Come Home has been finished within the two weeks of hanging out. I wouldn't have thought of anyone else who could have given this song the justice it needs, than my old time song writer, and best friend Ally Dawson. Last time we were in the practice room, Ally and I decided to make the song a duet. We kept the original melody and chorus. As we kept on coming up with ideas, Ally had suggested that we write about how we felt about our first year of being in a long distance friendship. Surprisingly I convinced her to perform the song with me for old times-sake at the Studio Karaoke Club. At first, Ally disagrees with my suggestion due to her stubbornness, but in the end she gives in to my idea. During the process of coming up with the rest of the music score, she tells me the tale about her arrival to New York. It turns out Ally was so frightened by the thought of being away from her home, that one of the flight attendants had to confront her. After hearing her story, I gave her a comforting hug, before telling her that I am and always will be here for her. Ally lets out a sign of relief until she hears me calling her in a teasing tone the word sissy.

Now any person would be insulted with the nicknamed sissy. But Ally knew that I was just giving her the plain old tough love card. She kept quiet for a moment, as I continued my session of teasing. Surprising Ally clams up for a second about my taunting her until she fires back. Ally decides to state with confidence about my fear of the dark. My banter of teasing stops as my laughter dies out from hearing her response. A smirk of a smile appears on Ally's face meanwhile her innocent voice teases back about my sleeping habit of not going to bed without a night light. My arms remove themselves from around her body as I defend myself as manly as I can sound, that I have gotten over that ridiculous fear from our freshman year of high school. Ally bursts into laughter due to hearing my lame attempt to sound manly. After getting that reaction from her, I playfully shove her body onto the piano. Ally catches herself before giving me a death glare. A chuckle comes from within me as her glare softens into a small smile. We finish our playful moment and decided to go back to finishing the song. I would give anything so that we could spend every day together. Unfortunately, the universe seemed to have disagreed with my wishes.

Two Wednesdays ago was the last time Ally and I got to hang out. We recently made plans to hang out this weekend, but our plans were canceled when Jack asked her out to dinner. I remember Ally squealing with excitement over the phone as she tells me the news. A painful feeling comes from within my heart as I take in my reality. Ally seems to have noticed my quietness and thought I was in shock about hearing the news. But what she didn't realize that the reason behind my quietness is due to my heart aching to scream out the words I love you! As quiet as I can be, I bit my lip while my mind tries to figure out a way to response back about the situation. I know I love Ally and that if I got a chance with her; I could make her happy. So, I decided to accept the outcome and join in on her joyous mood. I must admit it hurts to know that the love of my life is so close, and yet so far. Now I know that my future with her is non-existent, and that my position in her life is forever as an outsider. If that is all the closeness I can get with her than I am willing to do it. After all, I did promise myself that I would do anything for her.

Since that weekend, I decided to focus solely on my life and let Ally live hers in peace. Ally spent most of her quality time catching up with her family and Jack. Meanwhile I prepared myself for the arrival of my siblings. Mr. Dawson has often asked me to tag along with them on their outings, but I had to object to the offer. There's only so much pain my heart can take. I felt awful, but it just hurts too much and the longing I feel for Ally is getting truly unbearable. The wise man who I consider my father figure seemed to understand the reason behind my decline response but for some reason, I felt like he was begging me to come. I truly never understood the reason why he sounded so distressed over the phone. But in my gut, I had a feeling something must be going wrong. It almost sound like he was agonizing over something and yet at the same time he was angry about something I don't know. While talking with him over the phone, I wanted so badly to ask what is going on but I couldn't. My inner thoughts told me that I will find out later. And that I should not worry about it until Mr. Dawson is ready to talk. So I decided to just end our conversation with a good night and so did Mr. Dawson.

After the whole conversation with Mr. Dawson, I haven't been really doing anything except the usually routine. Which are going to my store to check up on things, getting some wedding details on my check list out of the way and of course spending time with both Trish and my best friend Dez. Speaking of the red head, Dez has spent his past few days hanging out with me, whenever we get a chance. Recently, he has come over to Sonic Boom and told me about his latest gigs. So far he has filmed about six short films, two documentaries and one small promotional type movie. The conversations have changed into different topics about life or having Dez go off topic. But today, Dez seemed to be more preoccupied than usual and seemed to be isolating himself for any discussion with myself. His peculiar acting alone has me the most concerned over anything else currently in my life.

