Oh, Catastrophe...
Past & Present.
Belle woke up next morning to an empty bed and assumed Shayley had already left the bus and into his meet and greet. She sighed deeply to herself before leaving the bunk she was currently in and started to look through her bag, in hopes of finding her laptop, thing that she did because she never traveled without it, and after that, she decided to take her one person party to the back lounge.
Belle make herself the most comfortable she could in the back lounge sofa and started scrolling for a while through her personal accounts, replying a few tweets, mostly from Dayshell fans as well as OM&M, they knew her before shit blew up and they didn’t quite know what had happened, but they sure had a lot of theories, which when Shay left the band and made his relationship with Gaby public, only intensified.
A smile lit up her face when she saw how her brother had replied to her messages, even though Belle didn’t spoke to her parents since 2 years ago, that didn't meant her brothers would apply the silence treatment too. She threw her head back after seeing the baby photos from her brother’s kids, she could be a little more close to her family but this was just how things were now.
“Really? And with what money are you doing that?” her mom shouted at her, she was beyond pissed because her daughter of 20 years, had just told her she was dropping college and going away to California.
Her mom was beyond pissed and her father just stared at her, a look of dissapointment written on his face, they believed she was making a mistake and that she was stupid for throwing away her studies just like that for what they called a stupid dream that was never going to come true.
“With my own money, believe it or not mom!!” Belle hissed “I saved some money for when this day would come. I don’t want college I wanna try and do what I love.”
“And you can’t do that and college at the same time!? Realize you need to do something productive with your life! You won’t hold on with your pity savings for even a month there!”
She had proven her mom wrong, but at what cost? After she left her house, her mom didn’t tried to contact her, she was seriously mad at her. Belle couldn't leave right ahead because she was waiting for her visa to leave, so stayed with her sister until everything was ready, and she could leave to California. She had everything planned by now, with Austin's help, of course, she was gonna stay with Tino's girlfriend until she found her own home, but Jennifer had told her millions of times she could stay with her. After all she and Belle were really close, almost sisterly close but she couldn't take more space from Jenn, since Tino stayed with her whenever he was in OC.
So, Belle left her country into this wild adventure that was waiting for her in California a Tuesday and before she did that, she left her mom a message with her address and phone number. Belle was convinced there was a way to fix things, after all she was her mom, and Belle was her daughter, her youngest daughter. But her mom didn’t care, her sister told her she had not mentioned anything about her since she had left. But when her sister Alicia called her for her nephew’s 10th birthday, she when down there… with Austin.
“Seriously, Gabrielle?” her mother asked “a heavily tattooed man with piercings? You do know how to choose them.”
Belle groaned, rubbing her temples. She was starting to believe coming here was a huge mistake, after all she was in no humor what-so-ever to listen to her family and by family, I mean her mom, nagging her about none other less than Austin. Belle knew that if she didn’t get shit for being away all this time she would get shit somehow. So she convinced her best friend, aka ‘the boy she had a crush on’ to make her company and at the same time meet her family.
BIG MISTAKE.
“First, he is not my boyfriend. He is my friend and second of all, you close minded… argh!”
“Oh please, Gabrielle this is a kid’s party and you just brought this guy who is totally awful and honestly, it’s just plain scary.”
“He’s more scared of you! You’re judging him and… and…” she panted, she was having a panic attack any second now.
“Calm down,” her sister said, from behind the two women’s “Marcos is asking for his aunt.” Belle nodded and left her sister talking to her mom, and the last thing Belled heard was the word ‘dissapointment’ from her mother’s mouth. She was seriously crushed, so, she was just gonna say goodbye to her nephews and then find Austin to leave.
She started to look for his nephew when he heard him laughing his ass off along with Austin snorts. And what she saw was fucking priceless…
Austin was wearing a clown wig, some big green shades and a red nose, while making a kind of show for the kids. Her youngest nephew Adrian was on his hip and laughing at the tall man trying to take his chain away from him.
Belle giggle softly and covered her mouth, just as Austin make eye contact with her, grinning and sending a wink to her.
“He’s a good boy,” her sister said next to her watching the scene in front of them, she then turned to look at Belle and said “I love you, sis. Just let mom get used to it, she will come around it, maybe…”
Belle shook her head, and started at the image in front of her, she couldn't help but to wonder what it would be like, to have that kind of bond with him, a life with kids, with Austin by his side... she took as much strenght as she could manage, blinked the threatening tears away and told Alicia with the biggest honesty she could ever said,
“No, she won’t.”
