The Beach

“Are we there yet?” Sawyer said excitedly as she bounced up and down in her seat on the plane. It had been two days since Sawyer had agreed to move in with Alex, and she had insisted they book the next flight out to LA so that she could pack and see Macy. Alex had managed to convince Sawyer that waiting a few days would be better, especially since they had just made it to Baltimore a few days prior. However, Sawyer’s idea of a compromise was to wait two days before boarding a 9am flight to Los Angeles.

Alex just chuckled, reaching and grabbing Sawyer’s hand in his own as she looked out the window, watching the clouds and land below her pass by.

“Since we’re still in the air, I’m gonna go ahead and go with no, we’re not there yet.” Alex replied, causing Sawyer to turn and send him a playful glare for his teasing.

“I’m sorry. But they announced we’re descending and I’m really excited to see Macy again.” She said with a smile. “I’m just really happy right now.” She said, leaning into Alex as he in turn rested his head on top of hers.

“I know you’re excited. We’re gonna see Macy and pack up your stuff and get you two moved to Baltimore where you’re gonna be stuck with me.” Sawyer laughed a bit at that, having a hard time not smiling at Alex and the excitement he was exuding.

“I may have forgotten to tell you one small little thing.” Sawyer said, figuring now was as good a time as any. Alex moved so that he could turn to look at Sawyer, his eyebrows raised and a bit confused.

“So. I don’t exactly live with Macy.” She said, and Alex groaned.

“Tell me you didn’t.” Alex said, and Sawyer just gave him a sheepish smile.

“I maybe kinda did.” Sawyer said. “Sorry.”

“You live with that idiot?” He asked.

“Yea. I kinda do. Which means we have to pack up my stuff from his apartment. But its entirely possible that we get lucky and he’s working. I mean, I just need to pack up my clothes and what not. I don’t need to pack up like, dishes or stuff like that. I can leave those things there. I’m assuming that you have dishes at your house.” She replied snarkily.

“This is so gonna suck isn’t it?” Alex asked. Sawyer just shrugged in response. She didn’t really know what to say, because if they ran into Jake, it probably would suck trying to explain that she was moving out, that she was leaving to move across country, and that , oh yea, she was dating Alex who Jake had trusted in the time that he had known him.

It was only ten minutes later that Alex and Sawyer found themselves landed and getting ready to exit the plane. Worse yet, Sawyer was bouncing on the balls of her feet as they stood waiting to depart the plane, the excitement she had felt previously multiplied at the mere thought of seeing her best friend in mere moments.

“You need to calm down. We’re almost off the plane and then we’ll be in baggage claim where Macy said she would meet us.” Alex said with a laugh as Sawyer turned to look back at him from her place standing in front of him in the airplane aisleway, a cheeky grin on her face.

“I’m just really excited to see Macy. The worst part of spending summers with you is not seeing her for an extended period of time.” She said and even though she seemed so happy about seeing Macy now, Alex knew that it was hard for her to be apart from her best friend for so long and that the happiness was really one of longing from missing Macy.

“I know you are. I can’t wait to actually meet her. There has got to be something special about her if she gets you this riled up.” Alex teased, and Sawyer just laughed, moving forward until she could step off of the plane, Alex right behind her.

He almost had trouble keeping up with Sawyer as she moved quickly, her feet scuttling across the airport floor and towards the escalators that lead to the baggage claim. Alex had almost lost sight of her, being the one to carry their duffel bag for the three day trip, barely managing to keep ahold of it as he dodged through the sea of people.

By the time that Alex had reached baggage claim, his eyes managed to find his blond girlfriend with her arms wrapped around a equally small red head. Alex made his way over to the two girls, barely registering on Sawyer’s radar as she happily smiled at the little red head in front of her.

“I’m going to assume you’re Macy.” Alex said as he approached, drawing both girl’s attention to him as he reached his hand out for Macy.

“And since you know who Sawyer is in the midst of LAX, I’m going to assume you’re Alex.” Macy said with a laugh, ignoring his hand and pulling the tall brunette in for a hug.

“I guess that means I don’t need to do any introductions!” Sawyer said happily as her boyfriend and best friend pulled away from each other, one of Alex’s arms going to wrap itself around Sawyer’s shoulders.

“You suck at them anyways.” Macy said, causing Sawyer to stick out her tongue at the girl in return. “Do we need to grab any bags from the baggage carousel?” Both Alex and Sawyer shook their heads.

“Nope. One bag for three days. If we packed more, she’d be tempted to stay here longer than necessary.” Alex teased.

“Well let’s get back to my apartment then. I’ve got almost all of my stuff packed up and ready to go. Just the bed needs to be packed and some bathroom stuff.” Macy stated, guiding the couple out of the airport and across the street to the parking structure. She led them to a small compact car, confusing Sawyer.

