"I'm not running from Blake and I don't want him!" I fought back even though I was lying.
Austin chuckled next to me and kept his eyes on the road. "Sure you don't..."
"Why don't you do commitment?" I asked him, completely changing the subject.
"It's not really my scene," he explained with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
"Your scene?" I laughed.
"Yes, my scene. I just think it's kind of pointless. Why spend your whole life with one person when you could be going around and getting laid by every girl that says hey?"
"You're disgusting." I laughed, but I knew that it sounded kind of forced because I was a little sad that he didn't do commitment.
"Why do you do commitment?" he asked me.
"It's so much better than jumping into bed with anyone that comes near, you know you have someone who'll love you unconditionally for the rest of their life. Can you say that about any of the girls you've been with?"
"I can't say that about anyone." Suddenly the air around us became thick even though there wasn't a roof on the car.
The rest of the drive was silent except the sound of the radio stations pouring out of the speakers. There wasn't any traffic so by the time Austin and I had reached my place, it was around noon.
"Wanna grab a bite?" Austin asked me.
"Sure, McDonald's?" I suggested.
"Alright. I've gotta warn you though. I've never eaten there before, I've heard bad things about it."
"You cannot tell me you have never eaten McDonald's!" I threw my head back and laughed loudly.
"Never!" He flashed me a gorgeous grin and pulled into the parking lot of the closest McDonald's.
I grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it open. My feet hit the ground and I walked towards the door, which was being held open by Austin.
I ordered a double cheeseburger and Austin ordered a ten piece chicken nuggets.
"What's even in these?" Austin asked as he broke his last nugget in half to observe the inside.
"No one knows and no one wants to know." I laughed lightly and finished my burger and took a sip of my Sprite.
The two of us left the fast food restaurant and walked back to the Jeep.
"So, how was it?" I asked him.
"It was... interesting?"
"Good or bad interesting?" I smiled at him and waited patiently for his response.
"Good, I think."
I laughed and Austin joined in. We pulled into the massive driveway to my massive house.
"I'll call you later." Austin smiled and leaned towards me for a kiss. I turned my head away from him and pushed the door open.
"Alright." I tried to sound excited, but it was harder than I had previously thought. I didn't want to kiss him.
I closed the door and started walking to the front door. There was a wolf whistle behind me and I heard Austin laugh loudly because he knew that I was blushing at his obnoxious noise. Without turning around, I flipped him off and heard him laugh even louder.
* * * * * *
~Austin POV~
I don't usually get attached to girls, believe me. But I just couldn't stay away from Raelene.
There was something about her, I'm not even sure what it was. She's just so... simple, but I still can't understand her.
Only three hours after I dropped her off, I had to see her again. When I leaned in to kiss her, she just left and I don't know why. I'm pretty good looking and she's kissed me before so I don't see what the big deal was.
I dialed her number before I could talk myself out of it and the line rang twice before her voice was in my ear.
"Hello?" I usually didn't like American accents, but God, I loved hers.
"Hey," Hey? That's the best I could come up with? I know I'm not the smoothest guy out there, but hey?
"What's up?" she asked me and I couldn't help the idiotic grin that my mouth broke into.
"Do you wanna hang out?"
"It's only been a few hours..." she pointed out.
"You're right, this was stupid-"
"Where should I meet you?" I heard the smile on her face and I felt my grin grow even wider.
"The beach behind your house? I can be there in about five minutes."
"Alright, see you in five minutes." Raelene hung up the phone and I grabbed a pair of nicer shorts from my dresser, out them on and walked down the stairs of my house.
"Where are you going?" My brother asked me. Hunter and I looked almost exactly alike. The only differences were that I was blonde and built better than he was.
"Raelene's," I answered, grabbing my keys from a basket on the counter.
"I thought you didn't do relationships?" he taunted.
"I don't." I left the house before Hunter could interrogate me any further and I drove the short distance to the beach behind Raelene's house.
When I got there, it was four o'clock and the beach was mainly empty. I walked over to the steps that led to Rae's house and saw her sitting on one.
"Hey," I called out.
She looked up at me and smiled, pushing her dark hair out of her face.
"Hey," she called back to me.
Now what? What do I say?
"What happened to your face?"
Smooth. Real smooth, Austin. I mentally slapped myself as I saw her smile fade and she covered the scar on her cheek.
"I made it sound worse than it is, I'm sorry."
She tried to smile at me, but I knew that it was forced.
(Please start playing 'Save Me' by Nicki Minaj)
"Um," she stalled. "I fell." Her voice raised at the end and it sounded more like a question than an explanation.