Belle and her mother had not spoken since that weekend, she tried to call her when she had the accident but it only made everything worse, she couldn't even say to her she was in the hospital before she asked "Are you done playing with that boy? Did you finally came to your senses?" And even though she was mad at Austin, what her mother said, only upset her even more, so she hang up and didn't try to call again.
“Baby?” Shayley called for her, abruptly taking her mind away from the thoughts. “What’s wrong?” he asked but she just shook her head softly, closing her laptop and passed Shay in her way to the bathroom.
“I’m getting a shower.”
Austin took more gel into his hand and applied it on his hair, trying to stylize it a little bit. He was wearing an OMandM shirt and a blazer with some black skinny jeans and a pair of black converse as well, what by now, had become his usual attire when he was performing.
He was done by the time Alan started to bang on the bathroom door. Austin groaned and opened the door to his ginger friend leaned against the bunks typing in his phone too immerse in the messages to see Austin had left the bathroom and just yelled again.
“Austin, c’mon! She’s not banging you anyways!” Alan chuckled and his friend punched him slightly but with force in his arm muttering an “Idiot.”
He started to walk out of the bus with Alan right behind him. Austin could not put away the idea he needed to impress Belle tonight, he needed to give that extra boost even more than he always used to. He was nervous, it was like a time bomb was about to explode and he couldn’t do anything to prevent it, cause he just didn’t wanted to, he wanted to feel the way he was feeling, maybe it was a little masochistic but damn, he just loved it.
“Has anybody seen my picks?” Alan asked as he tried to look between the cushions of the sofa from the backstage. “I deny to go on stage without them!” he said like a diva, to which Austin just chuckled.
“Dude, you’re worse than a girl, did you knew that?”
“Of course,” Alan replied “No girl can compare to Alan Ashby, you hear that hoe’s!” he yelled in her best girly imitation which wasn’t difficult by the way,
“Hey, Gabs” someone said and Austin snapped his head way too fast to look where she was, he inhaled sharply, he, for a brief moment, thought he had died and went to heaven, she was there standing in all her glory, so beautiful and wearing this little short black dress with some black boots. He chuckled thinking of all the times she had refused to wear a dress because he would, shamesly, look at her legs and even let his eyes linger on her butt more than necessary.
“Seriously, Bee?” Tino asked Belle with a smile from ear to ear, sharing Austin set of thoughts, but in a more friendlier way.
“Yeah, seriously.” Belle huffed “I was wearing some jeans and a t-shirt but one of the boys dropped a monster on me, so outfit ruined and the last thing I’ve had before laundry was this dress—STOP LAUGHING, TINO!”
Tino started to laugh even harder, causing everyone to join him, there was just something about his laugh that was very contagious. Belle blew the hair that was sticking to her face and turned around to meet Austin eyes. She swallowed hard, what the hell was she supposed to do now? Thankfully Phil came to the rescue, of her own mind, and ask her if she wanted a tour to which she nodded her head yes.
They were walking through the venue, not paying attention to anything in particular, Belle was just glad she had bought herself some time to think and Phil was thinking what to eat for dinner, along on how to bring up the subject to Belle.
“Look, I know how everything is going on with Shay, but you need to know something.” Phil spoke, making Belle to stop walking and turn her attention to his friend. “Austin; He misses you, Bee.” Phil said making Belle nod.
Phil and Belle were really close, mostly because Phil was the only one to match Belle when it came to play videogames and Phil was well, Phil.
“And I miss him too,” she mumbled, being this the first time she admitted that. “It’s just hard you know?” she sighed “I know what happened isn’t his fault, I know, it’s just…”
“Unfinished business,” Phil ended for her and she nodded.
“I just need time, I can’t forgive him so easily and I just—dammit! This is too hard,” she sniffed “I want things to go back as they use to be and at the same time... I don’t.”
“What happened after you ditched the hospital?” Phil suddenly asked, making her frown.
“W-what are you talking about?” Belle asked. She had never left the hospital, she was there and the only one to visit her was Shay, she had believed they ditched her after her outburst. She was about to ask Phil, but Alan arrived messing with Belle’s hair and making her miss her idea.
“You’re here!? Are you staying!? Is that a dress what you’re wearing?”
“Yes, I am.” Belle said closing her eyes, cursing Raul for throwing his drink on her.
“Great!” Alan said cheerfully and as Belle took a seat by the amplifiers, the band started their final sound check, this was already stuff she was familiarized by now, see if the microphones were working, the amps, the drums, see the lighting, work with the tech on it… basically prepare a show for what it was prom.
