(chapter one)

Sage bit the inside of her cheek when her hip hit the edge of a table, her hands holding the tray, full of dirty dishes as she maneuvered between the tables. The notepad inside the pocket of the apron hit her legs as she walked.

As she pushed the kitchen door open with her back, she could hear the shouting as one server called out the order to the cook. Sage put the tray down by the sink and gave the cleaner an encouraging look. And when she finally passed the doors again — fingers moving to untie her apron — her manager stopped in front of her.

"I need you on the servings," she started, and Sage blinked at the sudden appearance of the woman, and she gave her a half-guilty smile. "I know it's time for your lunch break, but Barbara is running late again."

Sage nodded weakly at the order. Today was payday, she wouldn't dare to say no, even if she wanted to, she just simply couldn't afford it.

It also wasn't like she had anything to eat during her break. Sage would always just pull out her phone, setting up a few alarms for fifty minutes later, then fall on a quick sleep to recover from the hours she had woken up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise in her house, just to find her mother a mess with a just as confused look in her face, and Sage sat her down, as they kept watching a show on the TV.

The blonde girl tightened the knot and walked over to one of the waiting tables, the fake cheerful tone in her voice and the fake smile plastered on her face. "Hello, can I take your orders?"

When her brown eyes lifted from the notepad in her hands, she almost dropped her smile. She could see the bleached blonde hair while Topper put down the menu, the freezing eyes of the oldest Cameron sibling glared at her frame. Kelce leaned back with his arms crossed.

"The service is slow today, you know?" Topper asked, and Sage gave them a fake apologetic smile, her jaw clenching as the words left through her teeth.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, we're short-staffed," she excused, and she could see Rafe rolling his eyes from her peripherical vision. "Do you already know what you're going to order?"

"I want a burger with salad and fries. Kelce wants an x-bacon also with fries on the side, two colas..." he started saying and Sage wrote it down, when they were done, the three of them — Sage, Topper, and Kelce — turned to Rafe.

"What about you?" She asked, and the boy shrugged and then shook a dismissive hand.

"Whatever he's having," he said with tired eyes, and Sage couldn't tell if he was out of it or just tired. "And a beer."

"I can't serve you beer-"

"I don't fucking care what you can or not, just give me what I'm ordering!" He snapped at her, and Sage had to hold back a flinch, giving a small nod and walking away as fast as she could.

What she didn't notice was the lingering eyes of the three on her.

"Sage's really hot, too bad she's a pogue," Topper said as he stared at her ass, then turned to his friends.

"I could tap that anyway," Kelce laughed, and Topper let out a laugh from his nose.

Rafe stared at the two for a few moments, until he leaned back on the chair, crossing his arms as his eyes followed her every move. Topper was right for the first time, her small frame moving around easily.

He could see the fake smile, the insults she held back behind the perfect girl picture she tried to portray. He wanted to push her buttons, to see how much she could take before finally exploding. Rafe wanted to see what was behind all of that in the worst way possible.

Maybe it all came back to why Karl Prescott lived in Figure 8 with his 10 years younger wife, traveling around the world while Sage had to work a full-time job during summer and part-time on school days at the country club, receiving minimum wage.

After writing and delivering all the meals, Sage could see Barbara coming through the doors in a rush as she tied her apron. The woman apologized to the young girl as she took over the service. With a sigh of relief, Sage walked away from the social area, moving over to one of the secluded rooms, so she could finally take her deserved nap.

She settled herself down with the bag she grabbed from her locker to use as a made-up pillow when her phone started ringing. Sage's blood ran cold as she stared at the caller, swallowing dry when she accepted the call.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded even more weak than she could imagine, biting unconsciously her thumbnail.

"Hello, Sage. This is Doctor Adler," the man's voice on the other side of the line sounded, it sounded almost sad. "I wish I could've just called to chat, but I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news."

Sage took an intake of air and closed her eyes, and the doctor opened the file sadly, knowing he couldn't exactly expect that the sixteen-year-old girl would respond, as he knew she was trying to hold back the incoming tears in her eyes.

"Your mother's exams came back after the last few sessions," he started, looking at the information in front of him. "After the brain scans and her other symptoms, we can conclude Kaitlyn has Sporadic Fatal Insomnia. It's a rare disease, and while it differs from the Familial Fatal Insomnia, they tend to have a few differences..."

Sage had bitten her thumbnail so hard that she felt the metallic taste of metal in her mouth. The only thing ringing in repeat in her head: Fatal.

"Is there any way we can treat that?" She asked shakily, and the Doctor sighed sadly.

"As the name offers, this disease has no cure. We don't know much about it, since it occurs without any known risk factors or gene mutations. And since no one in your family seemed to have any close symptoms of it, it doesn't seem to be hereditary. We can aim to make your mother feel more comfortable as the disease progresses and to potentially slow down the progression of the disease, with medications like anti-seizure drugs, and sedatives. But there's only this much we can do."

