So, where do I begin? I guess with a huge apology for making you guys wait so long for an update. It wasn't intentional because I did intend to keep writing throughout the duration of my exam period but apparently A Levels are important and whatnot... but regardless, I'm back now and I'd like to think that this chapter makes up for it :) Hope you all enjoy and that you aren't too angry with me by the end of it. Truthfully there are parts of this chapter that I like and parts that I don't but I suppose it's up to you to make your own decisions on this chapter, but reviews would be greatly appreciated whether they be good or bad :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing, with the exception of Chase.

"Say you're sorry. That face of an angel comes out just when you need it to. As I paced back and forth all this time 'cause I honestly believed in you."

Maybe he should have anticipated his mom's fussing when he called her to pick himself, Trish and Dez up from the hospital but truthfully Austin was far too tired to really think the decision through at the time. Calling his mom had seemed like the most logical idea, especially as there was no way he was getting in a car with Dez at the wheel, at least not while his friend was looking so run down and forlorn.

"Do you kids need anything before we head home?" Mimi questioned, her eyes flickering briefly from the road to the rear-view mirror in an attempt to catch the eyes of the teens in the backseat.

"We're good Mom," Austin mumbled tiredly from the passenger seat. The only thing keeping him up was the knowledge that they were not far from home. The thought of stopping anywhere else on the way nearly brought tears to his eyes.

In the backseat neither Dez nor Trish were talking and Austin wondered if they had finally succumbed to sleep; he wouldn't be surprised, they had all had a long night after all. There time at the hospital had taken a lot out of them, especially Dez who had drifted between comforting his mother and tapping his leg impatiently as they waited for news on Didi. Much to Austin's relief, though he wouldn't admit it aloud, Dez's dad had insisted the teenagers head home to get some rest and that he would call Dez the second they received news on the youngest Worthy.

It had been Austin's idea for Trish and Dez to spend the night with him; he didn't think it would do Dez any good to spend the night alone in his house dwelling on his sister, and wherever Dez was going that night Trish was too. The fact that Trish had clambered into the backseat and placed herself in the spot directly next to Dez so that their shoulders and knees were touching, was evidence enough of that.

"Okay, do you want me to make you some snacks?" Mimi offered, glancing quickly at her son who was struggling to fight the sleep that was rapidly taking over him.

Austin shook his head once more. "I think we're just gonna go straight to sleep, if that's alright with you?" He was grateful for his mom's readiness to make things as normal as possible but all he wanted in that moment was to crawl into bed and cuddle up to Dougie the dolphin.

"Sure thing, Sweetie," Mimi nodded though it was more to herself than Austin. "I've put some extra blankets on your bed for your friends."

This time he didn't have the energy to reply but a simple yawn seemed to suffice. The car jostled as Mimi pulled up onto the drive way and Austin found himself wincing in the harsh glare of the security light above the garage door.

"Come on kids," Mimi said as positively as she could muster. If there was one thing Austin's mom was good at, it was forcing people to be happy or at the very least smile. "Let's get you guys to bed."

Austin nodded in agreement, he could feel himself practically bursting with excitement at the prospect of finally getting some sleep. His body ached from where he had been tossed around on the football field and his eyes were drooping with exhaustion. He could tell from a quick glance at Trish and Dez that they felt the same way.

Just as the group were crossing the threshold into the cool air conditioned home a small voice squeaked from behind them. "Austin?"

Forcing his body to turn, Austin came face to face with the one person he thought he'd be happy to see. Ally.

"Oh," Was his only response. What more could he say? Not only were Trish, Dez and his mother all staring at him expectantly but Austin's brain felt hazy as it begged him to just go to sleep but of course, his curiosity prevented that. "Ally, what are you doing here?"

"Don't be too long, Austin," Mimi said as she ushered a sleepy looking Trish and Dez into the house before closing the door softly behind them.

Austin stared after her, almost wishing she would come back and demand he get his butt into bed. Couldn't this conversation wait until morning?

"You asked me to come see you, remember?" Ally said. Perhaps it was his mind playing tricks on him, but she looked almost uncomfortable as she spoke, as though there was something on her mind and for once Austin had no idea what it was.

Austin frowned, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to jog his brain into working. "Did I?"

"Sort of," Ally smiled sheepishly, shifting her weight from one foot onto the other. "You asked me to meet you after the game but I got... held up."