Basically.
Belle was bored, so she decided to take her phone out and scroll through twitter and there were a few mentions of her most of them were about her co-workers asking her if she had done her web-isode, asking her if she could give them some material considering she was the only one working on “SxSw”. She started to reply messages, tried to work on her questions for a band she was gonna have to interview randomly by her company and the photoshoot she had to do next month on "Skate & Surf".
“Belle?” someone asked behind her and she turned to see Oliver from Bring Me The Horizon, looking at her with a sheepish smile
“Oli!!” she jumped into his arms “my gosh, how—how’ve you been?” she asked staring conversation with her old british friend, she hasn’t see Oliver since Warped last year when she was there with Of Mice, Belle and Oliver bonded because they both had this incredible and weird taste in clothes which Belle enjoyed.
“Wow, modeling, huh?” Oli asked raising an eyebrow at her after she had told him of her new modeling career.
“Shut up, Sykes!” she blushed.
“Oh, c’mon!” he joked with her “I’m just fucking with ya, love. Listen I got to go, but call me, I might need you for a shoot and some ideas soon, okay?” Belle nodded and exchanged phones with Oli before they said their goodbyes for now.
“Catching up, huh?” she heard someone ask behind her and she turned around to see Austin smiling at her.
“Uh.. yeah” she nodded stuttering her words. “I haven’t seen that crazy asshole in a while,”
“Yeah, they have been asking me a lot about you.” Austin replied with certain sadness in his voice which Belle didn't missed to notice. They were alone, for the first time in weeks, this was his chance, he was gonna...
“Belle, I—”
“I’m hungry!” Belle spoke to stop him from talking and releasing ‘the talk’ “Can we go to eat something or do you need to stay to do the soundcheck?”
“Nope!” Alan said out of fucking nowhere “I’m good, I can go.”
“Yeah, me too” Phil said.
“Sorry, brothers, no can do. I need to fix this damn thing with Lionel.” Tino said from behind the drums “But bring me some, please!”
Belle chuckled and nodded, “So, let’s go?”
Austin didn’t miss to noticed how she evade him, he needed to find the right time for her to spat everything at him, he wanted to feel fine with her, not feeling that everything was just pretended, he would get his chance, soon. He would make sure of that.
Belle make herself the most comfortable she could in the back lounge sofa and started scrolling for a while through her personal accounts, replying a few tweets, mostly from Dayshell fans as well as OM&M, they knew her before shit blew up and they didn’t quite know what had happened, but they sure had a lot of theories, which when Shay left the band and made his relationship with Gaby public, only intensified.
A smile lit up her face when she saw how her brother had replied to her messages, even though Belle didn’t spoke to her parents since 2 years ago, that didn't meant her brothers would apply the silence treatment too. She threw her head back after seeing the baby photos from her brother’s kids, she could be a little more close to her family but this was just how things were now.
“Really? And with what money are you doing that?” her mom shouted at her, she was beyond pissed because her daughter of 20 years, had just told her she was dropping college and going away to California.
Her mom was beyond pissed and her father just stared at her, a look of dissapointment written on his face, they believed she was making a mistake and that she was stupid for throwing away her studies just like that for what they called a stupid dream that was never going to come true.
“With my own money, believe it or not mom!!” Belle hissed “I saved some money for when this day would come. I don’t want college I wanna try and do what I love.”
“And you can’t do that and college at the same time!? Realize you need to do something productive with your life! You won’t hold on with your pity savings for even a month there!”
She had proven her mom wrong, but at what cost? After she left her house, her mom didn’t tried to contact her, she was seriously mad at her. Belle couldn't leave right ahead because she was waiting for her visa to leave, so stayed with her sister until everything was ready, and she could leave to California. She had everything planned by now, with Austin's help, of course, she was gonna stay with Tino's girlfriend until she found her own home, but Jennifer had told her millions of times she could stay with her. After all she and Belle were really close, almost sisterly close but she couldn't take more space from Jenn, since Tino stayed with her whenever he was in OC.
So, Belle left her country into this wild adventure that was waiting for her in California a Tuesday and before she did that, she left her mom a message with her address and phone number. Belle was convinced there was a way to fix things, after all she was her mom, and Belle was her daughter, her youngest daughter. But her mom didn’t care, her sister told her she had not mentioned anything about her since she had left. But when her sister Alicia called her for her nephew’s 10th birthday, she when down there… with Austin.