"Seriously," I pressed. She sighed, stood up from the stair and we walked to the shore. She sat down on the soft sand and I sat next to her.
"I might as well just tell you the whole story because it's more confusing if I don't." Raelene pulled her knees up to her chest.
"When I was younger, like 15 or 16, this guy named Alek took my virginity, but I was drunk when he did. When I woke up, he was gone and I had a text that said that it wasn't as good as he expected. I never heard from him again until he showed up in Los Angeles this past year."
I already hated this Alek guy.
"When he showed up, I was so shocked. After a few months, I realized that he changed. I got into a fight with Blake one night and I called Alek to pick me up. I couldn't be around Blake."
"What'd Blake do?" I asked her.
"Slept with another girl right after he told me how he felt about me." Rae shrugged her shoulders as if things like this happened to her all the time.
"Anyways, I ended up staying the night at Alek's and I kind of lived there for a while. One night, Blake got drunk and I went to his place to take care of him because his parents were out of town. When Alek picked me up, Blake kissed me." Raelene moved her fingers to touch her lips as if she was reliving the touch and I felt a pang of jealousy surge through me.
"When I got back to Alek's place, he hit me and I fell into a wall. I split my cheek open and that's how I got this." Rae waved her hand at the scar on her cheek and I traced it with my fingers.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"It's not your fault." She still wouldn't meet my eyes.
I placed my fingers on her chin and moved her face so it was facing mine. My eyes fluttered shut and I leaned in. At the last second, Raelene moved her head and my lips hit the skin right below her ear.
I pulled away from her with a soft groan.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
"What is it? Is it Alek or Blake or someone else?"
"I-I just can't. I'm sorry."
"Raelene..."
"Please just call me Rae."
"Rae, please tell me who it is?" I pleaded with her.
"I'm underage! You're twenty four!" she shouted.
"You're almost 18," I pointed out. I'd usually go for girls closer to my age, but Rae looked older and she was so mature, I never would've guessed that she was only 17.
"Age aside, why else won't you kiss me?" I asked her. I wanted to slap myself for sounded so pathetic.
"You don't do commitment."
"I don't know why I said that," I lied. I said that because I really didn't do commitment but I liked Rae.
"The age is a big thing, Austin. The biggest there is. It's a huge age difference."
"Once you're 20, age won't really matter."
"I'm not gonna be 20 for three years! You aren't going to be around that long!" She was right. I probably wasn't even going to stay around for more than a few months.
"Rae, when I met you, I could've sworn you were 21, at least."
"But I'm not."
"Drop the age, and drop the commitment. Why else won't you kiss me." By now, Rae was agitated and I was hoping that I could squeeze the answer out of her.
"Because of Blake!" Rae was on her feet now and her arms were waving wildly.
"I knew it!" I shouted, jumping onto my feet just as she had. By now I was towering over her but she wasn't shrinking away.
"I'm leaving," she huffed and stormed back up the steps to her house. I wasn't gong to chase her, I'd already broken enough of my rules when it came to her. I was done.
I pulled out my phone and called a random girl under the name 'Harper'.
"Is this Harper?" I asked as a woman's voice blared through the tiny speaker of my phone.
"Speaking."
"It's Austin. Brown. Remember me?"
"Of course I do!" She giggled and I tasted bile in my throat at how desperate she sounded.
"Wanna come back to my place around nine?" I asked.
* * * * * *
~Raelene POV~
At nine o'clock that night, I started to feel bad about how I yelled at Austin. Being the girl that I am, I had to apologize.
The phone rang a few times before I heard Austin's voice.
"Hello?" His breathing was heavy.
"Hey, I just wanted-"
"Austiiiin, come back here," a female voice called.
Instantly, I hung up the phone. The line was dead before my stomach even had the time to drop. My thoughts flashed back to when the same thing happened with Blake.
"Hmm?" My heart fluttered at his voice. He was in bed and I couldn't help but picture him without a shirt.
"Hey, can I talk to you?" I really hoped I didn't sound so pathetic.
I heard shuffling on the other end of the line, like he was getting out of bed.
"Baby, who is that?"
I think I stopped breathing at the voice.
"Shh, it's just this girl that's obsessed with me. No one special." Blake's words were muffled and I don't think he meant for me to hear them.
Tears were already streaming down my face and I picked my phone up from where it sat in front of me. It was 4:30 AM in California, but I needed to talk to him.
"Please, pick up. Pick up." My voice was cracking and I was finally thankful for the size of this house. No one could hear my cries.
The ringing eventually changed to Blake's voice mail. I couldn't leave a message so I just hung up the phone.
I suddenly felt very alone.
* * * * * *