This Rebellion Has It's Cause

I drove back over to Max’s, silently kicking myself for not owning skinny jeans with deeper pockets. Why did Max have to text me right then?!

I pulled up to his apartment complex seeing Max waiting outside his door. I let out a huff of breath, I’m so tired of this; he’s so lucky I still have it in me to make sure he doesn’t run into trouble. Once we were face to face he invited me inside.

“Alright Tristan, tell me what you think is so bad about Darby?”

“She’s the biggest cheater of all time for starters, but not like that would bother you.” I accused with a shrug.

“Really Trist? You’re going to hold that against me? What did you want me to do? You never put out.”

My jaw dropped as I snapped, “Really?! You thought that was a good reason to go fuck somebody else?”

“Well I didn’t buy the bullshit reason you gave me. I know you’re not the ‘wait till marriage type girl’ Tristan.”

“Oh I’m glad you know me so damn well Max, I wanted to make sure who ever I slept with was someone that I was madly in love with.” I explained, regretting coming here.

“So you are saying that you were never really in love with me?”

“Now that I think about it, no I wasn’t.” I retorted.

“Yea, that because you’ve always wanted Austin, but you were to chicken shit to do anything about it.” He muttered under his breath, but I definitely heard it.

“What? Would you mind running that by me again?” I growled with clenched teeth, Austin had nothing to do with what Max did.

“Are you blind? You’re obsessed with him, you only dated me because he was with Stacey and you thought you could never have him! Be honest with me Tristan, with yourself!”

I shook my head slowly in disbelief; it wasn’t like that I had truly liked Max at first… Wait, at first? I shook my head again, but more roughly to clear away that thought. I would figure all that out later.

“Fuck you Max, you have always been jealous of the friendship I had with Austin. He never tried anything on me, he never attempted to take me away from you, and I never went after him either!”

“Tristan, would you for once shut your damn mouth and stop lying to yourself!” He shouted shoving me hard.

“I’m not lying, but you know what sucks for you is I’m starting to realize he’s more of a man than you could ever consider being!”

I immediately regretted saying those words when he grabbed me by the throat as he brought me closer to him breathing, “You’ve both been guilty of waiting someone outside of your relationships, so I’m going to give you the punishment that Stacey couldn’t give to Austin.”

I trembled in his hold as his grip tightened and he hit me over the head with something heavy, causing me to black out.

***

I woke up in what felt like years later to Austin’s voice in my head, my ears, everywhere.
“Tristy please wake up and talk to me, come on baby.”

Did he just call me baby? I pried my eyes open despite how bad my head ached to see that it was in fact Austin who was talking to me. We were in his living room, I was lying on his couch, and my head was in his lap. How did I get here?

“Oh thank god you’re awake.” He rejoiced leaning down to press his lips to my cheek.

“W-what happened?” I stammered feeling woozy.

“I don’t know, I just came home from the studio and I found you bloody and passed out on my doorstep. For a minute there I thought you weren’t going to wake up.” He explained pulling me up his arms and I noticed that he kept one hand on my head, holding an ice pack to it. Even when he was mad at me he still took care of me, I could always rely on Austin for that.

“How long was I out?”

“Not very long, just enough for me to get you in here on the couch, clean you up and get you an ice pack. About ten or so minutes tops.” He tells me brushing some of my hair off my face before wrapping his arm back around me.

I rested my head on his shoulder sighing as I confessed, “I should have listened to you.”

“Which time are we talking about?”

I decided to ignore his smartass remark and continued, “About going over to Max’s place again, basically everything you’ve told me about him.”

Austin stiffened against me before asking, “Is he the one that did this to you?”

I tried to think back on whether I went to Max’s place or not, I just remember getting in my car after Austin left. So I answered, “I don’t remember. I don’t think I even left your driveway.”

“But who else would do this to you?”

“Max was never violent.”

“But that doesn’t mean he can’t or wouldn’t start.” Austin growled, beginning to get up and I let out a small whine when he accidently hit my head with his knee. He immediately sat back down, cradling my head as he apologized, “Oh shit Tristan I’m so sorry! Are you alright?!”

“I will be when you stop yelling.” I whined covering my ears, “I have the worst headache ever.”

“I can get you some pain killers if you-"

I cut him off, “No don’t move.”

“Are you afraid I’ll knee you in the head again?” He asked with a light laugh.

“No I just want you to hold me for a little bit, I’m still kind of scared and it feels nice.” I say putting my arms around his long torso, resting against him. I noticed that he smiled softly and kept his arms around me.

We stayed still for several minutes, till I felt my face reddening and butterflies starting tickling my stomach, the same feelings he gave me back when we were in high school. I had to stop it, Austin didn’t need to be burdened by my feelings; at least not until he’s okay with me again. Right now he’s just taking care of me.

