Send 💎 for our muses to visit the shopping vendors together
💎 for our muses to visit the shopping vendors together
Huntley had planned on picking Tia up and spending the whole day with her, but now that she was back on speaking terms with her friends, it seemed like she had other plans. Which was cool -- Huntley could do other things, too. Like hang out with his friends, or go to the bank and fill his pockets with cash so that he could buy Tia all kinds of gifts at the Halloween festival shopping vendors. He didn’t love shopping, but he was all set to do it on his own when he spotted his girlfriend, looking ready to detach herself from Izzie and Sage and hang out with him instead. Huntley still wasn’t over how awesome it made him feel when Tia flashed him a smile, or walked over to him, and nothing compared to getting to hold her hand as he rambled about how he had a ton of spending money for the day, so anything she found that she liked she could go ahead and consider hers. “Seriously, whatever you want,” he promised her, feeling like this whole relationship was still part of some awesome dream that he never wanted to wake up from.
Sage felt like she’d been listening to Tia talk about Charlie’s engagement like all day long, and though it was totally cool that there was going to be a Walt wedding super duper soon (if Tia got her way), hearing about it and not even knowing if she was going to get invited was way stressful. She and Tia had been fighting for like so long and she really wanted to talk about something else besides how much better Charlie was than her, so she finally steered off in the direction of the hayride, pretending she just needed a chance to rest her legs because her ankle was hurting. She sneezed as they approached it, saying, “How come they don’t use something like, cuter for us to sit on than hay? Like, a pumpkin ride would probs be less itchy than this, right?” she asked her friend as they approached the front of the line.
TAGGING → Izzie Bash (@izziebash), Tia La Bouff (@tiaisms) & Sage Gothel
TIMELINE → October 5th, 2018
SETTING → Walt U Homecoming Football Game
SUMMARY → After Sage tweets something weird and disappears in the middle of hte game, Tia and Izzie take it upon themselves to go find her.
Izzie cheered for the football game before her to get her mind off of what was troubling her. The halftime performance was only like, fifteen minutes away and Sage was nowhere to be found. She had been there once, but then she ran off and hadn't come back. Maybe she'd wandered off and fell in a well, or got insecure about Wayland and ran off to torment Meadow some more, or something else dumb. But this was the homecoming game. One of their biggest performances of the year! Why would she miss it? Then Izzie thought about what Meadow had told her, and how down Sage had been feeling, and while she wanted to be a good friend to Meadow, she couldn't help but feel a little bad for Sage. She just hoped she was alright. Izzie walked off to get some water at a nearby cooler and checked her phone for a moment, scrolling through Twitter. Out of curiosity, she searched up @sizzlingsage and quickly unblocked her, relieved that she hadn't been blocked back so she could see her posts, only to be shocked by what she found. The most recent one read "time to go bye bye" with a cryptic scissor emoji. Izzie furrowed her brow, trying to wrack her brain for what that could possibly mean. Sage wasn't the smartest, but her twitter was never so bleak. There was no going back now, Izzie was in full worry-mode. Spotting Tia nearby, Izzie accosted her with the tweet on her screen facing out to her. "Look, I know we hate each other now, and the feeling is definitely mutual, but look at this. Do you know anything about this?" she asked Tia, handing her her phone.
Tia was busy minding her own business stretching out her hamstrings as she prepared herself mentally for Halftime when Izzie came running up to her with a phone in her hand. Tia read the screen for a moment before glancing at Izzie in confusion. "Does she mean she's going to have sex with girls now? Cuz last I checked she and your cousin are still disgusting. But what else could it mean?" She asked, looking back at the phone just as it buzzed with an incoming text message. Tia couldn't help but read the message in the notification bar since it could possibly be clarification from Sage herself, and then immediately blushed when it turned out to be from someone else entirely. "By the way L'ogan really likes your cheer skirt." She giggled, handing her ex-bestie her phone back.
Izzie felt her cheeks go red as Tia recited L'ogan's text to her and snatched her phone back. "No, no one comes out like that. Not even Sage is that dense," Izzie rolled her eyes before exhaling and running a hand through her hair. "I don't know, I just have like...a really bad gut feeling. Vivi-- Meadow," she was quick to correct herself, " -- told me that Sage had been really sad and insecure and annoying lately about her and Wayland, and I dunno, you have Wes and Charlie and the @ pack and I have my new roommates, but I don't know who Sage has been hanging out with. You live with her. Does she seem any different? Lonelier or something?" She didn't want to outright say what she was worried the tweet might mean, and hoped Tia might fill in the blanks without her having to.
