"'So-whatever happened to you?'

'Life. Life happened.'"- David Nicholls, One Day.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to bring a smile home.

"Thank God for that smile, Austin. Keep it up for the dinner, will you?" His mother looked sincerely delighted to see the sight of her son smiling.

"What?" His smile died down quickly.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "The dinner, your father will be here soon."

Austin sighed in defeat. "Should I drown myself in the pool or eat a plate full of broccoli? Both sound much better than that dinner!" he stated with full sarcasm.

"Do it for me, will you? I can't do it without you."

His anger turned into sympathy within a brief term.

/

"Hey son! How's school!"

Bingo.

"Better than being here, that's for sure." He was trying his best to control his anger; he didn't want to disappoint his mum anymore.

Mr. Moon laughed- almost bitterly, "you sure are still as funny as ever." He said as he patted his son's back. Austin was fighting with his inner self, not to do anything harmful.

On the dining table, his mother had set everything so beautifully. Very colour-coordinated, and each utensils were perfectly placed. Austin wondered why she even tried to make this dinner worth it when he would rather be elsewhere.

There was a pot full of spaghetti, a jug of water and...pancakes and his hunger relatively made him forget about his hatred towards his own father.

The air around them on the dinner table was so suffocating with awkwardness that Austin was about to die. He had never heared silence so loud before. They would casually made small talks but after a while, it became too uncomfortable to even speak.

"How's life, son?"

He scoffed, "I am laughing at the fact that you pretend to care." He suddenly lost his appetite.

"I do care, Austin."

His mum looked at him with pleading eyes, to stop Austin from causing any unwanted acts. But his anger was boiling in a pot of flame in his stomach.

He dropped his eating utensils on his plate, a little too loud for his mum's liking. "Of course you do. That's why you walked in on us. Because you care." He spoke with fake kindness.

"You don't-"

"No dad, I do understand. I am seventeen! I know a cheating man when I see one." His dad's eyes grew large. "Oh, and did you forget about your family you gave promises to? Did you forget about your own son? I needed a father. I needed a figure to set me examples. But I guess all I will be able to do is cheat. Right dad?"

Mr. Moon slammed the table with his fist.

Austin looked over at his mum to see tears running down her face and he couldn't feel guiltier. "Please stop. Please! Just stop! Please…" She was sobbing then, and ran away from the dinner table she had worked so hard on.

The flame in his heart burnt himself, Austin could feel himself evaporating in sadness and defeat.

"Austin-"

"Will you just go? You messed this family enough times already."

/

Dez sighed, it would be his nth time seeing his best friend locking lips with some random girl he caught in the hallways.

"Do I always have to find you like this?"

Austin smiled cheekily. "Hey, you're interrupting my time with Austin!" the girl said for a minute before cupping Austin's jaw and Dez stuck his tongue out.

"Yeah, that's enough. Okay, bye!" Austin pushed her out of his view and focused on his best friend. He suddenly missed him, as he knew they hadn't been spending much time together.

Dez shook his head. "Wow, Austin. You could have done much better than her!"

Austin leaned his back on his locker and crossed his arms. "Like you know anything about women, besides, I was just waiting for you."

"Could you do something else while waiting for me next time?" He joked.

Dez might not be the smartest best friend, but he knew exactly when Austin was stressed out about something. "You okay, man?"

He looked to the ground and tried to find a bunch of lies to tell his best friend, so that he would not pry. But at the end of it, he grew tired of always lying.

"My dad. He came over yesterday. You should just know the rest of the story did not go well." He finally spoken and ran a hand to his shiny bleached, blond hair.

Dez nodded in understanding. "Oh, I am sorry."

"Hey, watch where you going!" A voice roared out with a loud bump that caused almost everyone in the hall to look at the source of noise, including Austin and Dez.

The hall is just so full of events. Austin thought.

Until the event had Ally in it.

Austin ran over to Ally who was on the ground and helped her up, which left murmurs going around the hall. "Maybe you should watch where you were going, douche bag!" He shouted to the boy who had made Ally come in contact with the ground, the second time this week. Austin felt triumphant, as the boy ran in loss.

"Are you okay?" He checked her skin for any sign of bruises. Realizing that he was technically checking her out, he had twenty different shades of red in his face and Dez snickered.

"Yeah, I am okay. Thank Austin, but really, you shouldn't have said those things, he really doesn't know that I can't see." Ally responded which received Dez to have trouble understanding.

"You can't see? Why? Is the hallway too dark?" He glanced around the place and Austin nudged him right in the chest. "Ow!"

Austin thought Ally might be upset about what Dez had uttered, but instead she laughed. "No, it's not too dark."

He whispered to Dez, "she's blind, frog boy."

Dez bit his lip in shame, "I apologize!" his apology was sort of out of hand, with him kneeling up and down to Ally, and the students around were sending him looks.

"That's fine, Austin's friend."

"Dez."

She smiled at his name. "That's so unique! Is it short for something?"

Huh, Austin never wondered about that, and Dez never mentioned anything about it, either.

"I have no idea!" With that, Dez gave him a thumbs up and pat Ally to signal that he was leaving the two.

Austin had been silent for a little while so she was trying to grab hold of where he was and accidentally touched his chest. Right in the spot, it grew really hot inside him and sent chills around his body. He gulped all his anxiety. "Ah, there you are." She said nonchalantly, "I better get to class, thanks again."

When he finally found his voice and the energy to speak, he grabbed her wrist. "Let me take you to class."

She shook her head in protest, "No, you would be late for class, I can find my way there by myself with no problem." Ally took her wrist off Austin's grip and he finally grasped that he had been holding it for too long.

It wasn't that he cared about being late, but Ally was making him feel all these perceptions and when he was finally awake from the thoughts, he couldn't even catch up to her as she was lost amongst numerous of students.

Thanks for reading! and i appreciate all the reviews, favourites and follows i've gotten in the previous chapters, and even if you didn't review or anything, i still appreciate all the views i've received. thank you :)

I am sorry if this chapter wasn't the best.