Austin was never particularly good with words. Singing them, yes. Presenting himself, yes. Coming up with the right thing to say, not so much. For example, when he was 5, he had a crush on a girl in his kindergarten class. He could never find quite the right thing to say. He ended up pulling on the ends of her pigtails.
Only this time, there were no pigtails. Just long, crème brown hair that flowed to her shoulders. Ally Dawson was standing at his door, hair slightly curled, in the most stunning light blue dress he'd ever seen. A pair of crystal heels and a small purse accompanied her. Blue was definitely her color. She had a pale masquerade mask on her face, following the theme of the dance.
Ally tilted her head, puzzled by Austin's stare.
"Do I look that awful?" she said, the smile dropping from her face.
"No, no," Austin said breathlessly, looking her up and down. "Not awful at all. You look the opposite of awful, Als."
Her face had never grown so red. Fortunately for her, Austin was concentrating on his shoes, hoping he wouldn't throw up. She was just so pretty. He always knew she was, but with Kira out of the picture, it was as if he was looking at her in a whole new light.
"Austin? Are we gonna meet up with Dez and Trish or what?" Ally asked, gesturing her thumb to Dez's house.
For the first time in his life, Austin Moon was speechless.
"Cinderella," he sputtered out. That was the only thing he could think of. How much she looked like Cinderella in the practical gown.
She chuckled, although Austin found nothing about what he had said funny.
"Come on," she giggled, pulling at his tux through the door. He followed her outside, re-adjusting his tie.
He had this.
The dance was full with a billion girls, divided into two sections: the girls with short, plain dresses with cheap Mardi Gras masks, and the girls with lavish dresses and almost real looking masquerade masks. Ally fell into the latter. With all the masks on, it was almost difficult to find her.
They were playing slow music, and Trish and Dez had become scattered in the crowd of dancing couples. Austin set off to find Ally. Bethany, one of the girls in his history class, grabbed him and attempted to dance. Not wanting to be rude, he followed, quickly spinning her around to the next awaiting male. Austin found himself in the presence of another masked girl.
Ally, on the other hand, was having fun getting spun around, dancing with almost every guy in the school. Alex, her current partner, switched her to Dez, and she chuckled as their hands intertwined.
"Have you seen Austin?" Ally asked, allowing Dez to twirl her.
"He's looking for you," Dez replied, spinning her off.
She gracefully twirled to the next bachelor, sighing disappointedly that it wasn't Austin.
Austin took the current girl under his arm, turning around to the next partner. He spotted Ally in the corner, a glimpse of her crystal shoes, and immediately danced in that direction.
Ally, whose back was turned, was laughing as Dallas whirled her across the floor. As he passed her on, she came face to face with Austin. Their faces grew closer, less than an inch apart.
"Ally?" he asked, dipping her. When they came face to face, she slid her mask up slightly, revealing hazelnut eyes.
He grinned, intertwining their fingers and taking the lead. She courteously followed, their feet moving in sync to the tempo of the music. Both pair of eyes were so focused on each other, so unwilling to divert the mutual gaze, that the duo failed to noticed the song had stopped and the dance floor cleared. Austin spun her one last time, and she spiraled into his chest, hands still intertwined. She was looking directly up at him, trying to control her heavy breathing.
The heavy applaud from the crowd of students broke apart their bliss and zoned them both back into the real world. Ally quickly stepped into the crowd as the DJ turned up a faster paced song. She soon felt Austin's breath on her neck.
"Hey," he said, almost shouting due to the loud music. "You were great out there."
"Thanks, you too," Ally replied, a grin breaking out on her face.
"Promise me one thing, though," Austin said.
"Yes?"
"Stop dancing with strangers."
They left the dance around midnight, via Ally's request.
"My dad will kill me if I don't close up shop," she said, walking down the road with Austin. Dez and Trish had bailed at the intersection to the street. It was lightly raining, so they took the shortcut home.
"What about your parents?" Ally asked, gripping onto Austin's arm. There were several cars passing by the side of the street, and she really did not want to turn into Ally Soup.
"They're working late at the Mattress Shop and they said as long as I didn't break anything, I was fine," Austin said.
"You wanna come over? My dad's not coming back from the accordion convention until Tuesday," she replied.
"I guess. Could we stop by my place first, so -"
"No!" Ally screeched, releasing her grip on Austin's arm.
"You could've just said no," Austin said, shrugging.
"Not your house, my shoe! The heel broke!"
"Oh…sorry?"
She groaned. "Now I have to walk in the rain."
"No you don't," Austin said, lowering himself a little. "Hand me your shoes."
She slipped the other one off quickly, giving them to Austin. He took the straps in his hand and bent down in front of her.
"Hop on."
She giggled, wrapping her arms and jumping on Austin's back. He re-positioned her, wrapping his arms under her legs.
"Gosh, do you LIVE on pickles?" Austin yelled. "You're as light as a feather!"
"Sorry, next time I'll make sure to wear dumbbells under my dress," Ally said. The rain started to beat down harder, and Austin looked up at the sky.
"Ally, hold on!"
"What are you do-AHH!"
She tightened her grip on Austin's neck as he started to run through the street, dashing through every corner until they reached Sonic Boom. He kept her on his back until they reached the practice room, and he set her down on the piano bench.
She watched intently as he fiddled with her shoe.
"Do you seriously think you can fix it?"
"Duh! Elliot's not the only one who can do crafts!" Austin muttered, holding up the shoe. It was obviously taped back together, and rather poorly at that. Ally tried to stifle her laughter, but she couldn't.
"Yes he is," she said through a fit of giggles.
Austin rolled his eyes. "Shut up."
He bent down on one knee, slipping the shoe on her foot. Ally smiled weakly. He took his seat by her on the piano bench.
She still had raindrops in her hair, and even though half her dress was soaked, she still looked absolutely beautiful.
"Austin?"
"Hm?" He perked his head up, looking up to meet her starry gaze.
"I asked, are you going to move your hand?"
He looked down to realize his hand was still on her leg from where he had slipped on the shoe.
He moved his hand.
Well, he moved it from her leg to her face. Cradling her face with his hands, he connected their lips, feeling one of the rain drops from her hair fall onto his face. She pulled away slightly, taken aback by the kiss but soon wrapped her arms around his neck. Every single 4th of July celebration he'd seen in his life was replaying in his head, accompanied by a thousand butterflies.
When he pulled away, she flipped her hair off her shoulder, grinning madly.
"So…you like me?" were the only words he could manage out.
"No, I just kiss people that I don't like," Ally said, a stoic expression replacing her grin.
He laughed, before the sound of the clock striking midnight rang through.
"We should probably head home," Ally said. "I don't think my heel will hold up."
Austin sweeped her off the piano bench, holding her bridal style and carrying her out the practice room.
Because they might not be in a fairy tale, but she'd always be his Cinderella.