Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this story, apart from the plot. The basic idea is taken from 'Fashion Shows and First Impressions'
To the guest who said they wanted more of the personalities Austin and Ally had in my other oneshot Paying Off, I hope I've matched up to your expectations! Something about getting appreciation for your work is an incredible feeling to me, especially when it's the first I've written. So I hope this one does justice as well.
On with it now!
Piper. Oh, what a beautiful name, Austin thought as he daydreamed yet again about the blonde-haired beauty. She was close to perfect in his eyes, what with the shiny golden locks that fell across her shoulders till her hip in smooth waves, to the startling hazel eyes that sparkled constantly, bringing shame to the stars that shone in the Miami sky. Austin had had a crush on Piper for about two years now, and they were pretty close friends. He hadn't spoken up, in fear of ruining that friendship. Yeah, yeah the same old excuse for not having some balls and speaking up, he thought bitterly.
Just when he had decided to grow a pair and finally take a step, his world seemed to crash down around him. Was that glass he heard shattering? No, just his heart. His best friend of all people beat him to it, scoring Piper as a girlfriend. So, that's how Austin Moon, the charming 'it' boy of Marino High, who could have absolutely any girl he wanted, ended up in the park (don't judge, he was still pretty much a kid inside despite his devilish swag, as being smooth was termed nowadays), staring up at the sky mourning the loss of a girl that was never, and probably never will be his.
Suddenly his phone buzzed, signaling a text. He fished it out of his pocket, and glanced at the screen, wincing at its overbright light. Dez. His best friend. The one who stole his Piper from him. Austin sighed at his attitude, and rolled his eyes, reading the text. He couldn't blame Dez for doing what he did, and since he had never told anyone about his feelings, it wasn't like Dez did that on purpose.
8:00 p.m.
Hey man! Where you been, dawggg?! Dallas is having this SICK party down at his house and you totally gotta be there. Oh, I'm bringing Piper too, you know, so I can get some ;)
-Dez
Austin couldn't take it anymore. He violently shoved the phone in his pocket, as if the electronic device was responsible for his pain, and began to walk home, ignoring the message and not even bothering to reply back.
He decided that he was done acting like a teenaged girl (though his girly scream could vouch for that) and walked, or more like marched home angrily. He watched couples nuzzled close together, sharing hugs and sweet kisses under the glow of the streetlights, as it cast a beautiful aura around the place.
Yeah, universe, you're killing me today. Austin rolled his eyes and looked straight forward ignoring his surroundings, or more specifically the couples around and walked up to his front porch. He paused in front of the door, composing himself. Get your shit together, Austin. He rang the doorbell, listening to footsteps scuffling towards him, as his mother flung the door open.
"Austin! Where have you been?! Your father and I've been worried sick! You're in trouble, young man!", Mimi scolded her son, not seeming to notice his inner conflict. Austin just kept his head down and stepped around his mother, entering the house.
"Austin, sweetie, what's wrong?", she said, noticing his sullen expression.
"I'm fine mom.", he said in a soft voice, a little above a whisper.
"Aust-", she tried, but he had already moved ahead and run up the stairs, shutting the door to his room behind him.
Inside, Austin plopped on his bed and closed his eyes, not even bothering to change into his nightclothes. He suddenly had a craving to eat ice cream, cookie dough specifically, and curl up on his bed. What the fuck. He sounded like he was from a clichéd chick flick. Pushing away his thoughts (and about the ice cream as well), he forced his eyes shut and tried falling asleep.
It seemed like all the pain and depression had sucked the energy from his body, as he slowly drifted into dreamland, thoughts of Piper and Dez haunting him.
That morning, he woke up with a fairly good resolve, which surprised him. Looks like his brain had finally decided that it was no use being an absolute prissy, and looked forward to the day. He thought of going to the beach. Maybe staring at some ahem, beach bombs, would clear his head.
He packed his beach bag (which consisted meagerly of sunscreen and goggles, which he would probably not even bother to put on), slung his towel over his shoulder and bounded down, albeit still feeling a little hurt, and called out,
"Hey mom! Hey dad! Morningggg! Ooh, what's for breakfast?!", he asked excitedly, hoping it was pancakes. His favourite food in the entire world, duh. Not even a girl could bring his desire for pancakes down, even if said girl was his first heartbreak.
Meanwhile, both Mimi and Mike stared at their son apprehensively, taking in his chipper mood. Wasn't it only yesterday night that he had arrived home, looking like all the life had been sucked out of him?!
But moving past that, Mimi ignored it, glad to see her son back to normal even though she didn't know what happened earlier. She knew Austin would tell her when he was ready.
"Morning, sweetheart", she said giving him a peck on the cheek, at which Austin furiously wiped at, and laughed.
