18

I opened my eyes at the annoying sound of my cell phone. Last night I had driven home from San Diego after going to a Pierce The Veil concert where I had met the band and ended up hanging out with them for a little bit after the show. They were all really sweet and genuine guys. I, of course, gave them my number and told them to keep in touch with me.

I grabbed my phone and looked at who was calling and my annoyance flew out the window. I unlocked the phone and called him back as I had missed his call.

"Good morning, Maylee." He answered way too happily.

"Austin, it's too early." I groaned. He laughed at me. He started to talk to me about everything the band was doing and how the guys came over last night and they played music all night until Phil had to leave to go back home to his girlfriend. He also told me that his manager wanted to meet with me this week. Once he was done talking there was a long pause in the conversation.

"I'm going to make you dinner tonight." Austin said over the phone after we had talked about what he had done with his band mates and what his manager told him.

"Why would you do that?" I asked him as I sat up in my bed. I stared at my reflection in the mirror across from my bed and I was super glad that no one was here.

"Because I haven't seen you since the open mic night which was about two weeks ago." Austin said with a laugh. I couldn't help but smile at him. "So what do you say, Maylee?"

"Sure. But I'll need your address." I told him. He gave me his address before hanging up. I tossed my phone on to the mattress next to me and laid back down hoping to sleep for a few more hours.



Once I had officially woken up, I decided that I would get ready and head over to Austin's house for the dinner that he was going to be making. It surprised me that he knew how to cook but I wouldn't know if he really knew how to cook until I got there.

I got out of my bed and decided that I would take a shower and get on my way so that I could make the hour drive and still have enough time to hangout with Austin before having to make it home before it was too late.

The showed was definitely something that had helped me wake up. I had only been in the shower for a few minutes but it was nice and my hair was no longer greasy from not being washed last night when I got home. I had dried my hair quickly and decided that I would leave it natural because I was too lazy to use any styling tools today. I applied my makeup quite quickly giving my eyes a smokey look and some wings. The lipstick I decided on was a darker pink that gave the coral color of my skinny jeans a jump. I pulled my "I'm not not psycho" over my head and looked at myself in the mirror.

"Maylee Jae?" My father said knocking on the door. I put on my love necklace and a few bangles before going to answer the door. I put on a fake smile and swung the door open.

"Hey dad." I smiled at him. He took in my outfit and then looked at my face.

"Are you going somewhere?" He asked. I nodded. "Where to?"

"I'm going to go and spend the day with a friend." I said not wanting to go into detail on what and who.

"How was the concert last night?" He asked me. I looked at him as if he had grown another head. "I am only asking because you came home pretty late last night."

"It was great. It was this really new band and they were great. I also got to meet the guys after the show." I said with a smile. My dad nodded his head before he placed a kiss to my hair and left me standing at my door. My dad could be cool when he wanted to be, but only if my mom was not home. I swear he lived his youth through me.

I looked around my room making sure I had everything before I grabbed my sunglasses, cell phone and my leather jacket. I slipped my feet into a pair of flip flops and I was out the door to go to Austin's house.

"Have fun." My dad called to me as I reached the door. I turned and looked at him sitting at his desk. I ran back to his office and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

"I will, dad." I smiled at him. He patted my arms and with that, I was off.



I pulled into a moderately nice neighborhood and started to look for Austin's address. I was on the right street but it was so hard to see the numbers on the houses because they were either too small, fading or nonexistent. Once I had failed at the numbers, I started to look for Austin's 1995 white Honda Civic that would either be parked in the driveway or on the street. I prayed that he did not park in the garage.

I pulled up to the curb and was about to call Austin when I saw his house number. I heaved a sigh and pulled into the driveway next to his car. I shut off my car and grabbed my phone from the passenger seat where I had tossed it. I shut my car door and approached the front door to Austin's house.

As I stood on the porch, I could hear the wonderous sounds of Suicide Silence coming from the other side of the door. I rang the door bell and the music was turned down. I waited a minute and was about to ring the bell again when the door swung open and Austin appeared smiling at me.

