© Copyright 2012
All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.

He couldn't find Alexa anywhere until lunch, when he finally spotted her, she was headed outside with a brown paper bag and a can of Sprite.

She wore make up and had done her hair so it fell into loose waves. Jeans hugged her hips and revealed the figure he knew was there. A scarf was draped around her shoulders. She looked hot. Happy Birthday Sawyer.

He appreciated the sweatpant clad, ratty hair Alexa just the same. Girls like her, the kind who didn't have a clue they were beautiful, were the best kind. Pulling his smokes from his pocket and bringing one to his mouth, he whistled. He was striking his match as she turned.

“Oh, hi Sawyer.” Her cheeks were red. She held up her brown paper bag to show a coating of grease oozing out of the bottom. “I was just going to have lunch.”

He stepped forward, took her free hand with his and held it out, skimming his eyes across her body before he winked. “You're blushin' again, sugar and lookin' all pretty for me.”

The crimson spread across her face fiercely and she became flustered. “Um, I-I didn't, I don't. No.”

“No? As in you don't look pretty or no as in it isn't for me?” Push it to the limit. All the time.

Rather than answer him and feed his desire to persist with making her uneasy, Alexa ignored his comment. “Want to have lunch with me?”

Sawyer eyed her paper bag. It was covered in spots that were near translucent as the grease ate away at the bag. Weird. He'd pegged her as a veggie chick. Like Lane. “What is it?”

“I don't know,” Alexa said. “Aunt Gabby had Liam run to the dinner down the road and pick it up. I think its a Dagwood sandwich or a philly cheesesteak.”

Sawyer took the bag from her hands and peeked inside. He rolled the top closed and handed it back to her. “I think it's a ploy. They're trying to poison you.”

Alexa giggled. “Why would they do that?”

Sawyer looked up at the sky. “Oh, I don't know. Maybe they're trying to eliminate the gorgeous people. We should run.”

She laughed harder. God, he liked that sound. The same feeling he had when he made Devin laugh wrapped itself around him.

“C'mon sugar,” he said. “You eat and I'll observe.” He reached out for her hand and led her to one of the hundreds of trees on the property. The place was empty except for them. It was strange. The sun was shining and Sawyer wondered why the grounds weren't crawling with patients.

Alexa sat, removing her sandwich from the bag. Its foil packaging was not surprisingly, dripping with grease. She scrunched up her nose. “Maybe I should have one of your nasty cigarettes for lunch.”

Sawyer stretched out on the grass, crooking his elbow and resting his head. He nodded. “Might be better for you than whatever that is.”

“What did you do this morning?” she asked as she took a bite.

“Helped Babs. Hung a pot rack, fixed a burnt out element on her stove, graced her with my presence.”

Alexa rolled her eyes. “Do you just like wake up every morning and tell yourself how great you are?”

“Someone's gotta do it,” Sawyer said. “Besides, you woke up this morning and told yourself how great I am. Otherwise you wouldn't be lookin' so ...” he narrowed his eyes. “Hot.”

“It's not for you,” she chided. “Get over yourself.”

“Aww, sugar, c'mon now. I like that you want to look pretty for me,” he teased.

Alexa perked up. “Oh look,” she said pointing to the distance. “There's your ego.”

Sawyer gazed in the direction she indicated. Robbie, Seabass, Charlie, Devin and Lane were barely visible through the enormous balloon collection they had amassed. They were blue, red, green, orange and yellow. As they approached, he noticed one had a skull and crossbones etched in sharpie courtesy no doubt of Devin.

Sawyer couldn't help but smile. “don't remind me” to Lane must have sounded something like, “come and make asses out of me and yourself.”

A mile wide grin stretched across his mouth as he stood up. As much as he pretended he didn't care, truth was, he did. They were the only people who mattered to him and he was grateful that they'd refused to let his birthday go unnoticed. 

“Apparently my ego is very colorful,” he told Alexa.

She put her sandwich down and used her hand to shield the sun from her eyes. “Who is that?”

He spoke with pride. “That,” he said. “Is my family.”

Devin was leading the brigade hobbling on her neon pink boot. Her blonde hair fanned out with the wind. She looked like a shampoo commercial. Lane was on her left, Robbie to her right and Charlie and Seabass followed behind.

They lot of them began to sing, Sebastian was the only one who sounded any good. “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear Sawyer, Happy Birthday to you!”

Sawyer walked up to Devin, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her off the ground. “Hi darlin'.”

“Happy Birthday!” she proclaimed.

He set her back on the ground and smirked at the group. “Y'all are crazy.”

“Nah,” Robbie said. “These people are crazy,” he swept his hand to the building.

“Please don't call them that,” came a voice from behind. Sawyer turned and helped Alexa up off the ground. “I don't mean to be rude,” she continued, “but the people inside are very important to me.”

“Don't mind him,” Sawyer told her. “Robbie is socially unacceptable. “You'll get used to it.”

She'd get used to it? Did that mean he wanted to spend more time with her? She smiled warmly at the guy who had committed the faux pas and gave him a shy wave. “I'm Alexa,” she said. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so forward, but I have friends in there.”

Robbie dismissed her concerns. “S'okay. I'm Robbie and I have foot in mouth syndrome.”

