Of Mice and Men had a meet and greet event. I was standing in the back and I watched them while they greeted fans that cried and told them stories. It was beautiful to see and I almost teared up because of a few of the stories. They were so loved and people really cared for them. Austin glanced at me and he shot one of his beautiful smiles. I smiled back and crossed my arms, hugging myself a little and felt that he cared.

My phone buzzed and I answered without looking at the screen. I regretted it immediately when I heard him breathing.
"What do you want?" I spat and turned around so no one could see my scared face. I took a deep breath and waited for his answer.
"You have a pretty pink top today" he said and my heart dropped. How did he… fuck… he was here. I turned around and looked out over the crowd of people. Just scanning the place. Then I saw the familiar face. He had shave off his beard and he looked decent from the last time I saw him. He had jeans on, a black shirt and a dark red blazer. His hair was combed back and he had dyed it a little bit darker. Which of course made his grey eyes look silver. Any woman would have thought he was handsome. I could understand why my mother had fallen for him, and I saw a few of Austin’s fans looking at him and giggling.
"What the fuck do you want?" I hissed and glared at him.
"I want to talk" he said.
"What do you really want?" I asked.
"To talk" he said again and gave me a smile that would have melted my heart, but it didn’t. I hated him and I knew what he really was.
"Fine, where do you want to talk?" I said and I saw a grin on his face.

From: Essie
I have to go, I’ll meet you later

From: Austin
Where are you going?

From: Essie
I’m going to meet someone, I promise I’ll be back later

I saw that Austin looked at me and he frowned a little. He looked worried and he looked at my father when I walked away with him. Austin didn’t knew that it was my father. He had no idea what he looked like.

From: Austin
Please take care

- - -

Austin’s POV

I was really worried when she didn’t answer my texts and the meet and greet was over. The others noticed and asked what was wrong and I just shrugged.
"Essie is out meeting someone, and she doesn’t answer my texts" I said.
"You sound like the overattached boyfriend, but… I guess you should worry" Tino said. I looked at him and then I sighed. I was getting really worried.

When I got home and I opened the door I heard someone crying. I dropped everything and hurried inside and I saw her. She was in the bathroom and she trembling with fear. Her arm was messed up in cuts that bled and first I thought he had done it to herself. Then I noticed that she had pieces of glass in some of them. Some bigger, some smaller.
"What happened?" I asked and she jumped a little. She looked at me at then she shook her head.
"He got violent when I refused him money" she said.
"Who?" I asked.
"My father of course" she said and my heart dropped. She had met him? That man she had walked away with was him?
"Why did you walk away with him?" I asked and walked up to her, took a tweezer from her hand and started to take out the glass pieces. She winced a few times but she didn’t say anything. When I was done and couldn’t see anymore glass I started to bandage her up. No one of the cuts needed stitches, luckily for her. But she was pretty shaken up.
"So what happened?" I asked when I was done. She yawned and looked at me again.
"He wanted 30 million dollars, if he got that he would leave me alone… But I refused him that and he threw his glass at my arm" she whispered.

I stroked her back and she slowly fell asleep. Gently I rubbed my thumb under her eye and wiped away the tears that had formed. She had finally fallen asleep and calmed herself down, and I sighed. This was a lot. I already had a lot of drama in my life and now I had to handle hers as well? Was I ready for all this? Or should I end it before anything become serious?
fuck… I really had to think this through.