Moving On

Eighteen

EIGHTEEN

S a n d r a

My mini bonfire with Austin really set the tone for us in a more positive way.

We picked up where we started, and that is a mild love-hate relationship with a hint of long-lost best friends, but after getting down and really talking to each other, I sense a maturity in our relationship.

Now, he's at Carly's looking after Dev on his own-I'm still pretty much surprised that he agreed to do it-and I'm at the café that Jess runs, helping out.

I needed a little cash of my own, because I know that my mom is having a hard time paying for college, and I wouldn't want to trouble her even more. So, I asked Jess if they needed help down at the shop, and she said yes immediately.

So here am I, making coffee and whatnot. And still in the state of bliss after that special night with Austin-romance out of the question, of course.

"Thanks for doing this, Sandra," Jess smiles at me as she brews a fresh batch of coffee for the incoming orders.

"Glad to be of help," I reply. "And I really needed money of my own. I don't want to inconvenience my mom."

"What are you talking about? Your mom's young. She doesn't look like she has a lot of problems," she implied.

Well, that may be true, but I still don't want to add to the list of things she should be throwing her money at. I'm going to be eighteen soon, and I want to start getting the feel of being independent.

A new customer comes in, and right on cue, my phone rings. I look at the customer, my phone, and Jess, trying to find an out of my predicament.

"I got this," Jess acknowledged. "Go answer your phone. If there's one thing I've learned after leaving high school, it's that all phone calls are potentially important."

"Thanks," I smile at her and then I'm off to the back door to answer whoever the hell's ringing me at this moment.

I take my phone out of my jeans pocket and finally see who was calling.

And Jess was right, all phone calls are potentially important. Carly's calling.

I press answer, clear my throat, and began to speak into the receiver. "Carly?"

"Yes, hello, Sandra," her voice sounds okay, and not at all sick. Is she fine now? "Sorry for only calling today. I haven't had the chance before with all the tests they were running on me here and after those I was just tired and needed some rest and then eventually I would forget to check on everybody back there."

"Yeah, I was wondering why you weren't calling to check up on Dev," I admit. "And I didn't want to bother you by calling you because I know you needed to get better so I just waited for you to call first. Dev's okay, by the way. We aren't having a hard time keeping an eye on him anymore unlike before because he's grown a little bit," I inform her.

"Really? That's great!" She says excitedly. "I'm so thrilled so him and all of you." I sense genuineness in her tone. "And speaking of that, I've talked to my doctors and nurses, and after weeks and weeks of bugging them, they've finally agreed to let me have visitors."

"That's awesome!" I smiled. "Dev probably misses you a lot, and I'm pretty sure he will be ecstatic to see you after so long."

"But there's a catch," she added. "You can only visit me on this particular day, and the next visit will probably have to wait for long again."

"And I'll make sure we'll be there," I promise her. I need to do this for her. She's probably homesick to the bone and as she's a mother, I'm sure it's killing her that she hasn't seen Dev for about a month now.

"Thank you so much, Sandra." And there's that warmness to her voice again that makes me forget why I hated her at first. "I owe you a lot." Yeah, you do. "I'll text you the date and the address of the hospital." And then she was gone.

~*~

The café's finally closed after a tough and busy day, and Jess and I were just finishing cleaning up when Austin comes in. He looks pretty good despite taking care of a toddler all day. What's with him?

"Oh, hey, Austin," Jess greets him as he makes his to the counter.

"I've dropped Dev to your place for you," he informs her. "Your mom sort of creeped me out."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part," Jess teases as she walks to the office, leaving me and Austin alone.

I just continued to turn over chairs onto the tables while Austin just stood there waiting for me to say something. I know he does, because I could see him looking at me and on the floor in turns in my peripheral vision.

I chuckle. He's actually nervous. But why right now? Didn't we just talk our hearts out Friday night? "So," I began to ease him into it. "How was the baby, honey?" I tease.

Finally, the laid-back Austin comes back. "He was fine. How was work, honey?"

And that just sets us off, the two of us bursts in laughter.

Jess comes out of the office right on cue, her coat in her arm. "Okay, crazy lovebirds, let's go. I'm closing the café."

We went out, Austin and I continuing to play the 'honey' joke, and I even laced my arm around his for extra effect. This doesn't trigger anything in me-or him, I could sense it-and we were just like the best of friends. Kind of like the relationship me and Calum or Justin has and had, only slightly better because it's new.

We walked Jess to her house, went inside for a little while for some tea her mom made (they were the bomb, by the way) and before I knew it, I was resting my head on his shoulder while on the bus to take us back to Oxford.

I don't know what made me do it. It's either I'm just really tired or that I've found home in this five foot nine annoying guy, adding him to the list of few people I could trust with my sanity.

"You know Carly, right?" I whispered against him, because there's only a few people on the bus and it's really late and everyone seems very tired so I wanted to stay subtle as I could possibly can.

"Yeah, sure. She's Dev's mom... I think?" He whispers back.

"Yep, that's her," I confirmed. "You know that she's very sick, right?" I get a nod from him. I continue, "So her doctors finally allowed her to have visitors and she wants us to visit. She really misses Dev."

"Then let's visit her."

"Are you free next Saturday?" I ask him.

"Why?" He asks back.

"We're going to Cincinnati," I reply sleepily.