Intertwine

chapter 1

I wake up to the feeling of a light tap on my shoulder. Lazily my eyes pop open to find a young women standing over me.

"Ma'am. The flight has landed. You need to exit the plan now." a flight attendant tells me in a light voice. 

Ma'am? Since when do people call sixteen year-olds Ma'am? I nod my head and stand up from my seat by the window. I grab my back-pack from under the seat and hastily sling it over my shoulder.

I rush of the plan muttering a quick apology. Slowly I walk through the busy airport ging silently unnoticed. I've never really been one to be noticed. Had the same friends since kindergarden. Star athlet brother. Parents that worked hard to make money and went to church every sunday. Most of my friends strive for attention. Attention from boys, attention from teachers, and attention from their parents. Thats not me. Especalliy not now. 

As I walk outside of the airport into the dry Parker air, I am stopped as I am hit with the full force of the heat. I lived at most 4 hours away in a car and it was never this hot! Almost immediantly I start to sweat.

Sighing I look arond for my uncle. After a minute of not finding his car I start to look for someone who might be his wife. 

Nada. 

I can't help it. I laugh. Of course that's just like him to forget to pick me up from the airport. 

I look around again just to make sure no one is here to pick me up, then pull out my phone and call my uncle.

He picks up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey. In case you're wondering," my voice driping with sarcasm "this is your neice! You know Peyton! The one you WERE supposed to pick up at the airport."

"What do you mean were? There is a car there for you Peyton. Take another look around." I do. "They probably have a sign." I see a man looking around holding a sign with my name on it. "With your name on it."

"I got it" I snapped. "Stop talking to me like a god damnned five year-old!" I hang up on my uncle and stalk over to the man hanging the sign.

"Peyton Heart?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. I jerk my head out in a nod and he leads me over to a black car and opens the door for me. He hops into the front seat and takes off. 

I stare out the window on the drive to my uncle's home. Out the window on my left there is a huge slow moving river. There are boats, people water skiing, and groups of teenagers hanging out on the beach. On the right, there is small cliffs and a lot of desert. Then a little more. Then a little more. The only color at all, besides the buildings of the town, was the river and the occasional green plant on a front lawn. Guess that explains the heat then. 

After about thirty minutes of house after house passing, the driver pulls of the main road on to a dirt road. Confused I look around. The road runs along the bottom of a cliff wall and opens up into a large expanse of desert. After a couple minutes the cliff walls lowered and opened up to show a small building with a neon sign on top of another cliff. What's with all of the cliffs around here?

The driver drives up to the bar and stops in front of it. He comes around and holds my door open for me. 

"Miss? Are you gonna get out of the car?" He taps his foot impatiently as I stare blankly at the building in front of me.

"Uh..ya. Whatever." I mutter as I step out of the car. He walks around me, opens the trunk, and hands me my suitcase. He hurries past me and drives away. 

Great! I'm stuck in front of a strange restraunt with no car and no one to ask for directions! Unless....oh shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

I walk inside of he bar with my suitcase in tow. Taking a seat at the corner of the bar I wave down a bar tender.

"What can I get you sweetie?" asks a pretty girl that looks to be in her mid-twenties. 

"Oh. Uh.. I was kind of wondering who owns this place?" I ask slightly nervous tha she will tell me my uncle does. I mean, does he honestly expect me to live with him AND his wife at a bar. Or above a bar. Or wherever it is thast they live in this place.

"Well it was just bought by mr. John Wattson!" she tells me with an enthusiastic smile.

"Of course it was." i murmur before standing up and looking around. I notice a door in the back corner with a sign that reads EMPLOYEES ONLY. Perfect! I pick up my suitcase and walk towards it. As I am about to push through the door I am pulled back. Beginning to get annoyed I get ready to bite someone's head off when the words stick in my mouth.

I look up into the most vibrant blue eyes I have ever seen. They have small flecks of brown in the corners that make them look even brighter.

He gives me a once over look before asking "Can I help you wth something?"

"Yes actually!" I look up at him with a sweet smile once I get my voice back "It would help me SO much if you could move!" I gush to him with my best sarcastically sweet voice. I try to shove past him, but he pulls me back again. 

"Can't you read? The sign says employees only." he says with a smirk.

"Really?" i ask getting more tired of this conversation by the second. "Well! I just so happen to know the owner! so I don't think it will be a problem!" I rip my arm free from his grip and push the door open to the room behind it. I pause for a moment and look around. Straight across the room, which I was assuming was a break room, was a door labeled JOHN WATTSON. I shuffle over to the door and throw it open.

"You need better employees!" I exclaim before I realize that there is a woman sitting in the chair on the other side of his desk. I look up to se my uncle glaring at me. I meet his angry gaze. "Oh! Sorry. Didn't realize anyone else was in here." I jerk a thumb over my shoulder. "I'm just gonna...uh...go...bye." I quickly shut the door. I turn around to find a group of about 12 people staring at me. 

"What?" I huff and sit on an arm of a couch to my right. 

After they shoot me a couple more glares they go back to making their cofee and having their hushed conversations. The door that leads back into the bar swings open and the beautiful boy from before walks in. He walks toward me and sits on the couch next to me. I feel his stare but refuse to look over. After a moment I feel his breath tickling my ear.

"tsk. tsk. Bad move." he stands back up and walks back out to the bar laughing.