Chapter 05 | It's One Of My Best Qualities
"One day you're going to meet a boy, who treats you the way you deserve to be treated." ― 17 Again.
“Hey, Sawyer, are you sure you’re gonna be alright here by yourself all night while Brett and I are gone?” Beckett randomly asks me two nights later, on the night of Halloween, as he bursts into my bedroom. Without knocking, I might add, which he knows annoys the life out of me. People just walking into my bedroom uninvited, I mean. Granted, whenever Aspen, Sienna and / or Piper come over, they just walk right on in and I usually don’t mind. On the other hand though, they never actually inform me that they’re coming over to my house. I mean, yeah, they usually call but sometimes they just don’t and being that I otherwise have no social life, I don’t mind.
“Yeah, Beckett,” I exasperatedly sigh, assuring my abnormally overprotective brother for the umpteenth time that I will be just fine without him and his slightly weird new friend here tonight. “I told you that already,” I remind him, leaning forward in my bed and tapping the spacebar on my laptop, effectively pausing the episode of The Office that I’m watching and look over at him. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of the show or anything, it’s just that there is only two seasons of New Girl on Netflix and I’ve already watched them both. Steve Carell is pretty funny too, I guess, so that makes watching the show somewhat bearable.
“I’m just making sure,” He says, putting his hands up in surrender. “Anyway, Brett and I have to get going because we gotta help the guys at the frat house set up,” Beckett explains, walking over to my bed and leaning down, kissing the top of my head. “There’s a bowl of candy downstairs in the kitchen, so you can give it out to the trick-or-treaters or you can turn all of the lights out, pretend you’re asleep and eat it all, whatever you want, just don’t eat it all at once,” He warns. “And you do know that I’m only gonna be fifteen minutes away, so if you need me for anything, just call and I’ll be here, yeah?” Beckett adds.
“You do know that I’m seventeen and not seven, right?” I ask my older brother, raising my eyebrows at him suspiciously.
“Yes, I know that but you’re also my little sister and I’m always gonna worry about you. Especially after the Flynn stuff,” He says.
“Lucky me,” I sarcastically murmur, plugging my earbuds into my laptop, about to insert them into my ears and resume my show.
“I’ll see you later, baby sister,” Beckett chuckles before turning to walk out of my room, leaving the door open, which I just hate.
“Yeah, yeah, okay, adult brother,” I call after him as I put my earbuds in and hit play on the show.
As annoyed as I seem by my older brother and his protectiveness over me, I’m actually really grateful for it. Mostly because I know that he only wants to be certain that nothing like what happened last year ever happens again, which totally makes sense, seeing as how he’s convinced that the entire ordeal was his fault. Obviously, it wasn’t and I’ve told him that several times but he’s intent on believing otherwise.
To be a twenty-one year old guy, he’s actually very stubborn, Beckett is, so I’ve stopped trying to prove him wrong. I mean, it’s not like he knew what was going to happen that night when he invited me to that party that he and Flynn were going to. Neither of us had any idea, except for maybe Flynn but after that night, I didn’t speak to him anymore until his arraignment in court, which was about three weeks after the party.
Anyway, even though I do sometimes act like I’m irritated by my brother when he’s being overprotective, I’m usually not because I know that I’m lucky to have a brother who cares so much. I could have someone like Sienna’s brother, Tommy, and that would probably be the worst thing ever. Actually, there’s no probably.
Downstairs, I hear Brett and Beckett talking and then shortly thereafter, the front door opens and closes and I assume that they’re gone after that. Seconds later, Beckett’s car roars to life beneath my floor, making me jump a little bit like it does every time.
Beckett has a Hummer and he’s childish and likes to rev the engine, so it’s already a pretty loud car. The fact that the way our house is built places my bedroom literally right over the garage doesn’t help that at all. I guess on the bright side though, if I was a normal teenage girl, you know, one that goes to wild parties and tries to sneak back in after curfew, I could totally get in with ease.
Speaking of parties, as I’m sure you can tell, I wasn’t kidding about not going to Graham Cambridge’s. If he’d have known about what I went through the last time that I went to a party, surely he wouldn’t have asked me to come in the first place. I’m actually surprised that he doesn’t know about it, because it was literally all over the news once it first got out. Granted, Graham doesn’t really look like the type of guy that sits up and watches the news or reads the newspaper or anything remotely adult-y like that.
