"No, all I'm saying is that I think we should have a name for ourselves," Dez says, in the middle of a discussion with Jace about whether or not they should have a name for their friend group.

"You're an idiot," Jace tells him.

"How about The Three Idiots?" Dez suggests.

"You want us to call ourselves idiots," Jace says, raising his eyebrows.

"If I'm an idiot, so are you and so is Austin."

"I want no part in this conversation," Austin says. "I just wanna eat my pancakes and enjoy my Saturday." He takes a bite of his mom's homemade pancakes to prove his point.

"Whatever," Dez says. "Hey, the girls are here."

Austin turns around and to see Trish, Carrie, and Ally walk into the diner. They all wave – Dez or Jace must've waved them over – and walk over to the table.

Trish and Carrie pull up chairs on each end of the table next to their boyfriends, leaving Ally stuck sitting by Austin.

Austin doesn't say anything, too busy chewing his bite of pancakes.

"So, what've you girls been up to this fine morning?" Jace asks, kissing the back of Trish's hand.

"We both slept at Ally's last night, so we were just getting ready and we came here for breakfast," Trish says.

"Did you do something different with your hair?" Dez asks Ally.

"I stopped curling it," she says.

"It looks pretty."

"Thanks," she replies, picking up a menu. "So I haven't eaten breakfast here yet. What's good?"

"Depends on what you're in the mood for," Trish says. "If you wanna go healthier, the omelets are really good. But if you wanna actually live, then you should try their pancakes, which Austin is so attractively drowning himself in."

"Pancakes are my favorite part of the day," he says defensively, maple syrup drizzling down his chin. Trish rolls her eyes while he grabs a napkin to clean himself.

"How charming," Ally says sarcastically.

"Funny," Austin deadpans. "Just let me eat my pancakes in peace."

"I am," she says. "But the way you're eating them doesn't look very peaceful. Trish, I think I've lost my appetite."

Austin rolls his eyes and flings some syrup off his fork and onto her arm.

"Ew!" she shrieks, grabbing a napkin to wipe it off.

"Mature," Jace says, looking at Austin.

He shrugs, cutting himself another bite of his pancakes. But before he can eat it, Ally grabs the salt shaker off the table and covers the food on his fork with salt. He looks at it, then at her.

"That was the most immature thing you have ever done. And you are the most immature person I have ever met."

She gives him a sarcastic smile.

"Eat it," he says, turning the salt-covered bite of pancake towards her.

"No thanks," she replies.

"Eat it," he repeats, pushing the fork towards her mouth.

She grabs his wrist to stop him. "I'm not eating that."

"Eat it!" he exclaims, trying to use his free hand to get her to let go of him. But she just grabs that wrist with her free hand to stop him.

"No!" She leans back to dodge the fork he's still pushing in her direction, looking disgusted.

"Austin stop," Trish says, rolling her eyes.

"Not till she eats this ruined bite of pancake!" he says, smiling as he keeps trying to feed the salty pancake to Ally.

"Stop!" she shrieks, her arms shaking as he pushes against them. But she's starting to laugh now, even though he can tell she's trying to be serious.

"Eat the pancake!"

"Charming!"

He must be pushing too hard, because suddenly she falls off the chair, and his momentum causes him to fall on top of her, the fork clanking on the ground and the bite of pancake falling to the floor.

But he doesn't care about the dirty fork or the lost pancake; in fact, he's laughing so hard that he doesn't even remember them. And judging from how much harder she's laughing, she probably forgot about them too.

"Are they laughing or crying?" Dez whispers.

"I don't know…" Carrie whispers back.

Focusing on that one tiny conversation brings him back to the real world, and his laughter stops as his breath hitches at their close proximity. His mind flashes back to last night at the Cliff.

Her laughter dies down too, and she swallows. Her eyes flit down to his lips, just for a split second – if he had blinked right then, he would've missed it.

"Alright, Charming, get off me," she says, pushing on his chest.

He clears his throat and stands up, offering his hand to help her. She smacks it away and stands up herself, and he rolls his eyes.

"What just happened?" Carrie asks, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion.

"We fell," Austin says lamely, sitting back down again. Ally snorts, sitting down beside him.

Jace raises his eyebrows at Austin, and he shrugs. "Blame her," he says, jerking his head in Ally's direction. "City girl has no upper body strength, whatsoever."

"I could beat you up if I wanted to," she says defensively.

"Sure. If I was six," he replies. "You made me drop my fork. Get me another one."

"Just ask your mom when she comes to take our orders," Ally replies.

"Too long. You owe me. Go now."

"I'm not walking all the way over there to get you a fork," Ally says.

"Please?" he says, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.

She rolls her eyes, standing up and walking to the counter on the other side of the diner.

"Wait, she just…" Dez says, looking confused. "She just did that. She gave in."

"What did you do to her?" Carrie asks Austin. He shrugs and avoids her accusatory glare.

"I didn't do anything to her," he says.

If anything, she did something to him. Ever since last night, he hasn't been able to stop thinking about her or what his feelings for her might be. It's throwing off everything for him. This summer, he was supposed to avoid feelings like this. One more thing to add to his ever-growing list of reasons why Ally is screwing up his summer.

Except this one, he doesn't really mind. But to him, that's the worst part of it.

"Wait, I have a serious question," Trish says.

"I didn't do anything to her," Austin tells her.

"No, not that. What's the deal with you guys? Have you finally stopped hating each other?"

"You could say that," Austin says, watching Ally come back and sit down, handing him a fork and still holding one for herself.

