The Beach

Sawyer stood in the kitchen, making what could only be described as a gross amount of scrambled eggs, which she was hoping would be cooked all the way through because at the moment, she was highly regretting the idea of making scrambled eggs for everyone. She should have just made pancakes again. Pancakes were easy to make in large batches, specifically a batch large enough to feed 8 people. Pancakes were easy, why the hell didn’t she choose pancakes?

She had been up for hours, having left Alex’s temporary bedroom and not having the heart to go back to her own bedroom to lay next to Jake. She knew if she did, she wouldn’t sleep properly, and that if she stayed with Alex she would sleep for far too long. In the end, she had just decided it be best to stay awake, because the other options weren’t as appealing or as safe.

Sawyer sighed as she stirred the scrambled eggs in the two pans in front of her. She didn’t even know how she let her life get so complicated. She could have stopped this entire mess years and years ago. She could have never started anything with Alex. She could have stopped things with Alex after she started dating Jake. Or even better, she could have never gotten together with Jake, taken a leap of faith, and tried something with Alex. She had had so many choices, but she hadn’t taken any of the choices that made sense. She had taken the choice that was complicated, complex, and crippling to her mental health.

She took a deep breath, remembering that she had made it through the first day and that Jake was none-the-wiser, but her conversation with Jack was still echoing in her head clear as day. She knew she really wanted Alex, and that she should just break things off with Jake. And she hated how well Jack could see it. Sure, he knew the situation, but he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking anyways. It had really shaken her, how well Jack seemed to know her in literally a matter of days. It was almost like he had known her for so much longer.

“I knew I smelled breakfast” His voice made Sawyer jumped, never hearing any movement come throughout the house.

“It’s like you have the nose of a hound.” Sawyer commented with a small smile, shaking her head at the tall and lanky brunette.

“I don’t even care that you just compared me to a dog. I’m starving” Jack said, walking over to the stove and looking over Sawyer’s shoulder down at the two large pans filled with eggs.

“Hey, help me cut up the fruit otherwise everything isn’t gonna be ready at the same time. Healthy meals does not eggs and bacon make.” Sawyer said, causing Jack to groan.

“Why do you always put me to work with deadly objects?” Jack asked, but never the less headed over to the counter where Sawyer had all the fruit lying out, half cut.

“I’m trying to get you to accidently kill yourself.” Sawyer said without missing a beat, causing a snort to come from Jack, who kept working on the fruit anyways as Sawyer battled out the scrambled eggs.

“So this is where you went to this morning.” Jake’s voice rang through the kitchen and before Sawyer could even register the sentence, Jake’s arms were wrapped around her waist and his lips against her neck, pressing a kiss to the sensitive skin.

Sawyer cleared her throat, trying to give Jake the hint that there was another body in the room, which thankfully he caught onto.

“Good morning.” Sawyer replied, giving her fiancée a small smile before turning her attention back towards the food in front of her.

Jake’s eyes fluttered across the kitchen to look at Jack who was busying himself with cutting the fruit, trying his hardest to ignore the awkward elephant in the room that is Jake.

“Morning Jack.” Jake said, and Jack turned his head a bit and waved at Jake before going back to cutting the fruit in front of him.

“Go ahead and sit down, me and Jack are just finishing up breakfast.” Sawyer instructed to Jake, who sat down at the kitchen, watching as his fiancée and her friend made breakfast together.

He eyed the two of them, working silently on the food in front of them. He couldn’t help but notice how they had no problem working together, but separately, and how comfortable they were with each other.

“I’m going to go wake everyone up now that the eggs are done. Jake, do you mind putting them in the serving dish for me?” Sawyer’s words interrupted Jake’s thoughts, but he smiled and nodded in agreement.

“Of course sweetie”

And with that Sawyer took off out of the kitchen, going to wake up the remaining members of the house. She went to the room where Rian and Austin were, knocking loudly and receiving a slightly incoherent response. She informed the two that breakfast was ready before walking to the room that Zack and Jayce inhabited and doing the same thing to them.

After getting the two couples up, Sawyer made her way up the stairs towards the guest room where Alex was staying.

She didn’t even bother to knock, just walked in, but was startled to see that Alex was already awake, sitting at the small desk in the corner of the room, writing frantically in his notebook that he always brought with him every summer. Sawyer had never looked inside of it, but had always secretly wondered what he frantically wrote in there. He hardly ever opened it while in her presence, but when he did open its pages, it was always in a frantic haste that kept him at it for at least an hour.

“Lex?” Sawyer asked carefully, and Alex ceased his movements, turning to look at Sawyer who walked across the room to him. “Its time for breakfast. How long have you been up?”

Alex shrugged in response. “Pretty much since the time you got out of bed. I’ve been writing since then.”

“Do you want me to save you a plate for when you finish?” Sawyer asked, and Alex nodded. Sawyer leaned down to give him a quick kiss before smiling and leaving the room.

Sawyer had learned a few summers ago not to ever try to pull Alex away from his writing unless he was ready to stop. She had actually ended up being ignored for more than an entire day by Alex when she had shut his notebook on him in an attempt to get him to go out on the beach with her. It was one of the few times the two had ever fought at all. And Sawyer never wanted to repeat that day ever.

