Only You - [Lip Gallagher]

crossroads

"You ready?" Lip says to Carl as we stand outside the bus that is going to haul my baby to military school. "No, but I'm going. I need some direction. I'm not good at school. Not good at sports and I definitely don't wanna be back on the corner." Carl says to us, "One thing I do know is that I can take a punch and hit harder back. Hopefully I can put that to some use." He sounds like a grown man, I can't handle this. "I can't believe you're actually going." I say to Carl as I hold his sweet face, "You're gonna do great." I then hug him tightly, "Call me, email me anytime." I say. "Don't make us come down there and embarrass the hell out of you." Fiona says, pulling him into a hug. Debbie and Lip pull him into a hug right after, not saying anything. Carl then looks at me on the verge of tears and hugs me again, "I'm gonna be fine." He says to me and I nod, "I know, I'm just gonna miss you." I sniffle and he wipes my tears, "Thank you for everything." He says before getting on the bus. I can't believe our roles were reversed, he comforted me. He's getting so grown up. I'm gonna miss him so much.

As we all walk away from the bus terminal, I hear Lip's footsteps jogging behind me, "Hey." He says, "Hi." I say with my arms folded in front of my chest. "No car tonight?" He asks, "No, I haven't walked in a while. Felt like I needed to." I explain. "We haven't walked together since what high school?" Lip tried to carry on the conversation, "What do you want, Lip?" "Why can you just act like we never loved each other?" He questions, "Are you serious?" I laugh in disbelief. "You don't even talk to me anymore!" He raises his tone, "Lip, what the fuck is there to talk about? We don't need to talk about anything! We aren't together, we're over. We dated in high school and a little bit into college and that whole time I was getting cheated on." I ramble. "Sadie," "No, Lip. Save it. Save your bullshit speeches. I have a busy day tomorrow and Carl just left for god knows how long, leave me alone." I say and he nods, "Sorry." He says quietly before walking the other way.

I hate that is has to be like this; so cold and hostile. I just want to hug him and him tell me everything will be okay again. I need him.

++

I hear the sound of a dog collar behind me as I stuff my duffel bag with clothes, "What the hell?" I mumble, "Ian?" I call out, "No, just me." Lip says coming out of his original room, "Oh." I say, zipping up my duffel bag, "What's with the bag?" He asks, putting on a shirt, "Moving into my dorm today. Senior year." I say and he nods, "Shit, already?" He asks and I nod, "Took extra classes to finish faster. We should've been graduating next year but instead I'm finishing this year. What's with the dog?" "Boss' dog, taking care of it until she gets out of prison." He says, picking the Pomeranian up. "Good luck." I chuckle as I walk downstairs. "Yo." Ian greets as he walks through the back door, Trevor following close behind, "Hi." I greet with a smile and a quick side hug to both boys, "Hey, what up?" Lip greets shortly after, "This is my brother Lip and his little dog too." Ian teases since Lip is clutching a tiny dog like a boujie girl. I giggle at the sight, "How's it going?" Lip shakes Trevor's hand, "You get rid of the dude with the lady parts?" Lip asks innocently, "Lip!" I exclaim and slap his arm, "Wow." Trevor says and I nod towards him, "Oh, shit." Lip says, "Wow." Lip compliments and I roll my eyes, "You are so annoying." I complain, "It's just you would've never known!" Lip tries to defend his case. "You don't say that type of shit. Trevor, I'm sorry for him." I apologize, "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean anything by it." Lip apologizes, "It's fine, I'm teaching him and maybe he or Sadie can teach you too." Trevor smiles and Ian guides him upstairs. "How do you know so much about it?" Lip asks me, "It's called being a decent human being and letting people feel how they want and use whatever pronouns they feel fit. Maybe yours should be dick/head." I snark as I push past him to go to school. "Have a good day." He calls out, "Yup." I say not breaking my stride.

