Hey guys!

So, less reviews last chapter which is a little discouraging considering what happened but I'm still grateful for the reviews I did get!

But seriously guys, it's hard to understand unless you're an author yourself but when you don't get many reviews it's so disheartening and it really doesn't help motivation at all so please, review yeah? Even just a couple words to let them know you like it. Not just for me but for anything you read and enjoy? Thank you.

So anyway, sorry about the wait after the events of last chapter but at least it wasn't a cliffhanger right? :) Hope you like this one!

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Ally stayed home for the rest of the summer, only leaving the house once to empty the mailbox. She was so confused and upset and she just didn't know what to do with herself. She'd always thought that losing her virginity would be a big deal, and that she would regret it and it would hurt, but she also always imagined that it would be with some popular, gorgeous football player or maybe even a college guy, like all her friends. She never imagined that she would lose her virginity to Austin Moon. And especially not while she was dating someone else.

But the main thing was that she found herself not regretting it as much as she should. She wished, of course, that she hadn't done it while dating someone else, but if she could have gone back in time and changed her mind…she wouldn't have.

Dallas had texted her a couple of days after she got home.

I never would have thought you were the type of girl to run away rather than breaking up with a guy. We're done. Have a nice life.

The message was too vague for her to figure out whether or not he knew about her and Austin, so she did her best to push away all the memories of the cute brunette whose heart she had probably broken.

…

When it was finally time to go back to school, Ally was surprised to find herself dreading it. She'd never enjoyed school, per se, but it was always something she had conquered…she was top of the food chain, and nobody messed with her. She could go about her own business with little interruption. But after being out of contact with all her 'friends' over summer, she wasn't sure where she would stand. She was sure she would have lost all her popularity and be ignored by everybody.

And this is why she was so surprised when she walked out of her front door and found Trish waiting for her, smiling that same fake smile she'd seen so often over the last few years. She immediately found herself comparing her supposed 'bestie' to Cassidy, even as she squealed and hugged the Latino girl and told her how much she'd missed her.

"Oh God, Ally, no-one has seen or heard from you all summer! Where have you been?" she exclaimed, linking their arms as they started down the street.

"Well, after the incident with the car at school, dad decided he couldn't deal with me anymore and sent me to spend the summer at my mom's music camp..." she explained. Trish winced, looking apologetic.

"Oh Lord, sounds positively terrible. Camp! Urgh…and your mom, as well…did you speak to her at all? Let her know what a trampy, slutty, fugly bitch she is?" even though Trish was simply repeating the things that Ally had said about her mother herself before, Ally found herself reddening with anger.

"Trish, don't you dare talk about my mother that way." She muttered darkly. Trish's eyes widened at her threatening tone but she nodded and apologised quietly.

They walked the rest of the way to school in a tense silence, but when they got there and saw the rest of their friends waiting for them outside of the gates they both plastered on fake smiles and ran over, greeting everyone with as much enthusiasm as they could muster. When they walked into school and everyone moved out of their way as usual, Ally sighed in quiet relief. Everything was okay, nothing had changed.

And then her eyes met Austin's.

…...

"Ally, are you okay?" Trish asked when she suddenly stopped walking, frozen in shock.

"Ally, that new guy is staring at you." Debra said shrilly, pointing to Austin who scoffed and rolled his eyes. As soon as they parted gazes, Ally jumped into action.

"Sorry guys, I'm just tired. Erm, Deb, that's not a new guy. That's Austin." She corrected her friend. She spoke loudly, knowing that if she tried to be quiet some of the confusion and fright and temptation would be obvious in her voice. She glanced over at Austin again, and found herself unable to look away from the faded black eye.

"Whoa, Austin? As in, Austin Moon?" Trish gasped, eyes wide in shock. Ally nodded, dragging her eyes away from the blond.

"Whoa, he's hot." Ally's head whipped around to glare at the Latino automatically.

"Trish!" she instantly regretted the reprimand, not wanting anyone to notice her jealousy and think something of it, but luckily Trish interpreted it as simply anger, knowing how much her friend hated Austin.

