To Be Happy Now

Austin Gibbs was a man that that Alaska Sumner had known for majority of her life.

She was thirteen years old, while he was nineteen, when they first met. Alaska had come home from school, exhausted because she had a cruel math test that day, and Austin was sitting in her kitchen, drinking one of her dad's beers with her brother.

"Hey, Al." Her brother, Ricky, said.

"Hi, Ricky." Alaska said, shyly. She knew always to never interfere whenever Ricky had a friend over. She was always too young to even know what they were talking about. However, Austin gave her a smirk and said,

"This is your thirteen year old sister?"

"Dude." Ricky warned.

"I'm just saying. The minute she turns eighteen..." Austin whistled. Alaska raised an eyebrow, and Ricky smacked him over the head.

Alaska blushed and shyly walked away, retreating into her room. She shut the door behind her, hoping that Austin would leave soon. She didn't like it whenever company (that wasn't hers) was over. She was never the social type.

However, during the entire summer, along with the rest of the many years that went by, Austin had come over every day to hang out with Ricky. Alaska still hadn't mastered the art of being social, so every time Austin was around (which was very frequently), she had stayed in her room, only to come out whenever she felt extremely hungry - or when she couldn't hear them in the living room or the kitchen.

Even though she was a hermit around Austin, the thin walls that separated hers and Ricky's rooms allowed her to eavesdrop quite a bit. So she found out a lot of stuff about Austin, and her brother as well.

One day, when she was seventeen years old, Alaska had come home from work on Saturday evening, and she knew Austin was there because his beat up truck was in the the driveway. She shut the door behind her and when she heard the deep voices protruding out of the wall, she couldn't help but press her ear against it.

"I think I'm in love with her, man." She heard Austin say. "Kat just makes me feel like so different - like a good different, too."

"Look at you all mushy, Gibbs." Ricky snorted.

Alaska heard a smack and then a chuckle.

"I'm kidding." Ricky said. "No, that's great. Now, you can stop hitting on random girls - my sister, especially."

Austin laughed. "I should seriously tell her, though. Kat, I mean, not Alaska. I should tell her that I love her."

"Yes, yes you should." Her brother replied.

Alaska took her ear off the wall and smiled. She knew about Austin and Kat Larson. She was a girl who previously went to her school, but graduated when Alaska was a sophomore. She heard about the two of them getting together through Ricky, and she was happy for them. For the past four years, Austin was single, but with a few flings here and there. Kat Larson was the first real girlfriend that Austin Gibbs had ever had.

And the last as well.

A few months later, Alaska awoke in the middle of the night to a pounding on the front door. It startled her not only because it was three in the morning, but because the pounding was so loud, she felt as though it was on her bedroom door.

Alaska stumbled down the stairs and unlocked the door, to reveal Austin standing there, his eyes bloodshot - as though he was crying.

"Austin?" She exclaimed, bewildered. "It's three in the morning! What are you doing - "

"She's gone." He said, his voice rough.

"Wh - what?" Alaska was confused.

Austin took a deep breath, as though he was trying his hardest not to cry. His next words came out broken, but she understood then.

"Kat. She's - she's gone. Car accident..."

Alaska felt her whole body freeze. She heard people tumbling down the stairs behind her, but her eyes stayed glued to his, completely shocked.

"Austin." Ricky said, holding his phone, to reveal the text that Austin sent him, saying that Kat was rushed to the hospital and it wasn't looking too good.

Kat Larson was dead, and by the looks of it, Austin Gibbs was too.