++

"Hey, need a hand?" A tall boy comes up to me as I load each of my arms with bags, "Uh, no I should be fine thank you." I lie, the circulation in my arms is completely cut off. "Are you sure?" He chuckles, opening the building door for me, "Yeah, I'm just on the third floor it's fine." "Elevators are off today." He informs me, taking all my bags from my arms and slinging them over his shoulder with no struggle, "Okay then." I say, slightly amazed, leading the way up three flights of stairs to my dorm. "You know this can totally be a set up for you to later stalk me all semester?" I make small talk and he laughs, "Why stalk you when I can take you on a date tonight?" I charms me with his green eyes and pretty smile, "I don't even know your name." I point out as I unlock my room, revealing two beds instead of my usual one; a roomie? Great. "Parker. Parker Hayes." He introduces, "Sadie Mitchell." I smile at him and he points to the dorm across the hall, "I'm right there." "Really!?" I exclaim and he nods, "This building is coed floors for juniors and seniors. I'm a senior." He explains, "I'm technically a junior but I took accelerated programs and extra classes to finish a year early so kinda sorta senior." I explain and he nods, "Pretty and smart? Don't get many of those around here even though it's a college there's so many delinquents, you'd think they'd be left in high school days but they somehow follow you here." He chuckles, "Psychology major?" I chuckle, admiring his body language, "How'd you know?" He's surprised, "Lucky guess." I giggle, "Guess mine." I engage in the conversation, "Early education?" He guesses the most cliche girl answer, "Wrong, so so wrong." I laugh, "I'll give you a hint, I'm double majoring." I say and his eyes widen, "Wow, extra smart." He says, sitting down on my unmade bed, "Uh, Nursing and Psychology? No I would've seen you in major classes, uh Psychiatry?" "Wrong." I say, hopping up on the bed next to him. "I give up, tell me." He says, looking into my eyes; oh god I'm weak. "Law and Forensics." "Oh she's really smart!" He teases making me giggle, "Where are you from?" He asks, "South side." his eyebrows furrow, "A smart girl from south side? Never heard of it." "What can I say? I'm one of a kind." I tease, "You definietly are, Sadie Mitchell." He says, still gazing into my eyes; he needs to stop. "Where are you from?" "Oh, some small town in Illinois. Galesburg." "I've never heard of it." I laugh, "Yeah, population is like twenty nine thousand. Care to show me around Chicago?" He asks, "Well on this date tonight, I can take you to my favorite bowling alley in South side." I offer, "I'll pick you up at 6, is that okay?" He asks, getting off my bed and backing towards the door, "Sounds good, see you then." I smile, "Bye." He says softly as he closes my door behind him.

I lay back on my bed, this day could not get any better. Suddenly I hear a knock at my door, I furrow my eyebrows and hurry over to answer it, "Hello?" I ask the older woman standing in front of my door, "Hi, Sadie Mitchell?" "Yes." "Hi, so it looks like your roommate has moved to another building so you will have a vacant dorm. Is that okay or would you like someone placed?" "No, vacant is perfectly fine. Thank you so much." I say and she walks away. I lied, this day can get better. No roomie, hot neighbor who seems really nice and already asked me on a date. Oh yeah, juninor/senior year is going to be great.

++

"You're a really great bowler." Parker teases as he sits on the chairs, watching me go for my turn, "Oh yeah, so good." I chuckle, "I'm serious!" He exclaims, "Yeah, says my 60 score and your 102 score." "Hey, I said you were good not better than me." I teases, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Jerk." I chuckle and just as I go to grab my ball I see something that makes my heart shatter; Lip and Sierra on a date in the arcade. "You okay?" Parker asks, "Yeah, I thought I seen something." I say, shaking my head and waving it off, trying my best to ignore the situation going on behind us.

++

"That was such an amazing game." Parker says as we return our shoes "Yeah, amazing." I roll my eyes, "Don't be a sore loser." He gently tickles my sides making me laugh, "Let's go take a picture to remember this date." Parker suggests, nodding towards the photobooth in the arcade, "Oh, I don't know." I say knowing Lip could still be over there. "Yes, come on." He says, pulling me over to it gently. Just as he goes to open the curtain my worst nightmare happens; Lip comes out, pulling up his pants. I'm frozen as we stare at each other, "Lip you coming?" Sierra calls for him, "Sorry man, didn't mean to interrupt you." Parker apologizes and Lip looks at him sharply then walks away towards Sierra. "Bold of them to do it in a photobooth." Parker mumbles followed by a chuckle, "Yeah, bold." I say, looking at them walk away, Lip keeps looking back I can't believe this just happened. No way this just happened.