It was only at the mention of the big game did Austin finally remember the rest of the day's events that did not revolve around Dez and Didi. As his brain finally kicked into action Austin allowed a small frown of confusion set into his features. "With what?" As far as he could remember he'd stressed how important talking to her was, what could she have possibly been doing that was more important? Especially as he'd seen her dad cheering him on in the bleachers alongside Trish and his parents, so it couldn't have been a family emergency.

Ally shook her head dismissing his query almost instantly. "That's not important right now, I'll explain later. I just wanted to apologise for not being there and if you want to talk now then I'm here," She offered him a small smile but he couldn't help but notice the look of impatience in her eyes. His frown deepened.

"Look, Ally, it's late, if you want to get home that's fine," Austin sighed. Sure he wanted to tell her how he felt and explain why he kept exploding at her over the stupidest of things but at the same time he was tired and he really didn't want to screw this moment up; this was Ally, after all, it had to be perfect.

"No, it's fine," Ally smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I got worried when I noticed you guys had called me ten times, did something happen?"

It seemed like a lifetime ago that he and Trish had dialled Ally's number as Dez drove them to the hospital, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tight that Trish had forced him to pull over and calm down. It wasn't that he and Trish weren't good at this kind of thing but Ally was better and Austin had wanted nothing more in that moment than for Ally to be there talking them all through it and reminding them that everything would be okay.

"Oh yeah, that," Austin guided Ally gently down onto the cold stone of the front step; his legs ached and his body yearned for time to rest, and so Austin could not help but allow a small smile of relief to find its way to his lips as his body relaxed into the cool wall of the house. "Dez got a call from his mom after the game and - is that a hickey?"

Ally's hand snapped to her neck as Austin stared on his jaw agape. "What?" She sputtered, attempting to pull her jacket collar up to cover the deep bruising that decorated her normally flawless skin. "I think you're just imagining things, Austin. It's probably just the light," She gestured offhandedly at the porch light above them, accidentally allowing her collar to slip down once more and reveal yet another hickey.

"No, I'm not!" Austin said, feeling more awake by the second. His blood was pumping through his veins and the feeling that was quickly overcoming him was one he was becoming increasingly familiar with; jealousy. "Ally, where were you tonight?" Austin demanded. "And don't lie to me."

Ally sighed heavily, unable to look him in the eye. "I think we both know the answer to that question."

Austin wasn't sure what to say. His mind had flashed back to their moment in the janitor's closet and he cursed himself for not telling her there and then. Of course, she'd ditched him to go make out with Chase Hardy. What did it matter to Ally that he'd been prepared to declare his love for her if she could just make out with her precious bad boy instead? Why should Ally care that even though he was supposedly 'too macho to cry' Austin wanted nothing more in that moment than to place his head in his hands and cry, even if it was only for a second.

"Oh," Austin swallowed, attempting to rid his throat of the frog sized lump that had suddenly appeared.

"Yeah," Ally's voice was quiet, perhaps she did feel the slightest bit guilty for ditching him to play tonsil hockey with some dumb jerk.

Clearing his throat Austin climbed to his feet, though his body begged him not to. He couldn't look at her through fear his heart might break further, so he instead chose to stare across the street at his neighbour's car. "Right, well I'm glad you had fun."

Ally remained perched on the stone step. "Austin, please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad," Austin replied, still focused on the dark vehicle. It wasn't a lie either, he didn't have the energy to be mad, just sad.

"I'm here now though," Ally said brightly, bringing herself to Austin's side, her arm brushing against his. "And besides, whatever you had to tell me sounded important and this is kind of more private than at the football game, right?"

"Right," Austin said quietly, wondering what was left to talk about. It was blatantly obvious to Austin that his songwriter did not return his feelings and so it seemed pointless to bring them up now.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Ally pushed. From the corner of his eye Austin could see her watching him expectantly and as this was Ally he knew for certain that she remembered their conversation in the janitor's closet. Briefly, he wondered how that moment could mean one thing to him and yet another thing entirely to her.

He wasn't sure how to say it, so instead he allowed his hazy brain to take the lead. If he said anything stupid he could just lie later and tell he was too tired to function. "You don't look at me the way you used to," He said after a pause.

He didn't turn to look at her, he knew what she was going to ask before she'd even said it; not that it was surprising, after so many hours locked away in the practice room together it was expected that he'd gotten to know her well enough to occasionally read her mind.

