I ran as fast as I could.

My heart was practically beating out of my chest and my lungs were on the verge of bursting- I never was the most athletic person. The rain that had begun to fall in heavy sheets soaked me to the bone and made me shiver. I choked on the tears that flooded down my face.

When I finally reached my apartment steps I doubled over and gasped for air. I leaned my head against the wall of the taco shop and closed my eyes. I just ran over a mile in the pouring rain, for what? Because I was embarrassed? It was so childish to run like that. Mrs. Moon probably would have been nice enough to drive me home, but the problem was Austin. I didn't want to stick around and have him pity me over my stupid bike. He's so nice that it's nearly unbearable.

Footsteps sounded to my left, causing me to lift my head and open my eyes. Ben, in his taco shop uniform, was walking towards me with a towel in his hand. He didn't say anything to me, just held it out and gave me a small smile. I gratefully took the towel and followed him around the corner into the taco shop. I took a seat at a booth closest to the front doors and let my body absorb the warmth of the restaurant. Ben headed behind the front counter and back towards the kitchen.

"Usual?" he asked, looking back at me.

I wrapped the towel around me as tight as possible and nodded. "Yes, please."

He went into the back and emerged a few minutes later with two plates in his hand. He walked over to the table and took the seat across from me. He pushed the plate that had nacho cheese fries over to me, and took the plate that had rolled tacos on it for himself. I dug into the fries, suddenly feeling how hungry I was.

"So," Ben said, breaking the silence after a few minutes of eating, "Wanna tell me why you look like you've been put through a washing machine?"

"Well," I began, pushing some fries around my plate with my fork, "when I got home, Dad barely let me step inside before he forced me out and told me to deliver an estimate to the Moons."

Ben raised his eyebrows. "As in the Moons?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I told him to do it himself but of course he didn't want to leave his poker game. So I went to their house, and when I was handing over the folder, Austin Moon pulls up and runs over my bike."

Ben raised his eyebrows even higher. "On purpose?"

I scoffed. "Of course not. Austin Moon wouldn't kill a fly. Anyways, I was so embarrassed that I just ran away. Then it started raining." I gestured at my soaked clothes.

Ben bit into one of his tacos, examining me carefully. I figured that he must be doing some kind of psychological evaluation on me right now. He's a senior in college, majoring in psychology, and he's always evaluating people's emotions.

"That's tough." He said still deep in thought.

I sighed and started forking up the last of my fries. Ben suddenly slammed his palms on the table, making me jump. He pointed at me and smirked.

"You like him!"

I dropped my fork. "Where did you come up with that?"

"It's so obvious! I mean you real-"

I held up my hand to cut him off. "I do not 'like' Austin Moon."

Ben leaned back and crossed his arms. "Oh, so you love him."

I glared at him and threw my wadded up napkin at him. I stood up and headed for the door.

"Don't deny it Ally! My extreme psychological skills are always right!" he called after me.

I stuck my tongue out at him as I grabbed the door handle. "Doesn't someone have to be sane before they give someone mental advice?"

He grabbed his heart in fake hurt. "That's cruel."

I rolled my eyes and walked out.

A&A

The shattering of glass startled me awake. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. The alarm clock on my bedside table read: 3:24 AM. I jumped as the shattering of glass filled the silence of the night again. I eased out of bed and walked over to my bedroom door. I turned the knob and slipped out into the hallway and crept towards the main living area of the apartment.

When I peeked around the corner, I had to cover my mouth to silence my gasp.

A single light illuminated the space, giving everything in the room an eerie glow. My dad stood in the kitchen, leaning over the kitchen sink. Glass covered the floor of the whole living room. Drops of blood were scattered on the tile of the kitchen.

My dad lifted his head. He grabbed the nearest bottle, turned around, and threw it against the wall, missing me by a mere foot. His bloodshot eyes found mine and I gulped. I had never seen him like this.

