WELL NOW, IF YOUR BABY LEAVES YOU
AND YOU GOT A TALE TO TELL
WELL, JUST TAKE A WALK DOWN LONELY ST.
TO HEARTBREAK HOTEL.

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

I've not been in 225 since yesterday. The last time I heard Austin's voice was yesterday. The last time I saw his face was yesterday. The last time we had sex was yesterday. Olga was here, yesterday.

She has a punchable face, and my brother wrapped around her finger. Sometimes I wish Austin had never came to Heartbreak Hotel... It was Olga that broke him, that I know, but I don't know how.

Austin never tells me. None of the details. I've asked him over a million times, and each time, his answer was the same. "Someone broke my heart, but you fixed it."

I hate when Austin speaks in unreadable mysteries. My hands shake as I hand the customer in front of me her keys, she does look like Priscilla. Holly and Oliver say it was a false alarm. Olivia is, in fact, not Oliva... Not Priscilla's mother.

Hopelessness. I am completely and utterly made out of it. I don't know how much longer we can hide Priscilla, and I don't know how much longer I can hide from Austin. He will walk out of the elevators, and he will look at me, want to talk to me.

Before the situation occurs, I force a smile at the last customer and knock on the door of Damian's office.

"In!" He hollers from the inside.

He sits at his desk, fingers typing away on his keyboard. "Yes, Crawford." He has not looked up, yet knows who it is. I have this theory that Damian might be from outerspace... Or he might have just been neglected as a child.

Either way, I bulk up the courage to ask for an off day. "Today's really empty, I'm not feeling so good, and Holly and Oliver are here anyways." I explain.

His office, dimly lit, makes him look like a typical villain in an animation made by white men. Damian's typing comes to a halt, before he slowly lifts his head and snaps his brows at me. A sigh exits his mouth. "Since this is the first time you've asked in one-thousand-two-hundred-and-twelve days, I'll allow you this one day off."

"Yeah..." I raise my brows, "Thank you for your generosity." and turn around to leave.

As I'm pushing the doorhandle down, "Ottilie." Damian calls for me. I turn back around, instantly, and wait for him to speak. He gets up out of his chair, footsteps heavy and dense, he approaches me. I take a couple steps back, not that I'm scared of him, just extremely intimidated. Damian's hands reach out for my shoulders, and pull me in for a hug. It feels weird at first, and throughout the entire thing, but I get used to the warmth. I ignore the immediate frown on my face, and wrap my arms around him lightly. He is gentle, unlike anything he's ever said to me before. Damian sighs, "Thank you." He whispers, chin resting on my shoulder.

"For what?" I ask.

Damian does not answer, but I can feel him smile. He breaks the hug and stands with his hands behind his back. "Come on. Go home and rest. Tomorrow's Monday. Busy day."

I nod and don't question it further. I am not aware of why he thanked me. Maybe it was for all the years I tolerated him, which a little 'thank you' does absolutely no fixing to, whatsoever.

Leaving Damian's office, I feel bad for lying. The one day off I ask for, and I'm going to use it for something I should have done weeks ago.

-

I ring the bell and it takes several minutes before I do so again. The door opens to a woman wearing a creased, oversized button down, and nothing else. The buttons are barely done, and her legs are barely covered. Mascara smudged, hair looking like a bird's nest. I gulp. "Is Julian here?"

"He's sleeping." The woman yawns, hands on the doorframe. "Who are you?"

"Can you wake him up? It's urgent."

She goes inside, a frown plastered on her face, and I hear her footsteps vanish up the stairs. My feet start tapping, and I don't know why I'm chewing on my fingernails. From upstairs, groans and muffles erupt. I hear a vague "Who?" Being spoken.

"Some girl, I don't know."

After what felt like a century, the door frame is filled again, this time by the borderline naked Julian. He scratches his neck, hair ruffled, his eyes widen when he sees me standing in front of him. I can't help but scrunch my nose at his leopard printed boxer briefs.

He clears his throat. "Ottie!" Hands frantically skimming through the coat hangers on the wall, he finds a long one and puts it on before inviting me in. "Why- why are you here?"

"I need to ask you something." I tell him, and sit at the very edge of the couch. The place is trashed. Whiskey and wine bottles everywhere, put out cigarette butts and ash scattered around the table, as well as towels used for obvious reasons thrown over the armrests of the couch. I want to puke.

Arms crossed in front of her chest, "What do you need to talk about?" The woman raises a brow.

Julian clicks his tongue. "Honey, just go wait in my room, I'll be back in a minute." He shoos her away, hand swatting in the air like he's chasing a fly.

When it's just the two of us, I take a deep breath. "It's about Austin." I say.

Intrigued, Julian straightens his back. He's clearly overheated in that coat, but prefers to be covered in front of me. "What about him?"

"I want you to tell me everything about him." I say. "Why he's at Andromeda, why he drinks, whatever the fuck his relationship with Olga is... All of it."

A smirk finds his lips. "I'm guessing the relationship is not going very peachy after all..."

I roll my eyes, audibly sighing so he lets it go.

"I'm just saying," he raises his hands in protest, "I told you Austin wasn't a relationship guy. What'd he do? Cheat? Or is he on drugs again?"

Again. I knew there was a past. I should've known when I saw the white powder. "Tell me about that. Is he an addict?"

"Not by choice, but yeah." He replies, fingers searching for a new cigarette to light. He places it between his lips and takes a puff.

"What does that mean?" I scorn. "Did you pressure him?"

"God no." He laughs. Julian holds the cigarette in my direction, and I shake my head. He throws his head back and sighs longly. "I'm never messing with that shit again."

