Hello lovelies! (That's not even a word but... you know what I mean.) I have started college at my university this past week; it's been quite an interesting and slightly overwhelming ride (for financial reasons), but I just need to keep my head up and stay positive! For those of you who have already gone back to school, whether it's middle school or high school or college, like myself, I hope you're all having fun! That homework sucks, I know... but if you need to rant, feel free to message me! Anyways, let us continue with Chapter 14 of this fic that you guys are so patient with... :)

Austin

"Austin Monica Moon, you get home right now! And when you do, ha, you better believe that you are going to be grounded for a long time! This is your father. Come back home now!"

"Sweetie... Your father and I are very concerned. The Dawsons have been calling us nonstop... Whatever this is, please take the impact of this situation into your serious consideration and come home. Please."

I hung up the phone, letting the screen fade to black as I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut. There were more voice mails where that came from; I was sure of it. Ally was taking a shower to "get the lake water off"- whatever that meant. I, on the other hand, was trying my best to keep my hormones at bay and not think about the fact that the girl that I loved was in the bathroom, naked.

Yeah, being a guy is hard sometimes.

As I lay on my bed in the room that I typically stayed in whenever my parents and I lived here during the summers, my mind drifted back to a time when things were still okay. At least, it tried to. I tried my best to rack my brain for happy memories of my dad and my mom and I, something that would make me feel nostalgic and warm and fuzzy inside. Something that resonated the idea of a happy family.

But nothing seemed to come to mind.

All I could remember- all I've ever known- was Dad's cellphone ringing every ten minutes and Mom seeming so fragile and sad. And me wishing that summer was over. Imagine that: a six, seven, eight, nine, ten year old kid over the years, each one wishing that summer was over. I let out a bitter laugh, one that echoed off the oak walls.

Maybe I was crazy after all.

A soft knock sounded at the door, and I looked up, my heart leaping out of my chest. Ally's hair was still a bit wet, the tips of her strands dripping and leaving little droplet marks on her T-shirt.

"Hey," she said softly. She looked exhausted, the dark circles beneath her eyes like shadows or bruises turning a shade darker by the minute. I patted the space next to me on the bed, not meaning to insinuate anything like that (not that she would even jump that far ahead because I was supposed to be gay), but mainly because she looked so damn tired. She crawled beside me, her feet slightly brushing against my legs.

Her toes were freezing.

"You okay?" I asked, staring at the ceiling.

"No," she replied. I turned to her and found that she was also staring at the ceiling, her face blank yet her eyes teeming with emotions I wasn't sure I had experienced yet.

"Will you be, though?" I whispered.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe someday."

"But not today," I confirmed.

Her lips formed a hard, thin line. She nodded. "Not right now."

I turned my eyes back to the ceiling, realizing that I had been unconsciously praying somewhere in the back of my mind, hoping that someone, somewhere up there beyond the universe, had good reasoning for what Ally was going through. The pain she was enduring, the awful secrets she was just beginning to uncover... Maybe something was supposed to come out of it.

Wasn't that always the case? When something bad happens, something beautiful and life changing blossoms afterwards? Kinda like how after it rains, sometimes there's a rainbow.

Maybe it's the same for life.

"When I was little, I helped this boy find his kite."

Every particle and cell inside my body froze. I distinctly felt myself stiffen as I lay beside her, holding my breath. I waited for her to continue this story, the one that I knew so well and held onto for so long that I had memorized it clearly, like the back of my hand.

"I remember climbing this tree. It was really tall, and I actually had a thing against heights at the time. I was... six?"

Seven, my mind immediately corrected, but of course I stayed silent. Her voice washed over me as she continued, making the hairs along my arm rise.

"He shouted something out loud in surprise. I got so caught off guard that I fell out of the tree. I skinned my knee, and it started bleeding like crazy. The boy-" She laughed. "-asked me if I had a band aid. He was completely and utterly blind to the actuality of the situation. I was furious."

My heart was hammering loudly. I was shocked she couldn't hear it. I wanted so badly to explain that it wasn't so much that I was blinded by the actuality of the situation, but more so that I was blinded by how pretty she was. How the Earth beneath me seemed to move within every word she spat out at me.

