Hey, guys! I'm back with a new story! I am still working on The Songbook but I got inspiration for this so why not.
"Ally? It's one-thirty in the morning. What's up?" Austin lets the phone lean against his ear with his eyes closed and head still on the pillow.
"I, uh, I just needed to talk to someone." Her voice sounds fragile, almost depressed.
"I'll be right over." He hangs up the phone without a second thought and pulls his pants on. It's Sunday morning so there isn't school or anything to worry about the next day, not that it matters.
Within fifteen minutes, Austin pulls into Ally's driveway, tired but awake. He walks up the path to her door with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets and takes out his phone to text her. She responds by waving out her bedroom window and walking downstairs to unlock the door. When she opens her door, Austin pulls her into a hug and wipes a tear from the side of her cheek, just holding her in the dark.
"What happened?" He asks quietly, waiting for her erratic breaths to calm down. He rubs the back of her head and leans his chin against her hair. Breathing in deeply and calmly so she has something to mimic.
It takes about five minutes, but eventually her breathing slows and her voice squeaks quietly. "He broke up with me." She says it so hushed that Austin almost has to ask her to repeat herself, but decides against it in hopes to keep her calm while he holds her tight and walks her inside the doorway, easing the door closed behind them.
"Is your dad home?" He asks calmly, keeping his voice low just in case. She nods a yes against his shoulder and pulls away, letting her hand slip down his arm and holding firmly to his hand.
"Come on." She leads him upstairs to her bedroom. He's seen her room a million times but it looks different tonight, almost darker. There are clothes strewn across room in no order, which was a shock considering Ally's organized nature, and there was an empty Corona bottle sitting on her floor and another on her nightstand.
"You're getting drunk on two bottles of beer?" Austin walks to her bed and sits down, watching her clean up a little. "
"There was some vodka in my dad's liquor cabinet, but I just couldn't do it. Even beer doesn't taste very good. I'm wasn't even sure why people use it to drown their sorrows until tonight." She puts the empty bottle into the trash can in the bathroom adjoining to her room and picks up the one from the nightstand, putting it to her lips and sipping slowly.
"Ally, maybe I'm not one to lecture you on this, but that's really not good for you. You're eighteen." He takes the bottle from her lips, kisses her forehead and pours it down the drain in the bathroom sink. She stays on the bed with her eyes closed, hands still holding a bottle that isn't there anymore, until Austin comes back and wraps each of this hands around hers. "Do you want to talk about it?" She shakes her head and lays it on Austin's shoulder, breathing quietly.
Austin watches the clock change, soon it turns to two in the morning and he begins to think that Ally fell asleep on his shoulder. She stirs though, and he tightens his grip on her shoulder. "We were going to," she looks Austin in the eyes and he watches her cheeks burn, "you know."
"Ally. If you're old enough to want to do it, you're old enough to say it to your best friend." Austin smiles and moves a strand of hair behind her ear.
"That's just it though. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to. He and I and it was all really confusing and then we were kissing and it got really intense and I stopped him." She started breathing erratically again, losing the calm that had taken her over. "He broke up with me then. Like he didn't even care that we'd been going out for four months. Like he didn't care at all."
"Ally, you did the right thing. He's a dick if he can't see you for who you truly are. You're awesome." She grins and lays her head on his shoulder again.
"I know. I don't want to lose my virginity to someone like that. I don't want to regret anything." Austin leans his head against hers and nods, just enough so she can feel that he did. "And then I got to drinking a little and I was just sitting here, all alone at one in the morning, and the only person I thought of was you. So I called you over here and I just needed to talk to you." Austin keeps his head pressed against hers, playing with a strand of her hair, curling it and uncurling it with his finger. "And I had this idea." Austin moves his head away from hers and catches her gaze. Her eyes are hard, staring at his, searching for some kind of response.
"Ally," he starts, slowly and carefully. He doesn't want to be presumptuous, but he also doesn't want to let drunk Ally do something normal Ally would regret.
"Austin. I don't want to regret anything. If I do it with you I know that you're going to be here. I know that you'll still be here in the morning. And we've already kissed and stuff so it's not like it would be too awkward. And-"
"Stop it, Ally. Please." He cuts her off and stands up, pacing around the room. "I'm not going to have sex with you."
"Austin,"
"No. Ally, you're sad and feeling betrayed and a little bit drunk and I couldn't do that to you. And besides, I don't want to just be a body to you. Something warm to hang on to until the morning. You're my best friend, you were my girlfriend, and I respect you way too much." He sits down again and looks at Ally. Her gaze shifts downward and she leans against him again.
"I'm sorry."
