Meet My Dedication, Inspiration

I ordered 100 mild and 150 hot wings. I figured they could take some of them back to the rest of the guys if they wanted.

"Do you guys like sweet tea?"

"Yes!" They all said in unison.

"Alright, and two gallons of sweet tea. Oh, and lots of extra carrots and celery, please." I paid for the meal (totally well over 100 bucks) and we sat down at a big table in the middle of the restaurant.

"Oh, here you go guys." I handed over the bags to Alan and Austin. The waitress brought over their drinks and right as she left, they started rummaging through their bags.

Alan's eyes widened, "OH MY GOD!!!!!" I had gotten him tons of little knick-knacks with kittens on them. He started arranging them on the table and giving them names.

Austin was just as adorable, mostly excited about his new undies. They both sat in silence as they read their notes. Little giggles and smiles every now and then.

Austin's face, however, changed when he read the part I knew would make him feel a bit different from the rest of the note.

Your music is the only thing that didn't hurt me.

It referred to the point in my life that was very challenging. I was betrayed by my family, left alone to work and go to school full time; abused by someone very close to me; and on top of that, I was recovering from surgery. Though it was in the past, it still gave me nightmares sometimes.
He folded the note back up and scooted his chair back, walked to me and stood me up; and hugged me for a very long time. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms tight around his neck. "Are you out of that situation?" He whispered in my ear.

"It's complicated." I sighed softly.

I could hear Jenn whispering softly to Craig, explaining what the fuck was going on. But even she didn't know the whole of my issues.

He pulled away from the hug and held me by my shoulders. "We need to talk later."

I nodded, smiling softly. "I could use that."

We sat down and ate, the mood turning to more cheer and excitedness for the show.

"So, you're seeing us how many times?"

"Well, I have tickets for the next two week's worth of shows." I sipped on my straw.

Austin and Alan exchanged glances before Alan pulled out his phone and started typing on it. Austin's buzzed a few seconds later... They were pretty obvious. I chuckled and dug into my wings again.
Before we went back to the venue, Craig and Jenn started taking cute selfies together. I pouted and sat back in my chair.

Austin POV

When Craig and Jenn started taking selfies, Jessica's face turned sad and she sat back in her chair looking defeated. I took it upon myself to walk over and sit in her lap.

"Take pictures with me." I smiled.

"Okay. I'd love to." She smiled back.

For the couple of hours I'd known this girl, I was very much intrigued. Alan said he followed her back on twitter because not only was she beautiful, but her tweets were funny as hell and she seemed to have a level head on her shoulders. She mentioned in her letter to me that she was a nurse in Atlanta's best hospital but she hated where she lived.

She looked adorable in the front facing camera and before I could, she stuck out her tongue and opened her mouth for the first picture of us. Alan started photobombing in the background which only made her smile more. For the last few pics, we took turns holding each other's chins up while we gave some cheek kisses.

Her laugh was infectious and she was even nice enough to ask permission if she could post the pictures online. I, of course, said it was okay.

On the way back to the venue, I watched her. She wasn't clumsy or odd or even awkward at all. Kind enough to pay for our meal and I know she'd spent a good amount of money on the goodie bags for each of us.

Alan texted me while we were eating to see if he thought we should let them be sidestage for all of our shows. I finally replied while we were driving back.

Not tonight. I want to sing to her.

The idiot said, "Awwww." out loud instead of in the text. I could have threw him out the window.

"What are you aww'ing over, Alan?" She smiled, looking in the rear view mirror.

"Someone sent me a picture of a cute cat."

Nice cover,[i/] I thought to myself. "Can I see? I love cats."

Shiiiiit. "Yeah, sure." He held his phone up and I looked over to see - indeed - a very cute cat on the screen.

"Awwww, that is so cute!"

When we pulled into the parking lot, she started gathering up the food for the rest of the guys. "Jenn, can you get Aaron, Tino, and Phil's bags? I'll carry the food."

"No, I got it. C'mere." I said, reaching out and taking some of the items she had in her hands.

"Thanks Austin." She smiled.

Alan was right. She was beautiful. And in a way that made me want to learn every single thing about her. Her skin was fair and her lips were insanely kissable. She had bright green eyes that were perfectly lined and winged. Her cheekbones were high, very model-esque. And in her letter, she'd mentioned she was sick for a long time, making it impossible for her to lose any weight, but the surgery fixed that problem... and you could tell. She was tall and perfectly curvy (the corset made that obvious). I walked behind her on the way to the bus.

"Hey, Jess? I'm gonna go hang with Craig and the guys in their bus."

"Oh! Okay. Here, take these wings for them." She jogged over to Jenn. "Have fun." She smiled.

That meant she was with us on her own, if she wanted to be. She made Alan go before her on the bus. I was finally close enough to smell her hair, her perfume and fuck, was it intoxicating.

At this point, I'd totally bang her if she was down and I didn't respect women.

The guys were very happy about their gifts and devoured the wings rather quickly. Alan was clearly smitten by Jessica too, I could tell by the way he talked to her. He made her laugh a lot while we were all sitting and talking.

"So you live here?" Tino asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, just a little bit away actually. The hospital I work at is close by too."

"Oh, hospital?" He was still drinking on his tea.

"Yeah, I'm an RN. I work the emergency room 3 to 4 days a week."

"So if we get boo-boos, she's your girl." Alan smiled.

Jessica POV

"So if we get boo-boos, she's your girl." Alan smiled at me.

These boys were so perfect, I was already enjoying hanging out with them. Alan DM'd me while we were sitting on the little couch and said that he genuinely thought I was one of the coolest chicks he'd ever met...and that he loved his presents.

While I was replying, my twitter went off again saying that Austin followed me...and I got a nice DM from him at that moment too.

Can we go for a quick walk? You know your way around and I want to talk a little :)

I typed back quickly, Of course. I want to go get a slushie anyways. :)

I stood up and started saying my good-byes. "I'm gonna go and get a slushie, check on Jenn, then see you guys inside in a little bit."

The overpour of thank you's, hugs, and kisses on my cheek were precious.

"And I need to talk to Craig for a sec, so I'll be back when I'm done with that." Austin added as I walked down the stairs.

"Aight, dude. Bring back some of their wings." Tino yelled.

I walked down the length of the bus and I heard Austin quickly following. "Good escape plan, too. You're a smart woman."

"What can I say? I've been in a few situations where I needed to get out without causing a scene." I shrugged. We turned the corner and started walking down the back street.

"Will there be lots of fans out this way? I kinda want to talk uninterrupted if at all possible."

"Probably not too many. They usually go out front." I smiled softly.

Austin nodded. "So, the abuse.. was that.. is that still going on?"

I gulped. "I... If I tell you this, this stays between us. Not even Jenn knows." He nodded again. "Yes. It still happens."

I stopped and lifted up my corset on the bottom and pulled my jeans down a little bit. The big black and blue bruise had turned purple and was still too tender to touch. "This happened when I came home from work a couple of days ago. He said I didn't answer his text message so he waited for me at my house and pushed me down a few stairs. I have a couple more abrasions on my legs and thankfully, my palms healed. He spit on me, called me names, and slapped me in the face a few times before he left."

He jaw was clenched. "Who is he to you?"

"He was my boyfriend. But we broke up 7 months ago. He still thinks he owns me."

I could see the anger boiling under his skin and I haven't ever seen Austin angry, and I didn't think I wanted to.

"Can you get out? Can you move? What can you do?"

I chewed my lip. "I've changed my phone number 5 times, transferred to this hospital, and basically removed myself from any website he's aware of. He just...won't go away."