The Beach

“I cannot believe that I agreed to do this.” Sawyer mumbled to herself as she put her bag in the trunk of Alex’s SUV. What in the world was she thinking when she agreed to go to a family dinner and wedding with Alex?

After that morning and nearly scaring Alex out of his bones when she joined him in the shower, Alex had informed her that he wanted to pack up and head to Baltimore today so that they were settled in and wouldn’t be in a rush tomorrow in order to get to dinner on time. What this really translated to was that Alex would be running late for dinner anyways, more than likely, and adding in a roughly 4 hour drive before dinner would probably mean that they would end up missing dinner entirely. So in order to avoid this, Alex wanted to leave the day before dinner.

Sawyer would give him credit; he at least was really trying to be on time for these events. Obviously the family dinner was a little more important than Alex was letting on. It went without saying the wedding was important.

“Too late” Alex sang teasingly as he came up behind Sawyer, putting two more bags into the car’s trunk.

“This is such a bad idea. No one is even going to buy into the fact that I’m your girlfriend.” Sawyer said, because she was nervous. Even since they got out of the shower and Alex had suggested that they leave today for Maryland, it started to really settle with Sawyer that she was going to be faking an entire relationship with Alex. I mean, she wasn’t faking. She planned on telling him that she had chosen him during this week. But he didn’t know that, and his family sure as hell didn’t know that they were on a trial run. How in the world was she going to show up out of the blue, when they hadn’t actually seen her in years. She was fairly certain they didn’t even know that Alex still saw her every summer. In fact, she’d bet money on it.

Alex closed the trunk of the SUV before carefully pushing Sawyer up against it. She looked up at him as he leaned over her, his hands planted on either side of her head.

“But you are my girlfriend. You promised me one week. And part of being the girlfriend is meeting the parents and going to boring family obligations like a cousin’s wedding. But I promise to make it up to you.” And with Alex’s tone dropping lower and becoming more suggestive, his eyes darkening right in front of her, Sawyer couldn’t help but relax. She just had to remind herself that whether Alex knew it or not, this was the new them. She was his girlfriend, and she was just going to have to get used to this.

However, it would help if Alex wouldn’t calm her down by shifting her attention to him. They had to get into the car and spend several hours driving up to Baltimore, and he was about two seconds away from getting Sawyer to pull him into the house, away from the car and back into the bedroom. If they did that, it was inevitable that they wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. As awesome as that sounded, especially since it would be able to delay everything she was dreading, she knew that if they didn’t leave today, and left tomorrow, Alex would be a bigger mess of worry since they’d be travelling trying to get there on time. So she voiced this to Alex, knowing that it would get him moving.

“You need to pull away from me before I push you back into the house and make it so we don’t leave until tomorrow.” Sawyer said, moving her hands to Alex’s waist, her fingers were starting to pull the end of Alex’s t-shirt up, and sure enough his hands had moved off the car and moved to wrap around hers in an attempt to stop her.

“As much as I would love to take you back into the house, I know if we put this off until tomorrow, we’re gonna be late tomorrow” Alex said, dropping Sawyer’s hands from his hold before stepping away from her and heading towards the driver side of the car.

Sawyer sighed, because she was actually hoping that he would be to distracted by the sexual tension that was always prominent between them to actually want to get in the car and drive for several hours. Obviously, Sawyer really didn’t understand the wrath of Mrs. Gaskarth that Alex was dead set on avoiding.

Sawyer moved off the car before heading to the passenger side, climbing into the front seat and shutting the door once she was securely seated. Just as she reached for her seat belt, Alex started the car, turning to shoot her a large smile. Sawyer simply gave him a small smile back with a roll of her eyes.

She couldn’t believe that she was going this.

She was probably over reacting, and she acknowledged that somewhere in her head. But that acknowledgement was small and barely present compared to the rest of the dread that she was feeling towards showing up at Alex’s parents’ house out of the blue and, surprise, dating their son.

Dating Alex. How were they even going to explain how that happened?

Wait, what WERE they going to say?

It hadn’t occurred to her that they didn’t have a plan. Well, who knows, maybe Alex had a plan, but Sawyer didn’t have a plan. What were his parents going to say? What would they ask? And how in the world would she answer those questions? Did Alex even realize since he thought of his brilliant “be my girlfriend for a week plan” that they were going to get asked questions that they weren’t ready for? Maybe even ones that they hadn’t thought of?

Sawyer was about five seconds from an anxiety attack. Here she was, in a car on her way to Baltimore to go and reintroduce herself to Alex’s family as his girlfriend that he’s never mentioned. Oh, and, taking her as his plus one to his cousin’s wedding. What kind of statement would they be making about their relationship?

“You look about ready to pass out from fright over there.” Alex’s voice brought her back to her surroundings. “Stop thinking so much.”

She glanced at the time, and noticed they had already been in the car for nearly an hour. How had she managed to get lost in her head for that long? Better yet, why had Alex waited so long to say something?

“We don’t have a plan.” She said simply, completely ignoring everything else in her head. One thing at a time, Sawyer. One at a time.

“A plan?” Alex questioned, daring to allow his eyes to avert from the road to make eye contact with her for a brief second before returning his focus to driving.

“Yes Alex. A plan.” Sawyer said, a bit of exasperation in her voice. “I’m going to be seeing your parents as your girlfriend, and like any normal set of parents, I’m sure that they are going to ask us questions. Questions like ‘how long have you been in contact?’ or ‘when did this happen?’ or how about my own question of what the hell are they gonna say about Allison?” Sawyer said, and yea, so Alex hadn’t quite been expecting that.

