Tutoring Mr Popular

Chapter 16

It had been a few days since I went to the cinema with Austin, I mean with Jake... Ugh who am I kidding? I still keep repeating that one moment in my mind...when Austin laced his hands with mine.

I haven't spoken to or even seen Austin around since that night, he hasn't been attending school and I have no idea where he's been. I have so many questions for him; are we now on good terms? Did he have feelings for me? A part of me still felt bad about what happened in the bowling alley, when Austin caught me play fighting with Jake.

Jake...now he's a problem. Since the movies the other night, I've had endless texts from him asking when our next date will be. I decided it was best to blank him since he didn't quite get the message when I told him I just wanted to be friends.

Then there's Sarah.

Kayla told me that Sarah was in tears the day after the movies because Austin said he didn't want to see her anymore.

But my only concern right now is; where's Austin?

I was thinking about going to his dorm after school to see if he's alright or even still alive. The only problem with that was that I haven't spoken to Mason for a while, for some reason things have been kind of awkward between us lately.

The final school bell rang bringing me out of my thoughts. I packed up all my things and placed then into my bag ready to leave my science class, I hadn't even learnt anything this lesson.

Too busy thinking about Austin.

"Isabella could I have a word with you please, the rest of you are free to leave." Mrs McCarthy said as everyone burst out of the classroom. I walked over to her, unsure about what she wanted to talk to me about.

"I know you are good friends with Austin so I thought you could you tell him that I have emailed him the recent work he's missed." She said, while typing away on her computer.

"Um sure...Do you know why he hasn't been in school?" I asked in hope that she knew.

"I'm not sure if I can share that information with you Bella." She answered, giving me a sympathetic look. Why couldn't she just tell me?

"Okay." I said while grabbing my bag and leaving with disappointment. Where is he?

Once I got out of school, I decided to go on a walk through campus to blank my mind and try to stop myself thinking about Austin.

But that was harder than I thought.

I sat on one of the benches by the school entrance. All I could see were posters everywhere for the Halloween ball, I was excited about going since we never had dances like this at my old school. Although I have no one to go with-

"It was good finally seeing you, I'm glad things are good between us now." I heard someone say from afar. I looked towards the car park where I saw a middle aged man and a young, brown haired girl around 4 years old. She looked so cute wearing a big pink tutu and twirling around as she watched it spin.

"So am I." I turned into the direction of the person standing next to the man. My eyes opened wider when I saw a certain brown haired boy with that goofy smile on his face.

Austin James.

He was standing next to the car talking to the man when I saw him pick up the little girl and gave her a hug to say goodbye. Maybe that's his dad and his sister?

I remembered back to when Austin and I got lost in the woods, he told me about his dad leaving his family when his sister was born. It all makes sense now, Austin must have been visiting his family for a few days.