"Ally, there's nothing to be sorry about. I just," he takes a breath, trying to find the right words, "could never do that to you or to myself."
"I know." She lies back against the pillows and motions for him to join her. The two of them lie side by side on top of the comforter while Ally leans her head on his chest. "Promise not to tell anybody what I just asked you to do."
"Of course," he says, petting her head and humming lightly.
The clock read three and Austin watches Ally's eyes stare across the room and he watches her hand as it traces patterns over his t-shirt. "Austin, take your shirt off."
"Why?" He says, tired.
"Because, I want to draw on you." He turns his head, suddenly more awake, and stares at her inquisitively. She rolls to the side of the bed and pulls out a Sharpie marker. "I'm bored and I don't want to go to sleep." Austin acquiesces and pulls the hem of his shirt over his head and tosses it down next to him.
"Alright. Go ahead." He chuckles when the pen drags across his skin. It's rough and ticklish and it makes Ally smile when he sees his face. She starts with a heart, right under his right nipple, and slowly outlines the right side and then the left.
"The left side never turns out as well as the right." She observes as she colors it in with the black marker.
"Yeah," Austin says, tilting his head as watches Ally draw. She shifts her focus to the center of his chest and starts drawing again, straight lines in a "V" shape from where Austin was looking. He leans his head back and just feels Ally as she sketched her piece of artwork on his skin and her hand as it held his midsection. When he looked up again he saw that it was an "A", beautiful and blocky and three dimensional carved into his chest, like a superhero.
"So, does that 'A' stand for Austin or Ally?" He laughs, taking the pen from her hand as she finishes the bottom of the "A".
She smiles coyly at him and responses simply, "I guess the world will never know." He grins at her tone and decides that he should be able to have some fun too.
"I guess it's my turn, then?" He asks, and laughs at how suggestive it came out.
It was meant to be sarcastic, but Ally took it seriously, staring him down when he asked and answering with a smile, "Yeah, sure." It's probably the exhaustion and the fact that two bottles of beer is enough to get her more than buzzed, but she fingers the hem of her shirt and lifts it over her face, revealing a red bra. "Go ahead."
Austin decides to seize the opportunity because, why not, and repositions himself so that he can let his right hand be free enough to draw. He starts out with hotdog on her side, all the while Ally is glaring at him. "A hot dog? Seriously?"
"I'm hungry, okay," he answers, but she just smiles along. Next he moves to her bellybutton and drags the marker along her skin, slowly a word starts to take shape, then a phrase. It takes some effort but eventually Ally deciphers it upside down and laughs. It reads, "Austin and Ally" and Austin's handwriting makes it look so childish and cute.
"Very sweet," she says, but stops slowly. Austin's drawing swirls around her sides and near her bra and eventually he stops. He puts the cap back on the sharpie and lays it on the nightstand. He pushes himself back up next to her and she puts her head on his chest again, resuming their position from earlier, and she finally closes her eyes, breathing slowly and steadily, wrapped in Austin's arms, skin against skin. She falls asleep soon and Austin watches the clock. It's nearly four in the morning and eventually he pulls a blanket from his feet over himself and Ally, turns to her and kisses her lightly on the forehead, then closes his eyes, drifting off to sleep.
"Ally?" Austin wakes with a start, feeling Ally do the same and they both stare at her dad in the doorway, face incredulous and eyes infuriated. "Austin what the hell are you doing in my house at six-thirty in the morning without my knowledge? I trusted you two far more than for this to happen!" Ally covers herself in the blanket and walks across the room.
"Dad, calm down, nothing happened. I was- Austin was helping me."
"Helping you do what? Get fucked? Both of you need to put some clothes on now and Austin, you need to leave." Ally's eyes blur as she starts to cry, her dad's expression softens but he remains fixed on Austin, making sure he gets his shirt and leaves as soon as possible. He tells Ally to stay in her room while he leads Austin out to the living room. "Don't let me catch you in my daughter's room without my permission ever again. You're still in high school and you're still a kid. Don't do anything stupid because God knows that I will beat the crap out of anyone who messes with my daughter"
Austin always thought that Lester was kind of goofy, but hearing him say that he had nothing but fear and respect for him. If the situation wasn't what it was, he probably would have shaken his hand, but instead he simply replies "yes" and walks out, face somber and squinting in the morning light. He turns back to face the house and sees Ally in the window, sitting on her bed as her dad walks across the room and sits down next to her, taking Austin's previous place just a couple of hours ago. He puts the key in the ignition and leaves, driving around for a while before he calls Dez and asks if he wants to go hang out at the beach club for a while.
ooo drama. Tell me if I should continue!