Starbucks and Seating Charts
Part One
"What can I help you with today?" An employee at Starbucks asks the girl on a cold Wednesday in January. The brunette is bundled up in her blue pea coat and scarf, the New York air chillier than what she was use to.
"Um, yes, I'll take a small hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin." She answers while looking at the menu that hadn't changed a bit since she first started coming to the Starbucks on the corner of Broadway ST. The cashier, with the name tag that reads Dez, says the total and the brunette pulls out her money.
Once the hot chocolate and muffin are in her small hand, she walks to her favorite spot. The table, same one that she always sits at, faces away from the door, which means she doesn't see the person who walks in a moment later. But she would soon.
Her phone is in her hand; while scrolling through her news feed she internally laughing at all the desperate and pathetic people she went to high school with. When she scrolls through Facebook, she gets a sense of pride that she got out of Miami, unlike other people, and was starting to make a name for herself. She flashes back to memories from high school; remembers hearing about the weekend parties where every one got so drunk, and forgot their names. Where was she during those fun nights that most can't even remember? At home, reading, of course. Back then, when she was tired of hearing about the drama surrounding her, at school and home, she would tell her self that one day she would write a book called, 'Things I Heard in High School', she never got around to it though.
She's half way done her muffin and about to switch to scrolling through Instagram when she hears a throat being cleared behind her. What now? The brunette thinks while turning around in her seat. Brown eyes are met with another set of brown eyes. And blonde hair. And a male.
The blonde, tall, and handsome man is holding an iced mocha in his left hand, his cookie in the right. A black coat is wrapped around his frame, topped off with a plaid patterned scarf. "Sorry to bother you miss, but this is the table that I always sit at."
The brunette glances around the table, looking for a name that states the table belongs to the tall dude. After a moment, she stops the charade and brings her eyes to look up. "Hmm, that's weird because I don't see anything anywhere that says this is your table only. What's your name? Maybe I missed it." She lifts her eye brow, as if a way of challenging him. She wasn't leaving the table without a fight.
Lightly laughing, the male extends his hand. "Austin Moon, son of business mogul, Mike Moon, and Mimi Moon, columnist at New York Times."
Scoffing disbelievingly, the female takes his hand in her own, giving it a hard shake. "Ally Dawson, daughter of music store owner, Lester Dawson, and Penny Dawson, writer of books about animals."
Austin lets her hand go before responding bluntly. "You just mocked me."
"And you're not getting this table just because your parents are important in a world that is not mine."
Austin takes his time responding, walking around to the other side of the table and pulling out the empty seat across from Ally. "You're a sassy one, aren't you." He slides his jacket off, revealing the gray suit he was sporting underneath it.
"And you're a little dressed up for coffee and cookies at Starbucks, aren't you?" Ally had already taken off her own coat, light pink sweater underneath it.
"You don't know how to answer questions with out asking one, do you?"
"I don't know, do I?"
"I think so." Austin shakes his head at the girl, then takes a bite of the chocolate chip cookie.
Ally puts her half empty hot chocolate cup down on the table, going through things that she could say to this Austin guy. The last time she stroked up a conversation with an attractive guy in a coffee shop was, well, never. "What do you think you're doing?"
Austin's eyes shine as he puts down his drink, then runs his hand through his hair and sits back in the chair, trying to get comfortable. "I'm just having a drink at my favorite coffee shop."
She can't believe the nerve of this guy. Before even considering what to do next, Ally looks down at the time on her phone, 2:33 PM, she wasn't meeting her best friend until six, so she had plenty of time to challenge the man. Ally leans back in her chair, crosses her leg over her knee, and takes another bite of the delicious muffin. "Mm, that's funny cause so am I." A smug grin appears on her face.
Austin has to clamp his lips shut so the laugh doesn't spill out. If he laughed, this little game would be over, and what a shame that would be. "Well than I guess we'd might as well get to know each other. You know, since neither of us are giving up this table?" He wants to challenge her, wants her to accept the challenge.