I lie there in my bed for another hour and a half or so, watching season five of The Office on Netflix before my iPhone so rudely interrupts me, ringing out loudly from across my bedroom in my bag. I contemplate ignoring it but then I decide to get out of my bed and go get it when I realize that it might be my mother.
She’s in California right now, my mom is and considering the fact that we live in Massachusetts, she’s on the other side of the country. She left yesterday and she’s coming back this weekend though, so it’s not like she’s some absentee mother or anything—most of her CEO work related stuff does happen here in Andover, it’s just that there’s the occasional business trip out of state. When I fish my phone out of my bag, I realize that it’s Sienna, not my mom and answer it, going back over to my bed.
“Hi Sienna,” I greet my friend, running my fingers through my messy hair.
“Hey Sawyer,” Sienna chimes. “Are you ready yet?” She randomly wonders.
“Ready?” I echo, crinkling my forehead in slight confusion. “Ready for what?” I ask, trying to remember if we made plans to hang out tonight or something, even though I’m slightly positive that we didn’t. My mother is pretty strict and paranoid about that kind of stuff, me going out with my friends.
So strict and paranoid that whenever I do, she calls at least three times and hour and she basically forbids me from going out on school nights. She wasn’t always that way though, only after the Flynn thing did she start being all weirdly overprotective, which I guess I can understand.
Anyway, today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday, so I’m sure I didn’t make any plans to hang out with the girls tonight. Granted, like I said, my mom is out of the state, so it’s not like she would know, but I’d still be feeling really guilty for breaking her rules.
“Graham’s Halloween Party, that’s what, silly,” Sienna replies. “He said it starts at 9:00 but it’s already 9 and he lives across town.”
“Okay, but what exactly makes you think I’m going to Graham Cambridge’s Halloween Party?” I ask my friend curiously with a sigh.
“He told me that you promised him that you’d go, that’s what makes me think you’re going,” She matter-of-factly explains then.
“Oh, yeah,” I respond, having temporarily forgotten that the two of them are friends. “Well, you know, I actually can’t make it.”
“Oh? And why exactly is that?” Sienna queries suspiciously and I can tell that she’s not actually about to buy my falsified excuse.
“Um, because I’m…sick,” I lamely lie. “I have no idea what’s wrong with me, I just feel so, so awful,” I add, throwing in a cough.
“But you were fine at school a few hours ago, weren’t you?” She questions and I inaudibly groan, seeing my lie start to collapse.
“Nope,” I reply, continuing on with my lie. “I was feel pretty terrible then too, I was just trying to make it through the day,” I say.
“Sure,” Sienna appeases me then. “Are you sure you’re not just lying in your bed watching that dumb show on Netflix though?”
“No, of course not,” I deny with a scoff. “That’s definitely not what I’m doing. Why would you even think that?” I ask her then.
“Because I can see you, dummy,” She replies and I hear her voice behind me then, so I roll over in my bed and see her standing in the doorway, holding a huge duffel bag on her shoulder with a smug grin on her face. “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Sienna accuses in a singsong voice before hanging her phone up and walking into my bedroom.
“Did you just break into my house?” I ask, raising my eyebrows at my weird friend as I hang my own phone up and set it down.
“You guys should really keep your spare house key in some place other than the only potted plant on your porch,” Piper says suddenly, interjecting into the conversation as she waltzes into my room, holding a huge duffel bag just like the one Sienna has.
“Yeah, I’ll be sure to pass that message along to my mother,” I sarcastically reply. “Anyway, what’re you guys doing here?” I wonder, taking my earbuds out of my laptop and then proceeding to close my laptop down once I realize that thanks to my stupidly persistent best friends, I most likely won’t be able to finish the season of The Office that I’m on, which is really tragic because I’m only two episodes away from the season finale.
“We’re here to help you get ready for the party, obviously,” Piper explains chirpily.
“I don’t want to go to Graham’s party,” I groan loudly, falling back onto my bed into my plethora of pillows.
“Well, you should have told him no when he asked you,” Sienna responds. “He’s really looking forward to seeing you,” She adds.