Tia shrugged and started to go back to stretching. "I dunno, Charlie came out by having sex with a bunch of people and that's kind of on brand for Sage. As Izzie continued talking, Tia slowly started to understand what she was trying to say. Tia finally stopped worrying about the halftime performance and started thinking hard about Sage's recent behavior. "Gosh, I don't know either. I haven't been paying that much attention to her when i'm not...um keeping her out of my parties. You don't think she's cutting herself like that girl from Netflix, right?" She asked, practically whispering her question in terror as her face paled at the thought.
Izzie cocked a brow, considering that for a second. "Charlie's queer?" she frowned contemplatively, wondering how her gaydar could have been so off about the younger La Bouff. But then she snapped herself out of that, and started focusing on the actual topic here: Sage. "Yeah, Lux told me about your brilliant little plan at that party. You locked her in her own room in her own cottage? How mean." She wasn't really mad at Tia for it, and her tone showed. Tia could do worse. She was moreso thinking like Sage in that situation, and how terrible that must have made her feel. "And I've been calling her stupid to Meadow behind her back...That's not like, mean in person, but it puts out negative energy that I'm sure she had to feel." Izzie gnawed on her bottom lip as Tia voiced exactly what she'd been thinking. "I don't know, maybe? She wouldn't do something like that, do you think? She's not..." Izzie shrugged vaguely, not knowing how to finish that sentence. Instead, she jumped to her next idea. "We need to find her. Like, now. She tweeted this almost ten minutes ago, we could be too late already."
Tia blinked. "No? She's bi." She replied, wondering where in the talk of bi did she get the word queer. "Why's he snitching to you? Sage was mean first and I was mean better." She replied, crossing her arms over her chest a little petulantly before immediately dropping them since now wasn't the time to defend herself. "I don't know what'd she do. On one hand she doesn't seem that Hannah Bakery. But on the other, if Wayland was my only friend i'd go bye bye too." Tia frowned even more when Izzie said they might already bee too late and felt tears quickly begin to well up in her eyes. "Where would she go then? If she walked back to our cottage we could run and try to catch up with her. Would that work?"
Izzie huffed some air out through her cheeks with a roll of the eyes, not exactly in the mood to explain LGBTQ+ labels to Tia, or be offended at the joke she made at her cousin’s expense. She didn’t even want to explain that the only reason Tia thought Sage had been mean first was because she had been standing up for her. This wasn’t the time to fight. It was the time to find Sage. Izzie caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and gave a shrug. She really had no clue. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess we could try? That seems like our best bet,” she nodded, suddenly remembering how that Netflix season ended and got a little queasy. “Come on,” Izzie started for the nearest exit in a light jog so as to not draw too much attention to the two cheerleaders who were ditching the game right before halftime. Just as they passed the bathroom closest to the WU gym, Izzie heard a scream. She sent Tia a worried glance, but didn’t hesitate to barge in.
Sage was so sick of feeling sad and heavy and gross all of the time. She'd tried everything that normally worked to make her feel better already - her super rad diet, cuddling with Wayland, wearing purple, making up new dances - but all of her old tricks seemed to be failing. It seemed that nothing cheered a person up when they suddenly had no friends, and it felt like every time she tried to make a new one, she got shut down. Lux was nice to her, but he had his little demon girlfriend who like, death glared Sage whenever possible. She would have tried to make Freddie be her friend, but Izzie like, beat her to it. She'd even thought maybe Wayland's best friend would be nice to her if she was like, trying to find her a boyfriend too, but apparently being nicer than usual just made people hate Sage more. She wasn't the smart one like Izzie, she wasn't the rich boss-lady one like Tia, and she must not even be the pretty one anymore because nobody seemed to want to be around. Did that make Sage the nothing one? Being the nothing one was sad. Sage had started thinking more and more about just leaving Walt and going back home to her mom. At least Mother Gothel loved her and would never abandon her - she'd been sending her more and more notes inviting her to come back after she'd peaced out during the summer on the worst trip ever, and Sage was mega close to just doing it. She had to try one more thing first, though. A haircut had like, turned Kori's whole life around, even making her little sibling a hottie homecoming queen candidate. And it had made Kori nice to her for the first time ever. So when even cheering at the homecoming game wasn't making Sage happy anymore - the opposite, really; she'd left the field because she'd started to feel her eyes pricking with tears, seeing Izzie and Tia's big smiles and how much they didn't need her and maybe never had - she decided to go ahead and just follow Kori's lead. Maybe a magic hair cut would solve all of her problems, and if it didn't... Well, then maybe more than Sage's hair could go bye bye. She'd tell Wayland she loved him and like, thanks for being the only one who still cared, but that he could be with someone smarter and prettier like Meadow now too and she'd just go back to her tower and leave everyone alone. Sage ran her fingers through her long, dark hair one last time, loving the silky smooth feel of it. Then the used one hand to hold it out to the side, as straight as she could, as she raised the scissors she'd brought to the bathroom with her other hand and snipped. It took a minute for Sage to process what she was seeing in the mirror. The messed up make up and tear streaked face were nothing new, but she let the clump of short hair fall back to her head as she clutched inches and inches of detached hair in her fist, and blinked in horror before letting out a blood-curdling scream.
