The Maine Attraction

1. Surprises

6 years earlier

"Aves, I'm running out to grab dinner. Sawyer is on his way, he'll probably get here before I get back." My brother, Callum, said as he grabbed his keys off of the island.

"Okay." I said in response, not looking up from the book I was reading.

I heard the front door open and close, signaling that Callum had left to go pick up food for the three of us. It was a normal occurrence at this point, our dad was often gone and Sawyer was always at our house.

Sawyer Evans was Callum's best friend of many, many years. They were the typical football player popular boys and I was the typical little sister, crushing on her older brothers best friend.

I was 17, Sawyer and Callum were both 20. I was getting ready to go into my senior year of high school, they were going into their junior year of college. They were both still popular and making themselves known in university. I was stuck in the same small town, keeping myself in the background away from the crowd.

The front door opened again less than 10 minutes later. I knew it was Sawyer. He never knocked anymore; he didn't need to. This was basically his house too.

"Ave?" His deep, rich voice called out. "Cal said you were home." He called out again.

I shoved a bookmark in my book and stood up from the island. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to smooth it out a little bit as I walked into the living area to greet him.

"Hey, welcome home." I smiled my stupid, brace covered smile. I couldn't wait to get these things off.

"Good to see you, it's been a couple months!" He kicked his shoes off and walked up to me, wrapping me in a hug without hesitation.

I couldn't help but notice that his arms were a bit more muscular. I also couldn't help but notice that he smelt just as amazing as he always did, he always smelt of vanilla with a hint of something that I could never quite put my finger on.

"Good to see you too." I said softly. He released me from his arms moments later and took a seat on the grey sectional. I took a seat as well, keeping some distance between the two of us. "How's college treating you?" I asked.

"It's great. Football team is treating me well. It still sucks not playing with Cal, but it's always cool when we get to play each other." He grinned.

I listened to him go on about how college was going. He seemed to be doing well, just as I expected him to be doing. He didn't play very often, but he was happy with what he did get to play. He told me that he thought he'd be able to play more this year, which was exciting.

"Senior year, how exciting. Little Avery is about to be an adult." He chuckled. I blushed, grabbing a pillow from behind me and throwing it at him. "Hey! What was that for?" he laughed as he caught the pillow.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them as I looked in his direction. "What if I don't get into a good school? What if I can't figure out what I want to do? What if I can't figure out how to adult?" I asked, feeling stupid for talking to him about everything but they were genuine questions and fears I had. I had a routine, I knew how to be a high schooler. I didn't know how to do anything else.

Sawyer reached over, putting his hand on my knee. "Ave, calm down. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You still have the entire senior year, the only thing you need to worry about is who you're going to prom with." He chuckled.

Maybe that's the only thing he needed to worry about, but that was literally the least of my worries. 

"Sawyer, I'm probably not even going to prom. That's not on my list of worries." I said and glanced at his hand that was still on my knee.

"Why wouldn't you go to prom? It's senior year, that's like... the second most important thing." He looked at me like I was crazy for even thinking that I wouldn't go.

I couldn't help but laugh at his comment. Our priorities were definitely different. "Because it's just a dance? I probably won't have anyone to go with and I'm not going by myself. Sawyer, if prom was the second most important thing for you when you were a senior, how on earth did you make it into such a good school?"

He gave my knee a quick squeeze before moving his hand and leaning back on the couch again. I didn't miss the squeeze though; it sent chills up and down my leg.

"Shit, Jones. If you don't have anyone to take you to prom, I'll come back up and go with you."

My eyes widened. "You don't mean that." There's no way he meant that and I wasn't about to get my hopes up thinking that he would actually do that. If anything, he definitely wasn't doing it because he wanted to go to prom with me. He was doing it because he felt guilty that his best friends little sister was talking about not going to prom because she didn't have a date.

Why were we even talking about this? The year hadn't even begun and it wasn't even close to prom season.

"Why would I say that if I didn't mean it? You need to go to your senior prom and I will happily go with you if it means you'll go." He folded his arms over his chest and looked at me with a smile that simply melted my little heart.

"I'll think about it," was all I said back.

"Oh, you'll think about going to prom with me?" He asked with a chuckle.

I could sense the mood was lightening back up, which made me feel relieved. "Yes. I will think about it. Maybe if you come home early with some flowers and a sign or something I'll think about it a little harder." I smiled back at him. "Oh no, better yet. Get the football team to help you ask me like you did with Madison Yanky your senior year." I grinned, teasing him about how he'd asked out his prom date.

This made him laugh. God he had the most beautiful laugh. He'd always had it, it was something that never changed. Well, it got deeper... but that only made it that much more beautiful.

"I'll see what I can do for you, Jones." He chuckled.

I liked when he called me Jones. When he wasn't calling Callum 'Cal', he called him Jones. It was a football thing, I think. So it always made me feel cool when he would call me Jones as well.

"Anyway, do you have any ideas what you want to do after graduation?" He asked, changing the subject again.

I shrugged. "I've always thought I wanted to be a writer, but I'm not sure if I have what it takes."

"Avery Jones, don't ever doubt yourself. If you want to be a writer, then be a writer. Who gives a shit what other people think? If it's something that you like, then do it and fuck the rest of the world." He said immediately, his tone quickly becoming serious.

Whoa.

I didn't even know how to respond.

"And if you feel like you can't be a writer here, then pack it up and go be a writer somewhere else. Go to New York or California or something." He added on as I was still trying to think of a response to the first part of his statement.

I laughed a breathy laugh. "California? New York? Sawyer, do you know nothing about me?"

"What? You don't think you'd ever move out of the state?" He asked.

I shrugged. I'd never thought about it before. "I've never considered it. This is home. Dads here, Callum is here, you're here. Can you see me living in a place like California?"

"You never know. You're full of surprises, you know?" His voice had changed just slightly and I had absolutely no idea what he meant by that.

I was about to ask when the front door opened, letting both of us know that Callum was back. Sawyer hopped off the couch to greet my brother. 

"Evans! Welcome home." My brother said with a smile.

"Good to see you, Jones." He gave my brother a quick hug before the two of them walked into the kitchen, immediately picking up like they'd never left each other.

I sat on the couch for another couple of minutes, trying to figure out what Sawyer meant when he said I was full of surprises.

He could picture me moving to somewhere like California?

Me? Of all people?

Sawyer, get real.