If you had told Sawyer Nelson six months ago that he would have fallen for his best friend, he'd have told you to go jump in the shark tank. He probably would have taken it back, because he happened to like CMA's shark population, but the effect was good. Of course six months ago, they'd been recovering from an uncomfortably close call to losing Winter, and Sawyer was on a plane to Boston, any feelings for Hazel Haskett pushed aside for the time being. His only concerns had been that he would be leaving Winter for three months and that he was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Now he was back, and if you told Sawyer that he was falling for his best friend, he'd have again told you to go jump in the shark tank. But this time, it wouldn't have been because it was ridiculous. This time, it would be because it was true, but he wasn't about to admit it.
CMA, Post-Closing Time: It should have been like any other spring afternoon at CMA. Sawyer was on spring break from his sophomore year, and was spending every second at Clearwater to make up for the lost three months. He and Hazel were scrubbing the dolphin pools, keeping idle chatter, as they did every Wednesday and Sunday. Sawyer was stealing glances at Hazel at an embarrassingly high frequency, despite the fact that she kept catching him. Subtlety wasn't something they'd worked on during his time at SEA. She'd kind of just ignored it, but when he glanced over at her for seemingly the hundredth time, she'd had enough,
"Sawyer, what is your issue?" Sawyer's neck flushed red and he muttered, "Nothing, sorry," before scrubbing the side of the wall next to Winter's platform with renewed vigor. He could feel Hazel's eyes burning a hole in his t-shirt and he willed himself to stay staring at the water. Friends, friend, friends, friends, he reminded himself over and over. It became a bit of a rhythm. Scrub the wall, friends, scrub, friends. But in the silence that had followed Hazel's irritation, Sawyer's mind had run wild. He tried to focus on Winter, and the progress she was making in reversing the damage to her spine, but his mind kept returning to his best friend. She'd started popping up in his dreams, looking as beautiful and untouchable as she was in real life, at an irritatingly high frequency, and Sawyer would wake up, convinced that they were real for a second before reality would come crashing back.
"Sawyer. Sawyer. Sawyer. Sawyer Nelson, pay attention!" Hazel's voice snapped him out of his reverie. Hazel was standing in front of him, a hand on her hip, "Are you ok?" Sawyer shook his head a little,
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, did you say something?" He finally worked up the courage to look at her, and her eyes were narrowed. He couldn't help but notice that her brown eyes were the exact same shade as Hope's, an observation that failed to help the matter in the slightest. Hazel sighed,
"I said, are you ok? You seem out of it. You've been scrubbing the same section of wall for the past five minutes." Sawyer nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind, I guess." He sat down on the platform, the water coming up to his waist. It was easier talking with his back to her. "Anything I can do?" Her voice was full of an endearing concern that made him smile, "No. Just some things I need to sort out on my own." He could hear her footsteps walking away and he turned to see her walking out to the gate,
"Hazel. Hazel. What are you doing?" The last time she'd released Winter and Hope into the training pool after hours and got caught swimming with them, they'd gotten yelled at by Clay for an impossibly long time about being irresponsible and messing around. She smiled at him,
"Sawyer Nelson, you are being an idiot. And if I can't break through the idiocy, I know someone who can." Then, as she went to bend down to pull open the gate, she lost her footing, and with a little shriek, fell into Winter and Hope's pool. Sawyer jumped up,
"Hazel! Hazel, are you ok?" He pulled himself out of the smaller pool and, trying not to slip, ran to the larger, sheltered one. Hazel surfaced, laughing. He breathed a sigh of relief,
"Are you insane?" Hazel just laughed and swam towards the platform. He reached a hand to help her up onto the platform and, to his shock, Hazel pulled with all her might and he tumbled, head first, into the pool with her. He surfaced, gasping and laughing,
"Hey!" Hazel was smiling from ear to ear, "Serves you right! That's payback for pulling me in last time!" Sawyer laughed and said, "Well, if that's payback, then I think I remember something like this happening after you landed," and he splashed her, which she reciprocated, alerting both the bottlenose dolphins to their presence. Much to both the dolphins' seeming delight, the two teenagers kept splashing like little kids and soon, it was an all out war, Hazel and Sawyer splashing each other and Hope and Winter just flinging water in the general vicinity. Shrieks of laughter echoed throughout the outdoor deck. Finally, Sawyer threw his hands up in surrender and swam towards the platform before pulling himself up. He offered his hand to Hazel again before withdrawing it,
"Are you going to pull me in again?" She laughed and shook her head. He clasped her hand in his and pulled her up. They stood, giggling and panting for a second, before Hazel sobered,
"Seriously, Sawyer. Are you sure you're ok?" Sawyer looked at her, his hair dripping in his eyes, and suddenly, he had the confidence to tell her, "Have you ever been in a situation where you want something more, but you don't want to mess up what you have?" Hazel's eyebrow furrowed, confused, but she nodded and he continued, "Well, when I was at SEA, I realized that there was a situation at home that I wanted something more from. There's this girl, you see. I can't stop thinking about her. But I've known her for a while and I don't want to mess up what I have with her. It's just so good. But I wake up in the morning wanting to be able to tell her how I feel, but I can't." He trailed off, hoping she'd catch what he was talking about. She didn't. So he plowed on, feeling a flush creeping up his spine, and his heart pounding a steady tattoo somewhere in his throat, "She's really funny, Hazel, and she just talks and talks all the time and it makes me smile and she's passionate about what I'm passionate about." He saw Hazel's face fall, "So go ask Susie out." Sawyer smiled, "You see, I would. But Susie's name doesn't match her eye color. Susie didn't talk to me when no one else would-"
Suddenly, a smile broke across Hazel's face and she cut him off, "Shut up and kiss me, Sawyer." He did a double take, shocked, "What?" She looked up at him, "I said, shut your idiot mouth and kiss me already." And so, standing knee deep in water, watched by two dolphins and Roofus the pelican, Sawyer Nelson took a step forward, pulled her in and kissed his best friend for the first time.
Phoebe was running late. Inappropriately late, actually. She still had to file the reports from Winter and Hope's sessions today, and check on their newest rescue, Jack the sea otter, as well as make sure Sawyer and Hazel had finished cleaning the deck, and her boyfriend would be here in 20 minutes to take her out. Speed walking, she went to make her way around the corner to Clay's office to file the reports and stopped dead. Standing on the platform of the dolphin pool were a dripping wet and kissing teenage boy and girl. The boy had one hand on the girl's waist and the other was resting at the nape of her neck. Both of the girl's hands were wrapped around the waist of the boy. Phoebe watched, smiling in triumph, as Hazel and Sawyer finally broke apart. Sawyer said something that Phoebe couldn't hear and Hazel laughed in return. Phoebe silently backed away as Hazel, blushing bright red made her way up the ladder, followed by a triumphantly smiling Sawyer. Let them have this for today, she thought. She'd be sure to give them absolute hell tomorrow, and remind them that they had both devoutly and separately stated that there would be nothing more between them. But for tonight, Phoebe could let this little moment slide.
If you had told Sawyer Nelson six months ago that he would kiss Hazel Haskett, he would have told you to go jump in the shark tank. But as he walked to find towels with Hazel, his mouth tingled and body surged with excitement. Because he'd kissed Hazel Haskett. And he wasn't about to stop.