She laughed. Her eyes flitted across the members of Sawyer's band. Rachel would have a total fit when she heard about this. Robbie was shorter than the others and his eyes shone with a certain brand of mischief. She imagined he'd be funny.

A guy with sandy colored hair stood near the back, his hands entwined with a blonde girl. She had corkscrew curls and looked at the boy next to her like he was the only person who existed. Alexa knew from the website this was Sebastian, the vocalist. It was his voice which held such a lovely cadence to it. Rather than admit she'd googled his band, she just looked at Sawyer.

He shook out of some kind of reverie he was in and said, “Oh, right. That's Seabass and Charlie.”

Alexa nodded.

He pointed to the third member of the band. He was nearly as tall as Sawyer with blonde hair. His shirt was pulled tight against his skin, showcasing incredible biceps. Holy crap! He must've worked out at least five days a week. “This is Lane. My roommate and bassist for the band.”

“Hi Lane.”

Lane's eyes barely met hers. “Hi,” he mumbled.

Alexa looked at the smaller blonde girl, the one with the cast. Was she his girlfriend? The thought that Sawyer might be taken hadn't occurred to her until now. It shouldn't matter. Her future was still unwritten. Those pages could not be filled with his hazel eyes, his unshakable demeanor and unwavering confidence.

Sawyer threw an arm around the girl's shoulder and despite what she'd told herself, there was a pinch inside her belly. She didn't want to see him with another girl. “This is Devin.”

Devin grinned as Alexa examined her. There was no way she could compete with that girl. She didn't look much older than Sadie but she was model like gorgeous. “Hi!” Devin said. “So you're stuck with Sawyer for the summer, apologies from all of us.”

Damn it. She was nice.

“That's okay,” Alexa said. “He's not as bad as he pretends to be.”

“I know, right?” Devin said.

Sawyer poked Devin in the side. “Enough from you.”

“Fine,” Devin said. “I won't tell you we're taking you out for lunch or that we actually bought you a present, but you have to wait until later.”

Alexa's eyes shot to her discarded paper bag. The homesickness she felt was instantaneous. She missed Rachel.

Sebastian noticed first. “Why don't you come with us, Alexa?”

Charlie perked up. “That's a great idea.”

Everyone agreed but she sensed Lane was more reluctant than the others. “No, that's alright,” she said. “It's your guys' thing.”

Sawyer distanced himself from Devin, leaning in to whisper in her ear. “But it's my birthday, yeah? You could be my present.”

Alexa, keeping her eyes glued to the group whispered through clenched teeth, “I don't think your girlfriend would be too happy about that.”  

This caught him off guard. “She's coming,” he told them. “Wait here. She can't take off without telling her aunt.” Without giving her any choice, he grabbed the top of her arm and pulled her inside. Once the doors closed behind them, he faced her. “My girlfriend?”

“Devin? Isn't she your girlfriend?”

The look on his face was a cross between shock and revulsion. “She's like a baby sister. I'd do anything for her, I'd be anyone she wanted me to be, except her boyfriend.”

Alexa tilted her head to the side. “Does she know that?”

“'Course she does.”

She found it hard to swallow but there was a part of her deep inside that wanted to believe him. “Okay,” she said. “I'll come.”

“Cool.” He leaned forward, placing his mouth next to her ear so every word he spoke sent a shiver directly down her spine. “You wanna be my present later?”

She was tired of his upper hand. She didn't like that he could make her knees weak with the tone in his voice or her heart trip over itself by brushing by her. Although she didn't have a clue on the required skills for flirting, she did what came naturally. She tilted her hip out to the side and ran her tongue across her lips before biting down on it, and looking up at him. She was aiming for the same expression Charlie gave Sebastian.

“Sawyer?” she said in a low voice.

His body shifted, a sign that her efforts were working. “What, sugar?”

“You're pushing your luck,” she said. “The most you'll get from me is a Happy Birthday. I might even buy you a snack from the vending machine later.”

It didn't even phase him. “Careful,” he warned. “You're playing a very dangerous game, Alexa. I always win.”

His words unraveled the cool collective she was trying to portray. It was with that promise that she turned and headed out the door.

Lunch was a lot more fun that she bargained for. After careful observation, she decided maybe Sawyer was right. Devin behaved like a sister, a pest, constantly razzing Sawyer about his choice of everything from his food to her bedazzled helmet, making fun of the way he spoke. He was so good about it, feeding it right back to her as she dished it out. She'd never seen two people make each other laugh so much.

Charlie and Sebastian were much more reserved but friendly and open, and as she'd predicted, Robbie was the life of the party. He was so loud that the waitress had to come over and ask them to please keep it down.

Lane remained silent throughout most of their lunch and the way he scrutinized Alexa was unsettling.

It took longer than an hour mostly because continual interruption by fans kept them from actually eating. “Is it always like this?” she whispered to Robbie while Sawyer was taking a picture with a beautiful brunette.

“Always,” he said, nodding. “We can't really go anywhere anymore.” There was a hint of sadness to his voice as he spoke. It must be hard to have a regular life one moment and the next any shred of privacy you thought you had was taken away.

When they left, even though she'd cleaned her plate, she felt empty. Seeing them together was a lot to take. It was unquestionable the bond between them was constructed from some super force structured to survive an apocalypse. She had one person in the world, Rachel, and she was missing her desperately.