Disclaimer: I do not own Austin & Ally or any of the characters involved.
Seven minutes.
She avoids eye contact. So does he. They can hear the chattering voices through the door, she's pretty sure everybody has already forgotten about them. The closet they sit in is a tight fit, and their positioning is, awkward to say the least. She tries to budge herself so she's not sitting on his knees so much, but he just smirks at her. She sighs.
She sits in the circle, dreading what could happen next. Her mom had convinced her to come to this party to cheer herself up because she had been "looking pretty stressed recently". So when her cousin Ollie mentioned he was having his sweet sixteen that weekend, she had listened to her mom, and dragged Trish along to join her. Maybe to have a few drinks, make a couple new friends...
Not to play Spin the Bottle.
As she looks around the circle of people surrounding her she recognises a lot of faces from her high school. She feels a few people looking at her and Trish, most likely wondering what they are doing here. The rest probably haven't noticed they exist yet.
"Sooooo...who wants to spin it first?" Ollie pipes up. There is a lot of chatter about who's going to kiss who, yadda yadda, leading Ally and Trish to share a worried look.
"Don't worry, I'm ninety-nine percent sure it won't land on either of us, Ally." Trish doubtfully whispers to her. Thankfully she's right. A blonde girl Ally doesn't recognise spins it and it lands towards a guy wearing a SnapBack sitting next to Ollie; Sam, she thinks his name is. They kiss, people ooooh, and the rest of it. The game moves on.
Six minutes.
She decides just to stay in the position she is sat in, she doesn't want to risk anything worse happening, if that's even possible. He knows she has never done this before, he can tell. He wonders if she's ever been kissed, and decides he probably shouldn't steal that moment away from her.
"So..." he says softly, "They're probably going to notice if we don't do anything. Um.." She couldn't believe her ears, she assumed they were just going to sit in there and pretend they did stuff. Was he serious? This felt so surreal to her. Him...talking to her, about...this.
"Uh...you think?" She says, her heart beat starting to speed up from nervousness. He laughs. She thinks he has a nice laugh, like a little kid, sweet.
Ally's eyes move around to look at all the kids around her, and she starts to panic. Every single one of them is far more popular than her, and she knows for a fact that if it lands on her the person will groan and complain, and that will just cause more embarrassment for her.
"Hey, hey guys! I got an awesome idea..." A blonde guy from across the room suddenly snaps her out of her thoughts. She looks up to listen, hoping it will be a different game idea.
Austin something, she's pretty sure his name is. He's in a few of her classes, you know, copies her work once in a while, that sort of thing. He looks at Ollie with a knowing smile, and then turns to face the whole circle.
"Oh duuude! Seriously?" Ollie laughs, obviously having worked out what Austin was going to suggest.
"Seven. Minutes. In. Heeaaaven!" He sings the last bit and a very excited look follows. First, she notices his voice, it is very talented. But then she catches onto the words he actually said, and her head sinks down into her body. This was far, far worse than spin the bottle.
Her brain suddenly clicked with recognition. His name was Austin Moon.
Five minutes.
She is basically sat right on top of him, and he can't even feel her. She leans her head back and let's out a big sigh. He smiles softly at her, and actually examines her face. She's pretty, with soft brown curls and very large eyes. He notices she does not look pleased in the slightest. Leaning in would not be a good idea.
"Look, I'm sorry...this is kinda my fault for suggesting the game, but I didn't know that was gonna happen..." He admits. She looks into his eyes, he's genuine.
"It's okay, I know you were probably just hoping it would land on some popular girl out there," He feels a twang of guilt, as he had felt the tiniest bit of disappointment when it had landed on her.
"It's just that...what are we supposed to do now?" He looks to the floor, unsure of what to say. Her face looks worried and she shivers.
"Cold?" he asks.
"Um...yeah, I guess so." She says, solemnly.
He contemplates whether he should... something about this girl made him self conscious about what she would think of him. For some reason, he didn't want her to think he was...that guy. But on the other hand, he felt a need to comfort her. He decides to go for it.
She feels his arm slide around her waist and pull her closer and she tries her best to hide her inner panic attack.
"Better now?" He says in his best flirtatious voice.
A burst of laughter and chatter surrounds Ally, and she looks in panic at Trish. But her best friend doesn't return it. The boy next to her had began to flirt with her and she wasn't even paying attention anymore. Ally groans under her breath and puts her face in her hands.
"Alright, alright we'll do it but Austin bro you have to go first, since it's your idea." Ollie demands.
"Whatever man I'm cool with that!" Austin laughs, confidence spewing out of him. He does the whole warming up, pulling his joints song and dance, and finally spins the bottle. Ally closes her eyes and traps herself in her thoughts.
