Loose by Coo Sweet Page B

Karma’s a bitch, baby. You can’t play with a master like me and get away with it.” Peyton grinned to himself as he checked out his reflection again. “I’m so glad he got hemmed up and not me.” 
     
    “Uh, huh. Thought you didn’t worry about stuff like that? You know you dodged a bullet this time. Don’t expect it to always be like that,” Sage said. 
     
    “Oh, I don’t worry about it. Trust me. But I also don’t like unnecessary drama. Matter of fact…you could take a tip from me on that one,” said Peyton, lighting jabbing Sage in the arm. 
     
    Sage creased his brow. Focused on his driving.
     
    Okay, here we go, might as well get this over with, he thought. 
     
    “What do you mean?” Sage asked. 
     
    At first Peyton leveled him with one raised eyebrow. Then he aimed and fired a straight shot. 
    “You know exactly what I mean. What’s the deal with you asking Raven to go to the game? Thought you said she was a psycho, such a big pain in your ass.” 
     
    Sage measured his words carefully before he answered. 
     
    “Yeah, I know. She was a pain in the beginning, but we’ve been talking. She’s really not so bad. People just get the wrong impression because she’s a little rough around the edges.”
     
    Peyton turned to face Sage. He cupped a hand over his mouth. His eyes lit up as he read between the lines of Sage’s admission. 
     
    “Damn, man! How many times you hit that? She got you caught up like this already?” Peyton gushed. 
     
    Sage tried to temper his friend’s excitement with a nonchalant flap of his wrist. 
     
    “Naww. It’s not like that. I’m just saying there’s more to her than what you see,” Sage explained. 
     
    Peyton hit him with a smug smile. 
     
    “Right,” Peyton drawled. “She’s got that deep shit going on, huh? And that’s what attracted you to her? Okay, I feel you.” 
     
    Sage sighed, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You being such a player and all.”
     
    “Oooo…ouch,” Peyton actually looked hurt. “So you’re saying I’m not capable of real feelings, man? That what you think of me. Like I don’t have a heart or something?” 
     
    Sage took his eyes off the road for a second. Glanced at Peyton to see if he was really serious.
     
    He was. 
     
    Sage immediately felt bad. He softened a little. 
     
    “No, man. I’m not saying that at all. But you’re the one who’s always preaching about keeping things loose…not getting too serious. Wanting to be casual about your dealings with the ladies. Am I lying?” said Sage. 
     
    “Nope. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand you falling for her, Sage. Believe it or not, I do know what it’s like to long for somebody.” 
     
    Peyton’s voice almost cracked. He faced forward and crossed his arms over his chest. 
     
    Now Sage melted. 
     
    “Hey…I’m sorry. Okay? That’s not how I meant it,” Sage said. “We cool?” 
     
    Peyton wouldn’t look at him. He didn’t want to risk having Sage see the sadness in his eyes.
     
    “Yeah. We’re cool,” he said softly. 
     
    The gym vibrated with noise from true fans of the game of basketball. It also crackled with the electricity from true fans of the game of hooking up, and no one repped that time honored tradition better than Peyton. 
     
    Still showing signs that he felt the sting from their earlier conversation, Peyton turned down Sage’s offer of conciliatory refreshments. Instead, he went off to try his luck with not one, but a pair of cuties from the opposing team’s side. The girls had caught his eye, and ear, when he overheard them complaining about the lack of “nice asses” on their school’s basketball roster. 
     
    While Peyton was off fulfilling his duty to lonely-hearted teen girls of America, Sage sat next to Raven and squirmed on the bleachers. He couldn’t keep his leg from bouncing, and his neck might as well have been on a swivel the way he kept swinging it around to