Force of Habit

Chapter 10

"It's after midnight and I need to get home."

"You could just stay here," Sawyer offers.

"No, that's okay. I've already been here for too long and have over stayed my welcome."

"Olivia, no you didn't. Here I'll take the couch and you can have my bed."

"No, it's really okay. I can just go home. It's not that far," I say, while attempting to stifle a yawn.

"It's past midnight and you don't have a car. I'm not going to let you walk around the streets in one of the largest cities in the country, by yourself, late at night, with no car."

"No thanks, I'm good," I say walking out the door.

"Olivia!" he calls, chasing after me. I continue walking, knowing that he's very persistent. He catches up to me, using his advantage of being much taller than I am.

"Look, I would just feel better if you stayed here instead. It can get pretty dangerous pretty fast."

"Sawyer..."

"Olivia...." He uses the same time as I did and looks at me, his brown eyes boring into my blue ones.

"Fine," I say, turning away from what had become a staring contest. Sawyer grabs my hand and leads me back to his apartment. Once we're inside he goes into another room and hands me a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"Um, thanks," I say awkwardly standing with the change of clothes in my hands.

"Sure, bathroom's on the left," he says, heading to the fridge.

I enter the so called bathroom, which was very cramped and unceremoniously placed in what should really be a linen closet. Quickly I change and find myself in a pair of sweatpants that go way too far past my feet. I feel like Dopey from Snow White except instead of his sleeves being too long, it's the pants. So I'm forced to roll them considerably until they are at a length acceptable to me.

I go back into the living room and am greeted by a considerable pile of pillows and blankets sitting on the couch. I begin to spread out the blankets and pillows when I hear someone cough behind me. I turn and there's Sawyer, with his arms full of bags of chips and blankets. "Uh, hi," I say.

"Um, what are you doing in here?" he asks.

"I thought I was sleeping in here...."

"You know you can sleep in the other room if you want. I'll take either."

"Oh, are you sure? I'd be fine just sleeping on the couch."

"Olivia, you're my guest, you're the one that gets to choose."

"Okay... if you're sure..." I trail off.

"Okay, it's down the same hallway but on the right this time."

"Thanks so much, Sawyer, that's really sweet," I say, heading down the hallway.

"No problem," he answers, sitting down on the couch.

The next morning I wake up in a room I've never seen before, for a second I'm freaked out until I remember that I'm at Sawyer's. It's still fairly early, probably around 6, but I get up anyway. I'm not usually a morning person, but I guess today is different because I'm in an unusually good mood. Probably because of how slap-happy I was yesterday. I go into the kitchen, passing Sawyer as I do. He's sprawled out on the couch, arm hanging off the side, and lightly snoring. I laugh a little and continue to the kitchen area. The fridge looks quite inviting, especially just standing there waiting to be opened. I decide to help myself, but sadly there are only a few unappetizing and possibly moldy things in there, so I leave the fridge and decide to just head back to bed and see if I can fall back asleep. 
As I walk through the living room something catches my eye, it's the drawing Sawyer was trying to show me last night while I was too hyper to think. I pick up the sketch from the table and my eyes see a whole new world enclosed in such a small expanse. I stand there, looking at the drawing in my hands for a longer time than I realize, trying to figure out the story and meaning behind it.