It’s exactly 1:58 AM when Sawyer drives up to the front of the women’s dorm, the purr of his engine lost in the sounds of the nearby street. His lights are off and if anyone were to look outside they might be able to catch the soft glint of the porch lights on his windows. But, he’s not here on some strange whim. No, he’s waiting for Naomi.
Their meetings are always like this. Late in the night when it’s only them, the open road, and soft tunes on the radio. In these stolen moments, they don’t have to worry about other students seeing them or what they might think. They’ve been like this for a year or two now and although Sawyer can’t put a word to it, it’s something so deeply felt in Sawyer’s heart that he abandons sleep for this. Yet, when the sunlight comes and they return to their respective lives, these moments slip away with the darkness and if either of them passes the other in the halls, there is no sign of acknowledgment. It’s better this way, if no one knows.
Even though there are times where Sawyer feels like he would split the very sea for Naomi and swallow poison to please her, he refuses to call this love. Love is something for the movie screens and this, this is not love. He thinks it is, sometimes, during his weakest moments but then Naomi says something and the cogs in his brain spin and he overthinks it far too much to settle on love. This is only lust, he thinks to himself during sleepless nights, nothing more. It’s a reasonable thought process. After all, Naomi is gorgeous with no lack of suitors and when she parties, he’s heard that she’s absolutely stunning. Her looks aren’t all that makes her so alluring; It was her quick wit and sharp tongue that captivated him when they first met and around her, he finds himself grinning like the fools he sees in chick flicks. On the other hand, Sawyer keeps his head in a book and on most nights, falls asleep no later than 10 and he bores people with talk of business and can’t seem to get past his own mistakes and so if Naomi were to fall in love with anyone at this school, it wouldn’t be him. Still, she chooses to meet with him and he gets her for a few precious hours and their fellow students are none the wiser. Like the saying goes: what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
It’s risky business to meet like this, especially with a student missing, but they do it anyways. There’s something oddly intimate about keeping secrets like this. With no one else around them to judge, they can be themselves and oh, how Sawyer relishes in the times when it’s not the Naomi the school knows but just… Naomi.
So, when he hears the passenger side car door swing open and catches a whiff of the perfume he loves, there’s already a teasing smile on his face. “So, where to, your highness?”
Shrugging on yet another layer onto her shoulders, this time it’s a fluffy jacket that she finally was given back from Faith who had stolen it for two weeks, leaving the eldest sister chilly and without the perfect millennial pink add-on for her multitude of outfits. It wasn’t too serious though, Naomi would easily give the clothes off her perfectly toned back to her baby sister, same goes for Andrea. They were her life, and they knew it well and good.
But right now wasn’t the time to be sentimental about the two people in this world she gave a single shit about, instead she had to bury the emotions deep inside her where no one could touch her. How could she protect others if she could be so easily wounded? Walking past the mirrors, she didn’t flinch at her own reflection the way she usually did. Seeing sharp cheekbones and green eyes that stared back at her, reminding her that she was just a snake in sheep’s clothing. Deceiving this school, this world; that she was anything more than a beautiful girl with a beautiful mind.
How she wishes to unzip the costume she has worn so long it sticks to her scales; wanting so badly to be real and how it burns to take it off no longer slipping it off the way she does her clothing when she meets at times like these. Except, when she does meet at times like these she sheds her old scales for something more comfortable in the backseat of a car; fogged windows and greedy hands that never seem to be enough for her. For him.
Her steps carry her with ease down the stairs, skipping on the delay of the elevator; needing the warm up of the stairs for the rest of the night. As soon as she hits the chill of the october air, she is sliding beside Sawyer in his car not paying attention to the clock that will remind her all the beauty rest she will miss. For he makes her feel beautiful. “The hill,” she doesn’t hesitate as she slides the coat off her shoulders and drapes it over her knees, revealing long sleeved black lingerie peeking out from a white dress that she only wears for him. “There’s going to be a comet shower.” Naomi knew all the places to hide away for stolen kisses and hidden hickeys, she ventured these places alone many a time. But she always told the bookworm of a boy that she had other sources; sources like him with cold fingers and warm mouths. She needed to lie, to keep him at a distance because the moment he fell in love.
It would be over. “Don’t call me your highness so easily, babe.” She always used these affections when they were just chatting, but when the time came she would whisper his name. “unless you intend to pledge your allegiance to me.” A twinkle in her eye as she took one of his hands from the wheel and laid it on her thigh, “let’s take it slow tonight.”