How to Change a Bad Boy

By: Janzelle

Chapter: 10

How to Work at a Nightclub

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Austin has been sneaking around since day 1 and Ally has finally had it. She is determined to figure out what Austin is doing.

Songs I Have Used: Coming Home by Diddy-Dirty Money & Skylar Grey

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Recap:

"Austin!" I called, immediately ripping his attention from the wretched kiss.

A childish smile broke out on his face and he ran over to me to retrieve the ingenuous treat. It seemed as if he had already locked up the dark memory to the far corner of his brain.

'Hmm, I wonder if he did that with our little kiss.' I thought, remembering the kiss I could not lock away.

"Spiderman!" Austin exclaimed happily as he flipped open the pages to a colorless cutout of Spiderman shooting his web-thingy in a cool fashion.

'Wow, that was way too easy…' I thought, glancing down at Austin while he colored in Spiderman's suit red and blue.

Even though he was brutally rejected, Mitch still makes flirty eyes at Austin in gym and crams love notes in his locker. I know I should not be thinking this, but I am pretty happy that I am not the only one that hates gym now.

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(Ally's POV)

Dear Diary, Friday

Possible Song Lyrics:

-I'm coming home, I'm coming home

-Tell the world, I'm coming home

-Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday

-I know my kingdom awaits if they've forgiven...

I've had it! I can't take it anymore! Ever heard of the saying, 'curiosity killed the cat'? Well, not knowing where Austin goes is killing me (metaphorically)! My curiosity levels are jumping off the charts. My mind is exploding with different conclusions to why Austin leaves so suddenly.

I can't even sit down and put some good thought into writing how well the school day was today or how great it is to be Friday! I can't even finish the darn chorus to the possible song I have written above! Ah, excuse my language!

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I sighed grumpily, closing my songbook when the last school bell rang, warning all students that the school day was now over and the weekend started.

I was about to join Trish at her locker, a few turns away, but two conversing boys stopped and caused me to hide in a place where I heard them talk.

'I really need to stop eavesdropping on Austin and Dez… eh, I'll start tomorrow.'

I listened in closer when Austin opened his mouth again to speak.

"So, I got these tickets to some idiot's art show and—"

"—And you were wondering if I wanted to go! Awesome-sauce! When is it?" Dez interrupted happily, ready to rip his pants off and give them to Austin.

Austin raised an eyebrow, amused by Dez's enthusiasm for the arts, "Um, no. I was going to ask you to give them to Ally. You know, since she likes boring stuff like this," he explained.

Dez readjusted his pants, a pout visibly protruding from his lips.

"Why can't she go with you?" he asked.

"I have to work today," Austin sighed, a yawn accidentally escaping his lips.

'Austin works? I have never heard him say anything about it before. I wonder where he works. I am surprised he actually knows how to work since he doesn't do his school work.' I thought, chuckling to myself, 'Why is it that I find out more about Austin when I am eavesdropping then when I am naturally talking to him?'

"Oh… Wait! You still work there? I can't believe you haven't been caught yet," Dez mentioned, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Dude, I'm Austin Moon. I don't get caught," Austin bragged with a smirk on his face and leaned onto the locker.

My breath hitched seeing as Austin was leaning on the locker I was eavesdropping behind. He was so close that I could smell his cologne, A Summer's Breeze.

'Hey, that's the same one Dallas uses!'

Austin looked up, his eyes darting side-to-side, though gave up soon after when he could not figure out where the sudden noise came from.

"You got caught spray painting Mrs. Riley's car lime green—"

"That's beside the point!" Austin cut him off agitatedly.

"Why can't you work somewhere else? If you get caught, you'll be in a pants-load of trouble," Dez said worriedly.

Austin laughed, "Dez, I think I'll be fine. This place is the best place I've ever worked at. Plus, they already think I'm 18 anyways, so it's all-good. Here," Austin replied, handing Dez the art show tickets, "Give these to Ally for me. I got to go, or I'll be late."

"Okay, but after your shift's over, you want to go see that awesome, new movie—and he's gone," Dez sighed when he realized he was talking to an empty hallway and clutched the tickets in his hand.

'Wow, Austin. Way to be a good friend to Dez,' I thought, shaking my head judgingly.

It seemed as if Dez was about to go look for me until he spotted me from my listening spot and jumped in surprise.

