Part Twelve: I Have A Secret Place
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Song For The Chapter:
Jolene (Cover) by Miley Cyrus
Jolene by Dolly Parton
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-Celeste's Point Of View-
When I woke up the next morning, Austin was no longer sleeping on the floor, and all the blankets were neatly folded and placed at the end of my bed again. He probably went home to get ready considering there was school today.
Instead of laying in bed, hating life like I usually would, I got up and took a shower. After tossing and turning last night, unable to sleep, I started thinking into depth about things. How people don't always last, and how you have to embrace the moment, and take what you can from it. I realized that while I sat here and completely hated everything, people out there were enjoying their lives, and living in the moment. I didn't want to spend my whole life like that; I didn't want to regret not having spent time with my family, friends, and the people that truly mattered. It would take a while, but I would have to start looking at life differently.
So, instead of completely skipping breakfast, and ignoring my family like I usually would, I sat with them in the kitchen and took some apple juice from the fridge. It was just us: my mom, Pricilla, Isabel, and I. My dad wasn't here, but he would be soon - he was going to be okay, and we'd be a full family again.
Breakfast was quiet, but no one made the effort to say anything, so it stayed that way. My mom walked out of the kitchen, and shuffling was heard in the living room. I could hear a couple of picture frames moved aside, and she came back in making noise with the keys that she was carrying.
"Here." She handed me my keys. I looked up at her, and she put them in my hand, "You can have them back."
"Are you sure?" I asked as I looked at them, she nodded. I put them in my pocket and gave her a small smile. "Thanks."
The rest of breakfast was quiet after our small conversation, until it was time to go to school. We got everything, and said our goodbye's outside. She would be driving Isabel to school, while I drove Pricilla and I to school.
"Before Austin left, he said he wanted to talk to you." My mom said, before I got into the truck. "I don't know what he wanted."
"Thanks, I'll find out at school." What she did next caught me by surprise - she hugged me. A hug between a mother and daughter shouldn't be unusual, but for this family it was. A hug was something I wasn't really fond of, and I guess I got it from my parents.
"Thank you for watching over Isabel last night." She whispered, as she stroked my hair. "I love you."
I felt the tears forming at my eyes, and I hugged her back tightly. "I love you, too."
"Everything will be okay - I promise. Now go to school, you'll be late if you don't leave now." She said before pulling away and smiling at me.
I wiped the few tears away, and smiled back at her before we said our goodbyes, and I left to school for the day.
* * *
Lunch was pretty empty, and I had no idea why. I didn't mind though, it was actually good to get my food on time and not have to hurry to finish it all. I sat down and waited for all my friends to get here before I began eating. Rose ate her usual cheez-its, and everyone else ate the lunch the school provided - the only person missing now was Crystal, and nobody knew where she was.
"Where did you guys last see her?" Rose asked the rest of the table.
"In class, but she dissapered before we got here." Devon answered.
"Guys, guys, guys!" We all turned to see the source of all the yelling - Crystal.
"There she is." Marissa muttered, as she returned to eating her Mexican food.
"Oh my gosh, guys, guys, guys." Crystal sat in her usual chair, and repeatedly slapped her hands on the table. "Guess what?"
"One fifth of One Direction followed you on Twitter?" Rose said.
"No - at least not yet. Keep guessing, ya'll are terrible guessers." Crystal continued to mess with her hands.
"Um, I don't know? Alex asked you out?" I guessed.
"No, well technically yes. I don't know." We all looked at her. "He asked me to prom, so I guess that counts?"
"Yes!" We all yelled alongside her. The people in the surrounding tables looked at us, but we ignored all the looks and freaked out with Crystal.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"I said yes." Crystal replied.
"Oh my gosh, what would their ship name be? Cryslex? Alexstal? So many posibilities." Rose muttered to herself.
"What about you guys? Are any of you going?" Crystal asked.
Never - up until now - had I ever thought about prom as such an important thing. Since I was a freshman, it didn't really matter to me, so I never bothered to think too much about it. Something like this had to be planned months in advanced, and not once had I thought about it.
