Ally's POV
A hot and burning day in Miami. Nearly eighty degrees out there. We had gone to the beach, I remember. Spent the day eating ice-cream and venturing far out into the ocean. Until both of us could no longer see the shore.
"Austin?" I panted. "Where are we?"
He paused for a moment then smiled.
"We'll turn back now if you're scared."
"But which direction?" I asked.
He laughed.
"I have no clue," he chuckled, his brows furrowed in thought.
"Austin!" I exclaimed, terrified. There we were, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and he was laughing? "Seriously, I can't see anything. We're lost."
"I know," he said, wrapping his arms around me as I shuddered. "We'll be fine."
"Seriously," I rolled my eyes at his display of affection but still hung on to him, afraid to let go. "What are we gonna do?"
"I heard there's sharks in the Atlantic ocean," he joked, taking advantage of my fear. I stared at him with horror in my eyes.
"There are sharks in the Atlantic ocean!" I screamed. At this point I was shaking all over. The sun had started to go down and I was afraid for what might come next. He seemed to notice this, and pulled me closer.
"Do you seriously think I'm gonna let anything happen to you?" he questioned me.
"This is no time for romantic gestures!" I exclaimed. "We're lost in the freaking ocean."
"Okay fine then," he laughed. "Let's swim around for a little while."
"No," I said adamantly, locking my hands around his neck. "What if we go further out by accident? What if we lose each other?"
"I'm thinking we're gonna drown if we don't get found soon," he said, and I froze.
"Drown?" I stuttered. "Oh no."
At this point both of us were freezing cold and scared. Even Austin. And that made me even more scared, because he was always so chilled out about everything. But just then, he wasn't speaking, and I knew we were in a bad situation. We remained like this for two more hours, until I was pretty sure we would be in pitch darkness within another half an hour or so.
"I think we're going to die," I said quietly. And in that moment, it really did seem like we were going to, pressed up against each other in the freezing cold darkness.
"Don't be like that," he said. "I'm sure we'll make it till morning and then we can try find our way back."
"Morning when the tide comes in?" I asked softly. He frowned. "We are gonna die, you know."
"That's unlucky," he murmured. "I didn't get to do most of the things I would have wanted to in my life."
"Like?"
"Go on a worldwide tour, buy a massive house, marry the perfect girl, have children-"
"Do some modelling, write a song for Lana Del Rey, watch Alyssa grow up..." I trailed off. "Damn, we're gonna die, aren't we?" I looked up at the navy blue sky, where stars were beginning to appear.
"Marry me," Austin said out of nowhere. His eyes bore into mine and twinkled in the faint moonlight. "If all else fails, I'll still die knowing I did one thing right." He kissed me. "Will you?"
"Yes," I laughed.
"Yes," I murmured, letting my mind drift to that day we nearly died. We were so love-struck that we didn't even care. Now look at us, I thought. We did get what we wanted in the end. Apart from a few, of course. He did go on his worldwide tour, we did buy a massive house, I did do some modelling, I did watch Alyssa grow from a little baby into a little girl. AND he was about to marry the perfect girl. He was happy. But I wasn't.
I tiptoed down the stairs into the kitchen to get some breakfast, and quickly backed away from the door when I realised Austin's mom was in the kitchen with him. No trouble, Ally. Just wait here for her to leave.
"I think you're finally making the right choice, sweetheart," she was saying to him. "For yourself and for your career."
"I don't want you to say that just because Cassidy's the only girl I've been with that you actually like, mom," he replied.
"I'm telling you the truth! There was never any trouble in your relationship until Ally became part of the picture. That girl never was good for you, but I'm glad you're finally realizing it," she responded. I flinched.
"Maybe the reason Ally isn't good for me is because of you guys?" Austin questioned her, and she had no answer. "Because up until you came along and had an affair with her dad, we were pretty good together too. And last time I checked, you loved her as well."
"Things change, Austin-"
"Yeah you're right, mom," he said quickly. "Besides, she didn't seem to mind one bit when I told her I was going to propose to Cassidy. She's over it. And I am too."
"Well it's all well and good you being over it, but how do you know she is? What I'm trying to say," she said, turning to face him, "is that as long as she is in this house, things will be different. You two have been through too much at too young an age to completely lose feelings for each other. As your mom, I can see that you still like her, and you're trying to get her to tell you the same thing. But when you're married, you can't let something like that come between you and the girl of your dreams. I have no clue what Ally has done to you, but she can't remain in this-"
"Good morning Austin," I said cheerily. "Mimi." Her face turned pale.
"Ally," she acknowledged. Then her face lit up. "Aren't you just so excited for the wedding?"
I froze. She really knew how to piss me off.
"Well, of course! Trish and I have already started talking about colour schemes. It's going to be spectacular," I smiled. She had left half way through my sentence. How rude.
"Sorry about her," Austin said apologetically.
"It's fine," I said. "I'm used to it. But I am pretty sure you said she'd turned nice? You'd think she'd be nice to me too now that you're going to propose to Cassidy."
