Changing My Ways For You

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Austin’s POV

I skipped school Monday. I wasn’t in the mood.

I didn’t really have a plan in mind of what I was going to do instead. I kind of just drove around aimlessly for a few hours before I decided to pull over on the side of the road. My car sat there, with me in it, along the shoulder of the deserted road.

I laid my head on the steering wheel and closed my eyes.

How could I have let this happen? How did I let her slip away so easily?

Questions and more questions were swirling around in my head. It ticked me off that I had no answer for any of them.

After a while, I got sick of the silence. It felt like something was there, hovering in the air, like the answer to all my prayers for Grace. I lurched forward and jammed my finger into the dashboard to turn on the radio.

I didn’t pay attention to the music, just happy for the sound it provided.

My phone buzzed a few times while I sat in my parked car, but I stopped reading the messages after the first three. They were all from Noland, asking where I was, telling me that he talked to Coach.

I didn’t give a fuck who he had talked to, to be honest. It was Noland’s team now, I didn’t need to talk about how it happened with him or hear him apologize over and over like two pricks.

When my phone rang for the fifteenth time, I picked it up angrily and snapped it open.

“What?” I near growled into the receiver.

“Woah, calm down,” said the girly voice on the phone.

Gabi. Why on earth was she calling me? Was I too subtle with the ‘I’m over you’ comments? Or was she just too dense to realize I didn’t want to be with her?

“Sorry,” I spat, not calming down at all.

“Anyway,” Gabi said, ignoring my tone. “What are you doing tonight?”

Her voice was so sickly sweet. The saddest part was that voice used to drive me crazy with desire. Now it just filled me disgust. At her, and at myself for actually liking her.

“Stuff, things, I don’t know, Gabi,” I said in a rush, rubbing a hand over my eyes.

Gabi let out a high-giggle and I cringed.

“Well, if you’re not doing anything,” she purred. “My parents are out of town.”

I knew where she was heading with this conversation, so I cut her off abruptly.

“No.”

“No?” Gabi asked, sounding truly surprised. How stupid could she really be?