"I'll give you guys a few minutes to say goodbye," Jimmy told Austin, before walking onto the private plane.
Austin turned to look at all the most important people in his life.
All the people he had to say goodbye to.
He started with his parents. He hugged them both tightly and told them he loved them. They hugged him back, told him to have a good tour, and that they loved him too.
He then moved to his girlfriend's father, who had came to see him off. He hugged him just as tightly as he had hugged his own father. He thanked him for all he had done for him. The man responded by thanking him too. Thanking him for all he had done for his daughter and all the happiness he had brought her.
He broke apart from his girlfriend's father and looked at the three people standing before him who he had yet to say goodbye to. Here comes the hard part.
Austin felt tears spring to his eyes as he looked at the three most important people in his entire life.
The three standing before him had tears in their eyes too. All four of them were thinking the same thing.
When did we grow up? When did we become adults?
Trish stepped forward first, pulling Austin in for a long hug. He thanked her for everything she had done for him, told her to break a leg with her new show, and wished her good luck running the music factory. She told him to have a good time on tour and that she loved him. He told her that he loved her too.
Trish pulled away from him and Dez stepped forward next. The boys always tried to keep their cool in emotional situations, especially in front of the girls because they felt like they needed to be strong for them; but now they couldn't help it. Each with tears streaming down their face, they embraced each other fiercely. They told each other to have fun on their new adventures, adventures for the first time ever that the other person wouldn't be a part of. They told each other they loved each other. They then pulled away from their hug, wiped their eyes, and did their signature handshake one last time.
There was only one person left. The one person who meant more to him than anything in the entire world.
Austin took a step forward, at a loss for words.
"Ally..." he began. "I-"
But then he was unable to speak. Not because he didn't know what to say, but because Ally's lips were against his, preventing any words from escaping his mouth.
She held his face in her hands and kissed him like she'd never be able to kiss him again. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body flush up against his, kissing her back passionately.
He could tell Ally wanted to speed the kiss up and make it more heated, but he slowed it down, making it passionate and loving.
So many emotions filled just this one kiss. There was sadness, obviously. Pain. A hint of anger. But also happiness and excitement. A lot of fear. And most of all, love.
He would've stood there kissing her for hours, but then he remembered that his parents, her father, and their best friends were all watching them, so he slowly pulled away.
"I guess this is goodbye," Ally said thickly, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Have fun on tour."
"Good luck at school," Austin smiled at the familiarity of the situation and the words they were saying, wiping her tears with his thumb. "I know you're gonna do great."
Ally threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his shoulder, trying to burn his scent into her memory.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, his head dropped into her hair as his eyes drifted shut, wanting to live in this exact moment forever.
"Austin!" Jimmy called out. "We gotta go!", Austin sighed as he and Ally slowly broke apart from their embrace.
"Have a safe flight," Ally told him. "Call me as soon as you land."
Austin nodded before leaning in to kiss her again.
"I love you," he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.
"I love you too," Ally replied, before giving him one last quick kiss.
Austin grabbed onto Ally's hand as he picked up his backpack and waved goodbye to everyone else, giving her hand one last squeeze before heading off to board the plane.
She started missing him the second he left.
Watching him get on that plane and fly off to embark on the next chapter of his life was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.
Because she couldn't stop him.
She couldn't run after him, kiss him senseless, and beg him to stay.
She couldn't.
Because she knew he would listen.
She knew if she asked him he would stay in a heartbeat.
And she couldn't keep him from going on his first national tour. Especially since she would be leaving to go to college in just a few weeks.
This was his dream.
The last thing she ever wanted to do was keep him from his dream.
She had already (unwillingly) done it once, and she still felt guilty about it.
Ever since that incident she felt as though she needed to make it up to him. Even though it wasn't her choice, it was all him, she still felt like she was to blame.
So here they were. The exact situation they would have been in a year ago if he hadn't given up his career for her.
A year ago they were leaving to go on her tour, him just a tagalong.
Now he was leaving for his big tour and she wasn't going. She couldn't go. This was his dream. She couldn't keep him from it.
