The party was winding down, the crowd thinning as it got later.

Ally decided to remove her mask and wig since there weren't many people around anymore, and they weren't exactly comfortable to wear.

She ran her hands through her hair, fluffing it out after it had been stuffed in a wig all night.

"Ally?" she heard a voice asked.

She turned to see Ethan, the cute boy dressed as Charles Limburg.

"It's Ethan, from the costume store." he reminded her (as if she needed reminding).

"Oh yeah, I remember! Hey Ethan, what's up?" she said, mentally high fiving herself for keeping it so cool and casual.

"I didn't know you would be at this party! How do you know Mr. Starr?" he asked, moving closer to her.

"My best friend is signed to his label, he actually performed tonight; so yeah that's why I'm here! How do you know Jimmy?" she replied.

"I go to school with his daughter." he said.

"Oh really? Where do you go to school?" she asked.

"Miami Prep." he said.

Ally gasped a little. A very cute boy who goes to the best (and most expensive) school in the entire South Florida area was flirting with HER.

"That's cool! I've heard that school is AMAZING!" Ally said.

Heard would be an understatement.

Miami Prep was Ally's dream school when she was in 8th grade and all she wanted was to be able to go there for high school. But since her parents had recently gotten divorced and her mother had moved to Africa, her dad just couldn't afford to send her to an expensive private school, so she ended up at their district's public school, Marino High.

"Yeah, it's pretty great." he told her.

They stood in silence for a few moments; the awkwardness starting to make a comeback.

"So I realized I never actually got your number?" he said, looking up at her.

"Oh, yeah I guess you didn't." she said.

"So... Can I get it now?" he asked awkwardly.

"Oh! Yes! Sure! Of course!" Ally said.

Ally started digging around in her purse to find a pen to write her number down, when she felt a strong arm wrap itself around her shoulders.

"Hey Ally, who's this?" Austin said, gesturing to Ethan.

"Austin, this is Ethan. Ethan, this is Austin." Ally said introducing the boys to each other.

Ethan reached out his hand to shake Austin's but Austin would have no such thing; he kept one arm wrapped around Ally's shoulders and the other was at his side, clenched into a fist.

"So, you must be Ally's best friend who's signed to Jimmy's label." Ethan said.

"Yep. That's right. Starr Records recording artist in the flesh." Austin said, slightly defensively.

"Wow! That's awesome!" Ethan said. "I'm not very informed when it comes to pop culture, but that song you sang tonight was great!"

"Thanks; Ally wrote it." Austin said shortly.

"Whoa, really? You wrote that song?" Ethan said, turning to Ally.

"Hahaha... Yep. I sure did." Ally said awkwardly.

"Ally is my PARTNER. We write all of my songs TOGETHER. Well, she does most of the writing, but we're still PARTNERS." Austin said, emphasizing on certain words; earning a strange look from Ally.

"That's really neat. So Ally about your number-" Ethan said.

"ALLY!" Dez yelled running up to them. "Trish needs you! She's in the bathroom! She said its an emergency!"

Ally apologized to Ethan and told him she'd be right back. She grabbed her purse and rushed off to see what this emergency of Trish's was.

"BRING EYELINER!" Dez shouted, running after her.

Austin and Ethan stood in an awkward silence.

Austin had folded his arms and puffed out his shoulders and was looking Ethan up and down, trying to find any tattoos or piercings or weapons he may have.

Then he got an idea.

"Hey! Why don't I just give you Ally's number! That way you won't have to wait for her to get back because knowing Trish, this could be a while." Austin said.

"Yeah, that'd be great!" Ethan said.

Austin grabbed a random brochure and a pen and wrote down a combination of 9 numbers that was not Ally's phone number.

"There ya go!" Austin said handing Ethan the brochure.

"Thanks a lot, man! It was nice to meet you! Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of each other if something starts happening with me and Ally." Ethan said.

"Yeah, maybe. Now BUHbye." Austin said as Ethan exited the building.

Moments later, Ally returned from helping Trish with her emergency.

"What did Trish need?" Austin asked her.

"She and Dez made this bet about who could bob for more apples and she won but her makeup got all smeared so she needed me to fix it." Ally said.

Austin nodded understandably.

"Hey, where's Ethan?" Ally asked.

"Oh... Um... He left." Austin said.

"What?!"

"Yeah, I told him I didn't know how long Trish's emergency was going to take."

"Well did you at least give him my number?"

"I gave him what he THINKS is your number..."

"What?! Austin! You gave him a fake number! Why?!"

"C'mon Ally, I have a bad feeling about that guy, there's just something about him. Something is off. He's probably an ex con or something."

"He goes to the best school in the city which also happens to be the most expensive school in the state." Ally said dryly.

"Oh." Austin said quietly. "Well I still don't like him. Trust me, I did you a favor Ally."

Ally rolled her eyes at his as he put his arm around her shoulders and they both started to walk towards the place where Dez and Trish were sitting.

Austin didn't know what it was about Ethan; he just didn't like the way he looked at Ally.

HE should be the only guy who should be aloud to look at Ally like that.

Wait what?

What was he thinking?

Why did he care how he looked at Ally?

Why did he get a burning feeling in his chest when he saw him with her?

"Eh it's probably nothing." he thought.

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