The last time Dez appeared distant was when his sister and father went missing. Nothing seemed to be making sense whenever Dez would return to reality. Usually he would spend most of his time locked up in his room instead of talking to people. But that isn't the problem that concerns me the most. It's his moods swings! For months his moods would change drastically. He would go from being his happy self to going into an extremely depressed state of mind. No one seemed to know the reason behind his actions. And we couldn't go to his mother because she wasn't in the right frame of mind due to the disappearance of their loved ones. The only people Ally and I have been able to ask were the police. The police officers didn't have the answers that we needed so in the end we decided to take Dez to the hospital. Doctors have tested to see if he may have gone bi-polar, but to our relief the tests have come back negative.

I shake my head back and forward from past memories before coming back to reality. I looked back up towards my red head freckled friend to see him coming back from his own thoughts. Dez blinked his blue eyes a couple of times before seeing him look at me with a far off expression. My forehead crunches up with complete confusion from seeing his reaction yet I open my mouth up to speak.

"Dez is everything alright? You've been spacing out a lot lately. "

I ask him calmly as I lean my body forward towards his direction. Dez moves back at little from his position before finding himself ready to respond back. Everything in the area seemed quiet around the two best friends until a loud desperate voice scream from outside the store.

"Austin! Are you at the store!"

Dez and I snap our head towards the intruder's direction. There at the door was Phil. It was unexpected for him to show up here but his gesture showed that he had a reason for coming here. Phil rushes into the store without taking time to acknowledge those around him. This idiotic man stops on his tracks to catch his breath while his hands land straight down flat on the cashier table. My posture stiffens up slightly from the unexpected visitor before walking towards him. I waited behind the cash register as I see the white skin toned man trying to get his heart rate back to normal. My eyes stay on the person, as my right hand goes under the table to look for my spare water bottle. Once my hand has touched the object, I pull it out from underneath the table and hand it over to Phil.

"Thanks Austin. I am sorry to intrude on your conversation with your costumer but we need to talk. It's about Jack."

My body tenses up from hearing his statement as my eyes widen with fear. I froze for a moment as thoughts start to run rampant through my mind. As I start to think negative thoughts, Phil puts down the now empty water bottle on the table. He takes a deep breath in before looking up at me with concern. He was about to say something when I put my hand up in between us.

"We can't talk here."

Is all I hear myself say before turning to look over towards Dez's direction. My eyes land on a now empty chair before hearing myself sigh.

"Great." I say under my breath before turning around to face Phil again. I give a fake smile before stating to the 5 foot man, "Follow me."

The brown eyed man nods understanding before following behind me. My body turns to face the pathway towards the green stairs before hearing my feet brush again the first step. Phil follows me up the stairs while my hand reaches up for my hidden yellow key. My eyes turn to look at Phil with a slight glare as my hands remove the beaded silver necklace from my neck. Once the key was firmly in my grip, my hands put the key into the key hole and unlock the door before putting it away. As discreetly as I could, I put the key into my palm making it invisible for Phil's eye vision.

Phil looked at the room with no emotion as he takes a step inside the practice room. He decides to do a one eighty before looking at me in the eye. My hand closes the door behind me as my eyes keep their eye contact with his.

"You know you have to be more careful with letting people up here Austin. Ally told me this is a special place for you both. The last thing you need is Jack coming in here and screwing it up."

Phil says in an amused tone as he gives me a genuine smile. My nostrils flare up before stating back in a demanding tone.

"Cut the crap Diffy! What is it so important that you had to barge into my store and demand that we talk about Jack?-"

Phil cuts in with a serious tone," There is more to Jack than you will ever know Austin!"

I stop in my tracks before saying without words, go on and tell me. Phil saw my gesture and decides to continue on.

"He has threatened Ally to stay away from you. Ally has told him that she won't so Jack has taken the situation of you being in her life into his own hands. He has people following you Austin. He is going to make sure that you don't get in the way of his plans."

"How do you know this! Who told you about my situation?"

I state back in a silent tone. Phil gives me a pity look before looking down at the carpet floor.

"Austin I can help you with getting rid off Jack! And I am not going to do this so you can forgive me. Ally is like a sister to me and I would do anything to prove how loyal I can be to you if you let me in."

Phil starts to state off before continue on in a pleading tone," Ally's life depends on you Austin. The thing that prevents you from protecting her is Jack tactics. He has done everything in his power to make sure you don't get through to Ally. However, that doesn't mean you don't have a chance. Plus I know you won't go to the police with this situation. After all they were the ones you blame, for not helping out your best friend's family. So why not let me help you! Besides the police have enough in their hands."

My eyes go wide with bewilderment. How is it possible for this man to know what happened to Dez? His white skin toned friend would never tell a soul about what happen to his sister and father. So how on earth does he know? Phil seemed have figured out what I was thinking and decides to step into my bubble of thoughts.

"I have my connections Austin. I know more than a person should know. So are you willing to let me help you or what?"