“You know, somehow, I seriously doubt that,” I reply, shaking my head and rolling my eyes as I put a pillow over my face and sigh.
“Well, you shouldn’t be doubting it because he literally told me that,” Sienna replies. “You can even check the texts if you wanna,” She assures me, tossing her iPhone at me and it lands right on top of the pillow that I’m using in an attempt to smother myself. Not really though, obviously. I contemplate actually doing it but then decide against it because if I do look for verification, it’ll make me look like I actually care what Graham Cambridge wants or says or whatever, which I clearly don’t, considering the fact that we’re not even friends or anything, really, aside from two people who share a few classes and just so happen to be friends with Sienna.
I get an idea then—a brilliant idea, I might add—and then pull the pillow away from my face, grabbing Sienna’s phone. I put in her passcode—it’s just 4444 and I don’t know why that is, but it is. After I’m granted access into her iPhone, I go to the contacts and scroll down to the ‘R’, where I find Tommy Richards’ name listed. Like I said, Sienna never made peace with her big brother and I can tell that she doesn’t plan to any time soon but if she wants me to go to this party, well, she’s gonna have to sacrifice her pride.
“Are you actually reading the texts?” Piper asks with a laugh as she walks over to my closet, pulls it open and weaves through it.
“No, that’s not what I’m doing at all,” I truthfully deny as I hit the icon to dial Tommy’s number and put the phone up to my ear.
“Well, whatever you’re doing, hurry it up because need to be leaving here by like, 10 o’clock,” Sienna informs me as she starts to empty out her duffel bag onto my bed. From the bag falls a bunch of different types of make-ups, bottles of various perfumes, bottles of hair spray stuff, a blow dryer, a hair curling iron and a straightener.
“Sienna?” Tommy greets on the other end of the phone after a few rings, sounding incredibly surprised to get a call from his baby sister, who has on numerous occasions since coming home from rehab, told him that she hates him. Well, a call from her phone.
“Hi,” I greet and Sienna and Piper both glance over at me with suspicious looks on their faces.
“Oh, hey Sawyer,” He replies, placing the voice as mine after a few seconds. “How are you?” Tommy wonders.
“I’m alright, I guess,” I reply. “It’s just that your darling baby sister is trying to force me to go a party that I really don’t want to go to, so I just need you to talk to her, okay?” I say to Tommy and at the mention of the word ‘sister’, Sienna drops whatever it is that she’s holding in her hand and glares over at me, narrowing her eyes.
“Did you seriously call my brother?” She screeches in disbelief, her tone laced with incredulity.
“Yes, I seriously did because if I have to go to a party, you have to make amends with your brother,” I inform her cheekily.
“Oh, you are the worst kind of person, Sawyer, I hope you know that,” Sienna tells me angrily but I’m sure she’s not actually mad.
“I do it because I love you,” I chime, putting the phone to my ear. “Yeah, here she is, Tommy,” I say before holding the phone out.
“I am only doing this so you’ll come to the party, not so that I can be all buddy-buddy with the Devil’s spawn,” Sienna snaps, taking the phone from me and then walking outside of my room, pulling the door closed behind her.
“That was very devious of you, you know,” Piper chuckles, still weaving through my closet.
“Maybe but she needs to start talking to her brother again—he loves her,” I remind her.
“Yeah, but you know how stubborn she is—I’d bet anything that she’s gonna hang up on him and just stay out there in the hallway to make it look like she actually had a conversation with him,” Piper pipes.
“Yeah, probably,” I agree with a nod. “I’ll know though—Beckett has Tommy’s number, I’ll ask him to ask him tomorrow,” I say.
“Good plan,” Piper responds. “Okay, so why is this dress still in the plastic?” She wonders, pulling a dress from my closet out that I’ve never worn. It’s a really cute dress, that’s why I bought it but I could never bring myself to wear it. Mostly because I’ve had no true reason to wear it. I bought it like, last December, which was almost a year ago. I bought it just a few weeks after Flynn’s court trial and everything and I don’t know why I actually bought it but I did and it was way too expensive and I just should’ve returned it but I never did. Since I don’t go to parties anymore, I never did wear it and it’s not exactly something you’d want to wear to church or to have dinner with your family or anything. Not that I ever do either of those two things but still. I explain that to Piper and she instantly pulls the plastic off, tossing it in the small trash can in my room, near the door. “Okay, you’re wearing this,” She tells me.
