The Girl Next Door

I can't believe my ears

Austin’s POV

After Dylan said that we were in love her face fell. She didn’t look like her normal happy self that I’ve known for the last two hours. “Dylan,” I said, trying to get her to look back up at me, “If I loved you before, I’m sure I’ll love you again.” I reassured her.

“I’m just scared.” She told me.

“Of what?” I asked her.

“That you’ll step back into reality and realize you never really loved me in the first place.” She said, tears forming in her eyes.

“Hey, hey, that’s not going to happen, I promise.” I said, lifting my pinky up towards Dylan. She smiled and then intertwined her finger in mine. “Now do us both a favor, and kiss me?” I asked her. I knew she probably was dying to kiss me considering we have been dating for five months and I only remembered her for two. And I was dying to kiss her too ever since she kissed me the other day. She blushed and then leaned in to kiss me. I leaned in towards her too and when our lips touched it was magical. I didn’t want to stop kissing her and it didn’t seem like she did ether. She wrapped her hands around my head and ran her fingers through my hair. It was cute; she acted as if I was never in a coma and I still remembered who she was. I wish that somehow I could just wake up and this would all be a dream. I’m sure Dylan feels the same way but I can’t help but think it’s worse for me. I’m the one who can’t remember almost half of my life. I’m the one that will never get back all those experiences and feelings. The only this she lost was me, and as far as I’m concerned, she has me back now.

Today I am finally leaving the hospital. I’m kind of nervous to be honest because what if a person comes and visits me or I see them on the street and I don’t remember who they are? I would feel bad if that happened. Also my mom, Alex, and Dylan have been telling me about my life and nothing really big has happened so far. Isn’t there always something big in everyone’s life? Something even as little as them having to move. I find it very hard to believe that out of my 17 years of life nothing out of the ordinary had happened to me. I remember when I was younger I always had such big dreams. People would ask me what I wanted to be when I was older and at first it was an astronaut. That was when I was around four, and then I quickly changed over to a race car driver. After that it was a doctor, followed by a zoo keeper then finally a rock star. I stuck with that one for quite a while. Now that I think about it I wanted to be that from when I was seven to when I was ten and now I can’t remember anything after that. All of a sudden the door to my room opened quickly, taking me away from my thoughts. My Mom walked in, followed by Alex and Dylan. They didn’t say much to me; just a quick hello and then they went and packed my bags. I tried to help as much as I could but I didn’t really know where to put everything and what was even mine. When they finished we walked out of my room and down to the lobby to check me out. We were walking out of the hospital and I just stopped. I took in the scenery and took in a deep breath of air. Dylan stopped next to me and gave me a wired look. She quickly realized what I was doing and then she grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the car. When we were driving in the car I stuck my head out the window and let the wind flow through my hair like a dog. Dylan sat next to me and laughed; I guess I did look pretty stupid. I pulled my head back into the window and shut it. Dylan looked at me and then smiled. I grabbed her hand and intertwined mine in hers. It’s weird; even though I don’t remember her, I feel like I’ve known her forever. As if I knew her before I was ten.

When we pulled down my block my heart started racing. I was finally going to me home again. Out of all these things in the past few weeks that were strange and unknown, it’s nice to have something familiar. When we pulled up to my house I was so confused. There were probably 50 people on my lawn with notepads and camera’s.

“Shit. I thought they weren’t supposed to know when he was checking out.” My mom whispered to Alex, but I could still hear her. Who was she talking about? They?

“I thought so too.” Alex whispered back. My mom then pulled out her phone and dialed something. She put it up to her ear and let me tell you, she was fuming.

“I want these people off of my lawn right now.” She practically yelled in the phone. There was a pause as she waited for the other person to speak. “Dave I’m not kidding, I want them gone now. He can’t see them, he doesn’t know yet.” She told the person, apparently his name is Dave. “Well we need to do something quick or they’re gonna climb in the car.” She said and then hung up the phone. She didn’t say anything; she just sighed loudly and put her hands over her face. What is going on and who is she talking about? He can’t see them, he doesn’t know yet.

“What did he say?” Alex asked my mom.

“He said that if he calls the police now they might take fifteen minutes to get here since it’s not that big of an emergency.” She told Alex, not even bothering to be quiet anymore.

“So I guess we’re gonna wait?” Alex asked.

“No. I don’t wait for anyone.” My mom said. “Dylan can you reach behind you and get one of Austin’s sweatshirts out of his bag for me?” She asked Dylan.

“Of course.” Dylan answered and reached into the back. She grabbed my sweatshirt and handed it to my mom.

“Put this on.” My mom demanded as she threw my sweatshirt at me. I slipped it on and then put the hood up. Alex and Dylan did the same with their sweatshirt\s and then, my mom opened her door. All the people on my lawn turned around and started running towards her. She gave Alex the signal and we all jumped out of the car and then ran inside. Alex stood in front of us so none of those people could take pictures of us, but I don’t know why they would want to. We are just normal people.

I sat on the couch; my heart was racing. Dylan, Alex and my mother were all standing in front of me. None of them spoke. They all looked nervous.

“What just happened?” I said them, still trying to catch my breath from the running. I could hear the people outside talking and yelling. None of them answered right away. It seemed as if they were mentally arguing about who would have to answer. My mother sighed and then walked over to me and took a seat on the couch next to me. She placed her hand on my leg and started massaging it.

“Honey, we all haven’t been completely honest with you.” My mother started. She seemed like she was trying to find the words to say. “You are not the same boy you were when you were ten. About three years ago you and Alex made a YouTube channel called ShootUsDown. You would post videos of you guy’s lip singing, fooling around and even sometimes you would sing. Singing was kind of always a secret talent of yours; you were always really good at it. You guys started gaining subscribers. Somewhere along the line people started fan bases. Yours is Mahomies and Alex’s is Acons. You started getting bigger and bigger and then a couple of months ago you were contacted by a record label. Now you’re working on your first album.” I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. It was always a dream of mine to become a famous singer but I never thought it would actually happen.

“You’re joking right?” was all I could get out. They all simultaneously shook their heads. “So those are all paparazzi’s out there?”

“Yes.” My mom answered.

“Who’s Dave?”

“He’s your body guard, but he’s also one of your best friends.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I have a body guard? I’m that famous?