Every Time You Fall Apart You Can Hide Here In My Arms

Austin rolled over in bed and buried her face into what she thought was going to be her very soft pillow, but instead, it seemed to crunch. She opened her eyes and lifted her head ever so slightly.

Trojan Sensitive.

All it took was the sight of the condom package to cause most of the previous night to come rushing back to her. She sat up quickly with the sheet clutched to her chest. She was afraid of what or who she'd find. Seeing Matt sleeping on his stomach beside her was a cross between comfort and relief and the scariest thing she'd seen since Mica talked her into sky diving and she'd been forced to see the ground rushing towards her.

She closed her eyes tightly and sighed. What on god's green earth had they done? This was utterly fantastic, they'd went from estranged friends, to finally getting comfortable with each other, and now, they'd managed to go and fuck it all up...again. They were now back at the beginning.

She crawled out of Matt's bed, taking the sheet with her. It was then that she noticed the clock on Matt's wall. Great. To top everything off, she was now late for work.

Hoping it was to early for anyone else in the place to be awake, she gathered up her clothes and headed down the hall to the bathroom to shower only to discover the door didn't lock properly. This day was just getting better by the second. Hopefully she could get out of here quickly before she actually had to face Matt and the awkwardness that would no doubt follow.

She turned on the shower, dropped the sheet and climbed in. She was in the middle of twisting the water out of her hair when she heard the bathroom door open and close. She froze.

"Those suit you, you know."

She relaxed a little when she realized it wasn't a roomate, it was Matt's voice. "What do?"

"The big angel wings tattooed on your back."

Realizing her back was to him she glanced over her shoulder to discover the shower curtain was indeed kind of see through. Shaking her head in disbelief she kept her back to him as she shut off the water and finished wringing out her hair.

"Not going to talk to me now?"

"Can I have a towel?"

"Are you going to look at me?" he asked hesitatnly.

She was starting to get irritated, not so much with Matt, but with herself. "If you give me a towel."

A moment later his hand was sticking around the curtain and into the shower, holding out a towel.

"Thank you," she muttered, wrapping it around her body and securing the ends at her side before turning around. Matt was leaning against the bathroom door in his boxers, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Don't look so smug," she muttered as she stepped out of the shower and onto the cold tile floor.

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy it," he frowned as she moved to stand in front of the sink. Matt moved up behind her, placing his hands on the counter on either side of her; trapping her.

She tried to ignore him and reached out, brushing the fog off the mirror so she could see. But instead, the sight of Matt resting his chin on her damp shoulder caught her off guard. He was grinning.

"This could work you know."

She shook her head, she had to be realistic about this. "No it won't, Matt."

His expression changed to confusion as he stood up straight so he wasn't directly touching any part of her body anymore. "Why not?"

She glanced down, looking at her shaking hands before looking up into the mirror again. It was easier to look at him this way rather than directly. "Because of Maddison. And Val. And Melanie, and everything else that's happened in the five years since we were last together."

"Come on, Austin, we're older now, not just kids. We're capable of mature relationships."

"I am." After she said it, she felt like slapping herself.

"But?" he pressed.

Well, she'd started this. She couldn't back out now, "but I don't think you are."

His eyes widened slightly as he stepped away from her so that she was able to turn around.

"You seemed to have no problem climbing into bed with me."

"I wouldn't have if I'd been sober," she admitted. At least she didn't think she would have.

"Is that so?"

She tried to understand the expression on his face and she guessed that it fell somewhere between vexed, and right pissed off. "Mm-hhmm," she murmured cautiously.

He nodded slightly and opened the bathroom door. "Well then...don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

Her eyes narrowed at him but somehow she didn't think that her pissed off look even rivaled his. "Fuck you, Matt."

***

Infuriated with herself and with Matt, Austin headed back down the hall to his room and slammed the door shut so she could get dressed. She wasn't even gonna bother with really drying off. The faster she could get out of there, the happier she'd be.

She slipped on her heels then double checked the room for everything she may have dropped last night because she'd be damned if she was coming back to get it.

Once she was satisfied that she had everything she folded her towel and left it on the bathroom counter before heading down the hall to the front door. Matt was sitting on the couch in the living room. Austin thought about saying goodbye but she decided not to. She'd already got the last word in, and that was good enough for her.