"You used to look at me like I was the only person that mattered," Austin wasn't stupid, he realised that to Ally his comment may sound vain but he hoped that she understood enough to realise that he hadn't meant it in that way. "And now... it's like I'm not even there. Like we'll be hanging out like this," He gestured between them. "But your mind will be somewhere else."

Ally blushed, a guilty look creeping onto her soft features. "It's not intentional -" She began but Austin cut her off with a shake of his head.

"I know that, trust me, I do." If anyone understood that feeling it was him. It was probably one of the reasons why Brooke was becoming increasingly frustrated with him in biology; all he could focus on was Ally, and the fact that Chase Hardy had yet to miss a single one of his classes since he'd begun hanging around with Austin's songwriter - with the exception of American History, which Ally had also ditched.

"Look, I'll try harder to pay attention okay?" Ally offered. The smile on her lips was small and sweet and it was everything Austin seemed to think about these days; when did he become such a daffodil? "It's just... this whole having a boyfriend thing is new to me and I -"

"Boyfriend?" Austin sputtered out, his words coming out louder than intended. "What do you mean boyfriend?" Though Austin had been fully prepared to accept that Ally did not share his feelings, he had not seen her little announcement coming. For one thing the pair had only known each other a week, and more importantly, it was common knowledge that Chase Hardy did not do relationships; so why was he suddenly dating Ally?

A bashful smile appeared on Ally's lips as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and focused her eyes on the ground. "Yeah... Chase and I are dating."

"Since when?" Austin frowned, he was having a hard time digesting what his friend had said. To him it just didn't make sense that Ally, his Ally, would jump so quickly into a relationship with a guy she had only just met. Especially after everything her friends had told her about the guy.

"He asked me out earlier tonight while we were at the beach," Austin couldn't help but clench his jaw at both her explanation and at the excitement that glittered in her eyes.

It wasn't until several moments later that what had been said finally processed fully in Austin's mind. "Wait... you skipped my football game and stood me up afterwards just so you could frolic on the beach with your boyfriend?" He spat the word out like it was venom.

"Austin, it's no big deal, you said you weren't mad," Ally pointed out, taking a small step away from the tall blonde as if sensing the anger that was pumping through his veins. "Besides, it wasn't like you were actually playing anyway, you were sat on the bench."

Austin's eyes flashed with fury at callous comment. "Well maybe if you'd have just stayed to watch the game instead of running off with your precious boyfriend then maybe you would have seen that I actually did play and I even scored the final touchdown!" If the situation hadn't been so tense and he hadn't been so furious with her then Austin might have stuck his tongue out at her.

"I already apologised for that!" Ally snapped, her mouth setting in a thin line and her eyebrows knitting together in a tight knot. "I don't see why you care so much anyway, you're acting like a child."

"I am not acting like a child," Austin argued back though in that moment even he could tell his voice had taken on a slightly whiney tone.

"Yeah, you are. You're like a kid who had a toy that he didn't play with and the second someone else wants to play with the toy you want it back!" Ally jabbed him in the chest with one of her index fingers, though she still made sure to keep a fair amount of distance between them.

Austin scoffed. "Hardly. If anything you're the one who stopped playing with me!" The blonde shook his head at his poor choice of words but continued on nonetheless. "Things were going just fine until you started mooning over that idiot, Chase."

"He's not an idiot!" Ally said heatedly, this time shoving Austin with both hands, her anger finally getting the better of her. "At least he knows the difference between Washington state and Washington D.C!"

"So now I'm stupid?!" He knew he was perhaps blowing things out of proportion but Austin had never experienced such an intensity of emotions before, and frankly, he wasn't too sure how to handle them. Naturally, these emotions were Ally's fault.

"If the shoe fits," As if that were the last of it, Ally stepped down from the porch step and began walking towards the street.

Though he was angry at her, Austin still felt uncomfortable at the prospect of her walking home alone in the dark. "Ally, wait."

Despite asking, Austin knew better than to expect the brunette to do as he had asked considering how irritated she was. He knew she had heard him but she carried on walking, even after he had appeared at her side and stuck to her like glue as they travelled down the dark streets of Miami she still ignored his presence.

Austin wasn't sure how he'd managed to muster up enough energy to make it to school the following morning but somehow he had. Once he had made sure Ally had made it home safely he'd hurried home as quickly as his tired legs would take him; evidently it wasn't that fast. By the time Austin had trudged into his bedroom at ridiculous o'clock, both Trish and Dez had fallen asleep on the floor, wrapped up in the blankets his mom had left for them. Maybe he had been seeing things due to how exhausted he was but Austin could have sworn that his two friends had been holding hands when he's stumbled past them to get to his bed. Whether it happened or not it did not deter Austin in his teasing before homeroom.

