He takes a deep breath as he opens the gate to Jace's back yard and walks in to meet his friends.
Trish turns her head. "Nice of you to finally join us. Where's Ally?"
He shrugs. "Why do you just assume I know?"
"Because you two have your…thing."
Austin raises an eyebrow at her. "What thing?"
"You know…your thing."
He rolls his eyes and walks over to sit on one of the porch chairs alone.
"You okay, buddy?" Dez asks, walking over to sit next to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine."
"I am."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, Dez."
"Let me handle this," Jace says, walking over to them. "Dez, play for me." He hands the redhead the pole he was using to play pool and takes his seat when Dez gets up.
"I'm fine," Austin says again.
"Is it about Ally?" Jace asks knowingly.
He crosses his arms, wishing he could be anywhere but here.
"Is it because of what I was saying after I caught you guys the other day? Because you know I wasn't trying to screw anything up with you two – "
"It's fine. I'm fine."
Jace presses his lips together in a line. "You know, maybe if you told everyone, you wouldn't be so stressed out about it."
"That's why I'm stressing," Austin mutters.
"What do you mean?"
He sighs. "Ally wants me to tell everyone."
"So why don't you?"
"I don't know how."
"Just say it. I don't know why you wanna keep it a secret so bad, anyway."
"Well, considering how you reacted – "
"That's because I caught you two making out."
"Caught who making out?" Dez says, looking over at them.
"Someone was making out?" Carrie asks, knitting her eyebrows and looking at them too.
"So there is a girl!" Trish exclaims.
"All you, buddy," Jace says, patting Austin's back.
Austin swallows nervously, looking around at all his friends and trying not to kill Jace.
"It was Ally," he says before he can stop himself.
"You kissed Ally?" Trish says. "Why didn't she tell me?!"
"We kinda had an agreement not to talk about it…" Austin admits. "But it's whatever. Don't make it a big deal."
"Do you like her?" Carrie asks.
"Of course he likes her!" Dez says. Then he turns to look at Austin. "You do like her, don't you?"
Austin rolls his eyes and nods, standing up. "I'll be right back."
He walks inside, eager to get away from them, and to his surprise, they don't follow him. He walks in the bathroom and splashes some water on his face, staring at himself in the mirror and willing his blush to go away. When his cheeks finally return to their normal color, he takes a deep breath and walks back outside.
"Look who finally arrived!" Trish exclaims as soon as he walks out the door. She gestures to Ally standing next to her. "The girlfriend you didn't tell us about!"
Ally knits her eyebrows. "Girlfriend?"
"Apparently you and Austin are…how do I put it…smooch buddies," Dez says, pointing to his lips and wiggling his eyebrows.
Austin grimaces and does his best not to blush again.
"Oh, really?" Ally says. "Anything else I missed?"
"Austin likes you!" Carrie exclaims excitedly.
"Ah, there it is," Ally says, pointing at Carrie and looking at Austin.
"Carrie! You're gonna get him in trouble!" Dez says.
"Oops," she says, but her voice holds no remorse.
Austin raises his eyebrows at Ally, and she smiles. "Was that so hard?" she asks him innocently.
"Yes, actually," he deadpans. "Very hard. Excruciatingly hard, in fact. Never doing that again."
"Wait, you knew?" Trish exclaims. "He kissed you, and he likes you, and you didn't tell me?!"
"Someone's in trouble," Austin sing-songs, smirking at Ally.
"Can it, Moon," Trish snaps.
He closes his mouth and watches as Trish drags Ally away to talk to her.
"So, that went well," Austin says, looking at the remainder of his friends.
"Are you gonna ask her out?" Dez asks.
"I don't know."
"You should!" Carrie exclaims.
"I'll take that into consideration," Austin says.
"She seems happy you told everyone," Jace says.
"Yeah, because she forced me to," he replies.
"Are you glad you did, though?" Jace asks.
Austin shrugs. "I guess. If it makes her happy."
Trish squeals from the other side of the yard, and they all turn their heads towards the noise.
"Carry on," she says while Ally tries to hide her giggles. "We're coming."
Austin raises his eyebrows, but he looks at the rest of his friends again.
"What do you think that was about?" Dez asks.
"No idea," he replies. "Anyway – "
"They're coming," Carrie says, looking over at the two girls.
