The Beach

Alex woke up the next morning by rolling over into nothing. He groaned, opening his chocolate orbs to be met with nothing but blankets. Sawyer’s side of the bed was empty, almost entirely cold as if she had been missing from it for a while. Alex frowned, only to have that interrupted by a yawn, before sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

He looked around the room but didn’t see Sawyer anywhere in the room. The room had been straightened up, and the last little bit of Alex’s belongings were missing. He assumed that Sawyer had woken up early and taken them into his “room” that he would be spending the next few days in to make it appear she had been alone in the master bedroom.

Alex stretched his arms up above his head before moving to get out of the bed. He grabbed the blue plaid pajama pants that were on the floor from last night and stepped into them, tying them at his hips so that they wouldn’t fall off.

Alex made his way downstairs, venturing into the kitchen where he found Sawyer standing in front of the stove, flipping pancakes. Alex gave a small smile and walked up to Sawyer, his smile widening when he realized that she was making chocolate chip banana pancakes, his absolute favorite. Alex wrapped his arms around Sawyer’s waist, just as he had done when he first arrived at the beach house.

“You left the bed before me this morning.” Alex said softly, enjoying the peace of the kitchen and trying desperately not to ruin it because as soon as the others in the house awoken, and once Jake arrived, there wouldn’t be this comfortable peace in the house. There would be chaos and screaming, laughter and tension. There definitely would not be any silence.

“I didn’t really sleep.” Sawyer confessed, leaning her body into Alex’s and relaxing. Alex could feel the tension and nerves radiating off of Sawyer. She was beyond nervous. They were literally minutes, maybe hours if they were lucky, away from Jake arriving and putting on the best theatrical performance of their lives.

“Love. You need to get some rest. You’re gonna be a mess all day. Why didn’t you wake me up? I would have at least stayed up with you.” Alex told her, swaying them lightly as she flipped the pancakes on the stove another time.

“You look so peaceful. I just wanted to enjoy the peace. And then I thought I’d surprise you with your favorite breakfast, but it seems that you have woken up before I could do so.” Sawyer said with a smile, pulling the now fully cooked pancakes off of the stove and setting them aside on a plate.

Sawyer grabbed the plate and turned around within Alex’s arms, a small smile on her face as she held a plate of pancakes in front of him. He smiled, let go of Sawyer and took the plate of pancakes from her hands. He leaned down to give her a quick kiss before heading to the table and sitting down at one of the places that Sawyer had set up.

“These are so delicious.” Alex moaned before shoveling more of the pancakes in his mouth. Sawyer smiled, turning back to the stove and starting more pancakes for the rest of the house that was no doubt going to be awaking soon enough.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying them.” Sawyer said, her smile wide even though she was still freaking out.

“I knew I smelled pancakes!” Jack said, bounding into the kitchen bounding with energy and a large smile on his face. Behind him followed Rian, Zack, Austin and Jayce, all looking beyond exhausted and in dire need of more sleep.

“Jack. You didn’t have to wake everyone up.” Sawyer said with a laugh as she looked at all the sleepwalkers in her kitchen.

“But there are pancakes!” Jack said enthusiastically, as if pancakes gave him reason to do anything he wanted. However, given what she had witnessed of Jack, it was entirely possible he did in fact believe pancakes were a good enough reason for anything.

“I’m working on more. Why don’t you cut up some fruit yea?” Sawyer asked Jack, and he groaned, but walked over to the counter and got to work.

“So is this like, a last meal or something?” Austin asked as she saw Alex scarf down his pancakes happily.

“I guess you could say that.” Sawyer said with a small smile to Austin before turning back to the pancakes.

“When is he supposed to be arriving here?” Zack asked and Sawyer glanced at the clock. It was 8:30am and his plane had landed at 8am.

“He landed about 30 minutes ago. He’ll be here in the next 15 minutes more than likely. We aren’t that far from the airport.” Sawyer said, feeling the weight of the world falling down upon her once again. Jake would be here in the next 15-30 minutes. She was once again going to be Jake’s loving girlfriend and Alex would just be one of her best friends who visits over the summer.

“Wow.” Zack responded with a loud breath. The room was tense. This was a major lie, and she wanted to trust these people, but they owed her nothing. They didn’t have to cover for her. They were really doing this on behalf of Alex, but she felt as though she could trust them.

“Well. Pancakes are ready” Sawyer said, changing the subject and bringing the pancakes to the table. Everyone smiled, mostly lazy smiles, in appreciation of the home cooked food and began eating as Jack brought over the cut up fruit in a bowl, sitting down and joining everyone at the table.

“Sooooo good” Jack said after managing to shovel half of a pancake into his mouth.

“You are so disgusting” Jayce said with a laugh as she stabbed some of the fruit that had been put on her plate, shaking her head at Jack for completely lacking any form of manners.

Everyone chuckled, eating their pancakes and the fruit that Jack had haphazardly cut up, enjoying a breakfast of loved ones. It was so peaceful, so incredibly wonderful. Everyone felt at ease and relaxed, as if this was how things are supposed to be every day.

And then, the doorbell rang, and everyone froze, not taking a bite of their food, all conversation ceased, and all eyes suddenly fluttering between Sawyer and Alex.

Alex’s eyes were focused on Sawyer, concerned about her reaction, but the strawberry blond was carefully wiping her mouth with her napkin before excusing herself from the table.

Everyone looked at each other from across the table, afraid to continue eating, not even wanting to move. They all knew who was at the door. They all knew what this meant.

This was game time.

Alex shot up and ran out of the kitchen, running to the entry way and getting there right before Sawyer got there. He pulled her back a bit, surprising her. She admitted a small yelp, that he quickly cut off with a rough kiss.

“One last kiss” He whispered as he pulled away before heading back to the kitchen where everyone was waiting, leaving Sawyer at the door, stunned but a bit more relaxed.

“This is it” She mumbled to herself before opening the door to be met with a tall, slightly tanned, muscular man with dark brown, neatly combed back hair. He smiled wide at the sight of Sawyer, his brown eyes twinkling.

“Hey Jake.” Sawyer said, putting on the best fake smile she could muster up, but it was hard because she was still focused on the all too recent memory of Alex’s lips on her own.

“I missed you baby” Jake said as he pulled Sawyer into his arms and into his body. Sawyer wrapped her arms around him loosely, giving him a small hug.

“I missed you too Jake.” She said as convincingly as possible. “Come on. Everyone is eating breakfast right now. Sawyer said as she pulled away, trying not to appear as awkward as she felt.

This was going to be a long three days, she could just feel it.