"Sorry, I meant stupid! He's stupid! He probably thinks he actually looks good without his braces and glasses, but he doesn't, he just looks…stupid." She amended and Ally nodded, satisfied.

"Yeah, well, we all know that it takes longer than one summer to change things." She said loudly, refusing to meet Austin's gaze again. She knew he would be hurt, but she had to let him know that nothing was different between them before he said or did anything to ruin everything.

They continued walking down the corridor towards homeroom, and Ally refused to even glance at Austin as she approached. She was walking a little behind all her friends, and as they passed the blond she felt her heart speed up. She managed to refrain from looking at him, though…at least, until she felt him reach out and squeeze her ass.

"Ah!" she squealed, jumping in shock. Her friends whirled around, worried, and she glared at Austin. He put his hands in the air to signal his innocence, but she could see the mocking glint in his eyes. He was daring her; daring her to make a scene. She just scowled and tossed her hair, catching up with her friends and assuring them that she was fine, she'd just seen a spider and gotten spooked.

…

Ally sat quietly in homeroom, ignoring Trish's many vain attempts to get her to talk, until Austin walked in. He came in backwards, laughing as he said goodbye to a friend, and then turned around and searched for a seat. There were two; one at the front, where he usually sat, and one right at the back. Consequently, the second was also next to Ally. And, of course, he would take that one.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as he approached the back row, smirking cockily. She just ignored him, staring straight in front of her. Trish was too distracted by her phone to even notice that Austin had sat there. Austin took this opportunity to lean over and whisper in Ally's ear.

"Hey sexy." His warm breath on her ear made her shiver, which only made Austin smirk even more.

"Austin." Her voice was low; a warning.

"What?" he asked, expression innocent.

"You know what. I can't believe what you did! What if someone saw?"

"Ally, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone I slept with you."

"Yes, but of you suddenly start sitting by me in lessons and groping me in the hallway, people will get suspicious!" she hissed. He chuckled.

"I'm sorry, but you just look so good in those jeans…and it doesn't help that I can't get the image of you out of those jeans out of my head." She wanted to slap him, but she knew that wasn't meant to be crude. He was being serious; he honestly couldn't stop thinking about it. At least now she knew she wasn't the only one.

"What happened to your eye?" she asked, changing the subject. He laughed humourlessly.

"Cassidy noticed something was up, and I was telling her what happened…Dez, Tilly and Dallas overheard."

"Oh my God! Dallas punched you?" she exclaimed. A couple people turned around at that, so she quickly faked a look of anger and disgust, while Austin followed suit. A couple people murmured, suspicious, but most seemed to accept that they were just pissing each other off.

"Actually, no, Dallas just called me a lying, cheating, backstabbing dickhead. It was Tilly that punched me. That girl has a mean right hook." He explained. She couldn't help but snort a little at that, before she realised that he was serious.

"Oh…so Dallas did find out?"

"Yeah…sorry. I didn't want to tell him." He looked honestly apologetic.

"No, it's okay, I'm glad. I just…I liked him, maybe not in a sexual way, but he was really sweet and…I didn't want to hurt him."

"Tell me about it. We've never been the closest of friends, but this year we bonded a little more and I thought we had a chance of becoming real close, you know? But now he's going to hate me forever. Honestly, even I hate me right now." Ally winced, a little hurt that he would say he hated himself for sleeping with her.

"So…so you regret it?" she asked quietly. He furrowed his brows and opened his mouth to reply, but Trish interrupted.

"Erm, Ally…?" she asked, finally prying herself away from her phone screen. Ally jumped, looking at her friend. She'd completely forgotten about Trish…what if she'd heard their conversation?

"Erm, you and Moon were looking a little cosy…I was worried about your sanity." She said, glaring at the blond boy over Ally's shoulder.

"Ugh, as if. I was just explaining to him why he can't sit by me. Obviously he's so thick that he doesn't understand basic etiquette." Austin sighed, rolling his eyes and getting to his feet.

