Austin.

Hours later we're finally done getting stuff moved into the room, and his bed is made so tonight he can sleep on that instead of my couch. We sat on the couch together and popped in a "Star Wars" movie. Lily's drinking so much wine, I can tell she's slowly getting drunk and not paying attention to the movie.
"This is your favorite part." I say, "Are you paying attention."
"Nope." She says. "I'm focused on other things, and I'm drunk." She states proudly, going to stand up, but she wobbles to the side and almost falls. I catch her quickly before she hits the ground. "Turn that thing off." she waves her arm around. I help her lay back on the couch, and do what she wishes. I turn to her laying on the couch with the most beautiful smile on her face, like always.
"What are you smiling at?" I ask, sitting on the floor beside the couch.
"You." She says turning onto her stomach and looking into my eyes. "Remember the time we fell in love?" She asks. "Do you remember Warped tour?" I feel a bit of sadness, because I do remember that so clearly. The night I knew I was in love with her. but I lie. I shake my head, because she's getting married in almost a week.
"We fell in love more than once." She mumbles on. "On top of the bus, and on stage, and when we moved in together to our house. We fell in love Austin and it was beautiful." She says rolling onto the floor laying her head on my lap. "We fell in love."
My heart was racing, and felt like it was in pieces. I feel tears stinging my eyes. This could have been my house. I could be marrying her in a week. I could kiss her on her lips right now like I was craving to. I wished I could take her in my arms right now, and kiss her passionately, and let her know that I was falling in love with her once again, but I wouldn't. Couldn't. I wipe the tears out of my eyes and pick her up with me.
"I think you should get some sleep." I say choking back more tears.
"Okay. You're right." she says. "I wish you'd remember." is the last thing she says before I get her into bed. She's already snoring softly, when I'm pulling the covers around her. I let the tears flow now, because I know she can't see them. I wished I was the one crawling into bed with her, holding her.
I wish I was holding her close to me, and kissing her head, as she slept in my arms. I missed my arm getting numb from her laying on it, and me not wanting to move her. And shivering at night because she stole all the blankets. I miss when she would kiss me, while being dead asleep, and not remember in the morning. I miss her kissing my head in the morning, before she'd get out of bed. I missed it all. All of the things I took for granted.
I forced myself to leave her room, and sleep alone. I cuddled up in my blankets and cried into them, like a child. I didn't know how long, but I seen morning light shining through the window, before I shut my eyes, and fell asleep.

Lily.

The light peaking in the window was hurting my eyes, before I even opened them. I reach behind me and feel a warm body next to me. I turn to Austin laying in bed with me, but when I open my eyes, Adam is laying in my bed. He moves a bit, and opens his eyes slowly. My heart is pounding.
"Surprise." He smiles, and I am surprised.
"Adam, what are you doing back so soon?" He yawns and starts sitting up. I feel a pounding headache coming on, but I want to hear this.
"Well, that's a great welcome back." He says sarcastically sitting up. "Well first off, I wanted to apologize for what I said over the phone. I wanted to come meet the guy. I had a day off so I decided to take the red eye hear, and I'll be catching it back tomorrow morning."
"Wow, I'm sorry." I say, leaning in to kiss him.
"I missed you muffin." He says, kissing my lips. "I've only been gone, what two days?" I giggle and kiss him while nodding, and then leading the kisses down his neck. "Now this is a better welcome home" he says as I kiss my way to his waist.

---

Austin.

