The Calm

Austin's POV

'Shit.' I thought to myself. 'I just told Alan how I really felt about him.' I could feel my cheeks turn red, and I turned around to leave when Alan stopped me.

"Austin, I love you too." He said, a small smile on his face. I smiled, and couldn't stop myself from cupping my hands around his face and kissing him. He kissed back, and we pulled away after a few minutes.

"I liked you for a while, but I never thought you'd like me back." Alan said, his cheeks as red as his hair.

I smiled. "Whats not to like about you? Your cute, and funny, and sweet." I looked at the clock. "Listen, I need to get to work, but I'll be back at seven." I planted a small kiss on his cheek. "Love you."

Alan smiled. "Love you too." I grabbed my keys and left, getting into my car. I worked as a doctor, which was pretty interesting. I had made some friends there, Valentino Arteaga, or Tino for short, Phil Mansala, Aaron Paulie, Kellin Quinn, and Kyle Pavone.

When I got there, they all greeted me with smiles. "Long time no see!" Tino exclaimed, patting me on the back. I hadn't been to work in 2 months, I was shocked they hadn't fired me.

I laughed. "Yeah, some uh, some things have been going on lately."

"You and your wife get the divorce yet?" Phil asked.

I nodded. "I'm over that stupid bitch."

They all cheered. "Well you know what this means, party after work!" Kellin shouted, causing the rest of the guys to cheer.

I laughed, slipping my doctor's coat on. "I don't know if I can do that, I have someone waiting for me at home."

"Oh, come on Austin!" Kellin urged. "It'll be fun, and they'll understand."

I smiled. "Okay."
*
When my shift was over, we all got into Kellin's van and drove to the nearest bar. We each ordered a beer. When the waitress came back, we ordered some food. I know bar food was expensive, but I was starving right now. I took a swig of my beer.

"Did you hear about that shooting?" Kyle brought up.

"Which one?" Aaron asked.

"The one in the bank, it happened like 5 years ago. The boy was 16 at the time, he killed like 6 or 7 people. He was only put in prison for 5 years, but anyways, it said on the news that he was somewhere over here now. I can't remember his name, it started with an A."

"Wasn't it like, Allie?" Tino said.

"No, it was Alan." Aaron said. I started freaking out, it couldn't be my Alan, could it?

"What was his last name?" I asked.

"I don't remember." Aaron replied. "He was a ginger though, and he had brown eyes. He was really skinny, and-"

"W-was his last name Ashby?" I asked, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

"Yes, that's what it was!" Kyle exclaimed.

My eyes widened. "Listen guys, I-I need to go." Before they could protest, I got up and left for my car. Instead of going home, I decided to go to the library and see if they had any newspaper articles about it. I drove there as quickly as I could.

The library was still open, and I ran in and went to the counter. "Do you have any newspaper articles about Alan Ashby?" I asked. The librarian nodded, and went into a little room behind her. She came back a few minutes later, a newspaper in your hand. I thanked her and carried it over to the table and started flipping through the pages until I found the one about him.

"16 year old Alan Ashby was caught in a shooting of National One Bank. When police came in, they were shocked to see six poor innocent souls dead. Alan Ashby was stated 20 years in prison, but was cut down to 5 because of a bail out. He was in tears when police caught him, but didn't say anything. In court, he plead guilty, and was found guilty. If you see Alan Ashby, keep your eye out. He's a bloodthirsty murderer, and could be coming for you." Next to the article was a picture of Alan in an orange prison jumpsuit, a police officer behind him, Alan's eyes red from crying.

The article gave me goosebumps, and sent shivers down my spine. Alan was so sweet, I couldn't believe it. But I guess I had to, Alan Ashby was a murderer.