"H-hey Dez. How's it going?" I said sheepishly as I shuffled out of my constricted position.

"Hey Ally, man do I have something good for you… wait a minute, were you just listening to Austin and I?" he asked and stroked his hairless chin, not fully catching on to my actions.

Well, I was going to bring up the conversation anyways.

"Where does Austin work and why?!" I suddenly blurted out, my insides craving to know.

I needed to stop Austin from doing something illegal. I did not want him to get in trouble! I mean, what if he was a dr-dr-dr-drug dealer!? That was extremely illegal!

"Wha-what ever do y-you mean?" Dez stammered out, checking his wacky-colored watch. "Well, would you look at the time! Here. Austin wanted you to have these! Bye Ally!"

Dez pushed the two tickets to Greyson's Art Exhibit into my hands and sped off in the opposite direction. I sighed; I did not want to have to play this way, but I had no choice…

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"Tell us where Austin works or I'll eat Carlos!" Trish threatened, crumbling up the sweet gingerbread man's leg and throwing the crumbs in Dez's face.

"Carlos!" Dez shouted in agony, thought no one could hear his screams of distress.

We were stationed in the janitor's closet with Dez tied to an old chair and me cowering in the corner. I did not know Trish would have gone this far to get a little information out of Dez. Though, somehow, my body wasn't objecting to this morally wrong method; as long as we found Austin and set him straight.

"I can't betray Austin! He's my best friend!" Dez exclaimed and Trish laughed evilly.

"Then you might as well say 'goodbye' to the rest of your family… your gingerbread family," Trish said menacingly. The weird part was that she sounded eerily calm and kind while picking pieces of candy off each gingerbread man.

"NOO! Not the gumdrop buttons!" Dez screamed, tears streaming down his face.*

Trish pretended to pour the sat-outside-in-the-baking-sun expired milk carton over Dez's creatively made gingerbread house and family of five. Not including Carlos, who was on a one-way ticket to Trish's stomach right about now.

"It's now or never, Freckles," she warned, narrowing her eyes at the boy.

'Oh my, what have I unleashed?'

Biting his lip, the redhead finally caved in, telling us the information we needed to know and I could not believe my ears.

Apparently, Austin was working at the very popular nightclub, Rush. Also known as an eighteen-years-or-older nightclub. Austin was a well-liked bartender and occasional right-hand man to the owner. The owner sometimes called Austin in very early to either get his opinion on something, help him set up, or plan out new ideas/themes.

Because of the play and extra tutoring sessions, Austin had to work extra hours to make up for the ones he lost or missed; aka, the reason why he looked like the walking dead nowadays.

'Wow, his relationship kind of sounds like the friendly relationship I have with the principal, except it's ILLEGAL! I knew it! I knew Austin was doing something illegal; Ally Dawson was right! …I just feel bad for the owner since he put his trust in someone who was faking his age.'

"Well, we have to go set Austin straight and tell his boss the truth. He cannot keep living a lie. Honesty is always the best policy," I lectured, watching Dez's face shake furiously.

"No! You can't get Austin fired! Then he won't be able to—mhmhmhm!" Dez started to say, but suddenly closed his mouth, trying hard to avoid eye contact.

"Won't be able to, what?" Trish asked, holding yet another gingerbread man and smiling maliciously.

"George! I can't tell you guys; I can't tell anyone! Please just let him go! George, I will avenge you!" Dez cried, strained sounds erupted from his mouth.

'Oh my pickles, we are torturing the poor boy!'

"Trish! We can ask Austin when we get to the nightclub. Can you please untie Dez?" I asked in the kindest voice I had, my moral compass repeatedly poking me in the back.

Trish groaned loudly, dragging her feet over to Dez's tied arms, "Ugh, are you serious? I liked him better this way…"

She released Dez from the deathly knot and he darted over to his ruined family of gingerbread.

"She-Demon!" he muttered under his breath. Trish tossed her hair over her shoulder and giggled, as if it was a compliment.

After some more… persuasion, Dez finally led us to Rush. It turned out to be a huge one-story building with the letters, 'RUSH', plastered on the front in flashing dark red colors. The long, framed windows revealed the pumping-party music. It opened up around six o' clock at night and closed around 4 o' clock the next morning.