"Where's my pancakesssss", he whined like a little child. Way to go Moon, you're just a ball of sunshine today, aren't you?
Mimi told him to calm down, and gave him a plate which had a picture of Dougie the Dolphin, his favourite cartoon character (still the kid thing again), that was stacked with about twelve pancakes, and watched as he drenched them in syrup and scarfed them down in record time. It still amazed her how her little boy had the eating speed of a vaccum cleaner, as he licked the plate clean, down to the last golden drop of sweet, sweet syrup.
"Thanks mom, I'm leaving now!", he shouted over his shoulder as he ran out the door, leaving his parents shaking their heads fondly at their child's antics.
Austin found a perfect spot for him to chill for a few minutes before heading off to surf, and was just about to lay down when something, or rather someone, went flying towards him. One minute he's ready to relax and soak in the sun, and the other, his vision is blocked by a big (and amazing smelling) mass of brown curls.
"Oomph", they both grunted as their weights clashed. Austin still had his arm around the body (which he now knew was of a girl, owing to the amazing figure), as he tried to steady them.
The girl blushed furiously, apologizing over and over again, not looking up to see the face of her somewhat savior.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen, I swear! One minute I'm playing volleyball with my friends and I went to catch the ball, but some kid got in my way and I fell over and I didn't have time to steady myself and-", the girl rambled.
Austin still couldn't see the face of the girl since she was looking down, but something about her voice and flustered state made her so adorable. Well, someone's moving on fast. He practically knew nothing about the girl except that she had nice smelling hair, and a gorgeous body and a voice that sounded like music to his ears- hold up. He hadn't even seen her face yet!
He cut off the flustered girl abruptly, saying that it was alright.
"Hey, hey, hey don't worry about it. Besides, it's not everyday that a pretty girl falls right into your arms, now does it", he said smiling charmingly, with a hint of amusement.
It was that moment when the girl looked up, and he swears his world stopped.
She had the most innocent doe-like eyes he had seen and they captivated him. The little image he had of Piper's hazel ones, were immediately replaced with the melting chocolate ones of the mystery girl in front of him. Her cheeks were flushed, probably from playing in the sun and running (or falling) into him and she was replaced the envisage of the perfect girl in his mind.
Ally had been playing volleyball with a couple of her friends and was having a blast, when she ran back rapidly to hit the ball heading her way, only to not only miss her shot, but fall over a particularly excited toddler who was running about. What kind of parents let their kids run around like that?! she thought with the part of her mind that wasn't feeling absolutely horrified at what was about to come in a second. She did not, however, expect to fall onto someone, that someone holding them up with an arm around her waist as the skin on her back came in contact with the stranger's rather, um, chiseled chest, which she could tell by simply feeling the hard muscles.
But, in true Ally Dawson fashion, she began rambling to the stranger, spitting out strings of apologies as she looked at her feet, too ashamed to look at his face. She was in the middle of explaining how utterly embarrassing she was, when the stranger's voice interrupted her. And oh, how glad she was to be interrupted. His voice was smooth, silky and charming as he told her it was all good, throwing in a little compliment about her, which made her go red in the cheeks. She hadn't seen his face, yes, but his voice alone spoke volumes about how attractive he must be.
So, partly from her neck aching by looking down and hugely because of her curiosity to see Mr. Smooth's face, she looked up to be greeted by a sight that made her go a little weak in the knees. The handsome boy had a perfectly messy platinum mop of hair on his head, which shone in the sun, giving him a holy aura, and a sharp jawline, with prominent cheekbones, not the kind that made him look sick, but one of a Michelangelo-carved masterpiece, as he stood smirking before her. Don't even get her started with the chest, holy shit. He had a chiseled six pack and a deep V-line was visible as his board shorts hung low on his hips. The temperature must have gone up a few more degrees, she was sure of it.
Austin on the other hand, could not keep his eyes off of her. Her hair was thick, luscious and chocolate coloured, fading away into blonde tips. She was petite, and though quite short, which he found to be absolutely adorable, her legs seemed to stretch on for miles as he glanced at the toned and taut muscles.
The girl before him sputtered incoherently at being complimented and he decided to interrupt her to save her the trouble, though he could listen on and on to her beautiful voice.
Just then, one of her friends with whom she must have been playing with, called out,
"Ally! Oh my gosh, are you okay?!"
Ally. That rolled of his tongue nicely.
"Hey, Cass, don't worry. I just had a little accident and um-"
Austin gave his name to her, "Austin",
"Yeah, Austin here helped me.", she replied, smiling up at him. Austin. That rolled off her tongue nicely.
"Well, thank you Austin, but we really need to steal Ally back for our game", Cassidy said winking at the pair.
