Loose

by Coo Sweet

  “I don’t know, man. Maybe each one of them thought she was the problem. Didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of her girls or something. Who knows what goes on inside the female brain? I sure as hell don’t,” Sage said with a shrug.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Peyton laughed. He rocked Sage’s foot back and forth. “You going to be alright? I mean…you think you’ll ever get over Serenity?”

  Sage shrugged again, “I have to, man. Life’s too short. Right?”

  “That’s what they say. Definitely what they say.” Peyton slid off the bed and walked back to his own. He climbed under the covers, chose a new CD to listen to, and popped the ear buds back in place. Sage watched his head bobbing to the beat and marveled at how he’d lucked upon such a true friend.

  While Peyton pretended to be lost deep in the music, what he was really doing was reflecting on the advice he’d so freely dispensed to Sage.

  Who am I to tell someone they need to move on? I can’t even sit in that room at home without crying in my food over the fact that my father’s not here. And who am I kidding about Serenity? I hurt for the girl like crazy, too. Probably not the same way Sage does, but I am truly sorry she’s dead.

  Peyton leaned back against his pillows. He switched off the music, but didn’t take the ear buds out. He bobbed his head to the rhythm of a different beat. It was the beat of his heart. It was a stark reminder of just how fortunate he was to be alive and in the world.

  Better get your shit together, son. Take your own advice and get it together.

  Later, Sage and Jasmin played a boisterous game of Slap Jack. Jasmin had the biggest stack of cards, for obvious reasons.

  "Sorry to take advantage. You being one-armed and everything," she said with a smirk.

  The humor was lost on Sage. It was his turn, but he didn’t move. His attention was glued to something in the doorway.

  There stood Raven. Hands on her hips. Fire in her eyes. She strolled into the room like she owned it. She walked right up to Jasmin’s chair and stared down at her as if she were looking at dog shit stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

  "What the hell is she doing here?" asked Raven.

  "Her? What the hell are you doing here? I didn't ask you to come," Sage said. Peyton cast aside his MP3 player with a burst of real energy.

  "Yeah, trick. Who invited you?" Peyton demanded. Raven wagged a finger at Peyton.

  "I don't need an invitation to visit the father of my baby and you need to mind your own business," she said.

  “Bitch, please. You know that's not his baby," said Peyton, sucking his teeth in contempt for her lies.

  “Why are you talking to me, sidekick? This doesn't even concern you," Raven said.

  "You need to go, Raven. I want you out. Now," said Sage.

  "Then put me out."

  Peyton flung his covers off and clambered to get up.

  "I should knock your--" he said.

  Raven stood her ground. She didn’t even blink.

  "Bring it. You'll be sorry you put your hands on me," she warned him.

  Peyton swung his legs out of the bed. That’s when Jasmin jumped into action. She grabbed Peyton’s arm.

  "Peyton, no. She's not worth it," said Jasmin.

  Raven took advantage of Jasmin being distracted and lunged at her with surprising speed. She managed to get her hand on Jasmin's arm. Dug her nails into it. Jasmin and Peyton struggled to push her off.

  The three of them tussled in what looked like some bastardized version of Ring-around-the-Rosie. Sage pressed the call button connected to the nurses’ station down the hall. He fought his covers off, rolled himself out of bed. Still weak from the accident, and too many hours spent in bed, he could only inch toward the scuffle.

  Peyton was operating on pure adrenaline. He managed to get a hold on Raven with his good hand. She fought him tooth and nail, literally.

  “Damn, this girl bit me!” Peyton howled. He pulled her into a one-armed bear hug.

  “Raven, stop this. Why are you acting this way?” said Sage.

  "Get off me!" Raven said, struggling to shake Peyton’s grip on her.

  Now Sage and Jasmin had a hold of her, too. They tried to steer her to the door. A nurse ran into the room. She saw the commotion, turned around, and ran back out. In seconds she returned with a security guard. He motioned for the trio to back off, and he grabbed Raven. She struggled against him, but he was too strong and succeeded in getting her to the door.

  "Ma'am, I'm putting you under citizen's arrest until the police get here," the guard huffed.

  That sent Raven into a bigger frenzy. She bucked against the guard’s grip like a wild animal.

  "I'm pregnant! You can’t send me to jail," Raven screamed at him.

  It was a moot point by that time. The guard didn’t let up. He steered her away from the room. Raven kicked and screamed down the entire length of the hallway.

  Jasmin, Sage, and Peyton stood there listening to her rant. They were all too stunned to speak. Finally both boys, weary and deflated, stumbled to their beds. Jasmin helped them settle back in. She took time to look at Peyton’s bite mark.

  “Call a nurse to check that. The last thing you want in your condition is an infection,” she told him.

  “That girl needs a muzzle,” Peyton said.

