Introvert

six

Saturday.

The day which Dylan dreaded and Austin was looking forwarded to. It had arrived.

When Dylan woke up that morning, she didn't know whether or not she would mention to Brandon that she was going to be spending her afternoon with him. Part of her wanted to tell him just as a warning. Yet she didn't. The girl had a gut feeling that as soon as she told her older brother he would make a bigger deal out of it than it needed to be.

With that in mind, she just went about her Saturday morning as she normally did. Woke up, ate a bowl of cereal while her parents got ready for work, then got ready for the day herself. She put her George Ezra Wanted on Voyage album on as she looked at her closet. Pulling out one of her striped shirts, she changed into it as well as a pair of denim overalls. Wandering over to her record player, she turned up the volume so 'Cassy O' echoed through the whole upstairs. She had no idea where Brandon was or if he was even awake, but she didn't care. This was one of her favorite songs.

She sang along to the song and swayed her body while she made her way to the bathroom. Brushing out her hair, she parted it so she could French braid it in two.

When she was done doing her hair, she walked back to her hair and flipped the vinyl from Side A to B. Even with George's voice singing to her, which normally soothed her nerves, her stomach was still tying itself in knots. Crawling onto her bed, she sat with her legs folded under her. Grabbing her No Face pillow, she wrapped her arms around it. Her eyes locked onto her bedroom door as she listened to 'Did You Hear the Rain?'. Dylan had no idea when the boys were getting to her house, but she thought that maybe if she stayed in her room, Austin would just forget about their deal. Maybe she could stay by herself in her room.

That was how Austin found her.

All of the boys arrived at the Arreaga house around 11:30 per usual. When Austin stepped into the family room, Dylan wasn't there. He knew for a fact that she was hiding in her room. As the rest of the boys found their places on the couches, Austin headed for the stairs.

Brandon's eyes followed Austin and he knew exactly where he was going.

The door was shut just as he expected, but instead of knocking like he did last time, Austin swung the door open. She sat on her bed, grasping her No Face pillow. Her glasses sat on the bridge of her nose in front of her wide eyes. Austin's brown eyes met them and he smiled. He knew that she didn't really want to go downstairs; however, he also knew that it was important for her to venture outside of her room. Even if she was introverted, her shyness and anxiety of meeting new people was what she needed to overcome. Austin wanted to help her do that. Introducing her to the other boys would be a step in the right direction.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to smile back, but her nerves made it tricky. Austin stepped into her room enough that he could reach out his hand. Instead of taking it, the girl stared at it. Her anxiety was getting to her and she felt like she couldn't move. All of this was new to her. Hanging out with a group, even if it was only five people, was still a huge deal for her. She had only hung out with people one on one. And even then, Everett was the only person she had hung out with outside of school and that was still few and far between.

Shifting her gaze from his hand to his eyes, Dylan spoke. "Austin, I can't move."

His brows furrowed in confusion and he dropped his hand. Her eyes started to tear up a bit. She didn't want to break her promise to him, but her anxiety was so high, it started to feel like an anxiety attack.

Austin crouched down so his eyes were level to hers. He had never seen her like this. He had never seen anyone like this, but he knew a few things about anxiety because of the psychology class he was taking this year. Somehow he needed to calm her down and focus on something other than the boys downstairs. He looked down at her hands which gripped her pillow. As he stared at her hands, he noticed the vinyl had come to an end.