"DAMMIT ALLY." He screamed at me. I shrunk back. He's drunk Ally, this isn't him.

"D-dad." I stammered. He came closer until he loomed over me.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT." He screamed. I inched as far down the wall as I could until I was on the ground.

"W-what did I do?" I stammered, telling myself to stay calm.

"More like what didn't you do? That's the real question." he sneered, taking a swig from a beer bottle.

"I-I don't understand."

"YOU LOST EVERYTHING WE HAVE." He slammed the bottle against the ground. Glass shards danced on my skin, but didn't cut me.

"What?"

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND YOU STUPID GIRL? WE HAVE NOTHING NOW BECAUSE OF YOU."

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

"ALL OUR MONEY IS GONE BECAUSE OF YOU."

Reality struck me like lightning.

"Everything?"

"EVERY PENNY IS GONE BECAUSE OF YOU."

I clenched my fists. He gambled away all of our money.

"What about my money for college that Mom set aside?"

"Gone. Ally why the hell would you do that? You've left us with nothing!"

A tear slipped down my cheek. I couldn't believe him. I was always scared it would happen. I pinched the palm of my hand, hoping to wake up in bed and find that this was all just a bad dream. He was blaming me. Couldn't he see how big of a hole he had dug for himself? Why couldn't he see that he had a serious problem? Reality sunk in as Dad walked back to the sink. I slunk back into my room and tried to let sleep overcome me.

A&A

When I got up to get ready for school, Dad was nowhere to be found. There was still glass everywhere. I tiptoed around it and out the door. I was actually leaving a lot earlier than normal because I had to walk to school.

When I got to school, I was actually quite early and people milled around the front of school. As I went to head up the stairs to the front door, I stopped dead in my tracks. Austin Moon was causally leaning against the railing by the front door. Perfect. I was planning to do whatever it took to avoid him. I figured it wouldn't be hard as he never notices me anyways, but my plans were quickly dying.

I pulled my hood up over my head and put my head down as I started towards the doors. I had my hand on the door when a voice called out: "Ally!"

I didn't look back as I quickly opened the door and hurried down the main hallway to my locker. I breathed a sigh of relief as I reached it. Austin's locker was on the other side of school, so he had no reason to come over here. I was pulling out my history book when a figure leaned against the locker next to me. I didn't look over and continued gathering my things.

"I'm sorry about your bike." I reluctantly looked over. There he was, in all of his perfectness, looking as sincere as ever. I bit my lip and looked down at my books.

"It's fine." I slammed my locker shut and started quickly walking to class. I tried to telepathically tell him to leave me alone, but of course he jogged after me and walked at my side. I kept staring straight ahead, hoping he'd get the hint.

"I feel really bad," he started, clearly unable to take a hint. "I wanted to give you a ride to school this morning, but I realized that I don't know where you live."

Good. Nobody does. I thought.

He scratched the back of his neck. "Do you want a ride home from school?"

I noticed we were in front of my classroom and stopped, finally making eye contact with him. "Look," I started forcefully, "I don't need your pity. It was just a stupid bike. I'm perfectly fine with walking."

He looked slightly hurt, but I didn't care. The bell rang, and I turned around as Mr. Johns opened the door.

"Nice to see you on time, Ms. Dawson."

A&A

When I told Trish what had happened yesterday, she was bursting at the seams with excitement.

"OMG ALLY! You went to his house!"

I rolled my eyes. "Were you not listening?"

"I was! But Ally, do you realize how big of an opportunity this is! He asked if he could give you a ride home!"

I sighed. "I don't want his pity. Just imagine the look on his face if he found out where I live."

"Ally do you really think Austin Moon would laugh at you?"

I rolled my eyes and tried my hardest to change the subject by asking Trish about Prom.

She squealed at the topic. "OMG I forgot to tell you! Dez asked me to Prom!"

I raised my eyebrows. "I thought you hated Dez."

She twirled a piece of her hair and went all dreamy eyed. "Yeah."

