Meet My Dedication, Inspiration

Austin was so full of energy on stage and as he walked down the stairs, he grabbed my hand, his palms sweaty.

"That was fucking incredible. I loved it so much." Before I could get out another word, he grabbed the sides of my face and kissed me, hard.

"He's here. We have to go."

"What? Who's here?"

"Your fucking ex, I saw him in the crowd. We have to go, come on."

"How do you know?"

"I saw your Instagram..the pictures of him." He started dragging me by my hand.

"How the fuck did he find me?"

"Your locations are still tagged on your tweets. Come on baby, hurry up."

My heart was beating out of my chest. "Aus, carry me. You're walking way too fast."

"Alright, come here." He put me on his back piggyback style again and ran through the backstage. "Where are your keys?"

"In the bunk."

"Go grab our shit, we gotta go. I already told Lionel we were leaving." Austin waited by the door of the bus while I grabbed a lot of stuff from the bunk. I walked back outside and a hand caught my wrist.

"Funny I'd find you here." Clayton said, smirking.

"Where's Austin?"

"Who the fuck is Austin? You're coming back home with me."

"No," I jerked away, "I'm not. Where is Austin?"

"With some girls over there, I guess he preferred them over you." I rolled my eyes. "Don't you fucking roll your eyes at me, you stupid bitch." He slapped me hard across my left cheek.

I turned and started walking away and he yanked me by my hair down to the ground. "Who do you think you are? I told you already, you're fucking scum. A stupid little slut who I own." He whispered hotly in my ear.

"You better walk the fuck away right now." I heard Austin's voice behind me. Hot tears were caught in my eyelashes, afraid to cry in front of Clayton; to let him know he got to me.

"Yeah? Or what?"

Clayton stood up, at least 6 inches shorter to Austin's 6'4" and tried to get in his face. "You think it's funny to bully someone? You think you own her? She fucking chose to leave and she chose me. You need to get the fuck out of my face and leave her alone right now."

"Am I supposed to be scared just cause you're in some hardcore band? What are you gonna do, sic your bandmates on me?"

Austin grabbed him by his shoulders and tossed him on the ground. "I don't need my bandmates to handle what needs to be handled. If you plan on leaving without a mark, I suggest you do it now."

Clayton took advantage of being on the ground and kicked me hard right in my side. I buckled over on one side and groaned. There was no way he didn't break one of my ribs.

"You son of a bitch." Austin growled, pulling Clayton up by his shirt and punching him right in the jaw. "I told you to leave her the fuck alone and I meant it."

Clayton laughed, spitting blood in Austin's face from where he busted his lip. "You think I'm afraid of you?"

Austin lost control, punching Clayton relentlessly, pushing him to the dirt again and spitting on his beaten body. He leaned down next to him and got right in his face, "If I ever see your fucking face again, you won't have one anymore."

He picked me up bridal style and carried me to my car. He buckled me in the passenger seat and tossed our stuff in the back seat. I winced everytime I took a breath. "How do I get to the hospital?"

I pulled the GPS out of the middle console. "Here."

He drove well over the speed limit and we were soon in the ER. They put me in a gown and started me on an IV (which was really unnecessary, but they claimed I was "dehydrated").

"I saw that eye roll." Austin giggled after the nurse left the room.

"I shouldn't be on these fluids, and the gown really isn't necessary either."

He rubbed his fingers over my hand that he was holding and brushed my hair off my face. "I hope you don't bruise. This is all my fault."

"How is it your fault?"

"I walked off to sign a few things, I thought you'd take a little longer on the bus. I'm sorry."

"He would have found me anyways."

"Still. I could have been there to protect you."

"Austin, don't. You did enough. I'm thankful that you were even there. If I bruise, I bruise. It will go away in a few days."

He smiled warmly and leaned over to kiss my forehead. They gave me something for pain (as I figured they would) and bandaged up my broken rib. I was on fluids for two whole hours before I was finally discharged. We picked up my prescription at a local CVS before heading back to the bus.

Austin POV

She was still loopy from the narcotics when we got back to the bus, and as she mentioned on the ride to Nashville, they made her incredibly affectionate. She laid on top of me, kissing me from my neck and collarbones, then back to my lips.

Alan told me Clayton was arrested right after we left but hadn't said a word about who beat him up. My mind was still on the fight, how rough he'd been with her. She quickly got my mind off track by nibbling on my ear lobe. Her eyelids looked like they were getting heavy when she went to kiss me again.

"You're sleepy baby. You need to lay down."

She nodded and crawled beside me. I pushed her hair behind her ear and watched her as she slowly drifted off to sleep. I put a heating pad on her side and got up to walk to the front of the bus.

"Her car's hitched back up, we're ready to roll out whenever you are." Lionel called.

I nodded and ran my hand through my hair before sitting down on the couch. "Do you guys think I'm crazy?"

"Crazy for what? Beating that dude's ass? No way." Tino said.

"Yeah, I don't even know how I would react if that happened to my girl." Aaron crossed his arms and leaned back against the couch.

"But she's technically not mine. But I still reacted like that."

"Austin, get a grip. You may have not asked her yet, but that's your girl." Alan rolled his eyes. "I'd even say you love the girl already." My head snapped up and looked at him. "Holy shit." He smiled. "You love her, don't you?"

"I..." I had nothing to say. I hadn't been this way with a girl in so long. Most times we just hung out or had sex, but this was totally different. "Shut up."

All the guys starting making a fuss, being loud and making kissy sounds. "What's going on?" Jess was standing in the hallway, hair disheveled, rubbing her cheek.

"Nothing. Nothing's going on. Did we wake you up?" I quickly stood by her side.

"No, you guys making all that noise was something I could overlook." She smiled.

"Sorry Jess." They all said in unison.

"It's okay. The bus cranking would have woken me up anyways." I sat down on the couch and pulled her onto my lap.

"You feeling okay?"

She nodded. "The meds are still rushing through me so I don't feel any pain yet. I'll take some ibuprofen before it all wears off for swelling."

I grabbed her tiger from earlier off the couch and handed it to her. She wrapped her arms around it and rested her head on its head. The bus started to rumble a few seconds later. I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her steady as we started to pull out of the parking lot.

Once we were on the highway, she laid her head in my lap and watched part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Alan. I could tell she'd fallen asleep within the hour.

When the rest of the guys starting filing down the hall, I leaned my head back and covered her up. I didn't want to wake her up yet. I played with her hair and started another movie on Netflix. She had our fingers laced together, held close to her chest.

Damn, I thought to myself, I really do love her, don't I?

When she finally woke up, she groaned. "Oh god damn. This hurts." She leaned up and rummaged through her bag for the ibuprofen. "Did I fall asleep again?"

I nodded, smiling. Simply watching her made me so happy. "You ready to go to bed for real this time?"

"So ready. Come snuggle me." She held her arms out and pouted.

"Oh babygirl, too cute." I hugged her gently and kissed her.

She went to sleep on my chest like she always did. I followed suit shortly after.

Tomorrow would be it. I was going to tell her exactly how I felt.