  Jasmin, her mouth a tight line, turned to Sage.

  “Yep, she sure does,” said Jasmin.

  Sage shrank in his bed.

  “I’m sorry, guys. Sorry for everything. That should never have happened,” he said softly.

  After the showdown at the hospital, Jasmin was having serious second thoughts about giving Sage any kind of a second chance. She just wasn’t sure if she was up for the baggage that would no doubt come along with any type of relationship with him.

  Regardless of how she was feeling about Sage, her word was her bond. She’d promised Peyton she would help him get to the bottom of Raven’s accusation against Sage.

  That’s what had brought her to the health center at school. She’d remembered seeing Raven there on her first day of school. Jasmin didn’t know what she hoped to find by snooping around, but she gave it her best shot.

  She thumbed through racks of literature on display at the main desk. She zeroed in on one particular pamphlet because of a single word that stood out in bold letters--pregnant. Jasmin snatched it up so fast she sliced her finger on the edge of it. She stuck the bleeding finger in her mouth and began scanning the pamphlet.

  A section of it read “Pregnancy testing, basic prenatal care and doctors' referrals available to students at no charge. Confidentiality guaranteed”. Definitely sounded like something that would apply to Raven’s present condition. Jasmin slipped the pamphlet in her backpack and walked out.

  That afternoon, the three amigos watched a movie. Sage, looking fresh and alert, continued to improve. Peyton was more chipper, but his reflexes were still a little slow.

  He munched on pretzels. More of them ended up on his pajamas than in his mouth. Jasmin hovered over him like a mother hen.

  "Dang, man. Need some help?" Sage asked.

  "What?" Peyton looked down. "Oh." He sheepishly brushed the pieces of pretzels off his gown. Sage laughed at him. Jasmin jumped in to help him.

  "Leave him alone, Sage. He got knocked in the head, remember?" she said, with a tinge of irritation in her tone.

  Sage picked up on it right away. He wanted to say something back, but decided against it. Figuring he probably deserved to be treated with a fair amount of hostility.

  "Yeah. Better be extra nice to me," Peyton chimed in.

  "Whatever you say," said Sage. He meant it for Peyton’s benefit, but he directed his gaze
at Jasmin.

  She quickly broke off eye contact with him and made herself busy cleaning pretzel crumbs off Peyton’s gown and bed. When she finished fussing over him, she retrieved her purse. Jasmin pulled out the pamphlet from the health center.

  "Guys, look what I picked up. Maybe this is why Raven was in the health center the day we first met?"

  Sage studied the pamphlet and handed it to Peyton.

  "That was definitely before I slept with her," said Sage. Jasmin shivered a little at his comment, like an icy finger had run down her spine.

  "Okay, so how do we prove she's lying?" Jasmin asked.

  Sage thought a minute.

  "Well, her locker's full of crap. Looked like every scrap of paper she ever got was in there. That would be a good place to hide something from her grandmother." Sage smirked, "And I just happen to have the combination."

  "Okay, it’s worth a look. Who's going to check it out?" asked Jasmin.

  Sage and Peyton both held up their casts. Peyton tugged on his hospital gown.

  "Duh, right? Guess that would be me," said Jasmin, raising her hand.

  “Well, we do need to get on it quick. I’m sure Raven’s not going to drop this game anytime soon,” Sage said.

  Jasmin screwed her face up, like she tasted something bad in her mouth.

  “Alright, give me the combination,” she said.

  The hallways at the school were deserted. Jasmin skulked along them like a burglar casing somebody’s house. She scanned a row of lockers, checking the numbers. When she found Raven's, she stopped and took a piece of paper from her pocket.

  Jasmin took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. She glanced over both shoulders to make sure she wasn’t being watched, then she spun the combination lock and opened the door. Everything tumbled out of the locker with an audible whoosh. Damn, Sage wasn’t kidding, she thought. She swept the whole pile into a shopping bag. Crammed the bag into her backpack. She took one more look around and hustled down the hallway.

  Walking away, Jasmin couldn’t help but focus on the weight of the contents in the bag she carried on her back. The scraps of paper, along with the other bits and pieces of Raven’s life that Jasmin had just stolen, had the potential to set some major implications in motion for a number of people--herself included. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that, but surely the burning sensation in her stomach was some indication of what her conscience was trying to tell her.

  Back in the boys’ hospital room, Jasmin spilled the contents of the shopping bag onto Sage's bed. She sorted the booty into three piles, handed a pile to each boy, and took one for herself.

  The hunt was on.

  Even with only one useful arm, Sage hit pay dirt after just a few minutes of searching. He waved a small piece of paper in the air like it was a victory flag.

  "Think I got it, guys!" he said.

