I'm sorry this is short, I've not been feeling all that up to it lately. I will make it up to you :) Enjoy!
"If you are just going to sit there and mop around can you at least make yourself useful?" Dez said.
"Dude I'm watching the game." Austin pointed at the TV.
"Yeah I can see that. I'm sure you can go back home now. And you have work on Monday."
"I like staying here. I'll leave on Sunday." Austin replied.
"If you really are going to stay can you at least go to the store for me?"
"Dude, like I said I'm watching the game."
"Austin." Dez stood in front of the TV.
"Fine." Austin sighed. "What do you want."
"Here's a list."
"Cat food?" Austin asked scanning the list. "You don't have a cat."
"Austin, it's literally sitting right beside you." Dez shook his head.
"Oh." Austin said looked at the cat that was fast asleep in the spot next to him. "Okay." He said jumping up. "I'll go."
"Thank you."
Dez hadn't specified which make of cat food on the list, so after five minutes of debating which one to get Austin settled on the most expensive. If he was staying with them he may as well spoil the cat. He lifted a few packs and threw them into his basket then looked down the list. Everything else was generic enough so he folded the paper up and put it in his back pocket. He was about to search for the next item when he heard a familiar voice.
"Can I have this?"
"Charlie, we can't afford it sweetie." Ally sighed.
"Daddy would let me." The little boy looked down.
"I know.." Ally shrugged. "I will save up and get you something better, I promise."
"Ally?"
"Oh no." Ally said to herself. She turned around to see Austin looking far too happy. "Austin.. Hi?" She smiled.
"I didn't expect you to be here." He laughed a little.
"Yeah…"
"Uh.." He scratched the back of his head. "How have you been?"
"Good." She replied. "You?"
"Yeah.. great." He smiled. "Who's this?" He looked down at the little boy. "Your nephew or something?"
"Um.. he's-"
"She's my mommy." The little boy smiled up at the stranger.
"Your mommy, huh?" Austin's eye's widened. "You learn something new everyday.."
"I didn't think it was important enough to tell you… it's a long story, and not what you think." Ally tried to explain.
"It's fine." Austin shrugged.
"Mommy won't buy my this." Charlie held up an action figure of Captain America.
"Charlie I told you to put that back." Ally sighed.
"I'll buy it." Austin said.
"What?" Ally asked looking confused.
"I'll buy it for him.. I overheard you say you couldn't afford it.."
"Austin I don't need your charity."
"It's not charity. It's just me wanting to buy a kid a toy… please?"
"Fine." Ally sighed. "Say thank you to Austin."
"Thank you." The little boy smiled in awe.
"My pleasure, Charlie?"
"Yeah. It's Charlie." Ally nodded.
"Can I take you guys to lunch?" Austin suggested.
"We have to get back." Ally made excuses.
"Ally come on.. we don't have to hate each other."
"I don't hate you." She said.
"Then let me take you to lunch."
"I don't know." She stepped back.
"It can be your choice where we go." He said and Ally looked down at her little boy. It would be nice for him to have a treat. "Okay." She agreed.
"Yeah?" Austin smiled. "Awesome."
"Here." Austin said handing Charlie five dollars. "You can go play in the ball pit." He smiled.
"Thank you!" The little boy rushed over to join the queue of other children.
"Thank you.. for this." Ally said pushing her now empty plate to the side.
"It's okay." Austin half smiled. "So whats the deal with the kid?"
"It's complicated. He's not mine, biologically anyway. It's a long story."
"I have time." Austin shrugged.
