{ So here is the third chapter. Like I said before and I will say again, I'm sorry for mispellings and fluency issues. So far, all of this was written when I'd had no sleep for nearly 4 days. Tell me what you think!}

An Autumn Breeze...

Chapter Three

When Rosemary opened her eyes again, Austin sat in a chair beside her bed. His head hung down, as he was obviously asleep. Soft mutters and the occasional sharp breath were the only sounds he made as he tossed through a dream. Rosemary couldn't help but smile at this. It was just like Austin, too afraid to leave her side. Or maybe it was only because he promised... She wasn't sure but she did know that it was incredibly sweet of him. With a small shock as she slowly began to more easily comprehend her surroundings, she looked down to find their fingers still intertwined just as they had been when she'd fallen into that deep, comforting slumber. With a small gasp as she saw their hands still together, she only wished he'd hold her hand like this more often. An innocent request, yes, but still, it made her fluttery inside to find herself longing for it. She'd never wanted any of these things before... Why so suddenly...?

At just that moment, Austin began to stir, and, being the fool she thought herself to be, she laid her head back down and pretended to be asleep. She peered at him through her eyelashes as he slowly aroused himself. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand and then looked down at her, a thick smile spreading across his face. He looked down at their fingers intertwined, but instead of shock or embarrassment, he only smiled wider. Rosemary wished so badly she could know what he was thinking as he looked down at her.

Just as Rosemary was about to pretend to be waking up, he spoke. This sent a jolt down her spine, she thought for sure he knew she was awake, but he didn't say anything about it if he knew. Instead, he spoke as if he were speaking to himself, like she wasn't there, but his speaking was still somehow directed at her.

"Oh Rosy. What have I done? I've tried to stay away and give you you're space since Mitchel's death but... Now I'm finding it harder and harder to be away from you... Today, in the kitchen... The way you looked at me... I thought for sure you saw right through me... And I thought maybe... I thought maybe you were finding it tough to be away as well..." Here, he paused and gave a small, half-hearted laugh. "I almost..." And here he stopped.

There were footsteps on the stairs, that's what had broken his talking. She watched as he turned slightly in the chair to see the person ascending the stairs. Suddenly Michael popped up. He looked very concerned, and was frowning deeply.

"She still hasn't woken up, huh?" He asked gravely.

Through her eyelashes, Rosemary watched Austin shake his head and then he gazed back over at her. "Not yet." He suddenly turned back to a frowning Michael, and Rosemary heard him clear his throat. He's nervous. She thought. He clears his throat like that when he's nervous. And then he spoke, and that sealed the deal. The way his voice cracked just a tiny bit. She was sure he was nervous. "Y-you didn't hear anything on your way up here, did you?"

She watched as a devious smile spread across Michael's lips. "You mean you practically confessing what we've all known since third grade?" Michael chuckled a little and Rosemary heard Austin take in a sharp breath. Michael crossed the short distance from the doorway to the bed in three good strides. He was only fourteen, but he was already almost taller than Rosemary, who was 5'8. He stood beside Austin who looked back at Rosemary, blushed, but still did not unlace his fingers from hers. He simply shifted them, and this caught Michael's attention. Again he chuckled, but more softly this time. "Don't worry bro." Michael laid a hand on Austin's back. "You're secret is safe with me."

"Thanks." Austin muttered as he gazed lovingly at Rosemary's face.

"No problem. Although, I'm not sure how she wouldn't know by now. It's pretty obvious." At this, Austin blushed a little. Michael patted Austin once on the back and turned and began descending the stairs. He called back over his shoulder, "By the way, I think she's awake."

"What?" Austin called back to Michael, perhaps just a tad too loudly. Taking this as her cue to be 'awakened', Rosemary suddenly opened her eyes, pretended the sudden burst of light bothered her, covered her eyes with her free hand, and moaned. She found she was actually a pretty decent actor. He seemed to believe it.

"What's all this noise?" She asked, trying to sound still half-asleep.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up." With her hand over her eyes, he looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at the the stairway, mentally cursing Michael for scaring him, even though he'd been right. He turned back to Rosemary, who looked down at their hands and tried to recreate that shocked expression she'd had the actual first time she'd seen their fingers still intertwined. He couldn't help but smile and blush a little. "Yeah... I... I didn't want to move away and wake you up." He said as a last resort when he couldn't think of a better excuse. He felt like slamming his head against the wall.

Rosemary smiled at him, in her gorgeous way, and his heart nearly melted. She was sure he was blushing, and she was simply eating it up. She giggled a little and flexed her fingers in the spaces that they were resting in. He blushed a little more at this, and held her hand tighter and gave it a small squeeze. At this they both looked up and their eyes met. At that moment, Rosemary felt whole. Whole like she'd never been before. She smiled, and he opened his mouth to say something when Michael's voice called from downstairs.