Out in the hall she called a cab and by the time she made it through the maze of apartments the taxi was waiting for her outside. She headed home, changed, did her hair and make-up then called another cab to drop her off at the coffee shop so she could grab an Ice Cappacino before making the one block walk to her building.

Mica looked up at her as she entered the office. "Well someone must have had a good night, you're like an hour and a half late for work."

Austin rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, thankful that Mica couldn't see her do it. "It wasn't a good night, believe me," she huffed.

"Well tell me everything," Mica jumped up and closed the door behind her. Austin moved through Mica's office space and opened up the door leading into her office.

"Let's just say it didn't go as planned."

Now it was Mica's turn to roll her eyes, and she didn't hold back. "Oh come on, it couldn't have been that bad."

Austin set her bag and drink down on her desk before moving about her room to lift the blinds. One thing she loved, was that her office was high enough to over look the city. It was a beautiful view, and it relaxed her a bit. She finally turned back around to face her friend. "It was that bad."

Mica took a seat in one of the client chairs and grinned devilishly, "Well come on then, spill."

Austin sighed and sank into her chair, sliding her sunglasses up to the top of her head. "We slept together."

Mica started grinning like a maniac. "Ooooh," she squealed, "was it as good as you remember?"

Austin laughed slightly. Leave it to Mica to turn something like this into something funny. "The sex was good, I think, it's the afterwards that wasn't."

"What happened?"

"Well," Austin twirled her watch around her wrist, "he wants to get back together and I know for a fact it won't work. I told him that too, and I believe his exact words were 'well then don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

Mica gasped, "what an ass."

"Yeah," Austin pulled her planner and a pen from her desk, "so I don't think our little friendship is going to be maintainable."

"Well you can't give up that easily," Mica ran her fingers through her hair. "I mean, come on, any one who knows either of you well enough knows that you're both still very much in love."

Austin was shaking her head as she flipped through the scribbled in pages for today's date. "No, there isn't much love between us."

"There is," Mica assured her, "and if I can see it, everyone else can. You two need to just start over. Forget his past, forgive him for it and he'll do the same for you."

"You know," Austin looked up at her with a smile on her face, "you should have been something like a psychiatrist, or a marriage councelor, not a secretary."

Mica laughed, "everyone knows that's what a secretary really is, it's just not a glorified name." She stood up from her perch on the chair, and smiled, "by the way, don't forget you have a meeting at eleven, and we have a lunch date with Leana and I think she said Gena."

Austin was about to protest but Mica was already closing the door behind her.

It was probably well enough anyway, if she didn't go out, she'd sit and think about Matt, and that'd only piss her off more.

***

Fuck you Matt.

Though he probably deserved it, he had a feeling those words were going to be in his head for the rest of the day. He couldn't entirely understand why she was so mad about the situation. After all he was pretty sure that she was the one who started it. Or maybe he just needed to face the music. He was no good when it came to chicks. Well he was good. Just not when it came to maintaining some sort of relationship with them.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Johnny wandered into the kitchen in his PJ pants and went straight for the cereal, "it's like nine am, you're up, and you're dressed."

"Rough night," Matt muttered running his hands over his head.

"Johnny babe do you want to..." Lacey trailed off as she wandered into the kitchen in one of Johnny's T-shirts. "Oh, good morning, Matt."

"Hey," he looked up at her. He got this odd feeling that he was interrupting something so he got up. "I'm gonna go visit Syn."

Johnny looked at him skeptically, "Brian isn't going to be out of bed at this hour."

"Well he's going to be today," Matt slipped by Lacey and headed back to his room for his cell, wallet and keys before heading out the front door.

In the car he turned up the stereo, Iron Maiden began pouring through the speakers as he drove around. He wanted to go visit Syn, but he didn't. In the end, he found himself parked in front of Val's house. She saw him from the living room window and waved as he got out of the car. Well, now that she knew he was there, there was no going back.

He took his sunglasses off and hooked them onto his shirt as he wandered up the walkway. By the time he reached the door, Maddison was standing there waiting for him.

"Hey babe," he greeted her.

"I'm not going with you again am I?"

Matt laughed and held open the door for her to go back inside. "No, I just came to visit," he assured her.

"Good," Maddison stopped and waited for Matt, she watched him take off his shoes then closed the door for him. "Mom made breakfast."

He looked up at Val who was now standing in the doorway into the living room, leaning against the frame with her arms across her chest as she smiled at him. "Yeah, Mom made breakfast...you want some?"

Matt smiled, "sure."