I walked into the only coffee shop on the pier nervously, looking around for Austin immediately. I saw him sitting in the corner towards the back by himself, playing on his phone. He was facing away from the door so I snuck up behind him and covered his eyes.

“Guess who!” I said softly into his ear.“Hmm…. Sounds like an angel to me.” I dropped my hands and he turned around with a huge grin spread across his face. I couldn’t help letting one form on my face as he stood up and wrapped me in an embrace. “It’s good to see you, Eve. You look fantastic.” He said as he pulled away from the hug. He stood back and looked me over and I felt my cheeks heat up while he did so. I brushed the hair out of my face and sat down with him at the table.

“Thank you. And thank you for inviting me out for coffee, it’s probably my favourite thing in the world.” I took my purse and set it on the floor, and as I did so a waiter came over to take our orders. We placed our orders and he brought it to us almost immediately.

“So, Evelyn, I just realized I have no idea what you even do back in San Diego. Where do you work?” He took a bite of the cheesecake he ordered while waiting for a reply.

“I actually work for myself.” I said taking a sip of my coffee. “I make handmade jewelry like necklaces, bracelets, earrings, whatever else you can think of. It’s a pretty neat thing, I get to travel and take my pieces to craft shows all across the country. It was difficult to get started at first, but now that I have, it’s running pretty smoothly.” I stated simply. Austin was just sitting there watching me jabber on and on, intrigued by every word I was saying.

“That’s awesome, it sounds like something that’s really working out for you.”

“It really is. It gives me something to do when the guys are away on tour, so I don’t feel as lonely when they’re gone. It’s still tough sometimes when I’m home alone for a few weeks when there aren’t any craft shows to attend, but you get used to it.” A comfortable silence fell between us as he ate his cheesecake and I bit into my banana nut muffin.

“Really though, that’s enough talking about me, I’m boring.” Austin looked up from his cheesecake and set his fork down.

“Evelyn, I asked you out on this date so I could get to know more about you, don’t be ridiculous.” He picked his fork back up and started digging back into his cheesecake. “Now, tell me, because I’m rather curious; how long have you been friends with Vic and them? I mean, obviously it’s been awhile because you live with Jaime, but like, how did you meet them?”

“Oh, shit Austin, that’s a bit of a lengthy story. Are you sure you want to hear me ramble on about that?”

“Of course I do, anything to sit here and spend more time looking at your pretty face.” I felt my cheeks redden when I saw him smiling adorably at me.

“Well, if you insist.” I looked down, thinking about where to begin. “I guess it all starts when I first moved here. I met Jaime first, back in high school. My family moved to San Diego for a bit during my senior year. I got a job at GameStop and Jaime and I first met there, but after that I saw him all over school. We began to talk and got to know each other, and we became fast friends. It was difficult to become friends with him though, because his girlfriend at the time, Jessica, didn’t really like me. For some reason she thought I liked Jaime, which was ridiculous. I’ve never even looked at him like that, I’ve always been so awkward when it came to liking boys. But you know, whatever, it is what it is. Anyways, about two months after we moved to San Diego, we packed up and moved again.” I finished the last bit of my muffin and took a sip of my coffee that was now only lukewarm.

“Wow, that sucks. Did you move around a lot as a kid or something?” He asked before finishing off his coffee.

“Yeah, my dad was in the Army so it’s something that we grew up with.” Our waiter came over to refill our drinks, asking politely if we'd like anything else. When we declined he went back to bring our ticket.

“We? As in, you have siblings?”

“Yeah, I have a brother that’s a few years older than me. He lives in Florida so I don’t see him much anymore.” The waiter brought back our ticket and refused to let me pay for my own meal. After Austin paid, the waiter left us with a smile.

“I never would’ve guessed that. You seem a lot like the only child type to me.” I gave him a confused look, unsure how to take his comment. “What was it like, moving around a lot? I only ever really made one big move in my life, I can’t imagine what it was like doing it over and over again.”

“Well I mean, it had its ups and downs. I never really had lasting friends and it got lonely, but it was kinda comforting having my brother there for me. Moving around to different places was amazing though, don’t get me wrong. We’ve lived in so many places across the world, I couldn’t even begin to list them all.”

“That does sound amazing, I’m almost jealous.” Austin admitted. "Hey, do you want to go walk the pier and take this conversation out there?" He asked.

"Sure, I'd like that a lot." We grabbed our stuff and headed outside. It was beautiful out, and I closed my eyes as a breeze blew threw my hair. An arm snaked around my waist while I was standing there with my eyes closed, nearly making me jump out of my skin. I opened my eyes and saw it was Austin, and relaxed immediately. We started walking slowly along the pier, listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore in the background.

"So, what happened after you moved from San Diego?

"My family decided to settled in Orlando where I graduated high school. I couldn’t stand it there though, and after graduation, I packed my shit up and moved back to San Diego.” A strong breeze blew through, causing me to press myself tightly into Austin's side. He tightened his grip around me as we kept walking.