“Seriously, Gabrielle?” her mother asked “a heavily tattooed man with piercings? You do know how to choose them.”
Belle groaned, rubbing her temples. She was starting to believe coming here was a huge mistake, after all she was in no humor what-so-ever to listen to her family and by family, I mean her mom, nagging her about none other less than Austin. Belle knew that if she didn’t get shit for being away all this time she would get shit somehow. So she convinced her best friend, aka ‘the boy she had a crush on’ to make her company and at the same time meet her family.
BIG MISTAKE.
“First, he is not my boyfriend. He is my friend and second of all, you close minded… argh!”
“Oh please, Gabrielle this is a kid’s party and you just brought this guy who is totally awful and honestly, it’s just plain scary.”
“He’s more scared of you! You’re judging him and… and…” she panted, she was having a panic attack any second now.
“Calm down,” her sister said, from behind the two women’s “Marcos is asking for his aunt.” Belle nodded and left her sister talking to her mom, and the last thing Belled heard was the word ‘dissapointment’ from her mother’s mouth. She was seriously crushed, so, she was just gonna say goodbye to her nephews and then find Austin to leave.
She started to look for his nephew when he heard him laughing his ass off along with Austin snorts. And what she saw was fucking priceless…
Austin was wearing a clown wig, some big green shades and a red nose, while making a kind of show for the kids. Her youngest nephew Adrian was on his hip and laughing at the tall man trying to take his chain away from him.
Belle giggle softly and covered her mouth, just as Austin make eye contact with her, grinning and sending a wink to her.
“He’s a good boy,” her sister said next to her watching the scene in front of them, she then turned to look at Belle and said “I love you, sis. Just let mom get used to it, she will come around it, maybe…”
Belle shook her head, and started at the image in front of her, she couldn't help but to wonder what it would be like, to have that kind of bond with him, a life with kids, with Austin by his side... she took as much strenght as she could manage, blinked the threatening tears away and told Alicia with the biggest honesty she could ever said,
“No, she won’t.”
Belle and her mother had not spoken since that weekend, she tried to call her when she had the accident but it only made everything worse, she couldn't even say to her she was in the hospital before she asked "Are you done playing with that boy? Did you finally came to your senses?" And even though she was mad at Austin, what her mother said, only upset her even more, so she hang up and didn't try to call again.
“Baby?” Shayley called for her, abruptly taking her mind away from the thoughts. “What’s wrong?” he asked but she just shook her head softly, closing her laptop and passed Shay in her way to the bathroom.
“I’m getting a shower.”
Austin took more gel into his hand and applied it on his hair, trying to stylize it a little bit. He was wearing an OMandM shirt and a blazer with some black skinny jeans and a pair of black converse as well, what by now, had become his usual attire when he was performing.
He was done by the time Alan started to bang on the bathroom door. Austin groaned and opened the door to his ginger friend leaned against the bunks typing in his phone too immerse in the messages to see Austin had left the bathroom and just yelled again.
“Austin, c’mon! She’s not banging you anyways!” Alan chuckled and his friend punched him slightly but with force in his arm muttering an “Idiot.”
He started to walk out of the bus with Alan right behind him. Austin could not put away the idea he needed to impress Belle tonight, he needed to give that extra boost even more than he always used to. He was nervous, it was like a time bomb was about to explode and he couldn’t do anything to prevent it, cause he just didn’t wanted to, he wanted to feel the way he was feeling, maybe it was a little masochistic but damn, he just loved it.
“Has anybody seen my picks?” Alan asked as he tried to look between the cushions of the sofa from the backstage. “I deny to go on stage without them!” he said like a diva, to which Austin just chuckled.
“Dude, you’re worse than a girl, did you knew that?”
“Of course,” Alan replied “No girl can compare to Alan Ashby, you hear that hoe’s!” he yelled in her best girly imitation which wasn’t difficult by the way,
“Hey, Gabs” someone said and Austin snapped his head way too fast to look where she was, he inhaled sharply, he, for a brief moment, thought he had died and went to heaven, she was there standing in all her glory, so beautiful and wearing this little short black dress with some black boots. He chuckled thinking of all the times she had refused to wear a dress because he would, shamesly, look at her legs and even let his eyes linger on her butt more than necessary.
“Seriously, Bee?” Tino asked Belle with a smile from ear to ear, sharing Austin set of thoughts, but in a more friendlier way.