Austin turns his head, but all he sees is a flash of brunette curls before she kisses him. He raises his eyebrows in surprise, but he closes his eyes and kisses her back, doing his best to ignore the whistles and cheers coming from his friends.
She pulls away, and he opens his eyes to see her smiling at him and the rest of their friends smirking. "Uh, hi," he says lamely, smiling nonetheless.
"Hey," she laughs.
"Hi!" Dez exclaims.
Austin and Ally turn, paying attention to their friends again.
"You know, I just realized I left a bunch of food inside. I'll go get it," Jace says.
"We'll help!" Trish exclaims, dragging everyone else inside with her and her boyfriend.
"That was subtle," Ally says jokingly.
"They're nothing without their subtlety," Austin agrees with a chuckle.
"So…you told them."
"I did."
"I honestly didn't think you would."
"Neither did I," he admits. "But here we are."
She smiles up at him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Here we are."
He raises his eyebrows, looking down at her as he rests his hands on her back. He's not used to her being this affectionate…or affectionate at all, really. But, well, here they are.
"Where's your girlfriend?" Dez asks as they sit down to eat at the diner with Jace, Trish, and Carrie.
"She's not my girlfriend, and I don't know," Austin replies.
"Wait, you haven't asked her out yet?" Jace asks.
"It's complicated, okay?"
"How so?" Jace raises his eyebrows.
"It just is. Can we stop talking about this please?"
"Austin's right. His love life is none of our business," Trish says. "Maybe you two should focus on your own." She gestures to herself and Carrie.
"Thank you, Trish," Austin says, relieved to drop the subject.
Just then, Austin's mom arrives with their food. They all thank her and dig in. Austin is especially grateful that his friends are too busy eating to keep talking about him and Ally.
It's been three days since Austin's brave announcement of his feelings, and he and Ally are both perfectly happy with not labeling their relationship. But apparently, everyone else isn't.
He finishes eating before his friends, hoping to leave before they get the chance to bring up Ally again. But as soon as he gets up, Dez stops him.
"Going to meet up with your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Then what is she?"
"We're just going with the flow or whatever. It's not that big a deal, okay?"
Dez raises his eyebrows. "Not a big deal?"
"No. It's not. We're just a thing, I don't know."
"Whatever."
"Can I leave now?"
"I guess. Tell her I say hi."
Austin rolls his eyes and walks out before any of the others can stop him. He walks along the beach, regretting his decision to tell his friends about his feelings for Ally.
Then that regret dissipates when he feels someone jump on his back and wrap their arms around his neck. He stumbles a bit in surprise and smiles, holding her thighs so she doesn't fall off.
"Hi," she says, her grin evident in her voice.
"Hi yourself," he replies.
"What's up?" she asks as he keeps walking, still holding her on his back.
"Nothing."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong."
She taps his shoulder and he stops walking and sets her down, turning to look at her.
"You're upset about something."
"No I'm not."
"Just tell me what's going on."
He sighs. "Dez just said some things at the diner this morning."
"What'd he say?"
Austin keeps walking, staring ahead to avoid looking at her as she walks next to him.
"He kept asking about us and calling you my girlfriend. And I didn't really know what to say."
"Why does he care?"
"Because he's my best friend."
"Well, it's none of his business."
"Okay, but that doesn't answer the question of what we are."
"I thought we were happy not labeling it."
"Maybe we'd be happier if we did."
"You know…this – us – it's not gonna last forever."
He looks over at her, knitting his eyebrows together and frowning. "What do you mean?"
"It's not like we'll really ever see each other again after I leave."
He stops walking. "Why not?"
She stops too, looking up at him in confusion. "Austin, I live in Miami. And you live on this tiny little island in the middle of the ocean. It's not like we can just hang out whenever we want."
"But we'll stay in touch."
"Yeah, but that isn't the same."
"So you're saying that as soon as you go home, we're over?"
"No, because we aren't starting anything."
"I want to start something."
"Austin – "
"Why can't we just have a long distance relationship?"
"Those never work."
"We could!"
"Austin, come on. You've hated me for most of the time I've been here."
"And now I don't. You know that."
She sighs, grabbing his hands. "Look," she says gently, "I just don't think it's a very good idea for us to be anything other than friends if I'm leaving in a month and a half. It'll only make it more difficult to leave."
