The Pickup Line

Chapter Nine

This one's for the accidental lovers.  This one's for the ones who are not in love. To my ex, to my mom, to my dad and the teachers ; My boss and the cops, oh my god, all the preachers.  All the give, and the take, and the take, and the give.  Now we've taken enough, it's enough, so just sing.

Everywhere I Go (Kings and Queens) - New Politics

-Sawyer-

"Andrew never came back last night.  He told me that Brayden was so messed up that he didn't want to leave him alone... and that he really wanted to yell at him for what he did," Tess told me from across the table.  I had woken up that morning feeling weak and supporting a pounding headache, so Gracie forced us all into her car in our pajamas.  Ten minutes later we were all seated in a booth at Ihop.

"He didn't do anything wrong.  That's the problem.  No one ever does anything wrong, I just..." I trailed off.  I didn't know what I was.  The reaction and memories were so clear from my childhood. The pain still very evident, even my therapist had trouble calming me down while I told him everything.  

"He still shouldn't have done that, it was extremely rude and way too soon to be doing that," Hannah said.  She was pissed at him, hated him even.  I couldn't say the same, but I wasn't sure how I would react to seeing him again.  The upside to the other attacks was I never saw the people again. 

"It's not like he knew," I told them.  I was torn in half.  I hadn't told him because it was so soon, and then he shows up drunk too soon.  

"Sawyer it's alright to be mad at him," Gracie told me.  She saw how much my past still hurt me, and she knew how I was feeling right now. 

"No, it really isn't," I said with a sigh. There was no denying it, it was a personal issue that I had yet to work out.  Just then our food came out and we didn't say anything else about the matter.  

"Tess, Andrew didn't say anything to him about it, did he?" I asked, chewing on my bacon. If someone did tell him, I would prefer it to be me.  Then again, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see him again. 

"No, I told him to keep it hush-hush," Tess replied.  I saw guilt flash across her features before she continued inhaling her french toast.  I pushed all thoughts of Brayden and last night away and let myself think about our trip tomorrow.  It was going to be my first big-girl flying trip without my mom and I couldn't wait.  

"What are you going to do now?" Tess asked me.  Tess was a hopeless romantic and I could tell that she was hoping for the best.  "You guys click so well, and you basically just met," she said, glancing around the restaurant.

"No idea.  I'll probably just wait until we get back to do anything about it," I said. I looked back down at my empty plate.  I was extremely embarrassed about last night, no matter how many times they saw what happened it always made me feel guilty about putting them through it.

"Good idea," Gracie said, nodding her head.  We all stopped talking about it when our waitress came back with the check, and didn't talk about it on the car ride home, didn't talk about it as we walked up the steps to our apartments. 

"I'm going to go finish packing," Tess told us as she unlocked their door. "I'll come over later with pizza," she said as she disappeared into the apartment. 

"I'm gonna go call my mom and dad, say my goodbyes and hope they don't call until I'm back," Hannah huffed as she sent me a sad smile.  I hated that look.  A pity look.  

"Let's go," Gracie said as she pulled me through the doorway.  "I'm gonna go call Dave, will you be okay?" she asked me.  Dave was basically her fuckbuddy, but there were definitely feelings there.  Even if they didn't want to admit it.