Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It means a lot! Anyway, I forgot to mention in the last chapter that I (obviously) do not own Austin and Ally or the songs Heartbeat or Just the Way You Are. Keep reviewing, I love the input, especially on my first story!
5 years later:
"One hotdog, please." Austin asked the vender.
"Here you go. " he replied, handing Austin the hot dog.
"Thanks!" Austin handed him the money and turned around quickly, he had just come from a writing session and as he was walking down the street he came up with a really great melody for the chorus that he didn't want to forget and wasn't paying much attention.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" someone said angrily, Austin was wiping mustard off of his shirt and looked up to respond just as nastily when he saw a girl, no older than 23 or so, staring back at him with an angry gaze that looked like a New Yorker, but also not.
"I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you, I just wasn't pay-" Austin tried to console her.
"It's fine." the girl smiled at him, she had big brown eyes, ombre hair tied back in a pony tail, and the nicest smile he thought he'd ever seen, or had he seen it before? "So, what's the rush?" she asked.
"Oh, uh, I just had a- you know what, you probably wouldn't understand." Austin said trying to escape the awkward situation settling around the two of them. It felt like everyone was watching them, even though he knew no one in New York cared what you did or what you looked like, it seemed to him they acted as if they'd seen everything. Given he had only been here in New York for 3 weeks since his record company, Starr Records, had sent him out to record his first album.
"Try me." she challenged, looking him in the eye.
"Ok," he countered, "I had a song in my head, I, um, I was just thinking of it and I wanted to get home so that I could record it so I don't forget."
"Really? That's what you thought I couldn't get?" the girl chuckled, Austin couldn't help but smile at the girl's laugh. He was almost sure that he had heard it before. Everything about her seemed eerily familiar, but he just couldn't place her. "Well, I'll have you know that I graduated Juilliard last May. So, trust me, I get it."
"Really?" Austin became intrigued, less at the fact that she had attended such a prestigious music school, but the mentioning of it. It was kind of a deja vu moment for him and it was bothering him intensely, why couldn't he place this girl. "Hey, do you want to get some coffee?" he asked.
"Sure, but don't you have a melody to go record?" the girl questioned.
"Oh, yeah, uh." Austin stammered.
"Here," the girl said, taking the palm of Austin's left hand and a pen from her bag, "is my number, why don't we get lunch sometime? Ok? Great!" And with that she smiled at him one last time and was off in the other direction. Austin looked at his hand and read the name she had written, "Ally".
"Hey, dude! Pick up your hotdog! That's disgusting, don't just drop it on the sidewalk, throw it away if you're done with it!" Some guy yelled from behind him, but Austin couldn't hear, he couldn't focus on anything, just the name on his hand which stirred a certain memory from years ago.
"Hey, Ally!" called her friend, Trish, from inside their apartment as she put her bags down. "Dallas called again. That boy is persistent to win you back!"
"Yeah, yeah," Ally replied putting her bag down, "so hows the new job going?"
"Well, I think, I mean I've been their for 2 whole weeks and I think I'm getting the hang of it." said Trish excitedly. Trish had recently gotten a job as a receptionist at Starr Records, a big shot recording company with branches all over the country and world. So far, her plan was to work her way up to becoming a music manager, which Ally thought ridiculous seeing how little she knew about the music industry, but possible because of how well she argued and got her way.
"So, what do you want for dinner?" Ally asked.
"How about Chinese food?" Trish called as Ally walked into the kitchen.
"Sounds good, I'll order in, what do you want?"
"The usual."
"Okay." with that Ally picked up the phone and dialed.
"Ally, you're being really quiet." Trish noticed while eating a piece of broccoli.
"I know, I'm sorry." Ally replied, twirling her noodles.
"Are you ok? Is it Dallas?"
"A little, I don't know."
"What do you mean, is there someone else? Ally, what are you turning into? You've only had two boyfriends in your whole life!" Trish said dramatically, clasping her hands together and swaying around. "My little Ally, growing up and finding love!".
"Shut up, Trish!" Ally said, flinging a forkful of noodles at her face, but missing and hitting her lap.
"No way you're gonna get away with that!" and Trish picked up a forkful of rice and was about to fling it at her when the phone rang.
"I'll get it." Trish said, standing up. It had kind of been her thing to answer the phone since she and Dallas broke up, because they both knew that if Ally talked to him she couldn't help but fall back in love with her college boyfriend, the one that cheated on her with another girl her senior year. "Hello? No, she's not here right now. No, she's not. Goodbye." Trish hung up the phone, looking slightly exasperated. She nodded at Ally's questioning gaze and went back to sit at the table and continued their meal. "So, is there another guy?" asked Trish, again, seeming genuinely interested this time.
"No, not really, I just gave my number to someone. Nothing big." Ally replied, acting as if her noodles were the most interesting thing in the universe right now.
"What? Ally, you haven't given a guy your number since Dallas! It is big. Who was it, what did he look like?"
"Well, I ran into him on the street. He said he was a musician and he seemed nice, easy on the eyes," Ally let a slight wink escape her subconsciously and Trish squealed a little, "and he just seemed like someone I'd like to get to know. He was funny and kinda clumsy, he ran into me and got mustard from a hotdog all over his shirt."
"Oh my god, he seems awesome." Trish said, "You know, for a guy you just met and all."
"Yeah, he seemed kind of familiar, I don't know why. I just knew I wanted to see him again, talk to him again."
"Aww! This is so cute Ally!" Trish said and Ally blushed.
"Dude, should I call her?" Austin asked his best friend, holding his phone to his ear while pacing around his nice apartment. He lived with another recording artist from Starr Records, Trent, he was a good guy, but he head a girlfriend that he spent most of his time with so Austin got the apartment to himself most days and nights.
"Are you even sure it's her man?" Dez said over the phone.
"I don't know, all I know is that this girl is amazing and when I look at her she just looks so familiar. I know I just want to spend time with her, you know, get to know her."
"Okay, then call her." Dez deadpanned over the phone, as if it was the most obvious answer.
"But is it too soon, she literally gave me her number 2 hours ago!"
"Just call her, ok, buddy?" Dez said, "I gotta go, my mom's calling me."
"Yeah, thanks, Dez." Austin said and he heard the line go dead. He decided to work on the melody that he had had in his head before he called, if he even did.
Two hours later, Austin had finished the whole chorus and was excited to let his writing partner down at Starr Records, Mildred, hear it. He wasn't crazy about her, she was very stuffy and didn't seem like she let loose a lot, but he was told that she was one of the best in the business and he couldn't argue with her 3 page list of hit songs that she had written or co-written. Austin leaned back from his keyboard and stretched his arms behind his head and cracked his back.
"Hey, Austin." he heard his roommate call and the door slam.
"Hey, Trent." Austin replied standing up.
"I'm staying at Britney's tonight, just stopping to get some stuff, see ya later!" and with that the door shut and he was alone in the apartment again, great. Austin knew that he should call her, he wanted to. He just wasn't sure, and what if she wasn't the girl, what if she was just someone that had that kind of familiar face like you see sometimes, he didn't know. But either way, before he had completely thought it through, he had entered the numbers on his left hand into his phone and hit call. "What did I just do!" he thought.
"Hello?" a sweet voice answered, "Who is this?"
"It's Austin, from the street today... hello? Hello?" Austin asked into the phone, getting concerned. But it was no use, the phone was already on the floor and Ally was sitting on the bed, struck down by the name she had heard and a memory it brought to life, a memory that had been long concealed in the darkest corner of her mind.