"Wait! Hey, Austin, would you like to join us to play, you know, if you're not foing anything. But if youre busy It's, like, totally fine, we'll just be on our-"
Austin chuckled at her rambling again. "Ally. Calm down! I'd love to join you guys", he cut off smiling.
Ally blushed, deciding she liked the way her name sounded when he said it. "Great! Let's go!"
Throughout the game, Austin kept wandering his eyes back to Ally, the passion with which she played, all her hits soaring perfectly and thought that she was perfect. He hadn't even thought Piper was perfect.
Ally too admired the way his muscled rippled when he sent a particularly hard hit, and watched the sweat drip down his tanned abdomen, wishing she could run her hands all over his body and the soft blond locks while she ki-get a grip Ally!
After the game, when everyone went to grab their surfboards, including Ally, which surprised Austin.
"You surf too?!", he asked, a little surprised. Why hadn't he known her before?! This girl was climbing higher up his perfect scale, not that he hadn't consider perfect already.
"Yeah, I do. Been surfing since I was 15 actually.", she replied, remembering the lessons she had taken in the summer, albeit she was forced to. She had found herself enjoying it more than she would have liked to. Thank you, Dad.
"So then," Austin challenged, "let's see who's the pro around here, cause honey trust me, I'm the best you can get.", smirking a little cockily at the end. He purposely added the tinge of let's say sexist attitude, hoping she would take up on the offer. He wanted to see how she reacted, and see her competitive attitude, little vixen she was proving to be.
"You did not just play the sexist card, Austin.", she smirked knowingly, like she knew exactly what he wanted. Nevertheless, she went on to take up the challenge, waiting patiently to see the look on his face when she showed her moves. Unknown to Austin, Ally had participated in several surfing competitions in the previous years, and almost always came out a victor, except that one time that Dallas Centineo had beat her to it, when she got distracted seeing her so-called boyfriend snogging Tilly Thompson under one of the umbrella stands, thinking that she wouldn't see. Oh, she saw all right. Good for nothing son of a bitch. She was better off without him anyway.
"You're on, sweetheart.", he winked. Ally mentally swooned at the nickname, and fought off the blush she was sure was appearing on her face. This was no time to act like a lovestruck teenager, she scolded herself.
Austin went up first, giving it his all. He considered himself no short of a pro, and was ready to see her face when she saw how 'amazing' he was. That was a little cocky and egoistical on his part, but eh. Ally on the other hand, watched as he wound through the waves effortlessly, his blond hair flopping and flying about in the wind and with his movements. She watched, mesmerized, as he performed a perfect flip, his muscles rippling with the energy and adrenaline coursing through him.
Austin came up to her after his round, sopping wet and looking as gorgeous as ever, panting, as he looked at her.
"Think you can beat that, hmm?", he remarked cockily, eyes flashing as he took in the confident look on her face.
"Oh yeah. You're not going to see it coming at all", she winking leaving him behind, smirking at her confidence. There was something about a girl being confident about herself that turned him on, and Ally was doing just that.
You have no idea who you're messing with, Ally thought amusedly, as she walked up to the shore line. Looking back, she gave him a saucy smile and plunged into the warm ocean. She stood up on the board, slowly, but surely, and her eyes lit up at the perfect wave she managed to catch.
Meanwhile, Austin watched, flabbergasted , as she rode a wave confidently and smoothly, and she seemed to be flying. The way the hair flew behind her, as her face held an expression of true joy and she looked like she was having the time of her life. Performing several tricks Austin hadn't even known existed, she finally came to a stop, running out to meet him. Water droplets clung to her face and slid down, looking like liquid diamonds as they framed her eyelashes. Her lips were perfectly pink and her face, flushed, from the burst of energy just a few minutes prior.
"So. What'd you think?", she smirked up at him, taking in his awed expression. Score, Ally Dawson, she thought, proud of herself.
Austin was at a loss for words except for, "W-wow, Ally. You were-uh-you were um great-t up there!", he managed to let out, what with him still being in a daze.
Ally laughed melodiously. Did he just hear angels singing?, Austin wondered idly as he watched her.
"That'll teach you to judge before you see, now won't it Austin?", she smiled back, teasingly.
"As long as I'm seeing you, I don't think I'll need to worry about anything else", he winked, and watched her face turn crimson, as she took in his words. She stammered, a little (okay a lot) at his comment and Austin had never seen anything more beautiful.
"So," he cut in, making her close her mouth (which gave her the uncanny impression of a fish) and continued, "what say you let me treat you to your clear win tomorrow? Just the two of us? How's that sound to you?", he asked hopefully.
Ally smiled shyly and said, "Is that your way of asking me out on a date?", she giggled.
"What can I say? You rode a wave right through my heart."
AN: See what I did there?! Pretty Cheesy I know, but no one can pull that line off as well as Austin Moon!
What did you think?
R&R!
-R