Thank you for your reviews! Holy wow - thank you for that response. I didn't expect everything to jump that fast. Anyway, we ended on quite the cliff hanger, and I'll tell you now, you won't get to hear most of Austin's thoughts until next chapter. But... the ending of this chapter sets up something for the majority of the story that only a couple of you have guessed. I told a good friend of mine (girl you know who you are ;D) that no one is really innocent in this story, at least for a while, and you're going to see that in the characters in the next few chapters. Regardless, it's only a couple days until the start of the competition in Miami, so things are really heating up. I'll shut up and let you see what I mean, okay? :) Hehe.
Let me know what you think. Enjoy!
"What the hell, Ally?" Austin snapped, pushing her off. She stumbled back, surprised that he didn't try to further her actions. Instead, he just looked downright confused and actually a bit pissed off. She blinked at him, not too sure how to answer his remark. Because… what the hell, Ally was a serious question, one that she didn't know how to answer.
"I'm sorry," she babbled, and darted off, freaking out. That felt good in the moment, but now back alone with her thoughts, she was absolutely panicked. They hadn't even technically broken up! She was no better than Dallas. Hell, she just fucked with someone's feelings, someone she knew thought she was at least worthy of being kissed (even if that was the night before). That made her pause and grow angry. He clearly had no problem the other night almost kissing her, so what changed? Ally groaned. Boys were making her freakin' head hurt.
That's when she noticed her friend stumbling toward the water, tripping over his own two feet every few seconds. Theo. She almost forgot that she'd promised him they would talk. He obviously had lost the group of people he was with, and Dez was still preoccupied with maintaining his ego in beer pong. Ally glanced behind her, noticing that Austin had not followed after her, and silently thanked someone for that. She needed to be a good friend right then, even if her own world was shattering before her.
"Theo!"
The young surfer stopped short, falling head first into the sand. He landed with an 'oomph' and Ally rushed forward, thankful that she was sober because Theo clearly was not. She was more surprised when he noticed his eyes were rimmed red, as if he'd been crying. This was worse than she thought.
"Hey Ally," he slurred. "Lit'bit tip-sy."
"Lot tipsy," she murmured back, helping him sit onto the sand. "Stay here a second. Don't go anywhere. Especially not near the water."
"Kay…"
She ran back to the party, grabbing a couple bottles of water. When she returned, Theo was lying on his back, staring at the night sky. He glanced her direction lazily, his eyes clouded with pain. She sighed, sitting down next to him, pulling him up. "You need to drink this bottle," she instructed him. "And no more alcohol. It doesn't solve anything," she added. Kissing the guy you barely know because you were hurt doesn't solve anything either, her subconscious thought back, and she cringed. Later, she would deal with herself.
"What happened?" she prompted after a few moments of silence, as he downed the first bottle.
"Parents…"
"I know that," she answered gently. "Can you tell me what happened in detail?"
"Don't wanna talk 'bout it…"
"I think you'll feel better…"
"No."
"Theo," she commented. "Come on. One of us has to talk about what happened tonight."
He eyed her. Damn it. "What yo'talking bout?"
"Nothing," she muttered. "I'm an idiot, that's all."
"Not mu-Ally. She's a beautiful shining star!" he exclaimed, poking her. "Everyone loves her!"
She snorted, loving how he was talking about her as if she wasn't herself. At least he still thought highly of her. "Not everyone, Theo."
"Who?" he growled, toppling over when he tried to sit up. "I'll kick'er ass!"
Without meaning to, she added, "Who did you think?"
He was raging in seconds, somehow more sober than she would've thought, if only for a moment or two. "Dallas? I'll kick'er ass! I'll kill'em! Ally… what'd he do?"
"It's a long story," she sighed. "And I'm an idiot who is no better. Let's just say it'll all be for the best in the morning." She sighed again, realizing she was talking about herself when she really needed to be there for her friend, if he was getting this drunk over the comments that his parents made a few hours previous. She sat him up, giving him a stern look. "I love you, and I want you to know that. Right now, whatever your parents said doesn't matter. Do you understand me? I love every bit of you, and I wouldn't be the girl I am today if I did not meet you."
