This story is inspired by, but not at all based on, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks and a little, tiny bit on the movie Definitely, Maybe. Any references I make will most likely be more closely related to the movie than the book. Please read and review. I hope you enjoy.

P.S. Every chapter is named after a song by one of my favorite groups, Lady Antebellum.

Austin Moon. I felt as if it wasn't even my own name that I was signing. Like my whole life for the past few months has just been a dream, and tomorrow I was going to wake up in my real bed next to my wife back in our house. But I knew it wasn't a dream, and that I had just signed something that I had sworn to myself that I would never sign- divorce papers. I thought I had given Cassidy everything. I always remembered our anniversary, I've written countless songs for her after reconnecting all those years ago, but I guess it just wasn't enough. Let me start by giving you a little history about myself and my wife- I'm sorry, ex-wife.

First off, we met years before we actually started dating. It was back when I was about 16 years old and just starting my music career. Cassidy worked at the Melody Diner in my hometown of Miami, Florida and I had had a crush on her for sometime before I decided it was finally time to talk to her. Actually, my best friends at the time were the ones that truly convinced me to talk to her. Anyway, she shot me down the first time I asked her out. I tried and tried to get her to go on a date with me, even getting a job at the same diner, and eventually she did say yes- except for the fact that her band had been signed to a record label. She left the next day and I didn't see her again for almost four years. In that time I had had a couple of girlfriends, most notably the daughter of the owner of my then-record label, Starr Records, Kira and my best friend in the whole world, my songwriter for so many years, Ally Dawson. It's safe to say that Ally had been the love of my life, even if I haven't seen her in- what? Six? No, seven!- years. Well, I totally screwed that up so let's just move on with our other story.

About four or five years after Cassidy had promised me a date, Starr Records bought out her record label and we ended up playing a big concert together at a party for the merger. We got to talking and I reminded her that she had never come through on her promise of a date. Needless to say she agreed to a date that very night. We married three years later, after both of our careers were at a lull and we had finished college. We had been a perfectly happy couple, at least in my eyes, for the past four years. I was now twenty-seven and she the same, unfortunately being divorced at twenty-seven wasn't exactly part of my plan. Well, that doesn't matter anymore because it's already done. I'm divorced at the ripe old age of twenty-seven and I'm still hazy on the details of her side of the story.

I stood up from the kitchen table and shook hands with my lawyer. He gave me a sympathetic smile and walked to the door, but not before reminding me that part of the requirements are for me to clean out the garage of my old house and move all of my old boxes into my apartment. I sighed at this reminder and collapsed back on the kitchen chair, blankly staring at the pen that I had just signed with. I stood up and pushed back the chair, it toppled over and I debated leaving it out of pure frustration, but ended up fixing it. At least this mistake I could fix... and I knew what I did wrong.

The next morning I went over to my old house. Cassidy greeted me a little too warmly then opened the garage door for me. If looks could kill, she would have been dead on that stoop in a matter of seconds. She was acting like I had done something horrible to her. Like if she let me come in the house I was going to start smashing dishes or something- which, I have to admit, has crossed my mind more than a few times.

"Thanks." I said, giving her a forced smile and walking around the front of the house and into the garage. She had put every single thing that I owned into easily over forty boxes and now they were all piled up towards the middle of the room that was the garage. Cassidy's car was pulled in the driveway so as to make room for all the boxes, mine was parked on the road. I worked pretty diligently for the next thirty minutes. Most of the boxes that I had recognized anything remotely worth sorting through first were in the back of my truck. I was to take as many as I liked back to my apartment and sort them there. I was seriously thinking about smashing those plates at this point. After I had fifteen of the boxes scattered throughout my car, I closed the garage door and headed home without bothering to say goodbye.

That night, I spent nearly four hours combing through the boxes. I'd found a ton of old school things like yearbooks and tests that I had done exceptionally well on. I'd found a couple things from my childhood like a toy guitar and a basketball, but nothing of much importance. When I was finished with the last of the boxes, I had three piles, garbage, sell/give away, and keep. I had a spare little bedroom in my new apartment which I was planning on using as a storage room. I moved all the keep stuff into one side of my storage room and the pile to sell was boxed up and put on the other side of the room. I put the garbage pile back into a few of the boxes and loaded them into my car before cooking myself some dinner. I planned to drop off those at the dump tomorrow morning before returning to get the rest of the boxes.I enlisted one of guy-friends, Trent, to come help me out tomorrow. He had a truck like mine and I hoped we could fit all of the boxes between our two cars. The less I have to see Cassidy the better.

The next few days were uneventful, it wasn't until three days later, still sitting in the little bedroom and sorting through boxes, that I found the most interesting item in all of the boxes. It was something long forgotten by myself and, I assume, it's previous owner. As I stroked the cover, I felt like I was petting her hair. It was smooth and beautiful. The book was the color of her hair. I traced the pink "A" and was transported back in time. To the practice room, Sonic Boom, the mall, my old house, my old bedroom, everything came flooding back to me and- let me just let you all know, I am not a crier. Austin Moon does not just cry whenever. Just... well... keep that in mind- I felt a tear well up behind me eye and, what the hell, I'm alone and it's not like I have a wife or anyone that I need to be all manly for. I moved to the wall of the little room and sat against it, staring at the brown book, letting all the memories spill out and pool around my worn-out self. It took me another ten or so minutes to actually open the book, but when I did I read the first words on the page. Some of my favorite lyrics ever written by Ally, the ones that brought us together in the first place:

You don't know, know, know my name, name, name

I'm gonna make, make, make you do a double take...

I subconsciously added an "ahh" at the end, just like the first time we ever met. I laughed a little, actually the first real laugh that I'd had in at least a week. It got stronger and stronger until I'm pretty sure if anyone saw me they'd think I was insane. I realized in that moment just how much I missed my old friends. Ally, whom I have to admit was always more than a friend to me, Dez, and Trish. I kind of wished they were here right now. I turned the page to find a diary entry from a few days after we met- about me! I'd never read Ally's book before... well, with her permission. After she gave it to me, I couldn't bear reading it so I tucked it away. As I read her description of the "boy who stole her song", I caught myself looking for any indication of her liking me. Of anything to come. And it was there, subtle, but there.

That night I slept better than I had in years, all thanks to the sweetest dreams of when I was fifteen. Just starting my music career and, unknowingly, falling in love.

Is it good, bad? I'm still not sure of how good it is but PLEASE review. I like hearing your opinions on my stories.

Yes, this is going to be a multi-chapter story, but I'm still working out what's going to happen... ;)

And for anybody that read my previous Auslly story, The Right Place at the Right Time, I'm continuing the tradition with an, OOO drama!