Tia glanced at Izzie at the exact same time as she glanced at her and burst into the bathroom with her. Immediately she felt relief at seeing Sage clearly not dead and then let out a bloodcurdling scream as she realized what was happening with Sage's head. Other than purple, long mermaid like hair was major Sage iconography. "What happened to your head!?" She screeched, running over like Sage really did have a razor blade jammed in her wrist and threw the scissors across the room before surveying the hair damage up close.
Izzie didn’t know exactly what she was looking at when she came into the bathroom. It wasn’t until she saw the clumps of hair detached from Sage’s body did she bring the palm of her hand to her mouth with a gasp. She followed behind Tia, coming up on Sage with a more calm demeanor — she didn’t want to scare her when she was clearly already disturbed. “What Tia means to say is....Why are you cutting your hair and why are you doing it in a bathroom at a football game? Rapunzel’s like, totally has a homecoming discount right now.” She took Sage’s chopped ends into her hands and fluffed them out to survey the damage. She was glad that Sage seemed to be okay, but then remembered that that girl from the show had also cut her hair. It was one of those things that people sometimes did when they wanted to feel something. “Are you....okay?” Izzie asked tenderly, combing her fingers through Sage’s longer strands.
Sage didn't know how long she screamed for before Izzie and Tia barged into the bathroom. It could have been five seconds or it could have been five years; time felt all blurry and weird to Sage, and she was pretty sure she had to be hallucinating now anyway. Tia and Izzie would never have come to search for her, especially not together, and Sage sniffled, the tears starting again as she realized how sad that made her. The two girls were the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she apparently missed them so much that she was seeing them where they couldn't possibly be. Except the scissors skittering across the floor sounded real, and the feel of Izzie's fingers felt real, too. And when she looked in the mirror they were actually in the reflection with her, too, and Sage took a minute to stop her chest from heaving with quiet sobs before she said anything. "No," she wailed, calm enough to talk but still not as calm as she would have liked to have been. "I look like weirdo punk rock Avril Lavigne got hit by a weed whacker or something!" she said, looking at her hair in horror before looking at the two of them. She didn't know if she was really supposed to answer Izzie's other questions; they might be here now, but if she said she wasn't okay because she missed them, she risked them telling her that they didn't miss her at all. Maybe they were only here because they needed to pee or because she was messing up the homecoming cheer routine, and she bit on her lip. "I don't know, a hair cut made Kori way more likeable, I thought I could like... try it or something," she replied, blinking her eyes until they felt dryer. "And Rapunzel's is still expensive, so like... sorry?" she trailed off lamely.
Tia felt terrible watching Sage cry like that, especially with most of her hair gone, she felt like she was watching the most surreal and terrible production of Les Mis ever. She wanted to hug her so bad that it only took half a second of wondering if that was appropriate before she actually did it. "You totally look worse than that, oh my god." Tia said, crying into Sage's shoulder before sobbing even harder because it had been so long since the last time they had hugged last and Sage was usually her favorite shoulder to cry on so there was like a weird Pavlovian effect happening there too. "You didn't have to wreck your head to be more likable, you're so great. And also please don't kill youself because your hair is bad and you don't have friends because I locked you in your room. You're like the best person ever and I'm sorry that you didn't feel like it enough to risk ruining your hair like this. It's all me and Izzie's fault!" She ramble wailed at Sage, lacking every bit of the ability Sage had at eventually composing herself. So Tia was still crying like a crazy person when she pulled away from hugging Sage to look at her hair again. "I think I could probably even it out to look cute enough until we can book you an appointment at Rapunzel's. Would that be okay?"
Izzie caught her bottom lip between her teeth, biting back tears as she watched Sage sob and heard Tia totally not help that fact as she sobbed too. "No, you look fine! It's just shorter, and hair always grows back, and me and T have had bobs and they're super cute!" she tried. But then Tia went on her big mess of a ramble, and Izzie's quivering lower lip finally gave way to tears, too. "It's so our fault. I should never have told you about ViviMeadow and Wayland. It was so mean and dumb and Wayland totally has so many reasons to like you better, because you're amazing." What she'd said to Sage that day in Tennessee had haunted her for months, she was so glad to get it off of her chest that she didn't really think Wayland had no reasons to like her. She leaned her head on Sage's other shoulder and sobbed, letting it finally hit her how much she missed being with the two of them. She hadn't smelled the combination of all three of their perfumes in so long, when she inhaled the realization only made her cry harder. Pulling away, she nodded frantically in agreement with Tia. "Yeah! This could be like, a lob! Those look good on everyone," Izzie sniffled, tucking a few strands behind Sage's ear before looking at the three of them -- three sobbing messes -- in the mirror. She picked up the scissors and handed them to Tia, not knowing how to voice what she wanted so badly to say. "I'm so glad we found you," she gave Sage's shoulders a squeeze. "I um....kind of really miss you guys. Like, what happened in Tennessee still hurts when I think about it, but feeling like we're never going to be friends again hurts even more."
