Sage was always looking for a reason to get out of the house, so he’d jumped at the chance to have drinks with Olivia and Thea. In fact, he was early for once, mostly because he’d expected it to take him so much longer to get to the bar on crutches than it actually had. Finding them a table, he ordered himself a drink and began to watch for the girls, not entirely sure they’d spot him. He’d gotten bored and changed his hair from red to dark blue, one of his favorites and slower to fade than the red.
Olivia was ecstatic to have a night out with her friends. She needed this night and she hadn’t realized how much she had needed it until she was getting ready for it. In a pink, faux-leather dress that matched the ends of her hair, Olivia made her way to the bar earlier than she normally would have back home. In New York, she would have had to be fashionably late. In New York, she would still be worried about what to wear out to have drinks with her friends. Here, she was free to toss something on and head over there.
When she spotted Sage she hurried over, beaming a grin at him. “Oh my god, your hair! I love it!” Olivia leaned in to give him a hug then slid into the booth opposite Sage. “How are you feeling? Is Thea here yet?”
“Hey! Thanks,” Sage grinned, hopping up as much as he could to give Olivia a hug. “It was starting to turn that pale pink color, so I decided to go blue. Only bad thing is that it doesn’t match any of my holiday sweaters.” Not that they had to match. They were tacky to begin with. “I’m pretty good. Tired of the crutches, but getting by. Thea’s not here yet, but I was early.”
Thea came bounding up happily when she spotted her friends. This was hopefully the first time of a continued tradition for them. She'd love to have friends to regularly go out with, sort of help her get outside of her own head. “You're all blue!” she said to Sage, smiling happily at him as she reached out to muss his hair a little. “And you're all pink! Well don't I feel out of the color pallet?” she asked, laughing as she twirled in her red with white polka dots halter dress. “I clearly clash, guys I gotta go home,” she teased. “How are you both?”
“No, you look so cute! You look like a pin up girl from the ‘50’s!” Olivia reached for Thea to pull her into a hug, already feeling light from their presence. She was walking on clouds on her way over here, but it was nice to punctuate that with seeing her friends again. “Or maybe you just need to dye your hair red and white polka dots somehow. Right, Sage?”
“You look adorable from head to toe,” Sage said, giving Thea a hug as well. “If my hair was naturally that color, I wouldn’t touch it. Don’t change a thing.” They made an interesting little trio, the three of them, and Sage loved it. He hadn’t realized that Thea and Olivia knew each other when he met them, and was thrilled to find out his friends were friends. “So what have you guys been up to? You’ve got to update me. I’m suffering from cabin fever.”
Thea smiled at them both. “You two are so sweet,” she told them. “We all look amazing,” she added. Then she moved to give Sage a little one armed hug. “Aww, still a pain to get around?” she asked, feeling sympathetic for that. She'd had a lot of physical therapy when she'd been woken up from the coma, so she fully understood that. “I've been up to...not a ton. Getting supplies together in case of an emergency, trying to get Dean out of the house sometimes. Or I guess making sure he eats real food...”
“Wait, why is Dean stuck in the house?” Olivia asked, frowning. Was he hurt too? Apparently he wasn’t eating real food either. “Do you need some help? I mean, not with cooking. I can’t cook. Still can’t cook. But I can order food and I make a really good delivery service when I want to.” She glanced over at Sage to see if this was news to him or if he’d known that Dean needed some prying to amount to what sounded like functioning.
“Did something happen to Dean?” Sage asked, looking from Oliva back to Thea. He hadn’t met the guy, but he’d been under the impression he was able to get around. He also didn’t sound like the kind of guy to randomly climb then fall out of a tree. While Thea answered, he waved down a waiter to get their drink orders, not wanting to disrupt the conversation.
Thea blinked. “Oh! No! Sometimes he can just be a little bit of a hermit is all,” she said. “And I'm a better cook than him or his roomie, so sometimes I have to make sure he's eating proper food,” she shared, blushing a little. “I swear I'm not his mom,” she told them. She ordered a drink while the waiter was there. “But he's fine. Promise.”
Relieved, Olivia smiled again. “Oh, ok. Phew,” She said, making a gesture of wiping her brow off as she grinned. “As long as he’s not hurt or something. Too many people getting hurt around here,” She said, throwing a glance at Sage. “But if you ever need someone to come over and help with getting them to be less of hermits, I’m all in.”
Ordering her drink, a very pink cosmo, Olivia leaned back in her seat. She couldn’t stop the grin she had from morphing into something altogether different; more of a beaming smile. “I’ve been with Jacob. We’re officially together now.”
“I think I’m the only one getting hurt,” Sage laughed, taking a sip of his drink. “And I’ve not managed to do it again, so we’re good.” Not that he’d mind all the much if it gave him access to the doctor, though he realized that was a horrible plan. “Yeah?” he grinned, brows raising as Olivia brought up Jacob. “That’s great! The fam taking it okay?”
“No, it's fine! He's fine, everything is cool!” Thea said with a laugh. “Sorry, didn't mean to worry you.” She took a drink of her beverage when it arrived, some fruity concoction that she couldn't taste the alcohol in. “Aww! You are? That's so sweet!!” she said to Olivia's news. She bit her lip a little bit when Sage asked the pertinent question about her family's reaction. She was glad that Olivia looked so happy though.