Doctor Adler looked at the phone screen once again to make sure the call was still connected. He couldn't hear a single breath from the other side of the line, but once again, he couldn't expect that the sixteen-year-old girl — the only family the woman had — would take that lightly.

There was no easy way to tell someone their mother would die, and even with that many years of being a doctor, he — or anyone else — couldn't do anything to save her.

"You can try to talk to your insurance plan to schedule the dates for the treatment, and you can call me anytime when you need any help or have questions about it," he continued, closing the file in front of him as he let his hand rest over it. "I am really sorry, Sage."

And with the lack of answer from the girl, he frowned, clicking on the red button on the screen, ending the call.

Sage kept holding the phone against her ear, her forehead on her knees as she tried to let the information sink in. The girl had known for the past few months that her mother's condition seemed to be getting worse by the second, but it wasn't until Kaitlyn found herself passed out on the street after leaving the house in the middle of the night for reasons she couldn't quite remember was when they both decided she had to see a doctor.

Kaitlyn Spencer's insomnia wasn't something new for either of them, most of the time the woman had problems even letting her erratic mind to stop working. No amount of sleeping pills or alcohol was enough to make her sleep.

The appointment and the exams already made their money run short, alongside the vitamins they had prescribed for her. They couldn't afford insurance, and now she was asking herself how would they even afford the bills of the treatment, mainly now that Kaitlyn was incapable of working, leaving Sage to be the only one to sustain their lives.

Sage felt like the room was closing around her. The air felt suffocating, and the world was spinning slowly around her. She got up, holding herself up with the tables as she made her way outside of the room.

But when she pushed the doors open, she wasn't welcomed with a breath of fresh air, but by the angry expression of Rafe Cameron, who had his jaw clenched.

"You may receive the minimum wage, so you could at least try to get the orders right," he said, his hand gripping the phone with his hand as he tried to keep his cool.

Sage blinked, her mind somewhere else as she stared at him with confusion across her face. "But you said whatever-"

"I was obviously talking about Topper, not Kelce. Are you so stupid you can't even get this right?" Rafe furrowed his eyebrows and stared her down.

Honestly, Sage didn't have in herself to argue with him, she just sighed, looking down as she tried to walk away from him, but his large hand wrapped around her forearm, pulling her back with force.

"Who you think you are to walk away from me?" Rafe asked, his grip tightening around her arm as she stared at him with wide eyes, his face so close to her face she could feel his hot breath. "I'm always wondering why they keep letting you people get in here."

"Let me go," she said through gritted teeth and he smirked, looking down at her arm as he pulled closer to his face, then looked back up to her eyes.

Sage could feel the malicious intent from behind the cold gaze as he was having fun with her. His thumb grazed her skin up and down twice, sending an anxious tingling over her arm and he licked his lips.

But before she could say anything else, someone called out Rafe's name and he let go rather forcefully, making her stumble backward. He flashed a smile to the person who was talking to him, then he turned to her once again.

"You just got saved from being fired," he said with almost a teasing tone in his voice. "Enjoy while you still can, pogue."

And he walked away, leaving Sage frozen still in her place, holding her arm close to her chest, and she was sure it would bruise from the force.

JJ walked out of the backdoors of the kitchen, apron around his waist as he threw the girl a questioning look.

"You okay?" He asked, hitting the notepad with the back of the pen a few times, and Sage could only nod back. JJ didn't believe her at all, he passed his hand through his hair as he walked closer. "Isn't your break time?"

"Yeah, but..." she trailed out the words, her hand half raised when she realized the boy's blue eyes were only focused on the mark of the hand on her skin. "I'll continue the shift now and see if I can leave one hour early-"

"What's that?" He tried to ask, but Sage turned to the side so he couldn't see it anymore.

"I burned on the pan earlier," she lied and JJ kept staring at her. He knew a lie like that better than anyone, half of it because Sage wasn't a good liar. She never was.

But mainly because he had perfected the excuses for his injuries many years ago. And because of that, JJ knew better than to ask, he would eventually try to talk to her, and if that didn't work either, he would leave it to Pope to handle it. His eyes widened a little as he remembered.

"Pope, Kie, JB, and I will catch some waves after the shift, if you wait a little I can give you a ride," he offered, and the girl could only shake her head.

"I have to be home early today," she excused again, and JJ frowned at another lie. "Rain check?"

"Sure," he nodded reluctantly as he started to walk away. It was his shift after all.

Sage had to stay only another hour as she grabbed her things as fast as she could, trying to avoid anyone on her way out. The walk to her house was dreadful, and she kept hoping no one would stop and try to talk to her because she felt now that if anyone did, she would just break down crying.

She also couldn't afford that. She needed to be strong to her mom, mainly now.

Hello, everyone...

I know I took way too long to post this, and honestly I'm not sure what to think of it still.

That's chapter one! Tell me what you think and what you expect to happen!

And yes, I am using this disease because I never seen anyone actually using (aside from one old Haikyuu fic I read in 2020).

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