Say You'll Stay: an R5 and Austin & Ally Love Story

Chapter 32

Austin’s P.O.V.

~ONE DAY LATER~

Austin woke up with a jolt, confused about where he was. He looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Where was his comfortable bed? His little side table where he kept his iPod that he listened to every night? The A5 symbol that Amber had made for every member of the band so they could put it in their rooms? All he saw was a lackluster room that had the smell of sickness. And why was his nose hurting so much? He lifted his hand to feel a bandage on top of his nose. Then he remembered the fight, him catching up to Ash, Ash hitting him, the ride to the hospital, Dani visiting, and everything that happened after that.

The doctor had told Austin that he didn’t need to stay the night, but he didn't want to have to face Ash again after their fight. He had asked the doctor if he could stay, and the doctor said it was fine as long as Austin paid, but that he could only stay one night. Austin got up to go to the bathroom and look at the damage Ash had done to his nose. He hadn’t looked at himself the past day afraid that his nose looked as bad as it felt. He glanced at himself and shrieked. His eyes were bruised and his nose...he couldn’t even describe how it looked. Austin ran his hands through his hair, went to the bathroom, and got dressed in the clothes his mom brought him yesterday. He made sure he had everything he needed and then exited the door, went to the front desk and paid, thanking the woman behind the desk. He texted Ally and asked if she could give him a ride back to his house. He would have asked Ash, but things weren’t going so well.

Ally finally showed up fifteen minutes later, carrying two coffees and a dunkin donuts box.

Austin smiled at her. “How do you always know what I need?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just know you that well,” she replied, returning his smile. “Anyways, how are you feeling? You look a lot better.”

“I looked worse than I do now? How were you able to even look at me? I look horrible.”

“No, you don’t. You look fine. Now come on. Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. I just hope I don’t run into Ash.”

“Maybe it would be good if you guys did run into each other. You two really need to talk without getting into an argument.”

“Maybe,” Austin said, not believing it. He took Ally’s hand and they walked out the door, heading in the direction of Ally’s car. “I know you have to work at the store today, but can we hang out after? We could go over your house and rent a movie. “

“Yeah, that sounds fine. You don’t want to go to the movies?”

“Not looking like this.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Austin and Ally reached the car and climbed in. After the fifteen minute drive to his house, he said goodbye to Ally with a “See you later.”

Austin went inside and climbed the steps quietly. He didn’t want people to know he was home. He jumped into his bed and rested his hands behind his head. He wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do until Ally was done with her shift. Then he got an idea. He leaned over to reach into the little desk right next to his bed. He opened the drawer and pulled out a journal. He had always kept a journal from the time he learned about his passion for singing.

He never told anyone about it, except for Dez, but he guessed that didn’t really matter anymore. Technically, Austin never told Dez either. He had found it when Ally left her book at Austin’s house. He had used his sense of smell, which may sound weird, but Austin was used to Dez’s...“uniqueness”.