Tired, I squeeze my thighs and grunt. "Can you just fucking tell everything?!"

"Damn!" He snaps. "Calm down! I will!"

And he does. Julien tells me everything. "Austin, Olga, and I were friends. I mean- Olga and I were dating. I'm not gonna beat around the bush, I was seeing other women behind her back, whatever, so she wanted to do the same. I guess Austin had an eye on her. I caught them fucking, and just broke it off. I'm not a relationship guy, and I accept it. I don't know where Austin got the confidence to date you."

I listen wide-eyed. These are the things Austin never even considered bringing up.

"When I was with Olga, I was always tired, and out of energy. I never knew what it was, until I saw Austin being the same with her. He always looked like a damn ghost, with dark circles and all, and I used to look the same way. It just looked familiar. I kinda joked about it to Austin, I told him "good luck!" you know? Like, I was glad I'm not with Olga. Then a couple weeks later, I met one of Olga's ex boyfriends. We sat down and had coffee, and I told him Olga and I broke it off. He told me he was happy for me, and that Olga was evil. Then he told me something, and everything suddenly clicked."

I watch Julien take a puff, patiently waiting for him to continue. My heart nearly beating out of my chest. "What did he tell you?"

Julien's face was nothing I could recognize. I had never seen him like this. He sat up, straightening his back, and put out his cigarette on the table before clearing his throat. "That she was secretly drugging him."

Goosebumps. They are all over me. A chill travels down my back, and my mouth hangs agape. I gasp. "... That means she..."

Julien nods. "She drugged me, and Austin too."

Fuck.

-

I want to talk about it. I want Austin to talk about it, tell me everything he's been through, his struggles and whatnot. Though I know he won't. Austin is a locked box, and the key doesn't exist.

In the mere time we dated, I have told him my past and my present, my goals for the future, and everything I've ever had on my mind. I told him about my exes, my late mother, my step-mother -who he met on countless occasions-, my father, who he has never seen. He must know every detail about my life leading up to him, yet all I know about him were things I learned from other people.

As thoughts roam my brain, the elevator doors open. Speak of the angel. Austin walks out and nears me by the reception. "Ottie!"

I smile weakly, elbows on the counter. "Hi."

"What happened? You just left the room and never talked to me after! I called you, texted you-"

"I'm just tired." I tell him. Shutting my eyes, I hope the throb in my brain goes away. It doesn't.

He gulps. Austin leans in and holds my wrists, gently, before ducking his head to look me in my eyes. "What's going on? Talk to me."

So lost, he doesn't know he's the one that's supposed to talk to me. "Austin, I'm just- work's been too much lately. Sorry, I didn't mean to just leave like that."

"Ottie, something's bothering you, I can tell." He lets go of my wrists and plants a kiss on the top of my forehead. Hands caressing my head, fingers gliding through my frizzy brown hair. "What is it?"

I don't want to be rude. I have worked all my life to change my attitude, and as much as I love him, Austin reminds me of my older, grumpier self.

"This." I say, and shove his hands away. "This! The way you act so, so mysterious and- you never tell me anything!"

Austin takes a step back. "Baby I, I was planning to!"

"Planning to what?" I ask, palms smacking the counter, then I remember the couple customers waiting in the hall and lower my voice, "Just tell me what you need to tell me!"

Please tell me. I can't be the one to bring up his past, I need Austin to tell me himself. He has to tell me about Olga, to let it go. Gulping, I see him gather his thoughts, searching for the right words.

"Hugo." He begins. "He's been blackmailing me."

Shivers travel down my spine. "What?"

"He threatened me with telling you I'm doing drugs if I don't give him the fifteen k." Austin blurts out at once. It seems like he had to get it off his chest.

I knew Hugo was capable of blackmail, especially with Olga in his mind. Though not surprised, I am glad he told me this. I need more.

"Well," I shrug, "are you?"

Silence takes over the both of us. Wind from the open doors blows through my hair, and I see Austin's eyes turn glossy. "What?" His voice cracks. "No? No! I'm, I'm not doing drugs!"

I know. I know, my life. I wish I could wrap him up in my arms and tell him it'll be okay, but I struggle to even look at him when he's so distant. We should be arguing about rehab, not the drug itself, but Austin won't admit to it. I can't help him, if he can't help himself. Sighing deeply, "Austin, maybe we should take a break."

Another wave of silence. He looks at me like he's about to break. "Wh- What's that supposed to mean."

I look up at him, tears starting to well in my eyes. "Just- a break! Stay away from each other for a little while, until we're both ready to talk."

"Ottie? We are ready to talk! I just told you about Hugo, please! Don't do this to me!"

His hands try and hold me but I take a step back, scorning, "You're making this so much harder!" I wipe the tears off my face and sniffle. "I can't pretend things are okay?! So until you're ready to tell me everything, let's just take a break!"

"A break?" He scoffs. His hands find the back of his neck. "That's a fucking joke."

I watch as he paces back and forth.

Ultimately, "You know what?" Austin points. "We might as well just break up."

My heart, it sinks. I eyes falter back and forth between his ocean ones. "What?"

"I know what you mean by break." He takes a deep breath and shoves his hands in the pockets of his dress pants. "Let's just break up."

And just like that, Austin leaves for the elevator.

My mouth, slightly open, I try to process it. Austin just broke up with me. Tears fall down my face like pearls, while my hands grip the edge of the counter. Weak in the knees, and weeped in the employee's room that whole evening.

Julian was right. Austin is not a relationship guy.

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER

Austin and Julian throw fists,
and Ottie hates them for it.

Austin tries to talk to Ottie again.

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