As soon as more and more people started arriving, I finally managed to regain control of my emotions and slip out of the bathroom, only to retreat back upstairs when I realized how many people were there. No one had come looking for me, even though it had been at least a half-hour since I disappeared. While a part of me cared a little too much, the other part of me was far too distracted by the Kik group-chat Kennedy had started, to keep Gus and I in the loop while we were in California.

Most of it was just the guys being stupid – throwing out typical adolescent boy comments about video games and boobs. By now, I was pretty much used to it, so I didn’t mind it so much – in fact, it made me laugh.

Suddenly, there’s a knock on my door, which almost causes me to drop my phone onto the hardwood floor. Without waiting for a response, the door swings open, causing me to actually lose my grip on the device, though it luckily lands on the duvet.

“Autumn?” Gus pokes his head in the door, looking around frantically. A look of relief crosses his face when he sees me, breathing heavily, on my bed. “What are you doing up here?” I hold up my phone in response.

“Kennedy started a group chat,” I say. He frowns.

“You promised me you would be social.” I roll my eyes.

“I was,” I reply snappily. “I talked to Brian and Zack, didn’t I?”

“Who’s Zack?”

“He was the guy who came in before I left,” I say simply. He frowns even more.

“He never told us his name,” he points out. “How did you know that?” Then, his eyes widen in realization. “Oh! Now I know why those guys looked so familiar – they’re in one of your bands, aren’t they?” I feel a sense of panic begin to rise in my chest. I didn’t want them to know that I already knew who they were – I had a gut feeling that it would just end in embarrassment, and that was one emotion I definitely did not know how to handle.

“Please don’t say anything…” I mutter shyly. He narrows his eyes.

“Why not?” he questions, raising an eyebrow at me.

“It would be embarrassing…” I don’t expect him to understand, and from the look on his face, I can tell he most certainly doesn’t. “Please, Gus? Promise me?” He sighs, running a hand through his light brown hair, which I could clearly tell he inherited directly from Matt.

“Fine.” Immediately, I feel a sense of relief wash over me, only to disappear as soon as he speaks again. “But only if you come outside with me.”

I sigh, knowing that he wouldn’t budge, even if I could come up with a good argument. So, I nod reluctantly, getting to my feet, and sliding my phone into my back jean pocket. He frowns at this, but doesn’t say anything.

I follow him downstairs; he leads me straight through the kitchen, and out the sliding glass door that led to the spacious backyard. The whole band was there, I could tell, plus the Berry twins – Matt and Jason. But there were also quite a few people I didn’t recognize, and that caused me to tense up as I stepped outside into the merciless California heat.

Almost immediately, Matt notices us from where he’s standing near the barbeque, and runs over to us, grinning.

“There you are!” he exclaims, talking mostly to Gus. “I was wondering where you were.”

“I was looking for Autumn.” Matt frowns, clearly not having realized that I was still missing from earlier.

“Oh. Well, there is someone I wanted you two to meet anyway,” he continues, silently indicating for us to follow him.

I don’t recognize him right away, since his back is turned towards us, and he appears to be deep in conversation with Zack. There’s a girl standing next to him, who I can only assume is about Gus’ and I’s age – she’s taller than me, but not by much.

“Austin!” Matt exclaims, and I freeze in my place as Austin turns around. Gus shoots me a weird look that I feel I’ve only received about a thousand times that day alone, but I can’t help it.

Today appeared to be one of those days where I just happen to keep on meeting countless idols of mine – and Austin Carlile was no exception.

His face lights up when he sees Matt approaching, and he shakes hands with the older man. “I wanted you to meet my kids – Autumn and Augustus.” He introduces us with such pride in his voice that it makes me regret ever thinking he was ashamed of us earlier.

Austin’s smile widens – as if that was even possible. I feel myself shrink in his presence. I knew he was tall, but I didn’t know he was this tall.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Gus says politely, stepping forward and shaking his hand. I can tell that, by this gesture alone, he isn’t expecting me to say much. As much as I want to prove him wrong, I know that would be all but impossible, and I feel myself shrink even more – metaphorically, of course.

“You guys are from Washington, right?” he asks, and Gus nods. “I’ve only been there a couple of times…” I want to say something about this – preferably something along the lines of “yeah, because no band ever comes to Washington. Ever.” which wouldn’t be too far from the truth.

I feel Gus nudge me in the side, and when I look over at him, I realize he’s expecting me to say something. I open my mouth to speak, but my mind is unable to form words, which just causes me to stand there, looking like a complete idiot. Austin however, I can tell, is probably used to this sort of reaction – he probably got similar ones out of hyperactive teenager girls on a regular basis, though this knowledge doesn’t do anything to boost my incredibly low confidence level.

The girl beside him snorts and Austin shoots her a quick, warning glance, which she ignores.

“Oh,” Austin speaks up, already seeming to forget about my embarrassing reaction. “This is Leda.” He grabs the girl’s shoulder gently, pulling her closer to his long, lanky body. She frowns up at him, clearly not wanting the attention. “She’s my god-sister.” I feel my eyes widen slightly. Leda just rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah…” she mutters, pushing his hand off of her shoulder. She then looks over at me. “Hey!” she half-yells, causing me to jump. “Come on; you don’t want to be stuck with this loser.” Actually, I did want to be stuck with “this loser” – and I know I’m not the only one in the world who would want to either.

However, I nod anyway, simply wanting an excuse to get out of this awkward situation. She smiles, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from them. I can feel Gus watching me, his eyes burning into my back.

Hey, I think to myself, at least I’m being social.

Notes

A/N: Yay! Okay so I'm going to continue to try and keep up with these weekly updates... Not sure about doing it three times a week though, since I haven't been writing much this week. But since I'm going to my aunt's house this weekend, I'll probably use her computer like I usually do to catch up on writing.

Also, there may or may not be a second update this week since I am going to a concert with my friends (my first one yay -- Autumn was sort of lying about bands not ever coming to Washington hehe) so I might not have time to update it between school and leaving.

Hope you all enjoyed this have a good week :)

~WOLFY~