Hearts Connected

Chapter 3

Austin let out a nervous chuckle while he grabbed the seat belt before quickly buckling up. He reversed out of the parking spot. Ana was typing away on her phone. He glanced over trying to see what she was doing but not risking getting into a crash. "What are you doing?" Ana glanced over at him seeing he was stopped at a red light and looking right back at her, His emerald green eyes staring into her hazel ones. Something about the intense eye contact made her blush and quickly look away. "A grocery list." She mumbled, once there was a honk behind them Austin mumbled. "Fuckers.'' Before taking a turn, he soon pulled into the parking lot of the store. Austin said. "We're here." Ana smiled looking at him. "Wanna know something." Austin nodded his head slightly. "I know we're here." Rolling his eyes Austin took a pack of Marlboro 100s and a lighter which caused Ana to glare at him. "If you think your smoking in my car your sadly mistaken." Austin sighed a bit, he got out of the car before lighting a cigarette. He took a deep inhale before turning his face away from the open door and blowing out the smoke. Ana looked at him, still a bit upset that he felt the need to smoke. "Let's go get the stuff.'' She got out of the van. She grabbed the diaper bag holding it out for Austin to take but when she held it out for a few seconds, she realized that Austin was still smoking on the other side of the van. "Austin!" The ebony-haired male looked over before quickly stomping his cigarette out then hurried over to grab the diaper bag, Ana looked at him a bit upset as she passed him the bag. Austin said softly. "Sorry." Ana looked at him after grabbing Prim's car seat. "It's ok." Ana took the car seat handle and rested it on the bend of her elbow. She smiled a bit at Austin that looked a bit upset about the previous event of him not being by her side. "It's ok, really Austin." She placed her free hand on his bicep. "I swear I'm not mad, just a little frustrated that I looked like an idiot." Austin sighed a bit before saying. "I feel like a jerk, I was fucking smoking while you were taking care of Prim." Ana giggled a bit."Austin! I swear it's ok, you would know if I was mad." Austin nodded slightly."Ready?"Ana nodded softly trying to make him feel slightly better.''Yes, I'm ready Austin." Austin started walking toward the store, turning his head back every once in a while to make sure that Ana was following him. He pulled out his phone. "Can I have your number in case we split up?" Ana nodded slightly. "My phone is in my back pocket. The password is rose." Austin nodded, grabbing her phone from her back pocket. He input the password and then his number. He noticed that she had a puppy as her background ."What's their name?" Ana looked up. "Oh that's rocky, he's my puppy but I left for college when he was a year old." Austin said."That must be rough, he might not remember you once you are done with this shit hole." Ana shook her head. "I still go and visit every weekend and break." Austin nodded, he had to admit that he was slightly jealous of her family life but something deep down thought he deserved his shitty family. Katie barely came over while his parents kicked him out the first few days of college even though they said if he went to college he could stay there until he got enough money to buy a house or apartment but it was hard as his parents stole half of every paycheck and drank it away. "So you and your parents have a good relationship then?" Ana nodded a bit. "Yeah, My mom, Sherry, loves to cook for everyone that she loves. My dad or as he likes to call himself 'the grill master' Jason likes to watch football on Sundays with my big brother Joe." Austin nodded. "I'm more into soccer but football is cool. I played football in middle and high school." Ana looked up at him a bit. "Then why not play now?" Austin got a cart to help Ana get Primrose settled. "I'm not sure." Ana had an idea that something was stopping him from playing football but she wasn't going to push thinking it was a touchy subject. Once they got Prim settled Austin asked. "So what do we need first?" Ana looked down at the notes she took on her phone. "Follow me." She walked around the store grabbing things that she needed. Austin just watched her add a few things to the cart. Austin grabbed a few things, mainly a pack of beer which confused Ana. "You know it will look bizarre when you buy a drink with a person that can barely drink." Austin looked at her stunned. "Your 21 right?" Ana nodded before saying. "Barely." Austin looked at her then the pack of beer. "You've had your first drink right?" Ana went silent, Austin looked through them before grabbing a smaller pack of 4. "What are you doing?" Austin held up the brightly colored pack of 4. "You, my friend, need to have your first drink" Ana shook her head. "No thank you." Austin rolled his eyes before saying. "Yes you do, I- if you don't like it you don't have to drink anymore. I promise." Ana bit her lip thinking a bit. "Fine, if you promise not to force me to finish it if I don't like it?" Austin hummed quietly. "I promise." Glaring at him for a second to see if there was any dishonesty in his words she sighed. "Fine." Austin mumbled something to himself before placing the packs into the cart. "Ok on to what we originally came here for." walking through the aisles Austin watched as Ana plucked