Sage 's mouth parted slightly in confusion when Tia told her not to kill herself, of all things. She knew that her eating habits sometimes were so not a good idea and might like, end up with that happening to her, but she'd never tried to hurt herself like that on purpose. She was too happy that Tia and Izzie were here and crowding around her like they used to before to even care if that was the only reason they'd come looking, though. Sage wrapped her arms around both of them, not wanting to let them get too far away from her ever again. "I'm so not going anywhere now," she promised, tears streaming down her cheeks again. This time they were happy ones, though; she'd never felt as much relief as she felt knowing that they didn't still hate her after all, and that maybe things were actually going to be okay. "I was like, thinking about just leaving Walt forever and going back to my tower or something, if I was going to be locked in places anyway, but I like it here so, so much better. You know, with you guys," Sage said, her voice watery from all the crying. She probably looked like a raccoon now on top of the butt-ugly hair, but she could be the most hideous person in the whole universe right now and Sage thought maybe that would be okay as long as Tia and Izzie didn't leave. "Are you guys sure?" she asked them hopefully, not sure if she was asking about them fixing her hair or about whether they actually still loved her.
Tia tried wiping at her eyes and nodded in agreement with Izzie. "Yeah, it's so our fault. I should've never been so mean to you for standing up for Izzie or to Izzie for sleeping with Huntley when i was the one keeping secrets in the first place. You guys are the bestest best friends in the world and i'm so so sorry I made you both feel like you weren't." She cried, moving to hug Izzie too. She arguably owed Izzie way more than a teary apology and a one armed hug because she still wasn't ready to let go of Sage yet, but that was what she had right then and she hoped it would do for now. "Oh my gosh, I know I didn't act like it but I would've missed you so so much if you'd gone back to your tower. It was supes cray cray of me to lock you up like that and I can't even say i'm sorry enough for that but please be my friend again anyway?" Taking the scissors from, Izzie and stepped back a bit to get a better look at Sage's hair then went to comb all the way through it with her fingers before she began cutting. "I'm so sure. Your face will look so skinny and cute with a really good lob. After a while you'll forget you even had all that hair." Tia promised, glancing into the sink sadly.
Izzie probably would have jumped back into STI even if she hadn't gotten an official apology from Tia, but the fact that she did just made things so much better. It showed that her friends really missed her as much as she'd missed them. "I'm sorry for calling you a spoiled brat, you're just rich! That doesn't make you a bad person." Izzie gave a large squeeze when Tia reached across Sage and hugged her, too, blubbering mascara tears onto Sage's neck. Cheer makeup was so not made for crying sessions. "Never ever ever go back to your tower forever. You belong here, with us," Izzie said tenderly, clutching Sage's hand in her own as she watched Tia start to trim. "Yeah, and besides, hair always grows back. For now, this is just something fresh and new and exciting and it'll be great." So maybe she wasn't talking about Sage's haircut anymore, but Izzie loved a good metaphor.
Sage blinked her still watery eyes. Was she supposed to say it was her fault now, too? Both of them were blaming themselves, and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat from crying. "I'm so sorry, I should have figured out a better way to be good friends to both of you guys instead of like, picking a side," she said finally. She had felt bad, seeing the look on Tia's face when she'd defended Izzie over her. Tia had always done so much to make her life better, and she'd acted like one friend was more important than the other. So not cool. "And I'm super sorry for getting mad at you about Vivdow or whatever her name is now," she added to Izzie. "It was super not fair, I know that like, you guys have known her longer and stuff." It was hard for her to get it, since she'd only had Baz and Kori growing up, but she was trying. She was going to try so, so hard to make sure nothing like this ever, ever happened again. "My tower's super lonely, I would have missed you guys so much. Even just like, seeing you guys at cheer practice when you weren't talking to me was the best part of my day," Sage admitted, holding her breath as Tia and Izzie fussed over her hair. The snip of the scissors almost made her flinch again, but this time she was in good hands -- Tia's instead of her own, and she let out a breath of relief when she noticed that all the same length, her hair didn't look nearly as chunky and stupid as it had when she'd only hacked off part of it. "You guys are my favorite people in the whole wide world," Sage told them, trying not to start crying again -- happy tears this time. She didn't want to jerk around and mess up her hair more, but she had a feeling even if she walked out of this bathroom the ugliest girl in Walt, it wouldn't matter to her as long as she had Tia and Izzie by her side.