'Hmm, did anyone else feel a need to pop-and-lock?'

An enormous line of eighteen to twenty year-old party people formed along the extended velvet rope.

"There's no way we're getting in there. Do you see the size of that bodyguard? He'll see right through us and chuck us into the next town!" I exclaimed negatively, biting my fingernails.

The giant, sunglasses-wearing security guard stood dauntingly, not forgetting to check people's identification cards twice before they were allowed to go in.

"Then we can just sneak in the back. Come on, Ally! Don't back out of this now!" Trish said, eyeing my fidgeting figure.

A wave of rebellion filled my body as Trish grabbed my hand and sneakily pulled me around the back of the club while Dez quickly followed. Around the back was a bare, rusty staircase that led into the far side of the nightclub.

'How weird… I would have expected more security around this place.'

We walked up the stairs, though when I tried to turn the doorknob, it was locked.

'Well, of course.'

"It's locked," I announced and Trish pulled out a Barbie pin from her tangled hair, letting a piece of it fall in front of her face.

"Move," she ordered and I stepped out of her way.

I wondered why Trish was trying so hard. Oh wait, I almost forgot our bargain from before the janitor's closet; I hope working at Candy's Candy Store for a week won't be boring.

Trish fumbled with the lock for a few minutes before finally forcefully pushing the heavy door open.

"Um Trish, where did you learn how to do that?"

"Oh, I locked myself in the candy store's storage room so I could catch a few Z's, but I forgot my key to open it up again… and, well, it took me some time, but I got it open!" Trish explained, looking very proud. "Okay, let's find Austin quickly because this is cutting into my sleep time."

'It's only six o' clock…' I thought quietly to myself as I followed Trish into the booming club.

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I had to admit, the club was appealing and very insightful. As people danced, they grew thirsty. The clubbers bought the sugary sodas and drinks that caused them to get hungry again and buy the salty snacks and foods available. The salty snacks made them thirsty once again and the cycle repeated itself. It was a very smart business system.

'Focus Ally! You are only here to find Austin and talk him into quitting before he gets in trouble,' my mind reminded me and joined Trish and Dez in the search for Austin.

Surrounded by a dark, polished, wooden bar station with many bottles stacked upon many shelves was Austin. Bar seats, filled with girls fighting for at least one second of his attention, scattered across the outer layer.

Austin was standing there in a sleek new bartender's outfit, decked out in 1950's accessories, the theme of the night. Half of his shiny blonde hair was covered by a vintage, black fedora with a beige strip—positioned slantingly on top of his head.
The whole nightclub looked exactly like a speakeasy; I felt complied to take pictures and write a complete research paper on the interesting subject.
I shook the extra-credit filled thought out my head and focused back on the real problem at hand: Austin working as a bartender.

'I mean, look at him, just handing out drinks to random 18-year-old girls!' I thought hotly, watching Austin receive tips and little pieces of white paper decorated with phone numbers.

The problem I had with this was that he was encouraging these older party girls by winking and smiling at them.

'Austin is sixteen! Sixteen years old!'
I was fuming, with steam probably pouring out of my ears; red was seeping into my eyes. The pit of my stomach was not taking this so well. It twisted and churned harder and more violently the longer I watched Austin flirt with these girls.

'Last time I checked, work did NOT involve flirting!'
My legs twitched and suddenly started to power-walk their way over to Austin's station, with Trish and Dez hot on my tail. I did not think I was in control anymore; just like the time when I found out Jimmy Dickson lost my cute hamster to his mutant dog.
'I still mourn of that day…' I thought as my body came to an expected stop right in front of Austin, after I pushed to the front first.
"Wait in the back of the line, little girl!" girls shouted, or scoffed, "How did a little kid get in here?"
As soon as Austin turned around from concocting another drink, that little smirk on his face was nowhere to be found. His eyes widened at the sight of me, nostrils slightly flaring, as he unsurprisingly dropped the glass.
"... Damn it," Austin whispered, the cute sunglasses sliding off his shocked face. He quickly chuckled before proclaiming, "Heh, I'm gonna steal this lucky girl for a bit."

Austin winked at one of the angry, tipsy redheads, causing her to blowup in a fit of giggles. He wrapped his arms around my petite waist and lifted me carefully, but swiftly, over the counter. Ducking my head underneath the flat wooden surface, Austin quickly joined me, a frustrated expression on his face.

