Two Days After the Kiss
Trish sighed and plopped herself down into a chair at Sonic Boom, hearing it faintly scrape against the floor as she did so.
"Ally, seriously, when are you going to say anything? You and Austin haven't even talked since-"
Ally slammed her songbook and journal shut and blushed. "It was obviously a mistake, Trish. We've already been over this. If he hadn't been so sleep deprived, he wouldn't have done it. Trust me, if you had seen the way he'd ran out of there, you'd understand what I mean..."
Right After The Kiss
Austin pulled gently away from Ally, his hands still cradling her face as though it were a precious work of art. His face turned several shades redder, his eyes turned the size of dinner plates, and his jaw dropped open as he realized what exactly he had just done.
"Austin, why did you do that?" Ally inquired, her own face turning bright scarlet as she drew a hand to lightly touch her now-swollen lips.
The blonde just sat and stared at her for a second, before leaping off the couch, grabbing his bag by the door, and taking off down the stairs and out the door.
"Stupid, stupid!" Austin muttered to himself as he speed-walked down the mall, few people around since it had just opened. A couple holding hands looked at him like he was crazy before continuing on their own way. Ignoring them and throwing himself down onto a bench, Austin rested his head in his hands and shook his head, knowing that he had ruined things between him and Ally forever.
Out of nowhere, somebody sat down next to him and placed a hand on his back and a package in his lap.
Austin snapped his head up from its resting spot and saw that Dez had come to his aid, as all best friends should in times of need. He looked down at the styrofoam take-out box that was in his lap and recognized the logo of his favorite pancake house in the mall, smiling before he flipped it open and dipped one of the flapjacks into the pre-packaged syrup.
"How did you know?" Austin questioned, his mouth full of food.
"Ally called Trish and was freaking out- we couldn't even understand what she was saying. Anyways, Trish went over to Sonic Boom, and I went to the pancake house to get you some pancakes. We figured it had to do with you, since you guys had another all-nighter last night." Dez explained, pulling an unfrosted gingerbread cookie from his backpack and taking a bite of its head.
"Why were you with Trish? The mall only just opened..."
"Not important. So what happened?" Dez flawlessly changed the subject. After all, that was kind of the point of him coming here- to figure out what was wrong with Austin.
Austin thought on this for a second, tapping his chin with a finger and pursing his lips. "I kissed her. Full on, no questions asked kissed her."
Dez's mouth gaped. "So why is this a bad thing?"
"Because we woke up on the couch next to each other, so I'm guessing we both fell asleep sitting up and somehow ended up lying down. And we fell off and I had been thinking about the dream I had just had, where I was kissing her on stage at one of my performances, so I told her that I had to show her what had happened in my dream, and that was that..."
Dez waved his hand, as though telling him to go on.
"So, I kissed her. For a good thirty seconds, at least. And when I pulled away she asked me why I had done that, and I just freaked out and ran all the way here," Austin concluded.
Dez whistled and leaned back, resting his shoulder blades against the rigid metal of the bench, before hopping up and grabbing Austin's hand. "Well, you know what this means!" He cried enthusiastically.
"No, what?"
"We have to go to Sonic Boom!"
Austin rattled his head back and forth and snapped his hand out of Dez's grip, sliding over on the bench so as to create a greater distance between them.
"I can't face Ally again!"
"So what of your music career? Your friendship? Are you really going to throw that all away because you had a momentary lapse of judgement?"
Dez had turned and was quite literally in Austin's face. Austin blanched- he hadn't seen Dez's face that serious since the last 'guy time' they had had. He had noticed a change in Dez's overall demeanor lately, actually, and wondered what exactly had brought it on.
"Dez, when did you get so serious?" Austin asked. Not that he minded the more serious side of Dez, it was actually refreshing to see.
Dez took a step back from Austin and looked down at his brightly colored shoes, his cheeks turning a bit pink. "Since I have something I'm serious about. But right now, that's not what's important. Let's go."
The blonde one of the two didn't even have a chance to ask what he was 'serious' about before Dez took off, and Austin felt compelled to follow.
Dez pushed open the door to Sonic Boom and was dismayed to find Trish standing behind the counter, rather than Ally.
"Where's Ally?" He asked the short Latina.
"She's up in the practice room. Don't even bother, she's locked the door and refuses to come out. So I'm just watching the shop for her." Trish shrugged and flipped open a magazine, obviously not putting herself out to work too hard.
"Darn. Do you even think Austin could convince her to open the door?"
"Well, she did open the door for me, but when I told her that you two were going to be coming back, she refused to leave it unlocked. And normally I'd say that Austin would be able to get her to open it, but seeing as how this is his fault in the first place, I wouldn't consider that very likely," Trish stated, rolling her eyes at Austin.
Austin, in turn dashed up the stairs, pausing in front of it and raising his fist to knock. But he couldn't bring himself to bring it to contact the glass- he had used up all of his courage in just bringing himself to kiss her earlier, which had caused this mess in the first place. If only he'd had a little bit of self control...
