The Prince and His Pauper

Chapter 44: The Pauper's Disbelief

This isn't a dream. . . Austin's here. . . He's alive. . . He's alive. . . I thought silently to myself while I stared at Austin who hasn't changed since the last time I saw him.

His hair is a unique orange like color, without any blood on it, and his hazel green eyes still has that sparkle that made me fall for him in the first place. Only, he's glaring hatefully at Antonio with a scowl on his face when he usually has a smile on which used to lightened up my day. His pale skin didn't have any bruises from the football team punching him. I don't even see a faint black eye on his right from when Joey punched him a few days before the accident.

"Wh-what? You're. . . You're Cassiel's ex boyfriend? I. . . I thought he was dead. Cassiel said that you died. . ." Antonio mutters in a shocked voice, staring down at the boy he still has in his grasp. How does Antonio even know that move? Is a professional fighter or just really good at copying people from movies?

"Died? I was in a coma for almost a year. I woke up a few months ago." Austin informs, taking one angry look at Antonio for a second before his eyes meet mine and soften from gazing at me. My heart thumped against my chest when we locked eye contact and I suddenly felt like crying right now.

"Cassiel told me that the doctors thought you wouldn't wake up again." Antonio states while he applies more pressure on Austin's arm, making Austin winced in pain, like he was purposefullytrying block Austin's view of me by putting him in some form of pain. It works, but I couldn't stand seeing my first boyfriend in pain so I turned away from looking at him.

What am I going to do? This wasn't how I planned to tell Antonio about Austin. I never thought that Austin could wake up from that coma. That's why I spent so much of my summer break letting him go, crying my eyes out every night before I went to sleep, because I was so sure that he wasn't going to wake up. The doctors kept telling me that he wouldn't.

"The doctors said that there was slim chance of me waking up, but I did. I woke up before they could've pulled the plug." Austin explains, pulling me from my thoughts and back to the grass I'm staring at.

"How fortunate of you." Antonio comments in a tone that suggests that he doesn't really mean it and that really got to me.

I quickly bring my head up to face Antonio who still has Austin in that painful position on the ground with a frown on his face. Just seeing Antonio like that made me run to his side and do the unthinkable. I pushed him to the ground and knelt by Austin while hearing someone saying something in a different language along with a gasp.

"You okay?" I ask as I help Austin stand up from the ground.

"I'm fine, Cas. You know I dealt with things worse than that." Austin answers while he wipes his hands on his pants to dry off the water from the grass. It was kind of wet and I'm sure I have a grass stain on my pants because of it.

After awhile, Austin brings his attention on me and before I knew it, he pulls me into one of his amazing bear hugs that I missed. Out of habit, I return the hug and nuzzle my head into his chest then purposefully resting my ear on the spot where his heart is located. It's beating normally, strong and healthy, unlike the one time I visited him in the hospital where his heart was so slow that I kept thinking it was going to go dead any second.

I didn't get to enjoy Austin's hug for long because someone cleared their throat kind of obnoxiously. When I lifted my head up and see that it was Antonio who made that sound. In a way, I understand why he would do that but it still surprises me to see Antonio acting so rude towards Austin. He should know better than anyone how I feel about Austin, I told him everything that happened to me that day!

"Cassiel? Could I talk to you for a minute alone?" Antonio questions in a calm tone, though his eyes say otherwise. His grey eyes look colder than before and that's saying something since his grey eyes always look cold. But now, it's just a steely cold.