TAGGING → Huntley Fenner & Tia La Bouff (@tiaisms)
TIMELINE → June 6th, 2018
SETTING → Tia’s Half-Birthday Beach Bash
SUMMARY → Tia makes out with a random to prove a point... only it turns out that random isn’t so random after all. Also, 🔥🔥🔥.
Huntley Fenner had gone eight long years without attending a Tia La Bouff party. Her mom had forced her to invite him to things all through elementary school, but after fifth grade she'd gotten more control over her guest list, and understandably, Huntley hadn't made the cut. Now, though, he was taller, tanner, more muscular -- for all intents and purposes, he was cooler , at least on the outside, and he looked like the kind of person who could fit in at one of Tia's famous parties. Some things, like the alcohol everyone was drinking and the assortment of people from all over the world, were different, but other things were so much the same as when they were younger that Huntley couldn't stop grinning about the whole thing. He'd shown up fashionably late, like any "cool" person should, and he'd had a few beers, played a few games, and chatted with a few girls (they'd never paid attention to him before this year, but show up to one beach party shirtless and suddenly they were everywhere), but now filled with liquid courage, he decided it was finally time to go wish the hostess a happy half-birthday. Jumping over a rolling bocci ball, Huntley headed towards where he'd last spotted Tia, surprised to find her alone when he got there. "Heeeey!" he said brightly, raising his solo cup up in a one-person toast. "Great party! I didn't bring you a half-birthday present, though; any way I could get you a drink instead?"
Tia was trying her best to enjoy her party as she downed the weird bright pink drink Sage had given her and glared while Sage made out with Wayland like they weren't in public. It was totally obnoxious to do that kind of thing period, but to do it when you know your best friend is coming off of a particularly hard breakup, even if it is "on good terms", was especially tacky to Tia. She was considering walking over to spray them with her rose water misting spray or figuring out some other way to break the two apart that didn't involve wasting her own property, when suddenly there was a wall of abs in her face. Blinking upwards to see if the abs belonged to a face, Tia was confused to find that she didn't really recognize the face. But he was cute! And shirtless! And asking her if she wanted a drink! "I'm sorry, Suga' but I already have a drink." Tia slurred, her accent somehow even thicker under the influence. "But there is somethin' you could do for me, maybe." She grinned, looking over at Sage and then back at the hunk of man in front of her before taking his free hand and practically dragging him over to where Sage and Wayland were still mauling each other. "
Huntley was surprised that Tia seemed genuinely excited to see him. That wasn't a reaction he thought he'd ever gotten from her, unless he'd done her homework or something in elementary school and had blocked out how completely pathetic that hypothetical moment might have been. "I see that!" he spoke a little slower this time, Tia's demeanor making it seem like she might need that. "Very pink -- very you," he laughed, holding up his own drink to show her that it was clear instead. "Makes mine look boring," he added with a wink before he could think too much about what possessed him to do that. Acting cool was something he'd been practicing ever since he'd started at Walt U; being around Tia was no reason for his brain to go haywire and for him to forget all his practiced mannerisms. "Your half-birthday, you're the boss," Huntley said, surprised when she grabbed his hand. His feet moved quicker than his brain, though, and he followed her instinctively over to where Sage and Wayland were wrapped around each other. "So that's how I managed to find you alone," he chuckled, cocking his head down so he could get a better look at Tia. "Want me to pull them off each other or something? They're both kind of small, it wouldn't take much."
Tia giggled at the boy's wink and without even thinking about it, tipped part of her drink into his cup. "Now ya drink is way less borin' and we match!" She said, attempting to wink back at him and giggling again when that failed and was more of a blink than anything else. Tia just loved it when people let her drag them around without any kind of resistance or complaint, it was rare that they ever did since she was Tia, but it was still great. "Actually I have a better idea." She replied conspiratorially, just before yanking on a fist full of Sage's hair just enough to pull her head away from Wayland's and then pulling the stranger boy's arm down so he was bent closer to her face. "Right when Sage would logically look over to see where the hell the tug had come from, Tia moved in and kissed him full on the mouth.
Huntley had no idea how pink stuff would mix with vodka soda, but he'd drink just about anything if it meant finally getting the Tia La Bouff seal of approval. That was something he'd wanted since he was about five years old; being Tia approved had always represented being really and truly in in Huntley's world. And though he was a little confused by the warm reception he was getting from her now, he wasn't complaining; he'd changed, and he guessed she could see that and was finally willing to acknowledge it. "Oh yeah?" Huntley asked, arcing an eyebrow at her, clearly intrigued. He hadn't gotten up close and personal views of her plans , but he'd heard rumors about dyed hair and eyebrow shavings in the past. He wondered what she wanted him to help her do to Sage right now -- cut her hair? Spill a drink on her? Not the nicest of things, but he'd have done them eagerly enough -- but not nearly as eagerly as he did what came next. Tia tugged him down towards her for what he assumed would be a whispered plan, but instead of going to his ear, her mouth met his. A few months ago, Huntley would have frozen in shock, or asked if she even realized who he was -- but a year of feigning confidence had earned him some real confidence, and instead he wrapped one arm around Tia's waist for stability as he kissed her back in earnest. He could feel Sage's eyes on him for a second, but then the rest of the world melted away as Huntley let Tia call the shots and decide when they'd put on enough of a show, rather than break away from a kiss he'd never dreamed he'd be getting today.