things from the shelves, looking at the dates before tossing them in the cart. After about an hour they were at the cash register, Austin started putting stuff up on the belt as the cashier scanned the items Ana noticed Austin kept looking at the screen that displayed the items and the amount they owed. "Austin, what are you doing?' Ana spoke as he grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket. At that time Ana took in what he was wearing, a loose cotton olive green tee shirt with black ripped jeans to top it all off he had black converse high tops. Ana looked down at her attire; she was wearing a lavender knit sweater and a pleated black skirt, skin-colored tights, and heeled MaryJanes that matched her sweater. Ana thought what Austin was wearing suited his relaxed nature and the olive tee brought out his emerald-colored eyes. Her eye shifted from the tee shirt to his left arm, what seemed to be the most tattooed he had so many different designs on his arms but the thing she paid attention to was the way his muscles moved, it was oddly hot to her. When Austin turned she looked up at his face with a dumb smirk. "Caught you staring." She looked away saying. "Just load everything up and I wasn't staring, I was looking at your tattoos." Austin chuckled. "Thanks." He wasn't too sure what to say as even just her looking at his tattoos made him want to find the bathroom and... he shook his head which caused Ana to google. "What?" Ana couldn't stop giggling while she talked. "You kinda look like Rocky when he shakes out his coat." Austin chuckled a bit putting the last bag in the cart. "Let's get home. Ok?" Ana nodded pushing the cart as she walked alongside Austin. "You know your tattoos look cool." Austin smirked to himself after hearing how shy she sounded. "Thank you, Ana, Your outfit is pretty cute on you." Ana blushed a bit after hearing Austin, the normally rude guy compliment her outfit. "Thank you, Austin '' She popped the trunk to let Austin put the stuff away while she got Prim settled. "Your good with her, you know?" Ana looked up at Austin. "Thanks, I guess your not the only one." putting the diaper bag down in the back seat he smirked to himself, looking at her. Her frame was so much smaller than his own, it was strange. Austin never felt this way before toward any woman, not even his on-again-off-again girlfriend. Speaking of the devil; his phone started going off. He quickly looked down at the caller ID. It was Tiffany. He quickly answered. "Hello? Tiffany started to scream. "WHO IS ANA?" but he pulled the phone away from his ear as he tried not to get a blown eardrum. Once he heard silence he sighed. "I got paired up with her for the robot baby project." Tiffany went off on him. 'COULDN'T YOU HAVE CHANGED YOUR PARTNER!" He knew this wasn't a question but his hands were tied. "No, I couldn't. That was the first thing Ana asked." This idea made him feel terrible. "Am I that bad?" he questioned himself in his mind, he looked up seeing Ana, her wary gaze directed toward him, quickly looking away from him, as she felt bad eavesdropping on his conversation but it was hard not to. Especially if one of the conversation holders was screaming and she could hear them. Austin sensed how uncomfortable Ana was and to him, that mattered most. "I'll talk to you later Tiffany." He said rather rudely before hanging up quickly. He silently got into the van looking over at Ana, she quickly got into the passenger seat. "I'm-" Austin quickly cut her off. "It's fine, I understand. I shouldn't have answered." He frowned the whole drive back to the apartment. It was silent and about midway, he turned off the music in a frustrated manner which kinda made Ana uneasy. Once they got everything into the apartment she spoke up. "Please say something! Anything, even if your yelling at me it would be better than silence!' Austin turned to look at her with a confused expression before he realized maybe he was similar to him, he hated the silence from others because he knew it was the eye of the storm. He walked over to hug her, he felt a sob rack her body, and he started rubbing gentle circles on her back in a soothing manner. "I won't yell at you ever." She looked up at him, something about her tears made Austin want to kiss them away, Ana watched as his eyes dropped to her lips. She stood there leaning in until rapid knocking ruined the moment. "Austin Cox! Open this door!" Austin's hands dropped to Ana's waist, but Ana knew who was at the door, begrudgingly she stepped away. She didn't want to, not really at least. Austin sighed slightly before walking over to the door, he placed his hand on the knob but didn't turn it, not yet at least. The person they knew was Tiffany who continued to knock roughly at the door.he ripped the door open glaring at her. "You can't just hang up on me!" She squealed loudly. "Yes, I can Tiffany!" She huffed going to walk in but he stopped her. "What? Is that skank in here naked?" Austin was growing frustrated. "Maybe she is? It's none of your concern." Tiffany smirked. "I'll drag her out by her hair, She'll be ruined and humiliated." Austin glanced back at Ana quickly who was putting stuff away. "You need to leave." Austin growled. "Why? So you could probably fuck her, you know no one can please you but me!" Austin let out a low chuckle. "Go now." His voice was low, almost like a lion warning another lion to leave