Force of Habit

Chapter 17

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Hey, Eric, could you get that?" I ask my brother as I dig through my closet looking for a hoodie.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Eric!" I shout.

I hear a mumbled reply and see him walking past the open door of my room to the front door while munching an apple. I roll my eyes and go back to searching for this warm fluffy sweatshirt that I swear I saw only yesterday.

"Oh, um, hi!" I hear Sawyer's voice ring out through the apartment, "Um, who are you?" he asks Eric.

"I'm Eric," my brother says, taking a very loud bite out of the apple.

"Okay... Well I'm here to pick up Olivia."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Sawyer. Where's Olivia?" he asks, sounding more than a bit confused.

"She's inside."

"Okay, well could I see her?"

"Depends."

"Depends? What do you mean depends!? Is Olivia mad at me or something?"

There it is! I found the hoodie! Where were you little buddy? I've been looking all over for you. Hurriedly I pick the maroon sweatshirt up from it's place on the floor and make my way over to the door.

"Hey, Sawyer," I say.

"You know this guy?" Eric turns and asks me.

"Yeah he's a... um, friend."

"So your friends just show up at random times with flowers that are obviously for you?"

"Yeah sure," He brought me flowers? "Eric, let Sawyer in."

Eric steps aside to let the curly haired boy into my more than slightly messy apartment.

"So, you ready?" Sawyer asks me once he steps inside.

"Um, yeah," I say, looking down at the sweatshirt in my hands, "This is yours by the way."

"No, that's okay, you can keep it," Sawyer says, earning a look of disbelief from Eric, who walks away muttering something along the lines of, "Friends! Yeah right."

"You sure?" I ask.

"Yeah, I have others. These are yours by the way," he says, handing me the daisies he brought.

"Oh my goodness! Thank you so much, Sawyer," I say, setting down the sweatshirt and taking the daisies from him, "Let me just put these in some water and we can go, okay?"

"Okay."

I head into the kitchen pull out a tall water bottle, which I'll have to use as a vase since I don't have one. Nobody has ever bought me flowers before.

"So are you guys just friends?" Eric asks me from where he's sitting at my small kitchen table.

"Look it's confusing."

"Not really. It looks more like you guys are dating."

"We're not dating, Eric," I say, placing the flowers in the blue water bottle.

"Yeah right," he scoffs.

"I'll see you later," I say, making my way out of the kitchen,"Try not to burn my apartment down while I'm out!" I call behind me.

Sawyer smiles when he sees me re-enter the room,"Ready?"

"Yeah definitely."

After about ten minutes of walking, Sawyer and I enter a park light up with Christmas lights lining the trees along a pathway. As we enter the little lighted walkway, Sawyer wordlessly slips his gloved hand into mine. I look down at our hands and smile.