Clueless

*Alan*

Austin had left early in the morning, which was understandable since it was a Monday. He said he had to go to work, and I played the cute girlfriend and made him breakfast and pecked him on the cheek as he walked out the door.
He'd blushed and given me a weary look, then said he was going to be back at noon for lunch.

Okay, so I wasn't Austin's girlfriend. Obviously. I had the wrong parts. But I wasn't dating him, either. We were just friends, yeah? Friends did cute things. It was normal.

"Where's Austin?" Max asked from somewhere to the right of where I was laying on the ground.

"Work," I replied, rolling onto my side so I could look at Max instead of the ceiling.

He rubbed his tired eyes with the backs of his hands, then blinked a few times at me.
"I didn't know he worked," he mumbled.

I shrugged.
"Me either."
We sat in silence for a minute and I opened my mouth to offer to make breakfast, but I was cut off by Ronnie stomping into the room.

"Has anyone seen my guyliner?" He demanded, placing his hands on his hips.

"Guyliner?" I repeated under my breath, the urge to just laugh at that idiotic ass word almost overwhelming.

"Someone stole it," Ronnie continued, then sighed and sat on Max's lap.

"You're perfect without it, Ron," Max said, wrapping his arms around Ronnie's waist.
I stared at the way Max's arms held Ronnie protectively, his chin resting comfortably on his boyfriend's shoulder.

"I'll look for it in the bathroom while I go barf," I promised, holding up my pinkies as I stood up. I rolled my eyes and promptly left the room.

It wasn't that I didn't like Ronnie and Max, but I didn't particularly enjoy their disgusting relationship. And I didn't like them.
See, some would call me overdramatic, but spending almost half of my life getting shit from those two made me want to stab them then shove their lifeless corpses into a wood chipper together.
They were way in love, like ew in love, and they weren't afraid and didn't feel the need to conceal that love anymore. I kind of wished they would. And I was maybe, possibly, but probably not jealous of them.

I sighed and walked to the bathroom, intending on using it like I'd claimed, although I wasn't actually going to spew.
The door was closed so I lifted my hand to knock, but a little panic froze my arm. I slowly backed away from the door, cursing my anxiety again for stopping me from doing something normal, and hopped down the stairs two at a time to use the bathroom in Austin's room.
I heard a knock on the front door right as I was passing it. I knew it was really none of my business, but Austin wouldn't mind, would he?
I grew more anxious as I neared the door, then I looked through the peephole, half expecting a bullet to fly through and go straight through the back of my head. I didn't see the barrel of a gun, though, just a vaguely familiar face framed by pale blonde locks.
I opened the door, my angst fading a bit, and I smiled.

"Hi, Austin isn't here," I offered, giving the girl a once over before I realised who it was.

"I'm not here for Austin," Lights giggled. "He's at work, right? Yeah, today's my off day and I wanted to see-"

"Lights?" someone interrupted from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Beau standing there with wide eyes and a slight smile.

"Just who I was looking for," Lights exclaimed. "Can I come in, red?" Her eyes flickered to me and she smiled hopefully.

"If you don't call me 'red' ever again, then yes," I sighed, turning from the door to continue to Austin's room.

"Fat chance," Lights replied playfully.

I rolled my eyes and slammed Austin's door pointedly, then head straight for the connected bathroom. Admittedly, I'd been in Austin's room more than I'd like to share. Most to use his bathroom, others to just hang out. He let me use his phone sometimes. He made me answer his land line while he was busy. We liked talking, it was easy when it was to each other. We spent most of our time in his room at night, just filling the empty air with meaningless chat, then I'd go upstairs to the room I shared with four other people and fall asleep on the floor.
I wished I could sleep in Austin's room, possibly next to him on his bed. Maybe we'd cuddle. Maybe.
Everyone knew I had a slight crush on Austin Carlile. How couldn't I? He was tall, full of tattoos, had a heavenly voice and nice hair. I could talk to him forever, get lost in his eyes. He was perfect, and that wasn't even an exaggeration.

