Free Fated by Nicole Tetterton Page A

He laughs, standing beside me looking to the ocean, and then looks over to me.
    “Come on, I want to take you somewhere.” He says pulling me by my arm as we go up to his house and get into the car, pulling off down the road.
    When we pull up I see the giant stadium i n front of me, “Why are we here? Is there anyone even here?”
    “Nope,” he smiles to me and I look at him confused, “So , a little secret no one knows about me, but my mother’s side of the family owns the stadium.”
    “No way,” He nods.
    “Come on, let’s go.” He pulls my hand, we walk inside of the building and as we pass a janitor that is mopping he looks up to Austin,
    “Good afternoon, Mr. Calloway.” He nods to him.
    “George.” He pulls my out into the stands and down onto the field.
    “Austin, what are we doing?” I ask him and he smiles back at me.
    “I come here sometimes when no one is here, and hit some balls around.” He smiles to me walking to a dugout and grabbing a couple of balls and a bat. He hands me the bat and then walks to the mound.
    “Are you going to hit me with the ball?” I joke.
    “It’s possible.” He shrugs and then laughs, “Just focus all of your anger onto the ball.” I watch as he pitches it and it comes to me. I swing with as much force as I can produce and watch as the ball flies into the back field.
    “Wooooo,” I scream and toss the bat down and begin to round the bases, Austin is laughing as he turns to watch me run. “Home run, bitches” he laughs harder with my addition.
    “Sure if I don’t attempt to go and get it.” I stick my tongue out at him and He laughs again. “Doesn’t that help?” he asks and I nod my head. “Come on let’s go somewhere else.” He says grabbing my hand and leading me into a bar that sits inside of the building.
    “What are we doing in here?”
    “Shh,” he says walking up to where a mic sits and turning on some switches. “Come on help me pick a song,” he says to me. We scroll through many songs before he picks one out and walks over to the microphone and begins to sing along with the music. I laugh hopping onto one of the stools and watching him sing into the mic. I clap as loud as my hands will let me. He finishes and walks over to the bar pulling up one of the bottles of liquor and pouring us both a shot.
    “What are you doing?” I ask him and he smiles.
    “You’re next,” he laughs as I shake my head, “Come on, Soph, I’m the only one here.”
    “Fine,” I say and toss the liquid back into my throat. I pick out Flyleaf and start to sing, I see him smiling at me until the song ends.
    “Wow, I knew that you could sing, but I didn’t know you could sing like that.” I laugh it off as we take another shot. We continue to sing along to songs, taking turns, sometimes singing together, until I start to sing Coldplay and I realize that I am singing it to him. That I want to fix him; that I want him to know that he is worthy of love, when I say the last words before the instrumental part of the song I see his eyes deepen as he gets up off the stool, abruptly, and walks over to me, pressing his mouth forcefully to mine. I kiss him back passionately and he tangles his hand into my hair. He pulls back with the last line, singing it to me, telling me that he wants to heal me, and I smash my lips back to his. He pulls me back up to the bar as he lifts me up so that my face is level with his and pulls back looking at me, “I just want to kiss you tonight.” He tells me and pushes his face back towards mine; I’m not sure how this makes me feel because he is willing to jump into bed with anyone… except for me.
    We finally leave later on in the night, late enough that I hope everyone in the house is asleep. We stop in the driveway and Austin comes over opening the door for me and walking me up to the house.
    “Good night, sweet Sophie,” he says and leans over slightly to kiss me again. I intensify our kiss as he pulls back, “I meant