I narrowed my eyes. "You are so strange."

Trish shook her head and put on a serious look. "Speaking of Prom, do you have anyone to go with yet?"

"My answer is the same as the last time you asked me an hour ago: no."

"You knowww," Trish dragged on, getting a sneaky look, "Dez is Austin's best friend. We could all go together!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah right, over my dead body."

A&A

When the last bell rang, rain started to fall from the sky.

"Of course!" I yelled at the sky, causing a passing freshman to give me a strange look.

I sighed and pulled my hood over my head. There was no doubt that I was going to get sick from this constant walking in the rain. I was only about a block from school when a familiar grey jeep pulled up next to me.

I didn't stop walking, so he slowly crept alongside me. After a few feet of this, I finally stopped walking and he rolled down his window.

"Ally, it's raining." He looked truly concerned.

"Oh, I didn't notice," I replied sarcastically. Austin just kept staring at me hardly.

"Ally, get in."

"Are you trying to kidnap me?" My lame humor bubbled at the surface. He did not look amused.

"Ally."

The way he looked at me guilted me into opening the door and hopping inside. I watched as water started to pool on the fancy leather seats from my clothes.

"Sorry to get your seats wet." Heat rose to my cheeks. I didn't belong in this nice car. He looked over at me, a smile pulled at the corner of his lips.

"You really think I care about some stupid seats?" I looked down at my hands. He was just so nice. He's one of the few people at school that don't call me Dorkson or some other nasty name.

"So where do you live?" The color drained from my face. A million thoughts raced through my head. I couldn't let him know where I lived. I know that he wouldn't tell anyone, and he probably wouldn't make fun of me, but I had no idea what would happen if my dad happened to look outside and see me rolling up in some guy's car.

My mouth hung open but nothing came out. I wasn't sure what to say. He looked at me with a kind smile and expectant eyes. I stammered out directions to a neighborhood about a block away from the apartment.

The short drive was a comfortable silence, and I was grateful. I was scared he would start asking me personal questions that I was in no way ready to reveal to him.

We finally pulled into the neighborhood and I blindly pointed to a house with an empty driveway.

"So this is where you live?" he asked innocently.

I looked at the house. It was light blue with white shutters. It had a garage and a neatly manicured lawn. There were flowers planted in a flower box outside of a window. For a moment I let my mind imagine what it must be like to live in a house like that. I imagined sitting down to a home cooked meal, talking about my day at school with my parents, and then going into a big bedroom, sitting down on a big, comfy bed and pulling out a laptop to do my homework on. I imagined a big backyard with a pool to swim in in the summer and-

"Are your parents home?" his question brought me crashing out of my pleasant daydream. I reached down and gripped my backpack straps tightly.

"Um, no." I bit the inside of my lip. "Thank you very much for the ride."

I grabbed the handle to slip out of the car when he put a hand on my arm to stop me. "Do you want me to give you a ride to school, since I know where you live now?"

"Um, no, that's really not necessary." I gripped the handle tighter, just wanting to get out of the car and the conversation.

"But Ally, I insist. I mean I did run over your bike!" his eyes looked almost pleading.

I shook my head sharply. "No. I'm fine. I can take care of myself. Thanks for the ride."

I jumped out and flung my backpack onto my shoulder. I walked halfway up the driveway and turned around. Austin was still there, watching to make sure I got inside. I waved at him, signaling for him that he could go. He started pulling away very slowly, and eventually he turned out of the neighborhood. I waited a few minutes to make sure that he was really gone.

Then I turned around and started on home.

A&A

Hey guys! First of all I have to thank you all for your amazing reviews! You all are so nice and I really appreciate the reviews! I'm glad that a lot of you like the story so far! I was reading the reviews at school and I couldn't help but smile. I knew that I needed to get another chapter out. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

I didn't edit the last part of this chapter because it's getting late and I'm really tired, so sorry for any mistakes. :)

I own nothing

Reviews rock :)

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