"Oh hey, that's a really cool textbook you're holding there, Dez," Austin smirked at the redhead leaning tiredly against his locker. "Speaking of holding things, what else do you like to hold? Cameras, sure. Food, definitely. What about hands? Do you like holding hands, Dez?"

Dez merely grimaced in response. Both Trish and Dez had taken Austin's teasing in good humour that morning over breakfast but by the time they had arrived at school both teenagers were rapidly becoming too embarrassed to look at each other, and so Austin felt fairly secure in his belief that they had in fact fallen asleep holding hands.

He hadn't meant to drag his taunting out for so long but Austin had found that tormenting his friends was an excellent way of avoiding the situation with Ally, which had been weighing heavily on his mind since he had watched her enter her home the night before.

Much to Austin's displeasure it did not seem to matter how desperately he tried to run from the small brunette he could not and he soon realised that if you think of the devil, he shall appear, for Ally soon rounded the corner and appeared at his side. If the sour look on her face hadn't made it clear that she was still pissed, the fact that she shoved him hard in the ribs with her elbow in an attempt to get to her locker, definitely did.

"Hey Ally," Dez said, too worn out to remember what Austin had told him about the argument the duo had had.

Austin rolled his eyes but decided to ignore Dez out of pure sympathy for the guy; he was currently cuddling his history textbook and nuzzling closer into the row of lockers as if they were his pillow. Instead the blonde chose to turn back to Ally and inspect her clothes. Much to his relief, she appeared to be dressing like her normal self again.

"What are you doing here?" Austin said, his tone snide as he tried to fold his arms over his chest and appear as nonchalant as possible. "I thought you'd cutting first period to go make out with your boyfriend?"

Ally glared at him, providing him with the first glimpse of her face that morning. It was for that reason he almost felt bad; the bags under her eyes clashed harshly with her pale skin and it was clear to Austin that Ally had had about as much sleep as he had, which wasn't a lot.

"No, actually," Ally replied curtly. "My boyfriend," If Austin had thought he'd hated the word before he hated it even more when it was coming out of Ally's mouth. "Is actually -"

"Right over there," Austin finished, though he was talking more to himself than he was to Ally.

Though he couldn't say he was surprised, Austin was still in disbelief as he watched Chase stride around the corner with his arm slung over the shoulder of a girl he vaguely recognised as a member of the drama club.

"What?" Ally asked, confusion lacing her words as she turned to look in the direction Austin was staring.

As irritated as he was at her, Austin refused to let her see what was going on behind her, especially as the girl was practically draping herself over Chase. Instead Austin placed a heavy hand onto Ally's shoulder and forced her to look at him. Surprise was evident in her eyes but Austin was too preoccupied to care. Unlike Ally, his eyes were set on Chase and if Austin had thought his anger was overwhelming the previous night it was nothing compared to the anger he felt on behalf of Ally as he watched Chase flirt shamelessly with the unnamed girl.

Unfortunately, aside from slamming his hand over her eyes, there was nothing Austin could do to stop Ally from spotting Chase as he walked by, his hands still all over the other girl.

"Chase?" Ally shoved Austin's hand off of her shoulder and marched towards the boy she had thought to be her boyfriend.

Austin groaned. He staggered around for a moment, unable to decide whether or not he should follow Ally or remain at a safe distance so that his fist could not collide with Chase's face. Finally, he decided Ally was far more important than his fist.

Sidling up to her, Austin arrived just in time to see Chase shrug in response to Ally. His lips were set in his usual obnoxious smirk and Austin was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the urge to punch the boy in the head.

"You know how it is, babe," Chase drawled.

Austin watched as Ally's usually flawless posture faltered and she hunched over at Chase's words. Even for Chase, what he was doing was pretty cruel; sure he was well known for stringing girls along and dropping them but it was rare that he dropped them after a day and practically unheard of that he would flaunt other girls in front of them.

"If it's any consolation, you were a really great kisser," Chase shrugged. "Maybe the best I've ever had... maybe but I'm not a one woman kind of guy. Besides -"

If he had planned to say anything else Chase never got the chance for Austin's fist had connected with his face.