"You're lovely, but no…"
He sighed, leaning against her. "Sweetheart, no."
"Yes," he grumbled. "I'ma fuck'up… worthless, faggot… idiot…"
"No," she said again, taking him by the shoulders. "Do you hear me? No. Whatever is in your head right now isn't true. I don't give a damn what they said, do you hear me? I know who you are, Theo and I know that your friends do, too. I know that DEZ does, do you understand that? Dez Wade loves you more than anyone else in this world, and nothing will change that."
He smiled lazily, if only for a second, "Stupid redhead… so stupid."
She giggled, "Yes, that stupid redhead is ours. And I think you should talk to him tonight. Do you hear me?"
"So sleepy," he sighed. He glanced at her, eyes round and pouty. "So fucked'up."
"You're not fucked up," she told him. "We're all a little screwed in the world, Theo. But we don't go through it alone. Come on. Let's get you into your house and into bed. You're going to have a killer hangover in the morning, and I know just the thing that will cure it…"
"What's that?"
She smiled sweetly, though he had no idea what she truly meant. "A great five am run, my friend."
An hour later, and Theo was asleep in his bed, and the party downstairs was dying out. No one noticed him missing and she was glad for the chance to gather her thoughts. Hearing her friend speak so highly of her when she did not feel so great about herself only made things worse, and she sat down on his couch, shaking her head. What kind of girl discovered that her boyfriend cheated on her and goes and makes out with the nearest hot guy?
Did you go home? She quickly texted Trish, hoping the girl wasn't as drunk as her slumbering friend.
A few minutes later, she received a reply. Yeah sorry, with Jace. I looked for you, but couldn't find you. Where'd you end up?
Sorry, got distracted. Theo was a bit of a mess… so Jace, huh?
Shut up, Ally.
Did you make up?
I'm currently under his covers and he's wearing nothing but his birthday suit.
You dirty whore.
Ally Dawson, take that back!
Oops. Sorry. Can we talk?
Right now? She realized her friend had just hooked back up with her ex, but she really needed a girl's perspective on things, and waiting to the morning felt like a bad idea.
I wouldn't ask if I absolutely wasn't desperate.
Calling you in two. Hope all is okay.
"Yeah," she muttered. "Too bad it isn't."
"If he wakes up and I'm not in bed, I swear, Ally. I'll kill you," her best friend said a moment later when she answered the phone.
"I kissed Austin."
"What?!"
"And Dallas cheated on me…"
"WHAT?!"
The shriek on the other line probably woke half of the town, so Ally was surprised that her best friend's boyfriend, or ex, whatever didn't wake by that noise. "I fucked up. I don't know what to do."
"Back up, start at the beginning. But wait, hold on. I'm just in my bra right now, give me a second to get some clothes on and sneak outside before I wake up his roommates…"
She waited, as asked, and then sighed, starting from the beginning of the night. "I don't know what to do. I screwed up big time, and obviously neither of us did anything right. I know he was more wrong, before you say that. I understand that…"
"Ally, he cheated on you. I'm pretty sure you storming off into the night was a sure sign that you two aren't together anymore."
"But it's not like that!"
"Please don't tell me that you somehow still want to be with him, Ally. I love you, but that would be dumb as hell."
"No, I don't want to be with him anymore. I want to break his surf board in half, and then do the same to his body. But right now, that's just not possible. It's the middle of the night, and I ran off before I could even say a word to Austin. I'm not in any shape to be kissing anyone, and yet I did!"
"Well, it's late. I know you're scared and you want to fix it right now, but it's nearly two in the morning. I want you to head to bed, and call me in the morning once you've calmed down a bit. I know that's really simple for me to say, but try. Besides, you're exhausted, I'm sure. Sleep will be good for you. You did nothing wrong, Ally. I love you. Goodnight."
