forty five days after

Austin sat in the passenger's seat as Takumi drove Pudge and the Colonel to Coosa 'We Cater to Your Spiritual Needs' Liquors.

"The thing is that I just don't find it very interesting." Takumi stated.

"It might be hard to explain that to the director of admissions at Harvard." Chip replied.

"I don't know." I find it pretty compelling." Pudge said. Austin stayed silent, looking out the window.

Her and Takumi's rough patch was still going strong, which kinda began to freak her out. Were they done? She didn't think so as she sat there in the passenger's seat of his car, but shit, what if? She didn't know how she'd handle that.

Chip and Pudge got out of the car, heading in to get their cigarettes. Austin turned to Takumi.

"Hey." She whispered.

"Hey." He replied, not looking at her.

"I know you're angry at me but, can we just be okay again?" She asked. "Or are we done?"

Takumi didn't look at her, his gaze dropping to his lap. "I don't know." He replied.

Austin nodded, her eyes slowly filling with tears as she opened the car door to move to the back seat. When Chip and Miles came back, neither said anything or questioned it, Chip taking Austin's old seat and Pudge sitting beside her. They rolled their windows down, smoking. Austin felt Miles scoot over to the middle seat after rolling his window up. He'd grown cold from Takumi's rolled down window but Austin didn't mind the wind blowing from Chip's.

It dried the tears on her face before anyone could see them.