"She's really annoying me," he replied. "But it's our house. This house belongs to all of us, and you're not leaving again."
"I'm not," I smiled. "For real this time. I feel like by trying to please all of our parents I lost touch with some of the most important people in my life. And now I'm home, so much has changed. Like you, getting married." I punched him playfully.
"When I said she'd turned nice I meant she'd turned nicer, but that was mainly because your mom and dad weren't here anymore, and you weren't here. It was the house she'd always dreamed of. Trust me, if Trish or Dez had crossed her, she would have been wanting them out too."
"What do you mean, the house she'd always dreamed of?"
"Her, my dad, me, my girlfriend and Alyssa. That's all she wants out of this. Crazy, right? Because she's not getting half of that," he said, shaking his head. "I have to be nice to her though. She is my mom."
"So I guess we are still at square one," I commented, pouring myself a glass of juice. "The only way to please her is for me to leave."
"You're not leaving."
"Please," I laughed. "It's getting to be kind of a joke. I'm staying here."
"Good," he said. "But I still need my parents out. Both to maintain peace and for a bit more privacy."
"Well, the only way that's possible is for you to marry another owner of the house or...for them to die."
"Yeah, well I've been doing some thinking..." he trailed off, realizing he shouldn't have started the sentence.
I laughed.
"You're not gonna murder our parents, are you?" I joked.
"No," he said, running his hand through his hair.
"I just thought, well, maybe...if Cassidy became an owner of this house, maybe it could still work."
"There can only be four owners of this house, and they can only be us, because we paid for it," I reminded him, not knowing where this was going.
"Yeah but if one of us signed over the rights to someone else, they could take our place," he said, and I froze, nearly dropping my glass. I gave him a disappointed look.
"You want me to pass my rights to this house over to Cassidy," I said, putting the glass down on the breakfast bar.
"Only so that we can ask our parents to leave this house for good," he reminded me, and I narrowed my eyes. "You'd still be living here, and we'd both be happy. It would be us four friends and Cassidy. That would work, right?"
"I'm not signing my name off this house when I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars towards it. Not only that, but it's my home," I said.
"Okay," he said. "I'm just putting it out there."
"I'll think about it," I sighed. "It's not a terrible idea, but would you give up this house if I was getting married to someone?"
"Not in a million years," he replied.
"Exactly." I went up to Trish's room where she was snoozing away, and crept in beside her.
"Ally," she muttered, then swore. Classic Trish.
"Do you think I should sign the house over to Cassidy?" I asked patiently. She sat up immediately, rubbing her eyes.
"What?" she shouted. "No! Why's that even a question? Oh."
"Yeah," I said. "It makes sense. We would all be happy."
"He's right I guess," she said, yawning. "It makes a lot of sense. Plus, it's not like the house isn't yours anymore."
"True," I said. "Should I do it?"
"Yeah," she said. "It's about time this ended once and for all."
Later that day, his mom decided to pick a fight with me once again.
"How's your mother doing?" she asked sweetly. I ignored her and carried on reading my magazine. "Oh, Ally. I can literally see the misery on your face ever since you found out Austin's getting married. It's priceless."
I ignored her again.
"I can't wait till they're married. They make such a beautiful couple, don't they? Of course, you'll be here to see how beautiful they are together every day of the rest of your life, since you're going to be living here with them-"
"I can't say the same for you, Mimi," I said. "Considering that as soon as the two of them are registered as a married couple, you'll be out of this house."
"What? No," she laughed heartily, although I could tell she wasn't sure of what to say. "You didn't give your rights to this house over to Cassidy."
"Anything to rid my beautiful home of the likes of you," I replied coolly.
"You're a clever girl," Mimi said. "I'll give you that. But as much as you think you're clever, you're also kind of stupid."
"Mom," Austin called. "I hope you're not saying anything you shouldn't be."
"No, dear," she called back, smiling. "I was just getting ready to pack my belongings. I guess we're going back to the old apartment."
"You agreed?" he called to me, running in to the living room, grinning. I gave him a small smile back.
"This was your idea, son?" she asked, not able to believe it.
"Yes, mother. It had to be this way," he said. "Sorry."
"So," I said to him. "I guess this is no longer my house too then."
"This is always going to be your home. No one will take that away from you, Ally," he said. "This is going to work."
"And Alyssa?"
"We sorted that out, too. She's staying with us."
I felt a weird sense of excitement within me. It was all working out. With the house and everything. And Alyssa. It was only then, however, that I fully realized what a mess I had made of my life. At this point, I was so desperate to regain my old life back, that not only had I lost Austin for good, but I had given up my rights to my beautiful home too. Things couldn't get worse than that, right? And it wasn't even as if life was going to be like what it was before. It was going to be so different with a married couple living in it, and Mimi was right. Every single day I was going to wake up and see them in their newly wedded state and hate myself day in and day out for letting it happen.
Why did I let it happen, for crying out loud?
"I'm going to propose to her tonight," he said finally, and only then did I feel myself slowly lose it.
"T-tonight?" I stuttered. He reached in his pocket and took out a small box.