The second she got home from seeing him off at the airport she flopped down onto her bed, sighing loudly; unsure of what to do with herself.
She waited anxiously for her phone to ring, knowing Austin was going to call he as soon as he landed.
Ally laid on her bed, staring at her phone on her nightstand for so long she ended up falling asleep.
Hours later, Ally was startled awake by her phone ringing.
She saw her boyfriend's name and picture on the screen, and scrambled to answer it as quickly as possible.
"Hey you," Ally sighed as she answered the phone, laying down flat on her back on his bed, a lovesick expression immediately washing over her face.
"Hey," Austin replied airily, Ally could tell he had an identical lovesick expression on his own face.
"How was your flight?" she asked.
"It was fine," he said. "Long; but it was fine. Private planes are pretty cool. I think I may look into getting one for myself."
"Of course," Ally said giggled fondly. "You're adorable. I miss you."
"Ally, it's been like 5 hours, tops," Austin said dryly, but she could tell he was smiling.
"That's 5 hours I could've spent with you!" Ally said. "Do you what all we could've done in 5 hours? A LOT."
"Tut, tut, Ally," Austin teased her. "Can you really not go 5 hours without getting all up on this bod?"
"Oh please, you're acting as though you didn't spend the past 5 hours thinking about the same thing," Ally retorted.
"That's not true!" Austin defended himself. "I pretended to listen to Jimmy's long pre-tour lecture while I was actually thinking about you. And what did you do in the last 5 hours, missy?"
"Mope and sleep. And think of you," Ally grumbled.
Austin chuckled.
"Aw poor baby," he cooed into the phone. "I miss you too."
"How are we gonna do this?" Ally asked. "It's been 5 hours and we're both already miserable. We don't even know when we're gonna see each other again! How are we supposed to do this?"
"I won't even try to sugarcoat it; it'll be horrible," Austin said. "But it'll get easier. The first day is always the hardest, you know that. And hey, we will FaceTime and text and talk on the phone as much as possible!"
"Yeah, but that's not the same," Ally said. "I wanna be able to hold you close to me and run my fingers through your hair. I wanna be able to hold your hand. I wanna be able to kiss you whenever I want. I just wanna be with you. I just want things to be the way they were."
"I know, baby," Austin said softly. "I'm sorry Ally, but I've gotta go. We're almost to the hotel."
"Oh, yeah I'll let you get going," Ally said.
"I'll text you as soon as rehearsals over tonight," Austin told her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she smiled into her phone before the line went dead.
Placing her phone back on her nightstand, Ally sighed loudly and flopped back onto her bed.
This new reality was gonna take some getting used to.
...
The first week was rough.
Austin was getting adjusted to tour life while Ally got adjusted to life without Austin.
After the first week, things started to settle into a routine.
Austin was growing used to tour, Ally would help Trish at the factory, the two would talk as much as possible, and that's just how it was.
And they hated it.
They hated how they were becoming so used to being apart. They hated how they still missed each other. They hated how they felt like they were being held back.
Both of them had been very short with those around them that first week; their patience thin.
They had never had to be apart from each other. The only time they were apart for a significant amount of time was Austin's first tour, and that was only for about two months; not to mention it was before they got back together.
So they were still learning how to live their day to day life without each other.
And so far, they hated it.
...
After the second week things started to go back to normal.
Austin and Ally had gone back to their usual selfs; well, as close to their usual selfs that they could get whilst still completely missing their other half.
They had settled into routines with their means of communication; they would FaceTime every night starting at exactly nine o'clock, and lasting late into the night. They would talk on the phone if by any chance they weren't able to FaceTime.
Their FaceTime sessions and phone calls always consisted of each of them telling the other anything and everything that they had done that day, not leaving out a single detail. They would end with the couple bantering over who should hang up first, which always lasted for a solid five minutes.
On nights when they felt particularly lonely, they would call each other the second they ended their FaceTime, staying on the phone all night.
Every night before he went to sleep he would read from her book; whether it be old songs they had written or old journal entries, they would automatically transport him back to whenever it happened, making him forget the distance between them. He would also read the new songs she had written for him, but he limited himself to one new song a week since he didn't wanna run out of them.