“Where’s your SUV?” Sawyer asked as she got into the front seat of the silver car, Alex getting in behind her.

“Already on its way to Maryland. Since I had no desire to drive across country to get my car there, I just sucked it up and paid to have to shipped over to Alex’s house.” Macy said with a shrug before turning the car on and heading towards the exit.

“You’re nuts.” Sawyer commented, and Macy laugh.

“This coming from the girl who has been having a secret summer affair for what, four years? I think I’ll stick being my kind of nuts.” Macy retorted.

“Ugh. Don’t remind me. Thinking about Jake makes me uncomfortable. I have to go to the apartment and pray to god he isn’t there so that I can pack up all of my stuff.” Sawyer groaned, not even wanting to think about what she was going to have to do in the next couple of days.

“Well. Supposedly, and please do not quote me on this.” Macy warned, sending a glance to Sawyer in the passenger seat. “Supposedly Jake is working a 16 hour shift tomorrow and shouldn’t be home.”

“That would be convenient.” Alex agreed. “Especially since I don’t want to explain to the guy that while he thought my best friend was after his fiancé, nope, it was really me and I kinda already had her but you are just to dumb to notice.” Alex said, causing Macy to laugh and Sawyer to groan.

“So eloquent Alex.” Sawyer said with a shake of her head.

“I think it seemed like a fairly accurate playout of what would happen.” Macy said. “I like this one. I think we’re gonna get along just fine.” Macy said, commenting about Alex.

“I’m fairly certain I’m mandated to like you by Sawyer, so hopefully that counts.” Alex retorted back, earning laughs from both the girls in the front of the car.

“It counts for now. Hopefully you’ll come to like me of your own accord.” Macy said with a glance into the review mirror to meet Alex’s eyes before returning her eyes to the road.

Small chatter continued until Macy pulled the compact up to the curb outside of a condo.

“Home sweet home.” Macy rang, turning the car off before exiting, Sawyer and Alex mimicking her actions. Alex grabbed the duffel bag full of his and Sawyer’s possessions before following the two into the condo.

Looking around, it was obvious that Macy had been packing her belongings into several boxes, newspaper and bubblewrap taking over most of the floor of the living room.

“I figured I’d just put the extra stuff into a storage unit until I find a place to live at of my own. I doubt there will be a need for most of this stuff in your house.” Macy motioned to the furniture and miscellaneous boxes around her condo.

“We can always find some room for some stuff if you wanna keep it in the house.” Alex said, but Macy shrugged.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” She responded half heartedly, not seeming to care too much. “I’m just excited for a change. Los Angeles is beginning to suffocate me.” Macy continued.

“Well, it’s definitely going to be a change.” Sawyer said, her eyes flickering over to Alex as a small smile graced her lips.

“I’ve already got some job interviews lined up for once we get there and I have time to settle in. Who knew that Baltimore needed graphic designers so bad?” Macy stated.

“You do graphic design?” Alex asked, intrigued.

“I can see that Sawyer obvious spends a lot of time talking about me when you two are together.” Macy stated, sarcasm coating her words and her eyebrows raised as she looked at Sawyer, who in turned scoffed.

“Because while I’m with Alex, I wanna talk about you. Obviously top priority Mace.” Sawyer said with a roll of her eyes causing Alex to laugh at the two girls.

“I just find it funny that Sawyer went into programming, you went into design, and yet you two don’t work together? I mean, it seems like it might be smarter not to based on what I’ve already witnessed, seeing as I’m not sure you two would get too much work done, but I can’t help but find humor in the fact that you two went into similar but completely different areas of work.” Alex stated, and the two just shrugged in response.

“I’m not good at artsy things at all.” Sawyer said with a shrug.

“And I can’t read through lines of programming to save my life. It all looks like a foreign language to me.” Macy responded.

“I feel like asking Macy to also move in is going to probably give me a lot of headaches, isn’t it?” Alex asked, looking between the two that seemed to operate so seamlessly together. They both smiled in return.

“Trust me when I say, it can’t be any worse than the headache I’m sure to get around you and Jack.” Sawyer said, moving closer to Alex to lean up and give him a kiss on his cheek as he laughed.

“Well love birds, want to help me finish packing? If we get my stuff done today, we can spend all day tomorrow getting Sawyer’s stuff and have a nice free day before catching our early flight in a few days.” Macy stated. Sawyer and Alex looked at each other before nodding.

“Sounds good. Especially since we’re gonna be unpacking most of the day after we get home, it might be nice to be able to have a break in-between it all.” Sawyer said and Alex agreed.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Sawyer said, looking at Macy and Alex before they both smiled at her.

“You better start believing.” Macy said before grabbing an unmade box and handing it to Sawyer with a smile.