"I probably won't go." I admitted. Everyone who heard me looked at me in shock.
'What?!' 'You have to go!' 'C'mon, Celeste, it's your last year in high school, live it up!' Were all most of the responses I had gotten.
"I'll think about it," I said before getting up and throwing my trash, and everyone else's away. I returned to the table and collected my things. "Now, I have to go. I'll see you guys later."
"Where are you going?" Dani asked as she handed me more trash to throw away.
"I'm going to meet up with Austin." I explained when I got back.
"Ouh, meeting up with Austin? Where? A janitor's closet?" Dani asked as she wiggled her eyebrows.
"What?!" I shrieked, "No! He wanted to talk, but we haven't had time. Bye, guys." I yelled as I walked away from them and out of the cafeteria.
I walked from the cafeteria, up the stairs, and into the area of lockers where Austin and I first started working. He said he'd be here after lunch, so I just sat against the lockers and waited for him.
Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. Still no Austin. He said he'd be here before lunch was over, and now it was too late - people were already walking out of the cafeteria and into their classrooms. I took out my phone to check up on him, but there was a text from him instead.
Can't make it. We'll talk later.
I would be seeing him in English next period, so it didn't matter - we could talk there. I picked my things up off the floor and walked to the other side of the school. I had a free class period and nothing better to do, so why not wander the school and avoid being caught?
* * *
I had been wandering for a whole hour and thirty minutes and had become bored. I'd usually be in the library, or in the theater doing something useful, but it seemed today I had no intention in doing so. As I walked without a certain destination, I found many secret places that I had never seen. Whenever I was bored in class, I'd leave and just wander the school trying to not get caught, but not once had I seen any of the small hidding places. The school wasn't big at all, but there were definetly good places to hide.
I finally decided to stop walking around and to just sit, so I found an empty hallway that led to a computer lab. I'd never seen this hallway, and I was sure that no one would come here seeing as it was pretty hidden.
Classes would be dismissed in a while, but I had no intention on going to English today - I'd just have to convince Austin to skip with me too.
People walked by the hallway I was hidden in, but I ignored them and typed Austin a message.
Meet me at the stairwell by the English hallway, and the language hallway. I'll explain.
I picked up all of my things, and made sure the hallways were clear before walking to the language hallway and down to the corner where the two hallways met. Teachers were roaming the hallways to make sure students weren't skipping, but I walked quickly and pretended to be going to class. I avoided walked too far down the hallway towards my class, and walked back to the stairwell.
There was no Austin so I just sat on the windowsill and looked around to see if he was coming. The hallways were quiet and the only people around were people rushing to class.
"Hey!" I looked up and saw Austin coming from the second floor.
I got up and rushed over to him and gripped his wrist, "C'mon, lets go." I pulled him down the stairs with me and quickly rushed out of the English hallway and to the main hallway, avoiding all the teachers on duty and acting like regular students who just happened to be late.
"Where are we going?" Austin whispered as I continued to walk the empty hallways.
"You ask too many questions." I replied before opening the door towards the student parking.
"I just want to know where you're taking me in such a rush." I let go of his arm and ordered for him to follow me.
"I have a secret place." I replied before finally reaching the issolated area of benches and tables.
I set my things on one of the benches and sat down cross-legged next to my backpack. Austin did the same with his things, but set them on the table infront of me and sat down with his legs outstreched towards the bench.
"So, we skipped class and now we're here. What did you want to talk about?" I asked Austin as he simply shrugged. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"I just don't remember," He replied, "It was stupid." He rested his elbows on his knees and looked at me, "So, I heard Alex asked Crystal to prom?"
"Yeah, she was pretty happy." I uncrossed my legs and streched them out so they rested on the table. "What about you? Have you asked Lauren to prom?"
He simply shrugged and payed more attention to his shoes, "We're already dating - I just assumed we'd go together."
I nodded, "I see, I thought Lauren would be someone who would like something extravagant."
