Austin's pov:

"Hey, Daddy," Hazel's voice rang out softly from the kitchen, catching my attention. I didn't necessarily mean to eavesdrop, but I was to pissed to really care right now. And anyway, I was already leaning against the opposite side of the doorframe that led to the kitchen before she got on the phone.

I just wanted to see if she was actually going to eat the food I got her after she bitched about not having any. I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to bring her up some stuff, but I knew that the breakfast bar was closing and if Hazel didn't eat that, she wouldn't eat at all. I know her well enough to know she'd try to go without breakfast and we have an early rehearsal and stage set up time today so she wouldn't get much lunch either. And I think we all know that grumpy Hazel without food in her system is a disaster.

I don't need that today. I'm just trying to keep the peace. But will she be ungrateful enough to reject my offer? I'll be seriously pissed if she does because she has no reason to.

"How are you? Are things going okay?" Hazel asks, almost sadly. I grow curious on how things have been with her dad and just family in general. Her dad wasn't in the best shape when I met him. "That's good," Hazel sighs. "Yeah, I'm good, too. No no, tour has been great."

I wish I could hear what her dad was saying on the other end so I could put together the missing pieces of this conversation. "Alan's good, too," Hazel now laughs lightly. "I'll tell him you say hi."

I want to groan aloud, feeling a spark of jealous anger inside of me, knowing that Alan was at Hazel's long enough to become that close with her family, too. Deep down, I wish that was me. But I bet her family just hates me now.

"Uh, he's.. He's good, I guess.." Hazel's words now have my ears perking up at her hesitation. Was she talking about me? Did he ask about me? Why would he? "Dad, no.. I mean, I just don't think that's a good idea-" my eyebrows furrow together at her stressed sigh. "Dad.. No, he's here.. but- Fine."

She groans and then I listen closely enough to hear her footsteps start to make her way across the kitchen. I quickly push away from the doorframe and dart over to my bed to pretend like I was not eavesdropping at all.

Hazel stops in front of me and holds her phone out, giving me a sour look. "My dad wants to talk to you," she grumbles, upset at the fact. Instantly, I grow confused, opening my mouth to respond, but she cuts me off. "Don't ask me why because I don't know. He's just adamant on talking to you."

I'm hesitant, but I nod, reaching to grab her phone from her, letting my hand brush against her soft skin as I did. I clear my throat before speaking. "Hello?" I ask into the phone, looking at Hazel who was watching me with her arms crossed. I raise an eyebrow at her, giving her a look that somehow got my message of 'are you just going to stare at me the whole time?' across. She huffed and let her hands slap against her thighs before stomping into the kitchen again.

"Is this Austin?" I barely recognize the sound of her father's voice, but as soon as I do hear it, it reminds me of the time I met him.

"Yeah, this is," I stutter, still trying to understand why he wanted to talk to me and a little nervous at what he might say.

"You remember me, son?"

"Of course I do," I state, hearing shuffling and other voices in the background.

"Do you remember the promise you made to me?" He asked and this time, I didn't have an answer. I was quiet for a moment, knowing that I'd feel guilty with my response. "You promised me you'd take care of my baby girl."

I gulped, my throat dry and scratchy as he spoke. I remembered that exact moment now. I remember when he gave me his pocket watch that I still have in my bag because I couldn't seem to just toss it in a drawer at home. I couldn't.

*
"I love her, Sir."

He smiled at how quickly I said that, standing up out of his chair after. He went back over to the same drawer he pulled the picture out of, but this time after a lot of searching, he pulled out out something a lot bigger. When he came back over to me I noticed the golden chain dangling out of his hand. "Lily gave this to me on our anniversary, a month before she got diagnosed."

He slid his hand into mine and I felt the coolness of the object be transferred onto my palm. But once it was in my hand, he didn't let go, just met my eyes again. "Don't let her go, Austin. Don't make the same mistakes I did."

I was a little taken aback by how his words hit me. Not because they scared me, but because afraid of making a mistake with Hazel. I know I never want to let her go, but I've messed up before, haven't I?

Mr. Hendrix had turned to walk away from me and was about to walk out of the room in all of the time it took me to snap out of my thoughts and look at what was in my hand. It was a golden pocket watch that had roman numerals for numbers and glimmered under the small light. It was amazing and made my head spin when I realized this was his version of a blessing. Holy shit.

"Oh and Austin," Mr. Hendrix stopped to turn around to face me again, catching my attention. "I'm not getting any younger or anymore sane and one day I might not be here anymore," he started, his seriousness catching up to me. "...Just promise me you'll take care of my baby girl."

"Of course.. I... Always, Sir," I stuttered, trying to express to him that everything would be okay.

He smiled, relief watching over him. "Call me Tom."

I returned his smile, nodding as I followed him out of the office, excited to go see Hazel again.
*
I wanted to know if he only wanted to talk to me so he could yell at me for breaking my promise. And in all honesty, I was afraid.

"I know things have been rough with you two and I know you broke her heart, but I still do know you're a good kid, Austin. And we both know I wouldn't be saying that unless I truly meant it, especially after you hurt my daughter," Mr. Hendrix continued, all of his words catching me off guard so much that my mouth was just dangling open. "But if you remember that promise you made me then you remember that I've made the same mistakes myself. But I wasn't given a chance to redeem myself like you were. So I need you to listen to me right now."