So I leaned back from him saying, “I’ll take those meds now if you don’t mind.”

He released me from his hold and got off the couch to head for his kitchen. I took a deep breath, leaning my back against the couch, what the hell am I doing to him?

“Here you go.” Austin announces handing me two pills and a glass of water.

I thank him, taking the things from his hands.

“I’ve got to find a way to get back at Max, he’s the only one sick enough to do this to you.” Austin muttered shaking his head, and then he seemed to get lost in deep thought.

“What are you planning on doing?” I questioned gazing up at him.

“Something small, but enough to piss him off as much as he has just done to me.”

“Oh, okay then.” Was all I said as I pondered over all the things Austin could be thinking about doing to get back at Max.

About a half an hour later my headache cleared and I slowly remembered that I had gone to Max’s and then everything started to fall back into place, the event came rushing back into my mind.

“I remember.” I breathed and Austin seemed to have heard me when he snapped out of his thoughts. “I did go to Max’s and it was him.”

“Does that mean you know why he did it?”

“He said something about me being guilty of wanting someone outside of our relationship and he started choking me.” I explained slowly making sure I was getting everything right.

“Who did he think you wanted?”

I felt my breath catch; it was just too embarrassing to admit to Austin that it was him that I’ve been wanting. I’ve always wanted him, ever since we met and it makes me sound crazy, so I can’t imagine telling him what I was thinking.

I shrugged, “I’m not sure.”

Sometime later Austin gave me a ride home in my car; he said that he didn’t feel comfortable letting me drive, let alone by myself. When we finally reached my apartment it finally dawned on me that Austin didn’t have a way to get back home.

“So are you staying the night again?” I asked as we got inside and I flipped the lights on.

Austin smirked, “When did you figure that out?”

I rolled my eyes stating, “I’ll take the couch tonight.”

“No, no, no, not after getting your head hit like that.” He tells me, pushing me away from the couch gently.

“Doesn’t your back hurt from sleeping there last night?”

He shrugged it off, “Not really when I went home today, I took a nap so I feel fine.”

“But Austin-“

He interrupted me quickly, “Tristy it’s fine, and if I feel any pain I’ll just get in your bed alright?”

I blushed nodding as I averted my eyes from his face muttering, “So I’m gonna go take a shower.”

Austin nodded before lying down on my couch, folding his arms behind his head, crossing his legs, and watching me with a playful smile. That smile is going to be the death of me I swear. I hopped in the shower, finding that Austin was right, I had been bleeding. Max had somehow busted my lip and the back of my head stung a tiny bit. I quickly cleaned up, dried off, and then walked into my bedroom to find some night clothes. I slid on a purple pair of boy shorts while grabbing some basketball shorts and a huge Iron Maiden band tee. But before I could get the shirt on my bedroom door opens, making me yelp and drop my t-shirt and shorts out of shock. Austin just stood there, trying not to laugh.

So I had to use my hands to cover myself as I yelled, “Austin it’s called knocking, try it sometime you ass!”

He let out a laugh, “My bad Tristan, I figured you’d be done and dressed by now.”

“Well I’m clearly not, so why are you still standing there? Get out.” I growled managing to snatch up the shirt without exposing my chest again; god knows I would die just from embarrassment.

He leaned against the doorframe with a slight smile and teased, “No I kind of like the view I’m getting here.”

I turned my back to him and swiftly put on my shirt and bent over for a second to grab the basketball shorts, finally turning back to face him.

“I bet Max misses that.” Austin murmured looking me up and down, as I tried to ignore the shiver it sent through me.

I raised an eyebrow asking, “What are you talking about?”

“I bet he probably misses looking at you like that.” He elaborated, not even bating a lash to show that he was shy about what he was saying.

“He never got to.” I tell him with a slight shake of my head.

It was Austin’s turn to raise an eyebrow at me, “What do you mean?”

I sucked up my embarrassment for a moment to explain, “He never saw me naked, we never went that far.”

Austin looked utterly shocked and a part of me was a little offended by that. “Really?”

“Yep, it’s the truth.”

“How come?”

“I just wanted to make sure I was really in love with him before I took that step with him and every time I thought it was a good time he’d fuck it up somehow.”

“This is going to seem creepy of me to ask, but are you a virgin?”
I put on my shorts saying, “Well what gave that away? I’ve never dated anyone other than Max, it’s not like I’d go have some side fling.”

“I don’t know how he stood to do that, you’re almost too beautiful to be left alone.” He murmured under his breath, but my sharp hearing caught the statement.

Before I could say anything back, he shut my door with a soft click.

Notes