When I wake up, I head straight to the shower. I needed to wash away feelings from last night. I needed to move on. When I got dressed I started making my way to the kitchen. I hear Lily, giggling and kissing. I feel a knot growing in my stomach. I realize it must be Adam, who else would she be kissing. I debate if I want to run back and hide in my room. I feel a frog in my throat as I approach.
"Hey Austin, this is Adam." She's smiling brightly, she looks aglow. I throw on my best smile and stick my hand out to greet him.
"I've heard so much about you." I say, wanting to vomit. "It's great to finally meet you." He shakes my hand firmly.
"Great, I've heard about you too." He says, but it doesn't sound friendly.
"I figured we could go out to dinner tonight, get to know each other better." Lily's sweet voice breaks our handshake apart thankfully.
"Yeah that sounds good." I say, I'm going to stand my ground. She was mine first. "I'm running to grab a few more things from my dad's I'll catch you guys later." I say smiling to Lily, and looking at him.
I didn't have anything else to get from my dads, but I couldn't stand the sight of that guy with his arms around Lily. I bet she didn't even remember what she said last night. I was glad to find my dad sitting at home.
"Hey Austin." He says when I walk through the door. He's sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper. "What's wrong son?" he reads my face.
"I don't know what to do." I confess sitting on the couch next to him. "Dad, I really love Lily. I have never felt like this, like I need her."
"Well, she's getting married Austin, you have to let her go if you really love her. Especially if she's happy."
"But I don't want to let her go. I love being friends with her, but seeing her with another guy... makes me sick."
"Let her go, and if she comes back to you, then it's meant to be, if she doesn't then you have to move on." I take his words in, and nod.
"You're right." I sigh sitting back.
"Always." He says with a laugh. I sit with him a little longer, texting lily to find out where we were going so I could meet them there at the restaurant.
A few hours later I'm meeting up with them, and I'm feeling pretty nervous. When I see Lily, I feel more calm. She waits for me at the door, wearing a tight skirt that hugs every inch of her perfectly. Her makeup and hair are perfect, like they always are. She lights up when she sees me. I lean in and hug her, before she says anything.
"Adam has a table for us." She says, grabbing my hand and leading me through the restaurant. Adam quickly jumps up to pull open a seat for Lily, helping her sit. Who said chivalry was dead? I sit closer to her. When we're finished ordering drinks Adam starts drilling me with questions. What I did, where I went, what I seen there. He seems to be amazed, when I tell him about each place I've been, the people I've met, and the things I've seen.
By the time dinner arrives I'm turning the questions, but I'm less amazed by his office work. I see his hand under the table, and quickly tune him out, wondering if his hand was resting on Lily's thigh under the table. She looked at him like she loved him, and I felt jealous. By desert we're finishing beards and Lily excuses herself to the ladies room.
"Listen Austin." Adam says as soon as she's out of range. "I know you probably think, because you're back, that she's going to just drop me for you. Don't even think about it. I'm marrying her, and if you didn't mean so much to her, I'd probably be kicking your ass right now for even agreeing to move in. " He looks around, and Lily isn't on her way back yet. "I know you think because you're a hot-shot in a band and all, that she's just going to come crawling back, but she loves me. I love her. You got that?" I'm fuming, I have a hundred nasty things I could say in my head to him but I just laugh in his face. He looks confused, but Lily, is now on her way back, so he doesn't say another word.
"Adam just told the funniest joke." I say to Lily, "I've got to run, ask him about the joke he just told. You'll laugh." I stand up, and before I turn to leave.
"Oh but Austin we were going out after, are you sure you don't want to come?"
"Yeah, thanks Lily. And thanks for dinner Adam." I say to him, his chin is touching the floor and the glare on his eyes, is burning holes through me. "I'm tired, so I'm just going to go home and sleep." I say smiling, and turning around, heading for the door.
When I get back to the house, I lay in bed and grab my lap top to watch a movie. I tried to focus but I couldn't. I kept thinking about how beautiful she looked, and how much I wanted to be with her. I must have fallen asleep somewhere along the way, because I was opening my eyes to the sound of Lily's voice in the hallway.
I quickly realized she was arguing with Adam, and I made my way to the door, putting my hear to it to get a better listen.
"Austin was my best friend." She's drunk, I can hear it in her voice. Of course this is about me. "Do you not trust me?"
"Lily, I trust you, but not him. What if he tries to get with you?"
