The restaurant wasn't anything extravagant, just nice and simple, but Alan loved it anyways. He didn't want to go anywhere that would be so expensive you'd have to pay with an arm and a leg, he just wanted to be able to go out somewhere and just be with Austin, and this place served just well enough.
"How many?" A guy at the front of the restaurant asked. He reminded the brunette of his teenage years, working day and night at restaurants and anywhere else he could find just to get himself money to help with his college funds.
"Two, please," Austin said, his hand absent mindedly finding Alan's and holding it.
"Would you like a table or a booth?" The guy asked as he grabbed two menus and two things of silverware.
"Table," Austin told him, and the guy nodded before leading them to a free and clean table. He placed the menus down, telling them to have a good evening before returning back to the front to greet others.
"Hello, I'm Josh and I'll be your waiter for the night. What can I get you to drink?" A waiter, Josh, asked as he clicked his pen and held it against the pad, waiting with a kind smile.
"Um, tea will be fine," Austin said, shrugging. Normally he would have gotten a bear or something of the sort, but it felt almost... wrong to have something like that. Josh smiled and nodded before looking over to Alan.
"Water will be fine, thank you," and with that, Josh left, leaving Austin to smile across the table at the ginger whose cheeks were slightly pink.
"Thank you for bringing me here," Alan mumbled softly, smiling gratefully at the brunette seated across from him.
"Of course, you wanted to go out, so," Austin said, shrugging.
"Yeah, but you didn't have to take me out, you didn't have to say yes to doing this with me," Alan said, but Austin just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"You deserve to go out, baby, instead of being cooped up in that apartment all day and all night, and I want to do these things for you and with you," the brunette told him, making Alan smile and his cheeks turn red.
Soon enough Josh came back with their drinks and took their order before disappearing again, leaving Austin and Alan to talk quietly amongst themselves, until everything just stopped.
Austin glanced up for a split second outside the window of the restaurant before his eyes grew wide and his heart dropped into his stomach and he went cold all over. He felt his lungs lose all their air as his jaw drop slightly to the floor while the only thought that ran through his head was "fuck".
Standing outside of the restaurant, looking inside was Justin, and boy did he look pissed. Austin felt his mouth go dry and he muttered out some excuse to Alan as he stood and literally stumbled out of the restaurant to Justin.
"What the hell!" Justin screamed, catching the attention of people walking by, but he didn't care. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?! You lied to me! You told me that you were having to stay late at work to help with a new pitch!"
"What- What are you doing here?" Austin asked, because he didn't know what to say. He was just hoping that all of this was some sort of dream, that he did not just get caught.
"Don't worry about that. You're fucking cheating!" Justin screamed, his voice breaking slightly. "How long has this been going on?!"
"A-About three months? I-I'm not too s-sure," Austin said, a lump forming in his throat. This really could not he happening. The brunette felt awful as he saw the look of absolute heartbreak pass over Justin's features.
"So you're telling me that you've been lying and sneaking around for three whole damn months?!" Justin's voice started off calm before he completely exploded and he was screaming and shouting, yelling cuss words and threats at the brunette.
"I can't believe you! You told me nothing was going on! You lied to me and made me believe that you weren't seeing anyone else! You fucking lied! God, I hate you! I hate you!" Justin screamed, so loud his voice broke even more and to the point where a small crowd of people had stopped and stared at them.
Austin just didn't know what to say, nor was he able to grasp that this was happening, because it didn't feel real.
"I loved you and then you go off and do this! You know that I've had horrible experiences in relationships because this shit always happens, and yet I trusted you enough to believe that you were different!" Justin said, causing the lump in Austin's throat to tighten and tears to well up slightly in his eyes.
"I-I know," Austin muttered. He felt awful because he knew that much, he knew how much Justin had been hurt in the past, and yet here he was, doing exactly as the others did.
"I just- I don't know why you would do this," Justin said, shaking his head.
"Babe you alright?" A guy, someone who Austin had never seen in his entire life, came up and stood beside Justin, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as he looked between Justin and Austin, confused.
"Wow," Austin scoffed, the lump in his throat disappearing and the cold, heartbroken feeling in his chest being replaced by anger. "You're such a damn hypocrite! You stood there and you screamed and yelled at me because I was cheating and yet you were seeing this guy behind my back?!"
