broken strings. ➳ payne. [slow updates]

Chapter Six. - Nothing Is What It Seems

Austin’s POV

He was there. He had called out of her and when I turned my head to see her horrified face staring at the side mirror, I wanted to walk up to him and punch him in the face. I felt my hands in fists when that thought occurred, but I knew it would just upset Aurora. That night was supposed to be special, and he had to go and ruin it. But before the night could get any worse, I unclenched my fists, swiftly turned on my heels, walked to the driver’s side, got in, and quickly drove away.

At first, I didn’t truly look at Aurora. I did not want to know what thoughts were swarming in her head. I took a quick glance as I was driving and it told me she was still in shock at the person she saw. Finally, at a red light, I was able to pry my hand from the steering wheel and find hers. When I looked at her, it seemed like I had snapped from whatever spell she had been put under.

Her smile came back to life, full and radiating. It was not one that reached her eyes, and that saddened me, but I had accepted that I was the reason why she would never smile like that again. Even after I had looked away from her and continued driving, her voice was constantly flowing. It sounded like a soft melody flowing through the breeze and I was overjoyed to hear it. The words she said were ones I could not understand, muffled underneath the haze that had consumed my senses.

I had feared she would fall within herself, shutting me out and the world as well. She had surprised me by pretending he had never appeared. I was pleased with her reaction, and hoped it would continue on for the rest of the night. She had kept the conversation going all through the ride to the restaurant and I was afraid she would run out of things to say when we got there.

When we arrived, I instructed her to wait in the car and I got out and jogged to her side of the car. I opened it and held my hand in the air with the palm side facing up. She giggled slightly before taking my hand allowing me to help her out. I shut the door behind her and allowed my hand to find the small of her back. I guided her into the restaurant, gave my name to the woman at the stand, and she guided us to a table.

The restaurant was dimly lit, adding a certain mood to it. You could tell the lights had been darkened manually, the switches on the wall not concealing the secret. The three of us approached a small table, with two chairs facing each other. A white tablecloth draped it and placed upon it were various items. The first thing that caught my eye was the candle, freshly lit as I could tell. The flame barely flickered, only when Aurora and I moved around it.

Once we were seated, the woman handed us the menus and left. I noticed that the candle blocked my view of Aurora, indicating that taller people were meant to sit there first. I quickly moved it over to the side and the faint glow radiated on Aurora’s face. Her face seemed to sparkle and her eyes shined brighter than all the stars combined. She had been intently reading over the menu, oblivious to the fact that I was admiring her and her endless beauty.

I hated myself for what had happened to her and her mom. I knew I didn’t deserve her, but yet her she was, with me. I was the cause for a lot of her pain, most of it actually. She would probably tell you that Liam was, but our story was not one of fairytales. I knew I was the major cause of her pain, causing her to cry herself to sleep every night, for the past two years. She thought she was quiet, at night, but that was when the sound was heightened and I could hear every sob and feel every tear roll down her cheek. Most times, I wanted to get up and cradle her and wipe all evidence of her crying, but I knew she needed that time. It was the only time she would ever allow herself to be vulnerable and I had already taken enough from her to want to take that too.

I noticed her lips had started moving and when my eyes found hers, they looked confused.

“I’m sorry, what did you say dear?”

“I said, is there something on my face? You look like you were studying something intently.” Her voice flowed softly.

“Oh no, sorry. Lost in thought and your beauty I guess.” I replied back, a heat climbing up from my jawline and spreading across my cheeks; the blush of being caught staring.

“If you say so. Why don’t you get lost in your menu now.” She said, a small chuckle escaping through her lips.

I finally turned my eyes from the stunning blue ones that were looking at me, down to the boring words that covered the pages. With a couple glances over each category, I knew what I wanted to order. My eyes wandered back up to look at my lovely girlfriend, only to find her lost in thought, and I knew that it was never a good thing.

Aurora’s POV

I had tried to make myself seem upbeat and cheery, hoping that if I fooled Austin into thinking that I wasn’t thinking about him, I could fool myself. But instead of doing so, I internally made a fool of myself. I could not believe that after three years, three years of crawling over my hatred for him to start my life over, he found me.

I did not even know he was looking for me. Why would he be looking for me? He left me to rot in that… that hell. That was exactly what it was to me, a little piece of hell on Earth, reserved specifically for me. He seemed so happy that he found me, so relieved and I wanted to slap that smile off his face. But I didn’t, because I frozen with anger and fear.

I did not even understand why he had that smile on. He left me, with no trace of where to find him. His smile must have been one of seeing me after so much time has passed, kind of like seeing an old friend after ages. It was soft and gentle, and reminded me of our old times together. How I longed for those times again, when everything was simple and my life was not the mess that it had tangled itself up to be.

“Babe, are you okay?” Austin’s concerned voice flowed through my ears and pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Oh yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking about how wonderful this night has been and will continue to be.” I lied, pulling a smile onto my face.

“Oh really? Well what makes you think I have anything else planned for the evening?” He said, a cocky tone mixed with his words.

“Because I know you better than you think.” I replied, a cheeky tone coming out.

“Oh, we will just have to see about that.” He said, his right eye dropping down into a wink, causing me to giggle.

The waiter came over and took our orders. He was attractive and at first, he tried to flirt with me, but Austin’s snippy tone soon made him stop. We had talked about our days and other mindless chatter. He kept his tone cheery and cheeky and by the end of the night, I was getting a bit concerned on what was going on in his mind. It may have been due to the fact that he consumed a bit too much alcohol for my liking.

It was weird seeing him like that again. We had sworn off more than one glass of alcohol of any kind; it was a deal we made. I had never wanted to see alcohol again after that night, but I knew he would never give it up completely. So that was how we came up with the deal of no more than one glass of alcohol. Clearly he had forgotten that deal tonight and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit fearful for how the rest of the night would turn out.

After we had our meal and Austin sloppily paid, I quickly apologized and thanked the woman who escorted us to our table, before grabbing a hold of him and walking him to the car. I argued with him for a few minutes, trying to claim hold over the keys. I finally won, aiding him into his car before I walked over to the driver’s side. I kicked my heels off and started on the journey home.

The drive home had not been a fun one, Austin leaning on me as I was driving, trying to gain my attention. Multiple times I had to push him off and give a stern tone to cut it out. We finally made it home, with no injuries to the car or us. It was a struggle to get him to the elevator in our complex, and even more so to get him down the hallway. And as soon as I got him inside our flat, everything I was fearful of became my reality and horrible flashbacks crept into my mind.

Hello. I updated again and I fear this will be my last one until school starts. I start again on the 21st, so I may not update Withstanding by the time I go back. I underestimated the time I had left for break. Sorry. I hope you liked this chapter. I know it's kind of boring, but it was much needed to set things up.

Hope all is well. Love you guys.

Stay Sparkling (: xox.

Stephanie.