Saving Hadley

Chapter forty three.

"So I'm thinking we go do something, all together for your birthday." Lydia says.

Schools over and according to Lydia, it's celebration time.

Austen looks at me and back to Lydia. "Lyd, I actually wanted to just hang out with Hadley." He says.

"Oh, well that's okay. Isaac and I can just hang out or something." She says.

"I'm sorry." He says, but she smiles and waves him off. 

"It's okay. Have fun though!" She says, sending a wink our way.

She walks away and Austen turns to me. "So, lets go?" He says, questioning it.

I nod my head and smile. "Let's go."

We get in his car and when we're both buckled, he takes off towards town. "So what are the plans?" I ask.

"Well I love smoothies, so I was gonna go get us a smoothie." He says.

"Okay. I'll pay, birthday treat." I say but he shakes his head.

"No."

Ugh.

"Austen, just let me. This one time. It's your birthday, let me do something for you." I say and he looks at me this time.

"Fine. But just this." He says and I smile in victory.

"Deal."

Minutes pass and i find myself so lost in conversation with him that I don't realize we're already in town and pulling into the Jamba Juice parking lot.

We get out and head inside. The smell when we walk inside is amazing.

We walk up to the cashier and order, Austen goes first.

"I want a mango passion blast." He says and looks at me.

"Hmm, I think I'll do the sour strawberry stir."

"Okay. That'll be $13.48." She says and I hand her my card.

After a couple minutes of waiting, they hand us our drinks and we're back on the road.

"Where to now?" I ask.

"My house, that's where I want to be. And you've never been to my room." He says.

"Okay, but can I run up to my room and change?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's fine."

After a couple minutes of silence, he turns on the radio and we jam out to the latest hits that come onto it.

Soon we're pulling into his driveway and running over to my house and stop when I see the extra car in the driveway.

"No way..." I whisper to myself.

"Whose car is that?" Austen ask me, but I don't answer. I run into the house and burst through the door.

"Ethan? Lily? Are you guys here?" I say loudly.

I here talking in the kitchen so I run in there, and sure enough, Ethan and Lillian are standing in the kitchen talking with the rest of my family.

"No way you guys are actually here and you didn't tell me." I say and Ethan laughs and comes over to me.

He lifts me up into a hug and spins me around, when he sets me back down he smiles at me. "I've missed you bean. How're you been?" He asks.

I blank for a moment and just focus on the past few weeks that I've been amazing and clean. Which he never new I was using, but still.