Take Me There

Throwing Punches and First Meetings

Chapter Twenty Six

 "Hey," Austin said after a few seconds of silence.

 I just stared at him, my eyes wide and already full of tears. I was almost positive that my mom was going to be the one to open the door and I'd honestly been ready for whatever happened when she did. But Austin? I was not prepared for Austin to open the door in the slightest.

 "Hey?" I asked, my voice filled with so much hate. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of him.

 It all came rushing back to me and hit me like a ton of bricks. All of the nights that I'd cried myself to sleep because of him leaving, all of the mornings I'd heard my mom sobbing to my dad about how much she missed him, all of the seconds I'd spent trying to piece Sadie back together.

 And all he could say was hey?

 He ran a hand through his blond hair that was the exact color as mine. I couldn't help but notice that he'd gotten it cut since the last time I saw him. But hell, I hadn't seen him in so long that if he hadn't, he'd probably look like Tom Hanks in Castaway by now.

 "I don't know what you want me to say, Dal," He finally said, his eyes searching my face. Just a few months ago, he wouldn't have had to search my face to try to figure out what I was feeling. He always just knew. It was one of those things that I loved and hated about him. I could never hide anything from him, which sucked, but at the same time, I never had to explain anything because he always just knew.

 I tried to swallow the tennis ball that was lodged in my throat, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. I just stared at him with my mouth slightly open, probably looking like a dumbass.

 After a few more seconds of silence, he grabbed my bag and nodded his head towards the inside of the house. I eventually decided to follow him into the house, my chest tightening at how homey it was.

 The smell of fresh linen sheets filled my nostrils as soon as I walked through the front door, the light green color of the walls helping me to calm down some. I glanced around the living room, trying to take in all of the pictures that were hanging on the walls of the three people that Austin had obviously gotten to know very well over the last few months.

 "I'm guessing you got my voicemail," I said, turning to look at him. He was sitting on the brown leather couch, his elbows perched on his knees. He stared up at me with grey eyes, ones that looked mirrored my own.

 "I got all of your voicemails," He said, averting his gaze.

 I felt a fresh new set of tears pressing against the backs of my eyes. "Why didn't you call me back?"

 He shrugged. "I didn't want to talk."

 I wanted to punch him. I literally wanted to lunge at him and hit the shit out of him. "You didn't want to talk," I said slowly.

 He looked up at me. "I couldn't talk to you, Dallis."

 "I'm your sister!" I practically shouted. "Do you have any idea what you've put me through? What you've put our parents through?"

 He stood up then, suddenly right in front of me. "Don't sit there and fucking defend them, Dallis. They did this!"

 I shook my head. "They just wanted to protect us."

 He rolled his eyes, turning away from me. "They obviously did a damn good job."

 "That doesn't make what you did okay," I said through clenched teeth.

 "But it's okay when you do it?"

 I couldn't help it, I punched him. Fortunately for him, I didn't go for his face. Austin was the one that taught me to punch in the first place, so I knew I could throw a damn good one. And right then, I didn't know if I was going to be able to stop punching him.