Sometimes he felt overworked between his tour and managing his long distance relationship with Ally. But he obviously made it work since he wasn't willing to give up either thing.
Although sometimes he felt like he was willing to give up his career all over again and move to wherever Harvard was just so he could be with Ally.
But then he remembered how miserable he was when he was unable to make music.
No matter how demanding his career may be, he loved it and there's no way he'd be able to give it up again.
But sometimes just missing Ally felt like a full time job in it of itself.
...
It's scientifically proven that it takes exactly twenty one days to make or break a habit; meaning by the three week mark, Austin and Ally had finally settled all the way into their long distance relationship.
Everything has become a routine. Austin would wake up and text Ally good morning, she would wake up a few hours later (because of the time difference) and see his text then immediately text him back. They would each work all day, occasionally enjoy a short phone call over lunch, then they would FaceTime at night and tell the other all the things they had done that day, then around midnight they would end the FaceTime call and go back to texting until one fell asleep.
Everything was going fine.
Except, routine wasn't fine.
Everything felt so repetitive. They hardly talked like they used to. Every good morning text was the same, they wouldn't even continue the conversation after each had texted a half hazed "good morning". Their lunch time phone calls were becoming rarer, and every time they did have one, it always felt rushed. Their FaceTime sessions had grown ritual; they'd each recall the highlights and funny moments from their day, glossing over most small details that they used to never ignore. And their late night text conversations had been getting shorter and shorter; to the point where one of them would say they were going to sleep when they really weren't just to get out of it so they could do something else. They chose to blame it on the time difference, that was obviously the whole reason behind it.
Damn time zones.
...
After a month apart the duo started to become frustrated. Sexually frustrated.
And everyone around them could tell.
Both of them had been acting irritable and short with everyone they came in contact with, and they were sick of it.
Sure, there were many means of dealing with a problem such as this; but none of them had exactly what they wanted, which was just to be with each other.
One night, Ally just couldn't take it anymore.
It was a Friday night. She was home alone. Her dad was at some convention in Orlando.
Ally felt like doing something daring, something totally unlike her, something she and Austin had never done before: sexting.
To be honest, Ally wasn't exactly sure how to sext. They never had to! They were always around each other! She didn't know how to start it; even though she was an incredibly gifted writer, she would have no idea what to say.
But, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Feeling bold, Ally stripped down to her underwear (then changed into a matching set), stood in front of her full length mirror and started snapping pictures.
She made sure not to include her face in any of them, knowing that the press would have a field day if they got a hold on the Ally Dawson's scandalous photos
Once she had taken a decent amount of photos, she put her clothes back on and searched through them to find the best one.
She ended up picking one where her hand was on her hip, her ass was sticking out and her boobs looked particularly larger than in the other pictures (probably because she was leaning forward slightly for that exact effect).
After playing with the lighting and coloring, deciding it looked as good as it could possibly get, Ally sent the picture to Austin, along with the message "I miss you...", followed by a smirk emoji.
Ally immediately felt anxious after the text had sent. She sat down on her bed and distracted herself with her computer while she waited for him to reply.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe, Austin was nearly asleep. He had been in rehearsal all day and he just wanted to back to his hotel room and sleep. And if he had the option, he would really enjoy sleeping with Ally; but sadly that wasn't an option.
Jimmy and his team were having a meeting, discussing tour stuff and whatnot. Austin was sitting at the large table Jimmy had in his hotel room, not paying a bit of attention.
Austin felt his phone buzz, taking a large gulp of his coffee before checking the message.
To say Austin was surprise by her text would be an understatement. When he saw the message Ally had sent him he spit out his entire mouthful of coffee all over the table.
Jimmy and the rest of his team turned to look at Austin.
"Sorry. Too hot," Austin coughed out. "And I'm sorry guys but I've gotta head out. I'm feeling kinda warm; I should probably go to bed. Don't wanna be getting sick."
"Oh yes, of course," Jimmy said. "Have a good night, Austin!"