Austin simply shook his head and looked up towards me, "What about you? Has anyone asked you?"
I laughed a little and shook my head. No one had asked me, but I didn't care. I had never planned on going anyways so it didn't matter to me. Most girls would do anything to go and had dreamt of a moment at prom, but not me. It had never been my dream to win "prom queen" or to so much as go - it just wasn't something I saw myself doing.
"But are you going?" He asked again.
"Don't think so. I think I have better things to do than hang out at some high school dance." I answered.
"You realize this is the only senior prom you'll ever have?" I nodded, "And you plan on not going and enjoying one of the last moments you'll share with these people?" I nodded again. "I think you should go even though its a last minute decision."
"I'll think about it." I assured him. "I make no promises, though."
"If Lauren decides to ditch me or something we can talk or something." He shrugged and moved his gaze towards the floor.
"I don't get it." I said after a few moments of silence. "You often complain about things that Lauren does, yet you're still with her. Its nothing bad, but I just don't get it."
He didn't say anything for a few minutes, but he finally spoke up and looked up. "I don't know, I wonder the same thing sometimes." He admitted. "There's just something about us that clicks, I guess."
I payed attention to his words and his actions - the way he spoke of Lauren.
"I met her freshmen year and things just sort of worked out for us and we've date for a while now. There's a lot about her that no one really thinks about that just makes us both work out the way we do. We have our ups and downs, yet we still manage to pull thru."
I messed with the nailpolish that was already chipping and continued to listen to him. He usually always listened to my ranting and problems, but now there was a change - I was sitting here listening to him talk about whatever he wanted. I didn't mind, though. I felt like I was returning the favor after actually listening to what I said.
"Everyone just sees us as this perfect couple but in reality we fight like a married couple often. She's not the way people make her out to be, she's so much different and I guess I like that about her. When I met her, she was so broken and so upset - she had just lost her dad and I guess we just connected over that. I felt her pain."
I listened to every word he said. How he talked about Lauren and their relationship - the ups and downs, the way they connected, everything. And that's how I knew, that's how I knew how they truly connected with each other and why they still stuck together. They often fought, but in the end they were always there for each other and nothing would change that. That's how I realized how much he truly loved her. They might still be young and had so much ahead of them, but they truly did love each other despite everything they'd ever been thru.
"You know she feels threatened by you?" Austin asked shortly after he'd finished talking.
"Threatened by me?" I asked. That had caught me by suprised - she was threatened by me, yet I hadn't done anything to hurt her way of life so far.
"Yeah, she may not admitt it, but she doesn't like you." I knew that for a fact; I was definatly not one of her favorite people alive. "That's why she often calls me while we're working or when we're hanging out."
"She shouldn't feel threatened, I'm not going to do anything." I laughed. "We're just friends, and nothing more."
"Yeah." He said quietly. He checked his phone and grabbed his things. "Its almost time to go." He showed me his phone which indicated we only had five minutes until the dissmisal bell. "Do you need a ride home?" He asked.
I took my keys out of my pocket and twirled them around my index finger. "No, I got my truck back."
We made it back to the student parking and noticed people leaving the building already.
"Think about going to prom, okay? You only live once." He reminded me.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I unlocked my truck and tossed my backpack inside. "Do you think we'll have time tomorrow to finish our song?" I asked him as I put the key in the ignition.
"I'll call you later tonight to make plans. Bye, Celeste." He pulled me into one of our awkward half hugs.
"Bye, Austin." I said before he pulled away and waved good-bye.
I got into my truck and turned it on along with the air conditioning to wait for my sister and finally go home to see how things were going.
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Authors Note:
Hey, sorry for lack of updates, but on the bright side finals are over! I hope you guys did good on them if you took them.
1st off: Thanks for the 100+ votes Wattpad! :)
2nd: Go on twitter and tweet #CarlaForUGirlATX - I'm finally seeing Austin in concert after two years! :)
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-I'll try to update tomorrow too, so just be patient. Thanks.
Bye!