"Ally!" I yelled from the practice room. She came upstairs holding a box of rosin that was just delivered. "Something wrong, Austin?" she asked. I pointed at the note at the bottom of her love song she wrote called "Your Everything." At the bottom she had written "For AMM", my initials. "What's this?" I asked.
Her cheeks turned a little bit pink. "Well I wrote that because, um, I wrote the song for you to sing..." she stuttered. I wanted to be happy with that response, but I wasn't. "Ally it's okay, you can tell me if something is going on," I said in a caring way. She looked down, then back up at me. "Okay fine, maybe I wrote this song because...I might like you a little bit..." she said quietly.
I stopped and considered this. Ally? Liking me? Sure, she and I were together a ton, but that's just because we were songwriting partners and best friends. I knew Ally was smart, talented, and beautiful; I wasn't blind. But I never considered that maybe I could be with her.
"Ally, I never knew you liked me... How long has this been going on?" I asked. Again, she blushed lightly. "Not long, just over the past two weeks or so. And when you told me yesterday about how this would be the best summer ever? I thought that maybe having a boyfriend would make it a great summer..."
Ally had a point. I'd never had a good relationship that lasted, and thinking about it, I could see something like that happening between Ally and I. She was great, and if it would make her happy, I was willing to try it. In fact, there were moments when I had harbored feelings for Ally. Like sometimes when we were sitting at the piano and she was pushing a brunette curl out of her face, when she was singing, when she was playing, even when she was dancing. I was actually happy about this revelation. It could be a good thing.
"I'm willing to try it if you are, but just promise me one thing. I don't want to ruin our friendship, so if we break up or something, I still want to be your friend, okay?" I said. She smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, Austin. I mean, I totally agree. I mean, thank you!" she said, flinging her arms around my neck. I chuckled and hugged her.
"We should probably keep this between us for a little while though. If we tell Trish and Dez now, they'll freak out," I advised. She giggled. "Yeah. Just between us."
RING!
It was 4PM on Saturday when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. Ally. "Hey Als," I greeted as I answered the phone.
"Hey Austin, what's up?" she said. "Nothing, just in my room playing guitar, how about you?" I asked. "That's fun, I was just wondering if you wanted to do something tonight? I have something planned, if that's okay with you." she said.
"Knowing you, it's probably something boring like cloud watching or a science fair," I chuckled. She scoffed in mock defense. "Trust me, Austin. You'll enjoy it."
I smiled. "I can't wait. I'll be over in half an hour, okay?"
"Sure, see you then. Bye Austin."
"See ya, Als."
As I hung up the phone, I smiled. Everything had a new and slightly ambiguous meaning now, but I liked it. I was excited for whatever would happen. I was shameless and optimistic and it was perfect.
I threw on a different, nicer shirt and some cologne. I grabbed my phone and walked out the door.
