Free A Fire That Burns by Kirsty-Anne Still

backwards with immense force. She shouldn’t have gotten a sense
of glee from seeing Austin slam into the bench on the sidewalk, but it seemed
she still had the upper hand over Austin like she had in high school.
    Austin felt the impact of the back of the bench on her stomach and
immediately she was winded.   She fell to
the floor only just aware of her brother fighting in her corner before being by
her side. She could feel where her stomach had taken the brunt force of the
fall and she began to feel positive when the pain began to subside, but she was
still terrified to move.
    Ignoring Tom, Natasha went straight for Austin again, “It’s not real by
the way. I bought the necklace myself, but I do still love winding you up,
Aussie!” Natasha exclaimed and looked at Austin’s downtrodden expression. “Want
me to let Tyler in on the big news?”
    “Don’t you fucking dare! ” Tom glowered at
Natasha. “You ruin anything I will make sure he knows once and for all what
type of bitch he’s been friends with. I think your friendship is long overdue
for being over.”
    “He’ll never listen to you and you won’t do that,” Natasha challenged
Tom. “Not when I can just tell my daddy that Tyler doesn’t deserve the
promotion they have in line for him.” She spoke that last line with an
exaggerated tone and then smirked as Tom looked on in defeat. “That’s what I
thought.”
    She then said nothing more and left the pair and continued walking to
the bar.
    Feeling he was beginning to shake from the anger in him, Tom knew one
day he would tell everyone what a mega bitch they had ignored and he would get
the same amount of glee out of it that Natasha got from being it. “You okay?”
Tom turned to his sister, immediately worried about her welfare and hated that
she refused his help as she got herself up.
    “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Austin tried to speak clearly, but her tone was
still strained from the impact. Pushing through it, she got to her feet, using
the bench for support. She saw Natasha going off and she felt her knees go weak
at her going to Tyler.
    “We can go to him now if you want,” Tom tried to cause some sort of
damage control of the situation. “We can beat Natasha there if I drive.”
    Austin looked up with teary eyes, “Can we just go back to your house?”
    “Sure we can,” he told her and took her hand and led her straight back
to his place where she seemed to settle down and forget about Natasha. Just how
he had hoped she would.
    Hours later he never expected to be in the hospital, watching his little
sister receive the most devastating news possible. He had been helping Austin
find the perfect way to tell Tyler the news and now there was no baby to share
the news of.
    She hadn’t said a word since the doctor had left. All they were waiting
on were the discharge papers, important information to make sure Austin
physically recovered from this quickly and that she had relevant information on
support groups and counselors to help her mental
state.
    Tom had barely seen her move either but when she suddenly did, he was
terrified at how vacant Austin’s eyes were becoming of emotion.
    “I can’t face him,” she whispered to him and her tone was just as void
as her eyes. “How can I?” She asked nonchalantly and attempted to redeem some
composure. “I don’t want to be alone, Tom, and I don’t want to go home.”
    He hated hearing his sister so lost and knew it was up to him to protect
her and look after her until she was able to face Tyler. “Then you come home
with me, Aussie,” Tom told his sister, willing to stick by her regardless. “You
stay with me, and tomorrow you have to tell him everything. Especially
what she did. He needs to know everything. You cannot lie to him about
this.”
    “Tomorrow I will tell him,” Austin told her brother and felt herself
beginning to unravel again. The grief she felt clawing its way up her throat,
burning away within her.
    Tom accepted that