Now or Never (An Austin Mahone and Crew Love Story)

Kiss Me

I turned and pressed my face against Austin’s strong chest; closing my eyes. The stress of the day was catching up with me and I started feeling sick on my stomach at the thought of what could happen with Alex. The possibilities were endless and the uncertainty made my head hurt. Austin stroked his hand through my hair. “Are you okay?”

I shrugged. “I‘m tired.”

He picked me up and carried me to the couch where he turned the tv on low and let me lay my head in his lap. Drew sat on the floor by Austin’s feet since my legs took up the rest of the couch. Austin held my hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb until I fell asleep.
                                                                                  ***

When I woke up I was tucked under the covers in my bedroom. I took a second to reorganize my thoughts from last night. I sat up when it came back. Alex.

I heard Drew say his name in the next room. “My mom said the doctors think his brain is mostly okay. There‘s a chance that he could be deaf though.”

“Deaf?” I heard Austin ask.

“Yeah. Deaf. Like he might never hear another sound without some expensive surgery and he‘ll either have to read lips or we‘ll all need to learn sign language deaf. It‘s going to suck.”

I heard someone fall back into Austin’s couch. “That sucks. So much.”

The other person sat down next to them. “Yeah,” Drew said. “Imagine how it‘s going to be for him. He lives off of music. What‘s he going to do now?”

Someone, probably Austin, beat their fist against the wall. “Everything I do is going to seem worthless to him now!”

“He‘ll still support you,” Drew said. “You‘ve been best friends for like five years. That‘s not going to be lost just because he can‘t hear it. I think I read somewhere that vibrations from music have the same effects on deaf people as the music has when you can hear it.”

“You‘re probably right,” Austin agreed. “Do you really think Alex is going to be okay with Olivia and me? He did have her first, even if I called her.”

“I don‘t know. I just don’t want to stress her out. She seems so fragile for some reason.”

Austin sighed. “Why do I find that so attractive? She‘s so much younger. I feel kind of like a pedophile. She should be dating someone your age.” There was a silence. “No. I finally got her. Wait in line.”

They both laughed and one of them left the room and went down the hall to the bathroom.

I crawled out of bed and put my hair up before emerging on the next room. Austin was the one there, just like I’d hoped. “Good morning sunshine!” he exclaimed.

I laughed. “Hey.”

I sat down next to him and he gave me a one-armed  hug. “You‘re looking beautiful today.”

I blushed. “Thank you.” He smiled at me for awhile. “I heard you and Drew talking about Alex,” I confessed.

“Really?”

“Why am I so fragile?” I asked.

He smiled and took my hand. “Because you‘re you and you get emotional over things. You want to be the best of the best and you want everyone else to be the best too. There‘s nothing wrong with that. I think it‘s adorable.”

I was quiet. “So much has changed since I got here, hasn‘t it? I mean, I met you, and that changed my life entirely, and I feel like I got closer to Dillon, but farther away from Kylie. But now I have you, Alex, Drew, and the other guys by extension. I miss home though.”