I stripped out of my clothes and turned the shower on, then grabbed a towel out of the closet while I waited for the water to heat up.
The water was still cold when it met my skin, but I ignored it and got busy cleaning myself off.
The land line rang while I was attempting to wash my mop of hair, and I sighed and wiped my hands on the towel before leaning out of the shower door and grabbing the phone.

"Carlile," I answered, hoping whoever it was couldn't tell that I, in fact, wasn't Austin.

"It's Austin," came an amused reply.

"Oh," I said, almost dropping the phone from my slippery fingers. "Uh, hey. Austin. Um, how's work?"

"You're in the shower." Not a question.
I laughed nervously.
"My shower, right?"

I nodded, then remembered he couldn't see me.
"Yeah, someone was in the bathroom upstairs," I answered lamely.

"I, uh, need you to drop something off at work for me," Austin said softly, almost guiltily. "There's a file on the counter- can you see it?"

I was basically half in, half out of the shower, so I glanced up and spotted a manila folder next to Austin's toothbrush.

"Yep," I said, trying to ignore how awkward the situation was.

"Okay, alright. Good. Um, I'll send a cab over. Don't read the folder, it's, like, a private thing... Um..."

"I won't read your stupid file," I chuckled. "Bye."

"Wait," Austin said as I was about to hang up. I put the phone to my ear again and hummed impatiently. "Are you, like, naked?"

"Seriously?" I shouted.

"I was kidding!" Austin cried defensively. "I'll see you in half an hour."

"Whatever," I muttered, then hung up and placed the phone on the counter.

***

I wrapped the towel around my waist and grabbed the file off the counter as I left Austin's steamy bathroom, then left his room to go to mine.

"Avert your eyes, I'm nude," I hollered as I strolled down the hall to the staircase. I heard a laugh from the kitchen and I peeked in, finding Beau and Lights sitting on the floor talking. Beau saw me and shielded his eyes mockingly, I rolled my eyes and hopped up the stairs.

I set the folder on the edge of the bed in the extra room, shooed Max out, and grabbed my outfit off the floor. I'd worn one of Austin's shirts as pyjamas, so I folded it and set it next to the folder. I continued to get dressed in my boxers, skinny jeans and flannel, then socks and shoes. I wandered over to the little mirror hanging on the wall for no apparent reason and ruffled my hair carelessly until I was satisfied with it.
A honk sounded outside, reminding me of when I'd actually had friends and no anxiety, when I could go to parties with said friends.
I sighed, grabbed the folder, and left the room. Then I descended the stairs to the door.

"Who's outside?" Lights asked, waiting at the end of the stairs with Beau in tow.

"Austin sent me a cab," I said breezily, brushing past them to unlock the door.

"It's a limo," Beau said, confusion written on his face.
Lights seemed a little perplexed, but I could tell she wasn't quite surprised, but more nervous.

"Really?" I shrieked, a little too happy with the discovery. I opened the door and, sure enough, a limousine was parked in Austin's drive.
"Sweet," I mumbled adoringly as I glided dreamily over to the car. Austin was so awesome- buying us clothes, sending me a cab that happened to be a limo. Sheesh. His job must have paid well.

I waited by the driver's door and rapped my knuckles against the window quickly. The window rolled down to reveal a man in a smart looking suit with a wire in his ear and shades covering his eyes.

"Um, are you here to take me to Austin? I'm Alan," I said softly, my hands shaking a bit at the new face.

"Yes," was all the guy said before rolling the window up again.

Rude, I thought as I opened the door and sat in the plush red seat. I almost groaned, but held it back and just sighed as I enjoyed the luxury. I'd never been in anything so expensive.

I kept quiet throughout the drive, watching the houses and trees pass by. It looked almost familiar, but with all the time I'd spent in the woods, even a bush would probably look familiar to me.

I wondered where Austin worked- it seemed pretty far from his house- but kept my mouth shut since the driver didn't seem too friendly.

