"I'm what?"

"Staying. Here. Tonight. In this hotel room. With me," Austin deadpanned. I swallowed.

That was a bad idea.

"Where's Dez?" Austin asked, clearly oblivious to my uncertainty.

"Uhm, I don't know, he just left."

"Oh well. Dez is a bit weird sometimes."

"Yeah, I've noticed," I muttered. It was silent, while Austin started to clean out our dinner plates.

"Here, let me help you." I launched forward, touching his hand by accident and immediately pulling it back, as if I'd been bitten by a snake.

"That's okay. You can just start making your bed."

"Making my… bed?"

He giggled.

And sounded adorable doing it, might I say.

"Yeah, well, one of us has to sleep on the couch, right? I mean, I wouldn't mind sharing the bed, but I didn't think you would…"

"Definitely not," I interrupted him.

He didn't have to know how tempting that sounded.

I mentally slapped myself. Jezus Ally, get a grip! What are you doing?

"Well, then start making your bed. And mine. Because I'll sleep on the couch like a gentleman, but only if you'll get it ready for me," he pouted. I laughed.

That seemed fair enough.

I walked into the bedroom. It was remarkably clean, for a room where a young, single guy had lived for a couple of days.

I was just starting to strip the sheets, when the lights went out.

Crap.

Now normally, I find darkness quite cosy. And I could have known the electricity would fail us, with this kind of storm.

But now, while I just watched a movie about zombie and alien hybrids eating the entire human race, not the mention when it was December and quite cold, I couldn't appreciate Miami's electricity fail.

The door opened, and I hold my breath. But it was just Austin.

Of course it was Austin, who else was I expecting? I mentally slapped myself.

Again. That was happening quite a lot.

"Lights fell out here as well?"

"No, I just like being in the dark," I sneered.

"Suits your personality," Austin joked. I took one of his pillows and threw it his way, but obviously, he caught it without a problem.

He gasped. "Ally, were you trying to start a pillow fight?"

"Noooo!" I yelled, hiding behind the bed. "No, Austin, I'm serious. I'll hurt myself when there is light, imagine what I can do if I can't see."

He laughed. "I guess that's true. My head still hurts. You have quite a hard head, for a small girl."

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"I was kidding, Als. I'm fine."

My stomach jumped. Als.

I had forbidden Trish to call me that, because I hated that name, but when he did it, I didn't really mind. It sounded quite cute.

Austin turned around and left the bedroom, calling: "I'll find flash lights and candles, you'll get pillows and blankets!"

"Blankets? For what?" I called after him.

"There is only one thing to do without electricity." He sounded very excited. "We're going to be building a fort!"

Rumbling through the closet and cabinet, trying to find more blankets, I thought about Austin. I wasn't lying when I said a pillow fight would be a bad idea because of my clumsiness.

But it wasn't the entire truth. Honestly, I was a little scared. During the tickle fight, I felt like if Mimi wouldn't have come in, I could've kissed him.

And now, in the dark, without any interruption… I didn't trust myself.

And I really didn't want to ruin this friendship. Because I did feel like Austin could become a really good friend. Now that I knew him better, I felt like he was a great guy, and he might just be what I needed in a friend.

Or in a boyfriend.

For god's sake, Ally.

When I walked into the living room, there were candles everywhere.

"I only found one flashlight." To demonstrate, Austin aimed the flashlight right in my face. Causing me to almost fall.

He laughed. "Sorry, I have to learn not to do anything too sudden around you."

I sat down on the floor, putting the blankets in front of me.

"I couldn't find that many. People aren't very often cold, in Miami."

Austin got up and left. I watched him with a raised eyebrow. When he came back, he was holding two sweaters. He threw one of them to me.

"Luckily, I was prepared for cold weather."

I put on the sweater. It was grey and warm. And big. It came to my thighs, almost passing as a dress. I sniffed, I wasn't imagining things: it smelled really nice. Like him.

I watched him go into the kitchen and come out with two mugs.

"How did you get hot chocolate?" I asked him, surprised. He smirked.