"You found it." He chimed happily.

"Barely. I drove past it twice." I said shaking my head. He chuckled.

"That happens a lot." He told me. "Please come inside and make yourself at home."

"You have a nice house." I complimented him but he shook his head. I removed my flip flops and followed him into the kitchen where I noticed his bandmates were at. I stopped in the doorway and looked at them.

"Maylee, this is Andrew Whiting, John Holgado, Andrew Wetzel, Johnny Franck and Caleb Shomo." Austin said as each member of his band waved at me. "Guys this is Maylee."

"You left out that she was attractive." Andrew Wetzel said. I looked away as I felt a blush rush to my cheeks.

"Hey don't embarrass the poor girl." Caleb said playfully smacking Andrew's shoulder. Austin came over and put his arm over my shoulders.

"Don't mind them. They won't be here much longer." Austin said happily. I nodded and sat down at the counter with the guys. "Do you want anything to drink, Maylee?"

"You can call me Jae. I prefer it over Maylee." I stated. He nodded and looked at me expectantly. "A soda is fine."

"You don't want a beer?" John asked me. I shook my head.

"I literally turned 18 like six months ago." I told them. Austin stopped and looked at me as did the guys.

"We have an April baby in the house." Johnny chuckled. Andrew Whiting checked his phone and stood up.

"I have to go. Ana needs me." He told us. The guys said bye to him and I waved at him. Shortly after, the other guys left leaving me with Austin.

"When is your birthday?" I carefully asked him. He turned from the stove and looked at me.

"September 27.." Austin smiled at me. I smiled at him.

"September 27 was my grandmother's birthday, too." I smiled sadly at him. "At least we know that I won't forget it."

"That is true." Austin said turning back to the stove where he was making steak for us.

"Do you need any help?" I asked him. He shook his head. "Are you sure? I can mix the salad or something not tedious so that you can say you made all of the dinner."

"I'm good, Jae. I laterally just need to finish this steak." He said to me while flipping the steaks. "Everything else is in the oven."

"How long have you been cooking?" I asked him. He ignored my question and put the steaks on a plate. He grabbed the other food items and set them on the counter.

"My lady, you can serve yourself." He smiled at me.



"Oh my lord." I moaned as I put the last bite of steak into my mouth. "That was so good, Austin."

"I'm glad you liked it." He smiled at me.

"So how are you liking being in a band?" I asked him. He thought about it for a moment.

"We were actually talking about me leaving the band in in November." Austin said looking down. "I have Marfan syndrome and it has been putting a lot of stress on my body. But I also have this side project going on right now called Of Mice and Men. So it was just too much to handle."

"I'm sorry." He shook his head.

"We were also fighting a lot." He said shaking his head. "We got to this point where we would fight about everything."

"So who is in Of Mice and Men?" I asked him. He was about to answer me when the door bell rang. The door opened and the sound of guys talking came into the kitchen area.

"Well they are here early." Austin smiled. "Guys, I want you to meet Maylee Jae. Jae, this is Jaxin Hall, Jon Kintz, Phil Manansala and Valentino Arteaga."

"You must be the girl that sings like an angel." Jaxin said smiling at me. I turned and looked at Austin with wide eyes.

"Sings like an angel?" I asked him. It was his turn to blush. "An angel? Really?"

"Yeah. He failed to mention how good looking you are." Jon said licking his lips at me. I felt uncomfortable and nudged Austin with my foot. He nudged me back and I knew that he had saw it too.

"So what are you guys do here?" Austin asked them.

"We got bored and decided to drop by. We didn't know you had company though." Phil said looking over at me. I grabbed our plates and went towards the sink.

"Jae, you don't have to do that." Austin told me as his friends went into the living room. I shook my head and looked at him with a small smile.

"You have friends over. I'll take care of the dishes. Go and talk to them." I said to him. He came over to me and leaned against my back as I washed the dishes. I set the plate down and turned to look at him as he pressed his body against me.

