The Private Journal of Celeste Hawking: Do Not Open.

January 10th, 2016
Ten days was all it took. He jumped in the river for my hat on New Years, and we had been almost inseparable ever since. I remember how that day had forever changed my life. The way we stood there after we touched, just gazing into each others eyes.
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Day 1:
"You must be freezing... Your jeans are still wet..." I observed, being careful not to look at his skin tight jeans, now plastered to how tiny legs.
"Um, yeah. They'll dry though, it's not a big deal." He replied, distracted.
"We'll it's about 40 degrees right now and you're gonna make yourself sick. Can I go get you some new pants? Or drive you home so you can change, at least?"
"Celeste, it's really no big deal, but thank you very much for the offer!" He replied, cheerily, trying to hide a shiver at the end of his sentence.
I paused a moment in defeat. I wasn't sure what to do now. A stranger jumped into freezing cold water just to retrieve my hat, and now he was refusing /my/ hospitality.
"Why did you do it?" I suddenly asked after a beat of awkward silence. The question was posed a bit forcefully, shocking both Austin and myself. I hadn't meant for it to come off so harshly, but something was compelling me to continue talking to this man, so I had just spoken in a moment of panic.
He stared at me, wide-eyed for a moment before answering, " I'm not sure actually. I saw someone I need, and I felt that I needed to help."
So something had compelled him to do that, just on a whim? I wasn't sure what to think.
"We'll that was... An amazing thing to do." I finally said. Smiling meekly, he looked down at the ground, shaking his head, " It was nothing." He then glanced up, still smiling and quietly added, "I'd do it again if it meant I'd get to see you ." I felt my face get warm, and I smiled sheepishly before replying, "Can I get you coffee or something warm, Austin? You're damp, and it's freezing out here."
He put his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath before replying, "Yeah, I'd like that."
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"What do you want?" I asked Austin as we drove down the crowded New York streets, heading to warmth and coffee.
"I don't really want anything. Really, it's fine. If you want something though, I'll pay for you." He said.
"No!" I half-joked with him, "I told you I'd buy you something. It's the least I can do, please, even just a coffee?"
After a long sigh, and a few moments of silence, I spoke again, "You said you wanted some, and you got in my car with me and now you say you don't want any, humph if I didn't know any better, I might think you were some serial killer, or-"
He cut me off with a light chuckle, "I don't drink coffee, but I like tea. Hot tea. I don't even know anywhere that serves decent hot tea. Well, not on New Years..."
I thought about the dozens of types of tea that I had stored in my cupboard at home. I was quite the tea fiend, even though I would never tell anyone.
I laughed quietly and shook my head before making the U-turn to head to my little flat in Brooklyn.
"Wait, where are we going?" Austin inquired, "Oh god, you're the one thats the serial killer aren't you? I knew I should never have trusted you!" We both laughed at the joke and I turned up the radio to the rock station and we jammed Metallica and Billy Idol all the way across the bridge. When a commercial came on, I turned down the volume and glanced over at this stranger that I had made friends with. He looked at me with those big brown eyes and his sparkling white smile. When he smiled, he had little, crinkly laugh-lines by his eyes. I marveled at him; His small nose-ring, which I hadn't noticed until we got into my car that night, and his tiny ankles and slender build. He was tall, about 6'3" or so, which felt giant compared to my average 5'6", and he was unbelievably nice. We smiled at each other in the front seat of my small blue Toyota, and made small talk. Traffic was rather jammed so it took over an hour for us to get into Brooklyn, so once we had run out of things to say, silence fell over the light buzz of the radio advertisements.
"I'm taking us to my house, by the way..." I broke the silence after a while. "You said you liked tea, and since most places are closing, and I happen to have a ton of different types of tea, I figured it would probably be easiest."
"Oh, haha cool! That sounds fine by me," he sounded slightly enthralled, "Are you sure you're not a serial killer though? Because my band would never forgive me if I decided to get killed the night before our big show." He joked again. We both laughed and continued our way into my small apartment complex in lower Brooklyn.
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"What kind so you want though?!" I asked him for just about the millionth time. "Ugh! Okay what were the choices again?" He replied, just as exasperated as I was. "We have mint, zen, English breakfast, pomegranate-blueberry, green, orange pekoe, and regular Lipton." I repeated /again/. "Okay, okay I think zen sounds nice, unless you want something different." Austin was still standing in the doorway to my small kitchen with coat still on, still slightly shivering, and covered in goosebumps. "Okay, I'm gonna make Zen tea." I said as he gave a slight shiver. It was dark outside, nearly 8:30, and there was light snow covering the ground outside, and Austin was still in his damp black pants, just waiting to catch a cold. We might have been inside, but that didn't mean it was warm. "Austin quit shivering. Let me see what I've got." I quickly it put the kettle on the stove and raced to my bedroom to find a pair of clean sweats that would fit Austin decently. I tore through all of my drawers and my laundry baskets before snatching up the largest pair of grey sweats I owned and dashing back to the kitchen. Handing the pants to Austin, I motioned to the bathroom so that he could change in privacy. After several minutes, Austin hadn't returned from the bathroom. Fearing that he may have fallen, or, in the very least, was having some sort of difficulty, I went to go check on him, which was actually a terrible idea on my part. I think some part of my brain had been turned off and I'm not sure that I was thinking at all when I walked down the narrow hallway in my small New York flat, but I do know that when I reached the bathroom, I expected it to be shut all the way. It was not. Austin Carlile was standing clad in his wet boxer-briefs in the middle of the bathroom while door was most of the way open. As I said, my brain was not at it's highest performance level that night, and so, rather than turning away and averting my eyes from the skinny, damp and mostly naked specimen in my own home, I just stood in the doorway, mouth hanging open, eyes wide, and gawking at Austin's magnificently toned, yet incredibly lean, body. His reaction was no different then mine, as we were both in a state of shock (once again), and it took a few moments for us to realize that we were in an awkward situation and we both just stammered apologies at each other and as I awkwardly turned away, he shut the door until it clicked and locked it behind him. I heard the teapot whistle loudly and raced back into the kitchen to stop the obnoxious sound and pour some tea. It was only moments later that Austin slithered out of the bathroom and into the living area where I sat with two warm mugs of tea.
"I- um..." He started.
"Don't. Just... Yeah, it's cool, it never happened okay?" I half- laughed.
"Yeah okay cool." Austin smiled warmly and took a seat beside me on my plush brown couch and began sipping his tea.
We got to talking, which seemed rather easy for us; It was as if we had known each other for years, rather than only hours. We talked until our tea was cold and the night was dark and vibrant with the bustling sounds of New Years Eve. He told me all about the band he was in, called Of Mice & Men, and invited me to see them perform the following night.
When we had run out of air, it was two hours later than when we began. Only an hour until the new year. Being from California, Austin explained that he had never seen Times Square on New Years, and had actually been waiting in the park for the moment in which he would be able to walk into Central Manhattan and witness the infamous ball drop. So I took him to go see it.

The square was lit up, as bright as daylight, and there were people everywhere. The streets and shops were hardly visible through the mass of bodies that crowded in the streets and sidewalks, bursting from every seam. It was cold and warm at the same time. The smiles and laughter that everyone seemed to share was empowering. I felt so right in that moment. I felt as though nothing could ever go wrong, that nothing bad ever happened. I felt as though I could go on forever, never feeling inadequate, or insecure again. I forgot the hospital, I forgot school, my parents, my doubts, and when I looked over at Austin, he had the same look in his eyes. I could see his spark, deep down, something had ignited. This moment was meant to happen. It was meant to change both of our lives, forever.