42. Break Her Heart Again

Sage

S age looked towards Stassi. It’d been three weeks, and Stassi had gotten to the point where she wouldn’t even look in her direction. Every time Stassi crossed the picket line, it crushed Sage’s soul. It felt like every bone in her body had been smashed with a grinder, and she could only watch it all go down.

“Earth to Sage!”

Sage turned and saw Lena crossing her arms. She had a scowl on her face and started tapping her foot. “Thinking and wishing again?” Lena asked.

Sage shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been working. It’s all I’ve been doing over the past few weeks. Making sure this is the best picket line one could possibly have. You heard what the news station said yesterday. We’re making a difference, and the hospital will have no choice but to give in to all of our wishes and desires.”

“And you now sound like a politician.”

Sage rolled her eyes at Lena. She did find it difficult not to think about Stassi. But when she was working on organizing the strike, it felt like things weren’t quite as hard to overcome. Seeing Stassi cross the line was always going to be difficult. It was just something she had to force herself to get through.

But as the days turned into weeks, and the support continued to flourish around them, she could hold her chin a little higher and try to put Stassi on the back burner of her mind. She grabbed a few signs as more employees came in to join the line. She handed them off, and they joined in marching to the imaginary music. Stassi slowly faded from her mind.

Two hours into the day, Wyatt approached the line. He had been steering clear of Marcus, or so it seemed. He was probably embarrassed that Trent came back in, swooping in with a proposal that Marcus couldn’t refuse.

“Hey, Wyatt.” Marcus stopped marching, hesitating as he suddenly appeared nervous.

“So, I know I’m only an intern, but some shady stuff is going on in the hospital. You can truly trust no one, and I just feel like there’s more use I could do out here. I also have a few reinforcements that could run and get you guys lunch, or just join in the line. Admin needs to do something to fix this because this shit is seriously broken.”

Marcus glanced over to Sage, and Sage tossed him a sign. “We’d be happy to have you.”

Over the past three weeks, that’s how things seemed to progress. One by one, more and more people heard the impact they were having on one another and wanted to join the brigade. And even the patients started showing support. That was one thing that Sage worried most about. If they didn’t get the care they needed, then some of these patients wouldn’t make it. But they weren’t sad that they felt abandoned. They were all at peace with it.

It would have made everything feel worth it—except for one part that was the hardest to grasp. Sage's emergency fund was fading fast. She feared that she would be forced to go back to work if she couldn’t resolve the strike. Legally, they couldn’t fire them, but Sage didn’t want to be the first employee to go back in, crawling back for her job. And that worried her more than most things did.

At lunchtime, Sage grabbed a water and a bag of chips and just went to find a quiet spot to sit, hoping she would be alone. However, she wasn’t there by herself for too long before Lena joined her. “Room for one more?” she asked. Sage gave a slight nod, not willing to lose her friendship over wanting some alone time.

Lena sighed and took a sip of her water. “You seem quiet. I mean, more so than usual.”

“Just a lot on my mind.” Sage popped a chip into her mouth. A lot that didn’t depend on confiding it all over a light snack. “Wonder how much longer this will go on. I guess I thought maybe we’d have someone reaching out to us. I don’t know…Noah, or Martin Hewitt, someone.” She shrugged and took another chip in her hand.

“You mean Stassi’s father?” Lena rolled her eyes. She regretted telling Lena that news, as Lena had yet to let go of it. “I just can’t believe Stassi would keep something like that from you. You were supposed to be lovers and tell each other everything. Stassi didn’t seem like the person that could hide such big news. It goes to show that you don’t know who you were dealing with.”

“Stassi is a good person,” Sage snapped. She bit her tongue and looked down at her water bottle. One more outburst, and it would appear that Sage was more lost than she wanted to appear.

“Good person or not,” Lena began. “She should have told you.”

Sage looked back up and met Lena’s gaze. “I can almost understand why she didn’t. Sure, it would have been less of a blow if I had learned sooner, but I get it. It’d be hard to confide in something so big. Especially if since she didn’t know how I would respond.”

“She knew. Which is why she kept it from you.”

Sage stood up from the cement flower bed. “Is there a point to this? If not, we should get back to work.”

“Don’t be angry, Sage, I’m trying to help you out here. I know that you loved her.” Sage looked down at her hands that were twitching around the water bottle. “You can’t close your heart to a new love. It’s out there and ready for you to reach for it whenever you want.”

Sage shook her head and looked up to meet Lena’s gaze. “I’ll remember that, but you remember that it’s only been a few weeks. Not nearly enough time to grieve.” She turned on her heel and stepped away from her best friend. Especially, when she was still fighting the urge to go to Stassi. She missed her and wanted to feel the excitement they shared together. Nothing was going to suddenly take that away.