Show Me That I'm Better | Post Malone

XII

*Austin's POV*

His eye lids fluttered open as his eyes adjusted to the dark of his room from his shut out blinds. He didn't remember closing them, or getting the spare blanket from his couch and putting it over himself.

He sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes, checking his watch to see it was just after 8pm. He was hoping he'd slept through the night, or this whole day had been some kind of bad dream, the conversation he'd had with her coming back to him in painful flashbacks. He reached over to his bedside table, pushing the button to his blinds and noticing a glass of water and a bottle of Advil.

So far he was feeling okay, a little confused and while his stomach was doing all kinds of backflips, he knew the cause of that and he couldn't blame that on his treatment.

He made his way down stairs, deciding that if he was going to be sick later tonight he might as well have something in his stomach to bring up. As he approached the theatre he noticed that the pizza and garlic bread were no longer sitting on the coffee table. He made his way towards the kitchen, the house dark and eerily silent. He still wasn't used to a quiet house, despite spending the majority of the past three weeks here alone, he was always waiting for one of his friends or staff to come barging through the door, disturbing his peace.

His kitchen looked different, it took a minute for him to realise why. The benches and stovetops had been cleaned, all dishes and rubbish had been put away, packets of Advil, multivitamins, immune support vitamins, tissues and wipes were packed neatly to the side of the sink.

She'd stayed.

Even after him exploding at her, she'd stayed and tidied up. She'd got him medicines and supplies and tucked him under his blanket and closed his blinds.

She'd stayed and taken care of him.

His eyes shot around the room in search of any sign of her. He didn't expect that she'd still be here, he must have been asleep for 8 hours at least, but he also didn't expect that she would have taken care of him in any of the ways she had so far.

He noticed the back door was slightly open and made his way over to close it, hearing soft noises as he approached. He stuck his head out the door and saw her silhouette sitting by the edge of the pool, her feet making circles in the water. He didn't want to startle her, was about to call out her name when he heard her sniffling between shaky breaths.

"I can't do this T" her voice was broken, defeat hanging to every word. "I barely got through it before, I can't do it again."

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, he didn't want to overhear something that would annoy her even more than he was sure she already was with him, but he also didn't want to leave her there, crying.

"Not yet. His lawyer contacted Jen saying he was planning to, that he was going to deny all charges, we're waiting for it to come through." He watched her wipe the tears that were streaming down her face, her voice shaky and broken.

He knew he shouldn't be listening, whatever she was talking about was obviously private. He tried to walk away but his feet were stuck, cemented to the ground.

"Taylor you don't even know the details... you know what happened but not what he did... I know, I know it isn't.... no it's fine, I'll be fine... I'm sure... Yep... Yeah I will... love you too."

She hung up the phone and placed it by the side of the pool as she leant forward, her face falling into her hands. He heard her take a long, deep breath, both hands falling to her sides and hanging on to the ledge of the pool. He watched her for a moment, knowing how private she was he thought it might be a better decision to go back inside and give her her space rather than risk embarrassing her.