"Maybe you don't have to leave."
"Austin, stop."
He frowns, squeezing her hands. "I thought you said that when I told everyone that I like you we could be together."
"It's not a good idea. I'm sorry." She keeps walking, and he follows alongside her.
"You're not being fair."
"I'm trying to protect the both of us."
"What if we could make long distance work?"
"Who knows if we would even last until I leave?"
Austin purses his lips. "Then at least we would've tried."
"I'm not doing this, Austin. Things are good the way they are. We can hang out and flirt and do whatever, but we aren't dating."
He sighs. "So that's it then? All we are is just some summer fling, and we're not even gonna try to be anything more?"
"It's all we can be. It just isn't worth it to become anything else only to lose it after I leave."
"Oh, so now it's not worth it? I'm not worth it. I get it now," he says, rolling his eyes.
"You know what I mean. Don't do that."
"Whatever," he mutters, walking ahead of her.
"You're seriously getting mad at me about this?"
He crosses his arms, stopping and staring ahead.
"You're such a brat," she mutters.
He clenches his jaw and turns around, storming back over to her his eyes narrowed in hurt and frustration. "I'm the brat?! That's coming from the rich city girl who's so used to getting whatever she wants at the snap of her fingers that she can't even be bothered to try having a relationship where she has to put in any effort!"
"You think that this is because I don't want to put in the effort?!"
"If that's not it, then what is it?!"
"I don't want either of us to get hurt when we grow apart!"
"Who says we're gonna grow apart?!"
"That's what always happens!"
"What if it doesn't this time?!"
"I don't know!"
"I won't let it happen!"
"Okay!"
"Okay!"
They stand in the sand, staring at each other with matching frustrated expressions and heavy breathing from all the arguing. But then her countenance melts into a look of exhaustion and she wraps her arms around his waist, resting her cheek on his chest.
He sighs, his frustration fading away as he wraps his arms around her small figure, feeling quite exhausted himself.
He looks down at her and brushes some hair that fell into her face behind her ear, kissing the top of her head.
"I just know that it'll hurt more to leave my boyfriend than it will to leave my summer fling," she says quietly.
"Well, I'm not your boyfriend yet, am I?"
She looks up at him, her chin resting on his chest.
"One date," he says, looking down at her. "If it goes well, we go on another one. If not, we stick to whatever we are now."
"I'm listening," she says.
"Tomorrow night, we can go to the diner, have the best burgers you've ever tasted, and talk without bickering every five minutes. Just you, me, and Coco."
She raises her eyebrows. "You're bringing the rat to a date?"
He smiles. "Coco's still a monkey, and I'm kidding."
She relaxes. "Oh."
"So…is that a yes?"
"Mmm…maybe."
He leans down and presses his lips to hers in a soft kiss, finding comfort in how relaxed she is in his arms. She hums lazily against his lips before pulling away slightly so she can talk.
"One date. But only if you kiss me again," she says quietly, sounding content.
He still isn't used to her being so affectionate to him, especially since she's still pretty reserved with everyone else by comparison. But he isn't complaining.
"You drive a hard bargain, sweetheart," he teases.
She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him again sweetly, tightening her grip around him to stay balanced. But then she pulls away quicker than he expected, standing flat on her feet again. He opens his eyes and is met with her gaze.
"Sorry for what I said earlier," she says. "You're worth it."
"I'm sorry too. For freaking out and yelling at you."
"Fighting with you is more exhausting than it used to be," she admits.
He nods in agreement, unable to help how endeared he is by her sheepish smile. He probably looks like a lovesick puppy.
"We should kiss again instead," he says.
"Much more productive," she agrees.
He smiles and kisses her yet again, trying to forget about the fact that she leaves in just six weeks because for right now, things feel pretty close to perfect.
hey guys, remember me? I know it's been over a month and I promise I've seen all your reviews telling me to update and I felt really bad each day that I didn't, but I've been super busy with vacations and summer homework and work. Also lexy came to stay with me for a week all the way from Canada so I've been busy living it up with her too! (she's asleep on the floor right now lol) But yeah again I'm really sorry for the long wait, but I hope this makes up for it! It'll probably be another long-ish wait for the next chapter because I have a lot of summer homework to finish, but I promise I haven't given up on this story! Also thanks for reading! :D
