Oh my God, please just bear with me. I promise, I promise, I'm like this close to Auslly friendship and/or fluff in this fic. Not to give too much away, but after this Sonic Boom arc wraps up, I will be smacking you in the face with the goddamn Auslly. Seriously, I have a lot of fun planned for these two. So please be patient.
(Not that a lot of you are whining or complaining or anything, I just wanted to let you guys know.)
And big thank you to Jennifer for reading and looking over this chapter! Love you.
"Remember all those jokes about you being creepy?"
"This is different."
"Right," Dez started, slowly drawing out the vowel. "Because following your girl's best friend around to get information on said girl isn't creepy."
Austin turned to the redhead in the driver's seat with an irritated scowl. "Ally isn't my girl," he said, rolling his eyes. "We're just friends."
Dez's eyes darted from the road to meet his friend's for a brief second. "Uh-huh." He didn't sound particularly convinced.
"We are!" the pop star insisted. He frowned thoughtfully as he flashbacked to their previous encounter. "I think."
Dez threw a sympathetic glance his way. "Hey, things will be okay." A corner of Austin's lips quirked upward and he began to look grateful as he began to shoot Dez a grateful look. "And if they won't be, there are other girls out there," he said, nodding wisely.
Austin's face dropped again. "Just keep your eyes on the road," he mumbled.
Dez turned back to the road just as the car in front of them took a sharp right turn into a nearby neighborhood. The boys shared a look. Dez raised an eyebrow but made the same turn just as sharply. They tilted in their seats before righting themselves after the turn. "Do you think she knows?"
Austin shook his head. "No, she can't possibly…"
The car they were tailing signaled and then pulled over to the side of the street.
"How about now?" Dez asked with a dry expression as the driver's seat opened up.
Austin turned to his friend, wincing visibly in his seat. "Do you think she'll tell Ally?" he asked, meekly, as Dez parked and they both unbuckled their seatbelts. But as they watched Trish getting out of her car and angrily march toward them, they were too afraid to get out, instead slouching pathetically in their respective seats.
She came up to Austin's side and rapped on his window with the back of her hand. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled, hands on her hips as she glared into the car, looking pissed.
Austin flinched in terror and quickly moved to roll down the window, but she shook her head and yelled at him to get out of the car, walking back around to the hood. He gulped but did as he was told. Once he was outside, he shut the passenger door and scrambled around the side of the car to meet her, wide-eyed. He held up his hands in the universal sign of please, for the love of God, don't hurt me I'm too young and pretty to die and blurted out, "It's not what you think."
Trish narrowed her eyes at Austin and he tried to remind himself that she was half his size, although this seemed to accomplish very little since he was still absolutely terrified. "You know," she said, her voice a low growl, "following me around isn't going to earn you any fucking brownie points with Ally. So what are you aiming at?"
Austin flushed, embarrassed. "I wasn't tryin—"
"Is this or is this not about Ally?" she cut in impatiently with a raised eyebrow.
Austin turned around to Dez—who was still in the car because he also found Trish terrifying—and looked at him expectantly. Dez was of no help and slowly reclined the driver's seat, mouthing a half-hearted sorry, buddy as he disappeared from view.
"Traitor," Austin mumbled as he shot the car a sullen look. He turned back to the angry girl and looked incredibly guilty. "Okay, so maybe this is about Ally," he admitted with a wince.
"Big surprise there." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Great, this is just great. I'm too mad on Ally's behalf to even be excited that a fucking teen celebrity is currently stalking me," she grumbled to herself. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and Austin gulped in fear. "You better explain yourself, Austin Moon, and you better explain yourself real good."
"She won't talk to me," Austin said, so despondently that Trish actually softened a little. "I just want to know how she is."
Now Trish looked confused. "What?" she asked, her voice sharp with surprise.
He looked at her, a little desperately. "I'm worried about her. She was really upset the last time I saw her and I think she's hiding something but I don't know why."
"Oh no," she said in a low mutter, shaking her head. "If you think I'm going to spill anything to you, you're sadly mistaken, pal."
He frowned. "I just want to kn—"
"Dude, if Ally wasn't going to tell you what she's going through right now, what makes you think I would?" she asked. She was no longer yelling at him, but there was enough force behind her words that made Austin realize she wasn't going to budge.
He deflated considerably. "Can you… can you at least tell me if she's okay?" He frowned. "And, I mean, really, seriously okay, not some quick lie."