"Breakfast!" He called, and they both laughed when his voice cracked.

"Well I'm starving. How about you? You should really eat since you were sick and all. I was really worried. S-so was Michael. I don't think you're uncle is awake yet but we better warn him that you aren't feeling well. How did you sleep? I'm sorry for waking you. Oh yeah, breakfast, come on!" Austin suddenly rambled. Rosemary looked at him, dazed, and actually confused considering he'd spat out all of that information all at once. He simply gave her an apologetic smile and helped her out of bed and downstairs. Only when they reached the table did he finally let go of her hand to pass her the bacon.

Rosemary couldn't help but wonder what he'd meant by all of that 'I'm finding it harder and harder to stay away', stuff. He'd been purposely trying to keep away from her? But it couldn't be because he didn't like her. If that were the case, then he wouldn't have said it was hard for him to stay away. That thought was reassuring but what did Michael mean about Austin, 'confessing what we've all known since third grade'? Rosemary did a recap of the years since then, and she couldn't see Austin avoiding her in any way. Maybe they'd drifted apart in the past couple of years, pretty much since they were in 8th grade they'd gradually grown slowly apart, and it became evident in their freshman year that he didn't want to spend as much time with her. But she'd always figured that was just how it went. You get to high school, you think you're all big and bad, and you sometimes forget about some of your friends. Rosemary had never taken any offense to it, nor had she ever thought much of it. But now, with him bringing it up... But it wasn't really meant for you to hear... Don't worry about it. He's probably just feeling guilty or something. She tried to reassure herself. She'd been so caught up in her own thoughts, she didn't even hear Austin trying to ask her a question.

"Rosy? Hello?" Again, when Austin spoke the childhood nickname, it sent a chill up Rosemary's spine. She blinked and looked at him like a clueless animal. He smiled and chuckled softly. "I asked, 'Do you want any oatmeal?'"

Rosemary mentally shook herself and nodded. "Oatmeal would be great actually." She plastered on a smile and tried to look as genuinely happy as she could.

Austin smiled and got up to fix her some 'Apples and Cinnamon.' Michael took the chair across from her and smiled at her. When Austin had his back to them, Michael leaned over the table to talk to Rosemary.

"Did you hear me and Austin talking this morning?" He asked in a hushed tone, obviously not wanting Austin to hear.

She looked up and tried to act surprised. "Uh, no. Why do you ask?" She questioned, trying to stay calm and stuffing a bite of scrambled eggs into her mouth.

"Are you sure you didn't hear? I was pretty sure you were awake." Michael smiled deviously.

Rosemary chewed her bite of eggs, hoping it would spare her some time while she thought of a way to answer. Michael could tell when she was lying. There had to be someway to get around telling him the truth... There had to be... Just as she swallowed, her technique failed to stall quite long enough, she opened her mouth to spit out whatever lame excuse she could think of, a bite of oatmeal was dumped into her mouth by a smiling Austin. She looked up at him as she chewed. It tasted good, and allowed her a bit more time.

"So, what do you think?" Austin asked hopefully.

She finished chewing and swallowed hard. "It's really good." She smiled up at him, still trying to think of a way to answer Michael.

"I'm glad." Austin sat the rest of the bowl of oatmeal down in front of her and then sat in the chair next to her. A sigh of relief nearly escaped Rosemary's lips. With Austin around, she wouldn't have to answer Michael right away. He wouldn't dare ask in front of Austin, and she knew it.

When Austin looked away, Michael mouthed 'later'. And Rosemary nodded. She absently wondered how long 'later' would be, and if she'd have time to come up with a reasonable excuse before then. For now, she was thankful to have Austin by her side, not only because it helped her stall until she had to talk to Michael again. She could also smell the cologne seeping from him and frankly, he smelled wonderful. She wasn't sure why, but she suddenly was thankful that he smelt so good. And not only that, she wanted him by her side. In fact, she was craving his touch. She wanted him to hold her, and whisper sweet things to her and... and... and kiss her!

This thought shocked her. I want him to KISS me? I, Rosemary Judith Parks, want Austin James Fellon to Kiss Me! What is happening to me? She mentally screamed. She wanted to scream to the world too. She wanted to scream, that, in some way she did not understand possible, she was falling in love with the boy next door...

{Chapter Four will be coming soon, I promise. For now, I need some much needed sleep. Love you all. Don't forget to PM me whenever you want. I'll respond as soon as possible. :D }