"Well.. a few years ago me and my boyfriend at the time moved into this apartment. We had both went to college for a year but we dropped out. Paul, that was his name got some big shot job working at some company and I thought I could pursue a writing career. Which I do now, but I wanted to be a songwriter, not someone who writes for a newspaper. Anyway, we had neighbours at the apartment. John and Samantha. A few years older than me and Paul, but not much. We became good friends, really good friends. I guess more than we knew. They had a son and named him Charlie, they were pregnant when we moved in so it was all quite sudden. Me and Paul were his godparents. They uh.. they died in a car crash a few months later… and.. and then we found out that they had left Charlie in our custody. Seemed they had no other family members anyway. I don't know what happened there." Ally shrugged and played with her coffee cup. "So we took him in. I was only 20 you know, so it was hard." She paused. "Things with me and Paul got rough. He started going out more and staying late at work.. I guess we all knew what that meant. We finally decided to call it quits after a few months and he moved out. He got promoted and he travels a lot. He loves Charlie though.. a lot. We decided to just keep in touch for the sake of him. Whenever Paul is back in town he'll take Charlie for a few days.. and that's it really."
"Damn.." Austin said. "I had no idea."
"It's life I guess." Ally shrugged. "I love him. He is my son, but it's hard to do things financially. I can't ask Paul for money and I'm too embarrassed to ask my uptight parents. My job doesn't pay enough.. it's just.. messy."
"Are you.. in debt?" Austin asked.
"Yeah." Ally sighed and sat back in her chair. "Trish has tried to help me before but I can't keep taking money off of her. I don't know what to do anymore." She looked at him. "I'm sorry I don't know why I'm telling you all this."
"No, it's alright. I'm glad you did." He smiled. Ally quickly smiled back and then looked over at her son. "This is the most fun he's had in a long time." Ally waved to him. "Thank you."
"Anytime." Austin put his hand on top of hers, which was laid out flat on the table. "I know we aren't the best of friends, but I'm glad we done this." She flinched for a second and then just nodded. "Me too." She looked down at his hand. "Your wearing the ring?"
"Oh.." He pulled his hand anyway. "Yeah.. I figured I might as well until we're actually.. you know? Divorced. That's what you're supposed to do right?"
"I guess." She smiled. "I don't have mine on… I'm sorry."
"It's cool." Ally was about to ask him why he was being so kind when she saw Paul come in and walk up to the counter. Her heart sank and she jumped up. "Hey, hey." Austin said. "Where are you going?"
"I just have to do something. I'm sorry." She ran over and picked up Charlie. "I'm sorry baby we have to go. Do you have your toy?" She asked and the boy nodded. "Thank you Austin for lunch. It was nice."
"Have I done something?" He asked standing up, but she didn't answer him. Instead she just left as quickly as she could. "Ally." He said noticing that she had left her bag on the table. He grabbed it and rushed to the door, banging into a man dressed in a suit.
"Sorry." Austin apologized.
"Watch it asshole." The man spat back shaking his head. "Sorry, yes this is Paul." He said putting the phone back up to his ear. Austin was in too much of a panic to even notice the name.
He ran outside but she was gone. How did she get away so fast? Austin scanned through the crowds of people, but no luck. He looked down at the bag and sighed. "Great."
"So you just took her bag?" Dez asked.
"Did you expect me just to leave it there?"
"Fair point, well can't you call her?"
"I text her." Austin shrugged. "She's not replied yet though."
"Who knows." Dez picked up the bag. "Oh, the expensive kind?" He said looked at the cat food.
"Yeah, I figured the expensive would be the best."
"Probably." Dez smiled. "Come on Garfield, dinner time." Dez walked off into the kitchen.
"Garfield?" Austin asked himself. Most generic cat name ever. He watched as the cat jumped off the couch and followed its owner into the other room. Austin glanced down at the bag. He knew he shouldn't, but he was curious. He opened it and pulled out what looked like a folder. There was some make-up and a half eaten pack of gum. He opened the folder and pulled out all the documents. It looked like bills, and a lot of them. He scanned the first few and was surprised by what he saw. She wasn't lying when she said she was in debt. He genuinely felt bad, he had to do something. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard his text tone go off.
"This is my address." Followed by a street name appeared on his screen.
"On my way." He typed back and hit send. "Dez, I'm going out."
