On the edge ((OPEN))

[James "Sawyer" Ford]

Sawyer walked along the warm, sandy beach, finding himself oddly alone. He often liked it that way, but it was odd. There was always someone at the beach-even if they never meant to be there. It was an island, walking to far in one direction took you there. But the solitude was comforting, there were somethings he was just better off doing alone. Like walking. There were times when he needed to be alone with his mind. Outwardly he was simple and that was true for some other things, but he had been bothered lately. Sawyer knew exactly what it was bothering him, but he didn't want to think about it if he could help it.

But there was something addicting about thinking about the past. Not a day went by that Sawyer didn't at least relive what had happened. He couldn't help it. He was always in the back of Sawyer's mind. As he admitted this to himself, he sighed frustratedly, and wandered over to a small shaded slope in the sand. This spot was exactly what he was looking for. Contrary to popular belief, Sawyer wasn't quite as hickish as he came off. He fiddled with the battered copy of Watership Down. The spine of the book was creased and many of the pages were dog eared and had tape on them. He had had the book since his ninth birthday and read it at least once a year, if not more. Something about the tale was comforting to him, it never changed, and always made him feel better. His mind was busy today, and though he was settling in to read he ended up just staring out at the ocean and letting his mind wander.

There were so many things to occupy his mind lately. The whole island was strange, not to mention the people here. Sawyer felt like he was missing something, which pissed him off. He liked to be the one making everyone else confused, or really, make them have to go through him to get what they wanted. Power was s fun thing to have. Especially for him. Sawyer had always been powerless, and once he figured out how to get it, he wasn't quick to give it up. Still, there were different kinds of power, and some kinds, Sawyer had learned to stay far, far away from. People following him was the first kind-it would only need to the one kind of trouble Sawyer didn't want.

After what felt like forever, Sawyer finally pushed open the book. A familiar, wrinkled piece of paper marked his place, and once again, Sawyer was distracted from his reading. Using this as a bookmark wasn't his brightest idea, but this worn paper was always with him. Once again, Sawyer set the book aside, in favor of something else, something that had the potential to be very dangerous. Slowly he began to read the letter he had memorized by now. Reading it was just a ritual reminder, bordering on obsession.

[Ana-Lucia Cortez]

Danny had been her boyfriend back in Los Angeles, but he was quickly shoved away by her as usual. Not used to the closeness, not used to being happy...hell not used to people trying to shove her into those Latino gangs because of his street smarts. Her mother wanted her to be a police officer of all things. Ana-Lucia Cortez respected the law, she respected her mother and most certainly had the ideal cockiness and forceful personality that a cop had. Maybe one day she would be one, who knew? The young woman rose up from the water, running her olive colored hands through her hair. She had left her jeans and black tank top on the sand, knowing that if anyone in their wrong mind took them, there would be hell to pay. None of the other teenagers bothered with her, they knew she had 'something' and that something was a punch in the face on their part.

Smoothing out her dark curls, did the girl step up from the water, getting up onto the sand and shook her hands to get the wetness of the water off of her, wrapping up in a towel. They used showers and such in the dorms, school whatever. But she preferred the ocean for swims, it was peaceful and the waves calmed her for some odd reason. Dark gaze peered up at a boy, well a man in her opinion as far as the teenagers went, no change that. It was that hick that everyone went ga ga over. Ana started to drop the towel, revealing a pair of boxer shorts and a sports bra and worked on her jeans. Her lean and toned body glimmering in the sun from the water and the rays of the sunlight. It was one of those bright and unbearable days.

She wasn't quite sure if she liked it all that much.

Screw it, Cortez wasn't going to get anywhere away from him, so after pulling on her tank top did she grab onto the towel and shove it around her shoulders. Bare feet walking on that hot sand as she cursed momentarily to herself making her way up to visit him. She found him in a secluded area.

"...what are you readin'?" the tomboy asked, almost a curiosity to her, as well as a cynics tone. Her boots were in her hands. No, hell no the brunette wasn't staying here long. But still, she should try to get to know someone.

[Charlie Pace]

It had been a long day, mostly filled with getting used to the new school, the island, the people. The fellow students seemed to come from all walks of life, one girl might, or might not be, pregnant, another is rumored to have killed her father, some guy might be some sort of solider and another just looks troubled at the mention of his dad. As for Charlie he was a musician in training, as his brother Liam would say, oh and plus he was a drug addict, which didn't help in many circumstances.

