The Last Wish (Austin Carlile Father/Of Mice And Men)

Chapter 6

Austin's POV

I sat on the backseat of the eleven person van, holding Ariel in my lap. It's not that there wasn't enough room, just that she was too small to actually fit in a seat.

"Woohoo! Road trip!" Alan screamed, and Ariel giggled at him.

"Woohoo!" She copied, throwing her arms up.

I laughed at the two of them, before swearing under my breath.

"What's wrong?" Alan asked.

"I never called her grandparents." I said.

Kellin laughed. "I did earlier this morning when you were still asleep. They seemed welcoming enough, though they were a bit too rude for my liking," he said, frowning. "But that's how I know where I'm driving to."

"Maybe you woke them up," Tony said.

"I though old people always wake up early?" Mike chimed.

"That is a huge misconception," I told him.

Kellin flicked on the radio, before switching it over to play the random CD's I had in it. The van's radio was able to switch between five CD's to shuffle their songs. Right now, an All Time Low song was on.

"Maybe it's not my weekend, but it's gonna be my year!" Ariel yelled, dancing slightly in my lap.

"And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go no where!" I sang, smiling at her.

"And this is my reaction to everything I fear! I've been going crazy, I don't want to waste another minute here!" Everybody joined in.

The rest of the ride was spent singing and dancing to the different CD's in the radio, which happened to be Sleeping With Sirens, Nirvana, All Time Low, Slipknot, and Tonight Alive. Ariel happened to know most of the songs, and sang along to all the ones she could. The ones she didn't recognize, she danced even more on my lap.

Soon enough, we pulled up to a house. A very run down house. It was brown, with some of the siding falling off. Part of the roof seemed to cave in a bit, and shingles on the other side were rotting and falling off. The small lawn was overgrown with weeds, and a window was broken, and glass laid all around it.

"Kells, are you sure this is it?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, frowning.

I opened the car door, placing Ariel on my side as I did so. Alan, Kellin, Mike, and Tony followed my lead, slamming the car doors behind them as they climbed out. I walked up to the door, before knocking hesitantly on it three times. Nobody answered, and I knocked again. The process repeated twice more before the door was thrown open.

"What the fuck do you want!" A woman screamed as she opened the door. Her face was wrinkled, and she looked almost sickly thin. Her hair was knotted and gray, and all she wore was a bathrobe.

I immediately averted my eyes. "Um, Mrs. Valentine?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah. What's it to you?"

"I'm Austin Carlile, I've been caring for you granddaughter, Ariel, for the past day."

The woman frowned. "What's she doing here?"

I copied her expression. "Well, ma'am, your daughter passed away. You're the only family that Ariel has left."

"You mean, I have to take care of the brat?" She asked in disgust.

"Hey! I'm not a brat!" Ariel pouted.

"Oh, shut up." Mrs. Valentine scowled. Ariel whimpered and curled into my chest.

"Excuse me, you have no right to talk to a child like that," Tony said, stepping forward.

The woman rolled her eyes. "If I take her, will y'all go away?" She asked rudely.

I sighed, nodding. "I guess."

"Fine, give her here." She said, waving her hand towards her.

"Hold on, let us say goodbye." I said, walking away a few steps.

"I don't want to go!" Ariel yelled, clinging to me.

"I know sweetie, but you have to." I said.

"But the lady was mean!" She said.

"She was probably just tired." I told her.

Ariel frowned, and tears ran down her face. "I don't wanna stop seeing you." Ariel said.

I knelt down, placing her on the ground, before digging in my pocket for a paper and pen, quickly scribbling my number of the paper. "Here. If you ever want to talk, call me. You know how to do that?" I asked her.

She nodded. "I've seen Mommy call the hospital before. You just push buttons, right?"

I chuckled. "Not quite, Princess. You see these numbers?" I asked her, and she nodded. "You have to press the buttons in this order, then press the green button. Got it?" She nodded. "We have to go now, okay?" I hugged her closely. "Bye, Princess. Call me whenever you want to, alright?"

"Bye, Austin." She wrapped her arms around my neck, before kissing my cheek. Ariel went around to the rest of the guys, repeating the process. She stood after, her night still to just above my knee, and waddled to the house. I followed behind her quickly, making sure she didn't fall. Mrs. Valentine was waiting inside the doorway impatiently, tapping her foot.

"Here she is," I said awkwardly. Mrs. Valentine leaned down, and picked Ariel up. As she did so, her sleeve rode up a bit, and I was disgusted by the trail of bruises that traveled up her arm. Needle tracks. "The fuck is that!" I yelled, pointing it out. Of course, I already knew, but I was hoping there was an alternative.

She sneered at me. "None of your concern!" With that, the door was slammed in my face.

"Hey!" I screamed, banging on the door. "Open up!"

"Austin!" I heard Ariel cry from inside.

"Hey, come on man, stop. We can visit, but for now, we have to go." Mike said, tugging me away from the door and shoving me into the car. "Why were you trying to talk to her again anyway?"

I frowned, "she had track marks on her arm. I don't want Ariel in that environment."

Tony gasped. "We have to get her out of there! She can't be raised by a drug addict! Imagine what will happen to her!"

"But if we call the police, we'll never see her again. They'll put her in an orphanage, and we won't know which one." Kellin said.

"Well, why don't we wait until tomorrow. We'll play our shows, and do everything normally, but then we'll go and check up on Ariel. If anything seems not right, we'll take her to an orphanage ourselves, and make sure that they have our numbers in case Ariel ever wants to contact us." Mike spoke up.

I nodded sadly. "That's the only thing we can do, isn't it?"