  Jasmin scrambled to his side. Peyton leaned in as best he could. Sage smoothed the paper with his good hand. He skimmed the writing on it.

  "This is it. It's dated two weeks before we went to the movies. Let alone had sex. Her full name is on here, her birth date. And the result says positive for pregnancy,” Sage said.

  “Yeah,” said Peyton, thumping his chest with his casted hand. A little too hard. He coughed and flinched from the pain. All three of them cracked up.

  "I knew it. Lying ass trick," Peyton croaked.

  Jasmin beamed on the outside. Inside though, her stomach still churned whenever she thought about her sneaky invasion of Raven’s personal possessions. She hugged Sage and tried to convince herself that what she’d done had been justified. Why should Sage have to suffer because of Raven’s crappy little scheme? It was a simple equation.

  So why did she feel so lousy every time she pictured herself creeping down that hallway? If the boys were feeling any remorse about their questionable tactics they sure didn’t show it. The two of them passed the paper between them like it was Willie Wonka’s golden ticket. Sage in particular was about to explode from the excitement.

  "Ma!" he called across the room.

  "Yes?" answered Nadine, from inside the restroom.

  "Could you come here, please? Quick!"

  Nadine rushed through the door, wiping her face with a paper towel.

  "What's wrong?" she asked.

  "Nothing now," said Sage.

  He extended the paper to her. His olive branch. Nadine scanned it.

  “Okay. What’s this mean, Sage?” Nadine asked.

  “It means Raven was pregnant before I ever had sex with her. She’s lying, Ma. That’s not my baby.”

  “All this craziness is over? I’m not going to be a grandmother?” Nadine’s lips started to quiver. She pressed the paper to her chest and raised her head to the ceiling in a silent prayer of thanks.

  Sage grabbed her in the best bear hug he could manage with one casted arm. Big grins were plastered across everyone’s face.

  Peyton's had to be the cheesiest. He looked happier than a snaggle-toothed pirate on Halloween with a sack full of candy.

  Happier than any of them would ever remember seeing him.

  Chapter 21

  Sage slept fitfully the next morning. Every once in a while he’d get spasms in his arms and legs. His body would jerk in motions that almost resembled bizarre dance moves.

  Nadine, with her face furrowed from brow to mouth, ran her hand over Sage’s creased forehead. She adjusted the covers he kept getting tangled in.

  Inches away, on the other side of the room nothing stirred. Even the air seemed to just hang there, suspended in motion.

  Peyton's bed was empty. It had been stripped of sheets and blankets. Just a lonely, naked pillow remained.

  Jasmin burst through the door, out of breath. She froze at the sight of the vacant bed, clapping a hand over her mouth.

  Nadine bolted to her side and hugged her. Jasmin sobbed in her arms.

  "What happened, Mrs. Gentry? He was fine last night," said Jasmin. Nadine patted her back.

  "I know, baby. It was something they missed on the tests. Damage to a blood vessel, the doctor said. Nobody picked up on it at the time. It happened so quickly. They tried everything to save him, but it was too late. Poor Gail is beside herself. I don’t even know what to say...how to comfort her."

  “Oh, his mother. That poor woman,” Jasmin said. She sagged in Nadine's arms.

  Nadine helped her to a chair and eased her down on to it.

  Sitting there between the two beds, Jasmin finally noticed Sage. She’d been so upset earlier she’d barely glanced his way. The gravity of what losing Peyton would do to him slammed into her like a ton of bricks.

  "And Sage! Oh, my god! He must be...what's he..." Jasmin sobbed.

  That night, Jasmin got some of the answers she’d been waiting for. As she sat quietly near Sage’s bedside, she scanned his face for clues to what might be running through his head.

  What Sage was thinking and feeling was that he had this obsessive need to talk about Peyton. It was like he was afraid if he didn’t keep memories of his friend fresh in his head, Peyton would be lost to him in more than just a physical sense.

  He started by telling Jasmin the story of the boys’ first meeting--the fight over the pronunciation of Sage’s name. Then he shared things only a true best friend was privy to: how Peyton’s lust for life was born from his fear of dying young like his father; the fact that he had a hopeless fondness for insects—-especially ladybugs; Peyton’s habit of lighting up the entire house when his mother wasn’t home.

  Jasmin laughed nervously at one anecdote after another unsure how much she should indulge Sage’s diarrhea of the mouth, yet scared to let him just simmer in a stew
of painful memories.

  “Isn’t it funny how you guys got to be tight as brothers? I mean considering how things started off with fists flying?” she mused.

  Sage’s brow creased, and he picked at some imaginary flaw in his bed sheet. Jasmin could tell he was seriously turning the point over in his head before voicing an opinion.

  “Yeah, it is. But I guess that was a good thing, because when we really needed each other the most, we were so solid nothing was strong enough to break that bond,” he said.