Not that Sawyer wasn’t making great points, especially points that they should definitely make answers to. But what caught him off guard was Sawyer’s own question. He hadn’t exactly been anticipating that one. And he felt stupid, because he definitely should have seen that question coming at some point.

“We broke up” Alex stated simply after he let the question linger in the air for a minute, and Sawyer let out a snort in response.

“You two do that all the time.” Sawyer stated with a bit of boredom in her voice. This was nothing new. Alex and Allison were notorious for breaking up and making up more times than Sawyer could get Alex into her bed while he was with her. And when it was just Alex and Sawyer, it was rare that they were out of bed. Sawyer had witnessed Alex and Allison break up and make up over the phone during one of his summer visits. Come on, they weren’t even in the same state and they were getting back together and breaking it off like it was normal.

“I ended it this time.” And ok. That was actually new. In all the time that Alex had been dating Allison that Sawyer had heard about, she had never once heard of Alex being the one to break it off. It was always Allison and Allison’s paranoia about Alex whoring it up while on tour, or on his mysterious solo vacations in the summer (not that Sawyer blamed the poor girl). And it was always Allison who came crawling back. Alex was just there in that relationship. Sawyer was never sure why, but Alex seemed perfectly content with being with Allison, (when he wasn’t with Sawyer, at least). Saying that she was a little more than stunned wouldn’t quite describe the feeling taking over her.

“That’s…” And she trailed off, because honestly, she still didn’t know what to say to him.

“Anyways” Alex said, leaving the conversation of Allison behind as quickly as he could. “You’re right. They probably will ask questions. I didn’t really think that far into it”

“Yea.” Sawyer said, trying to ignore the new information about Allison. “They will. And if we don’t figure out something to tell them, we aren’t going to be on the same page and that is going to be exceedingly awkward. Like, what happens when they ask how we got into contact again? Do we say we were always in contact or that we ran into each other? I mean, there are a lot of questions that could come up, and really, the only one we have an answer for is how we met. Cause thank god, we don’t have to lie about that one.”

“Well. Obviously we met in Virginia Beach when we were 16. You were reading that dumb book and I was trying to find someone to keep me entertained while I was stuck hundreds of miles away from my friends for the summer.” Sawyer rolled her eyes at Alex’s response. It was so typically male, so diluted, and so Alex, that she couldn’t help it.

“Yea. Because that’s entirely what happened.” She replied, a bite in her tone. “Anyways. When did we get together? Better yet, how did we end up talking again that led to us getting back together?”

“You stalked me once you saw my beautiful face on the TV and begged and begged me to give you a chance because you hated that you couldn’t have my beauty.” Alex said, and if Sawyer had been drinking anything at all, she would have spat it out instantly to try and prevent herself from choking. Instead she opted to snort at Alex, a roll of her eyes and her eyebrows raising up in absolute disbelief at his suggested scenario.

“You are an absolute idiot sometimes. Why am I fake dating you again?” She asked, and Alex pouted in response, daring to send the girl a brief glance as he continued to drive.

“Ok. Well what did you have in mind?” Alex asked, and Sawyer started to play with her nails, pulling away into herself.

“I dunno” She said shyly, nothing like the girl from seconds ago. “I was just thinking we could say that we normally ran into each other briefly every year when you spent your summers here, but last year we actually talked a bit more, and this year we got really close since you weren’t with Allison anymore.” She said, her voice sounding so small and unsure.

Alex nodded, looking a bit thoughtful and contemplative as he drove.

“That actually sounds pretty good. Makes it seem like we had some contact every year, but nothing extensive, that way it wasn’t weird when we started talking a bit more.” Alex nodded again. “I really think that’s smart.”

“When did we actually start dating?” Sawyer asked, her eyes moving to look at Alex, who got a very contemplative look.

“Well, if we say we almost started dating last year, but I got back together with Allison, yet we stayed in touch, we can say we started officially dating the day that I came here. That I came straight to your beach house and asked you on a date.” Alex suggested, and Sawyer only nodded.

“It’s a short time, but we’ve known each other longer, so it wouldn’t be too weird right?” She questioned, but all Alex could do was shrug.

“I mean, who cares if it is weird? We know we’ve been talking a lot longer than a year. Who cares if they think it’s only been a few weeks that we’ve really been together?” Alex stated, because really, he didn’t care. He figured if anyone had a problem with it, they could shove it.

“Yea. I mean, we know it’s been longer.” Sawyer nodded in affirmation.

“Exactly” Alex replied, smiling a bit at the fact that he really was excited to be going home for a bit, and he had Sawyer coming with him.

“What if they ask why you kept going back to Virginia Beach? Obviously I’m guessing that they don’t know you’ve been there.” Sawyer stated and Alex shrugged, a small smile on his lips.

“That’s an easy one. It was familiar. I can easily say that I kept coming here because I had already been used to coming here with my parents. It was just easy.” Alex stated.

“Whatever works right?” Sawyer said, and Alex nodded, reaching a hand from the steering wheel to grab Sawyer’s, gently moving his fingers over her hand.

“It’s going to be ok. I promise. This week is going to be wonderful. I won’t let anything bad happen.” Alex assured.

“I’m sure everything is going to be fine.” Sawyer said, but they both knew she was saying it to try and convince herself.

“Just remember. We’ll be at my house tonight. Rian will be there, more than likely with Austin. You can even call Jayce over if you want. It will literally be everyone you know tonight. Just relax. Save the fretting for tomorrow ok?” Alex said and Sawyer smiled over at him, nodding, letting the silence engulf them once more.

What in the world had she gotten herself into?