"I haven't been seeing him for three months unlike you!" Justin snapped.
"You were still cheating! I can't believe you!" Austin snapped back, and before either of them could say another word, Alan came out of the restaurant just as confused as the guy who was stood beside Justin.
"Austin? What's going on?" Alan asked, reaching the brunettes side and looking between the three.
"Oh this is just wonderful," Justin scoffed, shaking his head.
"Nothing, let's just go," Austin said, grabbing Alan's hand and tugging him away from his now ex-boyfriend. Alan didn't argue as they got into the car and drove away.
Austin was practically seething as he gripped tight to the steering wheel and drove back. He just didn't understand how Justin could be so hypocritical and get angry at the brunette for cheating whenever he was doing the exact same thing; and to think, here Austin was, growing somewhat guilty for going behind Justin's back and seeing someone and cheating.
The rest of the ride back into their city was quiet and Alan didn't know what to do or say. He wanted to comfort Austin, but he couldn't if he didn't know what was going on. He wanted to ask but he feared that the brunette would snap at him, and he didn't want that.
When Austin pulled up outside of the gingers apartment complex, his anger had somewhat subsided but he was still pissed. He almost had half the mind to drive back to find Justin to continue to yell at him and beat the hell out of the guy he was seeing, but he didn't and he wasn't about to because he wasn't that type of person.
"Will you come inside with me?" Alan asked softly and almost sheepishly as he stared at the brunette seated beside him, still gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"I..." Austin didn't know what to say. He wanted to stay, he really did, but he also wanted to go home and just scream and break things.
"Please?" Austin felt his heart swell at how small Alan sounded, and right then and there he knew he couldn't say no. With a soft sigh, the brunette turned the car off and got out, making Alan smile softly before getting out too.
They walked up the few flights of stairs to the gingers apartment, silence surrounding them. Alan still wanted to ask questions, he wanted answers to who that guy was and why they were yelling at each other outside of the restaurant, but yet, he kept his mouth closed.
"I'm sorry that tonight was ruined," Austin muttered, feeling awful now instead of angry. He also felt sad, but he tried to push that away because he didn't deserve to be sad. He deserved to be yelled at and he didn't deserve Alan.
"It wasn't ruined, it was... interesting, to say the least," Alan said, grinning. He was just trying to lighten the mood.
Austin sighed heavily as he wandered off into Alan's bedroom to change out of his clothes, the ginger following behind him. He pulled his jeans and shirt off before slipping on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, plopping onto the bed after while Alan did the same.
"Are you okay?" Alan asked softly, joining Austin on the bed.
"I'm fine, I just feel bad that tonight didn't go so well," Austin told him, shaking his head. Another lump formed in his throat and he tried so hard to swallow it, but it was hard. He felt horrible and guilty and so many things at the same exact time that it felt so overwhelming.
"Aust, it's fine, really. There's only next week or the week after or whenever we have time," Alan said, scooting closer to the brunette until he was practically in his lap, arms wrapped around his neck.
Austin felt his heart swell once more as he wrapped his arms around Alan's waist and held him close, placing a few kisses on his cheek and jaw. He felt like to have someone like Alan, because when they first were together, the brunette never realized how lost he would be without him. He needed Alan just like he needed food and water, but at the same exact time he didn't deserve him. He didn't deserve Alan's kindness or his love, he didn't deserve the sweet touches and kisses; none of it. He didn't deserve a single thing that Alan gave him, and yet he wouldn't want anyone else.
"So what exactly happened? Who was that guy?" The questions finally came and Austin wasn't too sure how to answer them.
"He was someone that I knew back in college, he's a real jerk and I just went completely off when I saw him," Austin explained, which was half a lie. He didn't know Justin back in college.
Alan nodded slowly as he bit his lip, really wanting to ask more questions but he could see the distressed look on the brunettes face so he left it alone.
"Come on, let's go order some pizza and watch some movies," the ginger decided as he stood up, a big, happy smile on his face. He was trying his hardest to make the brunette feel at least the tiniest bit better.
Before Alan left out of the room, Austin grabbed his hand and tugged him back, bringing him down for a very much needed kiss. "Thank you," he said, "for being absolutely amazing."
All Alan could do was nod and blush as he pressed another kiss to the brunettes lips before heading out of the room to order the pizza while Austin found a movie.