Jane And Austin

Chapter 20 - J.

[Recap- Austin read out the letter he wrote for Jane.]

I hadn't heard from Austin since a day. It was supposed to be a good thing, but honestly it wasn't. At 10 AM in the morning, while going through my diary, all my thoughts hovered around him like a butterfly. Why hasn't he tried to contact me after expressing what he feels? Is he done with me? Or is he expecting me to take the next step? What would I do if he comes right at the next moment? And for a moment, I thought that I was going to be selfish. I thought that I was going to propose him, but when the moment was done, Susan reappeared in my mind, making me drown in guilt. But I loved Austin and letting him go wasn't easy.

And peeping through the diary, a line caught my attention.
"A storm can take everything away from you, but at the same time it can take nothing away from you."
Mesmerized by how deep that thought was, I stared outside the window. On the ground, which was flooded with people, but my eyes searched for someone who I knew wasn't going to be there.
And then, I heard two knocks on the door. And all of a sudden, my heart was pounding just at the thought of Austin knocking the door and when the gate slowly opened, it was mom.

She was a wearing a black jeans and a red t-shirt. Her hair which were coming up to her waist were perfectly combed and it looked like she was going somewhere.
"Hey mom. Going somewhere?"

"Yes. With you."

What?
No. What if Austin comes at our house when we went out?

"No mamá, imposible." I flaunted my Spanish. "I have to study today."

"I didn't ask you."

"Ugh.. mom. No. I can't. I am sorry."

"Better get ready. It is an order." And to my surprise, she started to walk back.

"Mom," I said in a loud voice, "But what if Austin comes at the time when we go out?"

And she stopped. I wondered if she was hiding her smile because she didn't turn around and said, "Am I more important than him?
She walked away, and I knew I had no other option left. She had scored a last-minute winner.

After a while, she came back and gave me new clothes. A red t-shirt and a black jeans.

*

When we reached street 5, probably 500 meters from my home, which had all been covered by my wheelchair. We stopped besides the ice cream parlor and I wondered why did she stop. She looked around for a couple of times and said, "Give me your phone."

I handed it her, wondering about what was happening. My sensations were telling me that something was about to happen. I looked around, we were around the shopping street in Lansville, but that day, unusually, we were surrounded by only a handful of people. We were standing in front of a clothing store. Several dressed masquerades were standing outside, looking at it, I remembered how much I hated shopping. Besides, there was a store for shoes and when my eyesshifted from there, something caught my attention I saw someone wearing the same clothes as I was. What was actually happening?
Mom handed me the phone back and said before she went away, "I'll be here in a moment."

And it was Austin. Austin Smith. Wearing the same clothes as mine, and I understood that I had been tricked. I kept the phone in my pocket, turned around and started to go back. I hardly proceeded a few meters, before I felt he was running behind me and hardly a few more before he came in front of me which lead me to put on the brakes.
"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I thought about saying, but didn't.

"Oh my god. Damn. Is that even possible? Are we really wearing the same dresses?" He said as if he wasn't aware about anything. He was bad at pretending, and I shrugged after looking at him.