He really shouldn't have come here. How is he supposed to stop thinking about his feelings for Ally if he's sitting in the exact spot where they kissed?

But here he is, sitting on the ground at the Cliff, all alone, while his friends are probably enjoying lunch on another normal summer day that hasn't been turned upside down.

For once, he's kind of glad that they're pushing him aside for Ally. It means he can take this alone time without raising any suspicion. But then again, if his friends hadn't pushed him aside for Ally he probably wouldn't be here in the first place. So really, this is all her fault.

He can't bring himself to resent her.

He picks up a rock sitting next to him and hurls it over the edge of the cliff and into the ocean. He's about to throw another one, when he hears a voice behind him.

"Y'know, it's a lot easier to have lunch with your friends when you're not sitting all alone on a cliff."

He doesn't turn to look at her, but he does throw the rock over the cliff. "What're you doing here?"

"Remember those friends you were afraid you were gonna lose to me? Well, they realized you weren't coming and got pretty worried. It's like a search and rescue mission down on the beach."

"Doesn't answer my question."

"I had a feeling." She walks over and sits next to him, staring ahead like he is.

"Yeah, I've had lots of those," he mutters, tossing another rock into the ocean.

"So what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." He doesn't even try to make it believable.

"You know, I still don't understand why you guys have tainted this place with your teenage hormones," she says. "It's much better for thinking. Or talking, whether that's about life or fears or problems or – "

"It's the view," he interrupts her, hoping to keep the subject change. "Especially at sunset. Better than the back row of a movie theater, at least."

He sees her smile out of his peripheral. "That's mostly just a myth, you know."

"There are a lot of things I don't know."

"Are you actually admitting to not being perfect?"

He glances over at her, but she catches him. He looks ahead again as quickly as he can. "Maybe I am."

"Wanna tell me why you're up here all alone?"

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because, sweetheart, if I wanted to talk about it, I would have." He picks up a rock and turns it over in his hands, staring at it, doing everything he can to avoid her eyes.

"Let me guess, a city girl wouldn't understand?" she teases, unfazed.

"No, you'd understand. You'd understand all too well."

"Then why won't you tell me?"

"Because I don't really wanna talk about it."

She frowns slightly, silent for a few seconds. "Oh. Then…I guess I'll just go."

She starts getting up, but he sighs and rests a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She doesn't object.

They sit in silence, and having her here is more calming than anything else he's tried to do to get her off his mind. Maybe it's that he doesn't mind thinking about her if she's sitting right next to him, or maybe it's just the fact that she has that effect on him now, but either way, she makes him feel a lot better.

But finally he can't take it and he exhales, looking over at her. She meets his eyes, and he immediately looks away again.

"Coco…met a girl monkey," he says.

"Oh?"

"Mmhm. And he doesn't really know what to do."

"Well, does he like this girl monkey?" she asks.

"Of course he does, keep up," Austin replies quickly. "And he just…he doesn't wanna tell her because he's pretty sure she doesn't feel the same way, but at the same time she's kinda given him a few signals that maybe she does. Honestly, he's just really confused."

"Maybe if Coco tells the girl monkey how he feels, she'll tell him how she feels."

"She might not feel the same way. Then he'll become the laughingstock of all the monkeys."

"I'm sure Coco's monkey friends would get over it if the girl monkey didn't like him back."

Austin sighs, running his hands down his face. "You don't get it, Ally."

It's the first time he's ever called her by her real name. It sounds strange in his voice, but oddly right.

"Are Coco's friends really that mean?"

"Coco isn't sure how mean his friends are, okay? It depends on the day and the situation and they love the girl monkey so Coco's life would probably be ruined if she didn't like him back."

"That sounds like a bit of an exaggeration."

He looks at her, and he immediately realizes that she knows. Her eyes are twinkling with silent laughter, and her lips are curved into a small smile that he knows is supposed to hide her amusement.

"I hate you," he deadpans, standing up.

"I didn't do anything!" she argues, standing up as well.

He crosses his arms, looking down at her with his jaw clenched in frustration and embarrassment.

"Look, if Coco really likes this girl monkey, I think he should just be his monkey self and see where things go."

"Your advice sucks."

"Well, what would you tell him to do?"

"I would tell him to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. But clearly I'm not him."