The bottle almost lands on a girl called Dana.
Passes Trish.
But it keeps going, slowly...and comes to a rest.
Everyone goes silent, some hadn't realised she was there, the rest just surprised. When Ally doesn't hear anything, she knows it can only mean one thing. No. Please, no.
She slowly removes her hands from her eyes to see her worst nightmare. Every kid in the room, staring at her. Her heartbeat raises to twice its speed beforehand and she holds her breath.
Austin's face drops to a, not disappointed, but unsure look. Ally Dawson? He doesn't even know this girl, so he doesn't feel one hundred percent comfortable making out with her in a closet. He recognises her from a couple of his classes but he's never spoken to her before, maybe copied some notes once or twice.
Suddenly he regrets suggesting this game.
This is exactly the reason she never goes to these sorts of parties. She looks over at Austin, and sees his face full of regret. She's pretty sure she's never been more embarrassed. Ollie catches her eye but just looks at her sympathetically, he knows she hates this sort of thing.
She catches Austin whisper something to the guys jeering at him and she's ninety-nine percent sure he's trying to get out of it. She hopes and prays he succeeds. People start to fall out of silence and laugh again, shouting at Austin to go for it. She wonders if she could just quietly sneak out of the room, but she knows she's the centre of attention now. The shy dork and the popular player? This was probably the most exciting thing that had happened since ninth grade.
Four minutes.
Shock flashes over her face and she can't think of anything to say for a second; never in her dreams, or nightmares, more accurately, had she ever imagined anything like this to happen. Was he actually flirting with her? Oh no, she was not about to become that girl. She pulls out her arms, wedged at her sides, and pushes force on his chest, attempting to push him away.
"What are you doing? Back off, Austin. " She says in her most forceful voice. "I'm not going there."
Apparently her most forceful voice isn't exactly forceful. Austin lets out his childish laugh and sighs.
"Don't worry, I'm not flirting with you, you told me you were cold." He denys.
"Alright, I may have mentioned it, but only because you asked, and that doesn't give you permission to...like, touch me and stuff!" She says, rather awkwardly.
"Whoa okay, hold up Miss. Touchy. I don't know if you noticed, but we're kind of already touching." He laughs. "and I wasn't trying to...look, just forget it okay."
She sighs frustratedly, and he thinks she's about to retort, but she just closes her eyes. He wonders how long they've been in there for and what she's thinking. This is probably her worst nightmare. He feels a little embarrassed.
"I'm actually pretty good at math, y'know." He states, after some silence, completely out of the blue. She looks up at him, her eyebrows raised.
"...What?"
"I mean, we both know I copy your notes in algebra. I'm not gonna lie. But truth is, I don't really need to, I usually get it." He explains.
"Well...wait what- why do you.." she starts to ask, but trails off. She didn't have to ask. In class, she always had a feeling he was smarter than he let on.
"I don't know, I guess they'd make fun of me, if they knew I actually had brain cells." Referring to his popular friends.
She giggles softly, not quite believing he was admitting it.
"That's so stupid." She laughs quietly, smiling at the floor. He releases an embarrassed sigh and laughs with her.
"Yeah...I know." She catches his eye, and they smile together.
Ally grabs Trish's arm and they share another worried look of the night.
"They're gonna make me do it, Trish, oh my god, what am I going to do?!" she whispers.
"I'm sorry Ally, I really don't know. Couldn't you just ask Ollie to get you out of it?" She suggests.
"No, I don't wanna put a downer on his birthday party, you know? But I can't do this, that's Austin Moon! He's gonna think I'm such a loser. What if he tries something?! This is so embarrassing, oh god..." Tears start to well up in her eyes.
Trish sends a sympathetic look her way and tells her to take a deep breath.
"You're just going have to get through it then." She says softly. And Ally knows she's right.
She looks across the room and catches Austin's eye through all the excited teenagers. The expression on his face was something she'd never seen him express before; a look of anxiousness, surprise. He gives her a nervous smile. She takes another deep breath.
As he inspects her, he tries to read her emotions. She looks more nervous than anything else, but he knows she definitely doesn't want to be there. Anyone could see that. He knows that he can't wimp out now, though. He dug himself into this hole and nobody is helping him out. Out of every girl sitting in the room, all of which he knows quite well, the bottle had to land on the one girl he feels more nervous towards? He knew her from a few of his classes and he guessed she disliked him, because he copies off her notes eighty percent of the time. She's quite awkward, and is the first one to put her hand up to answer every single question in class. She's always had this habit of chewing her hair, and he's seen her at lunch, laughing with her friend. Her one friend. He wondered whether she was forced into this party by her cousin.
The guys surrounding him were jeering stuff in his ear, telling him to "do her good" and several other disgusting things. He told them to quit it. They told him he had to do it.