Ally shrugs her shoulders. "I guess so." She accepts his challenge. "I've been coming to this Starbucks, sitting at this exact table, for a year now and I have never seen you before? Are you sure that you're not at the wrong table?"
"I'm positive," Austin says while giving the room a look. "I always sit at this very table because it gives me a nice view of the counter. I love the attractive red head guarding the cash register." He gestures to the tall person taking someone's order at the front of the shop.
Ally turns her body around to see who Austin was talking about; not expecting to find what she does. "So you're gay?" The red head that Austin was talking about was a guy. Ally didn't know him at all but she didn't peg him as a guy who liked other guys.
"If I were, would you judge me?"
Ally bites her lip because she knows that there was no way he was gay. "Absolutely not. I've marched in a few gay pride parades during my time." Her phone vibrates on the table but she ignores it; flipping it over so her case is facing up.
Austin widens his eyes at Ally. "That is great, you're very patriotic?" His statement comes out as a question.
Ally can't control her laugh any longer. "I'm just kidding. And, by the way, I'm pretty sure you're not gay, either."
"What?! I could totally be gay if I wanted to." Austin takes the time to cross his legs, roll up the sleeves of his gray suit jacket and push back his blonde hair.
Ally shakes her head because, no, there was no way this guy sitting in front of her could be gay. "I don't think so because first of all, just two minutes ago you were staring at the blonde sitting right over there," Ally gestures to the blonde girl with boobs that were about to spill out over her tight red shirt. "And second of all, you just don't peg me as a guy who enjoys the company of other guys more than the company of a beautiful women,"
After sitting his legs down on the floor, and fixing his hair, Austin smirks. "You're something else. And that blonde is quite fine, ain't she?"
Ally's phone vibrates again. "I guess so, if you like girls who wear low cut tops in the dead of winter, then sure!" Sarcasm drips from her voice. "Why don't you go sit over there?"
Austin chuckles lowly. "Why would I do that? Then you'd win and I'm never gonna let that happen. And, FYI, the red head at the counter is my best friend, not my lover."
Ally knows that she isn't going to win the battle of the table as easily as she thought, but she still planned on winning one way or the other. "If you were a true gentlemen, you would just give up the table. It's just a table at one of the hundreds of Starbucks that are in New York, after all." Ally puts on her fake smile; the one that shows all of her teeth.
Austin knows the game that the petite girl was trying to play; knew it all too well since his parents were in the business field and he had been around it since birth and was now training to work with his dad. Ally was trying to undermine him, trick him into giving up the table that he sat at every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. "Why don't you just give up the table? A pretty girl like you can easily get any table you want." He was going to play her right back.
"You think you're so clever, don't you?" Ally shakes her head simply. "This pretty girl wants this table. The table she sits at every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday." Ally leans back in her chair, front legs going off the ground; as a child she always got yelled at for it, but today she was going to.
Austin strokes his chin with his finger. "Hmm, that's funny cause I sit at this table every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday." Austin thinks this over. Is it possible that every other day leading up to this, they had simply missed each other? Austin's subconscious mind thinks, there is no way I would've seen her and not known.
"I guess we just simply miss each other." Ally wasn't going to over think this. The times that she gets her coffee changes every day.
"You don't think it's weird that both of us sit at the same table, on the same days, but have just now ran into each other? Maybe it's destiny that we finally met today." Austin was interning with his dad on the 20th floor of the Empire State Building. His job was to get coffee for all the business men, and to wear a nice suit. Through out Austin's life, his parents had pounded in to his head that there was no such thing as a happy and easy life. Any one who wants to be successful has to work hard, and not care what they have to do to get there. Austin didn't like to think that way; he liked things like destiny, fate, and love.
"Destiny is for losers, it's just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen instead of making them happen," Ally recites the line from one of her favorite characters, Blair Waldorf, from the show Gossip Girl. When Ally found out that she got into NYU, the first thing she did was watch all six seasons of the drama based, and shot, in New York City. Blair inspired her every day life. Ally knew that Blair would not give up her favorite table for just any one; no matter how cute they were. Chuck Bass and Austin Moon be damned.
"What I mean is," Ally tried to recover from her slip.
