Loose by Coo Sweet Read Free Book Online Page B

phones?" 
     
    Sage was transfixed. Eyes peeled wide, mouth hanging open, you’d have thought he’d just seen a ghost. Peyton hit him with a sharp elbow to the ribs. Real sharp. That broke the spell. Sage leaped up. 
     
    "Hey. What’s up? Come on, I'll show you. My name is Sage, by the way, and this sorry specimen of a man here is Peyton." 
     
    Jasmin hid a smirk behind her hand. Peyton shot Sage a dirty look. 
     
    “Nice to meet you. I’m Jasmin. Thanks for offering to show me where the phones are.” 
    She stuck her hand out. Sage grabbed it like Jasmin was rescuing him from a pit of quicksand.
     
    Peyton rolled his eyes. Such an amateur he thought. 
     
    Raven sat in the school health center. Her eyes roved across a form she was preparing to sign. The heading read, Statement of Confidentiality, Students' Rights. Pen poised in mid-air, she got distracted when Sage glided by, with Jasmin at his side. Raven ducked away before he spotted her. She lanced Jasmin with a laser-beam glint from her blazing eyes. 
     
    Sage and Jasmin lolled near the phone in the lobby of the school office. With his unwavering gaze, and her innocent brush of fingertips on his arm, it was obvious they were feeling each other. 
     
    "So, you like it here?" Jasmin asked. 
     
    "A lot better now that my dad's not the principal anymore." 
     
    "Whoa. What was that like?" 
     
    "Umm, bit my tongue a lot. Watched my back," said Sage.
     
    "Didn't want to land in the principal's office, huh?" 
     
    Jasmin chuckled at her own joke. Sage smiled, but it was more to humor her than anything else. He’d heard that joke plenty of times. 
     
    "Not so much that. Folks used to clown me. Call me stuck up. That kind of stuff.”
     
    "So, were you?" 
     
    "Nawwww. Come on now. You know me better than that," Sage blurted. 
     
    Jasmin screwed her face up. Translation--excuse me, but we just met, I don’t know anything about you. 
     
    They both squirmed under the weight of Sage’s awkward slip of the tongue. 
     
    "I mean people misread things," Sage corrected himself. 
     
    "True. I could see that happening," Jasmin agreed, checking her watch to keep from making too much eye contact with him. 
     
    "Um…I better head to class. First day and all. Don't want to get lost and walk in late. Thanks for your help, Sage." 
     
    Sage seriously wished he could kick himself in the ass. 
     
    "No problem. See you around?" he asked, with a tad too much desperation in his voice. 
     
    "Umm…sure. See you." 
     
    Jasmin turned in one direction. Sage turned in another. Backward…right smack into Raven. The fire in her eyes burned hot enough to incinerate bone. She shoved Sage so hard it shook his balance. 
     
    "Hey! What’s your problem, girl?" Sage protested. 
     
    "You bumped into me," said Raven. 
     
    Jasmin stood at the fringes of their stand-off. Raven zeroed in on her like she was fresh prey, and just when Raven started to swoop in for the kill, Sage muscled his way between them. 
     
    "Move out of my way," Raven growled. 
    Sage didn't budge.
    Raven pummeled his chest with her fists. He tried to grab her wrists, but she was too quick. Raven slashed him on the arm with her fingernail. Before she had a chance to do more damage, the bell for class and the sudden appearance of a hall monitor stalled the skirmish. The trio scattered before security had a chance to get in anyone’s face.   

Chapter 7
    Sage walked into his next class. He was surprised to see Jasmin in the first row. He slipped into a seat next to her. In the process, he exposed the welt on his arm where Raven had clawed him. Jasmin pointed to it. 
    "You should put something on that," she said. 
     
    "It's nothing. I’ll be fine." 
     
    "No, seriously. You never know where a person's hands have been. It could get infected."
     
    Sage grinned inside at her show of concern. 
     
    "What, you want to be a doctor or something?" 
     
    "Yeah…actually I do. I’m going