"I just don't want her to hate me, y'know?"
"Who the hell cares, Austin she's a dork, just do it, you pussy." A guy called Dan laughs at him.
"Alright, alright. I'll do it." He agrees, met with very loud jeering and laughter. He sighs, wishing they weren't such jerks towards girls like Ally, sometimes.
Three minutes.
They sat, consumed in each other's silence. In a good way, it was peaceful. She decides to break it.
"So, is it real?" She blurts out. What an idiot.
Austin scrunches his eyebrows in naive confusion. He looks straight at her, into her eyes. She thinks he looks like a lost puppy. There's something about it that she likes.
"Huh? What do you m-" he starts. She inturrupts him, surprising him.
"The hair, I mean. Like, y'know- Is it actually blonde?" She says sarcastically, gaining a little more confidence. She knows she feels more comfortable around him than she did 5 minutes ago. He stares at her, cluelessly. She had said it as if he had obviously lied about his hair colour his entire life.
Gently, a genuine smile forms on his face and he scoffs, trying to look offended.
"Excuse me, but for your information, Ally Dawson, my hair is nothing but one hundred percent real and blonde so I would appriciate it if you could not assume thoughts so ridiculously absurd." He attempts in his best british accent, which for the record, is pretty good.
She looks at him for a moment, taken aback by the fact he knows her name. Her full name, in fact. She hadn't known that, and she isn't sure why she is so touched by it. After her initial shock, she bursts into laughter. She had no idea he could be so sophisticated. He hadn't heard her laugh up close before, and he likes it. Unconsciously, he smiles at her laughing.
"Mmm, I don't buy it, Austin." She says smiling. He's never heard her say his name before, but he takes delight in how she says it. He doesn't have a clue why.
"You want me to prove it?" He says confidently. Grabbing her hand abruptly, he plunges it on his head of blonde hair and looks at her challengingly. She gives him a patronising look and feels around his messy hair, pretending to be in deep thought.
"Oh yeah, definitely the feeling of bleached hair. Test failed, Austin Moon..." She says, sarcastically disappointed, pouting. He just looks at her indignantly and laughs.
"Shut up.. What about yours, huh? Totally dip-dyed!" He runs his hands through her hair, surprised at how soft it is. She brings her hands up and grabs his arms, exerting all her force trying to stop him.
"Nooo! It's chestnut! With amber highlights..." She murmurs shyly, looking downwards again, chuckling softly. "And it's completely real." She adds, looking up into his chocolate eyes. She notices he is fixed on her, with a tiny smile.
She's different. Different from all the girls outside the door, to any girl he's ever been with, or talked to for that matter. She's...weird, a little dorky. But in the best way possible, because she makes him laugh. He's always so used to it being the other way around. And even though he's only really got to know her in the last five minutes, he wishes he had in the last two years he's known her. Wasted years. But he knows he wants to get to know her more. He can feel it.
"You're...kinda weird." He thinks aloud, immediately regretting it when he catches her mouth fall open in surprise, but then shut again. She laughs, but nervously again. "No, no. Like in a really great way, I mean. You're...adorable." Knowing he may have gone a little too far, he doesn't lose her eye contact. Her eyes widen a little and a smile spreads over her face, as if she's just thought of a great idea.
"Like...adorkable?" she questions, laughing at herself. He chuckles at her little pun, heart speeding up.
Oh, she is utterly, adorkable.
"Dawson! You are one lucky babe! Seven full minutes on the Moon baby!" Jeers one of Austin's friends towards her, making a reference to Austin's last name, and heaven. She is too panicked to even bother to roll her eyes and looks at Trish in disgust. Oh god, she thinks, noticing Austin making his way towards her. Worried thoughts are flying about her mind and her heart is beating faster than Trish can talk on careers day. He's obviously just coming over to explain that he wasn't doing that with her and they could just forget it, right?
Nobody could expect them to actually do this, surely. They barely knew each other. He's just some popular guy in a few of her classes, who copies her notes once in a while... or regularly. She tends to let him, even though she knows he's probably smart enough not to, because she's noticed he seems to never understand it in class, and then passes the exam with flying colours. Even though she knows very little about him; he flirts with every girl in french class, talks back to their teachers and has a large group of pretty harsh friends, she gets a bad vibe off of him. He seems like a player, who probably bullies people like her in his spare time. On the other hand, he never seems to take it further with the girls he flirts with, teachers seems to like him and think he's funny, and she's never physically seen him bullying nerds, only his friends. The vibe still stands, regardless.
As he walks over to her, she tries to smile, which he makes an effort to return.
"You up for it then?" He asks, as if it's the most normal activity on earth, and her mouth falls open.