Trish stared at him for a long moment, regarding him and his sincerity carefully. After a while, all of her anger melted away, replaced by worry. "She isn't," she said in a quiet voice, averting her gaze sadly. "She'll be mad if I told you that but I think you deserve some honesty, I guess," she muttered.
Austin's heart clenched tightly. "She's not?" he whispered. "Is there anything I can do?"
Trish shook her head. "I don't think so." She sighed and looked back up at Austin. "Look, Ally's in a rough place right now but trust me, she'll get through this, okay? She's not broken and she doesn't need to be fixed, so don't freak out. Just give her some time. She'll be fine."
He frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "Are you sure there's—"
"Austin, don't push it," she said in a warning tone. His jaw snapped shut with an audible click. She nodded approvingly. "Just give her some time to work through her problems, okay?"
He looked guilty but then nodded understandingly with a sigh. "Can you wait a moment?" he asked as an idea struck him.
Her eyes narrowed. "I guess… what are you up to?"
"Just hang on!" he said, running back to Dez's car and opening the passenger's seat. He began looking through the glove compartment as Dez turned to him.
"Dude. She still out there?"
"Uh-huh," Austin said under his breath, clearly distracted.
Dez frowned, noticing his frantic searching. "Hey, what are you—?"
"Aha!" Austin said, triumphant, as he found the items he'd been looking for. Quickly, he scribbled something on a small piece of paper before throwing the pen haphazardly at Dez, who flinched but caught it regardless. The blond didn't think to answer him as he slammed the door shut and ran back to the curly-haired girl.
"Here." Austin offered Trish the little scrap of paper.
She eyed it wearily, not bothering to take it. "What it is?"
"My number," he said, waving it a bit. "Ally doesn't have it, so take it."
Trish raised an eyebrow. "Why should I take it?" Her eyebrow arched higher. "And how do you know I won't sell it to every teenage girl within a five-mile radius for some serious cash?"
He shrugged. "I don't," he admitted, with a flinch. "But I'm hoping you're a better person than that."
She stiffened. "You clearly don't know me."
"No," he agreed. "But I do know Ally's your best friend." He gave her a meaningful look. "And that she must have rubbed off on you at least a little."
She rolled her eyes and shoved his number away. "I'm not interested in—"
"Use it to call me in case something happens," he interrupted. "Or if Ally changes her mind or if she needs help or anything." He looked at her earnestly. "Please. Take it… just in case."
Trish's gaze wavered back and forth between his eyes and the piece of paper in his hand. After another long moment, she sighed irritably and snatched it from him, shoving it into her pocket without even bothering to look at it. He frowned because that wasn't exactly promising but she had taken it and that was all that mattered.
"Thank you," he said, sounding relieved.
She grunted and turned to walk to her car. "Don't be expecting a call any time soon," she warned over her shoulder.
He opened his mouth to tell her he wasn't going to but she was already in her car and pulling into the nearest driveway to turn around. Austin tried to wave at her but she steadfastly ignored him as she passed him. He sighed and reluctantly got back in the car with Dez.
The redhead turned, bringing his seat back up, just as Austin buckled in his seatbelt. "So how did it go?"
Austin sighed. "Better than I expected, but not nearly as good as I had hoped." His brow furrowed in a thoughtful manner. "But she didn't try to hurt me so that's a plus."
Dez gave him a sympathetic look. "Look, you'll still be in Miami for a while. Maybe when Ally sorts everything out, you can see her again."
He nodded as Dez started up the car. His fingers drummed an impatient, irregular rhythm along his knee. "Yeah," he said, sounding distracted, "I'm just hoping it's sooner rather than later."
"Hey, Ally," Trish greeted as she strolled in through Sonic Boom's open doors. She looked around and noticed that the store was still pretty empty. With a wince, she came up to her best friend and asked, "So… any business at all?"
Ally shook her head dejectedly. "No." She perked up a little as she remembered. "Oh! I sold a harmonica after school" — she went back to looking sad — "but nothing since."
Trish sucked in a breath, pulling a face. "Damn, that really fucking sucks."
"I know." She shrugged, still dejected. "But we'll figure something out," she said, but she didn't even sound entirely convinced herself. And then she plastered on an overly eager smile and asked, "How about you? What have you been up to today? Did you get a new job?"
Trish frowned, not liking Ally's topic change or her dishonest smile, but if her friend didn't want to talk about her family's current struggles, Trish wasn't going to pry. For Ally's sake, Trish matched her friend's smile and shrugged. "Oh, you know, showed up to work, found out I was already fired, was late to my other job that I had lined up; the usual."
