Race to the Finish

Race to the Finish chp.54

"Shh... I got you Alex. I'm not going to leave you. You've got me to talk to. Shh..." Austin whispered in my ear soothingly as he rubbed my back.

Surprinsingly, Austin was making me feel better. I felt comfortable with him. He has been through a lot of shit. Possibly even worse than me, yet here he is comforting me. He's a really good guy who's masked by the way his bad life is slowly killing him.

He's a strong person whether he believes it or not. I'm grateful he's here with me. 

"Alex? Austin?" I voice warily asked.

Austin and I jumped apart and turned towards the direction of the voice. A male figure was at the mouth of the alley, but I couldn't see who it was. The figure walked closer to us. A small flickering light shone over the person's eyes. Those familiar, dark, piercing grey eyes stared at both Austin and I in a closed off way. He had his guard up it was obvious.

Austin cleared his throat and his guard came up as well. His dead eyes had taken an emotion of worry, but now there was no trace of that worry. They were empty, soulless like it has been for what I presume years.

"Jason, I got you another week to pay the money... What are you doing here?" Austin asked emotionless.

"I have the money and Aliana made me pay it off now. Plus I wanted to talk to you." Jason's voice was deeper than usual and stony.

Austin didn't say a word. He just gave a firm nod and shuffled slightly away from me, but he didn't leave my side. 

Jason stiffly walked forward and handed Austin a thick envelope. Jason then glanced at me and did a double take upon seeing my blotchy, tear-stained face, and red swollen eyes.

"Alex what happened? Are you ok?" He immediately asked.

His posture was still stiff, but it had relaxed a bit, and his eyes weren't as closed off and guarded as before. Now they held concern and a hint of something else I couldn't pin-point.

I wiped the tears off my face and sniffed giving him a watery smile. "I'm fine. It's nothing." I said as convincingly as I could considering the state I was in.

Austin snorted and chuckled lightly. Jason scoffed and gave me an incredulous look. 

"What?" I asked looking at both suspiciously.

"Aliana made sure I knew the 5 deadly terms used by a woman when I was little. Austin was there too." Jason explained.

I crossed my arms and sniffed. "Oh yeah? What are they?" I asked narrowing my eyes on them.

Jason smirked along with Austin. "One is 'fine', this is the word women use to end an argument when she knows she is right and you need to shut up. Two is 'nothing' which means something is wrong and you need to be worried. Three is 'go ahead' is a dare, not permission, do not do it'." Jason said.