Repeating Apologies [An Austin Carlile Story]

Ohioisonfire

"So, if you're here for Austin, I believe he is..... oh! He's right there." He pointed toward the living room.

My eyes followed to where he was pointing and sure enough, there was Austin. He was sitting on the edge of a coffee table going hard at whatever video game he was playing. Alan was sitting next to him with a controller in his hand. There were copious amounts of alcohol and quite a few people standing around with excited looks on their faces, waiting to see the outcome of the game.

"Oh no. I'm not here for Austin." I shook my head.
"Ah, I just figured since you guys know each other and all," he explained.

Before I could correct him, there was a bit of commotion coming from the living room.

"Damn it!" Austin threw his hands in the air. "You win this time, Ginger. But it won't happen again!" He took a drink of his beer and passed the controller to someone else. Alan stood up and did a funny little victory dance. "You want another?" Austin asked Alan, holding the empty bottle in his hand. Alan nodded and Austin started making his way to the kitchen.

I braced myself. I didn't really want to see Austin. Now that I knew who he was, I wasn't really fond of him, but I was going to have to deal with him, so the least I could do is be cordial. Besides, maybe the stuff I'd heard was a little one sided anyway.

"ADE!" Austin spotted me and enveloped me in a hug. I know he had done it before, but I was still caught off guard by this gesture. Although, I couldn't complain much, being in his arms felt nice. I was sure his long arms could have wrapped around me twice.

"Ade?" I asked when he let go of me.
"Yeah!" He nodded excitedly.
"I don't know about it...."
"What? It's cute!" He defended.
"It sounds like GatorADE!"
"GATORADE!" He laughed and grabbed a couple beers from the refrigerator.

"BEER!" Alan yelled, appearing beside him and swiping one from his hand. "Hello, Ada."

"You ready to get drunk?" Austin asked.

"Austin, I feel like we went over this," I said referring to the fact that I was going to remain professional and that definitely meant not drinking excessively.
"Party pooper." He stuck his tongue out at me. 

Within the next hour, the guys were pretty drunk. I watched as they stumbled around, laughed at everything, nearly broke things multiple times, played drinking games less and less well as time went, and said things they would probably regret if they remembered them in the morning. But they weren't the only ones, nearly everyone at this party was trashed.

"Hey, Ade. Can I talk to you?" Austin managed to slur.
"Sure. What's up?" I asked, standing up from the couch I was sitting on.
"Let's go on the porch." He led the way.
"Alright, some fresh air would probably do you some good," I told him while attempting to help the stumbling man outside.

I expected him to just have something really dumb to say considering the state of mind he was in, but when we got outside, he didn't even say anything, he just sort of zoned out.

"Earth to Austin." I sang, hoping to bring him back to reality. He turned toward me, but he still didn't speak. I watched him stare at me with his glazed over eyes. It was clear that he was drunk and probably had no idea what he was even doing out here in the first place. "I think maybe it's time for you to get home."

What he did next was something I definitely never saw coming. And you can probably guess what that was. He kissed me. It happened in a split second. My reaction time was so off. I put my hands on his chest and pulled my head away from him.

"Austin. What are you doing?"
"What?" He scrunched his face.

"What did you do that for?" I demanded, realizing that this is exactly what cannot be happening.
"You're hot. I'm drunk. I'm lonely. You're here. I thought we could just make out or something." He told me like it was obvious before leaning back in to kiss me again.