A shameless flirt. That was right. Sutton used to avoid his flirting by passing it away, but now she’d gotten used to firing it back. He used to tell her that there was an alternate universe just for them, no Jackson, no any other guy, but him. She didn’t want to admit it to him, but there weren’t many other guys in her life asides from him. Sutton had her friends, some of those she’d made in Australia, and had even stayed relatively in contact with Devon and Jason. Yet.. out of all them, every single one of them, Adam stayed. Through everything. --and naturally, that meant that the flirting came pretty easily to them.
Sutton couldn’t remember if she’d ever tried to make herself important during her time at Easton. She was pretty sure she didn’t. Her time there was wonderful, half of it spent either drunk or high - or both - but she’d never decided to go for head of house of anything ridiculous like that. Not that it was ridiculous. To her, the idea of Sutton Palmer even trying to do something like that was just.. so unlike her or anything she’d ever think about.
They were close to Easton, now. Sutton recognised where they were and knew the route like the back of her hand. From the airport to Easton, she used to travel back and forth every time she left. Which.. oddly, was a lot. She enjoyed how it felt to be in his car. His Porsche. A roll of her eyes had her thinking about the fact that he’d bought it. Sutton hummed when he said he looked good; it was nice to know that he was still as humble as ever. “I better get that invite. Or at least.. introduce me to your other topless friends.”
Sutton could go on about how much of a terrible person his ex was, but she opted to stay quiet about it. He knew what she thought about it, and she’d completely agreed that it was his ex’s fault for not taking her pill. Sutts would always be careful about that - no unwanted surprises, and everything. “No need to apologise. I think the same.” She muttered, listening to him for a second before glancing towards him. Sutton didn’t know why hearing him happy that she hadn’t met anyone in Australia made her.. happy. “Any competition here for me that you haven’t mentioned yet?” Taking the cigarette from his fingers and placing it between her lips. He’d told her before that he was proud of her, but nothing beat hearing it in person. “You know that means the world to me, right? And all that shit.” Sutton teased.
It was just playful—at least, it was back at the academy. That’s what Adam had told himself. There was nothing that was going to come of them because when they came back from that alternate reality where there was no other guy and definitely no Jackson, the truth of it was that Sutton had, for better or—definitely for worse—dedicated herself to him. And while that shameless flirting had continued over the following years, the fact that Adam was across the world made it hard for anything to happen, and when he had finally settled down, Sutton was already firmly camped in Oz. They could never do anything about that teasing, and that only encouraged Adam to… escalate his playfulness. They couldn’t do anything about it—until now.
There were two camps in Easton as far as Adam was concerned—those who wanted to make something of themselves while they were at the academy, and those who wanted to focus on their academics. He couldn’t fault the latter group, but being the first Sawyer to enter the prestigious school and having stumbled into a particularly prestigious set of friends, it felt as if it was expected of Adam to put that effort in. Ultimately, it was a popularity contest, and the photographer was plenty popular.
Adam laughed and bit against his bottom lip, sparing a glance to Sutton as they came to a halt at a set of traffic lights. “Maybe I’ll convince the boys to take our volleyball games on tour… I’m sure I can find a good bar or two in Australia to make it worthwhile.” A few recognisable faces were in the background of Adam’s—slightly homoerotic scene. Lovely had Anthony up on his shoulder, Kit and Zach were on the opposite side of the net too. The rest weren’t familiar—though they seemed plenty friendly with one another as Sutton scrolled through the photos, suffice to say. “I’m sure I could spin it with the gang.”
Nothing that Sutton could’ve said would have topped anything that Adam had said about Sibylla himself—they had their fair share of discussions about her in the years that had passed. Originally Sawyer was sympathetic to his ex to some extent—but that had very quickly worn thin and it wasn’t long before he’d joined Sutton in their colourful descriptors of his once-lover. “You know what Easton’s like, Sutts. Everyone’s heard the tales of despair that follow the illustrious Adam Sawyer—some people like the reputation, but the smart ones know to steer clear of the trainwreck that is me.” Adam’s grin widened for his companion as they’d swung into the underground parking complex for his apartment. “Yeah, well—don’t get too poetic about it, love. I just thought you should hear it in person.”
Adam pulled his keys from the ignition and wasted no time in pushing open his door, sliding out to open Sutton’s door for her and fish out her luggage. “Let’s get you settled and get something to eat. I’m starving.”