Her friend hung up the phone before she could say anything else, and Ally sighed. Maybe Trish was right. It would make more sense in the morning. Beside her, Theo groaned. "I'm going to be sick," he said to no one in particular, and she watched as he rushed of to the bathroom.
She got up, rolling her eyes. The morning was still a while away, unfortunately.
Ally woke up on Theo's couch the next morning, her body in a twisted position and her head pounding. She glanced at the clock and noticed she'd only gotten a few hours sleep. So much for the next day making more sense. She groaned, getting up and walking back to where Theo had fallen asleep, which was on the bathroom floor with a pillow and a blanket. For a second, she studied him… he looked peaceful and unaware of what he'd gone through yesterday, and it killed her to wake him. Yet she knew his parents would be home soon, only away for the night, and she didn't want them to find him like that. It took a minute for her to find a bottle of water and some Advil, but then she reentered the bathroom, and bent over so that she could shake his shoulder.
He groaned beneath her, shielding the light with his hand. "Ugh. It's too bright."
"It's the sunlight," she chuckled. " I can't help that."
"It burns," he growled feebly. "Make it go away."
"Sorry, sir vampire, I can't do that. Here, take these. It'll help your headache."
He opened one eye, giving her a weak smile. "Love you, Ally."
"I love you, too," she muttered, taking his hand and dragging him into a sitting position. "But it's almost ten and your parents will be home any minute, and I haven't even glanced at your backyard yet. We need to do damage control."
He shot up like a rocket but the pain of a hangover sent him back to the ground. "Fuck," he muttered. "You mean last night wasn't a bad dream?"
"Sorry, it wasn't." She bit down on her lip. "What do you remember from last night?"
He stared at the wall for a moment, then back at her. "I remember that smoking hot dress you were wearing," he said, studying the sweatpants and t shirt she'd stolen from his drawer last night while he emptied the alcohol from his stomach. "And Dez fighting with that kid for who could beat each other in beer pong. I sent him for that mixer, but I don't think he ever got it."
"And that's it?" she asked. "That's all you remember?"
"Yeah," he said sheepishly, "Why? What did I do?"
She smiled broadly, "Nothing. I promise. Just wanted to see how aware you were."
"Painfully unaware," he murmured. "And now painfully aware."
"I'll say again what I said to you last night. Whatever happened before the party started doesn't matter. Whatever they said doesn't matter. I love you, Dez loves you… a lot of people love you, and that beats out any kind of comment that was said otherwise. Do you understand me?"
She wasn't intimidating, but he nodded quickly anyway. "Yes, Ally."
"Good. Now come on. I'm sure your backyard looks like the sponsor of Red Solo Cup."
By the time she was done helping Theo clean up, it was nearly eleven and she was painfully aware that she too would have to deal with the night's actions sooner or later. And that meant, at least first, dealing with Dallas. She didn't want to, in fact she secretly hoped that he and that blonde idiot ran off together to some foreign island, making it so she never had to see him again, but things just didn't work that way. Ending their relationship would be a good first step in a better future for her.
"I'll talk to you later," she told Theo, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll call you sometime in the afternoon, so we can talk some more. Call me if anything happens before then."
He nodded solemnly, as his parents pulled up in the driveway. She snuck out the backdoor to her car, where she got in quickly in hopes she wasn't spotted. Before she went to find Dallas, she needed to find food, and maybe a cup of coffee. Trish texted her a few minutes after that, reminding her of the same things from the night before. She was better than him.
Ally stopped at a nearby coffee shop, gratefully reaching for the largest size they sold, and downing a quarter of it in seconds flat. It was only a few seconds after she set the cup down on the counter, to answer her best friend, did a shadow loom over her. She supposed he wasn't the worst person she could see right then (there were two boys above him on the current list) but she wasn't exactly thrilled to see Noah standing next to her, a smirk clearly spread across his face.
He waved, and knocked her coffee over, spilling it all over the ground, and onto her shoes. She jumped back so that it couldn't further burn her body.
"You asshole!"
"Such language," he teased, smirking as she gathered napkins to clean up the mess. "How are you, Ally? You seem a bit frazzled."