“Yeah, seriously.” Belle huffed “I was wearing some jeans and a t-shirt but one of the boys dropped a monster on me, so outfit ruined and the last thing I’ve had before laundry was this dress—STOP LAUGHING, TINO!”
Tino started to laugh even harder, causing everyone to join him, there was just something about his laugh that was very contagious. Belle blew the hair that was sticking to her face and turned around to meet Austin eyes. She swallowed hard, what the hell was she supposed to do now? Thankfully Phil came to the rescue, of her own mind, and ask her if she wanted a tour to which she nodded her head yes.
They were walking through the venue, not paying attention to anything in particular, Belle was just glad she had bought herself some time to think and Phil was thinking what to eat for dinner, along on how to bring up the subject to Belle.
“Look, I know how everything is going on with Shay, but you need to know something.” Phil spoke, making Belle to stop walking and turn her attention to his friend. “Austin; He misses you, Bee.” Phil said making Belle nod.
Phil and Belle were really close, mostly because Phil was the only one to match Belle when it came to play videogames and Phil was well, Phil.
“And I miss him too,” she mumbled, being this the first time she admitted that. “It’s just hard you know?” she sighed “I know what happened isn’t his fault, I know, it’s just…”
“Unfinished business,” Phil ended for her and she nodded.
“I just need time, I can’t forgive him so easily and I just—dammit! This is too hard,” she sniffed “I want things to go back as they use to be and at the same time... I don’t.”
“What happened after you ditched the hospital?” Phil suddenly asked, making her frown.
“W-what are you talking about?” Belle asked. She had never left the hospital, she was there and the only one to visit her was Shay, she had believed they ditched her after her outburst. She was about to ask Phil, but Alan arrived messing with Belle’s hair and making her miss her idea.
“You’re here!? Are you staying!? Is that a dress what you’re wearing?”
“Yes, I am.” Belle said closing her eyes, cursing Raul for throwing his drink on her.
“Great!” Alan said cheerfully and as Belle took a seat by the amplifiers, the band started their final sound check, this was already stuff she was familiarized by now, see if the microphones were working, the amps, the drums, see the lighting, work with the tech on it… basically prepare a show for what it was prom.
Basically.
Belle was bored, so she decided to take her phone out and scroll through twitter and there were a few mentions of her most of them were about her co-workers asking her if she had done her web-isode, asking her if she could give them some material considering she was the only one working on “SxSw”. She started to reply messages, tried to work on her questions for a band she was gonna have to interview randomly by her company and the photoshoot she had to do next month on "Skate & Surf".
“Belle?” someone asked behind her and she turned to see Oliver from Bring Me The Horizon, looking at her with a sheepish smile
“Oli!!” she jumped into his arms “my gosh, how—how’ve you been?” she asked staring conversation with her old british friend, she hasn’t see Oliver since Warped last year when she was there with Of Mice, Belle and Oliver bonded because they both had this incredible and weird taste in clothes which Belle enjoyed.
“Wow, modeling, huh?” Oli asked raising an eyebrow at her after she had told him of her new modeling career.
“Shut up, Sykes!” she blushed.
“Oh, c’mon!” he joked with her “I’m just fucking with ya, love. Listen I got to go, but call me, I might need you for a shoot and some ideas soon, okay?” Belle nodded and exchanged phones with Oli before they said their goodbyes for now.
“Catching up, huh?” she heard someone ask behind her and she turned around to see Austin smiling at her.
“Uh.. yeah” she nodded stuttering her words. “I haven’t seen that crazy asshole in a while,”
“Yeah, they have been asking me a lot about you.” Austin replied with certain sadness in his voice which Belle didn't missed to notice. They were alone, for the first time in weeks, this was his chance, he was gonna...
“Belle, I—”
“I’m hungry!” Belle spoke to stop him from talking and releasing ‘the talk’ “Can we go to eat something or do you need to stay to do the soundcheck?”
“Nope!” Alan said out of fucking nowhere “I’m good, I can go.”
“Yeah, me too” Phil said.
“Sorry, brothers, no can do. I need to fix this damn thing with Lionel.” Tino said from behind the drums “But bring me some, please!”
Belle chuckled and nodded, “So, let’s go?”
Austin didn’t miss to noticed how she evade him, he needed to find the right time for her to spat everything at him, he wanted to feel fine with her, not feeling that everything was just pretended, he would get his chance, soon. He would make sure of that.
Notes
Hai! I'm so excited.. writting, well editing, this chapter a lot of good ideas jumped to my mind! Be prepared for more soon! :DAnd leave me some love. c:
-dianna.
11/30/13