Tia was a little surprised at how into it this complete stranger was at kissing her back, but he was really good at it so it was super easy for Tia to really get into the PDA she was attempting to shove into her best friend's face. After about a good 30 seconds or so, Tia pulled back from the kiss with some degree of reluctance, so that she could turn back to Sage. Happy to see that the little show had gotten the other girl's full attention like she'd hoped, Tia put her hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. "That was super gross watchin me kiss someone like that, wasn't it, Sage? And...Mr. Stanger here, is way way better to look at than that boy of yours. Either get out of my party or get off of your boyfriend, S!" Tia snapped at Sage, before grabbing her new friend's hand and pulling him away again, now that she'd gotten Sage to stop being a public embarrassment.
Huntley was more than a little dazed when Tia finally pulled away from him. His eyes lingered on her longer than they should have before finally following her gaze to Sage, not wanting to seem like a total creep if her friend was like... watching him watch Tia or something. But instead Sage was pouting, seeming super not happy about the ultimatum she'd just been giving, and he bit back a laugh. The look on the other couple's faces were priceless, and he needed to enjoy it now, because he was sure later when he was home, he wouldn't be able to remember anything but kissing Tia. Well... and maybe holding her hand, too. "It's kind of hot when you boss people around," Huntley laughed as she yanked him away again, trying to focus more on enjoying the moment than on the fact that she'd called him Mr. Stranger. He'd been boring Huntley Fenner to her his whole life, he could be somebody else for the day if that's what she wanted. "Although I'd like to go on record and say that kiss? Totally the opposite of gross. If anything, we might have just accidentally given her a lesson in how to be better at it than a lesson in not doing the whole PDA thing."
Tia didn't actually know where she was tugging him, but after dropping what she liked to call an "ol tomato", it was best to make a dramatic exit and "Mr. Stranger" was way too hot to leave behind. "It's kind of hot when I do anythin, Suga'" Tia giggled, stopping by the lifeguard shack and leaning against the wall of it so that she could talk to him without feeling as topsy turvy as whatever Sage had given her was making her feel. "Totally the best kiss ever." She said with a nod, talking more to his chest than to his actually face. But in Tia's defense, the boy was TALL. At least an entire foot taller than she was. "You should totally give me another lesson in how to be better at PDA. Well sorta P but whatever."
Huntley reached out a hand to place on Tia's arm to steady her, noticing that she swayed a little as she leaned against the lifeguard hut. "Seems like I need to drink some of this pink stuff finally, you got a head start on me," Huntley laughed, raising the solo cup up to his lips to hide the fact that he was blushing at her comment. Damn if it wouldn't be cool if that were true, but he had a feeling a mix of the alcohol and the sting of a recent breakup were fueling her to say that, and not Huntley having some magic lips or something. He brought the cup back down once he'd drained the whole rest of the drink, almost tossing it to the side in an effort to look 'cool' and 'nonchalant' -- but then he thought of poor turtles if he forgot to grab it later, so he kept it in his hand instead. "For me? Definitely," Huntley told her with a smirk. "Although I bet I could do even better this time," he added, licking his lips before tilting way down to press them to Tia's again.
Tia was really liking how into her this new person seemed to be right off the bat. He was the perfect first post-breakup kiss and if she'd been just a little more sober, she probably would've tried to ask what his name was. Instead Tia just giddily kissed him back, super proud of how great her party was going, how fun it was to kiss a completely new boy and enjoy the feeling of his muscles under her fingers as she basically felt him up.
Huntley was caught in between a place of losing himself in the moment, and completely overthinking whatever was happening right here, right now with him and Tia. On the one hand, his muscles were taut under her touch, his whole body poised and ready for the possibility of more than kissing as he let her hands roam over his abs. On the other, though, years of knowing Tia, even just from afar, reminded him that though he wanted to react in kind, he doubted she would appreciate it if he messed her hair up by running his fingers through it when she had a party to get back out to in a minute. Instead, the arm that he'd placed on her to steady her skimmed over her sides instead, resting on the small of her back, tracing indecipherable shapes because his brain was definitely too foggy to make any real ones. The longer he kissed her, the harder it was to breathe; hormones and a lifetime of weird admiration were crashing together in this one moment, and Huntley broke his lips away from hers, trying not to gasp for breath and letting his lips trail down her neck instead as he got some air. It was hard to notice anything else going on around them -- whether they'd gathered an audience or whether they were still alone, whether it had been a minute or an hour. All Huntley cared about right now was Tia and the fact that she seemed almost as into this as he was.
