New Beginnings {ACM}

Chapter 12

"Yes?" He asked innocently.

I just rolled my eyes and cleaned up the pizza. We watched a movie after we were done and it was nine by the time we finished it.

Austin yawned. "I'm exhausted. I'm heading up to bed."

"I'll be up in a bit. I'm going to work on the song," I told him as we stood up.

"Emily, you need to sleep. You've got an early shift at work tomorrow."

"But I need to work on the song!"

"You have lots of time to work on it," my boyfriend said gently. "Come on, you'll regret it in the morning when you're biting my head off."

I sighed and let him drag me up the stairs. "Fine, I'll do it tomorrow sometime."

I changed into a green tank top and black shorts before crawling into bed. Austin threw on his grey sweats and slipped in beside me.

I snuggled up into his bare chest. "Goodnight."

"Night," he muttered.

***********

I shot up in bed from my nightmare, sweating. "Jesus, worst dream ever," I breathed quietly. I glanced over at Austin and saw that he was still fast asleep.

I grabbed my glasses from the bedside table before slowly getting out of bed. Austin cringed at the loss of my body, but he turned over and continued to snore. I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face before throwing my hair up into a messy bun and slipping my glasses on. Yes, I had black-rimmed reading glasses. But they made me look hot, so who cares?

I went downstairs and into the den where the piano was. I grabbed my songbook and looked at the clock. It was after three in the morning.

"Great," I told myself. "Just great."

Sitting down at the piano, I got back to work on the song. "She's not like other girls, she could've conquered the world. Until you brought her down," I sang as I tried to match the melody. "Are you happy now?"

After an hour of working, I had four things: one garbage can overloaded with balls of crumpled paper, five broken pencils, a very messed up first verse, and an extremely frustrated Emily.

'I thought we'd always be happy.' Looking over what I'd written, I threw my pencil down and crumbled the paper, chucking it in the garbage. It just rolled off the pile onto the floor. "That doesn't work. Ugh, this is harder than I thought," I told myself. Try again.

'Guess I was wrong; guess you'll always be my happy never after.'

I growled in frustration and crumbled those lyrics up as well before whipping the ball of paper at the wall. "That's not a bullying song. That sounds like someone's in what I like to call, a relationshit!"

I was exhausted, frustrated, and overwhelmed with so many things that I did the one thing I hated doing. I threw my head down on the piano and broke down into tears. Stop it, Emily, you're crying over nothing, my head was telling me, but I couldn't stop.

The main light flicked on and I whipped around to find Austin standing in the doorway. "Emily? What the hell are you doing down here? It's after four," he asked sleepily. He didn't look very happy.

"How'd you know where I was?" I sniffed.

"I woke up to use the bathroom and you were gone. Plus, I heard the piano and you swearing like a sailor down here. Now why are you down here?"

"I had a bad dream and couldn't sleep, so I came to work on the song," I said thickly, wiping my eyes.

"Are you crying?" He asked me, coming into the room.

"Yes! I am crying!" I exclaimed. "Is it so hard to believe that a girl can cry once in a while?!"

He softened and sat beside me at the piano, pulling my glasses off gently and wiping underneath my eyes. "Wanna tell me what's up?"

"I can't get this song right, and I've been working for over an hour! I don't even have the first verse completely finished!" I told him before bursting into tears again. "I can't do this, Austin, it's too much."

"Hey, hey," he said softly as he rubbed my back. "Yes you can, Ems. I know you can."

"No, I can't. I'm not cut out for this."

"Emily, it's just a song. You've written tons for me."

"Yes, but I'm not just talking about the song! Going to meetings for the campaign has me constantly busy, and I've got Lucy to take care of, and to top it all off, I'm no longer on maternity leave at work, which means I'm there at least four times a week! It's a lot for me to handle right now, and I'm just really stressed out!"

"Okay, first of all, it's past four in the morning. You're exhausted and can't think straight. Second of all, you're over thinking the song. Just relax and you'll be fine, you always are. Third, you've always got me to help with Lucy and things."

"You're gone a lot for your own job!"

"But I'm not gone all the time. Our parents are always more than willing to help us out with Luce, and so is Quinn's family," Austin told me. "Emily, you're not alone. Besides, Lucy is a good little girl, she hardly ever gets fussy. Unlike somebody I know."

I elbowed him and he laughed. I even cracked a smile. "There's a smile," Austin grinned.

I paused. "Were you seriously trying to give me song writing advice? You?" I sniffed.

"Hey, I'm trying to help," he told me. "Cut me some slack, normal people aren't up at this time."

I wiped my eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he wrapped his arm around me and gave me a side hug. "You're an amazing songwriter, Emily. Don't you ever forget that. And you're an amazing mom. From what I see, you're doing an awesome job," he smiled down at me. "I'm so proud of you."

I gave him a small smile. "I'll never get tired of hearing that."

"Well good, because I'll be saying it all the time," Austin smoothed my hair and kissed my head. He always knew how to cheer me up, and knew what to say. "Let's go back to bed, alright? I'm exhausted and I'm sure you are too."

I nodded. "Yeah."

He stood up and held his hands out, hauling me up. "Please don't come down here this early again."

"Awe, you're so sweet, making sure I get enough sleep," I smiled. "Thanks for looking out for me."

"Oh, I'm looking out for me," Austin said. "Do you know how grouchy you get when you hardly get sleep? It's like somebody lit a fuse on a psycho bomb."

I clenched my jaw and raised my eyebrow. "I can start that grouchiness early, mister."

Austin's eyes widened and he hurried up the stairs.

"Exactly!" I called after him, but I smiled nonetheless. I loved that guy.