Page 31 of Love Legacy

Alex looks up to see me coming into the clearing. “Hey, it’s Sage, and she brought my roommate with her. Hey, Naomi.”

“And food!” Stephanie chimes in, reaching out for the boxes of tacos in our hands. I laugh, placing one of the boxes and trays of drinks in front of them and placing the other box and tray next to Raven and Chase. “You guys couldn’t even wait. You got started without me.”

“You were taking too long. But now I see why. You had to stop to pick up your girlfriend,” Chase says jokingly, sitting up to grab a drink and passing it to Raven. She shushes him. “You’re not supposed to know about that.”

“Guys! They’re not together,” Alex says, grabbing a taco.

“Not yet anyway,” she mutters under her breath to Stephanie, the two laughing maniacally.

I roll my eyes, knowing that they’re just poking fun at us. “Ha, ha, you two are grade-A comedians.” I lay down on the blanket with Raven and Chase, rolling onto my side. “Come sit, Naomi,” I say, digging through my purse until I find my goods—a preroll, my pen, and a small baggie of peach ring edibles—laying them out on the blanket next to me. “You said you were considering trying it out? Take your pick. I’d recommend the gummies though, for you.”

Naomi kneels on the blanket next to me, surveying my spread. She grabs the peach rings, sizing them up. “Peach rings, huh?”she says with a smile, taking one of the rings and popping it in her mouth.

“Of course, peach rings for my Georgia Peach,” I say with a wink. “They just happen to be my favorite candy.” She blushes, chewing the candy. “So, how many of these am I supposed to take?” she asks, popping another into her mouth. I take the bag from her. “Whoa, slow down. Let’s just see how you feel in a few minutes, okay?”

She shrugs. “Okay.” Naomi grabs a soft taco from the box, unwrapping it and putting a little fire sauce on it. I take my pre-roll and put the filtered end between my lips, holding a hand out toward Raven.

“When will you bring your own lighter, Sage?” she asks, handing it to me.

“When you stop letting me borrow yours.” I light the joint, taking a hit and holding it in for a few seconds before exhaling and tossing the lighter back to her.

After some time and quite a few more hits, I finished my joint, and the high had fully set in. Naomi took another peach gummy and she was fully feeling her high as well. We were laying on our backs on the blanket, our shoulders pressed against each other. Raven and Naomi were going back and forth about their Global Strategy professor, cracking jokes about his awful hair piece and laughing up a storm.

“How ya feeling over there, Naomi?” Alex asks. She stopped smoking a little bit ago. While she did have a work shift tonight, she likely stopped because she wanted to make sure that her roommate was okay.

“I feel like I’m floating, but my arms and legs feel so heavy,” Naomi answers slowly, carefully choosing her words.

I chuckle, rolling my head over to look at Naomi. “She’s high as a kite.”

Naomi looks over at me, grinning wide. “I should have tried this stuff ages ago,” she says, scooting a little closer to me. Her arm extends out, pinky brushing against mine. I return the gesture before looking back up at the sky, spacing out and fully relaxing. A hand grabs mine, interlacing their fingers with mine. It brings my attention back to the present, and I look down to see that it is Naomi’s hand holding mine. “Yeah?” I say, looking over to see her staring at me. She nods, biting her lip and scooting even closer to me.

I gave Naomi’s hand a squeeze, pulling her right against my side. She rolls over onto her side, resting her head on my shoulder, nuzzling in close. “So you’re a cuddler when you’re high? Good to know,” I say softly, burying my nose in her hair.God, I love that scent.

“Thanks. It’s my curl cream.” Naomi giggles.Whoops,didn’t realize I said that one out loud. I move my arm, releasing Naomi’s hand so I can wrap my arm around her back. She wraps her arms around my middle, throwing a leg over mine.

“Aww, don’t you two look cozy.” Stephanie stands over us, snapping a photo with her phone. Naomi buries her face in my shoulder, blushing profusely from embarrassment. “You’re going to thank me for this later. Down the line, when you guys get married, you’ll have a photo from the very beginning,” she says, typing a few things on her phone.

My phone and Naomi’s ping at the same time, indicating a text, and I pull out my phone with my free hand to check it. Stephanie sent the photo she took to both of us.I love it. I have my hand up, shielding my squinted eyes and grinning, and my other splays across Naomi’s lower back. Her body is completely curled into mine, a wide, lazy smile across her face as she looks up at me.

It’s a perfect photo. One that shows us effortlessly happy together. Sure, it’s fueled by marijuana, but it’s raw, and I wantto bottle these feelings to save for later. I set the photo as my lock screen background before putting my phone away again.

Stephanie, Alex, and Noah gathered their things. “You guys are leaving?” Raven asks.

“Yeah, Alex has work, Noah has a workout, and they’re my ride back to the sorority house, and I have homework to do for my nine AM,” Stephanie responds, grabbing some of the leftover tacos. “Brain fuel.”

Alex waves at us as she heads back toward the parking lot. “Don’t stay out too late, you lovebirds. I’ll see you back at the apartment, Naomi.” She waves back lazily, not moving from her position draped on top of me.

Raven checks her watch. “Shoot, Chase, we have to get going too. We have that study group for econ in an hour,” she says, tapping him on the shoulder to wake him up. He had fallen asleep maybe an hour ago, napping in his girlfriend’s lap peacefully.

Chase takes the signal, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “What? Is it time to go?”

“Yeah, we have work to do, dude.” Raven stands, collecting her garbage and belongings, leaving the blanket with us. “You two going to be okay out here by yourselves?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine. See you guys later,” I say as they take off, leaving Naomi and me alone in the clearing. It’s five in the afternoon, so we have some daylight for an hour or two more. “Do you want to leave too?”

Naomi shakes her head, propping herself on her elbow. “Not yet. I like it out here. And with you,” she says softly, giving me a smile.

One-on-one time with Naomi, and she’s not itching to leave right away?I’ll take it.