"Yeah, yeah, you too!" Austin said quickly as he hurried out of the room.
Austin rushed out of the room, down the hall and entered his own hotel room.
He immediately pressed Ally's contact number and held his phone to his ear as it rang.
"Hello?" Ally answered smugly, he could tell she was smirking.
"You're killing me, smalls," Austin sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
"You like?" Ally giggled.
"Like? Well let's see..." Austin said thoughtfully. "Seeing that picture during the meeting I was in caused me to spit coffee all over the table then make up that I was sick and rush out of the room before my dick exploded in my boss' presence. I hope you're happy with yourself, woman."
"Why yes I am, actually," Ally replied.
"What am I gonna do with you?" Austin said, a playfully amused tone in his voice as he sat down on the bed.
"I can think of a few things..." Ally said lustfully.
"Ally!" Austin whined. "I told you I hurt my hand in rehearsal today! And I'm using my non-injured hand to hold the phone so..."
"Well that's you're problem," Ally replied. "Both my hands are just looking for something to do..."
"I repeat: you're killing me, smalls," Austin said, flopping backwards onto the bed.
"I miss you," Ally said randomly, her voice full of sentiment, all the teasing gone.
"I miss you too," Austin said. "But hey, you're starting school soon! That's exciting!"
"Yeah, it is. But I still miss you," Ally sighed, laying down on her bed. "I miss you. Like I physically miss you. My body misses your body. I miss being with you. I just wanna be near you."
"I know you do." Austin said. "You have no idea what I would give to be holding you in my arms right now."
"What would you do?" Ally asked softly. "If I were in your arms right now, what would you do?"
Austin thought for a minute.
"I would stroke your hair and play with the ends with my fingers like you like," Austin said. "I would rub little circles on the small of your back where your shirt had ridden up. We would just talk. Every now and then I would kiss your head softly, and eventually we're fall asleep holding each other."
Ally let out a sigh.
"So how long is a flight from Belgium to Miami?" she whispered.
He chuckled.
Needless to say, Austin and Ally were not good at sexting.
...
Ally left for school 6 weeks later.
Things just got harder from there.
Now they had to balance their relationship between both of their busy schedules.
Whenever Ally wasn't in class Austin was in rehearsal or doing a show or meet and greet, and whenever Austin had down time Ally always seemed to be in class or studying or just socializing as a college student.
Their means of communication got cut back to one thing per day; either one phone call or one FaceTime session. They still texted a lot. But the time difference made it difficult to carry on any substantial conversation.
But everything was still fine, right?
...
October 31st. Halloween.
It was the first time Austin ever had no plans on Halloween. Ever since he was a kid he'd go out trick-or-treating, and when he got older he and Dez and the girls would usually end up at some swanky Halloween party.
But not this year.
He didn't have a show that night so he had decided to just have a chill night in his hotel room by himself.
So that's what he did.
He ordered room service, watched Hocus Pocus, then went to sleep at a reasonable hour since he had to wake up early the next day.
He would have called Ally, but it was her first Halloween at college and he knew she would be busy doing fun stuff with her new friends.
So he turned in early, falling asleep before midnight.
He woke up at six in the morning, he had a rehearsal at eight and he liked having some down time in the morning to start his day.
Grabbing his phone off his nightstand, he checked social media, seeing what he had missed from the night before, many pictures of his friends having a great time and of everyone's costumes.
He saw that his mentions were going crazy, even crazier than usual.
Curious, Austin checked them and saw only one picture: Ally and her friends in their Halloween costumes.
Ally's group of friends had decided to dress as "sexy breakfast foods".
And Ally was dressed as none other than a pancake.
A sexy pancake.
A sexy pancake wearing a skin tight strapless dress that barely covered her ass, showing off her magnificent legs. A sexy pancake wearing stilettos that elongated her already mile long legs. A sexy pancake with flawless hair, all curled and voluminous. A sexy pancake with dark eye makeup and a smirk on her lips, almost as if she knew that she was driving her boyfriend crazy even though he was thousands of miles away.
She really didn't look like a pancake at all. But that didn't stop Austin from wanting to lick up and down her entire delicious body.