"No, I guess you're not," Ally says, acting disappointed. "But if you were, I'd tell you to follow your advice."

Austin stares at her. That innocent smile, those twinkling eyes, her eyebrows raised almost as if she's daring him to blurt out his feelings for her all become too much.

"Screw it."

He grabs her face and presses his lips to hers, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to ignore the nagging voice in his mind reminding him that she was embarrassed to kiss him the first time.

But despite that, her smile grows and she kisses him back, resting her hands on his chest. He knows she can probably feel how hard his heart is pounding right now, but he doesn't care.

He wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, sighing and feeling himself relax more and more with each passing moment. He rubs his thumb over her cheekbone, his fingers in her hair.

"Austin, are you – whoa!"

And as soon as the moment started, it ends.

They jump away from each other, both turning to see who interrupted them. He sees Jace covering his eyes with his hand.

"I am so sorry – " he starts.

"You're – it's – what do you want, Jace?" Austin asks, running a hand through his hair. He doesn't care how obvious his frustration is.

"We were all just looking for you, and Ally disappeared so then we were looking for her, and…wow."

"Hi, Jace." Ally waves sheepishly.

"Wait, so are you two…?"

"Oh, no – "Austin starts.

"We were just – " Ally interrupts.

"It's not – "

"This isn't – "

"It's complicated…?" Austin tries, glancing at Ally for approval. She nods.

"This is…I mean, still. You two – and – wait till everyone else hears about this," Jace says with a grin.

"No!" Austin exclaims immediately. "You can't tell anyone! In fact, pretend you never even saw us. This whole thing was a dream, or just a figment of your imagination, or a prank. Goodbye."

He grabs Jace's shoulders, turns him around, and pushes him away. Surprisingly, he keeps walking, chuckling and shaking his head.

"We're dead," Ally says.

He looks at her. "Maybe he won't tell."

"What're the odds?"

"Pretty high. Hopefully. He might blackmail us. Or maybe just me."

"Don't panic."

"I'm not panicking. I'm perfectly calm." He runs a hand through his already-disheveled hair.

"Okay, sure. So, uh, what do we do now?" she asks, scratching her head.

Austin snaps his fingers and points at her, coming up with an idea. "We do nothing. We go back to normal. If Jace tells everyone, they won't believe him if nothing has changed between us, and eventually he'll be lead to believe he just dreamed it or something."

"You really think it'll work?"

"I really think it's all we've got."

"What's wrong with everyone knowing, though?"

"Judgment. Pressure."

"You're embarrassed."

"I didn't say that. You're the one who said it was embarrassing to kiss me."

"I didn't mean it like that. But apparently you do."

He exhales, running both hands through his hair. "Look, if we're gonna happen" – he gestures between the two of them – "then I want us to happen on our own time, okay? Not because of something someone else says."

Ally presses her lips together. "I guess that makes sense."

"So we go back to normal?"

"This may as well have never happened," she says with a nod.

He really, really hopes that's a little bit of hurt and a dash of disappointment in her voice. Which is kind of awful of him, but he just really wants her to feel the same way.

"So…should we go back down there?" he asks her.

"If you want."

He nods and together they make their way to the beach, where their friends are all standing together and talking over each other.

"Found him," Ally says when they join the circle.

"Where were you?!" Trish asks him.

"Nowhere," Austin replies.

He doesn't miss Jace smirking at him from the other side of the circle. But he ignores him.

"Well, we ate lunch without you, so I hope you're happy," Trish says.

"I'm not hungry," he says with a shrug.

"You're always hungry," Dez says, knitting his eyebrows together. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, Dez."

The redhead looks at Ally, and she shrugs. "Don't look at me. I thought he was fine."

"You're not fine," Dez says, looking at him again. "Look at him, Jace."

Jace looks at him, smirking the entire time. "Yep, there's definitely something wrong with him."

"Who cares?" Carrie sighs. "I thought we were gonna go surfing!"

"I care!" Dez exclaims. "What's wrong, buddy?"

"Nothing's wrong!"

"Whatever it is, he's embarrassed about it, or else he would just admit it," Jace says, acting like he's trying to figure it out for himself.

"Something embarrassing? Now I gotta know what it is," Trish says with a grin.