Ally shook her head, exasperated. "Typical you," she said.
Trish smiled at her serenely. "Typical me," she said with a shrug. And then she struck up a conversation with her best friend for the remainder of the evening. She purposefully left out any mention of Austin Moon. Her friend already had enough on her mind; the last thing she needed was the unwanted attention of a teen pop star piled on top of everything else. Trish spent the rest of her evening keeping her friend company in the mostly empty store and doing her best to take her mind off her troubles, even if it was only for a few blissfully short hours.
Austin tore off the headphones half way through the song and rubbed at his eyes, frustrated, but ultimately unsurprised, that another demo was being added to the rejection pile. "Jimmy, this isn't—"
"I know," his manager interjected quietly. "I don't like it, either." He looked at Austin in concern. "And you can't do a third album that's basically a rehash of the first two; you'll never be taken seriously at that point," he pointed out.
Austin groaned and dropped his head onto the table they were sitting at in the recording studio, narrowly missing having an imprint of the switchboard on his forehead. "How the hell am I supposed to shed my image as a 'fluff pop teen idol' if that's literally all anyone thinks I can handle?" he growled as his head popped up so he could rest his chin on the table. "And whenever I try to talk to the songwriters, they just laugh and think I'm kidding."
Jimmy crossed his arms and sat back in his seat, raising an eyebrow. "Whatever happened to your friend? That brunette girl?" He frowned thoughtfully, trying to remember a name. "Uh, Ally, was it?"
Austin tensed at the mention of her name. "We're… not talking anymore," he mumbled, his eyes shifting away.
Jimmy's eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Oh, really? And why is that?" He regarded Austin carefully as the teen shrugged sadly. "Seemed like you two were pretty chummy last I saw."
Austin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, a lot can happen in a few days."
His manger hummed in response. "So nothing came from that song she wrote? Double Take?"
The teen thought back to the demo he had recorded and hastily thrown together that night after his songwriting session with Ally. He'd been carrying it around in his pocket during every trip to the recording studio, not entirely sure whether he wanted to show it to Jimmy. On the one hand, he wouldn't like it and while it would disappoint Austin, he almost felt like he'd be more upset if Jimmy did like it and Austin couldn't even celebrate that moment of happiness with Ally.
"Austin?"
Snapping out of his daze, he turned to his manager and sighed, choosing to at least be honest. "It… yeah, I recorded a demo after we finished composing the song," he confessed.
Jimmy brightened. "Well, let's hear it!"
He hesitated, but when Jimmy looked at him, a mix of curiosity and expectancy, he finally pulled out a USB from his pocket and handed it over. Jimmy grabbed it and went to set it up.
Well, here goes nothing.
A few days passed, and Ally still felt little to no assurance about the state of Sonic Boom. She did her best to keep up with school and focus on the store, but between the long lulls in customers, she had even more time to despair over Sonic Boom's lack of business. The amount of times Trish had walked into the store far exceeded the amount of foot traffic from everyone else combined, which was incredibly depressing.
Ally glanced at the clock and her shoulders slumped in defeat. Two hours had trickled by without a single soul walking in through the doors. And she still had to stay open for another two hours. She looked around, trying to find something to do—having finished her homework ages ago—and realized that she'd already cleaned the entire store twice and rearranged half the displays more times than she could count. Still, she continued to look around, desperate to find something to occupy the rest of her time. Her eyes wavered on the grand piano in the store, but she hadn't been in the mood to write or tinker with anything since… well, since her last writing session with Austin. There were two reasons why she'd been avoiding it: one, she was too upset about Sonic Boom to really want to make any music, and two, it reminded her of Austin, and she really didn't want to think about him.
She lasted another seventeen minutes before she finally gave in and sat down on the bench, her trusty songbook in hand.
The second she let herself focus on the keys in front of her and took a deep breath to clear her mind, it was like opening the floodgates. She let the music pour out of her.
"Dude, you're still moping?"
"No," Austin said, every bit like a petulant child.
Dez walked by and lifted the pillow off Austin's face. "What have I said about the pillow?"
Austin glared up at Dez and his patronizing stare. "I'm not trying to smother myself, okay?"
The redhead rolled his eyes and sat down on Austin's bed. "C'mon, it's been days since we followed Trish. She's not going to call."