"What the hell are you doing here? How did you even find out? Did Dez tell you? Dez…" Austin questioned angrily, running a hand through his hair and knocking off the black fedora.

I knew Austin was speaking and I should have been listening, but for some reason I couldn't. I was looking right at him, but he distracted me. Could you blame me? I had never noticed how beautiful his eyes were before. Well, yes, I would indeed see them and make note that they are a chocolate brown, but that was what anyone would do; you remember what your friends look like. However, I never took the time to actually lookat them.

'Mostly because he is always scowling and scaring people away…'

Austin's eyes have to be his most mysterious asset: full of cheerfulness and bliss, but concealed by a powerful and hurtful memory, a force bursting with pain. Their creamy chocolate exterior suits them well. Just like chocolate, Austin's eyes were a creamy pool of rich, brown color; very enthralling.

Some how my eyes wandered down to that silver chain-necklace with the whistle dangling from it. Austin always wore that necklace to school. I wondered why. Maybe I should ask him—

"Ally! Are you even listening to me?" Austin hissed, snapping me back to reality—a reality where a particular blonde-headed boy was very livid.

"Huh?" I said in a drawl, not really hearing what he said.

Austin face-palmed his forehead, his fingers combing through his hair once more.

"Why are you here?" he asked exasperatedly.

Suddenly, my objective of coming to this place came rushing back to me.

"Austin. Trish, Dez, and I are all here to tell you to quit your job before you get caught! We don't want you to get in trouble, or worse, got to jail!" I replied, my hands covering my lips after the word 'jail' escaped them.

Austin sighed indignantly, "Ally. Go home."

I hung my mouth open in offense.

'Why would he even consider something like that? You know what?—

"—If you aren't going to tell your boss, then I will," I exclaimed, crawling out from under the counter and maneuvering myself over it.

"Ally! Wait, you're not even supposed to be here; get out before you get hurt," I heard Austin call from behind me, but chose to ignore his warning. He needed to quit; Trust me on this one.

I began to search around the perimeter for an office room, though it was fairly hard. I kept bumping into random party-people and needing to apologize to them. Somehow, I was swept by the immense crowd and pulled to the dance floor. I must have looked like a complete idiot just standing there all confused while others moved and grooved to the beat.

I was about to leave the dance floor, but someone grabbed my arm.

"Austin, you can't stop me—you're not Austin," I said warily, snatching my hand back.

A twenty-one-year-old man with a stubble-beard stood before me. His black hair was slicked back with gel and his eyes were an unappealing grey color. The smell of alcohol oozing from his hairy skin irritated my nose and alarmed me that this man was indeed drunk.

"Excuse me," I said meekly with a quick smile and tried to leave, but the guy took hold of my hand once again.

"Yurr purr-witty," he slurred, a toothy grin escaping his lips and his hand tightening his grip on my wrist.

I felt the heat rise to my face and now sweating palms; my heart was beating so fast, I heard it ringing in my ears.

"Pa-please let ga-go of my hand…" I stuttered out, hoping it was assertive enough. Though, the guy only laughed.

"Don-cha want ta haff fun wit mwee?" He slurred some more, his face looking extremely disappointed.

But, that changed quickly, a smile spreading across his face. Rocking slowly to himself, the drunken guy let go of my hand to roughly grab me. His sweaty hands clamped down on both of my sides, jerking me over his shoulder. My face slammed into his back and the guy staggered back a bit.

'Ouch… What-What is he doing?' I thought, rubbing my nose.

The minute he started to walk off the dance floor, my mind went blank. My mouth suddenly went as dry as the Sahara desert. I felt my pupils growing bigger and water filling them up because I would not blink. I wanted to scream, but my brain would not process right. I wanted to kick and punch, but neither my arms nor legs would move. No one seemed to notice, or care, that I was being carried off to who knows where.

"Hey!" a familiar voice shouted sharply, "Sir, I am asking you kindly to put her down."

The guy turned around to face a calm Austin and released his grip on me. I fell hard to the ground with a loud Thud!

My feet slowly shuffled toward Austin, my head hung low.