And just speak of the devil, his girlfriend's name flashed across the screen as his phone began to vibrate.
"Hey you," Austin said, his voice raspy from having just woken up, and also because of how turned on he was after seeing that picture of his girlfriend.
"Ohmaigawd AUSSSTIIIN!" Ally slurred into the phone. "I miss youuuuuu!"
"I miss you too, honey," Austin laughed. "Hey, by any chance have you been drinking?"
"Nooooooooo!" Ally said.
"Are you sure?" Austin asked.
"Yah I'm SURE!" Ally said.
"Let me rephrase that, have you consumed any alcohol in the past 24 hours?" Austin said.
"Mayyybbeeee..." Ally giggled.
"Ally," Austin said sternly.
"I just had like some Jell-O shots!" Ally said.
"How many?" Austin asked, growing more and more concerned for his girlfriend's wellbeing.
"I don't know... A thousand," Ally giggled.
Austin sighed. She was completely wasted. Ally had always stayed away from alcohol. In fact, all four of never really drank in high school at all. They were all too consumed with their careers to do normal high school things like party and get drunk.
"Are you okay?" Austin asked her.
"I'm FINE," Ally said. "I just miss you."
"I miss you too, sweetheart," he sighed.
"Did you see my costume?" Ally asked in a sultry tone.
"Yes, in fact, I did see your costume," Austin told her.
"I wore it just for you," she told him, still slurring her words. "I really wish you were here to rip it off me and eat me like I was a pancake... OHMIGAWD HI!"
"Ally?" Austin said, confused.
"Sorry, I just saw some guy from my Spanish class," Ally told him.
"Where exactly are you?" Austin asked. "It sounds pretty loud."
"I'm at a party!" Ally said. "It's at this frat house- OH YES I WANT ONE!"
"Want what?" Austin said.
"Oh, I gotta go, they're starting another round of tequila shots!" Ally said quickly. "I love youuuu!"
"Ally, are you sure you're safe?" Austin said.
"Relax! Take a chill pill! I'm FINE!" Ally said. "Gosh, why are you being so protective?"
"I don't know, maybe because I care about you and I don't want anything bad to happen to you," Austin said.
"I am a grown ass independent woman, I don't need you to protect me or look out for me; okay, Austin Moon?" Ally said, suddenly sounding very defensive and slightly angry.
"I know that," Austin said calmly. "But I also know that you've never been in this type of situation before and I don't want anyone to take advantage of you or harm you in any way."
"I'll be fine," Ally said. "Stop worrying."
"Okay," Austin said simply. "I trust you."
"Good," she replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's some tequila shots waiting for me with my name on them. I'll call you later. I love you, BYYYEE."
And before he could even say anything else the line was dead.
Austin sighed and dropped his head back against the headboard, running his hands through his hair.
Yes, he does trust her; but he doesn't trust any of the other people there.
He just wanted her to be safe.
After a day full of rehearsing, performing, and meeting and greeting fans, Austin found himself back in his hotel room, exhausted.
He took a long, hot shower, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt (which just so happened to be a shirt from Ally's 'Finally Me' tour), then ordered some pancakes from room service.
Just as Austin had lied down in bed to enjoy his pancakes that had just arrived, his phone began ringing in the nightstand.
He looked over and saw that it was Ally who was calling. He quickly scrambled to answer the phone.
"Hey!" Austin answered the phone.
"Don't ever let me drink alcohol again," Ally groaned into the phone.
"That bad?" Austin said.
"I skipped all my classes today," Ally dead panned. "Yes, it's that bad."
"I'm sorry, baby," Austin said sympathetically. "I wish I was there to take care of you."
"Me too," Ally said. "You know that's why I drank last night. I thought it would dull the pain I felt from missing you, but it only made me miss you more."
"I don't know what to tell you, Als," Austin said honestly. "I just wish there was something I could do."
"Well, there's nothing you can do," Ally said. "You're in Europe and I'm in the states, you can't just fly all the way back to join my lame pity party."