“Can’t I just wear like, some jeans and a t-shirt?” I plead with her, hoping that since she’s the sympathetic friend, she’ll spare me.
“Absolutely not,” She chimes in a singsong voice, walking over to me and pulling me up by my arm so that I’m standing on my feet.
“Why do you hate me?” I whine as Piper pushes the dress into my arms and then walks over to my dresser, pulling the top drawer out, which is my underwear drawer, which I’m pretty sure she’s aware of. She rummages through it shamelessly for a few minutes before pulling out a lacy red bra and a pair of matching underwear and throwing them at me. I bought them like, a year ago and that was only because my aunt Tina came home for Christmas last year and decided to give me a $200 gift card to Victoria’s Secret, so I figured I’d put it to good use, although I’ve never worn the undergarments and I actually forgot that they were in my drawer.
“I don’t hate you, now, get dressed and I’m gonna go call Jason and tell him what time to come and get us,” She informs me.
“You know, I really don’t think that it’s necessary for me to wear…lingerie,” I mumble, eyeing the bright red push up bra.
“You never know,” Piper says in a singsong voice. “You might have your first hook up in a year and if so, you gotta be prepared.”
“I can promise you that that’s definitely not gonna happen,” I tell my friend, rolling my eyes at that ridiculous suggestion.
“Well, it’s better to be safe than sorry, no? When I get back, be dressed,” She demands before walking out of my bedroom.
With a sigh, I run my fingers through my hair and then decide to just comply with her stupid request. It appears that my friends are forcing me to go to this party, whether I like it or not (and I definitely do not). But since I have to go, I might as well look nice, I guess. Not that I’m planning on hooking up with anyone tonight though—that’s definitely not gonna happen. Even if I wanted to though, I couldn’t because about half of the people at our high school think I’m a mentally unstable person.
At least, that’s what they thought when the trial was ongoing last year. I’d like to think that everyone’s forgotten about it now but I know they haven’t. I can’t blame them though, December was a rough month for me last year and I did some insane things. Not to mention the fact that I have to see a psychiatrist five days a week. That definitely sounds crazy, so I can see their points, kinda.
Granted, today is my third day this week without speaking to Dr. Fontana and I’m just fine, which should definitely be a sign to my mother that I can handle only seeing him one or twice a month. He’s still out of town, Dr. Fontana is, but he promised me that he'd be back next week and that we could resume our sessions then.
Since I know that Piper and Jason’s phone conversation probably won’t be all that long, I strip out of my clothes, get dressed in the racy undergarments that Piper’s so set on me wearing and then step into the dress. I pull the dress all the way up and then reach around to my back as best as I can, grabbing on to the zipper and pulling it all the way up. Then, I go over to my closet and pull it open, looking around on the built-in shelves for a pair of nice shoes to wear with the dress. I’m more of a Vans or Sperry’s wearing type of girl but if I dared put either of those on with this dress, Piper and Sienna would actually take turns stabbing me.
I find a cute pair of high heels that I also bought last year, when I was more of a party-goer. I only wore them a few times, I think, but enough so that they’re broken in, which is good because if I wear them, my feet won’t be killing me tonight. Grabbing the shoes, I close the closet and walk back over to my bed, plopping down on it, pulling the shoes on. They’re a really adorable black pair of lace up ankle bootie type things with two buckles on each boot and they’ve got little flecks of sparkles on them, which adds to the gorgeousness of them.
After I have the shoes on, I walk over to my full-length mirror, which I hardly ever use because I never really dress up for anything, actually. In the mirror, I smooth the dress down and tug on the hem of it so that it looks a bit longer than it really is, which isn’t much at all. It’s not embarrassingly short or anything, it stops maybe like, three maybe four inches above my knees, but I think it’s probably three. It’s sleeveless, the dress is, and the top part of it is really shimmery and sequin-y, so it matches the shoes in that way. The skirt part of it is just plain black though, which is good because it kind of compliments the top of it more. I’d hate for the entire thing to be like the top, all shimmery and stuff because then I’d look like a flattened out disco ball and that’s not attractive.