After what seemed like forever, the driver stopped. I glanced dubiously at the rather large building behind barbed wire fence, which we passed after the driver whispered something to a security guard.
He pulled up to the doors, and someone rushed out of the metal, padlocked doors. She was tall and thin with bright red hair and glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose. She had big blue eyes and bright red lipstick to match her hair. She was wearing a white lab coat with a purple shirt underneath, and black suit pants.
She opened the door for me and smiled.
"I'm Ariel. I'm head of internal security. Alan, right? Austin told me he sent for you. Follow me, please," she said quickly, her voice hard and determined yet melodic in a way. She stared at me intently, with what almost looked as recognition. She pressed her lips into a thin line and turned to walk through the doors.

I followed without a word, intimidated by the people I was going to have to face in the process of getting to Austin.
The walls were white, so white. They reminded me of back when I'd been at Gilds. The lights were too bright, I had to squint to see properly. There were dozens of lab coats walking along the halls, going into and leaving various rooms that were scattered about.

"Alright, Austin's office," Ariel murmured, knocking on a door. I stopped walking and stuffed my hands anxiously in my pockets, my eyes falling to the floor.

Austin has his own office? What kind of job did he have, exactly?

I hugged Austin's folder to my chest and bounced on the balls of my feet.

"Come in."
Ariel opened the door and I continued staring at my shoes as we walked in.
"Hey, Ariel, how's- oh! Alan," Austin said, and I finally looked up.
He leaned his elbows on his desk and smiled at me. "You can go, Ariel. Thank you."
Ariel nodded, smiled and left, closing the door quietly behind her.
"Did you bring my file?"

I nodded, feeling a little more at ease as I stepped forward and held out the file. Austin snatched it from my hand quickly and I pulled my hand back in surprise.

"Thanks. You can go," Austin murmured, setting the folder on his desk before turning to his computer.

I stood there, a little shut down from his immidiate dismissal.
"Y-you don't want me to stay?" I asked softly.

Austin glanced up and caught my frown, then bit his lip and stood up. He didn't walk closer, he just kind of stood there and stared at me for a bit.

"Look, Alan, it's just that my work is really none of your business-"

"Yeah," I muttered bitterly. "Bye."
I turned to open the door, but it was already open, and a guy with a suit was standing in the doorway.
I froze and looked up slowly, then began breathing a little too quickly.
"M-mister..." I whispered. I glanced back at Austin, trying to glare but only managing to shoot a fearful look before shoving past Mr. Tony and back the way Dr. Ariel had taken me.
I ran as fast as I could, not looking back even when I heard Mr. Tony shout at Austin, not when Austin yelled my name, claiming that he could explain.

At some point I'd started crying, and I had to try twice to open the door. I ran outside and over to the limo Austin had sent, praying no one had told him anything about me, and got in quickly.

"Please," I gasped, out of breath. "Take me back to Austin's. Now."

The driver didn't speak, just began driving.

So many thoughts raced through my head as we drove back, mostly that Austin had betrayed us. He worked with Mr. Tony. I'd probably been at Gilds the entire time, unknowingly, and maybe the folder had something to do with all of us staying at Austin's.
I pulled my legs to my chest and shut my eyes tightly, trying to stop the panic from rendering me useless.

When we stopped, I tried to open the door but it was locked.
"Hey, unlock the door!" I cried, mercilessly pulling on the handle.
The door on the other side opened and I started crawling over to it, but froze.
Lights climbed in with Beau, smiling.

"Sure, Austin, we'll be there in a few. You stay here, Beau, I'll get everyone else," she said, her cellphone pressed to her ear. She shut the door behind her and I wiped a few tears off my cheeks.

"Alan what's wrong?" Beau asked once he looked at me.

I opened my mouth to speak but my throat was closed up and my breaths were coming too quick. I started to cry again, feeling so helpless.
Beau scooted next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder to comfort me.
Lights came back with everyone else and I tried talking again, but I couldn't breathe. I started getting dizzy, and Beau tried to help, everyone did, they asked me what was wrong and if they could help but I fainted before I could tell them anything.