect to me."

There's no telling what it was, but Sage's eyes welled up as she smiled at the notion like it hurt to show her teeth. Then a wave of butterflies wafted over her, pushing her to lean closer to Trevor. Her heart was hammering but the pounding hushed when her lips met Trevor's. A hand cupped her jaw, pulling her closer, deepening the kiss.

The two gasped when the kiss broke off.

Then, Trevor asked with his hand still cupping her face, "You sure you wanna do this?"

Sage smiled, leaning in. She put a palm against Trevor's chest, gently pushing him until he lying flat on the mattress and she, on top, straddling him. "I'll tell you in the morning," she teased.

She felt Trevor's body shudder with laughter under her. She laughed, too. And they continued laughing until they kissed again.

××××× 

It must have been nearly midnight when Trevor woke up to the sound scratching. His eyes opened a sliver and focused on a silhouetted figure, lying beside him, in the dark.

"What are you doing?" he asked groggily.

Over the sound of pencil scratching paper, Sage replied, "Finally getting your nose right."

Trevor smiled even though he felt sleep coming back again. Before his vision flickered, she saw the girl with a pencil in her hand, looking intently at a pad. "Are you sketching me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"So I won't forget you in the morning," she replied.

Trevor chuckled and finally closed his eyes. Before drifting off to sleep, he yawned and put an arm over Sage's waist. "God, I wish I could draw."