I almost had a mini panic attack when I realized that he was here. Holy shit. I looked at myself one more time, and walked out into the kitchen to grab some water before I passed out. Lily went and answered the door, and I heard that beautiful voice echo through the house. Putting my nervousness behind me, I walked out of the kitchen and smacked right into Austin's chest.

"You must have a problem with running into me, huh?" Oh my god, his voice was so sexy.

"Ha ha ha, very funny. No, I'm just extremely clumsy and oblivious. Would you like something to drink?"

I asked in a shaky, but polite voice.

"No, I'm fine. Are you ready to get unpacking?"

"Yep." I tried to be sexy as I smiled at him, but I think it just made me look like an idiot. We walked out to my car, and he grabbed almost all of my boxes with absolutely no effort. It was hard for me to carry a fucking suitcase and a box.

"It's pretty sad that you have a nicer car than me. What are you, a drug dealer or something?" He asked me, causing me to blush.

"Um, no. Do I look like a drug dealer to you? My grandfather is the creator of PopTarts. I can get you free poptarts if you want." He looked at me like I was fucking crazy.

"Poptarts, huh? Interesting. You're very interesting, Kena." I'm interesting? I guess that's a good thing, right? We walked back up the the house, and began to take things out of the boxes. I had so many clothes, it was ridiculous. Clothing is really the only possession I had.

"You really don't have to sit here and unpack all of my clothes. I actually just got an email that says we can go pick up the furniture. That's where we could use your help."

"Alrighty, but how the hell are we going to fit furniture in your little sports car?" Austin asked with a smirk.

"Don't look at me like that, jerk. Lily has a truck. We'll have to make a few trips tho. We ordered a couch, television, coffee table, two beds, two night stands, and two dressers. Basically the entire house is waiting for us at IKEA right now."

"Well shit. Must have a lot of money to be able to order all of that at once."

"I've been saving up for this day for an extremely long time, actually. Since I was 15 to be exact. That's when Lily and I decided that we would move in together." Again, I was explaining myself way too much. Hopefully he didn't mind.

"Why do you seem to hate where you lived so much?" As soon as he spoke those words, I tensed up. I felt one of my crazy anxiety/panic attacks start. Deep breathing, Kena, deep breathing. Remember what Ms. Rosa told you. Count to ten and keep breathing. God damn it, nothing that therapist ever told me worked. Counting just made me more anxious and I couldn't breathe. I needed a drink.

"Excuse me." I muttered as I pushed past the much taller man. I didn't get to far, because I wasn't looking where I was going and ran smack into the door. When the fuck did the door get closed?

I woke up on a bed in my room. Holy shit, how long was I out for? Obviously long enough for Austin and Lily to get all of the furniture. My room looked beautiful. The whole house is beautiful really. Old Victorian style, with intricate windows and all of the rooms painted pastel colors. Mine happened to be my favorite color, pastel lavender. The hallway was a dark, shiny wood. The bathroom and kitchen tiles were a perfect pearly white. In both Lily and I's bedrooms were fluffy white carpets. It seriously looked and felt like fur. It was beautiful, and that's basically why we bought the house. It was our dream house, and we didn't even have to paint! I didn't even notice Austin sitting next to me on the bed while I was daydreaming. Am I really that oblivious?

"You like how we set up your room, Sleeping Beauty? Or did you forget who I am when you smacked your pretty little head?" He looked at me genuinely with his cute puppy dog eyes.

"It's beautiful, Austin."

"Just like you." Again, making me blush. This man will be the death of me.

"Well when you're done blushing, would you like to go get something to eat? Get to know each other a little better?" Woah, woah, woah. I think he's asking me on a date.

"Like as a date?" What the hell, I didn't even mean to ask that. I really can't keep my thoughts in my head.

"Of course. We'll bring Lily home some food. She's napping right now."

"Alright, let me use the restroom first. Meet me at the car."

"Gotcha." He said with a wink. Awe, that was adorable. As he walked out of the room, I couldn't help but look at his ass. It was nice.

As soon as I got up, there was a horrible throbbing sensation in my head. I rubbed my forehead gently, and of course, there was a bump. Damn being clumsy. I carefully walked to the bathroom, fluffed my hair up a bit, and put some powder on the bump. At least it wasn't red anymore, but you could still see it. I took and aspirin, and out the door I went. After a little bit of bickering, I let Austin drive my car. I've only let Lily drive her three times. She's like my baby. Austin's actually a really good driver. I'm glad there's at least two good drivers in California.

We pulled up to Panda Express, which just happened to be my favorite restaurant. It took me by complete when Austin linked his hand with mine. I looked at him, and his crooked smile made me blush, as always.

I lost count of how many different times I have blushed today. He just chuckled at me as we walked to the door. We both ordered sweet and sour chicken on top of fried rice. Sweet, he liked the same thing as me. Maybe we actually have a lot in common. To think that I had a lot in common with this gorgeous man made my mind go crazy.

Maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit. I think I'm pretty, but I thought he would latch onto Lily as soon as he saw her. She has more of a cute little baby face than I do. I lost my baby face by the time I was 16. I thought it was a bad thing, until I was able to sneak into bars. No one ever questioned me. Hell, everyone thought I looked 21. I wasn't complaining.

