Never giving up on you - Completed.

11.

Austin

I sighed and let myself fall down on the couch as soon as I reached home. Closing my eyes, I let the past three days run through my mind; it almost seemed like a weird dream. It had started so perfectly well, but had ended dramatically and the only one I could talk about it with was Caity, who was having quite her fair share of drama right now. She had to deal with the fact that her daughter, our daughter, was home with a broken arm and might get diagnosed with Marfan. Caity had been heartbroken by the news, and although she never said so or showed, I knew she was. Ofcourse she was; so was I.

Now I was home, I felt alone and weirdly unuseful; spending time in the hospital with Hailey and Caity had given me a purpose. I needed to be there for them, I needed to support and encourage them both through whatever had to happen, and I had gladly taken that roll on me since I would have felt out of place other wise. Never would I have thought that being with them in this situation would make me feel so protective over them in an instant, but the weird thing was that I didn't have to do anything for it to happen, it just happened in an instant. The feeling just took over and there was nothing else I wanted more than being there for both Caity and Hailey.

It felt like I had been on an adrenaline roll for days, and now I was home I noticed how tired I was and how much my body was hurting from not taking care of myself for a while. I didn't mind; it wasn't about me this time, it was all about Hailey and Caity. Dear God, Caity... I had fallen head over heels back in love with her again, from the moment she walked into my hospital room at day one. She hadn't changed a single bit in all those years, maybe only had gotten more mature. But so had I.

Thinking about her made me miss her like crazy, and the more I realized how quiet it was in my apartment, the more I realized how much I missed Hailey's girly voice babbling away and Caity's piercing eyes taking me in, and it felt like I had left them alone and I needed to go back to be with them.

I didn't want to call her right now and talk to her about it all, since I wanted her and Hailey to settle at home and get some rest, but I really felt the need to talk to someone who would listen without asking too many questions, and suddenly a name popped up in my head. Alison.

Alison Evans and I had met on Warped Tour 2012, when she was the tour photographer for Bring Me The Horizon. We had connected on one of the first bus parties thrown that tour, and had spent an entire summer of going out for breakfast and partying. We had become such good friends that our drunk, meaningless one night stand at the end of Warped didn't even leave a dent in our friendship.

I hadn't really spoken to her in months, and hadn't seen her since the American Nightmare Tour in 2014, where Of Mice And Men had toured with Bring Me The Horizon. We kept being updated on eachother's lives trough Instagram and Twitter. I knew she was doing good back there in England; she had married Oliver Sykes, Bring Me's lead singer, and although their marriage came just months after they first met back in 2012, they were still going strong against every odd.

I smiled at the memory of Alison, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket to dial her number. It would be past midnight in the UK around now, and I hoped she'd pick up. After what felt like eternity, a cracking sounded at the other end of the line and a hoarse voice piped up.

'Hello?' Her Britisch accent made me grin, and I realized how damn much I had missed her lately.

'Al?'

'Who's this?' She sounded like I had woken her up.

'It's me, Austin.'

'What?' Some rustling of sheets. 'Austin? Are you okay?' I opened my mouth to say yes, but the word got stuck in my throat. Was I really okay?