Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | t h i r t e e n

Sawyer sits across from me inside the school's empty library. I'd managed to convince Kai that I didn't need a ride home, and that Rowan wasn't involved in any way. At least I'm not lying to him anymore. Rowan decided for himself that he didn't want me in his life. I stare down at the top of the library table, trying to hold back all of the frustration and anger built up inside of me – not really directed at him, but at myself. I shouldn't have been so naïve. Of course, no one is going to look at you normally. Why did you expect one person to be different?

"Anna," Sawyer says, smiling kindly at me. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself. I'm Sawyer Rivera."

I nod, forcing myself to smile back. "I'm –" I stop myself. "Well, you already know, don't you?"

She nods. "Everyone does. I still remember what your picture looked like when you were little. It was on the news so much that I bet everyone memorized it." She presses her lips together and shakes her head. "But you probably don't want to talk about that. Let's talk about something else. You and Rowan."

I look up at her in surprise. "Me and – wait, why?"

"Don't worry," Sawyer laughs. "I'm not going to ask if you're in love with him or anything. You're clearly not the type of girl who throws herself at the guy." She runs a hand through the brown waves of hair on her shoulder and laughs. "Well, that was me before. That's how I even got to know Rowan. We hooked up once, and then became friends –"

"Friends?" I repeat incredulously.

"You didn't let me finish," she says, grinning. "– with benefits. Well, essentially, we'd hang out here and there, and have the occasional hookup. It wasn't anything really special, but we got to know each other; that's for sure. It's probably the closest thing Rowan did to dating, you know? Since he's such a little playboy and all."

I look pensively at the floor. I really don't know him that well.

Sawyer quickly shakes her head again. "Anyhow, enough about me. The truth is, I'd originally thought about warning you about him. When I saw you at the party with him, I'd been really surprised. You know, since you'd somehow gotten him out of all of the action."

I blink at her. "Actually, he dragged me out there himself."

"Even more impressive." She smiles. "I thought that you were going for the whole I'm-going-to-date-you-and-change-you routine that girls try to do. I wanted to tell you that it wasn't going to work. But now I see that you both had a much different relationship." She gives me a sheepish grin. "Sorry; I kind of overheard a few things that you two were saying back there."

I feel a little embarrassed. So, she saw me getting humiliated. Great.

"No one really knows anything about his past," Sawyer adds. "We just know that his parents are both gone."