Sawyer made her way back downstairs and into the kitchen, only to be met with an incredibly awkward tension. She continued in cautiously, looking at everyone who just shook their heads in an attempt to stop her from asking. She knew she would find out later, so she just put together a plate of eggs and bacon, and fruit for Alex, setting it into the fridge for him to eat later when he came down stairs.

“Where’s Alex?” Zack asked, noticing his lack of entrance into the kitchen.

“Writing” She said, and everyone nodded except for Jake, who looked utterly confused by the one word explanation.

“Writing?” He questioned.

“We’re in a band. Alex is the lead singer and writes most of the material. If he’s in a writing mood, we just let him be.” Rian stated, and Sawyer could see the grimace on Jake’s face that he hid poorly from her. She refrained from scolding him, because it was far too early to be arguing with Jake and she hadn’t had enough sleep over the last two nights to come up with the energy required to argue with him. So instead, she let him judge the boys that she now considered friends without a word.

“How did everyone sleep?” Jayce asked, brushing her brown hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear in a sad attempt to tame her wild bed head.

“Pretty good actually, although Sawyer left pretty early this morning so I woke up alone.” Jake announced, causing all eyes to shift to Sawyer, knowing immediately that she probably hadn’t spent most of the night in the bed with Jake, but rather in another bed with another man in the house.

“Sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well the past few days. I didn’t want to wake you up.” Sawyer said as she looked at her breakfast plate, pushing the food around a bit.

“It’s ok. I understand darling. It’s kinda like how you get after all those concerts you go to. You never sleep well after those either.” Jake said with a smile,

“Oh what concert s have you gone to?” Austin asks, getting excited at the mere thought of a concert.
“Oh she normally sees the same band most of the time. All Time something or other.” Jake said, before standing up with his empty plate. “I’m gonna go for a run and then shower. I’ll see you soon.” He said kissing Sawyer on the forehead, putting his plate in the sink before vacating the kitchen.

Sawyer could feel every set of eyes on her, and she refused to look up to meet their gazes.

“All Time something?” Rian asked with a smirk, which Sawyer responded to with a sigh before looking up.

“Do not tell Alex and do not let Jake bring it up again.” Was her only response, before taking her plate to the sink and walking out of the kitchen. She walked upstairs, passing straight by Alex’s room, whose door was still closed, and going straight to her room. She knew better than to interrupt Alex while he was writing.

Almost as soon as she laid down on her bed, she heard someone enter, looking up to see Jack standing in the doorway.

“I don’t want to hear it Jack.” She wasn’t even sure what he wanted to say, but she knew that she didn’t want to hear anything at all right now. She was barely into the second day of Jake being here and she wanted nothing more than to sleep through the rest of these two days.

“Well I just came to say that your secret is pretty safe. Jake expects nothing of you and Alex.” He said with a large smirk, and Sawyer raised her eyebrows at him.

“Alright. I’ll bite. How do you know?” Sawyer asked, completely confused.

“Because Jake thinks something is going on between me and you.” Jack said, and Sawyer’s eyes went wide but only long enough to hold her laughter at bay, before her chuckles were radiating through the room.

“Why in the world would he think that?” Sawyer asked, and Jack laughed with her, moving into the room and joining her on the bed, sitting crossed legged at the end of the bed to face Sawyer.

“Apparently we were talking together on the beach yesterday, and then we went on a walk alone on the beach, and apparently us cooking breakfast together in the morning. Jake asked me today if anything had ever happened between us before.” Jack stated, before both of the two were bursting out in laughter.

“Oh god. No offense Jack, you’re awesome, but we both know that we would never work. I’m in love with someone else.” She said.

“That’s quite alright. I just like you as a friend anyways. But I found it hilarious that Jake suspects something between me and you. I thought that might make you relax a bit. In fact, we could always keep him suspecting us. It’s funnier that way.”

“That’s one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while. Who knew he would ever think something like that?” Sawyer asked, just as Jake walked into the room, eyeing the two of them on the bed together talking. Sawyer and Jack looked at each other before laughing, and Jack getting up and leaving the room.

“So you and Jack are awfully close.” Jake said as he walked into the room.

“He’s one of my best friends Jake. Of course we’re close.” Sawyer said with a smile. “Now go shower. I think we’re all going out to the boardwalk today.” She jumped off the bed and walked over to him, giving him a hug.

Jake smiled and gave Sawyer a kiss before letting her go and walking towards the bathroom. Sawyer left the room, closing the door behind her, and looking across the hall at Alex’s door. It was still closed, but she decided that it was worth going into the room for.

She opened up the door, noticing that Alex was still at the desk, tapping his pen. He looked up at the sound of her footsteps moving across the room and before he could say anything, she was leaning down and pressing her lips to his, both their eyes fluttering close at the contact.

Sawyer pulled away with a smile on her face, sitting herself down in Alex’s lap, who gave her a questioning look.

“Jake thinks that something is going on.” Sawyer said, and Alex’s eyes went wide. “He suspects something between me and Jack.” Sawyer said with a large smile, and Alex couldn’t help the chuckle that came out of his mouth.

“You? And Jack?” He asked between chuckles.

“Yea. He thinks me and Jack are too close.” She said, leaning down to kiss him again, but this time with much more force.

Alex smiled into the kiss, because he didn’t mind her being reckless for a moment. Fuck Jake.