Glass Hearts

"I'm going to let Lola out and make you some tea, you're shivering."
I nodded and went to my room to change into more comfortable clothes. I threw on sweatpants and an oversized hoodie before returning to the living room. I watched Austin from the couch. How could there be such an amazing man in my life? Love always scared me and I never thought I would fall in love with anyone. I always convinced myself that I would never find love, and I was completely okay with that, but now I have this beautiful man in my life that I love with every ounce of my being... and he's just my friend. My best friend.
A few tears began to slide down my cheeks and I wiped them away with the sleeve of my hoodie. "Here you go," Austin said handing me a warm cup of tea.
"Thank you." I sipped the hot liquid. Feeling it warm my body as it slid down my throat.
Austin took the remote from the coffee table and turned the tv on. "What would you like to watch? We need to get your mind off of things."
I took a second to think. "Can we please watch Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? It's in my DVR."
Austin smiled, his beautiful pearly white smile, and flipped through until he found it.
I sat my cup of tea down on the table and grabbed the blanket off of the back of the couch. I opened the blanket and pulled it over me, snuggling into Austin. He took that as a queue to wrap his arm around my shoulder, letting me snuggle into his chest.
I felt him draw in a deep breath before laying a soft kiss on my head. "Autumn..."
"Hmm?"
"Never mind."
I sat up and turned to look at him. "Don't never mind me. Tell me what you wanted to say."
He shook his head and placed his hands on my hips pulling me back onto him. "It can wait."
"Okay," I whispered feeling my heart begin to race with nervousness.

-----

"Oh my fucking god," I heard as someone busted through my front door. I shot up and turned around to see Jamie looking flustered. "Oops, sorry. I didn't know you had company. Hi Austin."
Jamie glanced at me again before gasping and coming over to me, "Jesus Christ Aumi, what's wrong?"
I sighed and took a deep breath. Did I really look that bad? "Dad problems."
She just mouthed "o" before going over to sit on the living room chair. "I guess you don't want to hear about the horrible experience I just had at work."
"Uhm," I glanced down at my phone seeing that it was 10 o'clock. "You're just getting back from work?"
"Yes!" She screamed throwing herself back against the chair.
I slightly laughed. "What happened?"
"Well maybe it'll cheer you up some... So uhm... I was doing this girls hair right? And this girl came in with like fucking yellow hair. Like Big Bird yellow. Yellow as a school bus, yellow."
"I get the point. Continue."
"Okay well, she was like I want it white. I want to be platinum. So I was just like okay whatever we'll try and see what happens, so I started on her roots which were like BLACK by the way. They ended up pulling just as fucking yellow. So what should have taken me a few hours, ended up taking me like six. I turned her hair blue and almost cried. Just ugh. Awful day."
"Sounds it," I said letting out a chuckle.
"But anyways, sorry, my horrible day is irrelevant. Are you okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I'll be okay."
"Well, you already seem upset as it is so I'll save you from having to tell my the story and we will save it for another day. Austin, are you guys in the studio tomorrow?"
"Nope. We have the day off. Gotta rest my voice."
"FANTASTIC! Autumn, text Kristen, tell her you're having a crisis and she needs to cancel your appointments for tomorrow. We'll invite the guys out to the beach and have a bonfire and make you forget your problems."
I turned to Austin and shrugged. "what do you think?"
"It sounds good to me," he said smiling. "We all need a nice relaxing day."
"Okay then it's a date. I gotta go though. I'm meeting that hot blonde that works at that tattoo shop downtown."
"Ew," I scrunched my nose. "Have fun. Try not to catch grabs."
She hit me on the shoulder before pulling me into a hug. "Have fun you too. Take care of my girl Austin."
With that she left, leaving Austin and I to enjoy the rest of the night together.

