Dear Austin...

True to his word, Austin's fellow band mates dropped by. They were honestly to sweet and showered the room with gifts. There was a ton of different cards, balloons galore, and even...a huge stuffed Squidgy.

"He wanted to come visit you." Tino joked. They stayed for a few hours, and we all crowded around, telling stories and playing Gin Rummy. One of the best parts of the day was getting to walk at lunch time. We all walked down the halls together to a viewing room, which was a large room that looked out to the direction of the mountains over the busy street traffic.

"...And after we hyped her up with Monster for the second time, she leaped out of the cart like this...and Oli's face was totally like, 'oh crap, run!'" Austin retold our store racing games through the use of words and visual representation.

Basically he yelled a lot and jumped around the room.

They each gave me a high five for beating out the other team. Aaron and Phil kept joking around, trying to bid on how much they would pay to see a video of that.

"Well if you stopped by sometime, we can challenged Kellin, Oli, and Sara again." I hinted to them. They agreed, although there wasn't a date that they could agree upon, with their schedules.

"It sounds like you guys had a blast while we were scouting the Denver scene." Phil commented. Alan nodded his head. I could imagine all the thoughts racing through them.

After we all had a great time chatting around lunch, Aaron, Tino, and Phil had to leave. I gave them cautious hugs, stretching to meet them. I promised to see them at Warped, and could see Austin the in the background shaking his head.

Austin wrapped a protective arm around me as they left, with only Alan remaining. Tino took a double glance behind his shoulder and whistled. The boys all followed suit until they disappeared. I stuck my tongue out to their fading forms.

Austin, Alan, and I went back to my room where I rested until it was 4:00. Alan told me he had to leave, and wished me well.

"We'll definitely have to arrange another cart racing some time." He gave me his ginger, sideways grin. I shooed him off to say goodbye to LP and with a final close of the door, he left. I was a little sad to see my 'perfect' weekend start to end, especially in the hospital. Austin stayed with me, talking about his adventures on Warped Tour, and reminiscing our own made memories.

By 4:49, Austin stood up to leave. I kicked off the thin blanket and stood up to meet him.

"Rae, just sit back. Don't hurt yourself." He bid me. I shoved his comments off with a shaking head.

"Nope, I'm already up." I told him with a broad grin. Austin came around to me, bending down slightly to wrap me in a tender hug. I didn't feel anything at all except his warm arms around me. I held onto his neck for dear life, not willing to let go of him.

"Here, take this." Austin scribbled on a sheet of paper, tore off the corner, and handed it to me. It was his phone number, and Alan's.

"Give Alan's to Lily-Pearl. Take mine, and text or call me whenever. I'll always be there for you." Austin leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. His liquid brown eyes slowly melted my heart, now that it was patched up again.

"After Warped, I'm going to miss you lots." I sniffed, saddened by the idea of not seeing him for a long while. We sat in the depressing silence for a while.

"Well you ARE going to Warped, so that's a start." He offered me a slow smile.

"Yeah." I breathed out. He took his long arms, and pulled me closer to him without hurting me. He leaned down and tilted my head up with one hand. When our lips collided, they were tangled in a once gentle, now passionate, kiss that left me reeling. I buried my head into his neck.

"Don't leave me, Austin. You have to come back at some point." I begged him. Austin nodded slowly.

"I said I'd never leave you." He told me. With a final hug and gentle kiss, he left me in the hospital room. When I got into bed again, I took out my phone that my mom brought me. I opened up the camera to the hundred or so photos that Austin, Alan, and I took.

I took the one where I had managed to capture Austin kissing me at the right time. It had been made into my wallpaper for my phone. As I stared at the picture, I let the drop of salty, bittersweet sadness rolled down. I didn't stop it's fall.

Notes

I'm sorry for this guys. All the sadness...