"No, no, I like it," Austin cut her off, the wheels in his head turning. "It's very inspiring if you think about it. Why wait for something that isn't guaranteed when you can create your own destiny." Ally nods her head because she's pretty sure that that's what Blair met when she said it. "You're a very wise one, Ally Dawson, are you a writer or something?"
Was Ally a writer? No. Did she want to be? Absolutely yes. She loved the idea of creating fictional worlds, and the characters that go in them. But she could never get her self to actually go through with it; there were about a million unfinished ideas resting in the documents of her computer. And the fact that her parents didn't approve didn't help either.
"No, I wish, but no," she sighs before continuing. "I'm actually interning at an office in the Empire State Building."
Austin's eyes widen at the new found discovery. "Really? What floor?" He almost felt like he was having an out of body experience.
"The 19th floor. I'm interning with one of my professors at NYU, he's in charge of writing those puny slogans you see every where." Ally loves her self a puny pun.
"No way! I intern at the 20th floor with my dad's office. Are you sure this isn't destiny?"
Their drinks are forgotten about, Ally's muffin has gone cold, and all that's left of Austin's cookie is crumbs. They'd only been sitting there for 45 minutes but it felt longer as they found out things they had in common.
Ally looks down at her sweater sleeve, playing with the little pink button. "Again, it could be just a coincidence, not destiny. Aren't you getting a little thirsty?" Both of their eyes go to Austin's empty iced mocha cup.
Austin's eyes leave the cup to look at Ally's raised eye brows. "I could ask you the same thing." His hand gestures to Ally's empty hot chocolate mug.
Neither of them answer the questions; in stead they answer with their eyes. Austin notices how chocolaty Ally's eyes are, her lips have a natural red tint to them, and her brown hair was curled into little ringlets.
Ally sees that Austin's eyes are a hazel, she sees a James Dean day dream look in them, his lips, much to her dismay, look kissable, and his blonde hair was floppy and slicked back.
Ally decides to break their stare off by flipping her phone over to see that she still had two and half hours left until she had to leave. Her lock screen showed that she had two missed calls from her best friend Trish, who was probably just asking what she was wearing. She flips her phone back.
"Somewhere you have to be?" Austin asks once Ally's eyes meet him again. Austin had to be somewhere at six; he had a blind date that his dad set him up with.
"I don't know, is there somewhere you have to be?"
Austin shakes his head at her statement because this girl can never answer a direct question. "Nope, nowhere at all."
An hour and some witty comments later, Austin and Ally had finally gotten past the awkward conversations, 'destiny' and were getting to know each other.
"Why'd you decided to leave Florida for New York?"
"A lot of reasons," Ally thought about her life in Florida, and how much better New York was. "I got in to NYU, which was my dream school, and I guess I just wanted to get away from my high school life."
"Why? I figured you were a homecoming queen, dated all the football players and had every girl wanting to be you," Austin actually didn't have any idea what she was like.
Ally looks down at her lap, trying not to blush. "No, not exactly. I was more of an invisible book nerd type of girl," Ally looks up to find Austin's eyes gazing at her with something that could only be described as compassion. "What were you like in high school?"
"I went to a private school in Upper Manhattan. Not much else to say about it."
When Ally thought of private schools, she thought of the school from Gossip Girl; queen bee's, minions and hash on school grounds.
"Did you ever get expelled?"
Austin leans forward. "Well, there was this one time when I got in trouble for eating pancakes in Chemistry class. I got sent to the principles office and my parents had to donate money to the school to get me out of it."
Ally leans in closer. "Seriously? You got in trouble for eating pancakes?"
"No, but I did eat pancakes in my Chemistry class once with out permission."
Another hour later, and they were no closer to deciding a winner of the table challenge. They each only had a half hour until they had to leave, so the winner had to be determined soon.
"I still can't believe that we go to the same Starbucks, on the same days, and sit at the same table, and have just now ran into each other. And, to top it all off, we both intern in the same building, with just a one floor difference." Austin states after looking at his phone to see that it was already 5:35. He didn't want to leave. Originally it started off as a game, but as the time ticked by, he found himself enjoying her company.