"He won't Austin's not like that." She is defending me... that feels good. I keep listening.
"Well I don't know that."
"Adam, we're getting married, in almost a week. Can you just trust me on this? I know Austin better than anyone."
"Okay, Okay. But I'm trusting you, not him." He says sighing. I hear them kiss, and I hear her giggle, and then I hear her sigh.
"Not out here." She says, "I wouldn't want him to hear us." how considerate. I roll my eyes, just before I hear her moaning. I want to stop listening but that is one of the sweetest sounds, I listen to her sweet voice, but I realize this is wrong. I stick my headphones in, and drift back asleep to music.
The next morning, I don't want to get out of bed, but I force myself to. I figure I'll go to the beach and surf my problems away. I dig through boxes, to find my wetsuit and put it on. I find something small to eat in the refrigerator, and before I make my way out the door, Lily is making her way back in.
"Hey." She says, her sweet voice stopping me in my tracks. "Going surfing?" She asks. I nod, trying to avoid her eyes. "Mind if I join you at the beach?" She asks. I shake my head.
"Where's Adam?" I ask.
"He caught a flight this morning, he had off for the day, he won't be back until a few days before the wedding." She says looking confused. "He wanted to meet you."
"Oh." I say, dancing around on the inside. "Go grab your stuff." She grins and walks past me to her room. A few minutes later she's coming out in a dress and she's ready to go.
The beach was sunny warm and quiet today. A few people were tanning or swimming or walking their dogs. Lily and I set up our spot, towels and surf board ready. Lily, laid herself down on one of the towels. I looked at her confused.
"No water?" I asked.
"No... I always hated the ocean, what's out there? I sure as hell don't know."
"Exactly, I love the ocean. You should too." I laugh, and pick her up over my shoulder. She's yelling at me.
"Austin! Put me down! Come on! I don't want to swim!!" From anger to fear. "Okay! Okay! I can do it on my own! I don't want to go out far! Austin!" She's grasping onto me so tightly, but I'm laughing to hard to care. I drop us both into the cold water. Her eyes are huge and she rushes back to me, jumping in my arms.
"See everything alright." I say.
"It's freezing, and something touched my leg!" She says not letting go.
"Not that bad." I say.. She looks around me, nervously, like a child's first time in the ocean. The waves are slowly bobbing us up and down. I feel her grip loosening up.
"It's not." She says, a bit more confidence. "Not bad at all."
After a while she's on her own, splashing me, and playing around with me. I don't even get to surf. I'm to busy acting like a kid with her. I'm laughing and so is she. She heads back to her towel and sits on it, drinking some water. She hands me one, and lays back.
"Are you alright now?" I ask as she closes her eyes, on the towel.
"I need a nap." She says, she places her head on my lap, and shuts her eyes. I smile down at her, she was so beautiful all the time, but especially at times like this, no makeup, no hair done, but so beautiful. She looks up at me, and smiles. "Let's go home." I smile back, and just nod. She leaves me speechless.
"Now what?" I ask, when we get home.
"I don't know." She says. "I'm going to shower, and maybe we could get something to eat?"
"Okay." I smile, and follow her, but going to my own room.
"Hey Austin." She stops me. I turn around to face her. "Thank you." She says, "I needed some fun. Wedding stuff is stressful." She sighs and looks down.
"Why don't we go on vacation?" I say.
"Austin are you nuts?" she laughs.
"A little." I laugh too. "But seriously, let's go away. We can go anywhere, just for a few days, you need it." She looks away, clearly weighing out what to do. "Plus Adam's away, probably getting massages at a spa."
"Adam's on a business trip." She says folding her arms. "I guess for a few days... It'd be nice." she nods looking away. After a few minutes of debating, she nods. "Okay where?"
"Hm. Where else? Las Vegas." I say smiling. She smiles big too.
"Perfect." she says, before heading away into her room

Lily.

Going away on vacation in the midst of wedding week, I am feeling daring, but I do need a little vacation, even if it's just 3 days. I felt a little excited as I packed a few things. I did love Vegas. The last time I was there... was with Austin. I reminisce the time we had together, and I remind myself that I have Adam now.
"I have a limo awaiting to take us away." Austin says coming into the room. I just turn to look at him, his lightly freckled face, his brown eyes currently hidden away by sunglasses. I smile and nod, and grab my bag, and follow him out to the limo. We climb in and I wave goodbye to my house, time for relaxation. Austin hands me a glass of wine or champagne... I don't really care which, and I sip it. A weekend of relaxation. That's what I need. I need to get away from the chaos. I look at Austin, who looks to me and just smiles, and I just smile too.

Notes

Lily's look: Here