Unexpected

Gabby the Confidant

"You know, you can't keep me from seeing those pictures forever." I say to Austin, referencing the way he hurried me past the frames in the hallway, once again.

"We'll see about that." He pulls the door shut behind us with a small smile playing on his lips.

"What are you so embarrassed of me seeing, anyway?" I ask, not letting the topic of conversation drop just yet. I take a seat on his bed next to Romo, and the white cat squints at me sleepily in response. As Austin joins me, the mattress dips just enough to irk Romo, leading him to promptly jump off the bed.

"Just old photos of me." He responds, watching as Romo arches his back with a yawn.

"I bet you were cute." I say, poking his side teasingly.

He lets out a puff of air in amusement, fighting off a laugh. "That's one way to put it. I was such a dork. Thank god I didn't have as many friends then to remember what I was like."

"You keep saying shit like that, but I can promise you I'd like him a lot more than the Austin that screwed over the mayor's daughter." I only meant to defend his younger self, but now that the words have left my mouth they sound harsh and judgmental. When I open my mouth to apologize, he beats me to it.

"So you did hear about that." Austin ducks his head down and nods to the floor. "I mean, of course you did. I was just too scared to ask."

"About that," He continues, glancing to me uncertainly from the corner of his eye. "I didn't mean to screw her over. It's... a whole thing to get into and god knows what you've already heard, but I wouldn't have done that."

"Then what happened, why does everyone think otherwise?" I ask, also thinking back to when Catrina said he iced the poor girl out after the whole ordeal.

He sighs and rakes a hand through his hair, "You know how people are, they love the drama. I didn't leave her at that party, I actually hung back trying to find her for a stupid amount of time. I didn't correct anyone because I was issued a cease and desist order by Michelle's family lawyer. Basically, they didn't want me mentioning anything to worsen her reputation. Which I understood, with her dad and all. It probably would've been fine had I said something to defend myself, but my mom was so mortified that I just took it. Plus," Austin pauses to shake his head. "I didn't really deserve any defending. I was careless, and not just with her. So I continued to be the guy everyone thought I was anyway."

I blink at him in surprise as he says all of this, watching him explain repentantly to the carpet, his shoulders sagging slightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." I say to him, realizing I was no better than the gossips at our school when I assumed the worst with such little evidence.

"How would you? I swore the group to secrecy, so no one knew."

"Still, I'm sorry." I say earnestly, tentatively placing one hand on his back in attempts to comfort him. He turns his head to give me an appreciative smile and straightens up.

"It's really okay. I would've assumed too, I haven't been the best guy." He half smiles at this, but it doesn't do much to make up for the sad glint in his eyes. It's odd to think these were his sentiments all along, yet people would be none the wiser based off the way he acts.

"I don't get why, you don't seem to enjoy being an asswipe." I meet his dejected smile with an earnest one of my own and he lets out a breathy laugh.

"Yeah... I don't know. It's easier to be confident when you're an asshole, and the girls dig it. Well, not all of them obviously." He adds, knocking his shoulder into mine playfully.

"What, you didn't think you could get any girls without being a douche? What about Catrina?" I ask only partly joking, the statement actually making sense in the context of the start of our own relationship.

"I did have her..." He starts awkwardly, averting his gaze to the floor again at the mention of his and Catrina's grade-school fling. "But, I don't know. I know it's shitty, that I've been shitty, but it wasn't about having a girl, it was about... getting girls. I know how it sounds, I know. But I was tired of being the kid who's dad killed himself. I didn't want to be him anymore. I didn't want his life, I didn't want people to be so weird around me and-" He cuts himself off, scratching at the nape of his neck nervously as his voice begins to falter.

Hunched and struggling to find the right words, I can tell he's not used to talking about any of this. It gives all the more reason for the stirring in my chest for the boy beside me.

Instead of a hand on the back, this time I wrap my arms around his torso and place a slow kiss below his ear. I don't think about it, feeling propelled by the urge to comfort him like he did for me the night of the fight with my parents.

To my surprise, he keeps going. "It's no excuse, but I know you'll understand when I say that I just really didn't want to get close to anyone. Especially after my grandma passed, it was just one person after another. I wanted to avoid it all, I didn't even want to see Alex and them for awhile. I just wanted to go to parties, get drunk, and be someone that people wanted."

He rubs at his eyes harshly, and despite it sounding cheesy in my head I say, "You were already someone people wanted."

He turns to me, eyes red and blinking.

"I want you." I say firmly. "Especially the guy who's lost so much. Not the one who pretends he hasn't, that guy's like everyone else."

Austin rushes to press his lips to mine and the contact startles me, but I ease into it, grateful he hasn't closed himself off to me after sharing so much more than either of us are used to. After we've kissed enough of the conversation away, he pulls back to look at me again.

"You want to go see those pictures now?" He offers, his smile reaching his eyes again.

"I'd love to."

When he pushes his bedroom door open with one hand and holds mine with the other, a rush of white fur beats us on the way out.

"Austin, Gabby! Dinner's ready!" I can hear Michelle call from downstairs.

AN: Shorter chapter than usual, but it was definitely right to end it here. So! We got some tea and some character development, what y'all think??

Thanks for reading <33