She grabs his plate and moves it so it's sitting between them, cutting off a piece of his pancakes for herself.

"You're kidding, right?" Austin says incredulously, raising his eyebrows at her. "These are my pancakes. Get your own pancakes."

She starts chewing on her bite angrily. "No. I'm mad."

"Okay, well, these are still my pancakes." He pulls the plate back in front of him. Still, she reaches over and cuts herself another bite, despite his efforts to move her hand away.

"I know what you did to her," Dez sing-songs to Austin.

Ally looks at Austin angrily. "What is he talking about?"

"I didn't say anything!"

"Yes he did!" Dez exclaims. "I know what you did."

"Charming!"

"I didn't say anything, Sunglasses! I swear!"

"Then why is he saying – "

"I don't know!"

"Dez, do you know or not?"

"I do know," the redhead says with a nod. "Austin told us earlier you two were at the Cliff again. So obviously you made out."

He looks up at Dez, his heart pounding. He can see Ally looking at him out of his peripheral.

"Yes, Dez. That's exactly what happened," he says.

The table is silent for a few seconds, but then Dez suddenly starts laughing, and slowly everyone else gets the "joke" and starts laughing too.

"I thought you were serious for a second!" Trish exclaims, grinning at Austin.

"Yes, because she would kiss me," Austin replies sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Are you saying you would kiss her?" Jace asks, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm gonna give you a chance to think about how stupid that question is and take it back before I answer it."

"Fair enough," he says, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

After the girls eat breakfast, the six of them start walking to the beach. Austin and Ally walk a little ways behind the group.

"I'm going to kill you," she tells him.

"I saved us back there," he reminds her.

"You're also the reason that conversation happened in the first place."

"Actually, I'm not. Carrie asked what I did to you to get you to listen to me."

"Well…you started it."

He rolls his eyes. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm not gonna tell anyone."

He does his best to act annoyed with her and her stupid requests, but in reality he doesn't want anyone knowing either. But not because of what people would think. He likes having another secret between them, another moment that nobody knows about except them, something they can silently joke about or bicker about with nothing but a few stolen looks under everyone's noses.

She narrows her eyes at him. "Good. Because if you ever tell people what happened, I'll tell them that you aren't innocent either."

"You got me there, sweetheart."

"And just for the record. I have no desire for it to ever happen again. Ever."

He feels a slight pang in his chest. "Neither do I." Liar liar liar.

"Good."

"Good."

Austin looks ahead, only to find that his – their – friends are nowhere to be seen.

"We lost them," he says with a frown.

"It's a small beach on a small island. We'll find them," Ally replies.

"I hope. I worry about Dez. He's so innocent. He isn't ready to be alone in the world yet."

Ally snorts, a sound Austin has kind of grown to enjoy. It's so imperfect, so seemingly unnatural for someone of her upbringing and personality, that to him it feels like the most Ally thing she does. It's a split second when she's completely herself, and he hopes to be the cause of that cute little snort many more times.

And it also means they're on good terms. And he likes good terms very much.

"I thought you worried about Coco."

"You called him by his name!" Austin exclaims with a smile.

Ally crosses her arms. "I still hate him. It. The rat. I still hate the rat."

"Aw, he's growing on you," Austin says, his smile growing.

"Please don't," she says, rolling her eyes.

"You two can become best friends and spend time together constantly and you can stay with him on the beach while I surf!"

"I'm not your rat-sitter."

"Monkey. You know he's a monkey. I know you do."

"Rat."

"Monkey."

"Rat."

"Monkey."

"Rat!" She shoves him gently.

"Monkey!" He shoves her harder, causing her to stumble.

"Don't be rude," she says, rolling her eyes again.

"You are truly unbelievable." He shakes his head. "I don't believe you. You may as well be a zebra for how much I believe you."

"Zebras are real."

"Sure they are."

"They are…"

"Then how come I've never seen one?" he asks, looking at her. "Tell me that."

"Because you live on a tiny little island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."

Austin stays silent for a few seconds. "You're still wrong."

"You are so immature."

"Thank you."

The brunette rolls her eyes and shoves him again, but all he does is look over at her and smile.

Ally glares at him. "I will punch you, Charming."

"I didn't say anything!" he exclaims with a grin.

"Whatever," she mutters. "Where did they go?"

"It's a small beach on a small island. We'll find them," he mocks her.

"I hate you," she says. "I'm serious."

"Lighten up, sweetheart."

"Stop being a jerk."

"That's all I've ever been to you."

"I thought we were friends now."

"I'm just teasing you, Sunglasses."

"Yeah, well, I thought we agreed not to talk about what happened."

"We aren't talking about it," he says, raising his eyebrows.

"Just…It's embarrassing, okay? I kind of just want to forget about it."

He sighs. "Fine, whatever."

"Thank you," she says.

He sees Dez's bright red hair up ahead and clenches his jaw, still frustrated that Ally is getting so mad at him.

He leans over to talk in her ear. "You know, if you're so embarrassed about kissing me, maybe you shouldn't have done it in the first place," he mutters bitterly. He walks over to Dez before she can reply.

"Hey, buddy," Dez says with a grin. "Where were you guys?"

"Fell behind," Austin replies. "Bickering. The usual."

"Ah. Well, you're free now."

Austin glances over at her. Free from arguing with her: check. Free from the underlying awkwardness and tension that's been surrounding them since they kissed: also check. But free of the bitter, heavy feeling in his chest that came when she admitted she was embarrassed about kissing him? There's no escape from that.


so fanfiction is being a butt and not letting me upload the normal way but I figured it out so I hope you liked the chapter!