Alone Together. [An OM&M FanFic]

Chapter 52: Confrontation.

Austin.

Hannah: Hi, Austin?

Those words were melting in my hand, boring their presence in my eyes as I stared at the brightly lit phone screen. It can't be, can it? I weighed the options of it being a trick, either by my brain or someone else, or reality showing me some sort of kindness.

We were driving back towards home, the tour rapping up, we had a few more shows on the way, and you could say the guys were more than ready to get a break away from the road, and more me than anything for the time being. This tour has definitely been a rough one, but eh, what can you do sometimes.

The guys were lounging around the bus, all taking shower turns and getting ready for bed, and I wondered whether I should tell them about this before responding or not. Should I even be consulting them about this? It's my text.. It's my choice.. Right?

I continued to stare off at the light in my hand when Phil pulled back the curtain of my bunk and stuck his head in. "Hey! Showers free!" I jumped in my long skin, phone falling from my hand and to the floor, screen still lit up.

"Fuck Phil!" I snapped, pushing him out of the way with my legs, and jumped down to snatch the phone back up when Alan shoves himself in the small bunk hall space, and whisks it up first.

"What's this?" Alan, always the smart ass, asks as he unlocks the screen and reads the texts. I tried to grab it from him but Father Phil stopped me, standing between Alan and I and trying to read the text as well.

"What's the problem Austin?" Phil asked, looking from Alan's quickly dropping face, to mine of anxious anger. "Alan?"

"Is this real?" Alan asked, almost monotone, looking up from re reading the words, to me. "You just got this?"

"What is it?" Phil asked again, his tone becoming more worried.

"Yes It's real.. I got a text from Hannah."

"A text from her phone you mean."  Alan snapped. "She hasn't responded to anything for months and now suddenly she does? Why?  For what purpose?"

Phil was stiff, and a heavy, burdening silence overcame us. "Maybe something happened." He mumbled, not even believing his own answer.

"Does is matter? She wrote to me, TO ME. The least I can do is hear her out, something could have happened. She went through a lot, or do you try to forget that Alan?" I leaned over Phil, snatching my phone from Alan's hand and hitting Reply.

"He's right Al... For whatever the reason she's trying now, and that means something." He muttered again, letting go of me and coaxing Alan out of my way. "Austin the showers yours."

I stood in the hallway, a blank screen for me to type my own words into, waiting for me, with nothing I knew I wanted to say. I started biting my lip and knew I needed to heed Alan's words and think about it. So I slid the on phone, in my bunk under my pillow and decided to respond when I came out of the shower.

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Phil.

"You can't make his choices for him Al." I tried reasoning with Alan, but once he gets so far, it's harder said than done. "You know how much he misses her, and who knows, maybe this will be his realization that she's either not as great as he remembered, or it's a misunderstanding." I plopped on the sofa next to him and nudged him with the brotherly elbow. "Either way, what's wrong with that?"