How To Stay Afloat (BxB)

Chapter 41: a sunny day in between the rain

I wake up to a knock on my bedroom door.

Before I can answer, the door opens, revealing a smiling Carla. "Good morning!" She cheers.

Austin groans and sits up, weaponized with a pillow, ready to throw it at Carla's face. "What did I tell you about locking the door?" He asks me angrily.

Carla gasps and quickly shuts the door when she spots Austin. "We made breakfast." She says from the other side of the door. "I guess we're gonna add a fourth plate."

"Sorry. I never lock my door." I admit.

Austin looks at me, looking annoyed. "I think every time I slept over we were woken up by someone walking in." He says.

"I'm sorry. But we have a tight schedule anyways. It's half past eight already." I point out.

My mom will also be home again at 10, I wanna avoid seeing her. I don't wanna talk to her about my sexuality. I don't wanna hear her tell me dad's gonna accept me because I know it is a lie.

"Okay. Can I take a shower?" Austin asks me.

"Yeah, sure." I say. "I just gotta brush my teeth real quick."

We grab our stuff and head to the bathroom together.

"You know. I'm actually really happy your mom saw us. I know it's not easy for you, but she already made comments about us dating even before we were." Austin says with his toothbrush in his mouth.

"What do you mean she made comments?" I ask him confused.

He shrugs. "I don't know. Not really comments. She just asked weird questions."

"You mean when I wanted to bring you your phone and you waited with my mom?" I ask him. That's the only time they talked without me there.

"Yep." He says, nodding. "And probably also when I was at your place for the first time, too."

"I didn't even have a crush on you back then." I say, laughing.

"Well, I certainly was crushing on you." Austin says with a smile. "And I was almost as obvious as you were."

I snort and spit out the toothpaste. "Didn't you say you only started liking me after you drove me home and stayed over?" I ask him.

He smiles wide. "Yeah that's when I fell head over heels in love with you, but I obviously liked you way before that." He admits.

I can't hide the blush on my face.

"And then we went to that Mexican restaurant." Austin says, chuckling. "I had to force you to come along, but in the end you liked it, right?" He asks me.

Something about the way he just said that makes a shiver run down my spine. I don't know what that was about. He kinda did force me, he stole the car key after all. But I'm pretty sure he would have given it back if I really asked him to.

"Right?" He asks me again.

"Uh, yeah. It was a really great night. Our first date, if you will."

Austin gasps. "That wasn't a date. We just met up for the project."

I laugh. "What was our first date then?"

He shrugs. "Definitely not when we watched Braveheart, that was horrible. I guess when we were climbing?" He says.

"Oh, how romantic. I had a near death experience on that rock."

Austin chuckles. "Yeah, sorry about that. But I mean afterwards."

I smile. "You mean when we shared your chocolate cake? Yeah, that was kinda gay."

"A tiny bit." Austin agrees and pulls me to him. "You know what's more gay?" He asks me.