Dear Austin...

By late night, their tour bus had left our drive way and the rest of the band was off exploring Colorado. Austin and Alan and retrieved their own personal belongings and placed them in the basement, where our large pit that was our couch would be their bed.The evening clouds had rolled away, like curtains on the sky's stage. The stars would come out in about two hours.

"It's pizza night!" LP cried out in glee. Alan and Lily-Pearl had woken up about a half hour ago. Both still looked a little groggy, but LP was shaking off her shrug of sleep. Alan followed her like a ginger puppy in her wake. She took her seat at the small island bar in the middle of our spacious kitchen. She quickly clear the counter for Alan and Austin to sit down. I loved her so much because she always helped out.

Austin and Alan took their seats by LP in the kitchen. I scrounged through the fridge to try to find our usual pizza toppings. While I was sitting down, I heard my sister's feet fall to the floor as she got out of her seat to get water.

"Do you want any, Austin, Alan?" She asked quietly as she spoke their names. I turned to see her eyes Austin carefully, like a small deer before a large wolf.

"Yes please!" They chorused. LP reached the cabinets and got water glasses out for each of them. She filled each up before returning to Alan, smiling as she handed him his glass. He thanked her and ruffled her hair affectionately. When she handed the glass to Austin, I saw her quickly glance at his tattoos and up to his tall figure before giving him the glass and running back to her seat. She hid behind Alan. I mouthed a sorry, she's shy to Austin as he chuckled quietly.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from Austin. He can be scary." Alan patted her shoulder as Lily-Pearl glanced to the singer. He waved a little and LP sat back in her seat.

"I'm not that scary!" Austin punched Alan in the shoulder. LP laughed, the tension high in her voice. Going back to the fridge, I pulled out pizza dough, sauce, cheese, and a variety of toppings. I looked back, seeing Alan perk up.

"Do you have a grill?" He asked. I nodded, then remembered the comment Austin had made.

"Do you want to do the pizza? You're the guests, so you don't have to do it." I held up my hands. Alan hopped out of his seat, taking another sip of water and standing over the ingredients.

"Oh, it's no trouble. I love cooking pizza on the grill!" He exclaimed. My sister chirped up from the background, encouraging him to make pizza.

"Well I'm not that good at cooking pizza and since dad's not here..." I started with a sly smile. Lily-Pearl sat up straighter at the comment. She took a sip of water as she pondered it over. I could see Austin and Alan jump up at the comment.

"Daddy's not here? How long will he be gone." She asked. I told her he'd be back on Friday. Suddenly, the room seemed to gleam from LP's happiness.

"Yea! Let Alan cook pizza!" She cheered again. Alan smiled and grabbed the pizza dough, heading out the door before I could object. I could see him run over to the grill in excitement.

"I'm making the Alan special! No objections!" He yelled through the windows. Reaching up, I grabbed my own glass and filled it with water. All this excitement had made me forget how thirsty I was. Walking with glass in hand, I leaned against the island. LP looked a little nervous, sitting close to Austin.

"So Austin, how was Warped so far?" I asked him. He smiled and went into explanation of the best venues, funny pranks they played, the water gun fights, and of course, Squidgy's travels! LP looked a little scared over in the corner. I could see herself shrink down in her seat.

"So Lily-Pearl, do you like to play any instruments?" He asked kindly. Her face went pale. I knew Austin already knew the answer and was just trying to include Lily-Pearl in the conversation and try to get Lily out of her shell.

"Violin." She responded quietly. I could hear Alan singing in the background. Something about putting the lime in the coconut and mixing it all up...?

"I love the violin! Do you preform in concerts?" He asked her quietly while bending down his head to make himself seem not as tall and formidable. LP made eye contact for the briefest moment to answer.

"Yes." She shut her mouth and suddenly became interested in her water glass. I looked over to her, remembering she had a concert coming up as a beginning of the school year orchestra performance. I caught Austin's eye and gave him a thumbs up. He shrugged and held out his hands, trying to grasp any other topic to talk about. I thought for a moment in the uncomfortable silence. Then I mouthed: snakes

"So, LP, do you like snakes?" He asked, tossing me a glance. I shook my head. She instantly perked up and nodded before holding his eye.

"Raelyn and I catch snakes out in the yard. They're just little garden snakes though." She stated. Austin nodded and twisted his hands together nervously.

"That must be very tough!" He sighed. Alan was singing something about a monkey by the grill. I sure hope he wasn't burning any of the dough because it was the last we had!

"Nope! I go and find the snakes and Rae catches them because I don't want to be bit!" She giggled at the prospect. I nodded as Austin grinned and looked out back to see Alan dancing around as he grilled.

"You know who's afraid of snakes?" Austin whispered and leaned into LP, getting her excited.

"Who?" She whispered back, anxious to hear. I leaned on my elbows to hear.

"Alan!" He put his fingers to his lips excitedly. She covered her mouth with both hands. The blue eyes sparkled with excitement. What was that, number nine on the list?

"We'll have to go on a snake hunt, then." I told her. She nodded excitedly and turned to Austin. He had completely taken all the fear out of her. It didn't matter that he had a nose ring, long tattoos that painted his arms, or even that he was twice as tall as her. All that matter was that he mentioned snakes and she was charmed.

"I bet you could catch snakes!" She exclaimed. Austin smiled and nodded.

"I liked to catch lizards when I was back at home, so I could try to catch a snake." Austin thought it over. I peeked over my sister's shoulder to see Alan finishing up with the pizza dough.

"Alan's coming!" I told her. Lily-Pearl put a finger to her lips. Austin copied her and they returned to their normal, non-talking state. Alan entered the kitchen. I moved out of the way and snagged his old chair as he set the dough down on the counter and threw Austin and LP a quickly glance. He'd been out there for about twenty minutes and was a little suspicious.

"Did Austin scare you?" He asked with a laugh. Austin held up his hand and shook his head in exasperation.

"Scary." LP murmured. Dang! I didn't know she was so good at keeping secrets!

"We were just talking about her violin concert on August 30th." I quickly covered up with conversation. Alan looked pleasantly surprised. After some small talk, Alan finished up with his own special concoction of pizza on the grill.

"Pizza pies, ready to go!" he called, although we were all in the kitchen. We our food greedily in the dying light as the sun set and night took over. With the pizza was great, but the company I shared it with was better.

I just couldn't wait to see what tomorrow held!

Notes

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