-----

I woke up the next morning to Austin staring at me. "What," I asked giving him an odd look and stretching.
"You're really cute when you sleep. You snore."
"I do not!"
"Oh you do," he said leaning down so his face was inches from mine. I pouted and stared at him with puppy dog eyes. "It's cute so it's okay!"
I just continued to pout. Austin groaned and laid his head on my shoulder.
"What?" I laughed ruffling his hair.
"You." He mumbled into my hair.
"What about me?"
"Just you," he said before rolling over and getting out of bed. "I'm going to go make some coffee. Get dressed. We're meeting everyone at the beach in 45 minutes."
I got up and changed into a blue and white stripped bikini and pulled on a white sundress. Easy enough. I'm not one to be picky about what I wear. I went into the living room and filled up Lola's food and water bowl before letting her back inside.
"Here you go m'lady." Austin handed me a steaming cup of coffee. "You look gorgeous in that by the way."
"Thanks you kind sir," I said taking a sip of my coffee. "I need to finish getting ready. Your shorts are still here from last time. They're on top of the dryer."
With that I walked into the bathroom and sat my cup down and brushed my teeth. I examined my exhausted skin trying to rub away the circles under my eyes. The puffiness was never going to go away. Crying all night is the absolute worse. I pumped my face wash into my hands before trying to scrub away my imperfections. I washed the soap off and dried my face. I decided to apply a light layer of foundation in hope of covering some of the red puffiness.
I sighed in defeat and tore my brush through my hair before grabbing my cup and a few towels and exited the bathroom. "Austin are you ready?"
"Yup!" He came out from the laundry room, changed into his board shorts and a tank top.
"Let's go!" I shoved the towels into my beach bag and slung it over my shoulder.
Austin unlocked his car and opened the door for me. "Thank you."
I sipped my coffee as we pulled out of my driveway and headed towards the beach.
We arrived just as Tino and Phil were getting out of Phil's car. "Hey beautiful," Tino said pulling me into a tight hug.
"Hey guys." I hugged him back and turned to Phil giving him a tight hug. "Jamie just texted me and said everyone else is already down at the beach so let's go."
"Jump up," Austin said leaning down so I could jump on his back. I pulled my bag over my shoulder and jumped on his back swinging my arms and legs around him tightly. He took off running towards the beach causing me to scream.
"Do not fucking drop me!" I screamed tightening my grip on me. We finally reached everyone else and Austin set me down. I went over to Jamie and gave her a tight hug.
"My love, thank you for organizing this."
"Not a problem. Are you feeling better today?"
"I'm trying." I gave her a slight smile and accepted a beer from her. "Thank you."
"Anything for my BFF."
Austin wrapped his arms around my shoulders and leaned his chin on my head. "Actually, I'm her BFF."
"Yeah you wish." Jamie pulled me away from Austin and dragged me out of ear shot. "He totally wants you."
"He does not," I whined blushing bright red.
Jamie rolled her eyes. "Are you fucking blind? Do you not see the way he looks at you?"
"He just cares. He's my friend."
"He loves you Autumn and you love him. I know how you feel about that shit but you can't deny it. I can see it in your eyes."
I looked down and kicked the sand. "I don't know what to do."
"Tell him how you feel!"
"I can't."

Austin's POV

I watched as Autumn kicked the sand like she always did when she was nervous. I wish I could hear what they were saying but the waves crashing against the beach drowned out the small mumbles coming out of their mouths.
"Hey bro, have a beer." Aaron handed me a cold beer and took a drink out of his own. "What's going on with you and Autumn?"
I opened the beer and took a long drink out of it before answering him. "Nothing. She was upset last night so I stayed over and comforted her."
"Austin, as your friend I feel that I need to inform you that you are in love with that girl."
"Oh I am?" I chuckled drinking more of my beer.
"Just tell her dude."
"I almost did last night. She was just so upset, I didn't want to put that on her shoulders."
"It would probably take a load off her shoulders actually."
"What do you mean?" I took a seat on one of the beach chairs laid out.
"I'm pretty positive she feels the same way about you."
"Maybe."
I watched Autumn as she pulled her sundress over her head and smoothed out her hair. The sun caressed her skin perfectly, flowing over every curve. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of her and Jamie running towards the water and posted it on Instagram. @austincarlile: beach day with the boys and my two favorite girls @aumiautumn @jamieashby.
"Get off your phone and come join us," Alan yelled pushing me out of my chair.
I chuckled and got up, throwing my shirt to the ground, and ran after Alan. I shoved him into the water and ran the other way. He got up and chased after me jumping on my back, causing me to fall into the water. "Payback mother fucker!"
I pushed Alan under the water and tried sitting on his head but he pushed up and I fell back into the water.
"What the fuck are y'all doing?" Autumn giggled splashing water on us.
"Playing a little game." I eyed her evilly and picked her up running deeper into the water until my head was barely sticking up.
"Austin," she shrieked coughing on a few waves. "I'm going to be eaten by a shark."
"I'll fight them off silly girl." I made her wrap her legs around me and held under her butt to keep her head above the water. "I just wanted some alone time with you."
"So you took me out to be eaten by sharks?"
"You aren't going to be eaten by any sharks, I promise. I just wanted to tell you something."
"And what was so important that you had to put my life in danger?"
"Shut up, you surf almost every day. Get serious for a moment."
She put on her serious face and held onto the back of my neck so she could lean back to look at me better.
"I love you, Autumn."
"I love you too, Austin," she said looking confused.
"No Autumn, I love you."
Her face went ghost white as she stared into my eyes.

Autumn's POV

"No Autumn, I love you."
My mind immediately went into overdrive. Was I dreaming? Did I hear him wrong? I wanted to pinch myself but I couldn't make my fingers move from around his neck.
"Autumn..."
I blinked a few times before staring into Austin's scared eyes. "I... I love you too, Austin."
Austin pulled me against him and crashed his lips onto mine. I kissed him back passionately running my hands into his hair to deepen the kiss. He pulled away and pressed his forehead against mine. "Autumn Elizabeth Grey, will you be my one and only?"