“But why San Diego of all the places you’ve lived?”

“I wasn’t really sure at first. I really think it was a combination of the beautiful weather, the friendly atmosphere, and Jaime.” I admitted the last part quietly. “He was the closest thing to a friend I’ve ever had in my life, and I really missed that when I moved. When I moved back, I was able to get my old job at GameStop back and I found a small place to live by myself. It was nice and I was almost happy.”

“Almost?” Austin asked, sounding extremely confused.

“When I moved back the first thing I tried to do was find Jaime, but I didn’t have any luck. His phone was shut off, and when I went by his house, it was empty. As it turned out, his parents had moved back to Mexico shortly after I left San Diego. When I figured that out, I stopped looking.” I took a breath and looked up at Austin, who amazingly still seemed interested.
“I got lonely, fast. I didn’t have any friends and had an incredibly tough time making some. Things kind of started to get rough after that, and I honestly just kind of hated… everything. I hated myself, most of all for being so awkward. For being so shy. For being such a fuck up, really…” I trailed off and slowed my pace.

Austin completely stopped and turned to look down at me. He removed his arm from my waist and reached up to brush a piece of hair back from my face. "It's okay, Evelyn. Really. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He reached for my hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"I'll be fine." I said quietly. He smiled at me and wrapped his arm back around my waist, squeezing me tightly before starting to walk again. I continued from where I had left off.
“I was alone for a few months before it finally happened one day. I was at work, when he just came waltzing into the store. His jaw dropped when he saw me standing at the counter.” I laughed to myself, remembering his face the exact moment he saw me. “We caught up after I got off work and basically just jumped back into our friendship. He was living on his own on the opposite side of town, but hated where he was at." We approached the end of the pier, and Austin let go of me to lean against the edge and look out at the water. When he noticed that I had completely stopped talking, he looked over at me, urging me to continue.

"I hated where I was at too, so I threw out the idea of us finding a place for us to move in to together. By then, my jewelry business was really starting to take off, and I needed a bigger space to work with anyways. He agreed with it, and we moved into the loft that we live in now. I met Vic, Mike, and Tony shortly after, because Jaime had just joined the band a few weeks before I ran into him. We all became fast friends, and the rest is history.” I took a deep breath and looked up to gauge Austin's reaction. He was still looking out at the ocean quietly. He looked down at me with almost a sad look in his eyes, but when he blinked it was gone.

"That's amazing, Evelyn. It really sounds they've all been there for you through it all." He said with a smile.

"They have, they're amazing, honestly. They're my best friends, I don't know what I would do without any of them.. Especially Jaime. It's just nice to have someone there for me, you know?" I admitted. Austin shook his head softly. There was a silence between us before his phone went off. He pulled it out and checked it, murmuring under his breath after he put it away.

"I'm so sorry, Evelyn, but it looks like I'm going to have to cut our date a little short. I guess there's some emergency meeting with the band in half an hour." He looked at me apologetically, and I could see that he was genuinely sorry for having to cut our date off here.

"It's fine, I completely understand. I'm used to things like this, don't worry about me." I smiled softly at him, assuring him that I was alright.

"You're the best, Eve, honestly. Let me walk you to your car?" He held out his hand to me and I grabbed it. We walked to the short distance to where I was parked. I unlocked the car and opened the door, turning to Austin before I got in.

"I had a great time with you Austin, truly. I'm so glad that I ran into you at the beach yesterday." I blushed slightly and habitually brushed the hair out of my face. Austin reached a hand up to my cheek and stroked it softly while smiling.

"I am too. You're wonderful, and I'm glad I'm getting the chance to know you." We still for a few seconds, his hand on my cheek, staring into my eyes. He inched his face closer to mine, and when I didn't pull away, he finished closing the gap. He pressed his lips softly to mine, and I let my eyes slip closed. His lips stayed connected to mine for a few seconds before he pulled away. He smiled at me and I returned it. "I'll text you later, alright?"

"Okay. Bye, Austin." I said quietly as he turned to walk away. I got into Jaime's car and sat in the silence. I thought about the kiss over and over in my head, replaying every second of it. I searched and searched like crazy for what was missing, but gave up and started the car. I shifted into the drive and headed back towards the house, when I finally realized what was missing. There was no spark. When Austin kissed me, I didn't feel a single thing.

Notes

I realize that's kind of a shit way to end a chapter, but honestly I'm just kind of shit at ending things. Anyways, it's nearly 4am and I just couldn't stop myself from writing this.
She finally had her date with Austin! I'm sorry that it's pretty bad, but honestly I've never been out on an actual date so I had no idea how to write one. Things are probably going to picking up pretty fast from this point on, I really hope you're all ready. I love you all, you're the reasons I keep writing!
Title credit: Girls/Girls/Boys- Panic! At The Disco