"Fine, I'll move. But seriously? How old are you?" he barked, angrily making his way to the seat at the front of the classroom. Somehow, Ally knew that he was genuinely angry. And he meant what he said, but maybe not in the same way that Trish thought he meant it.

"That guy seriously needs to grow up."

"Yeah, he does…" Ally agreed half-heartedly, and by some miracle, Trish didn't notice her reluctance to say it.

…

Sorry sweetie, I got held up at work. I'll be here all night, so I can't pick you up. Can you walk home? Love you. Dad x

Ally read the text and fought back a scream of frustration. Everything was going wrong for her today. Her dad was supposed to pick her up because she hated walking home on her own. Trish had left early for a dentist appointment and none of her other friends lived near her. She knew any of them would walk with her if she asked them to, but she didn't want to. Trish was the only one of her friends that she actually had anything in common with.

Groaning quietly, she shouldered her backpack and started out of the parking lot. She'd barely left school grounds when the drops of rain fell and she groaned loudly. It hardly ever rained in Miami, but of course it would today. She should have expected it, really. Laughing cynically, she continued her journey.

Five minutes later, a very familiar car slowed and came to a halt next to her on the road. Rolling her eyes, she sped up a little, but the car drove on and stopped next to her again. This happened a few times before she finally broke into a run and turned into a small alley. She instantly regretted it; as a girl with claustrophobia, a fear of the dark and an addiction to crime drama's, running into a dark alley when it was pouring with rain was the stupidest thing she could have possibly done. She heard the car brake and the door open and close, and then footprints following her. She took a few more cautious steps and then felt something run over her foot. She screamed, whirling around and running back the way she'd come. She made it a few steps before tripping over something. With another loud scream she flew forwards, closing her eyes and waiting for contact. But then her head hit something solid, but soft, and there was a pair of warm arms closing around her and she threw her arms around the blonde boy, breathing in his familiar scent and trying to calm her breathing.

"Ally, Ally calm down, it's okay." Austin reassured her. She was shivering and babbling incoherently.

"Ally? Ally!"

"C-can we get out of h-h-here p-please?" she stammered.

"Of course, come on, I'll take you home." He helped her stumble over to his car and helped her clamber into the passenger seat, where she proceeded to curl up as small as she possibly could and rock herself back and forth. He watched her as he jogged around the car and got into the driver's side, starting the car and pulling off the sidewalk.

The heater's came on and Ally relaxed a little as she warmed up, but she was still shaking with fear. Eventually, as Austin prepared to turn into her street, she spoke.

"No, please…I don't want to go home. Dad isn't coming home tonight and I'm…I'm scared." She murmured. He nodded, continuing straight past the turning and turning on the radio.

"So…where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I have nowhere to go. I have no-one. I've screwed everything up." She dissolved into tears and Austin winced, hating to see her like that. He sped up a little, deciding where he wanted to go.

"Don't think like that, Ally. You haven't screwed everything up. Things will get better."

"I don't think so. I have one real friend in the world, and I have to pretend to be someone I'm not to even be friends with her. I've completely alienated my dad and even now, I'm trying to make him proud of me and he's as distant as ever. But then I had the camp, and everything there was great, and I could be myself…I had great friends and I even had a boyfriend that I really liked. But then I lost my virginity to a guy who hates me, or who I thought hated me, and I had to leave and now they all hate me and even you hate me and everything's gone wrong and-why are we at the beach?" she looked out of the window and back to Austin, confused. He smiled, opening his door and getting out.

"It's stopped raining, and the beach is the place I always come when I'm confused or upset or just need a time out." He closed his door and made his way around to help Ally out. She sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"So…what are we going to do?" she asked. He smiled, grabbing her hand.

"Let's go swimming."

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it, next chapter shouldn't be long as long as you review! :)

Song of the chapter: LaserLight, by Jessie J

The song has an amazing beat that kind of matches the mood of the chapter and the lyrics in the chorus really resemble the kind of things Ally is feeling towards Austin, even if she won't quite admit it to herself yet :)

Thank you guys, please, stay safe and review! :D

-Kacey