Congratulations

"Aight, ma. Right there...perfect." Snap.
When Austin's iPhone camera flash went off I pulled his comforter over me, hiding my sports bra and short shorts combo Austin wanted to catch so he can 'flex his girl on the book.'
"Please don't." I stated with a sigh, pulling the blanket over my head to get the sunlight out of my face.
But he only grinned, his fingers furiously pounding at his glass screen as he took a seat on his leather computer chair.

The night his mix tape dropped has come and go. He was no longer Austin Richard Post; he was Post Malone now. Two weeks after it dropped it literally skyrocketed on Soundcloud. He replaced band t-shirts with gold teeth; he replaced minimalist attitude with gold chains. But that was Austin, I came to realize that in the now almost 3 official months we had been dating. Austin switched up quicker than I could even realize. One day he was pulling out binders of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, the next he was spitting bars and filming music videos with girls who had a bigger ass than Nicki Minaj.

And who the fuck was I to stop him? This was Austin's dream, and he was going to achieve it as Post Malone or not. Whether it was going to be as Capture The Crown's new guitarist (he was very close, actually) or as a fucking rapper, Austin was meant to do something with music. Even his parents had figured that out the hard way when they realized he dropped out of community college without telling them.

I feared him blowing up most days. He's been looking for apartments in Los Angeles on craigslist and it eats me the fuck alive every time. I won't be able to leave for another 3 months; a whole 90 days. I would be without my boyfriend for 90 days. No court would ever allow me to leave the state to 'follow my boyfriend of 3 month's dream to become a rapper.' But, it was inevitable. He would leave, with or without me. This was his dream, after all. I had to do my best to follow him.

Besides, he followed my now budding makeup tutorial videos on YouTube, and that's literally the most ridiculous thing in the world. It's the least I could do.

Austin's phone rang, taking me out of my own thoughts. I ran my wrists for a hair tie, throwing my mane in a messy bun as he answered it. "Yeah?"
I never paid his phone calls any mind. Austin was literally the most pure and down to earth person anyone could meet. The word 'cheating' wasn't even in his vocabulary.
"Yeah?!" His crooked teeth poked out of his mouth, his full lips turning upwards as he jumped out of his chair. "Yeah, bet, bet, bet! No doubt. I can leave by next week.."

My head popped up, my eyebrow raised as Austin was literally spinning in his chair. He continued on his phone call, though, ignoring me as his mood went higher and higher. "Alright, bet."
"What happened?" I mused, now moving the covers off me so I could stand up.
"We're out, mama!" His smile was wide as he grabbed my body close to his. "This is it. We can leave next week, just you and me."

My heart sank in its place, something very apparent by the way he began to look at me. "What, baby? This is it! We've been talkin' about this. We can go! Sky can get us a hookup on a condo on the boulevard..."
I rolled my eyes. Right. SkyDoesMinecraft. I forgot that was Austin's best friend in the entire world. "Austin...you know I can't go."

There was a slight humor in my voice; a slight sign of disbelief because we just had fucking talked about this. He knew, just as much as I did, that I would not be able to leave the state of Texas because of my dumb ass underage drinking charge. He knew that he could either stay here in his house in Grapevine and I would be with him, or he could leave to Los Angeles and I'd go back to Carter's spare bedroom. These weren't hidden fucking choices, they were very much apparent. They were the elephant in the room that now came to light.

"I have 90 more days of keeping up my job before I can leave the state. The state of Texas will not let me leave so I can be a supportive girlfriend of a rapper to be. You know that."
He furrowed his dark eyebrows, as if this was something he couldn't comprehend. "Domi, we have to go..."
His voice was so low it shook my bones. It was never this low. "I can't, Austin. Not yet."
"We need to do this, though."
I shook my head. "No, you need to do this. This is your dream, baby boy. I'm just here for the ride."
His hand grabbed mine, pale skin against pale skin. "What if you get a transfer? There's a thousand fucking hotels out in Los Angeles. You can start looking now, you can go on craigslist and you can look."

His voice was pure panic now, just like the tears coming down my eyes. We both knew what had to happen, and we weren't ready to face it. Maybe this was bound to happen, and we were both to stubborn and too in lust to do anything about it. Maybe even too in love.

"Austin..."
"Please, Dominika. We fought so fucking hard, and for what?"
"A long distance relationship.." Even though they never worked out.
"I don't want to. I need to be with you, Dominika. I need you to ride this out with me, please."

And then came the words I never wanted to say in my life. "I can't."

----------------------------------------------------

"I'll Facetime you as soon as we hit the rest stop." Austin pulled my body into his, his 6'0 figure over watching my 5'5. He rested his chin on my head, an arm coming down to make sure we were as close as we could possibly be.

Today was the day. It had been 7 days since Austin got that phone call from Sky. It had been 7 days since he decided his music career was more important than me. It had been 7 days since I realized I was a selfish bitch, but maybe I was allowed to.

"Yeah, okay." I made sure to look at the grass and our shoes, not wanting to collide eyes. The crying had just fucking stopped, after all. "I'll probably be listening to Pierce The Veil, or something equally as emo."
He laughed, but not his usual hearty chuckle. This was empty, and it scared me just as much as this adventure we were about to embark on. "We're still together and strong, okay? Just as much as before. We can do 90 days. I'll see you in exactly 45 days when you come to visit, okay?"
I nodded, scared to say anything because of the giant lump in my throat.
"Please look at me, Dominika."

But I couldn't. I was going to spiral the fuck downwards as soon as he left and had to figure out how to make it look like I wasn't in 2 hours when we called. He was going to make me go through life alone and I wanted to fucking hate him for it. I couldn't look at him.

"Domi." He moved to his hands so he could grab my face, and in one swift motion moved it to look at him. I hated those blue fucking eyes. I hated that freckle on his face. I hated him for doing this. "Dominika, I love you. And I probably should've said it fucking earlier instead of in a corny ass song, but I love you. You somehow managed to rule my little ass world in a 5 month span of time, and I will never give that up. Do you understand me?"
And then, like the bitch I am, I broke down right there in the Texas heat. "I, love, you, so, much." Each word came out after a sob and a deep breath of air, making Jeff laugh by the car.
"This will work, Domi. I promise you."
"You made me promise you not to leave, and now you are."

Austin shook his head and took his hands away from my face to touch the back of his neck. After a few seconds, he unattached the gold chain that he only took off in the shower. He draped it around my own neck, fumbling with the clasp for a few seconds before attaching it. "I'm never going to leave you, do you understand?"

I made it 31 days without Austin Post before. This was just a little longer and more spaced out, but it had the added benefit of being in a relationship. Before we were just...friends, I guess. We could last. We had to. I gave up all my fucking facades for him. We would make it because we deserved to. We would make it because at the end of the day, we were hopelessly in love with each other.

I nodded, wiping my eyes before attaching my lips to his.

I was hopelessly in love with Austin Richard Post, and I would make this work until it fucking killed me.