most girls

“ we’ve been dating a while, so, ” he shrugged, as if to communicate that it wasn’t particularly surprising that he and ariella got along. he slid the drink toward her when the bar tender finished making them, quickly taking a sip of his short glass. needless to say, austin actually felt comfortable around hailee, that much could be seen from his relaxed body language. “ … you hailee, are actually cursed, ” he concluded, when she explained that her bathroom and bedroom had flooded. “ painting, huh? what sort of painting? ” he asked. austin had always enjoyed drawing and painting on every so occasion, not something that would’ve been unknown to hailee. there were probably still a few sketches he did of her stored somewhere underneath his bed back at his dad’s home in boston. “ good, ” he chuckled in a low voice. “ yeah… wouldn’t be pretty. ”

“so, i’ve heard. i guess i don’t really keep up with celebrity couples and so, i didn’t even realize you two were together until i got here.” hailee took the glass in her hand stared at the liquid for a moment. it’d been a long couple of weeks and she needed to relax for just a little while. she took a sip of the alcohol and looked back at him, “maybe.” she laughed a little. “but i don’t know. it’s not so bad. i get to pick everything out myself. i was a huge fan of the brown carpet anyways so.” she shrugged. it was hard though. doing this by herself wasn’t easy because she didn’t know a lot about owning her own home and she still hadn’t decided what color carpet she should put in her house. each color she hated for different reasons and she was even considering changing it to hardwood instead. “painting. just trying to liven up the place. i’ve seen some people paint trees on the walls in their livings rooms and i think that’d be fun.” she chewed on her bottom lip. “you wanna come over and help me?” she asked, flashing him a small smile. she wouldn’t be surprised if he said no but at least she threw the offer out there. “i’m sure it wouldn’t be.”

he was a little surprised by the number of questions that had managed to stumble past her lips in less than a mere ten seconds. “ it’s been good. it’s just temporary, but we haven’t had any problems so far, ” he answered smoothly, keeping up his bluff. he didn’t have many specific details to divulge, and frankly even if he did have details, he probably wouldn’t be talking about them too much either. “ right. the house. what’s going on there again? ” he asked. despite the fact that he wasn’t a fan of his landlord, austin kind of liked the fact that he had someone else to look after those problems for him. he wasn’t exactly the type to be on top of everything. … not that his landlord appeared to be either. “ right, girls gotta do what a girls gotta do… i totally know, ” he answered in a half joking tone, taking her words very literally. “ i can forget if you want, ” austin shrugged nonchalantly. “ yeah. just don’t like, make little mermaid references around her. i don’t know how happy she’d be with that. ”

hailee nodded her head slowly. she was truely happy for him and she was sure that austin deserved the best even if the two of them didn’t work out. “that’s good. sometimes couples realize that they shouldn’t be together once they live together for a couple of days. you end up learning a lot about each other but it’s good, you know, that you two are still getting along.” the way she said it made it sound like she wasn’t at all happy for him but she was. “well, they’re having to replace a whole bathroom because it flooded but it flooded into my bedroom so i’m also replacing the carpet. luckily, i didn’t have anything but my bed in there and the water didn’t get that high. and now i’m just kinda making it my own and painting it and all.” she finished with a smile. she never imagined getting to work on her own house with her work schedule but she was and she was loving every minute of it. a laugh escaped her lips, “not what i meant.” she replied, shaking her head at the boy. “right. i’ll keep that in mind. i’ve seen what she can do and i’d hate to see her do it to me.”

“ yeah…. — ” he pretended to pull his phone out of his pocket as if ready to google the differences in a duke and a prince and indulge in British history, before placing it back in his pocket. “ not bothered.  –… oh yeah, i mean she is. she is now. ” he wasn’t sure how much longer ariella would be around. alaska must be pretty damn annoying if she was willing to keep staying on his couch. albeit, it was a pretty comfortable couch, but still. “ staying out too late? hailee, hailee, what have you been up to? ” he asked, an almost cheeky look written across his  lips. “ yeah, i have a … functioning memory, ”  austin replied, quickly ordering her go to cocktail, before getting himself another scotch on the rocks. “ hm, ” he nodded. it appeared she was a creature of habit. “ just think of the mermaid and add an a on the end, and uh, don’t tell her i said that, ” he chuckled lowly when she mentioned that ariella seemed nice. “ yeah, don’t say that to her face. ”

hailee watched him pull his phone out of his body and she was almost sure that he wouldn’t actually look it up. neither of them really cared about the different of a prince and a duke and she knew that. “oh yeah? how’s it going? you two have never lived together, right? so?” she didn’t mean to pry but she wanted to be there for austin like she used to be but she wasn’t sure he’d even let her back in. “remodeling my house and working. i don’t have time to do much else. i wish i had more time for friends but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, you know?” she rolled her eyes. “yeah, well it’s been a while. i didn’t think you’d remember.” she pointed out and then watched as he ordered her drink. she smiled slightly, “your secret is safe with me but,” she pointed at him, “that is how i’m going to have to remember it.”

“ what’s the difference between a duke and a prince? ” he thought aloud, something he rarely did, if ever. but he was undeniably comfortable around hailee, which wasn’t something he would readily admit. “ hm, i guess that’s a good arrangement, then. better than being with uh, ariella and alaska and niall… and however many dogs they have, fark. ” he noticed that her had gotten a lot longer than he’d last seen her. well, naturally, duh. “ huh… well i guess if they come home or whatever, ” he breathed out, not  really knowing what to say considering he knew neither of them particularly well. “ that wasn’t depressing, pfft. you don’t know depressing. ” he nodded, waving the bar tender over, “ you still drink what i think you do? ” austin asked, recalling her usual. “ … definitely prefer drinking.– … sure i guess. ariella is her name, ” he reminded. 

hailee lifted her shoulders up in a shrug, “i don’t know.” she admitted with a small laugh. “i’m sure we could look it up, if we really wanted to know though.” she added. she was still comfortable around him after everything and she couldn’t believe how easy it still was to talk to him. “i thought ariella was half staying with you?” she wasn’t exactly sure what was going on anymore. she’d been so preoccupied with trying to prepare her house that she didn’t have time to keep up. “i guess i get up too early and stay out too late that i never catch them around. i’m bound to run into one of them eventually though.” she laughed, “it was depressing for me.” she looked at the bartender and opened her mouth to order and then looked at austin. “you still remember what i drink?” she asked, surprised. “but yeah, i do still drink the same things. i doubt i’ll ever change.” she added. “right, ariella. sorry, i couldn’t remember her name but she seems....nice.”

“I don’t think that I will ever get bored of seeing you, Hails.” She smiled. Since her parents, Persephone had certainly relied on Hailee a lot more than she had done before. “I know. It won’t feel like I’m a single parent with you around.”

“bored? no. annoyed? probably.” hailee finished with a light laugh. she was glad that she had her cousin here with her in the unfamiliar place. “i’ll help as much as i can and you know that.”

“Well, luckily I h-have a high g-gate so I can get away if I n-need to. I’m a bit away from the c-craziness.”

“well, that must be nice. i suppose i could build a fence if i decide to buy a house on the water but i don’t think i will.” she confessed. “i think it’d make me miss home too much.”

“I mean, I guess.” Darcy laughed, “Babe, do you know what celebrities are like? This is practically it, especially round here.”

“uh, yeah. i’m one myself and i’ve never met any celebrity as unpleasant as you are.” hailee pointed out.