'How embarrassing. No matter how silly or serious it is, Austin is always saving me from it. I bet he gets tired of always having to watch my back. I bet he gets tired of me,' I sighed, glancing up at the confident boy. 'I just really wanted to save him from this job, so I could be the one to help HIM and not the other way around. I just want Austin to not think of me as the weak and clumsy damsel in distress.'

"Good, you're not as dumb as you look," Austin mumbled under his breath before shaking his head, "Okay! I am going to have to ask you to leave—"

"I ain'ts goin' nowheres!" the guy yelled, causing a commotion, "Ya beta left! Or ima pop off on ya!"

Austin placed his hand on his hips and raised an eyebrow. I hope he understood that guy because I did not.

"Dude, I'm not going to fight you—"

Bam!

The drunken guy lunged forward, throwing his fist into Austin's jaw and sending him stumbling backwards onto the dance floor. Austin's eye twitched as he sprung right back up, glaring vituperatively at the cackling guy.

"I'm gonna murder you," Austin darkly stated and tackled the guy to the ground. Throwing punches in his face, the guy was completely helpless; his vision was too blurry to aid him in any way. Though, fortunate for him, a tall man in a business suit was able to pry Austin away from the now unconscious guy.

Austin was about to pounce on the middle-aged man that interrupted him, but immediately froze once he realized who it was.

"Crap…" Austin's whisper was barely audible.

"In my office. Now," his voice boomed over the loud speakers even though it did not seem like he was trying to talk so loudly.

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I sat timidly next to the quiet Austin as we waited for the man—who I have learned was the owner—to speak.

"Austin," his voice bellowed, "I am very disappointed with you."

"But Austin didn't start the fight. That guy did! He punched Austin in the face!" I defended, not really knowing why.

If Austin was not defended, he would probably get fired and this whole horrible experience would get resolved.

"Ally," Austin said sharply and I shut my mouth in confusion.

If this were school, Austin would have defended his position and bothered the principal until he caved in. Why didn't he say anything?

"As I was saying, you know the rules. It doesn't matter who started the brawl, employees are strictly prohibited from fighting. I thought I taught you better," the owner finished, his powerful voice had a tinge of dissatisfaction in it. "You do realize I am going to have to fire—"

He could not even finish the sentence before Austin quietly left the room. Even though no words escaped his mouth, I knew Austin was mad. I felt a sensation of killing intent rolling off his skin from where I sat.

"Austin?" I said, puzzled. I turned back to the owner and gave a quick smile. "Please excuse me."

I shuffled out of the awkward office room and chased after Austin. When I finally caught up to the fast-walking boy, I reached a hand out to stop him. Though, before I could touch him, Austin grabbed my wrist. His grip was painfully tight, causing me to wince under the pain.

"Ouch, that hurts…" I yelped, trying to retract my hand from his.

"You just couldn't help yourself, could you? You just had to meddle?" he said calmly, though when he turned towards me, his eyes were full of shadowy anger.

Such resentment sent shivers down my spine; which was so weird. I was terrified of Austin. Something I had never felt since we became friends. Around Austin, I always felt safe and secure; something not even Dallas could make me feel. Recent scenes of the drunk guy looming over me flashed in my mind and I shivered again, more violently than before.

"I-I'm sorry you cannot work here anymore. I just didn't want you to get in trouble… if it makes you feel any better, I can help you look for another job. Trish could put in a good word for at one of her old jobs; which she has had a lot of, heh-heh, so picking another job shouldn't be any trouble for you. I'm not saying it would have been troubling in the first place…" I rambled under his intense stare, my arm starting to shake irrepressibly.

Austin's eyes seemed to soften up as he left go of my wrist and sighed deeply.

"Are you okay?" I asked and Austin's eyes flickered my way.

"Just peachy," he sharply answered through gritted teeth, turning on his heel and shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'm… glad that guy didn't do anything to you," he added in a monotone voice before walking away.

Seeing Austin in range, Dez perked up, scrambling to his feet, and quickly followed behind him, not daring to open his mouth.

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Meh! You all thought the entire truth was going to come out!

-That will be saved for the two-part chapter coming up next!

*: From Shrek if you didn't catch it! (Do you know the Muffin Man? The Muffin Man? THE MUFFIN MAN!—ah, now I need to watch that movie!)

Review and Stay Tuned!

(^w^)