Austin struggled for a moment, torn between wanting to remain optimistic and wanting to look at the situation realistically. And realistically, Trish totally wasn't going to call. He groaned, finally deciding to give up. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, fine. You're probably right; she isn't going to call."
Dez gave Austin a sympathetic look before giving him a firm nod, happy with his choice to stop holding onto the feeble hope of getting a phone call. "So what's your next move?"
Austin shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "I can stay here for a little longer, but it's not like Jimmy's really getting any good offers for songs. Or I can fly back to L.A., but…" he trailed off, unsure where he was going with that thought.
Dez looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You don't want to go back to L.A. because of Ally?" He sounded incredulous.
He shook his head. "No, she isn't the rea—" He deflated a little under Dez's knowing stare and rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, maybe a tiny bit because of Ally." He held up his forefinger and his thumb. "Like, this much." Dez opened his mouth to say something but Austin quickly cut him off. "It's only because I want to thank her when I release Double Take, okay?" he argued.
Jimmy, to his immense relief, had ended up loving the song and wanted to release it as a new single as soon as possible. It had felt strange to be the only one able to appreciate Jimmy's approval, knowing full well that Ally deserved to have been there as well. At one point, he'd hoped that Ally would be there, watching him record their song but clearly, he had to give that up the other day when he'd finally recorded it.
"She wrote it, and I don't want to go back home before I got the chance to properly thank her or whatever," Austin muttered.
Dez nodded, reluctantly realizing that Austin had a point. "Okay, fine. I guess it would be kind of a dick move if she hears you singing her song on the radio, but you never told her or thanked her, and you happen to be about 3,750 kilometers away." He threw his hands up in an exaggerated surrendering gesture. "I guess you've got a point there."
Austin blinked, his brow furrowing. "Kilometers?"
Dez gave him a funny look. "Uh, duh, Austin, kilometers. Who still uses miles?" He snorted, as if embarrassed that Austin was still so behind on the times.
Austin stared at his best friend blankly. "We do. We use miles. Americans still use miles." Dez started to squint his eyes in confusion, so Austin quickly waved a dismissive hand. "Okay, forget about that, that's not important right now."
"Austin, dude, what if you come out with the song and Ally's still all weird or whatever?" He gave him a considering look. "What if she won't even let you thank her?"
"Then I go back home," Austin answered with a hard sigh. "Jimmy and I can listen to demos back in L.A. or here in Miami, so it's not like it really matters where I am." He shrugged a little and continued, "I mean, I missed Miami and I love being here, but I'm going to have to go back home no matter what, and the sooner the better if it means working on my new album."
Dez's eyes softened and he nodded. "Well, I'm gonna miss you, dude."
Austin shot him a small smile. "I'm gonna miss you, too, Dez," he said, sad that he'd have to say goodbye to his best friend. The distance never really changed anything, but it wasn't exactly easy on their friendship, and that was before factoring in Austin's busy career and celebrity status. "Hey, I'll fly you in for the premiere of the new Zalien movie?" he suggested, hoping to lighten the air a little.
Dez held up a fist to his lips and made a chocking noise. "Oh my God," he breathed, getting teary-eyed. "If you do that for me, I promise you my first born." And then he whispered, "As in child," paired with an overly sketchy look.
Austin shook his head, not wanting any part of that. "That's all yours, buddy."
Like clockwork this past week, Trish showed up at Sonic Boom as soon as she could after school let out. But to her surprise, Ally wasn't behind the counter nor was she busy cleaning or arranging a display. Instead, Trish found her sitting at the piano bench, alternating between short bursts of playing the piano and scribbling in her prized songbook.
"Ally?"
The brunette didn't look up from writing furiously in her songbook, so Trish tried again.
"Ally."
With a mild frown, the songwriter made quick back-and-forth strokes, as if scratching something out. She mumbled to herself and then paused, eyes flitting across the pages as she reread her work.
Now Trish was just irritated as she stomped over to her best friend sitting at the grand piano. "ALLY."
With a shout of surprise, Ally jumped and threw her book and pencil in the air before spinning around with a hand clutched to her chest. "Friends shouldn't give friends heart attacks!" she cried.
Trish rolled her eyes. "Good one, you should knit that on a sweater."
Ally glared at her best friend and exhaled impatiently. "Was it necessary to scare me like that?" she asked.
"Ally, I called your name, like, three times."
"Oh." Ally looked properly chastised. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely. She looked at the piano guiltily before looking back to Trish. "I guess I was… a little distracted."
