How To Stay Afloat (BxB)

Chapter 20: As a friend, right?

I walk inside the house and angrily swing the door closed and kick my shoes to the side. "Fucking bitch." I mumble. I know that Maria had to do that, but I still hate her for it.

I hate this job, but I hate fucking up even more.

I stomp upstairs and close the door hard behind me. I'm so angry at everyone. I'm angry about this casual homophobia everywhere. I hate the not so casual, but more violent homophobia. I'm angry about the system failing struggling teens and I'm angry at myself for getting so emotional.

"Sammy?" Austin's voice breaks through my train of thought. I freeze. Fuck. I completely forgot about him. I was gone for over two hours. Why is he still here?

I turn to my bed to face him. He looks like I just woke him up.

"Hey, what happened?" He asks me, sounding concerned.

"Sorry." I say and walk over to him. "Fuck sorry, I forgot you were here."

"What's wrong? Why are you so upset?" He asks me, sitting up.

I sit down on the bed and rub my face with my hands. "Nothing. Just a shitty day at work." I explain.

He hesitates. "Do you wanna talk about it?" He asks me carefully.

"No, it's stupid and I just wanna forget about it." I say, feeling frustrated.

"I'm sure it's not stupid." Austin says, climbing over to sit down on the edge of the bed, next to me.

"It's stupid enough to have me expelled from work for today." I say and stand up. I grab my phone and leave the room before he can say anything else.

I go to the bathroom and turn my phone on. While it starts, I change back into my casual clothes.

When I unlock my phone I see a bunch of messages from a chat with Carla and Harry. I groan frustratedly.

Harry says he's excited for our 'road trip' and bought snacks and made a playlist.

Carla told us that her mom's visit is going great. At least someone's life seems to be going the right way.

I sit on the edge of the bathtub and hold my head in my hands. Fuck. My dad's gonna find out about this. He's gonna be furious. Why did she have to send me home? I had everything under control.

After I reply to Carla and Harry I go back to my room. Austin is still sitting on my bed, his clothes in hand.

He leaves the room and I think he maybe left and went home, but then he comes back a few minutes later with wet hair. Did he just take a shower? I may be upset, but I'm definitely not blind, he looks fucking hot with his hair wet.

"Do you wanna eat some breakfast together?" He asks me.

"I'm not hungry." I tell him. I'm just tired and angry and maybe a tiny bit horny on top of that, thanks Austin.

"You haven't eaten anything since yesterday, you should eat something." He brings up.

"I'm not hungry." I angrily repeat myself.

"But I am. And I'm your guest. So let's go and eat." He says.

I roll my eyes. "You can take something from the kitchen downstairs, I don't care."

Austin stands up and grabs my arm. "Come on, I'm not gonna plunder your kitchen all alone." He says while he drags me out the room.

I follow him downstairs, too exhausted to try and fight him.

"We're gonna eat some cereal." He announces and searches for the milk.

"I don't drink or eat milk." I say as he grabs a bottle.