I was at the point where as much as I didn't want to listen, I was afraid to say anything because his voice was so intimidating. I felt like I was getting scolded by my father. Is that why Hazel gave me the phone? So she could have her father yell at me? Who the fuck would do that?

"You're going to keep your promise," he states like it's not up for argument. But I still open my mouth, barely getting out a sound before he cuts me off. "You are going to do this for me. You are going to make sure Hazel is happy. And when she's sad, you're going to make sure it's never for too long. You're going to stop her when she starts blaming herself for everything. You're going to make sure she doesn't feel responsible."

"Responsible for what?" Is the only thing I can think of to say. I'm left speechless on the topic of everything else. I almost want to tell him it's not my job, but I can't and I won't. Because maybe the real reason why I brought her up the food is because I have to take care of her. After doing that so much when we were together before, it's become a subconscious thing, even if we are nearly at war right now.

"Just promise me, son," Hazel's father says after a moment of silence. "I need you to do this for me."

"Why me?" I ask, my voice quiet. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take this situation.

Hazel's dad sighs into the speaker like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Because you're the best one to do it. And I know you will, even if you're not together."

"How do you know that?" I almost scoff.

"I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid," he says, calling me out for making him seems stupid. I didn't mean to, but he doesn't know what's been going on between the two of us. "Look, I don't have much time," his voice switches into a rushed tone. "If you don't want to do this for you, then do it for me."

"I-I.." What am I supposed to say? Lately I've been doing the exact opposite of taking care of Hazel, hell, I stopped a long time ago, but now I'm just supposed to start again? When we are on terrible terms and all I am is angry with her?

"I didn't have a second chance with Lily. I'd never want to change what I have now that led me to my children, but to this day I wish I could have been able to fix things. And I promise you, if it's already not, it will eventually haunt you, too...This is your second chance, son. This is your chance to fix things."

I'm stunned into silence at his words, battling back and forth between what I should do. I can't say no to him, there's no way.
I don't necessarily even have to even be near Hazel to make sure she's okay, I just have to be alert. I won't make her my world, but I won't let anyone else fuck up hers. I'm doing this for her dad, not her.

"I'll do it."

***

"What did he want? Did he say anything?" Hazel asks, seeming worried as I slide her phone back into her hand.

"No," I clear my throat. "He just wanted to know how I was," I lied, following her dad's request to keep the conversation between us.

Hazel gave me a weird look, but nodded, letting it go. "Great," she mumbled, pushing herself away from the counter.

I ignore her little remark, too busy thinking about the conversation I just had with her dad. "How is he doing?" I blurt out before I can even stop it. I just had to know. "Your dad."

Hazel looked behind her shoulder, stopping her walk to make sure she actually heard me right. For a moment, she just looked at me with angry confusion, but then sighed and crossed her arms. "He's in a mental hospital, if you must know," she grumbled. "So figure out how he's doing with that."

I watched as she turned and walked away, leaving me there a little stunned. I didn't even let her bitchy tone piss me off because well, for once, there were more important things at the moment. A mental hospital? He really has been doing that bad?

I felt a little bad that Hazel had to deal with all that, but after processing the information and realizing there was nothing I could do about it, I huffed and started to follow after her. She was sliding on a zip up jacket, her back to me. "I'd start packing if I were you," she spoke back to me. "We're meeting everybody in the lobby in 15."

Luckily, most of my stuff was on the bus so all I had was a small back that I just had to shove my phone charger into. Once we picked up the whole room of all our stuff, we both left, Hazel doing her best not to make eye contact with me.

But it wasn't until the elevator ride that it got really awkward. The silence was deafening and neither of us knew were to look or what to do with ourselves while we were crammed in this small space. There wasn't even elevator music for fucks sake.


Hazel's pov:

I honestly wasn't sure the elevator was ever going to get to the lobby, but when it finally dinged, I nearly ran out of that suffocating air. I don't know what was up, but the awkwardness has been at it's prime lately.

Getting into the lobby, most, if not everyone, was sitting and standing around. I quickly went up to the main desk to give them my keys and check out. After, I avoided eye contact with Austin as I moved out of his way, looking to find somewhere to wait.

I ended up meeting Alan's eyes, noticing the open spot next to him. He raised an eyebrow, as if asking if I wanted to come over, but without even a look back, I cut my gaze away from him and went to sit by my band.

I was still feeling hurt by him after having him betray me two times in a row. Plus, he never even texted me last night like I expected him to. Sure, it's not really that big of a deal, but we text nearly every night and I assumed he would at least try to make sure I was okay. But he didn't care. That's why he put made me room with Austin, even after I told him how I was feeling.

But I wish he had made sure I was okay because for the first time since I started to try and get better, I wasn't sure.

Notes

I AM HAVING SO MUCH WRITERS BLOOOOCK

Blah, so I have all my ideas planned out but I just don't know how to get there! Like I'm so busy and lazy lately that I haven't even been able to think about it but I wanted to get something up so I just came up with this! Ah! Updates might be a little slower because I'm going to be pretty busy this up coming week/weekend

But thank you all so much as always! Sorry if I'm letting you guys down with this story, I promise I'll do better soon! Almost to the good part!

<3