"Ya think?" Trish raised an eyebrow. But then she looked at her best friend curiously. "Wait, you're writing music again? I thought you said you were taking a break? To focus on the store?"
"I was," Ally said with a short nod. "But yesterday it was so slow and I'd finished all my homework… and I don't know, it seemed like a good way to take my mind off things, I guess. I mean, what else am I going to do?" she whispered sadly, gesturing around the empty store. "I can only clean the store so many times," she added irritably.
Trish's eyes softened and she pointed at the piano bench. Ally nodded and slid over to make room for her best friend to sit down. "So come up with anything good?"
Ally frowned, looking embarrassed. "You know I don't like play—"
Trish rolled her eyes. "You don't have to actually show me anything, jeez."
Ally flushed and shrugged as nonchalantly as possible, which immediately raised Trish's suspicions. "Just… you know… dumb little ditties," she coughed. "Mostly I'm just tinkering with the piano. Nothing… nothing worthwhile or anything."
"Ally." Trish said her name slowly, warning her that she could come clean of her own volition or else Trish would start prying.
With a resigned sigh, Ally rubbed her forehead. "Besides, they're never gonna see the light of day, anyway," she sighed. "I mean, it's not like anyone's gonna sing them or whatever." She flipped through the pages sadly before closing the book.
Trish regarded Ally carefully. After a moment of hesitating, she ventured on to ask, "Did you write anything for Austin?"
Ally froze, suddenly unable to look her friend in the eye. "No," she mumbled.
Trish stared at her, stunned. "Oh my God, you did, didn't you?"
"It doesn't matter."
Trish frowned. "Yeah, it does," she argued. "Because you miss him and you want to write songs with him, don't you?"
Ally shook her head, stubbornness settling into her features. "I said, it doesn't matter since I can't afford that right now."
Trish's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean you can't—"
"My dad might lose his business, Trish! I can't be a selfish teenager right now, okay? I can't just go and goof off with some pop star or—or write songs and chase after my fifteen minutes of fame!" she cried, feeling something within her snap. The other girl blinked with wide eyes and Ally took a moment to let those words sink in for her friend before continuing. "I have to be here, with Sonic Boon and with my dad and I have to—" Breaking off, she took a deep, frustrated breath. "Look, writing music helped me blow off some steam and to de-stress a little, but at the end of the day, my family's business is failing and I need to be here to help." She closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face for a second. "Even if in the end, it didn't mean anything…" she added in a broken whisper.
Trish looked at her with an unreadable expression, feeling a flurry of emotions all at once. Stupidity for suggesting such a thing when Ally was going through such a hard time, guilt for forgetting how dedicated a daughter and worker she was; hurt that her best friend was going through something like this at all. "Ally," she began, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize—"
"It's okay," Ally cut in, her voice tired but gentle. "It's… I don't even know how to deal and I'm not expecting you to, either." She smiled at her friend sadly. "And I'm sorry… for rant—"
"Don't you dare apologize," Trish said, pointing a stern finger at the confused brunette. "You were angry and upset with me and you had every right to tell me all that. And you needed to get that off your chest anyway, right?" She raised her eyebrow in a knowing way.
Ally managed a weak chuckle, turning a bit pink. "I guess… I do feel a bit better," she admitted a little shyly. "But I still sort of feel—"
"Ally, if you try to finish that thought one more—"
"Okay, okay!" Ally said with a small laugh. "I'm sorry for trying to apologize." Trish sighed in irritation and Ally stuck her tongue between her teeth as she smiled innocently.
"You're a lost cause, aren't you?"
After a few hours, Trish said she had to go home for dinner and while that had been true, she also wanted to do something else before it got too late in the evening or she changed her mind about it. Again.
"Goddammit," Trish muttered, shifting through the pockets of the pair of jeans lying in the middle of her room. That had already been the third pair she'd searched.
Maybe it had been the pocket of her jacket blazer…?
With a furrowing of her brow, she started to dig through more of her dirty laundry, searching through all the pockets in every article of clothing.
She didn't find what she'd been looking for, but she'd collected 53 cents, a dried-up piece of gum, a missing button, and an unsettling amount of lint.
"Gross," she muttered, shuddering as she wiped her hand on her leg.
And then she saw one final pair of jeans hidden away in the corner of her closet, thrown there because most likely, she'd aimed for her hamper and missed. She scrambled over and rifled through the pockets, cursing and pleading under her breath. She cursed cheerfully and grinned down at the rumpled piece of paper with a number scribbled down.
