Broken Home

I

Ashton

"I'M DONE WITH ALL OF THIS!" I ran out the room in tears.

I could hear them all shouting back at me as I ran down halls and halls until I finally stopped at an empty one. I entered the nearest empty room and sat in one of the chairs. The lights were off but the sunlight coming from the windows lit up the room. I started crying into my hands, feeling very stressed.

I still don't know why they'd want me to do that. Just to get more attention? I have to break up with the love of my life just to get headlines in magazines? There's no way I'm doing that.

I love Bryana. She's my one and only. We've been trying so hard to stay together while I've been away and it's finally working out but management wants us to break up.

Just as a publicity stunt.

"Hello?" I heard a soft voice ask.

I immediately stopped crying and wiped tears off my cheeks. I looked up and saw a small girl with short black hair and big brown eyes. She was very short and looked 8 or 9.

"Why are you crying?" She asked me, walking towards me.

I noticed she was holding a stack of papers and clipboards. She set the papers on the table. I tried not to laugh as she struggled to sit in the chair next to me, jumping up and down. I helped her up and she smiled up at me.

"Thanks. Sometimes it's hard to get in these big chairs." She giggled.

"You're welcome." I said.

"Why are you crying?" She asked again, staring up at me with her big, dark brown eyes.

"Oh, nothing important." I lied.

"If it wasn't important then why were you crying?" She asked in a sweet tone.

"Well, let's just say I got into a bad argument and I'm probably in big trouble."

"Trouble? Your dad is mad at you?" She asked, looking genuinely scared for me.

"No, no." I laughed, my heart kind of hurting at the word 'dad'.

"Then who are you in trouble with? Your sister?" She asked.

"Where are your parents?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"My dad is in the office! It's scary in there. Whenever someone comes in, they leave crying. I thought the same thing happened to you." She explained.

"Well that didn't happen, and let's get you back to him." I said, standing up.

"But I have to give these to Ms. Jackson." She told me.

"We'll give them to her then take you back to your dad, okay?"

"Okay."

"So, who's Ms. Jackson?"

"She's the old lady in the big room with the loud printer."

"Do you know where her room is?"

"Yup!"

"Well, let's go!"

Connor

"Austin?" I called.

She should have come back already. I hope she's not lost again.

"Austin?!" I called louder.

"HERE!" I heard her sweet little voice.

"Where is 'here'?" I started walking in the direction of her voice.

"Over here!" I heard someone else's voice.

Sounded like a guy with a very high pitched voice. I followed the voices, not paying attention to where I was going.

"AU-oof." I bumped into someone.

"Sorry." I looked up to see a gorgeous guy with long curly hair and hazel eyes.

He was wearing a tank top that showed off his arms and black skinny jeans. He looked down at me and I could feel my face get hot.

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't see where I was going." I said, feeling quite embarrassed.

"It's alright. I wasn't paying attention either. Hey, do you know where her father is?" He pointed behind him.

I leaned to the right to look and saw Austin trying to open a door.

"AUSTIN!" I ran up to her in relief. "Where were you?"

"I went to go give the papers to Ms. Jackson like you said but I heard cry-"

"Um. So you can take her back to her dad?" He cut Austin off, blushing a bit.

"Yeah. I'm her sister." I said.

"Oh. I didn't know, sorry." He said, pulling back a few curls and tucking them behind his ear.

"My name is Connor, by the way." I put out my hand for him to shake.

"Ashton." He shook my hand with a smile.

"Well, I should get back to my dad's office. He's gonna get mad." I said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, right. Well, see you around." He waved, walking off.

"Bye." I said softly, watching him walk down the hall.

I watched as he awkwardly turned a left, and came back to go the other way. I tried to contain my laughter as I held Austin's hand.

"Let's go back to Dad, Austin." I told her.

"Can I get a sweet from Mr. Komo first?" She begged, giving me the puppy dog eyes.

"Fine." I sighed.

"YAY!" She jumped up and down.

"But why'd you take so long to get back?" I asked her.

"That guy was crying and I went to go see why."

"Don't be so nosy, Austin. Maybe he had met up with Dad."

"I asked him that and he said it wasn't that."

"Maybe he was lying."

We left it at that. Even though she's only 11, she gets a lot of juicy gossip every now and then. It's easy since she looks and can act like a 6 year old.

She told me everything that happened. She explained how she though he looked familiar, but couldn't remember from where. He looked familiar to me too.

We walked to Ms. Komo's office, got some sweets and walked back to Dad's office.

"Austin, where were you?" Dad asked as Austin and I entered his office.

"I heard someone crying so-"

"It's none of your business why they were crying. Next time, ignore it." Dad told her.

"Alright." She sighed.

"Connor, I just called into Mr. Logan's office to ask for four boys. Could you go and escort them here?" Dad asked me, looking very upset.

"Sure. Could Austin come with?" I asked, sensing Austin would be very bored alone here.

"Fine. But don't get distracted." He said, picking up the phone and dialing a number.

"Come on, Austin." I held Austin's hand and we walked out the room.

"To Mr. Logan's office we go!" She sang.