Protecting Taylor

Chapter 42

I decided to go down stairs after a restless sleep at 6:00. Taylor and Adam would be in bed for a while since they partied into the morning hours. I heard them going to bed after 4:00. Olivia was laying on the couch and stirred when she heard me enter the room. The white cat leapt of the couch and started batting at my toes. So, I got down on the floor and started playing with her. She rolled onto her back and batted at my hands. Meredith would be so jealous if she saw.
I was so caught up in my thoughts and entertaining the cat that I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard someone speak.
"Still getting up early I see." He says.
My heart clenches and beats rapidly in my chest. I whip around so see Austin standing there in a t-shirt and flannel pajama pants.
"Sorry, did I scare you?" He laughs.
"I didn't hear you come in."
He raises his eye brows, then furrows them together.
"Seriously?" He asked.
"Yeah, I guess I'm losing my touch." I say.
"That's not like you." He tells me.
I pet Olivia some more and try to avoid his gaze.
"What's up with you? You've been acting weird since you got here."
"Jet lagged." I lie.
"Bullshit." He counters.
I bite my lip and think of a new excuse.
"You aren't fooling anyone."
I look up at him.
"What?"
"You heard me. You aren't fooling anyone. Mom and dad can tell and so can Taylor and Adam. They mentioned a phone call, so what's going on and I don't want lies. You hardly ate last night and you look like hell, no offense."
Against my will, tears burn in my eyes and blur my vision. Through my watery gaze I see him move towards me and sit down on the floor. A tear betrays me and slides down my cheek.
"Oh shit, this isn't good." Austin says pulling me into his arms.
I break down and sob into his shirt. He shushes me softly and strokes my hair.
"I'm leaving after Christmas." I confess to him.
He tightens his grip on me and stops running his hand through my hair.
A silence falls between us and I feel a tear hit my forehead. I pull away and look up to see his eyes rimmed red and tears invading his blue orbs.
"Please don't cry." I say.
"I can't." He shakes his head.
"It's okay." I reassure.
"No it's not. Taylor is going to be crushed and it's not fair to anyone and especially not fair to you."
"I know, I didn't want to ruin her birthday, so I didn't tell her."
"Can my parents adopt you? Or can Taylor? There has to be another way."
"It doesn't work like that, I'm sorry."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because they own me. They have legal guardianship of me."
"What about when you're an adult?"
"I have a contract."
"What if you break it? Taylor has money. She can get you out of it."
"It just doesn't work that way, I'm sorry."
He runs a hand through his hair.
"This is so unfair." He says with flaring nostrils.
"I don't know how to handle this. I've gone on more missions than I can remember, but this has been the best time of my whole life. It made me realize what I had been missing. I'm not going to lie, this sucks."
"I can't stand this. I seriously cannot." He says.
"Eventually everything in your lives will go back to normal."
"I don't see how that's possible. It's not even fair that you're going back to that shit hole and we can't ever get a hold of you again."
"You'll forget about me over time, I promise."
He shakes his head no.
I hate seeing him crying because of me and it makes me dread telling Taylor even more.
"I know you think you won't, but my life will go back to normal and so will yours."
He keeps shaking his head.
"Austin, please, I don't want Taylor to find out yet."
"What's going on?" A gravelly morning voice spoke and I whipped around to see Adam walking down stairs.
I might as well tell him. He'll find out soon enough. Once he's standing over us I look up and say, "um, I got a call when we were leaving Australia and I'm going back for good after Christmas."
He's quiet and reached down and grabs my arm. I stand and he pulls me in for a hug. He doesn't say anything, just hugs me.
"I'm sorry." He finally says.
"It's okay, I'm sorry I'm upsetting you guys."
"Don't be."
"Do you want me to tell her?" He offers.
"No, I need to do it."
I hate that I'll have to hurt her, but it's only right for me to tell her.
"We need to get it together, I don't want to tell her as soon as she wakes up." I say.
They both nod in agreement and I go to the bathroom and straighten myself up. My face was returning to normal color after crying and usually after I cry I look pretty normal. I got dressed and ready for the day. Taylor wanted to do some last minute Christmas shopping today. We had accumulated many things over the last couple of months, but she wanted to look around some more. I didn't know if I should tell her the news before or after we went shopping. I didn't want to ruin the day, but I didn't want to keep this from her any longer. I stressed over the decision and ultimately decided to let the day play out how it will and if it comes up before then I'll tell her.
Austin stayed in his guest room for the next several hours while Taylor was still sleeping off the night before. Adam went back to bed with her. Andrea and Scott were up watching TV in the living room downstairs. I sat in my room watching TV and thinking about how lucky I was to get an opportunity to live a life like this even if it was just for a little while.
I hear shuffling and voices and I know Taylor is up. She's talking to Adam. I hear her say, "thank god for Advil." She must be hungover. Normally, I would laugh, but I was going to make that hangover a lot worse.
I decided to come out of my room because she would find it suspicious that I wasn't downstairs with her parents or hanging out with her brother.
"Hey, sweetie, good morning." She says sweetly when she sees me.
"It's more like afternoon." I try to joke.
She rolls her eyes while pouring a cup of coffee.
"The party wasn't too loud was it?" She asked tentatively.
"No, I slept right through it." I lied.
"Good. Mom, dad?" She asked.
"Slept like a log." Scott says.
"You could sleep through anything." Andrea rolls her eyes and I think how alike Taylor and her mom are.
"Where's Austin?" Taylor asks.
"He's still in his room, we haven't seen him yet this morning. He's probably sleeping off a hangover." Andrea says.
Adam laughs from the kitchen counter while eating a piece of left over cake.
"Is he flying back with you guys?" Taylor asks.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to go get him up." Andrea says.
"I'm up." He says walking into the room.
I can already sense his sour mood.
"You good bro?" Taylor teases.
I cringe.
"I'm peachy." He says sarcastically.
"I've got Advil." She offers oblivious to the fact he didn't have a hangover.
He looks at me and back to her.
"I'll manage." He says catching on to the fact that it's assumed he had too much to drink.
"Do you have your stuff together? We need to leave in half an hour." Scott tells him.
"Yeah, I'm all packed up."
"You guy's excited for Colorado?" Scott asks.
"Yes! It's going to be magical, I can't wait for you to have Christmas, Alex." She says ruffling my hair.
"I'm stoked." I said.
"We're going to bake cookies and decorate the tree and play in the snow. It's literally like Christmas out of one of those cozy hallmark movies." Taylor continues.
"I'm ready for the snow mobiles." Adam says shaking Austin's shoulder playfully.
Austin tries to muster a small smile.
"Don't shake him too much, he might spew chunks on my floor." Taylor says.
"Maybe he just needs to Shake It Off." Scott jokes evoking a sarcastic laugh from Taylor.
We spend the whole time waiting for the car to get here talking to Andrea, Scott, and Austin. When the SUV pulled up out front to take them to the airport, we all hugged goodbye.
Austin hugged me a little extra tight and I hoped he would be okay. After they left Taylor turned to me.
"Alright, I'm going to go get cleaned up." She says.
"Hey, babe, I'm going to head out. I'll see you tomorrow." Adam says and they kiss and exchange goodbyes.
She disappears upstairs and Adam looks at me.
"You need to tell her today. This isn't something you can just dump on her at the last minute."
"I know." I nod.
"Okay, I'm sure she'll call me when you tell her. Again, I'm sorry." He says hugging me before leaving for his show tonight in Chicago.
Then I'm left with Taylor and the impending doom that today would bring.