Tia was enjoying kissing this boy a little too much. It was definitely partly because of the alcohol, but Tia was seriously tempted to do more than just innocently make out a little against the side of the lifeguard hut. It had only been like sixteen days since she'd dumped Kai, but she really missed being kissed and touched by someone and this guy was definitely hot enough to make her want to turn into fully wild partier for at least this one night. Plus she was only wearing a bikini and a teeny little mini skirt, so there was no risk of her outfit getting all that ruffled. When his lips moved from her's down to her neck, Tia let out a soft moan and was about to ask if he wanted to possibly leave the party, when she opened her eyes and caught sight of something that made any and all fun sexy thoughts vanish. There was a fire!
Huntley took a few seconds to come down off the high of kissing Tia and comprehend her words. His smile fell as he realized she'd said fire. They were surrounded by water and there was hardly even anything flammable in sight; how could there possibly be a fire? Years of exposure to Tia made him assume that it was an excuse -- that she'd realized who he was and couldn't get away fast enough. It was lame to ask what he'd done wrong, and kind of needy to ask if she was okay instead of just letting her go. It was a hard habit to shake, but while Huntley was trying to convince himself not to be annoying, the issue suddenly became moot. He started to smell smoke after all, and he instantly tried to shield Tia from wherever it was coming from... and he quickly realized that that 'wherever' was the very shack they'd been leaning against. "Holy moly," Huntley whistled, not sure what the heck was going on. He wanted to stay with Tia, to keep her safe -- but instead he urged, "You go get somewhere safe, I'll try tohelp put this out, okay?"
Tia somehow managed to stop being terrified of possibly burning to death for a moment to appreciate how quickly this total stranger had moved to shield her once he'd realized what was going on. It was super cute and if Tia had been a little less afraid, she might have insisted on staying to help or something. But she was scared and didn't need to be told twice to get away from the flames. "Um okay, be careful!" Tia shouted, over her shoulder as she ran back to where most of the party was in order to get everyone's attention about the burning lifeguard shack. "Text me sometime." Sure he definitely didn't have her number and probably didn't know who she was either. But it was a small campus and it probably wouldn't take that much time to figure out who she was.
SETTING → Charming Dance Hall, Streets of Walt, 1151 Wiizard Way
SUMMARY → Tia and Sage both have crappy nights at prom. In the end, they decide to get pizza and plan a summer roadtrip (including that info here because we didn’t write it lol)
Sage was totally not having a good time at prom this year. She’s volunteered to be a chaperone because she finally had a boyfriend now and being dates with like, Lux or whoever again was so not okay, although that hadn’t stopped Vivi from asking Wayland to go with her again. But whatever; Sage had figured she’d get to hang with Izzie and Tia and like, pass her crown on to a new cheerleader who won queen this year while she waited for a chance to borrow Wayland for the dance they hadn’t gotten last year when she’d been prom queen instead. And to hurry it up a little, she was maybe kind of scoping out cute high school boys to set Vivi up with instead, since she was like, super pretty and really couldn’t keep borrowing Wayland from her forever. She’d just spotted a medium key hottie she didn’t know when Tia crossed her line of vision, though, and she waved excitedly. “Hi bestie!” Sage squeed, reaching out to hug her without even noticing the expression on her face. “Do you think that boy over there is shorter than Vivi or not? I like, can’t tell from here.”
Tia only just barely spared a glance at the boy Sage was gesturing to as she tried her best to keep her composure up for a few minutes longer. "He looks shorter than us. Can we get out of here?" She asked in a rush, silently praying to God and anyone else who was possibly listening that Sage would just be a good minion and not question her until they were at least out of the range of a building filled with a bunch of nosy annoying high schoolers. Tia was so upset about her latest and quite possibly final break up with Kai, she really doubted her ability to be able to say much else without it possibly escalating into actual screaming.
Sage ‘s eyes went wide, surprised by Tia’s response, but she didn’t question it. She was best friends with like, the two smartest people on the planet; if they said something they were usually right about it, and Sage was super glad to have them to help her out when she didn’t get stuff. “Oh, um, sure!” she replied, casting a quick glance around to make sure Vivi hadn’t like, snuck Wayland off to do anything weird to him before she looped her arm through Tia’s and let her lead the way. “Is Kai stuck doing like boring radio stuff?” she asked as they walked. She totally wished she was hanging out with her own boyfriend; she was a little curious about why Tia wasn’t with hers, but she could like, need underwear help or something else that was a bff job instead.