As the day died down Charlie grabbed his guitar from his room and headed out of the school. He began playing his guitar softly to a tune that was stuck in his head as he headed East through the forest. Before he knew it Charlie was standing on sand with the sounds of waves washing over him. He smiled at how beautiful the scene in front of him was but he quickly lost that smile as he had a sudden urge, the same urge he got before entering the sub, to get to the island, the same urge he got that morning before his first class.

The guitar was now on the sand beside him and Charlie was sitting on a rock, he took his left shoe off, checkered Vans to be exact, and extracted a small bag from it. Charlie opened the back with a little too much force, which made some of the heavenly goodness jump out of it "bloody hell" he muttered before spilling some of it onto his palm. Charlie licked most of the heroin up and dipping his finger in the rest of i and running it along his gums and tongue.

The next second Charlie's eyes were closed and his head was hanging there as he let the effect take over him, he then looked up with a pleasured grin. He tried to get up once but failed as he ended up on his ass rather quickly so he took a deep breath trying to steady himself. He got up and began to walk off, trying to look as straight as possible until he remembered his shoe so he turned around and picked it. Charlie took his other shoe off and began to walk along the beach, failing to walk normally.

The beach looked pretty deserted, at least that's how it was until he turned a corner. At first Charlie didn't see anyone but then he stumbled on the sand and ended up diving into it pretty much face first. He groaned in an annoyed fashion but when he looked up he noticed a pair of shoes pretty close to his face. As he followed the legs to the torso and the torso to the face he noticed that he fell at the feet of an older student but couldn't remember his name. Charlie got up and dusted himself off and then noticed a girl, who was wrapped in a towel, standing beside him.

He looked between the two and smiled, to give the impression he was straight, hopefully they would think the fall was just because he was clumsy "hey guys" he said in his normal cheerful tone "I'm Charlie."

[James "Sawyer" Ford]

Sawyer was lost in thought, a bad thing to be when there were other people around. Being caught of guard wasn't something that happened to him often, and now as he looked over his new companion he was embarrassed at not noticing her before. He decided to blame it on the crashing of the waves. They weren't that loud, but he had to preserve his ego one way or another, and it wasn't going to be his worst lie ever. In fact, he was sure that wouldn't be the worst of the day, if that even.

If he was out of sorts before, Sawyer's entire thought process was derailed when she asked what he was reading. Nobody knew about this letter. Half the time he didn't want to admit it existed. Hastily, Sawyer folded the note and slipped it inside his pocket, careful to make sure it didn't get anymore creased. He knew he would never send it, or give it to who it was addressed to, but he wanted to keep it readable. Sawyer picked up the book and flashed the front cover to the girl. "Now that we're sharing, what are you doing here?" Sawyer was past defensive now. The girl had caught him completely off guard and it was going to take some work to cover his ass.

Sawyer was surprisingly thankful when some guy wandered over to them. "Apparently I've stumbled onto the crowded part of the huge island beach." he said with an eye roll. "God forbid anyone wander in the other direction." But for now Blondie there had given him a reason to get off the subject of his reading materials. The kid looked like a strung out rock star wannabe. Sawyer didn't need to look twice to know his assessment was right. He was always right, even when he was wrong. He wasn't here to make friends, he was here to...Actually that part was still a little bit of a mystery to him. Mostly he had just needed a place to go, somewhere off the map for awhile. Then bam, he landed here. There were some parts he couldn't quite come up with, but something had led him to scrounge up the money to get here. Now it was just a matter of finishing school, and figuring out what the hell Captain creepy wanted from them all. Still, he would settle for the first.

Everyone was involved with something. there were a million and one secrets buzzing around the damn island, and Sawyer was in the loop on most of them. It was almost impossible not to be, but he didn't want to go gettin' himself involved just because it was the popular thing to do. There were better things Sawyer had to focus on. Maybe it didn't make him the most popular guy on the island, but here he was being chatted up by a whole two other people.

