The next day, I had a family dinner to attend and told Austin to not worry about coming. While I would have loved for him to be there, I didn’t feel ready to introduce him to my grandparents and aunt & uncles yet. And thankfully, Austin agreed that he thought it was best to wait until our relationship had further progressed.
“Aunt Addison! Oh, I’ve missed you,” I squealed, as I wrapped my arms around her neck.
My aunt Addison is my mom’s younger sister and is like a second mom to me.
“Congratulations on graduating! I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to be there for you,” she smiled as she pulled away.
I smiled back, “I know, but at least I get to see you now!”
We took a moment to catch up before everyone began lining up to fix their plates in our backyard. Once I had mine, I found Emma and Miles and took a seat between them, across from two of our cousins.
“Chloe has a boyfriend,” Emma blurted out to Sage, Aunt Addison’s daughter.
Sage looked to me, a puzzled expression on her face, “Since when? And who?!”
I put my face into my hands before looking back up at Sage. “Yes, his name is Austin,” I smiled. “We weren’t announcing to the whole family yet,” I shot Emma a mean look and she quickly turned her attention to poking at her food.
“Tell me about him! I’ve been with Lawson since I was a freshman in high school, I need some exciting new relationships in my life as well as something to get me to stop thinking about him,” Sage exclaimed, he smile faltering a little at the end.
Sage is only a year older than I am and is married to her high school sweetheart, Lawson. Lawson is part of the National Guard and is currently deployed. At this point, he’s been gone for almost 3 months. But while Sage and I weren’t super close, I knew she had never met Austin.
“He’s actually in the Army, he’s stationed at Hunter, but he and I go way back to middle school. We kinda pinky promised we’d give each other a shot once we graduated college, if we weren’t seeing anyone,” I explained, while my stomach was doing flips.
“Awe, that’s so sweet! I bet he’s hot too, Lawson got huge after he enlisted.”
I pulled up a photo Austin and I had taken the night we went to Tybee Island and turned the phone to her. In the photo, we were sitting on a bench swing. He had his arm draped over my shoulder, my blonde hair was flying all over the place from the wind and he was looking at me with the goofiest smile on his face.
“Wait! Like Austin Taylor? You know who that is right,” her smile was completely gone, she seemed to be concerned.
My heart dropped, I knew everything had been too good to be true.
“Why do I feel like you’re about to tell me something I don’t want to hear,” my eyes dropped to my plate, my appetite was now gone.
Emma placed her hand on my back, and Miles had turned away from his conversation with Alden, Sages younger brother.
“He was dating Lawson’s sister for like a year and a half and then broke up with her like 3 months ago. She’s pregnant, with his baby,” Sage responded.
My throat felt dry, like it was closing up and I couldn’t breath. It felt like the room was spinning and everything I had known for the past month was a complete lie. I couldn’t help but feel like Austin had completely betrayed me.
I pushed my plate to the middle of the table and stood up, trying to regain my balance. I ran inside the house as the tears began to fall from my eyes. I ran upstairs to my room and and pulled myself into the bed and under the covers.
I couldn’t believe that Austin would have kept a secret that large away from me, especially since we had been talking about our future together so much. We had been talking about having our own children, obviously not anytime soon as the relationship was still new. I sobbed into my pillow and eventually drifted off to sleep, but not without sending Austin a text.
‘I know about your baby. We’re done.’
***
The next morning, I avoided checking my phone and my parents seemed to now be aware of the situation. I assumed Emma had told them, as my run inside the house was noticed by just about everyone that had been at the party.
I decided I wasn’t leaving my room and put Grey’s Anatomy on the TV. A few moments later, I turned it off, unable to watch the show Austin and I had always watched together. This man had not only managed to break my heart, but also ruin my favorite television show.
I decided to pull myself out of bed and at least change out of the clothes I had worn for the party. Sleeping in denim shorts had not been comfortable, not even in the slightest.
I pulled open my dresser drawer and grabbed a pair of black pajama shorts with grey trim and a Georgia Bulldogs tshirt out. I slipped out of my clothes and quickly pulled the clean ones on, eager to just get back in bed.
As I climbed back into bed, my phone, which was sitting on my nightstand, lit up and began to buzz. It was Skylar, but I was in no mood to talk, and I definitely didn’t want to have to explain everything to her.
I picked my phone up and silenced the call, which sent me to the notification screen.
7 missed calls and 18 texts, all from Austin. I wasn’t ready to read them yet, but at the same time, I needed to see what he had to say. I felt that there had to be some sort of explanation to all of this, but I just wasn’t ready yet.
I put my phone back down as the texts from Skylar began to come through for missing her phone call. They could both wait, in this moment, I just needed time for myself. Time to really think about the whole situation.
But most importantly, I needed time to reflect on the fact that I was alone now. The pinky promise had failed, and Austin had beyond broken my trust.