And because I know there’s no way my friends would let me go to a party naked of any jewelry, I walk over to my vanity, where the jewelry that I haven’t worn in forever is. I grab a few black bracelets and bangles that’re encased with little black simulated crystals and slip them onto my wrist. I also grab my pair of black pavé diamond-encrusted, heart-shaped rose gold vermeil stud earrings, which were a seventeenth birthday present, via my grandmother, the same one my dad keeps trying to get me to get money from. I decide to not wear a necklace, mostly because I don’t want to look like I’m just super eager for the party or something because, as I’m sure you could tell, I’d really rather not go.
“Are you decent?” Piper calls through the door once I push the earrings in and then go back to sitting on my bed.
“Yes, Piper, I am decent,” I confirm with a chuckle and with that, Piper pushes the door open and walks into my room, Sienna followed behind her with an annoyed look on her face and I assume that that means she did indeed talk to Tommy for some time.
“Oh my gosh!” Sienna squeals happily, the frown leaving her face. “You look so pretty!” She exclaims.
“Thanks,” I laugh, running my fingers through my hair again. I didn’t do anything to it but it looks just fine, I think.
“Okay, it’s 9:30, so Piper, you can get ready now and I’ll do her make-up and then when I’m done, you can come and do her hair while I’ll get ready,” Sienna suggests, walking over to my bed and grabbing her curling iron, going to plug it up near my vanity.
“Sounds good,” Piper chirps. “Jason said he’ll be here around like, 10:15-ish, so we’ll have to rush a little bit,” She says before grabbing her duffel, which I’m assuming has her shoes and dress and everything else that she needs for tonight.
Shortly thereafter, Sienna brings me over to the vanity and starts curling the ends of my hair, which makes me slightly paranoid because I’m scared that she’ll burn me. She doesn’t though, much to my surprise and she gets my hair done pretty speedily, which also surprises me. After she’s done, Piper comes back into the room, completely dressed and ready to go and then she quickly starts doing my make-up as Sienna exits the room and heads to the bathroom to get herself ready. I make sure to remind her to go light, Piper, because I know that if I don’t, she’ll literally just put me on so much make-up that I’ll barely be recognizable. She goes with light mascara, eye liner, lip gloss (which I kind of hate) and some foundation, but not very much of it.
At precisely 10:15, Jason pulls up and as the three of us are walking down the driveway to his Hummer, I realize that Aspen’s missing. I mean, I realized it earlier but I forgot to ask Sienna and Piper where she is and why on earth she’d miss the chance to get me all made up and dressed up—she literally lives for this kind of stuff, getting dolled up for parties and everything like that.
“So, do either of you have any clue where Aspen is?” I wonder.
“I’m assuming she’s at home,” Piper informs me. “She’s grounded,” She adds.
“Grounded?” I echo as we reach Jason’s Hummer and Piper gets in the passenger seat, Sienna and I crawling into the back, briefly greeting Jason. “Why would her parents ground her?” I wonder, somewhat surprised because Aspen’s parents never really discipline their children. I mean, literally, in all of the years that I’ve been friends with Aspen, she’s never been grounded. They’re nice-ish people, Aspen’s parents are, I guess, but they’re just such awful parents, honestly. Not to mention the fact that they’re almost never home. That being said, Aspen basically always has to babysit her little brother and two sisters, which is unfair to her.
“She told me that her parents like, found her entire stash of condoms and her birth control,” Piper informs me.
“So they grounded her because she’s having safe sex? That seems kinda stupid,” I reply.
“They’re like, super religious-y,” Sienna reminds me. “So, the pre-marital sex thing is a no-no to them,” She explains.
“The birth control too—she said they flushed all of her pills down the toilet and took her condoms,” Piper says from the front seat.
“Poor Aspen,” I reply, suddenly feeling bad for my best friend.
I mean, sure it’s not the greatest thing for her to do, sleep with multiple different guys in such a short amount of time but she really is just trying to feel the void in her heart left by her late boyfriend. Sure, she’s going about it the wrong way but they’ve already forced her to go to a therapist and after one session, she told them that she wasn’t going back and she hasn’t, so really, bed-hopping is the only thing that even remotely makes her feel better, I think, even though it’s totally for all the wrong reasons.
