Losing Sawyer

26. A Knee

"Sawyer!" I shout, fighting with a zipper on the back of my dress. "Sawyer!"

"What?" He shouts back from somewhere in the apartment.

I found this cute vintage mod dress at a thrift store, clean and simple, exactly what I'm comfortable with and it happened to fit great straight off the hanger. But now that I'm trying to put it on and actually wear it the zipper quits life.

"I need you!" I yell exasperated.

At this rate I'll be late. And if I'm late that means Sawyer's late too and James told me I couldn't be late and neither could Sawyer because he needs our help with a surprise we aren't allowed to know anything about. Seems a little suspicious to me.

I also have no idea what the surprise could be.

Sawyer still doesn't come and I turn, leaving the small bathroom with a huff and bound into the living room just as Sawyer chugs a drink.

"Zip me." I demand, walking to him more aggressive than necessary but I'm stressing out. "Be careful it's vintage."

Spinning around, I sweep my hair to the side and hold the dress flush to my chest. Sawyer's hands graze my bare back as he tugs on the fabric, having done this countless times before for me.

"Why not buy new clothes, with working zippers?" He muses.

He's dressed in jeans and a dress shirt, a pair of sneakers. His brown hair styled, like it always has been, a spray of stubble across his chin.

"Because they don't make things like they used to." I grumble at him.

He laughs, his hands tugging at my zipper. "You mean not broken?"

Shaking my head, he pulls hard at the zipper and I feel the fabric go slack and Sawyer lets out a hesitant breath.

"I...I didn't mean to do that." He stammers, backing away as the gravity of what just happened hits.

"It broke?"

Leaving Sawyer in the living room, I rush to the bathroom and twist my head over my shoulder to see the damage as Sawyer says "it didn't just break...".

"Oh my god, it ripped!" I shriek. "What am I going to wear!"

Sawyer barely gets to the bathroom doorway before I burst out, the dress falling to the floor as I go into his small walk in closet that he let me overtake a good portion of. I rifle through hanger after hanger, nothing speaking to me when Sawyer leans into the frame.

"Literally anything Sav." He says, he reaches past me, pulling a hanger out. "Like this."

I take one quick glance at the dress he has a hold of and instantly shake my head.

"No Christopher hated that dress. I need to get rid of it."

I had tried to wear it for one of his work things and he had taken one look at me and told me to change. It was definitely out of my norm, a silk shirt style dress.

"Chris is a fucking moron." Sawyer barks. "Wear it."

Looking over at Sawyer, about to retort with something in Christopher's defense but anything I might come up with escapes me as I see an annoyed look on Sawyer's face.

So I blow out a breath and pull the dress from his hands.

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"What exactly are we doing?" Ellie asks.

"No idea." I answer with a shrug of my shoulders. "He said we had to go two more blocks and then to turn left and we did, so..."

I've been receiving instructions via text for the last few minutes, really ever since Sawyer and I met up with Ellie and Wes. Brett, James and Darren were supposedly right behind Ellie and Wes when they left James' apartment but whatever this surprise is has derailed them.

"What.." Wes starts but a tic interrupts him and as we wait for him to finish, a women walks up with a red rose in her hand.

She smiles brightly, her hand stretching out toward Ellie and we all collectively stand there dumbfounded.

"This is for you." She tells Ellie.

Not missing a beat like it's a completely normal thing to have happen, Ellie takes it and thanks her warmly and once again we're left alone on the streets.

"My phone just went off." Sawyer announces, gaining all of our attention.

I wonder what we must look like to people passing by, a group of young adults looking lost and baffled.

"James said they're on fourth between Elizabeth and Main." He tells us.

"That's up there." Wes points down the road and we all start walking.

Two steps in the questions from Ellie resume. "What is going on? They're being so weird. Why couldn't we have just ate at the first place instead of tromping through the streets? I mean don't get me wrong I love a good adventure but I'm hungry."

"Me too." Wes chimes.

We pass by a rowdy bar, music thrumming from inside and I look through the wide open windows catching a glimpse of what I swear are brilliant blue eyes. Air gets trapped in my lungs at the anticipation of it being him. Whoever he is.

And during my distraction, I completely miss the gasp that bursts out of Ellie, Wes' confused "what" followed by a tic and Sawyer's amused smirk.

"What's going on?" I ask Sawyer, my eyes darting around to see James and Brett, both holding roses.

Sawyer leans closer, his shoulder bumping mine as he says "I think the surprise was an engagement."

The words are slow to process in my head as I try to figure out who could possibly be getting engaged. We know it's not Sawyer and I. Also not Wes and Laurel. I'll be pissed if it's James and Brett and I wasn't included in the plans.

I vaguely hear Laurel's name as I watch Brett and James hand Ellie a rose and Darren appears looking nervous and flightly.

His face is bright pink, the dress shirt he has on buttoned all the way up to the very last button making him look stiff and awkward. True Darren fashion. I don't know if he's ever had a moment in his life where he didn't seem as though he was shaking in his boots.

It's a beautiful background, a sweet little patio of a restaurant decked out with lights and greenery that crawls its way up the pergola. Brick pavers cover the ground, rustic picnic tables with a few groups of people seated at them. And in the middle is Darren, glistening from sweat under the twinkling lights no doubt.

Laurel stands beside me, asking "did you know this was happening?" And before the last word can leave her lips Darren drops to a knee and Ellie shrieks.

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5 days and we will be playing the super fun game of "will DBR update today?".