Olivia didn’t know what she’d expected but to hear both Sage and Thea be so happy for her made her heart swell. She’d had to justify herself to so many people lately and to not have to do that to them, to immediately get that support, was something she hadn’t known she’d needed until then. “Thanks guys. Really, thank you. It means a lot.” Then, she looked down at her drink and took a sip before answering. “Uhm...not really. Anja is open to meeting him and forming her own opinion herself. Ethan is...not cool with it. But, I love Jacob so Ethan is going to have to get on board soon because he’s not going anywhere.”
“Ethan needs to get over it. If Jacob makes you happy, that’s what matters,” Sage said with a nod. He hadn’t heard anything that worried him about Jacob, so he had a hard time seeing it from her brother’s point of view. It sounded like he was just being difficult to be difficult. “I’m so happy for you. You deserve to be happy. So you want to tell us what happened?” he asked, leaning on the table with one elbow. “How do things actually become official? I’m not very good at relationships myself.”
“Aww! Love?” Thea asked, latching onto that. “Ah you’re just making my heart melt!” she squeed for her friend. “And he’s right,” she said, fully supporting Sage’s statements. “He needs to get over it. It’s your life, and your happiness, and you get to decide what that means, no one else.” Then she glanced at Sage again then reached over to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right someone,” she told him, because she thought he was pretty great, and also deserved someone awesome. “But yes, please, indulge us. How did it all happen?”
Olivia felt her shoulders settle, her body relaxing into the booth, and she realized that she was actually, finally relaxing. Whenever this topic was brought up around other people, she ended up tense, but with Sage and Thea she was able to just settle and be happy and that said something. Their support meant so much to her. “Thanks you guys, really. Thank you.”
Then she smiled, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Uhm, well...Kinda started when he was at my pod. Went outside to talk to him and found out he was drawing this really beautiful picture of me on the side of my pod. I haven’t touched it since, it’s still there. He’s a fantastic artist. But we got to talking and talking lead to us heading back to his pod, which led to more talking…” and more than talking… “And we just sort of realized, together, that being apart wasn’t something we wanted to do anymore. That we wanted to be there, with each other, for each other.” Then she scrunched her nose and looked back at them both. “That’s still pretty vague, isn’t it?”
Taking a sip of her drink, she glanced over at Sage again. “So I saw Doctor Hot Stuff and I asked about his relationship status, but I didn’t get a good answer. He kind of danced around telling me if he was with someone. I’m sorry, I failed you!” She said, throwing on a bit of drama into her tone just for fun. “But I did try. He’s just really stoic.”
Sage grinned at Thea, quietly hoping she was right. He didn’t know what the right person for him looked like, but he enjoyed trying to find them. “I’ll have to pop by and see this artwork,” he said. “And it’s a little vague, but I think I get it. You talked about it and both agreed that you wanted to be together, which is pretty awesome. Not everyone likes to talk about their feelings.” And he knew that to be mostly true of guys, not including himself. At some point he would need to meet Jacob, just to see what he was about. At the mention of the doctor, he laughed, shaking his head. “It’s okay. He was vague with me, too. I think I’ll have to catch him outside work to really get to know him, but I don’t know how likely that is.” As cute as the good doctor was, Sage knew it wasn’t likely to go anywhere. That didn’t stop him from crushing though.
To Thea, it all sounded sweet. To her, the talking thing was perfect, because that's the sort of relationship you wanted. Two people who connected on that personal level, and who simply didn't want to be apart. She thought that was very romantic. She was slightly lost at the 'Doctor Hot Stuff' thing, but just smiled as the two talked it over.
“We should have a party, everyone inviting everyone,” she said. “And Sage, are you only into boys? So I can keep my eye open for someone special for you too?” she asked, wanting to be sure on preference there.
“The doctor who patched me up is ridiculously hot,” Sage told Thea, since he knew she’d missed that part. Hot, but probably not interested. It didn’t stop him from trying. “We should!” he grinned at the suggestion of a party. “I’d like to meet Jacob. And Dean,” he added, giving Thea a smile. She’d talked a lot about him last time and he had to wonder if there wasn’t more to it than friendship. “No, I like girls, too,” he said with a little laugh. “Just have to find the right one is all.”
“A party at my place! I know Anja would be cool with it,” Olivia said, beaming a grin as the pre-party planning bubbles of excitement started to form in her stomach. A party full of friends who leaned toward supportive more than they did drama. It sounded too good to be true, but Olivia wanted to capitalize on it. “And I think we need to market Sage a little better, you know? If you and I are going to be official matchmakers,” She said, turning to look at Thea, “We need to lead with the right stuff. Rockstar with a heart of gold and the brightest eyes you’ve ever seen. There’s bound to be all kinds of interested parties out there that may just not have met Sage yet.”
“That’s really not necessary, but I won’t say no,” Sage laughed, shaking his head. He usually did okay for himself, but hookups weren’t the same as relationships. He could count on one hand the number of people he’d slept with more than once, and even then he wasn’t sure how many of them he’d count as real girlfriends or boyfriends. It would be nice to find someone like that, though. And it was nice to have friends who cared enough about him to want to help. “So, tell me what you had in mind for this party,” he said, leaning in with a grin. A party was something they could all look forward to.