I should have known something was wrong when he didn't take his usual spot by me, I thought nothing of it because Alek and I were busy looking at each other from across the room. Salt had a guy against the wall. "Would you like to repeat that?" He asked in his sweet country boy way that I heard every morning while he bitched behind my moms back about Alek sleeping in my room. It made me miss that place, but I was glad Salt was here. Until now.

"That song you posted last night was against one of my friends wasn't it?" the boy laughed wearing a hoodie that had our basketball logo on it. Alek's friend. I got between it.

"Chloe get out of here"

"Don't do this Salt" I called him Salt instead of Sawyer.

"Aww that's cute little nick names for the cousins- you gonna marry her? Isn't that how your people do things?" I looked at him with wide eyes, and then at Salt.

"Shut up" Salt said trying to keep his cool, I was counting how long it would last. I saw Alek push up front.

"She's pretty hot don't ya think?" He tried to touch me, I was going to fight him if he didn't leave Salt alone. It was getting out of hand and I didn't have the patience for it.

"Stay away from other boys women, son" Salt said punching him in the nose, "that's one good way to get your ass kicked" Salt walked away and out of the school. He didn't hurt the boy- his nose wasn't even bleeding. I hated how Alek didn't do anything to stop his friend. I looked at Alek before I followed after Salt shaking my head.

"Salt!" I yelled as he opened the door to his truck, he was looking angry. "Don't do this"

"I want to go home" He said looking at me slamming his door. I got in the passengers side. He was playing country music that reminded him of home.

"I know" I looked down taking his hand before he drove off turning the radio up. People were now outside watching us to see what he would do. See if we would fight or something. "You know I am not yours to fight for" I said.

"He wasn't going to do something, these people got to learn some respect"

"Alek said the same thing about you" I smiled "Why do you hate it here so much?"

"I feel like I'm a polar bear in Texas, I don't belong here" He was right, he belonged slinging mud and having tail gate parties. Not drinking a coffee every morning and getting wrapped up in fashion. "I love this song" He said turning it up louder. "Oh and Chloe.. you will always be mine." It was sweet of him to say that but I knew it wasn't going to do anything. I loved Alek, I loved Salt too but he was just someone else that I was trying to be once a year. Not who I really am.

"I know I will be to you, but you're like my brother Salt." We drove in circles around town talking about everything being complicated but not at the same time.

"He's not right for you." He said "I am though because I will always fight for you." He was promising. "and he sit there and pretends he doesn't know you. Maybe he can protect you from evil guys but you're not only the uniter. You're Chloe King the teenage girl that is 11 months younger than me and has a hard time not helping people that don't even want to help themselves" He was talking about himself.

"Alek is my protector, he was there before you were. He was there when you were throwing things at me saying I ruined your life. And he's still here" I said "and next time you want to get in a fight with one of his friends realize maybe he can have a life too. I get it. You're part of my life and you've been part of it a lot longer but when I visited you, you weren't Sawyer- you weren't even Salt. You were a no body that wanted to get high because he couldn't see a future for himself"

"Is that how you really feel or are you just mad I questioned his feelings for you?"

"I'm mad because you're always trying to prove you're the better person for me" I said "Alek is who I'm suppose to be, and who I want to be with. If he wasn't I wouldn't be with him"

"If he wasn't you wouldn't need me to talk to me about everything, like we are now. Most girls when they have boyfriends they are only concerned about them but you want the best for me, you want to help everyone" He said it like it was a problem that needed to be fixed when it didn't. "I wish you would just let someone say they don't want your help. Did you bring me here so you could show me how happy you are because you don't look as happy as you do with us"

"I don't know what to say to you anymore Salt. If you want to go home. Go home. I'm done" He frowned at me saying he was sorry.

"I can't watch you fall in love with him, knowing that could've been me if I had looked for you"

"It was always him, You couldn't have stopped me from being attracted to him" I said "and maybe you could have stopped the love but he would've always been there to protect me." He said he could accept that.

"Did you ever love me?" He asked "When we were kids did I take your breath away?"

"I think I grew out of it" I said "When we were nine I thought I loved you but it turns out we grow up and so do our love interests." He looked at his clock and said it was finally time to head home, school was out and since it was my yearly day off he knew I would want to spend time with my other friends. An old song came on that started making his car shake. It was Billy Currington's Must be doing something right. It was nice and slow, I could fall asleep. Alek was waiting outside as we pulled up.

"Hey" I whispered in Alek's ear as I hugged him. I didn't have to get an "Empathy hit" off of him to know he wanted to know what happened. Sawyer walked past me with his brown hair hanging in front of his eyes just a little and a white polo undershirt and his polo shorts.

"I gotta feelin'" he was singing "it starts with an I ends with a you. I gotta feelin' you're feelin it too" as he scooted past us. Rolling my eyes Alek and I walked inside. With Salt being here all the time my mom was happier to let Alek inside the house when she was away. Sawyer had made a promise he wouldn't let anything happen and I believed him on that.

"What's that all about?" Alek asked about Salt's singing.

"Nothing we just had a serious talk and that's all." Alek kissed me hard on the lips, a kiss that I needed. I used to be scared Jasmine would walk in. Now I knew it was Salt that had to ruin the moment. I enjoyed it while I could.

"Oh, Cho I didn't see you there" Sawyer said with my old nickname he gave me when we were two. I rolled my eyes at him as I got off of Alek's lap on the couch we somehow made to.

"Yeah, sure you didn't" I said, "Are you hungry or something? Why are you down here?" I asked him.

"I wanted to hear what those noises were, guess I know now"

"Bull shit" I said looking at him getting off the couch "Now what do you want Salt?" He was aggervating me, I wanted to hit him for ruining Alek and I's kiss. I should go to Alek's and then we could do this without him... No bad he knew where Alek lived.

"I want a bagel" He said spotting Bagel's "Oh Aunt Meredith is home" My mom walked in looked at Alek and Salt.

"I got a call from school, Sawyer and Chloe skipped school after a fight." She said with her hands on her hips. "Wait before either one of you say anything, Alek what happened?"

"Some guy was talking about Chloe, and Sawyer punched him in the nose" Alek said, "He deserved it trying to grab on to her"

"Oh I see, that's all I needed to know" This was how it was going to be, Alek and I only having personal time at night when everyones asleep because Sawyer was like our kid. I watched after him and Alek kept him safe when I couldn't. Drugs weren't found in his room on random raids and he was much like himself. It was nice to have him back but so annoying to have him try to ruin a moment.