✿✿✿✿✿✿
“Oh my gosh! This is literally my favorite song ever—let’s dance!” Sienna exclaims about an hour later at the party.
“The past three songs have all been your favorite songs ever,” I remind her with a laugh. “I’m not dancing again with you.”
“You’re very mean,” She huffs, grabbing a second beer out of Graham’s refrigerator.
The four of us got to the party about forty-five minutes ago and already Jason and Piper have escaped upstairs and I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be seeing those two lovebirds again for a while. Sienna and I’ve been dancing mostly and she’s also been downing the alcohol like there’s no tomorrow. I mean, I guess it could be worse—she could be with the weird guys that’re in the backyard popping pills and injecting hard drugs into their bloodstream like the brain-dead idiots that they are. I am by no means saying that getting drunk is better than getting stoned but in Sienna’s case, it kind of is. I, on the other hand, am obviously staying sober, because I’m a lightweight but mostly because I’m the designated driver tonight.
“I’m not mean, I just don’t wanna dance,” I laugh, uncapping my water bottle and taking a sip from it.
“Well, apparently, there’s an intense game of beer pong in the back yard and they need two more people, so let’s play!”
“I am not playing beer pong with you, S, but you can play if you want to,” I inform her. “I’ll just like, wait in the living room.”
“Are you sure?” Sienna asks me, raising her eyebrows as she takes another sip of her beer. At least she’s only having beer now—earlier she had everything from tequila to vodka and all of these weird colored drinks that smelled weird. I’ve had this one water bottled though and I’m not even half way done with it, which really says something, I think.
“Yeah, totally, go have fun,” I reply with a nod.
“Okay but if you need me, just call me,” She demands, putting her beer down and taking a step forward, only to nearly fall.
“Yeah, you too,” I laugh, grabbing her arm and steadying her before she can fall flat on her face, which would be just awful.
“Oh! You can go talk to Graham while I’m playing beer pong. Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Sienna informs me matter-of-factly.
“I don’t know where he is and even if I did, I wouldn’t go and talk to him,” I assure my friend, shaking my head.
“You’re just so stubborn,” She frowns.
“I’m not stubborn at all,” I deny, rolling my eyes at her. “I’m just being more cautious at this party,” I defend.
“Sure, whatever,” Sienna appeases me before slipping out of the sliding glass back door in the kitchen that leads to the backyard.
When Sienna’s gone, I quickly exit the kitchen, mostly because it’s full of drunk teenage boys who are looking at me like I’m a piece of meat, which kinda makes me feel like I’m going to throw up. Thankfully, none of them say anything to me and I walk into the living room, which is where the music is blasting out of the speakers and everyone is dancing. I sit down on the nice, black leather couch and cross my left leg over my right, toying with the top on my water bottle. Right now, there’s some song that I think is called Get Lucky or something like that playing and I don’t really know it but I guess it’s kind of catchy.
The couches in here have been pushed against the walls to make for a makeshift dance floor in the center of the living room, which is where there’s about fifty hot and sweaty teenagers dancing. Or maybe they’re having sex with their dates. I don’t know but if they’re dancing, it’s pretty touchy dancing and if they’re having sex, well, that’s just unsanitary. I sit there for about ten minutes before it gets to be too much for me, the ridiculously loud music and the weird guy who just randomly sat by me. His knee keeps rubbing against mine too and I don’t really don’t think that it’s on accident, so I just get up and walk out of the living room.
I make my way to the front door and walk out of it, making sure to close the door behind me. I notice a cute little porch swing thingy there on the porch and see that no one else is sitting on it, so I walk over to it and sit on it, swinging back and forth a little bit. Seeing as how I’m the designated driver tonight, I have the keys to Jason’s Hummer and I know where we’re parked, so I could just go home and come back in a few hours but I don’t want to freak any of them out, like, in case they start to look for me and can’t find me. That’d obviously be bad. Besides, I didn’t really pay attention on the ride here, so I’m not sure I could get back without getting lost. Graham’s house is just kinda far out and it’s like, a beach house, I guess. I mean, it obviously is a beach house but it’s a good fifteen minute drive or so from the actual city, which is weird because I would have thought he lived in the suburbs.
