Should I Trust Him? (Austin Moon Fan Fiction)

Chapter Nine

"I told you I wasn't doing the competition without you. We put too much work into this to not try everything to perform."

The smile I was holding back forced it's way back to my face, until I noticed how close we were standing. I felt his hand on the small of my back, and he made a move to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. I swatted his hand away, pressing harder into the railing behind me and cleared my throat.

"Austin, we can't."

Confusion spread across his face as he took a step back from me to give me space.

"Why? You clearly have feelings for me, too. I can't just be imagining that."

My voice caught in my throat as I looked away from him. Images of him kissing Cassidy were plastered in my head, and I couldn't have intimate moments like that with him when he clearly couldn't make up his mind.

"You may have admitted your feelings for me earlier, but it's better if we don't complicate anything. I mean, it's not worth it if you're just going to change your mind later."

"Change my mind?" He asked, and I hated how he looked at me with a mix of hurt and confusion.

"I saw you," I stated, watching his expression change as realization hit him.

"You saw Cassidy...?" I held up a hand before he could finish the sentence.

"Yes. I saw you two kissing, and I can't handle any back and forth or mind games, Austin. You haven't even shown any actual indication you like me ever since she showed up, so I think it's better to just leave things how they are now. Besides, who knows if your feelings are just an effect of all the time spent rehearsing a love song. It could all just be an illusion."

"You got it all wrong-" Austin was cut off when Isabella ran up and hugged me.

"You guys did so great! I'm so proud of you!" she beamed.

The air was knocked out of my chest when Dez also wrapped his arms around me, but I hugged back regardless.

"I literally did nothing but sat there and sang," I chuckled as I separated from them. "My throat is a little dry, though. I'm going to stumble my way over to the concession stand and grab a drink."

"Hailey-" Austin started, but I just ignored it, not wanting to hear anymore.

I staggered over to the stand and grabbed a water, taking a seat at a nearby table. The exhaustion from the eventful morning washed over me as I propped my head up on the table with my arm. The singer that was performing was singing softly, and I sighed, wanting to go lay in bed and never get up again. I didn't even care if Austin and I won, I just wanted to get out of here.

Isabella took a seat next to me, and I flashed her a polite smile, earning an eye roll in response.

"What's wrong?" she asked, nudging me in the side.

"You mean other than my sprained ankle?" I laughed.

"Okay, smart ass. You know what I mean. What happened? You seemed so happy up on stage and now you look like you want to be far from here."

I just shrugged, not knowing where to even begin. I started to walk Isabella through the whole morning, and the emotional rollercoaster I've been on.

"Isn't it a good thing that Austin admitted his feelings for you?"

"Not when I catch him kissing Cassidy 10 minutes later, and only moments before we were supposed to be singing a freaking love song together."

Isabella audibly gasped, and I nodded my head. "Yeah. I just don't get anything that's going on right now. So, I'm just going to ignore it all and act like today never happened when I get home later. I just wish we would've went on later so I didn't have to wait here as long for the winner or winners to be announced."

"Who says you have to wait? You have a perfectly good excuse attached to you to leave."

"My..."

"Your ankle, dummy. I wasn't alluding to anything else."

I giggled, "Give me a break, okay? I'm going through it today."

"Clearly. Come on. Let's go before someone tries to stop you." Isabella smiled as she took my arm and wrapped it around her neck, helping me up from the table.

We made it back to my house, and I flopped down on the couch with an exaggerated groan. I took my phone from my pocket that had been vibrating like crazy from texts and tossed it across the room and onto the loveseat.

"And I thought I was the dramatic one," Isabella chuckled as she plopped down beside me, scrolling through her phone.

Her phone dinged, and I watched as a smile spread across her face.

"What? Did you get a text from Dez?" I wiggled my eyebrows.

"Yes. and guess what?" She paused for dramatic effect, "You and Austin won. Everyone loved you guys."

A mix of excitement and melancholy filled me, but I cheered and celebrated along with her. Now that the competition was over, I realized I didn't have an excuse to see Austin everyday now unless we happened to run into each other at Sonic Boom. Did I even want to see him as often now?

Isabella wrapped her arms around me, noticing how I felt. "You better be upset because I'm leaving tomorrow night and not because of some dumb guy."

I smiled at her, resting my head on her shoulder, "Of course I'm upset about that. What am I going to do without my best friend here?"

"Hopefully suffer so you miss me more," she joked.

"What if I come with you?"

"Huh?"

"I need to go out and visit anyways. You know why. Besides, school doesn't start for a few more weeks so I have nothing but time, and Ally and her dad will be fine at the store without me."

"You know, it's not good to run away from your problems."

I could hear the concern in her voice but shrugged her off, "Whatever. That's not what I'm doing.."

"Fine, but you are going to have to deal with everything sooner or later. You do go to school with him, and you work where he spends most of his time."

"Yeah, yeah. I know."