Grabbing her phone and taking a deep breath, she started punching in the numbers.
"Favorite Christmas movie?"
Austin snorted. "Easy. Die Hard."
Dez raised an impressed eyebrow, pleased with his friend's answer. "Good choice," he said as he began to evaluate the possible reasons. "Bruce Willis playing a hardcore New York cop, Alan Rickman playing an awesome and classy bad guy, tons of action, good amount of explosions, and that final scene with the gun and the tape?" Dez shook his head in reverence. "Genius. Pure genius."
"Don't forget the long-distance marriage nearing divorce that he manages to fix," Austin grinned. "Most eventful Christmas Eve ever, man."
"Now pick a Christmas movie with actual Christmas themes," Dez ordered.
Austin rolled his eyes but immediately knew the answer to that one as well. "Home Alone."
"You really can't beat John Hughes," Dez said with a huge amount of respect. "Okay, Indiana Jones or Han Solo."
Austin shot him a horrified look. "Dude, how am I supposed to—" He was cut off mid-sentence thanks to his phone going off. Austin rolled his eyes and fished his phone out of his pocket. He went to answer it but it wasn't a number he recognized. "That's weird," he muttered.
"What is?" Dez asked.
"This number… it's not in my contacts… but that's the Miami area code."
"You don't give your number out, either…" Dez muttered, sounding suspicious.
"I know." He looked at his friend. "So who do you thi—" Austin's eyes widened as something dawned on him and while a small part of him reminded him to be realistic, he couldn't help the sense of giddy optimism he felt. He smacked Dez in the chest excitedly, who grunted in displeasure. "Dude! Do you think it's Trish? Or Ally?"
Dez raised an eyebrow. "That or Trish could have sold your number to one of your fans."
Austin grimaced, feeling himself quickly starting to deflate. "Oh, yeah. I guess it could be that, too."
Dez rolled his eyes. "Well? Answer it!" he said, looking at him eagerly as he made a gesture for him to hurry up.
Austin took a deep breath and with no amount of small apprehension, he finally answered the phone call. "Uh, hello?" he said, bracing himself for what may be on the other end of the phone.
"It's Trish."
His eyes widened. He felt a surge of relief that it wasn't a random fan, but then it turned to worry since Trish probably wouldn't be calling if it was good news. "Is it Ally? Is she—"
"Calm your testicles, alright? She's fine."
Austin frowned but snapped his jaw shut.
"Look, I'm only going to say this once so shut up and listen."
"Listening," he said with a grunt, waiting for her to continue.
Over the phone, he heard her inhale sharply before speaking. "Ally's fine, but… she misses you. She's written a bunch of songs and I know she won't admit it, but they're all for you."
"Really?" His voice was barely above a whisper.
"All I'm saying is, maybe you should go see her. Even if it's only for a few minutes at Sonic Boom." She paused for a second and then quickly said, "I have better things to do with my time, so bye," before he heard the beeping that signaled the end of her call. He was still reeling from the shock of the unexpected—and abrupt—phone call, so it took him a second to snap out of it.
"So?" Dez asked, looking at him expectantly. "What did she say?"
Austin smirked. "Ally misses me," he said, sounding rather smug. "And she's written a whole bunch of songs for me!"
Dez rolled his eyes. "Anything else?" he asked.
Austin appeared thoughtful for a second. "Hey, what time is it?"
Checking at the clock on the faraway wall, Dez answered, "About seven." He looked at Austin suspiciously. "Why?"
His smirk softened into a genuine smile as he felt a sense of excitement creeping in. "Can you give me a ride somewhere?"
Ally stood alone, staring around the desolate store. Trish had just left for dinner, and since the mall closed at nine, she had about two hours left before she could go home for the night.
She bit her lip, unsure of what to do for another two hours. She could work on more songs, but she really wasn't in the mood after her confrontation with Trish. Homework was unnecessary since once again, she was already on top of her assignments so everything was already done. And honestly, the smell from the cleaning supplies were starting to give her a headache.
She sighed audibly. "Well, Dawson, once again, looks like it's me and me tonight."
"Got room for a third party member?"
Ally whirled around from behind the counter, eyes widening in alarm. "Wha—?" she exclaimed, breathless from shock. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, because even though she'd recognized his voice almost instantly, she'd thought for sure she'd been wrong and had merely imagined it.
Austin stood there, grinning impishly at her.
"Austin…?" she whispered, in complete disbelief.
"'S'up?"
