Ally opens and closes her mouth several times at an understandable loss for who to address first. The gears turning frantically in her brain finally comes to a conclusive halt altogether.
"Ethan?" she squeaks, blinking at an alarming rate
"Ally, what are you doing here?" The brunette scratches his head, eyes narrowing in disbelief. "I haven't seen you since… since you said you never wanted to see me again."
Silence befalls the ill fated trio.
Finally understanding the situation, Austin awkwardly moves to shut the door. "I'm just gonna be… not here." But the door doesn't close all the way, and Ally has an alarming suspicion he can still hear the details of the all too intimate talk she doesn't want to have.
She tries to speak. Her throat constricts in a painful manner. "I am—I mean, I'm moving in here. What are you doing here?"
It's a stupid question and she's ninety percent sure she won't like the answer to the question, but she asks it anyways out of sheer desperation.
"I've moved in here." It's spoken in a quiet voice, guiltily, as if confessing to a crime. "I thought you'd still be in Miami. I honestly had no idea."
A deep breath in, a deep breath out. She finds her words.
"Okay, so I guess we're gonna be hall mates." It takes everything in her for her voice to remain neutral.
She refuses to make a scene, refuses to let him see how much he had affected her. She is going to play indifferent if it kills her, though it just might.
He takes a step towards her, features sagging in what seems to be defeat. "Ally, please—"
"I have things to unpack. I'll see you around." She turns around, bending down to retrieve her fallen suitcase, taking much longer than necessary while doing so.
Finally she hears a sigh and what she knows to be the sound of his door shutting.
Only when the lock clicks does she realize she doesn't feel relief that comes with a drama free confrontation. Perhaps what she had at least wanted out of the failed relationship was a huge blowout, an eruption of passion and fury; instead all she got were aloof goodbyes, and a frosty exchange.
Exhaling quietly through her mouth, she rises and grabs a hold of the knob to Austin's—or now their—apartment.
The door cracks right open confirming her suspicions that he had been listening the entire time
"Hey," he says a bit too cheerily, as if he hadn't heard anything that happened in the hallway.
She bites down on her lip, exhausted from every aspect of the day she just lived.
He coughs. "So what—"
She halts him immediately, palm stuck out for emphasis. "Don't even ask. I don't want to think about it."
He's silent for a moment and she thinks he's going to respect her wishes, he of course goes a completely different way.
"Bad breakup, right?" He scoffs at his own question. "Well obviously, but how did it happen?"
Ally ignores him. Her face crumples to form a grimace from all the stress. "I can't believe he lives across the hall."
"Welcome to the building by the way."
The only response he gets is a glare.
"I know you're probably upset," he murmurs softly, giving her a genuine look of sympathy. His doleful features however, quickly dissolve into a blinding smile. "But can I just say, what are the chances?"
She gives in and offers him a weak smile, turning to survey the place she would be occupying for at least the rest of the year. It seems to be a standard two bedroom apartment with the kitchen and dining room partially combined. The walls are white and furniture scarce. At least the place is clean.
Leaning against the wall to her left is a mountain bike. The bike is quite tall, much too high for someone of her stature to ever hope of riding. Looking back at him, her eyes immediately jump to his long legs before settling on his distracted gaze.
His eyes rest on her luggage. "Is this the only bag you have?"
She brushes some bangs out of her eyes and rests her hand against her cheek. She had completely forgotten to retrieve the rest in her haste to get away from her ex.
"There are three more downstairs. The elevator is broken… I hope nobody took anything."
He brushes past her to the door. "Well I'll you bring them up, come on."
It takes Austin carrying two bags at the same time and Ally huffing and puffing with just one to get all three upstairs.
Finally arriving back to the apartment, Austin stretches his shoulders before cracking his neck. "Why was one so much heavier than the other one?"
Ally—who is crouching down now— leans her head against the luggage she just carried in fatigue. "I have books in them."
He whips his head over at an alarming rate. "You already paid for textbooks?"
An innocent glance upwards. "No, these are filled with novels."
"Oh my god," he mutters, shaking his head. "I'm living with a nerd."
She dismisses his comment and gets up, careful to step over the bags sprawled around their apartment floor to get to the kitchen.
"That was exhausting. Do you have anything to drink?"
"Well yeah, but—"
Opening the fridge, she makes a horrifying discovery.
Red Bull, dozens of cans of Red Bull, filling every crack and crevice like beer at a freshmen frat party. She is frozen in shock.
"Are you serious?"
He walks up next to her, surveying his doing. "You can say what you like, but when midterm season comes around I better not see you stealing from my stash."
"Don't worry about it," she says, beginning to rub her temples in anticipation of the migraine that is sure to come. Taking a breath, the weight of situation fully settles in. She is gonna be living here. She's miles and miles away from home living with a stranger whose fridge looks like it was stocked by Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
She could be at home, talking on the phone with her best friend Trish while eating spaghetti her dad made, not to mention being far away from her ex. She may even be attending the college she had her eye on for forever before the wild streak in her went berserk ruined everything.
She feels his hand on her shoulder.
"You know what you need?"
"Please don't say Red Bull."
"Close… alcohol." He waggles his eyebrows at her in a manner way too over the top to be suggestive, and she laughs harder than she means to.
"I'm still underage," she admits. "Besides do you know what alcohol does? The altered neurotransmitters change our brain chemistry and sometimes even—"
He shuts the fridge abruptly, not even listening to her anymore. "You know way too much crazy trivia."
"It was in the biology lesson! We both attended it. They talked about the different effects that everyday drinks have in your body. This was just today!"
"If you don't recall, I was too occupied trying to get your constant attention," he says shamelessly, shrugging his shoulder in a 'can't be bothered' manner.