"Isn't it beautiful?" he smiled, opening it and showing me.
"Yeah," I whispered. "She's the luckiest girl in the world."
He looked at me, and I knew we were having a moment.
"I never want things to change between us when this happens," he said. "You're still my best friend."
I smiled sadly to myself.
"Do you remember that time years ago when we swam so far out in the sea that we got lost and I absolutely lost it with you because you were so calm about it?" I asked him.
He laughed. "How could I forget?"
"I was remembering that this morning," I explained. "We thought we were gonna die, and you said you didn't get to do the things you wanted to do in your life. Go on a world tour, buy a massive house, marry the perfect girl..."
"I remember," he said.
"You made it," I said to him, smiling. "You got everything you ever wanted. And I'm so happy for you."
I hugged him.
Later on in the evening.
"Austin!" I shouted.
"What? Calm down, I should be the one stressing out here," he answered, annoyed at my running around the house frantically.
"Well, excuse us!" Trish retorted. "You could have at least told us exactly when you were planning your proposal."
"Fine," he snapped. "She'll be home in two hours, just in time for dinner. I'm doing it after dinner."
Trish and I looked at each other in horror.
"TWO HOURS?" we screamed simultaneously.
"We have to bake the cake, ice the cake, make dinner, make dessert, tidy the freaking house," I said.
"Well, what are you waiting for standing around there? Do you want to remember this house as being a tip when you asked Cassidy to marry you? Hoover the house now," Trish ordered. He hurried away and I laughed. "And where's Dez?"
"Got the ingredients!" he called from the kitchen, and I sighed in relief. We didn't need Trish going off on one on Dez today.
"Okay," I said. "Let's bake a cake!"
"Hey," came a little girl's voice from beside me, and I jumped. "Why's everyone screaming, Ally?" It was Alyssa.
"Well," I said, bending down. "It's a very special night tonight."
"Why?"
"It's a surprise! You'll love it when you find out though," I promised. "Now go before you get covered in flour. Trish and I have some big girl work to do. Trish! For crying out loud, I said the 30cm tin, not the 26cm one!"
The little girl scuttled away, confused.
We'd put the cake in the oven within half an hour, before quickly making the icing and starting on dinner, while I quickly made some sort of dessert.
"Done!" Trish cried triumphantly.
"Let's get changed now," I said, tiredly. "SET THE TABLE AUSTIN!" I shouted, "It better be done before we get back downstairs."
"OKAY MOM!" he called back sarcastically.
Soon enough, Cassidy had come through the door, and I felt sick, like Trish had expected.
"You have to act normal for Austin," she had told me while we were getting ready. "I know this is hard for you, and you're going to feel like throwing up all through the night, but we have to co-operate now. There's a new member of our family now."
"Gosh guys," she commented, looking around. "You call a cleaner in or something?"
"You'd be surprised as to what the boys can do if they put their mind to it," I said smiling. "How did the shoot go?"
"It went great, thanks," she said brightly. "Wait...the boys did this? What's the occasion?" She laughed.
Trish and I laughed with her. "We just...got a little annoyed at them," I said.
"You guys made cake? Can I see it?" she asked.
"NO!" we both screamed, before she could go over and lift the lid over the huge cake.
"O-kay," she said, laughing. "I'm really hungry. Let's start eating."
The next part of the night went by really smoothly, and I was happy about that. Everyone was laughing and joking, even through dessert.
"You guys gonna tell me why you've gone all out tonight?" she asked finally, after round 1 of dessert was finished.
"I want to know too," Alyssa said.
That's when Austin got down on one knee, and I very nearly coughed up the very little amount of food I had consumed that day. I pretty much blanked out as soon as he got on one knee, until that "will" word. I'd have to ask Trish what he said to her before that.
"Will you marry me, Cassidy?" he asked nervously.
"Yes!"
We all cheered, and Trish and I unveiled the huge cake, smiling. It was only Alyssa who sat there unsmiling, and a little confused, before Austin held out his arms to her and she crawled into his lap and smiled too.
At the end of the small occasion, I ran up to my room and got in bed, unable to believe that this was really happening.
Austin's POV
When it was all over, and Cassidy had gone to take a shower, I lay in bed, still not over the fact that this was happening. And with a girl that wasn't Ally.
There was a faint knock at the door, and it came slightly open.
"Austin?" came Alyssa's voice.
"Yes, princess? Shouldn't you be in bed now?"
"Why did you marry Cassidy?" she asked me.
"Because I love her?" I replied, raising one eyebrow.
"But you love Ally more," she said. "Now you can't be with Ally anymore. What if Ally goes back to Paris again?"
"She's not going anywhere, I promise."
"You can't marry her!" she insisted.
"Why not?"
"Because you aren't perfect for each other like you and Ally are," she pouted. "You're going to wish you didn't do this in a few years time. But then it will be too late."
I looked at her, confused. This was my seven year old sister here.
I lay in bed longer, and sighed to myself, wondering if I was ever going to do anything right.
A/N: REVIEW PLEASE. Next chapter coming soon.
