The Beach

“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.” Sawyer mumbled in the bathroom as she brushed out her strawberry blond strands, trying desperately to get something to cooperate for the day. Ever since that walk with Jack earlier on the beach, Sawyer had been feeling even more uneasy around Jake, and she felt horrible about it. Jack’s words kept ringing in her head and she couldn’t help but want to punch Jack. She had enough thoughts swarming in her head without Jack trying to plant more guilt into her head.

She knew Jack was right. She knew that she cared a lot more for Alex. Any half-witted, blind person could see clear as day that Sawyer wanted to leave Jake for Alex, but while every beat of her heart ached for Alex, every logical brain cell in her head said it was the wrong move.

The internal conflict she was having with herself had made the rest of her day at the beach with everyone strained. She wanted nothing more than to hide inside the beach house, but couldn’t really come up with a good enough excuse that would also secure alone time. Any excuse she could come up with in her head always ended up with Jake or Alex trying to follow her. Either way, it didn’t end good. If Jake followed her, then her problem followed her. If Alex followed her, then not only did her problem follow her, but so did the possibility of being found out. Despite the fact that she didn’t want to stay on the beach within close proximity to both Alex and Jake, it was easier than being alone with just one of them.

It was selfish, she knew it. And it was incredibly unfair to Alex, who had to watch her and Jake from the sidelines. She knew this. But it wasn’t changing the fact that she didn’t know how to cope with this. She really didn’t. It felt like her insides were starting to eat apart at her, and she couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. Mostly, she knew more than anything, this was tearing Alex apart on the inside. He hadn’t said anything, and he smiled as though life was grand, but she knew better. She knew Alex well enough to know that he was being torn apart watching her spend time with her fiancé right in front of him. Even Sawyer felt as though she was flaunting Jake in front of him, tormenting Alex.

She wishes she had forced Alex to leave the beach house for three days while Jake was in town. Then she wouldn’t have to look at the sadness in Alex’s eyes.

But there wasn’t just sadness in Alex’s eyes, and that is what was making this whole situation so difficult. Alex kept smirking at Sawyer knowingly, making passes at the blonde any second that Jake’s eyes floated elsewhere. He was constantly brushing his fingers against her bare skin at the beach, sending shivers down her spine. When they were playing in the water at the beach, he had swam next to where she had been standing and ran his hands along the inside of her thighs, catching her off guard and almost causing her to moan in front of everyone.

She nearly killed Alex for that one, but realized that she might have to explain what prompted such a slaughter, so she reconsidered and instead dunked herself underwater where no one could see her flustered face. She glared at Alex once she resurfaced, and all he could do was give her his most innocent look with a shrug, followed by a smirk before he took off after Jack.

Sometimes, Alex really worked her last nerve.

So now here she was, standing in the in suite bathroom of the master bedroom that she was currently sharing with Jake, trying her damnedest to get her hair to just so something, anything really, so that she could finish getting ready for dinner. Dinner with everyone at Mama’s diner.

Sawyer had seriously tried to talk everyone out of it, seeing as Mama had been none-to-thrilled to learn about Sawyer’s engagement, and she couldn’t imagine that Mama was going to be exceedingly kind to Jake, and Sawyer wouldn’t be able to explain why. This hadn’t seemed like an exceedingly appealing idea, so Sawyer had suggested dinner at another local spot, but then Jack had opened up his god damn big mouth.

“What about Mama’s?” Jack had been dumb enough to ask. She hadn’t know Jack every long, but she thought she might kill him at that moment.

Of course, Jake asked what Mama’s was, and of course, everyone kinda mumbled before Sawyer was forced to actually answer Jake’s question once he looked at her. And of course, as she could have predicted, Jake wanted to meet the woman that was like a Grandmother to everyone. Seriously, she wanted to kill Jack, and the sympathetic gaze he wore didn’t even make her inner anger towards him dwindle a little bit.

Jack could take a long walk off a really short pier for all Sawyer cared right now.

So here she was, trying to get her stupid hair to cooperate, but after 20 minutes, she wasn’t seeing it as something that was going to happen. Finally surrendering to her hair’s whim, Sawyer left her long blond locks down, surrounding her face in a limp fashion. She looked in the mirror, sending her hair one last glare, before exiting the bathroom and heading downstairs to meet with everyone else.