"They weren't supposed to come over until later." He whispered. "You are going to get my undivided attention until you want to go home."

"Maybe I don't want to go home." I told him. His hands found my waist and he gave them a gentle squeeze. I picked up the plate and started to wash it. Austin placed a soft kiss against my neck before going to the table to put the leftovers away.

"Yo Austin. Can we can into the studio?" I heard one of the guys ask. I turned to Austin and looked at him.

"Yeah, sure." Austin said as he scraped the mashed potatoes into a container. I turned from the sink and grabbed the spoon from him that was still covered in mashed potatoes and stuck the spoon in my mouth removing the mashed potatoes that was on it. Austin looked at me with semi wide eyes.

"I will probably head home once we are done here so that you can spend time with your band mates." I said with a smile. He shook his head.

"You drove an hour to get here. You should definitely stay for longer than an hour. It's only 5:30, Jae." Austin said placing his finger against the clock on the stove. I looked at him and rolled my eyes.

"So what?" I teasingly asked him. He looked defeated and walked away from the stove.

"If you want to go home, you can." Austin said softly. I grabbed his arm and turned him around to face me. He looked up down at me for a moment.

"Let's watch a movie." I told him as I lead him to the living room. He shut off the kitchen light and we clumsily fell onto the couch together. "Movie collection?" I asked him. He pointed to a drawer and I opened it. I grabbed Horton Hears a Who and put it in the DVD player.

"Really?" Austin asked as the movie screen popped up. I nodded and cuddled against him to watch the movie.



"I can't believe you have never seen that movie." Austin said as we both stretched after being seated for so long. I cracked my back and looked at him.

"I don't watch that many movies. I usually am too busy." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"What? You need to hang out with me more." Austin said sitting back into the couch. I looked at him and agreed. "So I'll come to your place tomorrow."

"No, not my place. My parents are total dickheads." I said as he looked at me in wonder. "They are just really stuck up and I don't want to subject you to that."

"Well that's really nice of you." Austin said as the sound of music could be heard as one of the guys opened the door to the studio. "We should go and hang out with them."

"Austin, I don't know if that will be a good idea." I said but it was too late. He grabbed my hand and led me down the hallway to where the guys were at making music. I felt my cheeks grow warm as we entered the room. The guys smiled at me as Austin pushed me onto the couch that was not being occupied.

"We have our first show in three weeks. You should come and be our cheerleader." Tino said smiling at me. I nodded at him.

"I'll be there." I smiled at them. "Austin will just have to remind me."

"I will." Austin smiled at me.

"So Jae, do you have a boyfriend?" Jon asked. I looked at him and immediately felt uncomfortable. Austin must have noticed because he glared at him and then looked at me apologetically.

"I don't. I don't really think a guy while make me happy." I shrugged. Austin looked away sadly before John licked his lips at me with a smirk on his face. "Hey Austin. I think I'm going to head home. I don't want to be in the way."

"You aren't in the way." John said.

"You make me uncomfortable so that is why I am leaving." I said looking at John. He narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm going to good home. Austin I will text you later."

"Let me walk you out." Austin smiled at me. He put his arm over my shoulders and walked me out to my car. "I'm sorry about John."

"Hey it's okay. I handle jerks like him all the time, Austin." I smiled reaching up and placing my hand on his cheek. He rested his cheek into my hand.

"Let me know when you get home." Austin whispered

"I will." I gave him a hug and he opened my car door and helped me get into the driver seat. He carefully shut my door and I started the car and slowly backed out of the driveway



I jumped onto my bed after removing my clothes and plugging in my cell phone. I felt too lazy to wipe off my makeup and I definitely did not want to put any other clothes on.

"To Austin: I'm home." I sent Austin a quick text and placed my phone back on the bed. I didn't know how long it would take for his to answer but he shortly sent a reply.

"From Austin: I'm glad you made it home safe babe."