She looks down, trying to stop her cheeks from tinting red. She thinks about punching him for making her feel so flustered when she's already so tired and cranky; instead she just shoves at his shoulder lamely.
"Anyways, I haven't really stocked up on the food since I've moved here." He gestures to the recently closed fridge for evidence. "Do you want to grab something to eat?"
"Like some fast food? I think a saw a Wendy's somewhere close on the bus ride here."
"I mean like a restaurant." He laces his hands together in front of him, looking adorable. "You know, like a celebration of starting college? And for being roommates."
"Oh, so like real dinner." She doesn't know why she's so surprised over a friendly invite. Perhaps it's purely because it's been so long since she's sat down for a meal across someone else who wasn't family or an old friend—or someone who wasn't her ex. The last thought gives her the final nudge forward. "Yeah, okay. That sounds fun."
His face lights up, looking like such an excited kid she knows she can't possibly withdraw her offer even if she wants to.
"Just wait, I hear they have the best spaghetti!"
The restaurant is right across the street from where their apartment happened to be. This discovery is so convenient, it almost justifies moving all the way here for her. Of course they both order two big plates of spaghetti with meatballs.
As soon as the waiter leaves with their menus Ally clears her throat. "So arts huh, anything specific?"
Austin closes the dessert menu, pushing it aside. "I'm just in general arts for the first year, but I'm hoping to transfer into music."
"You're a music person? Cool!" She can't hide the excitement in her voice. "What do you play?"
"Uh, a bit of everything, some guitar, piano, drums, trumpet and I'm trying to learn violin too."
She takes a sip of her water, eyes sparkling. "Wow, that's amazing."
He leans back, smirking when he realizes he's impressed her. "What about you?"
"Uh, I'm just in first year general business. My dad owns a music store so he thought I should study something practical that would help the business. I also play some piano." She shrugs picking up and twirling her fork, a habit she picked up whenever she feels insecure.
"A music store? That's awesome!" His grin is so wide she forgets what she was ever nervous about. He subconsciously mirrors her actions, also picking up the fork beside him. "You know, if the two of us pool our money together, we could invest in a piano for our apartment."
"If we're not broke after buying textbooks."
"In that case let's just get a wind chime with what little pennies we have left."
Ally smiles at him as the waiter serves up their food.
He takes a big bite of spaghetti. Tomato sauce makes its way clumsily along the surface of his countenance as he scoops up even more, mouth full as he converses casually. "So you worked at your dad's music store then."
"I did. I also worked at a diner when I was picking up extra shifts for college." She purses her lips as if unsure whether or not to delve further. "It's um… it's where I met Ethan." She can hear his chewing stop and feel curious eyes bore into her as her fork pricks at a large meatball.
"I assume this is before you informed him that you never wanted to see him again," he inquires sarcastically when he realizes she isn't going to go into the story without a proper nudge.
"I knew you were listening," she says, raking in a small bite of spaghetti herself. "No, he was nice and sweet at first. We just sort of slowly eased into being a couple. People knew we were together and stuff but we never really went beyond dinner dates and goodnight kisses. But I had fun and I really liked him." She looks down at her lap.
His brows furrowed apologetically. "Did he go out with another girl?"
She sighs, distractedly flattening her hair with one hand. "On Valentine's day he asked me to cover for him at the restaurant."
Austin's gaze widens. "Don't tell me you covered his shift." He put down his fork to sip at his water, not caring that he sounds like a middle aged suburban mom drinking red wine and gossiping about needless neighborhood drama. She remains quiet, suddenly fascinated by her food. "Ally, no."
"I didn't know he would be taking out another girl!" she admits, hands shooting up in a defensive manner. "I thought since the shift was from ten to four, he needed time to plan a special dinner or something… so I took it." She sighs dramatically, palming her face. "Only after did I hear he was on a date with another girl. I just felt really stupid afterwards."
"Oh man," Austin says. He reaches a hand across the table and tries to pat her on the shoulder. It just comes across as awkward and uncomfortable for the both of them given how far away they were from each other. "That really sucks. I can't believe he didn't even break up with you first." He takes another drink of his water as she rolls her eyes.
"Actually apparently the text he sent me didn't deliver. So he thought we were already broken up."
He laughs loudly, almost snorting out the water in his mouth. Part of her is miffed he's laughing at her all too personal pain yet all she can imagine is how his laugh will sound resonating off the kitchen and the dining room they now share. With the current living arrangements, soon she will be so used to the sound of his laughter she won't even bat an eyelash. The idea brings her a sense of twisted comfort.
He collects himself long enough to lean forward and deliver a serious sentiment. "We should egg his building."
"We live in the same building."
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made for retribution."
She shakes her head. "You're crazy."
He beams at her through lidded eyes still sparkling with lunacy as he raises a glass. "You don't need to worry about him. This is college now. Here's to real relationships, and badass friendships like ours."
When they clink glasses she has the all too optimistic hope that maybe things will be okay after all.
"I had fun tonight," he says to her that night as he locks up the front door.
"Me too," she replies. She begins digging through her luggage for a change of clothes.
He walks past her, swooping down and tugging the remainders of her luggage down the hall to what she assumes will be her room when he halts, suddenly looking at her very seriously.
"We probably shouldn't get involved romantically since we'll be living together." His voice is so even, it's as if he is discussing a slight change in weather.
Ally nods eagerly, both surprised he's wiser than she initially imagined and slightly caught off guard for the randomness of the statement. She returns to her task of looking for her nightgown when she realizes he's still there staring.
Glancing back at him, she witnesses him giving her a thoughtful look over. There may have even been a tinge of what could be disappointment in his eyes when a tired grin graces his lips.
"It's really too bad, you were quite a cute one too."
Then he resumes trudging down the hallway and she can blame only the spaghetti and exhaustion for his questionable proclamation that has sent her mind reeling.