Waiting On A Miracle | Post Malone

9

"Hi Austin." Her voice instantly brought a smile to his face, his body soothing under the attention.

Austin had several drugs of choice these days, but she had always been number one. Nothing in this fucking world could touch the high she gave and god knows he'd searched.

"Hey Kendra, how are you?"

It had been almost three weeks since his first phone call to her. These three weeks had been more than torture for him. Every second he was awake he had wanted to call her, to have her voice drip honey through the phone again.

Giving up the pills and alcohol had been fucking hard, but kicking the habit of reaching out to her any time he wished was a slow torture that he was sure he would never come to terms with.

"I'm going okay thank you, how are you?" He breathed a sigh of relief when again there wasn't a shade of frustration or irritation in her tone.

"Good, that's good. I'm good thanks." He tried to control the smile from expanding on his face, not wanting it to be audible to her.

"Is everything okay Austin?" He could hear the concern begin to coat her words. He had been silent too long, happily slipping away just listening to her breathing.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I um... I'm in LA and I was wondering if maybe you were as well?" Fuck. That was a lie.

The words had just flowed out of his mouth before he could catch them. He had been so focused on working up to nerve to call her again he hadn't even thought about what he would say.

He had been planning a trip out to LA for weeks, every time he had gone to call Dre to book it in he had chickened out.

"I am, I kinda live here now remember."

"Right, sorry. I was just wondering... do you um... do you think you'd be free for a friendly check in coffee?" He felt like he'd jumped out of a plane without a parachute. He was free falling to the ground and every second she remained silent had him plummeting closer to the hard concrete below him.

"Coffee sounds good..."

He shut out the tone of her voice, knowing there was more behind it that he wasn't willing to unpack yet. Her words had been what he had wanted to hear and so that's where his focus would remain. "Tomorrow morning? Say 10?"

"Sure. Message me where and I'll see you there. Goodbye Austin."

****

"Rich! Quick!" Jodie's voice almost shattered his ear drums as she held him tightly to her.

"I'm comin', what's the..." Rich's gruff voice trailed off as he stepped into the foyer and was greeted to the sight of his son wrapped up in his wife's arms.

"Hi Dad." Austin nodded in greeting whilst still wrapped up by Jodie.

"Come on, through with ya." Rich nodded as he began to lead Austin outside to the patio, taking a seat in the afternoon sun. Jodie lingered behind, trying to discreetly watch them through the kitchen window as she made their coffees.

"I hope it's okay I didn't call first..." Austin said, purely because he didn't really know where to start.

"You ain't gotta call. It's nice you showed up." He couldn't help notice Rich had been avoiding looking at him, his head remaining low on the wood grain of the table or the dry, oil stained skin of his fingers.

"How have you been?" It was an open ended question, open for whatever interpretation his father chose to take.

"Been alright." Rich's response was just as nonspecific as Austin's question. He hoped his dad would offer more, was slightly worried that there was a reason that he didn't.