We sat in a booth all the way in the back of the building. He pulled my chair out for me, like a true gentleman. This was starting to feel like a dream.

"So, maybe now I can ask you since you're conscious. Why did you hate where you lived before?" I felt anxious again, but I took a drink of my sweet tea and calmed down before I spoke.

"Well, do you want the entire story, or just the short one?"

"The whole thing, love. I want to know everything about you." Awesome, he wants to know everything.

He'll be running out of this place in a matter of two minutes then.

"Well, I lived with my mother and my father. My father abused drugs for as long as I can remember. I ended up trying a cigarette because of him leaving one out, but I never got into drugs and I never intend to. My mom let the money go to her head. She only cares about herself and her money. So you can imagine what my life was like. I was basically forced to grow up early. Of course, my dad raping me at the age of thirteen made me grow up a lot. I knew what he was doing wasn't right, and my mom did jack shit when I told her about. So, I had to tell my teacher and she called the cops. He's in jail for another five years. The bastard should stay there for the rest of my life for taking that innocence from me. But anyway, that doesn't matter too much to me anymore. He doesn't deserve me talking about him right now. How's the chicken?" I asked him nonchalantly while looking down at my untouched bowl.

"I'm speechless. I'm so sorry, Kena. You deserved a better childhood than that. I swear to God, if he ever even tries to come near you, I'll break his fucking neck." Wow, defending me already?

"Well, thanks, but it's okay. I already have a restraining on him. If he comes near me, he's going to jail for ten more years. He may be a druggie pervert, but I don't think he's that stupid."

"Just know that I'll protect you from anything. Kena, I don't know why but I just feel like I have some kind of connection with you."

"So me spilling coffee on you created a connection?" I laughed, but he wasn't laughing. He was being serious.

"I'm serious Kena. I really like you, despite your past. I want to make your future a million times better." I've never seen someone be so serious in my entire life. This was so weird. The only person who ever showed this much emotion to me was Lily. It was kind of scary, really. I'm really bad with expressing my feelings.

"I'd love that." I don't know how I said that. All I wanted to do was run away and hide in a corner.

He stood up, pulled me up by my hand, and kissed me. I was so stunned, that I just stood there for a few seconds before I let my lips melt into his. This was my first real kiss, to be honest. I would never kiss people I had sex with. I at least wanted to keep something, since my virginity was already ripped away from me. It felt so natural. His lips were so soft. He pulled away, but I wasn't having that. I put my arm around his neck, and pulled him in for a second kiss. This time, it was little more rough, but Austin pulled away.

I made a whining noise, and he whispered in my ear, "We can't just make out in the middle of the restaurant, silly."

So, we decided to get the food to go, keeping in mind to get Lily some food. We listened to some Tool as we drove back to the house. My second favorite band. I was surprised when he started to sing the words. He was a beautiful singer. I was way too nervous to sing in front of him. Not even Lily has heard me sing before.

It only took about fifteen minutes to get back home, and I saw Lily sitting outside, sniffing some kind of flower.

"Kena, look! There's lavender growing in the back of the house. I guess Mother Nature knows that you live here, huh?" I giggled at her cute five year old voice she always uses.

"I guess so."

We walked back into the house with big handfuls of lavender, which we put into vases throughout the entire house. It smelled wonderful.

"Would you like to watch some movies or something?" I asked Lily and Austin.

"Actually, I'm gonna go to Dave's for a bit. He's making my favorite dinner tonight and has a "special surprise" for me." She said, making air quotes at the special surprise. I knew what that surprise was, and realized that it was sex, of course.

"I'm down." Austin said with his cute little crooked smile.

"Go take the pillow and throw blanket off of my bed, we'll use that and just sit on the couch." I said as he practically ran to my room. I laid down on the couch, not giving him any room.

"Care to more over a bit? I'd like to sit down too."

"Nope, you're not allowed to sit. You have to cuddle with me."

"Challenge accepted." He said as he wedged himself between me and the couch.

"Uh, no. I get the inside. I hate having the outside, because I can't see the television."

"You sure are difficult, aren't you?"

"Yep." I said as I rolled over on top of him. I didn't want the inside of the couch. I just wanted to lay on him. I knew I couldn't tho, so I started to roll over, but he held me on top of him and kissed me passionately. Oh god, maybe he does just want sex. He skillfully ran his tongue on my bottom lip, begging for entrance. I let him in, and we explored each other's mouths for a few seconds when my hand traveled it's way up his shirt. He stopped kissing me and looked into my eyes.

"You know, we haven't even put in a movie yet."

"I know, and I don't care." I said, trying to sound sexy.

"Well then. I want to watch a movie. Kena, I like you. I want to be with you. I know a million guys have probably told you this before, but I'm actually being serious. I don't just want to be a one night thing. I'm not like most guys that just want sex. Sure, I was like that before, but I don't want that anymore. I'm tired of living like that. I'm almost 23, I just want a girlfriend. I hope that's okay with you. Can I just cuddle the hell out of you and hold you while you sleep?"

"Austin, you honestly don't know how much that means to me. I've never actually had a real boyfriend before. I don't want one night stands anymore."

"I've never had a real girlfriend before. Kenadee, will you be my first girlfriend?"

Holy. Shit. Austin just asked me to be his girlfriend. Maybe this really is just a dream.

WAKE
THE
FUCK
UP.