"Ally?" Austin knocked on the practice room door. "Can I come in?"
"I guess." She didn't bother to look at him; she was working out a melody on the piano for his next song.
He sat next to her. "I'm sorry I'm being so harsh about Ethan. You're right, I haven't given the guy a fair chance."
"I'm glad you agree because…I agreed to go on a date with him."
"You what?!" He shot up from his seat. "Why?!"
"Because I can!" She stood up, angry. "Why do YOU care anyways?!"
"B-Because…Dallas won't like it!" He lied. He wasn't ready to admit that he still had feelings for her.
"I don't care if Dallas won't like it, it's my decision! You and Dallas have been nothing but immature this entire time!"
"I'm just saying that Dallas said you couldn't trust Ethan."
"You just said you'd give him a chance!"
"Yeah, before I knew he was going on a date with you!"
"I don't want to talk about this anymore!" She threw her hands in the air and left the practice room.
"Ally!" Austin yelled after her.
"So, let me get this straight." Dez said. "You still love Ally…but you won't tell her…you don't want her to date Ethan…but you won't give her a reason not too…I don't understand."
"Dez, I can't tell Ally because she likes Ethan. If I tell her now, she'll just think I'm lying." Austin covered his face with his hands.
"Well…what if I tell her? Or Trish?"
"No way." Austin shook his head. "Trish still hasn't fully forgiven me for what happened with Sam, she'll think I'm lying too. Plus, Ally will know I put you up to it if you tell her. It's a lose-lose for me."
"It wouldn't be if you'd just been honest in the first place." Dez said.
"I know that!" Austin snapped. "I know that we wouldn't be in this situation if I hadn't tried to make her jealous! I know that I wouldn't have to worry that Ethan is stealing my best friend from me if I had just told her the truth!" He pushed his chair back roughly and stormed away from his best friend.
"Whoa, I've never seen Austin so angry." Trish had been standing in the background for about two minutes.
"I think I said the wrong thing."
"Probably." She agreed, but sighed as she saw Dez frown. "Look, you said the right thing…just at the wrong time. He's already so frustrated from everything that he doesn't want to hear how wrong he was from the beginning. Just let him cool down."
"Thanks, Trish." Dez smiled.
"No problem." She smiled back.
"We're going to the street fair again?" Ally asked Ethan.
Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Are you okay with that?"
"Sure." She said. "Oh, and Austin's supposed to perform there tonight, we could catch his show."
"Yeah." Ethan smiled. "And we could…ride the Ferris wheel again."
"Shut up." She blushed as she pushed him playfully.
He laughed, grabbed her hand and tangled their fingers together. "So, what did Austin say when you told him we were going on a date?"
"He started yelling about how Dallas wouldn't like it…"
"Yeah, he hates it." Ethan assured. "But if it makes you feel any less guilty, I asked him if it was okay and we argued about it for awhile, until I agreed to him 'chaperoning' our date."
"Wow." Ally laughed. "Classic Dallas."
At the street fair, Dallas deliberately stood in between Ethan and Ally. He had his hands in his pockets and glanced between the two, smiling at how frustrated they looked.
"I'm gonna get cotton candy." He announced as he strode over to the cotton candy booth.
Ethan grabbed Ally's hand and ran into the crowd, hoping to lose Dallas. They both laughed and ended up by the photo booth.
He opened the curtain and stepped inside. "Come on." He smiled, pulling her in.
She sat on his lap and put in money. "How cliché." She laughed.
"Cliché's are always the best." He wrapped his arms around her waist and made funny faces as the light flashed, taking their picture.
Ethan leaned against the photo booth as they waited for their roll of pictures. It consisted of four black and white photographs; one with them sticking their tongue out at the camera, one with them sticking two fingers behind each other's head, one with Ally's arms wrapped around his neck while his rams were secured around her waist and they hade huge smiles, and finally one with Ethan kissing Ally's cheek.
"These are cute." Ally beamed, observing the pictures.
"Yeah." He laughed and put his arm over her shoulder. "We really should find Dallas before he grounds me."
Ally put the pictures in her purse and held his hand that was around her shoulders. "Okay, plus Austin's supposed to be performing soon."
They finally caught up Dallas, who had his arms crossed and a glare plastered on his face.
"Where have you two been?" He demanded.
"Ferris wheel." Ally lied.
"The last time you guys were on the Ferris wheel, you-."
"Oh, look, Austin's up." Ally moved to the front of the crowd where she found Trish and Dez.
"Hey!" She gave them both hugs. "How long have you guys been here?"
"Just a few minutes." Trish replied.
"I thought you were working tonight, Ally." Dez said over the screaming fans.
Ally was about to explain that she talked her dad into giving her the night off, but the crowd screamed louder as Austin ran onto the stage.
There was only one person on Austin's mind. He scanned the sea of people for her face and once he found her, he grinned.
As the music started playing, he sang the lyrics to "Heartbeat", a song Ally had written for him when he was trying to impress a waitress he had a crush on.
From time to time, he'd point out at the crowd, but mainly at Ally, hoping she'd catch on, but his heart dropped when he saw Ethan wrap his arms around her and she started paying more attention to him than the guy singing his heart out to her.
He was so busy staring at Ally and Ethan that he hadn't noticed he stepped wrong, twisting his ankle. He screamed as the music stopped and everyone rushed to help him.