"I know, but I wish I could," Austin said. "It's been way too long since we actually saw each other. I can hardly take it anymore."
"I know, baby," Ally said softly. "But this is what we wanted. We've gotta remember that this is what we want, what's best for both of us."
"You're right," Austin said. "And hey, being apart for so long will only make when we reunite even better."
"Yeah," Ally sighed. "I just wish it would come sooner."
"Me too, Als," Austin said. "Me too."
...
Spending Thanksgiving in England was not fun.
One of Austin's favorite parts of Thanksgiving was the parade, which was not on in England. Not to mention the time difference meant it hasn't even started in the states yet.
His parents said they would call him after everyone got to their house for dinner, which was still hours away.
His crew was all off doing their own thing today, Jimmy was hanging with some friends in the city.
He was all alone.
Austin decided to make the most of his lonely situation and go site seeing.
He sent a bunch of pictures to Ally, who he knew was still fast asleep in her own bed at her own house in Miami, but she would be excited to see them when she woke up.
Around noon it started to rain, so Austin made his was back to his hotel.
He spent all afternoon cooped up in his room, watching the stream of the parade on his computer, feeling sad that he wasn't at his childhood home.
Around five, while Austin was browsing the room service menu to find some sort of dish that contained turkey, there was a knock on his door.
Austin rolled off his bed and went to open the door, curious as to who it could be.
"Austin!" the person standing outside the door greeted him, her arms wide.
"Penny!" Austin said happily, hugging the woman tightly.
"What are you doing here?" Austin asked as they broke away from their hug, Austin leading Penny into the room. "Not that I'm not glad to see you! Because I really am."
"I'm working in London for the next few weeks and got in yesterday," Penny explained. "Ally told me you were here too; she said that you might be lonely and would probably appreciate seeing a familiar face."
"Well as usual, Ally was right," Austin said.
"Yep," Penny laughed. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. How about we go find some place that has turkey?"
"That sounds amazing," Austin said gratefully.
The pair left the hotel and went to find a restaurant to have honorary Thanksgiving dinner, in England.
They found a bistro near Austin's hotel, which was in the heart of London. They didn't even have to wait for a table, they were seated immediately.
"So how's the tour been?" Penny asked, after their waiter had taken their drink orders.
"Pretty good," Austin said. "All the shows have been selling out, so that's cool."
"How have you been?" she asked, a concerned motherly tone in her voice.
Austin shrugged.
"It has been lonely," he told her. "Trish and Dez were with me all of my first tour and Ally joined us towards the end. Then on Ally's tour it was the two of us. Now it's just me and the crew."
"How are you and Ally doing?" she asked quietly.
"As good as we can be doing," Austin sighed. "I miss her. I miss her so damn much. We talk as much as we can, but I'm just tired of the distance, ya know?"
"I know how you feel," Penny said. "It's miserable watching her do all this amazing stuff, and all you can do is wish you had been there when she did it."
Austin nodded.
"I mean, you obviously love and miss her in a very different way than I do, but I know how you feel," Penny said.
Austin laughed.
"I don't just miss... like.. being with her, ya know? I mean don't get me wrong, I miss holding her and kissing her and all that; but I also miss just seeing her smile everyday and hearing her laugh in person, like just simply being in her presence."
"So... Why are you still in it?" Penny asked. "Like you're both aware of how hard long distance relationships are, yet you continue to try. Like, what's your end goal?"
"Well..." Austin said slowly. "My plan, which I haven't discussed with Ally yet, is to finish out this tour then start working on my next album. And maybe even move up to Massachusetts. I'd work on music, Ally would graduate, we'd both go back to music full time, then we'd get married and start a family.
"We haven't seriously talked about this, really. I mean, we kinda talked about it seriously for the first time like a year ago when we had a school project where we were planning our fake wedding, but I seriously can't see anything else happening in my life. All I wanna do is spend it with Ally."
"Does she feel the same way?"
"I hope so," Austin said. "I know right now she isn't thinking that far ahead. She can't even comprehend anything that could happen after college, she's just so focused on school right now."
"You should tell her."