Ally stretches out her arms, yawning a little. "I guess anything is possible in this big city." She's feeling a surge of sadness at the thought of having to leave in just a few moments. Yeah she wanted to win the little challenge, but she also wanted to know more. She's about to say something else when her phone vibrates again. Ally flips the phone over and sees that it's Trish calling. "I better answer this." Austin nods an okay.
"Ally!" Trish's voice comes yelling through the phone. "I'm sorry but I have to cancel, I met this really cute guy at Dunkin Donuts! Reschedule for tomorrow?" Ally grins smugly at this because that means she can stay here as long as she wants now.
"That's great! Have a wonderful time." Ally hangs up the phone with a sparkle in her eye.
"Good news?" Austin asks because of the look that was present on her face. Before Ally can respond, Austin's phone vibrates from its place in his pocket. The screen reads a random number. "Hold that thought."
"Hi, is this Austin Moon?" A woman's voice asks him.
"Yes it is. Who's asking?"
"It's the girl that you're supposed to go out with tonight. I'm sorry but I'm not gonna be able to make it." Austin's wants to cheer.
He hangs up the phone with out even responding. After stuffing the phone back into his pocket, Austin gives Ally a 100 watt smile. "Great news, Ally, my plans for tonight are canceled so I get to sit at this table all night. Well, until they close."
Ally grins right back at him. "That's great because my plans were canceled as well."
"Then I guess we'll be sitting here all night, since neither of us are giving up the table?" Austin had to pee, badly, for an hour now. But he was too in to the game to give up.
Ally had to pee as well, but there was no way she was going to resign because of her tiny bladder. "I guess so."
"I feel like we've had this conversation before." Austin chuckles, enjoying this too much.
Ally giggles. "That's because we have." Ally thinks, did I just giggle like a girl?
Austin decides that he likes her giggle. He likes her eyes and plump red lips. Wants to run his fingers through her hair and hold her small hand. He would love to be the reason of her laugh and to buy her what ever she wants. He wants to know everything there was to know about the girl with the hot chocolate. And if he's being completely honest with him self, he wants to know what's under that light pink sweater. And not just in a sexual way.
"You have a nice laugh." The words slip out of his lips before he can give it a second thought. But it was what was going through his mind, and he had to let it out.
Ally's eyes widen because she liked his laugh too. And his eyes, and his kissable lips. He was tall, and handsome as hell. Running her hands through his hair while kissing him had never sounded so good. She wants to know about his family, and would love for him to show her around New York City like no one ever had before. She wants to see what's underneath that suit, in more ways than one.
Ally blushes at her thoughts. "Thanks." She brushes a piece of hair behind her ear.
Austin decides to be bold; make his own destiny. "Listen, Ally, would you like to turn this game into more?" He leans in closer to her, so close to touching her face. Austin would've came up with something more clever but was too far gone to care.
Ally bites her lip, face on fire. "I mean, if you want to." Ally could play hard to get, make him wonder, but she didn't want that. She wanted him, and another hot chocolate.
"Do you want to?" They're both leaning in, meeting in the middle of the table.
"I don't know, do you?" She was doing it again; answering with a question.
Instead of answering with words, he answers with a kiss. A kiss on her red lips. Iced mocha mixed with hot chocolate.
The kiss only lasts a few seconds, being that they were in a public place. Once pulled away, they both grin like little kids who know a secret.
"I'm gonna go get us some more drinks then we can talk about another coffee date." Austin breaks the grinning spell, and starts to get off the chair.
Ally watches him leave. He's half way to the counter when she turns around and says, "I won the challenge, just FYI, Austin."
Austin winks at her because he would rather loose a challenge and win a pretty girl any day.
Sooooo what did you think?! Originally it was going to be something different but I decided to do this instead and I really like it.
Let me know if you liked this cause I could continue as like a one shot series? I can see more for them but I only want to if you guys like it too :)
I do not own Austin and Ally, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Gossip Girl or anything else that's obviously not own by a teenager.
Review please :)