Just as he mustered enough bravery to rap on the closed door to the practice room, Austin heard a noise from within. Thinking that maybe Ally had head him coming up the stairs and was coming to unlock it, he waited patiently to hear something else. But what he heard didn't make him feel better in the slightest. If anything, it made him sick to his stomach.
He could hear weeping. All he heard was sniffles and staggered breathing and Austin's heart broke just a bit as he realized it was all his fault that Ally was like this. He had been the one who ruined their friendship, their partnership. She didn't get to have her songs heard anymore, at least not until she found another singer. And honestly, that wouldn't take too long if Ally just went looking- her songs were amazing and anybody would be lucky to have her. Austin didn't get to sing anymore, at least not until he found a songwriter as great as Ally had been, which he knew would never happen because she was one of a kind, and perhaps his feelings for her had made him biased, but he couldn't care less either way. There was nobody who he would sing for besides Ally, and if that meant he wouldn't sing another original song ever again, then that was that.
Unable to bear the sound of her tears any longer, Austin trudged back down the steps and into the main shop, where he found Dez and Trish still by the counter.
Only Dez was leaned over it, his lips gently pressed against hers, both of them with closed eyes.
"Wait, what?"
Ally's POV
I watched in horror as Austin fled the scene, leaving me alone as he practically sprinted down the stairs and out to the main courtyard of the mall. I grabbed hold of one of the throw pillows on the couch and slumped down on the ground, letting the soft pillow absorb my tears.
I mean, why would Austin run away so fast unless he regretted what he had done? There's no way that he actually felt anything towards me, as hopeful as I was. Why else would he pull away right as I was about to relax into it? But now what of our partnership?
I could text or call him. We could meet up, maybe talk a bit, and go back to being partners, maybe even someday be best friends again. Even before though, before he had kissed me, it had been difficult maintaining 'just friendship.' He'd finally done what I'd wanted to do so badly, and it could have gone so well. We could have just talked it out, and it would have been better than him just running.
I needed somebody to talk to. I needed Trish.
I reached for my phone and called her on speed dial, listening to the dial tone for a few seconds before she answered.
"Hello?"
My muttering was probably incomprehensible to her, but I had been trying to say "Come to Sonic Boom, I need to talk to you."
"What, Ally? Shut up, Dez, I'm trying to talk to Ally... You need me at Sonic Boom?"
Before I could begin to wonder why she was with Dez it this relatively early hour, I continued with what should have sounded like, "Austin did something and now I don't know what to do anymore and I need some advice, please," but ended up coming out as "Austin did... don't know... advice, please." I knew Trish would understand though; she was good at understanding me when I cried. Which wasn't often, but she had learned to understand it during the time after my mom passed away.
A few minutes later, I heard somebody walking around in the store, and, thinking that Austin had come back, ran to the door and locked it shut. I didn't think I was ready to face him again. At least not without breaking down entirely, which was something I really did not want to do.
I jumped when a knock came, holding my pillow tighter to my chest, before releasing it as Trish called my name gently.
I opened the door, allowing her to look me up and down before she wrapped me in a hug, shushing me as I continued to sob into her shoulder.
"Ally, calm down for a second so you can at least tell me what's up," Trish commanded gently, holding a box of tissues out to me.
I blew my nose and took a few deep breaths before I told her the entire story, from the all nighter to when Austin had kissed me and made a break for it.
"I didn't know it was something like that..." Trish murmured, a soothing hand rubbing up and down my back. "So you might be a little upset that Dez is getting Austin right now... and he;s going to convince him to come back here and talk to you?" She seemed like she was bracing herself for something.
"What!" I screeched, grabbing my pillow again and holding onto it like it was a life preserver and I was floating in the ocean after falling overboard. "I'm not going down there! Oh gosh, I can't run the store knowing that he could walk in any second, and my dad's out of town! Trish, will you do it for me? Pretty please?"
She twirled a strand of curly hair around one finger and patted my back one more time before getting up and heading back down to the main desk. "Alright. At least this is one job that I can't get fired from, huh?" Trish laughed and offered a small wave to me as she descended. I rushed to lock the door once more, shaking it once to make sure it wouldn't open accidentally.
I returned to my spot and was lost in my own musings, wishing that Austin could feel the same about me. As I did so, my sobs became louder and louder, and I didn't even care that I should quiet down, because there was nobody close enough to the practice room to be able to hear me. I swore that I heard a noise outside, but perhaps it was just my imagination...
So, how was it? I'm aware, it wasn't nearly as long as I promised, but with the overwhelming response I wanted to put this out there as soon as possible, especially since I know for sure I can't update next week. I have a challenge for you guys- If we can double the reviews from 27 to 54, then that would be amazing. Come on, please don't let me down! I'll do my best to update as soon as I can, but I'm going to be very busy coming up, so I'm sorry if my updates aren't precise.