“Wow, look who actually showed up,” Graham says from behind me and I turn around, seeing him on the doorstep of the house.
“I told you I’d be here,” I reply even though if I would have had things my way tonight, I’d still be at home watching The Office.
“Yeah, I just thought you said that to get me to shut up,” He laughs, walking around to the porch swing. “Mind if I sit?”
“It’s your porch swing,” I mumble, taking another sip of my water as he sits down on the opposite side of the swing.
“So, how come you aren’t with your friends?” He wonders, sitting down and swishing around the liquid in a cup that he’s holding.
“Sienna’s playing beer pong, Piper’s…getting some and Aspen’s grounded for having sex,” I explain in a quiet voice.
“Wow, you have interesting friends,” Graham laughs, taking a sip from the cup.
“Yeah, I guess,” I mumble awkwardly crossing and uncrossing my legs a few times.
There’s a somewhat brief silence then, lasting about five minutes or something like that. Well, it’s not exactly silent because the swing makes this little creaky noise but aside from that, there is no noise. I mean, we can obviously both hear the music from inside but my point is, we’re not talking to one another.
“Well, you look really nice tonight, Sawyer,” Graham randomly informs me. “I mean, you look nice other days too, obviously.”
“Thanks,” I say, biting down on my lip lightly and looking down at the cap on my water bottle as I feel a blush creep over my face.
“You know, I feel like this conversation is a bit one-sided,” He tells me.
“It is,” I agree with a nod, looking over at him for a second. “Because we’re not friends,” I remind him.
“You’re actually incredibly stubborn, do you realize that?” Graham asks, giving me a boyish grin.
“Funny, Sienna just told me the same thing,” I reply.
“Well, Sienna was completely right,” Graham responds.
“I’m not stubborn, I just don’t talk much, I guess,” I mumble.
“I can see that,” Graham laughs. “Because you’re shy, right?” He asks.
“Yep,” I confirm with a nod, twisting a lock of my hair around my finger as I look out of the ocean a couple of hundred feet out.
“Well, I say we try to change that. Or at least get to the point where we’re friends, so that you’ll actually talk to me,” Graham says.
“I’m already talking to you,” I defend.
“Yeah but I think that’s just because you don’t wanna be rude, am I right?”
“Maybe a smidge right,” I sheepishly admit with a small chuckle.
“Thought so,” He laughs, standing up and taking another drink from his cup. “Let’s go somewhere,” Graham randomly suggests.
“Somewhere like where?” I wonder, glancing up at him with a confused look on my face.
“I dunno,” Graham shrugs. “We can go get some food or something.”
“You don’t have food in your house?” I query, giving him a suspicious look.
“Mostly there’s just a bunch of alcohol and Doritos and if I have to eat any more of those tonight, I might puke,” He explains.
“Sienna and Piper will be worried,” I reply, using that as an excuse so that I don’t have to just flat out turn him down.
“You should see the look on your face right now,” Graham chuckles. “Sawyer, I’m not gonna kill you—I just wanna talk,” He says.
“You’re very persistent,” I sigh.
“It’s one of my best qualities, I like to think,” He grins. “So, what do you say?”
“Alright,” I agree somewhat hesitantly. “But only if we go to Subway,” I add, standing up.
“Why Subway?” Graham wonders as the two of us descend the stairs in front of his house.
“I like Subway,” I shrug, following him as he leads me to the driveway, where there’s only one car parked.
“Okay, well, sure, Subway’s fine,” He explains, walking around to the passenger side and pulling the door open.
“What, do you want me to drive?” I ask him curiously, giving him a strange look.
“No, I was just opening the door for you, Sawyer,” Graham explains with another boyish grin as he gestures for me to get in.
“Right, I knew that,” I mumble, getting in and pulling my seatbelt on as he closes to the door behind me.
“I’m sure you did,” Graham appeases me as he gets into the driver’s seat and closes the door, starting the car.
“You do realize that just because I’m going to get food with you, that doesn’t mean we’re friends, right?” I ask him.
“I do realize that,” Graham confirms. “But just so you know, I’ve been told that I’m a pretty good friend,” He informs me.
“It really isn’t anything personal,” I feel compelled to tell him.
