A few weeks had passed, and things had been nothing short of amazing. Things between Austin and I had only been getting better and it seemed like for once, all the drama of Warped Tour was finally behind us and in the past. There was nothing stopping us from going anywhere but up from here.

We spent Thanksgiving together. I had tried to make my first turkey and failed miserably. So we went out for sushi instead.

I had tried on numerous occasions to explain to Alan that Maddie didn’t like me. He wasn’t buying it no matter how many times I told him. I knew I was just going to have to confront her about it.

The first few weeks of December had brought a cold chill over Southern California and with it, the rush of Christmas shopping. I had no idea how much Austin love Christmas until he decorated his entire apartment top to bottom and mine too.

Austin was in the living room trying to wrap presents. I was watching him from the kitchen giggling as he struggled with the paper trying not to rip it and keep everything nice and smooth.

“You’re never going to be able to do it perfectly.” I said as the timer on the oven went off and I turned to take the cookies out.

“Fuck off!” He said with a laugh as my phone started ringing.

“Can you grab that?”

A moment later Austin was in the doorway holding the phone out to me, “It’s your mom.” He mouthed.

“Hello?” I asked placing the phone to my ear.

“Rae? I have bad news.”

“What? What is it?” I asked stumbling over my words.

“Nana died.”

The news hit me hard, so hard I stumbled a bit trying to take it in.

“What…?” I breathed.

“I know. I know this is hard for you to hear.”

“Mom, that can’t be right. I just talked to her on Thanksgiving. She was fine.”

“Rae, she died in a car accident. The funeral is going to be later this week.”

“I’ll be there.” I said shaking my head slowly. The tears started to fill my eyes the more I thought of it.

“I’m so sorry, Rae. Call me if you need me. I love you.”

I hung up the phone and slowly placed it on the counter. Austin was watching my every move slowly trying to piece together from my body language what was wrong.

I took in a large ragged breath, before bursting into uncontrollable sobs and falling into Austin’s chest, clinging to his t-shirt.

“Shhh, Rae. It’s alright. It’s alright.” He said smoothing my hair down and holding me to him.

Fist-fulls of his t-shirt I tried to make the words come out of my mouth so he knew what was wrong. He held me, not pressuring me to explain anything until my sobs had slowed and I was able to pull away from him and look into his deep brown eyes.

“My nana died.” I mumbled tearing up again.

“Raegan, come here.” He said pulling me back into him and letting me cry.

“The funeral’s this week. I have to go.”

“Is it in Vermont?”

I nodded slowly looking up at him.

“I’ll book us a flight right now.”

“Us?” I questioned as he headed for the living room where he had left his laptop.

“You didn't seriously think I’d let you go alone?” He said with a smile. “I want to be there for you.
Besides, I wanna meet your family and see where you grew up to.”

With that he opened up his MacBook and began typing away. I stood looking at him over the bar smiling through my tears that I had been fortunate enough to land someone as wonderful as him.