Sweet Home Colorado❤

Chapter 14: Pancake Disaster

"Good! That's good!", he sighs and leans back.

"Wow! I'm gonna take that personally!", I say.

Austin laughs slightly and turns to face me.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yes, I know", I laugh.

I stand up and grab my cup of tea.

"How about you stay here, drink your tea and recover, while I take a quick shower and get changed?", I suggest and he nods.

"Sounds good! Thanks Rylee!"

I finish my tea and quickly take a warm shower, just like I said. I think about changing into something nice but I'm not going to go out today, so I decide on some blue sweatpants, a plain white tanktop and a little mascara... just to feel better about myself. Finally I put my hair up into a pony tail.

When I'm ready I walk into my room to check on Austin.

"I'll be downstairs!", I let him know.

"Thank you, Rylee!", he smiles.

"Stop thanking me!", I say as I walk through the door.

"No.", he says turns around to sleep again.

I smile and walk downstairs. I grab my book and plop down on the couch. After a while, something wet touches my elbow and I escape my book world to see Ryder looking at me with his brown dog eyes.

"Aww sweetie... Come on!", I make room for him on the couch and he jumps on it.

"But don't tell Elizabeth!", I whisper into his ear.

"Are you talking to your dog?",Austin asks and laughs. He stands at the bottom of the stairs, still wearing his dirty clothes from yesterday.

"Who doesn't?", I say.

He walks over to me and sits down on the couch in front of me.

"So... are you feeling any better?", I ask, petting Ryder's head.

"Yes, a little! Thank you again!", he nods.

"Would you stop thanking me! It's fine", I laugh and he smirks. Then he stays silent for a while.

"Hey Rylee! I don't want you to think I'm always like that... I usually don't drink that much!", he suddenly says.

"Don't worry!", I smile and put my book aside.

"So why did you drink that much yesterday?", I ask and immediately regret it.

"I'm really sorry! You don't have to tell me if it's personal! That was so stupid.", I quickly add, making it more awkward.

"No, it's fine. I think after all of this... you deserve to know my reasons.", he laughs.

"Well.. so my brother is gay and came out to my father yesterday... and my father got really angry. I don't think it happened because he is homophobic... he was probably just really shocked and disappointed in us, since my brother's told everyone in our family... besides him. He got so angry that he didn't want either of us to leave the house, which then got me even angrier at him than I already was... so I snuck out of the house. When I arrived at the party I was so frustrated that I started drinking... everything probably just became too much and because of the alcohol I suddenly felt this pressure. Some dumb, intoxicated part of my brain kept telling me that it's my last time to have fun and that I need to enjoy myself, since it's my senior year and I won't be having fun for much longer. Then the even dumber part of my brain kept telling me, I'd only have fun with alcohol and I listened to it. So I just kept going... huge mistake!". he takes a deep breath and smiles.