Saved

Chapter 15

Sawyer POV

I finished my shower and am getting dressed. My phone goes off with a Instagram notification, E_mcph10 has posted a new photo.

I open it and see it's a photo of her and Ben at the beach, tears well up in my eyes and I throw my phone across the room only to see it shatter. 'Shit.'

I grab my backpack and head downstairs. As I'm at the bottom, Alex walks in. "I'm home!" I look at her and laugh. "Alright let me set my things out and then let's see what we've got."

I sit at the table and pull my work out. I sigh and look at everything. "I don't know where to start..." I turn to look at Alex. "Let's do Rachel's stuff, baby"

"You've been calling me that a lot."

Alex stares at me and her eyes widen, "Sawyer, I'm sorry. It's a habit because of Charlie, I uh I can stop-"

I shrug, "I don't mind."

She bobs her head and smiles, "Okay, baby."

I turn back to the table and smile. Alex sets down a water for me while I pull out the folder that Rachel got me. I hand it to Alex.

She pulls out the book and I groan. "Can we skip that?" "It's in here Sawyer, so we have to do it. It says you only have to do two pages. You want to do the checkboxes?"

I nod. She draws up five checkboxes and hands me the book. I open it to the second page since I only did one page with Rachel.

I start to read, slowly and struggle with almost every word. "Ss, tuh, ruh, ah, I, guh, huh, tuh" I just stare at the word because I have no fucking idea what it is. I can feel tears building and just throw the book off the table.

Alex sighs and picks it up then reaches to erase a check. "Stop! Leave it! I earned it!" "Sawyer...you know better. I'll help you with the word, but you have to try to say it. You want a snack or some water?"

"A snack..." "Okay, now try to say the word."

I stare at it, "straigt?" "Nice try baby. Look, the g and the h are silent when they're like this and the a is long because it's before an I, so it's straight." I drop my head, "Straight." She puts a check and I sigh. I watch her get up and start putting together some fruit.

"Can I kick?" "You need one more check."

I put on my best puppy dog face, "Can't we break the rules?"

She shakes her head, "Nope. Staying consistent, Sawyer."

I decide to  keep reading and get stuck again. "Alex, please help me." "Thanks for asking, but you try first then I'll help."

I whine. "You're okay. Just try." She walks over and I see fruit cut up, which makes me smile. I go to grab some, but Alex moves the bowl, "Sound out the word and read it, Sawyer."

I sigh and sound out the word, "Eh, mm, buh, rr, ah, cuh, eh, emb-rack."

"Good try, Sawyer, embrace is the word." She stares at me and I sigh.

"Embrace." She kisses my forehead and gives me a check and the fruit, which I happily take and start eating.

"I'm not sure if you know, but the team is away for the next two games after tomorrow..." I stare at her. "Charlie and I will be in Louisville Tuesday morning through Thursday morning, then in North Carolina Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning."

"So you'll be gone? For the whole week? What about next weekend?"

"Hey it's okay. Serv will be here so you'll have a weekend together just you guys. Okay? Maybe you can go surf and take dogs to the beach? How does that sound?"