Tia waited to answer Sage's question until they were all the way out of the building and then Tia turned around and flung herself into Sage's arms. "Kai's leaving again so we broke up." She sobbed, finally bursting into tears as she buried her face into her best friend's shoulder, completely ignoring the fact that Sage probably wouldn't appreciate the eyeliner, mascara and deep purple lipgloss smeared on her dress.
Sage had thought maybe Tia just didn’t hear her question at first, but her starting to cry as soon as they were outside was a definite clue that Sage had been wrong. “Oh-em-gee, no!” Sage replied instantly, wrapping her arms tightly around Tia, shock preventing her from saying anything useful as she tried to rub soothing circles on Tia’s back instead. Her best friend was all soggy and sad, and Sage hated when the people she loved the most were sad - but how did she fix it? “He can’t! We’ll like, build a dungeon and lock him up there so he can’t leave you. Like, why would he want to anyway? You’re so much better than the stinky old world anyway!”
Tia started crying even harder the more Sage talked to her. "Yes, he can! I told him to go! It's a really good thing for him and I can't make him not go do that!" She cried out before pulling out of the hug and dragging Sage further down the street towards their cottage. "He's going to do some youtube red show and he wants to go so so bad. It would be absolutely awful of me to keep him here."
Sage pouted slightly. She’d totally trusted Kai not to make Tia sad ever again, and they’d seemed super duper happy for like, almost a whole year now. Seeing Tia so crushed that he was going away again made Sage wish they’d found her a totally new boy instead, and maybe later when Tia wasn’t so super sad she’d suggest some of the ones she’d been looking at for Vivi. Right now, though, she didn’t know whether they were supposed to be mad at Kai or not, and she wished Tia had given her more indication of whether she should be saying totally bad stuff about him to cheer her up or not. She settled for a middle ground as they got closer to their cottage, asking, “Did he like... ask you to go with him? You’d be like, such a cute internet famous girlfriend! Like Vanna White but like eight zillion times prettier?” She chews on her lip, hating the words even as she said them. Leaving would be stinky, right? Tia would totally miss her and Izzie more than she would miss Kai, she had to.
Tia stared blankly at Sage for a few seconds before realizing that her bestie was serious. "Of course not. I don't want to go with him. For starters, I can't swim so if I fell off the boat like that girl in the Zac Efron movie about ghosts, I'd be dead super fast. But mostly. As much as I love Kai and all, but I'd be such a wreck without Wes, you and Izzie around. That's part of why I made this one the forever break up. He'll always want to go somewhere new, while I'm happy where I am and I hate being left behind. How would that ever work in the long run?"
Sage nodded her head. "That's super fair; before I got to Walt, like, the deepest thing I ever went swimming in was a bath tub. And there were no sharks or seaweed or like, drowny stuff in those," Sage said, wrinkling her nose up. How could Kai like all of that stuff more than he liked Tia? It just didn't make sense to Sage, but if he was really gonezo then she wouldn't have to make sure everyone blacklisted him or anything. "I'm so sorry, T, but that sounds super smart and grown up of you. There are so many cute boys in this world that would pick you over the stinky old ocean every time, and we'll totes find them for you when you're un-sad enough." Sage reached out to squeeze Tia's hand, adding, "And hopefully his show will get like, 30 seasons so he can't come back and try to make your life all confusing again every time you start to be okay without him."
Tia let out part of a giggle despite her sadness thanks to Sage's reaction. "I just don't like messing my hair up and pool water makes blonde hair green and dulls highlights, so I never bothered." Once the girls arrived at their cottage, Tia unlocked the door and headed straight for her room, throwing herself onto the bed with only minimal regard to where Sage would fit next to her voluminous gown. "I knoooooooow there are. But Kai was the best of them! What if when I'm unsad I can't find anyone I liked even half as much. Walt is only so big and I already know most of the boys our age!" Tia frowned even harder at the idea that Kai ever coming back would make her life all confusing. Looking up from her pillow to glare at Sage, Tia snapped, "I could be perfectly okay with him if he ever came back after his show. I said this break up was for good and I mean what I say."
Sage didn't want to give Tia too much space in case she needed someone to hug her or play with her hair, so she leaned against the side of her bed, tentatively perched there while Tia sprawled. "I mean, we could like, go on a road trip? Walt doesn't have all the boys in the world," Sage said thoughtfully, although the whole world was like... kind of big and scary. She'd never really been anywhere but her own home and Tia's and Walt. She didn't know where to start to look, but Izzie would know, and the two of them could help Tia together. Right now, though, helping her was something Sage had to do all by herself, until Tia was ready to tell other people about her super awful prom night and her new super single status. "Yeah, but like, he might scare off your new boys if he like, tries to win you back, even if you don't want him! It seems like, super complicated to have exes around, but I can be your body guard or something." Sage reached out tentatively to squeeze Tia's shoulder. "Whatever happens, we'll totes get you through this together. But what do you want to do like... right now? Can I get you pizza?"