"I know," Austin sighed. "But I wanna do it in person. Like that's not a conversation you can have over the phone or on FaceTime."
"Good point," Penny said just as their food arrived.
The two began eating their turkey burgers, which was the closet thing to normal Thanksgiving food on the menu.
"So when do you get back to the states?" Penny asked.
"Two weeks," Austin said. "I have all of December off so my parents have planned this huge family vacation to Vermont. All my extended family is going too. So I guess that'll be fun."
"When will you see Ally?"
"My guess is around Christmas. I'm performing at the Disney Christmas parade in Orlando the week before so maybe she can come with me for that so the two of us can spend some time together."
"That'd be fun!" Penny said. "Ally loves Disney World. We used to take her all the time when she was little. I used to commute back and forth to Orlando one weekend a month to do stuff at Animal Kingdom and I would always take Ally.
"I remember one time when she was like 4 or 5, they gave us a behind the scenes tour of the safari because I worked with animals. And I was so focused on what we were talking about I didn't even notice that Ally had wandered off into the pond where the hippos were."
"No way!" Austin said, a large smile coming across his face.
"Yes!" Penny said. "Once I noticed she was gone I was worried sick and we finally found her sitting in the pond wearing her mouse ears, her clothes soaking wet, just leaning against a hippo who didn't seemed bothered by her at all."
"Ally never told me that!" Austin laughed. "That's so funny!"
"I don't think Trish even knows that story," Penny said.
"What are some other stories about Ally when she was younger?" Austin asked fondly.
"Hmm..." Penny thought. "Oh, when she was in first grade she came home from school and told me a boy in her class had written her a love letter. I asked her what she was gonna do, she told me she was going to write him back and then she went up to her room. However, the next day Ally came home with a note from the teacher and the note she had given the boy. Instead of writing him a note back, she had corrected all of the grammatical and spelling errors in the note then gave it back to him."
"That sounds like Ally," Austin laughed.
"Oh I've got another one!" Penny said. "When she was in second grade she invited this boy over, I think Elliot was his name."
Austin tensed up at the mention of his name.
"So it was completely obvious that Ally was hardcore crushing on this guy," Penny said. "So he came over and was an absolute sweetheart, but Ally didn't say a word the whole time because she was so nervous. She just made a bunch of random noises whenever her spoke to her."
Austin couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Okay that's really funny," he said.
"I thought so," Penny laughed. "What about you? You must have some great Ally stories."
"You've probably heard them all," Austin shrugged.
"I've heard them from Ally's point of view, though," Penny said. "Not from yours."
"That's a good point, what story do you wanna hear from my point of view?" Austin asked.
"Well, I know when Ally realized she liked you..." Penny said slowly. "But when did you realize you liked her?"
"We were 16..." Austin began, a soft smile on his face as he recalled the fond memory. "I had just started dating this girl named Kira, who just so happened to be my boss' daughter.
"So Kira and I had been dating for a couple weeks when coincidentally, Elliot came to visit Ally. Trish said that he was her first crush, I didn't think anything of it. He was way better looking in real life than in the photo Ally had showed us, and from the second I saw him I felt this sense of competitiveness. Like I had to prove that I was better than him. He and Ally started talking about arts and crafts, so I ended up drawing a hand turkey. I don't even know why, I was just overtaken with this feeling, like all I could think about was how I had to show Ally that I was better than him.
"Ally pushed back a rehearsal we had planned, which was weird because she never did that. She skipped our rehearsal to hang out with Elliot. That really rubbed me the wrong way.
"So that went on for a few days. Ally hanging out with Elliot, me being mad because we couldn't work on a new song, I felt like Ally was too busy for me.
"After the third day of Ally hanging out with Elliot, I found myself in the practice room attempting to make a basket because all Ally and Elliot seemed to be able to talk about was when they would make baskets together. Dez came in and criticized my basket making abilities; to be fair, he had a good point, my so called 'basket' looked like a birds nest.
