Broken Together

21- Drown out the bad

Song of the chapter:
Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi

Parker's pov:

"I think she's forgiven me you know?" Austin takes a swig of his beer and I just chuckle.

"Really?" if Ellie is anything like Juliette then he's got another thing coming, even if they don't see it they are just like each other.

"Yeah, I gave her a speech and everything man" he looks off and I kick him under the table
"What?"

"Don't talk about her then look like that, I'll set Juliette on you" I warn and he just shakes his head "I'm serious, get it out your head, she has a boyfriend"

That catches his attention and his head snaps back to me.

"What?" he splutters pushing his dark blonde hair off his face

"Mark, in their class at school, plays soccer I think" I shrug feeling Austin's glare

"What else?"

"I don't know Aus, Juliette says she never wants to talk about him. They got together just after thanksgiving, like the next day, that's as much as I know" I meet his eyes and cringe at what I see, Austin has it bad for her.
"Seriously leave it"

"Fine" he grumbles downing the rest of the beer "I just want to know her, she's important to you three"

I ignore the smile that warms my face at the mentions of me, Juliette and Bella as a three. After the last couple days I didn't know what would happen, after Juliette broke down saying all this stuff about us and I had to come clean about how much I really saw her, it was tough. I think we were both stressed and it's making her question everything, if she'll have me though I'll be there every step of the way.

"She is, hence why it's best if you leave it" I roll my eyes then try to change the subject "how's smash relief doing?"

I've tried to pull back on my work and keep us all supported just with the shop, Austin's refusing to take any profit for himself even though he runs it because he has lots of other income that he says he's perfectly comfortable without it.

"Good" his short answer makes me grab another beer for us both

"Great. Spoken to your family?" I ask hesitantly. Austin and family is a sore topic, I think it is for all of us.

"Yeah I spoke to my dad the other day about how things are going over here, it pisses me off because it feels like he's always giving me permission to stay even though I don't need them anymore" he throws back half the bottle causing me to glare at him, I'm not dealing with a drunken Austin tonight. "I spoke to my sister too, she's doing great, classes at university going well and all sorts. She's happy"

"That's good Aus" I try to comfort him "everyone's seems okay with this-"

"I'm still getting rid of it" he sighs and I nod

"I didn't doubt you would" I shrug switching into Norwegian when the front door unlocks "you never wanted your life to go how they planned and now you've made it your own"

"I know but I think they still think by giving me this freedom I'll keep it but I can't. All the time I'm reading about me over there and it's exhausting"

"Do what you think is best man, you know you'll always have us" I give him a smile he matches and we turn to look at Juliette as she walks in after work holding a sleeping Bella on her hip.

I watch her wave at us then take her to her bedroom and Austin just chuckles. Sometimes I can't help but watch her do such normal things like that, she looks so beautiful when she's comfortable and just carefree even for a moment. All I want is to see that look on her face constantly.