"Uh...I mean-" she begins, ready to tell him she certainly isn't, and he better not try anything. Nothing comes out. Her stuttering is interrupted by laughing of the people around her, and she realises everyone is watching their conversation. She freezes, looking down awkwardly. Hearing him sigh, she feels Austin take her hand and lead her over to the closet. This is met with the entire room exploding with loud jeers and laughter, and her ears pick up someone yelling-
"Seven minutes begins now!"
She knew there was a reason why she didn't go to these parties.
Two minutes.
She finally decides to attempt moving her position. Her legs slide against Austin as she brings them up to her chest. He laughs as he tries to move around too. This closet was not made for two people. Well, it wasn't even made for one; it was made to hang clothes. So, it was bound to be squished. He must have known that, she knows he's not that dim.
"This is awkward, sorry" she apologizes, giggling. He gets into a comfier position and then rests his chin on Ally's knee.
"Nah, not at all." He denies, smiling as he looks up at her. He runs his thumb and finger round in circles on her knee. She doesn't stop him.
"Can I ask you a question?" He asks her, quietly. She rests her elbow on his shoulder.
"I'll allow one question." She replies, feeling him laugh gently.
"What was your first impression of me? Like, in school." He enquires, staring at her knees. Reluctant to answer, she sighs.
"Honestly?"
"Honestly. Please." He looks up into her eyes.
"I thought you were a player, you know, hooking up with all the girls, never doing school work, getting drunk all the time. The normal stereotypes of a popular guy, I guess." She lists off. There's a split-second flash of hurt on his face, quickly followed by a knowing frown, as if it was exactly what he was expecting.
"I flirt with the girls yeah, but I've never had a hook up. I had a year-long relationship in middle school, but nothing has happened since then, except harmless banter and stuff. I pretend I'm lazy and stuff in class, but truth is…" he hesitates. "I'm kind of trying to get on the honor roll" She gives him a slightly shocked face. "I know, I know. My parents don't think I'll ever get there." She smiles, regardless.
"I could help you, I'm up there." He gives her a knowing smirk, as if to say 'obviously'.
"I have been drunk a couple of times, I won't lie. But it's definitely not regular like some of my friends." He admits. She nods. After a few moments of silence she asks what she's been wondering for two years.
"Are they real friends?"
"Sometimes, they are. They do have the ability to be supportive and nice." He tries to convince her. "I promise!" He adds when she gives him a disbelieving look. "It's just around other kids that they act like assholes. I've tried to talk to them about it, but…you know." She doesn't really know, as she'd only ever really had one friend, but she says 'yeah, yeah.', as if she does know.
"You're a good guy, you know, Austin Moon." She says softly.
"My middle name is Monica." He blurts, seeming to have caught on to her dorkiness. She doesn't even look surprised; she just starts laughing with him. "Shut up, I just thought you should know…" he adds nervously.
"So what about me? What were your first impressions?" she asks suddenly. "Did you know I existed?"
"Of course I did, you're in like 4 of my classes, Ally." He says reassuringly. "And I'm sure you can guess my first impressions…" She knows.
"You thought I was a know-it-all, quiet, dorky, boring?" She begins.
"Well, pretty much, except for the last one, I never thought you were boring, Dawson." He says cheekily, letting out his childish, four-year-old laugh again. "I always used to notice how you chew your hair."
He sees a flash of embarrassment across her face followed by a genuine smile. She doesn't have to say anything.
"When I get nervous." He nods. It doesn't register in her head properly, because she can't quite believe he noticed that of her. He meets her smile with a large grin of his own, which she hasn't seen since their French teacher fell of her chair in the middle of class.
"But I know now that you're the funniest, most down-to-earth, genuine, amazing girl that I've ever spent seven minutes in a closet with. If you want to know a secret, I've never actually done this before. And I can tell you now, I'm glad I suggested this game, and I'm even more relieved that the bottle landed on you, because Ally Dawson, I think I just had the best seven minutes of my life."
He gets interrupted by a loud knock on the closet door and a shout.
"Just one minute left, you guys! Make it good!" Ally moves her face an inch away from Austin's and whispers.
"Correction: the best six minutes of your life." Giving him a knowing smile, she really can't believe what she's about to do, and neither can he.
"It'll be the best seven after this." And with that she crashes her lips on to his and he returns the kiss straight away, smiling into it. She sits properly on his lap and he wraps one arm round her waist and the other tangles in her hair. She slides both of her arms around his neck and cups his face. He deepens the kiss and they fall into a dress hanging in the closet. Both breaking the kiss, they look up at the dress, and then down at each other again. Laughing, they fall back into each other and he swears he hears her whisper something he was waiting for her to say.
"Austin, Monica, Moon."
The best seven minutes of his life.