However, Sawyer didn’t make it very far before she was pulled unexpectedly into Alex’s room, shoved against the door as soon as it shut. It only took half a second before Alex’s lips were firmly planted on hers, his hands gripping tightly on her hips to the point that, had she been thinking coherently and not enjoying the spontaneous kiss, she might have registered the fact that his hands were going to leave some hand shaped bruises as a reminder of his touch.

They stayed like that for a minute, focused on the tension that had been building between them all day while they were at the beach, desperately trying to keep a distance between them so that they didn’t do something stupid, like they were doing now.

After a minute, Alex pulled away slowly, leaving his forehead resting against Sawyer’s as they both struggled to catch their breathes.

“You’re going to get us caught on the first day.” Sawyer mumbled and Alex couldn’t help but chuckle. Because seriously Sawyer, that’s your first reaction right now?

“Live a little” Alex whispered back to her, his breath ghosting over her lips. She sighed contently in response, before pulling away and trying to get himself looking presentable once more. Sawyer followed suit, straightening out her shirt and jeans, running her hands through her hair hoping that it looked less frantic than she felt it looked. She looked at Alex and smiled, because as much as she didn’t want to admit it, he had been right about sneaking around, it was fun. She wanted Alex more than she had prior to that spontaneous kiss.

But now they had to go to dinner. Alex really did know how to work her up at all the wrong moments. The beach earlier and now this? This dinner was about to be more difficult that she had anticipated.

“Go out first. It is your room after all. You can make sure there’s no one in the hallway so that I can come out.” Sawyer said as she continued to run her hands through her hair, desperately trying to hide her endeavor.

Alex nodded, kissing Sawyer on the cheek before exiting the room.

Sawyer waited a minute before leaving the room since Alex didn’t come back to stop her. She opened the door and walked out quickly, leaving no time to get caught and scurried out and downstairs to where everyone was waiting.

“I thought you died up there with how long you were taking” Jake said as Sawyer entered the living room, walking right up to Sawyer and kissing her forehead. Sawyer gave Jake a small smile, hoping that Alex hadn’t managed to make her smell like him, but Jake didn’t seem to notice anything different about Sawyer. Sawyer thought she would let out a huge breath had it not been for the fact that Jake was holding onto her, his arm now wrapped around Sawyer’s shoulders.

“Alright. So to Mama’s we go yea?” Rian asked as he looked to everyone, who all nodded in response.

Everyone left the house, Sawyer locking it after everyone had exited. Everyone started walking down the beach, Alex in the front as he led everyone since really, only him and Sawyer had been to Mama’s more than once and Alex didn’t wanna take the chance that everyone would accidently end up going the wrong way.

Soon enough, everyone had arrived at Mama’s walking in together and catching Mama’s eyes immediately.

“Well, well, well. If it ain’t the trouble of the neighborhood.” Mama said, and Sawyer breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to owe Mama for the next several years for this favor.

“Hey Mama.” Everyone chorused, and Sawyer could feel Mama’s eyes on her.

“Hi Mama. This is my fiancée, Jake.” Sawyer said cautiously, introducing the two.

“Well. Ain’t you a different breed then the rest of these miscreants.” Translated, Sawyer knew what Mama really meant was ‘Sawyer, he looks like a tool’ but hopefully Jake wouldn’t get it.

“Well Sawyer has always been different. That’s what made me fall in love with her in the first place.” Jake said, and the group let out a chorus of awws, which Sawyer knew were phony but Jake was oblivious as he smiled a bit at Sawyer.

“Well let’s get you all sat and get ya fed.” Mama said, shuffling everyone over to a table set up for 8. As if fate wasn’t on Sawyer’s side, Jake ended up with the seat across from Jake on the end, with Alex next to her and Jack next to Jake. Austin and Rian were sitting next to Jack at the other end across from Jayce and Zack.

Sawyer had never felt so uncomfortable as she did right now. Jake across from her. Alex next to her. She thought she was going to die.

Sawyer knew if she didn’t relax soon, it was going to become all too obvious that something was wrong, even to Jake who could be fairly oblivious. It was possible all the tension was in Sawyer’s head, but she knew that even Alex felt a little on edge, but Alex was a bit more free spirited than Sawyer was.

This was proven about halfway through the meal when Alex managed to slide his hand into Sawyer’s lap, resting it on her thigh as he talked to Zack next to him. He wasn’t even looking at Sawyer, but had his hand rubbing her thigh as though it was to be expected.

By the time dinner was over, Sawyer was sure that she was going to kill Alex when they got back to the beach house.

Assuming she made it back to the beach house with any mental capacity left.