"Okay, well, I'm with Carrie. Who cares if there's something wrong with him?" Ally tries.

"His best friends!" Dez says defensively. "Stop being so rude!"

Austin would be touched that Dez cares so much if he wasn't so busy trying to think of a way to stop Jace from telling everyone here the truth.

"You know, I think it's a girl," Jace says, his smirk growing.

"Austin likes someone?" Carrie asks, suddenly interested in the conversation.

"He does." Jace nods.

"You're right, look at him blushing!" Dez says with a grin.

"I'm not blushing, and I don't like anyone," Austin says quickly, placing his hands on his cheeks to cool them down. "Why do you guys even care?"

"You said yourself you were gonna avoid girl drama this summer," Jace says. "But you like someone."

"Who is it?" Trish asks. "Please tell me you don't still have feelings for Piper."

"It's nobody. I don't like anyone, okay? Let's just go surf or whatever."

"Not till we figure this out," Dez says. "C'mon, buddy. We're all your friends here. We won't make fun of you."

"Well – " Jace starts.

"We won't," Dez interrupts, giving Jace a hard look.

"You know what, I just remembered that I have to go feed Coco before he starves to death. So you guys have fun, and maybe I'll catch up with you later."

He walks away without waiting for a response.

He isn't surprised when he sees the familiar head of brown beach waves out of the corner of his eye.

"Go with them. Trish can teach you how to surf or something," he says.

"I can't go in the water without my swimming buddy." She nudges him with her shoulder, but he doesn't look at her. She sighs. "Look, Charming, I'm gonna be honest with you here. Seeing you thisembarrassed about this whole thing hurts."

"That's really funny coming from you, considering you told me it was embarrassing that you kissed me," he snaps.

"It was embarrassing, but not because of what they might think if they found out."

"Then what's so embarrassing about it?"

"I kissed you, but I did it thinking you still hated me. I was embarrassed about what you might think."

He stops walking and looks at her, one foot on the bottom step leading up to his porch. "You were?"

She nods, her cheeks tinting pink. He's pretty sure this is the first time he's actually seen her blush. "Well…yeah," she admits shyly. "I mean, I was basically handing you the ball and saying, 'Your move,' while pretty much assuming that you'd just laugh at me." She shrugs. "That's why I didn't wanna talk about it. I didn't want you to have that chance."

He presses his lips together. This is almost her admitting her feelings, and as far as he's concerned it's going in the right direction.

"Oh," he says lamely, his mind whirling too much to come up with a more coherent response.

"But obviously you're more worried about what other people think. And – and that really hurts, y'know? I mean, what's so wrong with me that you don't want anyone knowing you like me?" She laughs, but it isn't the musical sound he's grown fond of. It's humorless, bitter, disappointed, hurt. "Is it because I'm not from here? Is it because I'm rich and you're worried they'll all just assume that's the only reason you like me? Is it because you're worried they'll push you away even more? Or…or are you just too proud to admit that you went from hating me to liking me in less than a month?"

He knits his eyebrows together, surprised at just how many insecurities she has. "It's not like that – " he tries.

"Then what is it? You said yourself that one of the reasons you don't want them knowing is because they'll judge you."

"Ally – "

"I'm sorry I'm not good enough, Austin. I'm sorry that you're so ashamed you can't even tell your best friends that you like me, that you'd rather come up with some lie or pretend to hate me than just tell them the truth."

"I just don't want them making fun of us – "

"Who cares what they say?" she interrupts. Then she takes a deep breath and looks at him. "Apparently you do, since you're so worried about how this might affect your image."

She starts walking away, but he catches up to her and grabs her wrist to stop her. "I'm sorry," he says. "You're right. I'll tell them. Whatever you want me to say, I'll say it."

She presses her lips together. "Really?"

He nods, searching her eyes. "I don't want to lose you because of this."

She watches him for a few seconds before standing on her tiptoes and kissing him gently on the cheek. He lets go of her wrist and sighs in relief, feeling the heat rise to his face.

She pulls away. "Tell them," she says quietly.

And then she walks away. He helplessly watches her go with a tingling cheek and a pounding heart.

I'm back from camp! I hope you guys liked this chapter! (Thanks to Lexy coughasalwayscough for assisting me in everything I ever do) I love all of you soooooooooooooo much!