[Ana-Lucia Cortez]

She'd only realize that the next day, Ana-Lucia would be fumed even more at the 'con boy', but secretly she'd be the one to save his butt should he run into Ben or Kate. Ana-Lucia glared at him, grabbing onto the book and eyed it. "Lemme' guess. It's about bunnies." she gave him that hard edged stare. Clearly still dripping wet from the water, she didn't care that her black tank top was sort of becoming see through and her jeans were soaked. The towel hung loosely on her shoulders as she slapped the book back into his lap. "Share time's over." arching both brows. Then she turned her attention to Charlie. "Hi." the tomboy offered plainly. The guy was clearly strung out. Cortez knew when to keep her mouth shut about little things like that, but when it lead to a confrontation then she said all that needed to be said and more.

"Ana-Lucia." not bothering to offer her hand to either one of them. "He's reading." both brows shot up in pure sarcasm. "See ya, cowboy." noticing his Southern drawl when he talked. The Latina whipped the towel from her shoulders and held it up to her front to wipe her hands off, exposing the rest of her curvy form from behind. Stupid water. Why did she decide to go swimming during the day again?

These boys were obnoxious as hell, but they couldn't be even worse than the girls here. One she had noticed was too giggly, another one was too rebel...well wannabe rebel. Less than her, Ana was a rebel through and through. A self proclaimed Army brat despite never moving one inch from Los Angeles except the island.

Her mother wanted her to be a cop.

Pathetic.

[James "Sawyer" Ford]

Sawyer raised his eyebrows at her and smiled, "Well gosh, you are observant aren't you."It wasn't a question. He was in no mood to be bothered by girls and their emotional baggage, or whatever it was that was making this one so *pleasant* to be around. Must be the damn beach and all the sun and salt water, makes them go funny in the head. Sawyer called back to his last beach encounter. This was going considerably better, though it was by no means what he had wanted when he came here. Still, getting a rise out of people was one of his favorite pass-times. Partially because he was just good at it by nature, but he loved to see the way people reacted. There was more to it than most thought. There was almost no better way to see the true person than to piss them off and watch what happened.

Despite the rude awakening he had gotten, Sawyer breathed huge sigh of relief that she had not given the note a second thought. Sawyer always ad a thousand excuses for that very not, ready and waiting at the tip of his tongue. He had memorized them all to almost the same degree he had given to the note itself. There couldn't really be one without the other. He thought about the other girl he had been here with. She would have taken hold of that note like a pit bull. Either this "Ana Lucia" wasn't quite as observational, or she just didn't care. He had a feeling it was the latter. To anyone but Sawyer the note looked like any other inconsequential, insignificant scribbling. The kind that got stuck in a pocket or a book, until it eventually fell out and got lost. Only he knew the truth about it. That note was the one thing that he always kept close by. It was the only reason he had gotten this far in his life and the only reason he didn't drop off the face of civilized society all-together. He wouldn't go telling anyone else that though. Sawyer liked the image he had carefully built of himself, it was the other part of the cover up. Then there was the con-man part of it. That made this just another long and complicated job. there was nothing else to be said about it as long as that was what appearances said.

He waved teasingly as he watched the brunette stop off, clearly flustered. Apparently she wasn't used to being shut out. Back at home she probably was some spoiled brat who liked to play bad, but here she wasn't fooling anyone. "Bye bye Ana Lulu". With that he turned back to his book. If he had read her right, she would be stomping back any second, just reeling at the fact that someone had dared to talk back to her. He was willing to bet good money that he was right too. It wasn't his first time dealing with her type. They usually made for a more interesting experience, on all levels. Sawyer wondered just how interesting she could be. Finding out was either going to kill him, or be the most fun he had had in a good long while. That was if Freckles didn't get to him first. That was one thing about this island, there was no shortage of pretty (but temperamental) girls. Kept him busy though. He hadn't bothered to introduce himself though, so she was just full of reasons to make the next move in this little game.

[Charlie Pace]

Charlie was standing there with the other two, He was looking between them not really catching anything. He knew he had had too much heroin, it was really messing with him, he just needed to sit down or something away from people. After staying there for a few more minutes and still not understanding anything Charlie decided it was time to go*

"Sorry I have to go... things to... uh... do" Charlie turned on his heel and headed back the way he came. He vaguely remembered a big rocked that looked slightly comfortable and secluded, that was where he was headed now. He stopped and waved to Sawyer and Ana before continuing on his way.

((so sorry for the massive delay guys just well muse is dead for big threads right now so I thought it better if I leave for now, I might bring Charlie back later though I just didn't wanna keep holding you up))