Eyes Open

eight.

"I've never been on a helicopter before!" Sasha yelled above the noise as she stood up from her seat, watching Ryan as he hopped out of the helicopter first.

"Yeah we know, you've mentioned that like seven times since we got on it!" Mike smirked at her over his shoulder.

"Shut up," Sasha mumbled, shoving him forwards as he followed Ryan out. Sasha followed after him, letting out a yelp as her foot caught the edge of the seat. She stumbled forward and screwed her eyes shut, bracing herself to hit the ground, but Mike spun round and grabbed her waist to keep her upright.

"You really are clumsy, aren't you?" he murmured, a small grin on his face as he looked down at her.

"Uh-huh, I told you I was," she sighed, brushing herself down and looking up at freezing, freezing when she realised their noses were almost touching. She stared up at him and Mike paused, his eyes darting down to her mouth before quickly snapping back up. "You can let go now," she whispered.

"What?" he mumbled, and Sasha looked down at his hands which were still gripping her waist. "Oh! Oh, yeah, uh," he let go of her quickly and took a step backwards. "Yeah, sorry," he scratched the top of his head.

Sasha smiled softly and brushed past him, tucking her hair behind her ears and ducking her head down as she walked quickly after Ryan. There were a couple of police cars waiting for them, and an officer directed them to the one they should get in. Ryan nodded his head and climbed into the front seat as Mike reached past Sasha, pulling the door open for her and letting her climb into the back first.

"You're such a gentleman," she whispered, putting her seatbelt on as he got in after her. He shrugged his shoulders with a grin, slamming the door after him before the car sped away from the airstrip. "So how pissed do you think Debra's going to be when she realises I didn't stay at Claire's like I was supposed to?"

"On a scale of one to ten?" Mike paused. "…Let's go with twenty-eight."

"Really?" Sasha winced.

"Oh yeah," he nodded. But you're a big girl, I'm sure you can handle it. I've noticed you're pretty good at talking your way out of trouble."

"Always has been," Ryan scoffed. "Right from when she was a little kid. She used to get away with murder."

"Oh yeah?" Mike raised an eyebrow. "Like what? I can imagine her being a little hell raiser."

"You have no idea," Ryan sighed.

"Excuse me I was a perfect child!" Sasha reached over and flicked Mike's ear. "I hardly ever got into trouble and when I did I always-"

"Pouted your way out of it," Ryan interrupted. "Like that time when you were… what? Twelve? And your mom called me because you'd been in a fight with kid at school. What was it over again?" he asked, and Sasha mumbled inaudibly. "Sorry what was that? Did you say it was over her telling you she loved Justin Timberlake more than you did? So you punched her?"

"She started it!" Sasha cried as Mike laughed loudly. "I was defending myself, she shoved me first and I thought she was going to hit me so I just put my hand out and she practically walked into my fist so- stop laughing!" she grunted, punching Mike's shoulder. "I didn't pout my way out of that one, did I? I got detention for three weeks."

"You sure pouted your way out of it with your mom," Ryan turned in his seat. "She didn't punish you at all. Actually, neither did I."

"Whatever," Sasha mumbled. "You were always too scared to punish me because you were never around so you thought I'd hate you if you grounded me. Mom always had to be the bad guy. Why don't we talk about some of the things you did as a kid, huh?" she raised her eyebrows at Mike.