"Dez asked me if I saw what was going on, he said I liked Ally. I told him that was crazy. Dez asked if it really was and asked if I liked anything about Ally. I told him I liked a lot of stuff about Ally. I liked writing songs with her, I liked that I could talk to her about anything, and I liked her smile, and the way she laughs, and I really liked when we were playing piano and her hand would accidentally touch mine. I got this awesome feeling that nobody, not ever Kira, my own girlfriend, made me feel.
"And then I realized it: I liked Ally. Dez said it was more than that, he said I was in love with her. And of course he turned out to be right. He always is with this kinda stuff.
"I was up all night that night thinking about what Dez had made me realize. Did I really like Ally? What did I want? Did I want to date her? Did I want to be her boyfriend? I came to conclusion that I just had a few mixed feeling, which was only natural when a girl and a guy who are so close. I was happy with Kira and Ally clearly liked Elliot.
"Kira and I were going to a Katy Perry concert that night, so I was waiting at Sonic Boom for her to meet me there. Dez came running into the practice room and said we had to talk about Ally. I said we'd been over this, I said I was happy with Kira and that Ally and I were just friends.
"Dez told me that Ally was gonna tell Elliot that she wanted to be his girlfriend, I freaked out. I said that can't happen, she can't be his girlfriend, he wasn't the right guy for her. Then I ran out of the room, trying to get to Ally as quickly as possible.
"Of course I ran into Kira, I told her I needed to bring Ally her lucky pencil. We hurried off to the restaurant, we got there and saw that it was trivia night. And I of course felt the competitive feeling and urge to show Ally that I was better that Elliot, so Kira and I ended up skipping the concert and playing all of trivia night.
"I still felt this overwhelming urge to beat Elliot. We played every game in the entire restaurant, we even made up games. Elliot eventually quick, which I took that to mean I won. I acted all cocky and asked Ally if she still wanted to be his girlfriend. Kira got mad and left, I chased her out. She said she knew I had feelings for Ally, I said I was confused, she told me to call her when I figure everything out.
"I went back to Sonic Boom to change my clothes because the clothes I was wearing were covered in egg salad and buffalo sauce. After I changed my clothes I sat down at the piano and just played whatever melodies my hands felt like playing, trying to clear my mind.
"And of course Ally showed up, looking as perfect as ever in her red dress. There was a lot of tension in the air, but then she suggested we work on the song and everything felt at ease. And then our hands touched.
"I got this feeling I had never felt before. It was as if the whole world stopped, it was just me and her. My mind went blank, the only thing in my mind was her. All I could think about was how beautiful she was and how badly I wanted to kiss her. I didn't even register that I was leaning in, she was too. But before we could kiss she stopped it, said something about the chorus of the song. I didn't even pay attention to what she played, I was too lost in her eyes. She turned back to look at the keys and I still couldn't take my eyes off of her. And that's when I knew that the feelings I had for her were really real. It wasn't just a 'like like' kind of thing, it was so much deeper than that."
Penny clasped her hands over her heart and held back the urge to let out a loud "aww" as he daughter's boyfriend told her how he realized his feelings for her.
"You really love her, huh?" Penny said softly, a fond smile on her face.
Austin nodded, a sheepish smile on his face.
"She's my everything," he told her.
Penny smiled at the blushing boy sweetly just as the waiter came back to give them their check.
"I've got it, honey!" Penny said as Austin reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet.
"No, let me," Austin said, handing his card to the waiter. "If I can't treat my girlfriend's mother to one meal after she rescued me from what would've been a very sad and lonely Thanksgiving, I don't knew what I can do."
"That's awfully sweet of you, Austin," Penny said, finally agreeing to let Austin pay.
After the waiter brought back Austin's card, the pair left the restaurant and headed back towards Austin's hotel.
"You should get some rest," Penny said once they had arrived at Austin's hotel. "I'm sure you have a busy day tomorrow."
"Yep, gotta be up at five to head to Scotland," Austin said. "Thank you so much, for everything."
"You're welcome, sweetheart," Penny said, pulling him into a hug. "Take care of yourself. I love you."
Austin froze, neither of his girlfriend's parents had ever told him that they loved him.
"I love you, too," Austin said, a soft smile on his face as he hugged her tighter.
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