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

Meeting Alex

After all the discussion about what to wear for Austin’s meeting and how to act when we’re together in public, Austin and I walked out to his friend Alex’s waiting car. “Hey Austin!”

They laughed and goofed off beside the car as I stood awkwardly to the side. “Oh hey! You must be Olivia,” Alex said when he noticed me. “It‘s cool to have you down this way for awhile.”

“Hey,” I replied, because honestly, who knows what to say to that?

Alex stood there awkwardly. “Well, why don‘t we climb in and head back to your place? You said I could chill for awhile, right Austin?”

“Yep,” Austin said. “After you help me rearrange her furniture we can hang while she unpacks.”

Alex raised his eyebrows and pointed toward Austin. “Did this guy just volunteer me for heavy lifting?”

I smirked. “Didn’t anyone tell you that authors are to be treated as princesses? I’m royalty. No heavy lifting for me.”

Alex laughed. “Yeah. Okay.”

I don’t know what Alex or his parents do for a living, but if writing isn’t possible, I’m going to do that. Want to know why? Because average sixteen year old boys don’t drive around in bright red Mustang convertibles with fancy surround sound systems. Austin rode shot gun, so I sat in the back again. At least Alex played good music and included me in the conversation when we weren’t singing along to with the radio. I was starting to feel a little more comfortable now that I was being part of something I understood, like hanging out.

When we pulled up at my new house we all ended up in my room where my suitcases and clothes were still dispersed from my early morning adventure. Alex and Austin stopped in the doorway. “What the heck happened in here?”

I stood in the center of the room and shrugged. “I had some trouble finding an outfit this morning.”

Alex shook his head. “So what are my giant biceps lifting today?” he asked while flexing.

I pointed around the room, describing where everything was supposed to go, and then I stood in the doorway and watched them put it there. They were both sweaty when it was all said and done. “I’m pretty sure we just picked out the heaviest furniture when we were shopping for this room,” Austin said. “I don’t think we were all that concerned that it matched the previous decor.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Austin replied. “We want it to feel more like home right?” I continued smiling awkwardly. “Go unpack. We have stuff to do, like set you up for school and such. The faster you get your work done, the more time you have to do fun stuff.” He smiled, and then he and Alex ducked out of my room.

Unpacking is a crappy chore in general, but when you’re unpacking to make a place feel like home, it’s a whole lot worse. I got obsessed with matching things to the way they were at home, even though matching it exactly is impossible.

Austin and Alex offered to help repeatedly when they got bored with whatever it was they were doing at that point, but I couldn’t let them. They’d just put everything in the wrong place and I’d have to put it away again. They told me to go find them when I finished, but I pulled my phone off my desk instead.

No missed messages. No missed calls. I felt loved. I dialed Dillon’s number; the one I’ve had memorized for years. No answer. Perfect. I lay back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Nothing was really going right since I got here, but no one was going to understand if I try to talk about it.

Alex and Austin came back. “You‘re done!”

“Yep.”

Austin sat on the edge of my bed and Alex leaned on my dresser. “What‘s wrong?” Alex asked.