COLLAPSED ☆ CENTRAL CEE

*AUSTIN*

"You look so different!" I say sitting next to the man I had dated in high school. He had his braces off, he was way more muscular, and he was wearing contacts. "What kind of different?" He asks concerned. "A good different, you were a little nerdy when we were dating." I tease. "Oh I know, I am still nerdy I just don't look it." He laughs. "It's okay, we all had to change somehow." I take a sip of my tea. "Yeah I see that... miss Stella Stone." He leans in closer. "Yeah, I seem to forget that I am famous." I purse my lips together. "I'm going into modeling myself." He sits up confidently. "Oh really? I think you'll do great." I smile. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"So what's the deal with you and that guy from last night?" He asks leaning back. "Uhm, I don't wanna talk about it." I bite the inside of my cheek. "Well... he must be out of his mind to hurt a girl like you." He smiles at me. I blush. There was silence in the room once again, like we were trying to figure out what to talk about. My mind keeps racing back to Cench and wondering what he is doing, or who he is doing. I snap out of my thoughts and look at Austin staring at me. "Ugh, fine I will tell you." I shift my whole body to face him.

"He is my baby daddy and my NOW ex boyfriend." I say with a blank look on my face. Austin looks at me in shock "Oh, uhm wow. I was not expecting that... So you have a baby." He says awkwardly. "Austin we don't have to talk about thi-" "No, no, no I saw how upset you were. Clearly you need someone to talk to." He says softly. I nod my head... "Yeah okay. Uh so Cench is a rapper." I laugh. "Since when are you into rappers?" He chuckles. "I don't know, I just thought he was sweet... Until he wasn't." I look down. "What went wrong?" He says. "I found some messages between him and his ex that has been bothering us for months now... apparently they met up." I shrug.

"Well he is crazy to even think about cheating on you." He speaks so softly. "Yeah, well I guess Sophie and I weren't really that important to him." I shrug. "Hey..." He hold my cheeks "HE is not important. YOU have always been independent don't let anyone take that away from you." He says looking into my eyes. It was like the same warmth he gave me when we were younger. "Do you maybe wanna..." Austin gets interrupted by Sophie's cry. "Well that's my cue." I snap right up. "Yeah, right the baby... I better get going. It's getting late." He says looking at the time. "Here let me walk you out." I say as he gets up from the couch.

We walk to the door and he opens it. Before he walks out he turns around to speak. "You know... for what it's worth... I would've done things differently when we were together." He says looking down at me. "Yeah... me too." I reply. He nods his head and walks out the door. I shake my thoughts away and I go in Sophie's room. Austin and I were inseparable in high school. We started as two best friends... one was obsessed with music the other was obsessed with school. One thing led to another and we started dating. After high school ended we got into a huge fight about our future and never saw each other again.

     As I am feeding Sophie, Luna walks in. "Hey you got a second?" She has an upset look in her eyes. "Yeah what's up?" I say burping Sophie. "Uhm, have you been on social media at all lately?" She asks. "No... why?" I say concerned. "Cause uhm, Cench got caught drunk and surrounded by girls." She scratches the back of her head. "Oh... like right now?" I raise my eyebrow. "Yeah... seems like he went right after the whole argument." She says. I shrug " He can do whatever he wants." I shake my head and keep Sophie in my arms. "Hey uhm, would you mind doing an event tonight or are you too tired?" She says in a fast tone.

I think about it for a second. I do need some time out to think about everything that just happened... including with Austin. I look down at Sophie, she had her eyes open and her mouth slightly apart. She was so beautiful. "If Sophie is what's keeping you here I would be more than happy to take care of her, but you deserve a night out." She crosses her arms and leans on the door frame. "Alright, where's the event?" I say. "It's a new club opening, all the celebrities are being put on the list... and your name is one of them." She says with happiness in her voice. "Alright, let me go get dressed then." I say handing Sophie to her.

"Also don't get mad at me but... I didn't think you would say yes to going... so I called in for back up." She smiles nervously. "What are you talking abou-" "What up what up?" I get interrupted by Demi, Nle, Tana, and Leah walking into the house. I look back at Luna and she shrugs. "What the fuck you doing still in your comfy clothes? Get slutted the fuck out!" Demi says in a hyped up voice. I laugh "I'm going I'm going." I smile. I walk up to my room but before I step in I turned around "Tana... Leah... do you guys wanna help me?" I utter. Leah's face lit up. "I WOULD LOVE TO!" She claps. She gives Nle a kiss on the cheek before coming into my room.

All three of us go into my closet. "So what kind of style are we going for?" Tana says looking through the bottoms. "Maybe something not revealing... I still have a mom bod." I say in embarrassment. "Girl are you kidding me? You have the best mom bod ever, it's like you never even had a baby... the only difference is that you got ginormous boobs now." Leah laughs. I giggle. She pulls out a very revealing and see through top. I shake my head. "Absolutely not." I say trying to take it out of her hand.

"Girl you're wearing this because I said so." She raises her eyebrows. "Fine." I roll my eyes. "Here this skirt would look good with it." Tana hands it to me. I felt so ugly in the moment... is this why he left me? My eyes begin to form tears. "What's wrong?" Leah says walking up to me. "I'm never gonna be her... why does he always run to her?" I cry. "Stella I'm going to tell you something that I mean deeply..." she holds on to both of my hands in a comforting way. "I've been friends with Yasmin for YEARS... and she's never came close to being a better person than you. Yasmin is good for a temporary relationship, you're the whole package." She smiles. "Thank you." I whisper. Tana wipes my tears and gives me a smile. "Come on... let's get your hair and makeup done." She says as Leah grabs my hand leading me to my vanity.

     After a while, we were finally done. It actually felt really nice to have girl friends that I could get ready with. As we are about to walk out of my room Demi and Nle barge in. "Stella we have a problem." Demi says looking down at her phone. "What is it now?" I say annoyed. "Cench is seen out with multiple women at this club." She says looking up at me. Leah and Tana look over the phone. "You don't have to go if you don't want to." Tana says worried. Jealousy flowed through my body, I am not going to let him get away with doing this like this anymore. "If he wants to have little club flings so will I." I say. "What?" Demi asks confused. I give her a smirk. "Oh I haven't seen that look in years... ever since Austin." She speaks.

    "What look?" Nle says. "EVERYTIME she looks like that, she has a really big plan." She laughs. "I'll be right back." I say walking out to the front door. I cross my lawn and walk up the steps of Austin's home. Before I knock I think about what I'm doing. Is payback really worth it? I don't like being petty... especially towards the father of my kid. "This isn't me." I whisper to myself. I turn back around and I walk down the steps. Before I hit the last step I hear someone call my name behind me. I turn around to see Austin. "Hey uhh Austin. I didn't wanna knock cause I didn't know if you were gonna be asleep." I say awkwardly. "Do you wanna come inside?" He says. "Actually I was gonna ask... do you wanna join me tonight?" The words just escaped my mouth.