"It was just done when the power went out. Like I planned it, huh?" He winked at me, as he sat down next to me.

Quite close to me, as well.

A silence fell. But it was a comfortable silence. The kind where I felt I could be in forever.

But as soon as he finished his hot chocolate, Austin broke the silence.

"Do you know what people do when the power is out?"

I shook my head.

"Share their deepest darkest secrets. So, spill." I laughed, until I realized he was being seriously.

Oh dear. I pulled a blanket around me, feeling the cold creep up.

And then, without knowing why or where it came from, I started to talk.

"I would love to be like you. Be able to go on stage and perform. But I can't."

"Why not?" Austin's voice sounded really soft, sweet. Sincere. And I felt a little ashamed for not telling him earlier. I realized I hadn't really told him anything about myself, except for the thing with my parents.

But I would tell him now. He would get it. And I really wanted him to know.

To know me.

"Because I have stage fright. Horrible stage fright. If you only say the word stage I start shaking, and if you actually put me on one, I will puke on the audience and faint and it's just not pretty." I hugged my knees, laying my head on them.

"I really do have a lot of respect for you, Austin. You always perform, you're amazing at it."

He smiled. "I've never had stage fright, so I don't know what I can do to help you, Ally."

"You can't help me," I said softly. "You can't fix me. It's my battle to fight. But you're actually one of the very few people who know."

He reached behind the couch, taking out his guitar.

"Do you think you can sing for me? I know you couldn't earlier, with Brave, but now…"

I shook my head, my eyes widening in horror. He immediately saw that I was freaking out.

He put his hand on my arm. My breathing stopped.

And not because I didn't want to sing.

"It's okay, Als. You don't have to. I'll just sing for you then, yeah?"

And he started playing. I smiled.

I knew this song.

"And I say oh!
We're gonna let it show,
We're gonna just let go of everything
holding back our dreams.
And try, to make it come alive.
C'mon, let it shine, so they can see,
we're meant to be
Somebody,
Somebody, yeah,
Somehow, some day, some way.
Somebody."

I listened to him, until he came to the bridge.

I could do this.

And so I closed my eyes, and opened my mouth.

"We will walk out of the darkness,
Feel the spotlight glowing like a yellow sun.
And when we fought we fought together,
Till we get back up and we will rise as one."

My voice died at the end, and he started singing again. I slowly opened my eyes, looking into his, and I don't know how, but I kept myself singing. And in that moment, it was just us two and the music, and it didn't seem so scary anymore.

"Oh, we're gonna let it show.
We're just gonna let go of everything,
holding back our dreams.
And try, to make it come alive,
C'mon, let it shine, so they can see,
we're meant to be
somebody.

Somehow, some day, some way,
somebody."

As the music died down, I turned my head away.

I just realized what I'd done.

What if he hated it? What if he thought I was terrible?

What if he thought I was only trying to be friends with him so I could sing for him? What if he thought I was using him?

"Ally?"

Oh god.

"Als, could you please look at me."

I turned around. He was a lot closer than I expected. I hold my breath.

"Thank you."

That wasn't the response I was expecting.

"Thank you, for trusting me." He put his guitar away, and smiled at me.

"By the way, I think you sound amazing. Not as amazing as me, but still relatively amazing." He said the last part with mock-cockiness and I laughed. He stared at me for a while, a small smile on his lips.

I shuddered under his look.

"Are you cold?" It seemed to snap him out of his thought.

"I'm…" I started, meaning to say I was fine, but he was already crawling closer to me.

"I don't have another blanket, but you can share mine."

I couldn't finish my sentence, the words stuck in my throat, as he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his chest. He tucked me in, wrapping his blanket as well as my own around me.

"Better?" he whispered.

"Yeah," I brought out.

It was better. Much better.

But it wasn't because of the blankets. It was because I could feel his heart beating, and I could feel his arm around me, and I could feel his breath in my hair.

And I could feel the butterflies in my stomach.

Song: Somebody by Bridgit Mendler