“Yeah, I figured—Sienna said you don’t really like talking to people,” He explains.
“She just tells you everything, doesn’t she?” I ask with a sigh, making a mental note to hit my dumb friend later.
“Pretty much,” He laughs. “I mean, she won’t tell me what happened to you—why you’re so…flappable though,” He adds.
“Because it’s really none of your business,” I mumble, looking out of the window as he speeds down the road.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea, already, but I don’t really wanna make assumptions, so I’ll just let you tell me in your own time.”
“And what makes you think I’m ever going to tell you?” I wonder with a sigh.
“Because you just said so yourself—I’m very persistent,” He explains, reusing my words from before.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I scoff.
“No? Well, I got you to agree to come get food with me and you’re talking to me in actual sentences, not just one-wordily.”
“Touché,” I mumble, realizing that he’s right.
“Seriously though,” Graham says. “Obviously, you’ve been through a lot and I don’t want to complicate your life. That’s the last thing I want to do, actually. And I know we don’t really know each other but if you’ll let me, I really would like to be your friend.”
I’m quiet for about five minutes after that, trying to think of a response and finally, with a sigh, I say, “I’ll think about it.”
Even if Graham and I do become friends though, I won’t let us be close friends. Why? Because Flynn was supposed to be my brother’s close friend and he ended up stabbing him in the back—not literally, of course—after everything happened between the two of us. In the back of my head, I know Graham is nothing like Flynn, it’s obvious that he isn't but still, I have to be cautions. I have to admit though, right now, riding along with Graham Cambridge in a car for a late night Subway run isn’t freaking me out. I mean, it’s making me a little bit nervous but I’m actually having a conversation with his right now and I don’t even feel like I’m gonna pass out or throw up or any of that stuff, so I guess that’s maybe a sign. A sign that even though the last guy I trusted was a stupid piece of shit, maybe all the teenage guys in the world aren’t.
Author's Note: (it's late, but still Sunday here, for a few minutes!) Hey there, lovelies! Okay, so I know that in the last author's note, I said that the updates will be every Saturday from now on but I'm gonna have to change that again.
The updates will now be every Sunday from now on. I know it seems like I'm indescive, and I really am, but Sundays are definitely going to be the updating days from now on. They were originally on Fridays but now that school's back in session, I'm obviously gonna be somewhat busier on Fridays now.
So, then I changed the updates to Saturdays, which was kinda dumb on my part, because Saturdays are probably my busiest days, mostly because either I'm hanging out with my friends or whatever or because I sleep all day. So, yeah!
Now the updates will be every SUNDAY because Sundays are my lazy days, so it's a good day to update for me. I'm sorry for all of the indecisiveness and confusion and whatnot. So, yeah, just to be sure that you all got that: I will updated Saving Sawyer every Sunday.
Now that we've got all of that out of the way, thoughts on this chapter? Thoughts on Graham? Sawyer? Piper? Jason? Anyone else? Please, please, please don't forget to comment and vote because it really does help a lot, to know what you guys are thinking.
And on the topic of commenting and voting, thank you all so much for all the comments and votes you've been leaving on the past chapters, they've been really amazing.
Notice the song (it's the live version because I like their cover better than the original song, haha) and the picture too, which is Sawyer's outfit to the party- the girl in the picture isn't Sawyer though- that's just how her hair is. Sawyer's played by Candice Swanepoel, who is obviously not the girl in the picture. Just wanted to clear that up, haha.
That being said, I think that I'm gonna start something new. If you can't tell, I do read and reply back to everyone's comments and I love them all so much.
So, what I'm going to do is start dedicating chapters to whoever leaves the best comment on a chapter. Of course I love all of your comments and it doesn't even have to be something super long (even though I do love long comments).
In case you didn't get that, here's what I mean: I'll post a chapter, people will comment and whoever's comment I like the best for that chapter will get the next chapter dedicated to them. Unless you're not a fan of me because I'm pretty sure you can't dedicate a chapter to someone unless they're a fan.
So, that'll start next chapter, as in, whoevers comment on this chapter I love the most will have the chapter six dedicated to them. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense (:
Alrighty, I think that that's all I need to say- so I'll see all of you lovely people next Sunday! <3