"There is coffee all over the floor, hot coffee that you could've burned me with."
"It was an accident," he feigned. "You're very jumpy this morning. Did something happen last night?"
Ally froze in spot. "No," she then calmly stated. "I was with Theo last night. He had a party. And a little too much to drink." Sorry, she thought to her hung-over friend. You're my fallback during this. I'll make it up to you later. "So, nothing all that exciting. Unless you like watching people puke their guts into a toilet bowl. And with you, that wouldn't surprise me."
He leaned forward, fast enough that it caught her off guard. "Cut the shit, Ally. I know."
Her heart hammered in her chest at his words. Know what? So many things happened last night and she was scared to know which he actually knew of. "Know what?"
He chuckled, shaking his head. "You're really going to play dumb now, aren't you?"
"I have to go, Noah." She stepped around him. "Goodbye."
"I'll tell him!"
That froze her a second time, and she swirled on her heel, glaring at his chest. "What?"
"I'll tell Dallas that you kissed Austin," he replied, calmly. "Do you want that?"
She wanted to say it didn't matter, because they were over, but that was none of his business. "Whatever, asshole. It doesn't matter anymore. Tell him. It doesn't bother me any. We're over."
"Sure you are," he called out, and she hurried back over in case there were people listening who knew who she was. Miami was a large town, but the people there also knew a lot about surfing, and therefore Dallas. "I'd think about that before you actually broke up with him."
"Excuse me?" she spat. "What the hell does that mean?"
He tilted his head to the side, and pulled out his wallet. In those moment, he began to count his cash in front of her. "What does this mean to you?" he asked.
She had no idea what it meant. "It means you're an idiot who is wasting my time."
"Touché, Ally. Play nice."
"Tell me what you're talking about, or I swear to God, Noah."
He chuckled again, shaking his head. "So impatient. Think about it. I have all this money in my hands, Ally. I just watched you count change to pay for your coffee. I don't think most people are doing that, now are they?" he paused, giving her another cruel smile. "The competition hasn't even started yet, and you guys are barely making it in that dump you call a surf shop. If you break up with Dallas, you lose that and more. Do you want to do that to your poor father?" he tilted his head again, smiling creepily ear to ear. "What would he do then? No wife… no son… his daughter is a cheating whore… just exactly what would he do?"
She didn't mean to tear up, and for a second, it seemed to catch him by surprise. Then, he was back to taunting her, grinning like some sort of crazy person. "I fucking don't know why any of this matters to you," she growled, not giving him the satisfaction of answering his previous questions. "That would make your year, wouldn't it? To see our shop go down. You would get all the profits. Just let me break up with him…"
"You won't do that," he laughed. "You need that. You know you do."
"So what do you want?" she snapped. "I have things to do."
"I have a suggestion for my silence," he proposed. Of course he did. This kid was the worst person she'd ever met.
"And that is?" She wanted to punch him. To hurt him for even making her consider what he was about to tell her. But the more she thought about what the jerk was saying, the more she knew he was right. Their shop was barely staying afloat as it was… a break up just before the competition would just prove for their demise. At least until it was over, she had to stay with the disgusting piece of crap that she once believed she loved.
"I want his notes. I want anything he uses to further himself. I want you to get them for me, and I am going to kick his ass in this competition. You're going to help me do that."
"You want me to help you cheat?" she spat.
"That's exactly it," he said. "But it's not really cheating because honestly, he's one person. It's like getting a slight advantage. There is still others to worry about, your precious Theo for example."
"You leave him out of this," she growled.
"Don't worry, I will. He doesn't concern me. So… do we have a deal? Your boyfriend's notes for my silence?"
She wanted to burn a hole into his big, stupid skull with her eyes. Instead, she merely nodded her head, knowing she had no other choice. Ally had just made a deal with who she considered the devil. "I'll do it," she muttered, hating each word as it left her mouth.
"Glad we had this talk, AllyGator," he cooed, ruffling her hair as he swiftly moved past her. "Good luck with Dallas. I'm sure you'll have a great afternoon with him!"
