No Shame (Book 2 - No Regrets)

Chapter Five - Un-Perfect

KATIE'S POV

Sawyer's bedroom always smells like cotton and lavender. Despite the room being in an organized-chaos state. I flop on to his bed, "What do you want to do?" I ask.

"Finish this." Sawyer answers from where he is seated at his desk.

"I thought you said that paper would be done by yesterday." I say. I sit up on his bed and watch him type on his computer.

"That was the plan." He replies. He stops typing and looks over his shoulder at me. He gives me an apologetic smile as he says, "I need maybe an hour or two, and then I swear finished or not, we will do something."

Since I prioritize school above fun, I have no reason to be anything other than forgiving. I get off his bed and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Okay." I say smiling at him. "Don't rush and don't work yourself too hard." I give his hair a little ruffle. He takes my hand and his soft lips kiss the top. "Thank you." He says.

I gently close his door behind me as I leave his room. I make my way down to the basement where Sawyer's brothers are playing video games. The chance of me finding them in the basement playing video games or watching movies is 50-50. "Ditched again?" Zeke, Sawyer's older brother, asks when he sees me. He is the first one to notice me.

Sawyer's other brothers, Logan, the oldest, and Parker are too immersed in their game to notice me until I sit down on the bean-bag. "He is busy with school. He has a heavy course load." I say defending Sawyer. Not sure exactly why, there is not much reason to defend. Zeke was asking a question, not with the purpose of being demeaning or create conflict.

"You have a heavier one, not to mention you have basketball practice." Zeke replies.

I shrug my shoulders, "I'm used to heavy course loads and busy schedules. Must be wired into my genes." I look over at the television screen. "What's the game?" I ask gesturing to the images on the screen.

"A fantasy RPG." Logan answers.

I watch the boys play the game for a bit, watching them wonder around the virtual land and occasionally fight virtual mystical characters. "Katie, can you give me a hand upstairs?" Zeke asks getting up.

I nod my head and get out of the bean-bag chair. I follow Zeke upstairs, he goes into the kitchen and pulls two cans of soda out of the fridge. He hands me one and gestures for me to continue to follow him. We go out onto their backyard-patio, he rests his can of soda and arms on the top of the railing. I do the same. I look out at the backyard for a bit before asking, "What did you need help with?" I ask:

Zeke chuckles a bit, "A white lie." He says. "Thought you may want some actual human interaction."

"Oh." I say not hiding my surprise. "Thanks."

Zeke just shrugs his shoulders and takes a sip of his soda. We stand in silence for a minute or two, drinking our sodas and looking out at the view. The curled ends of his black hair dance a bit as the wind runs through his hair. Out of all Sawyer's brothers, Zeke resembles him the most. There are the differences, however, such as Zeke having a darker complexion and having a narrower face shape.

"I apologize on your boyfriend's behalf for his crappy inattentive behavior." Zeke says ending our silence.

I raise an eyebrow, "Inattentive?"

"You two have been dating for what, two? Three months? He still hasn't taken you on a real date and when you're here, he's usually occupied with other things." Zeke's claims are not completely inaccurate. Sawyer and I have been dating for three months; and a majority of the time we are together, at least, a quarter of Sawyer's focus is elsewhere. However, it never has bothered me much. It's how he is, I knew this before we started dating. It's not my favorite thing, but it's nowhere near the worst thing.

"We can't exactly just go out and go on a date anywhere or whenever we want." I say defending Sawyer again.

"That's not an excuse." Zeke says. He lets out a sigh, "I apologize for this awkward prying session." He chuckles nervously.

"It's fine." I say with a smile. "You're only looking out for both of us." I add. My mind thinks back to the promise I made years ago, standing here. To be good to Sawyer. Life was not kind to Sawyer Gribes years ago. I promised to be good to Sawyer; because something in my heart made the idea of doing the opposite impossible.

Zeke and I must be thinking about all that Sawyer had to endure years ago; there is a tension that hangs in the air, one we both fully know and understand. "With all your knowledge of proper boyfriend-behavior, does that mean you are the perfect boyfriend?" I joke breaking the tension.

Zeke laughs, "Totally." He jokes back. "You can even ask Evan."

I roll my eyes and smile. "Because Evan is obviously unbiased."

***AUTHOR'S NOTE***

Chapter Bundle 3/7

I am currently on vacation. And as both a celebration and a thank-you, I have decided to supply you with a chapter spam while I am on vacation.

I will post one chapter a day.

Please forgive any mistakes, i will fix them once I am "back in office".

VOTE, COMMENT, FOLLOW, do what you want.

THANKS FOR READING! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!