She was quite the little ball of fire back then. Clearly, she still was.

"But when he got back his kite, he just seemed so happy. And then he ran back to his parents. That kite..." She trailed off, and I could almost smell the grass in the park that day, as if we were both there at this very moment. "I could tell he really cared about it. That he would do anything to protect it and make sure it was safe. Even if it was an ugly shade of red, like a tomato."

I let out a laugh, and she began laughing, too.

"I never did see him again," she murmured, her eyes drooping shut, and I knew that all the events of the day were finally catching up to her. "I wonder where he is now."

And then her head lulled to the side, her mouth slightly open still as she completely knocked out. I brushed away the hair that was sticking against her cheek, tucking it behind her ear as soft little snores began to emerge from her, her chest rising and falling as she breathed.

"He's here," I softly said. "He'll always be right here." I closed my eyes as well, thinking of that dingy red kite, hidden underneath my bed, feeling lonely.

Ally

My bare feet creaked against the floorboards of the cabin as I walked into the kitchen, searching the cupboard. When I found what I was looking for, I went to work. A crack here, a dash there. The aroma filled the entire home. Then I took out two plates, two forks and knives, and began to set the table, which was already lavished with a burgundy colored table cloth. I found a vase, went outside, clipped some flowers from the dirt, and placed them into the glass- an instantaneous centerpiece.

And then I waited, sitting in my chair, for him to come.

It didn't even take five minutes for the sound of groggy but increasingly excited footsteps to come rushing into the kitchen. A very disoriented looking Austin entered, in a plain white T-shirt and sweatpants. A goofy smile was spread onto his face, and I began to laugh.

"Pancakes!" he happily exclaimed, taking a seat and beginning to gobble one down. I scrunched my nose in distaste.

"Austin, did you even brush your teeth first?" I asked, taking a small, dainty bite of my own platter.

He shook his head, talking with food in his mouth. "Pancakes wait for no one," he answered. I rolled my eyes. "Well, they don't!"

"Pancakes would wait for you," I reasoned. He took this into thought, then slowly nodded, shrugging his shoulders.

"You're right. They would. We've established a stable and solid relationship over the years," he taunted. I snorted. "So what are we doing today, Ally Dawson?"

My eyes sparkled. "I don't know, Austin Moon. How about we go fishing?"

He stopped eating, raising an eyebrow at me. "Fishing?"

I nodded eagerly.

"As in, get fishing rods, sit near the lake and wait for hours for something to bite and take the bait?" he questioned again.

"Well..." I drawled. "I was thinking more like take that boat behind this cabin and sit on the lake."

He shook his head. "Sounds boring. There's a TV here, you know. We could just watch a movie."

"We can bring pancakes."

The fish bit onto the bait. I smiled.

About an hour and a half later, Austin and I had hauled the boat out (which took longer than expected, thus the hour and a half), and got in before it drifted too quickly far out out into the lake and we had to dive in and swim after it. I didn't want to get any more gross lake water on me. You never know what's been swimming or living in a giant lake like this.

We managed to find fishing rods back out near the boat as well. Austin explained that before his parents had bought this as a little summer home getaway (and, in the later future, a runaway home for people named Ally Dawson) this had been a sort of fisherman's resort. The lake had offered good profit for the fisherman. Fish brought money, money brought food, food brought survival.

Funny how, even with all the technology up bringing and such nowadays, society still basically revolves around the same aspect. Just to a higher extent.

Fishing, however, was not as peaceful or glamorous as I thought it would be. Even with pancakes. It wasn't depicted as it was in movies.

First off, the sun was kind of beating down on us, so my face felt sickly warm, like we were sitting on top of a volcano rather than a cool lake. Secondly, Austin was right. We had been sitting here now for nearly two hours, and nothing had bit onto the bait. Where were the little fishies?

Maybe they were smart fishies.

"Maybe," Austin suddenly said, snapping me out of my thoughts. My eyes grew wide.

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked, my face turning even warmer than it already was.

He laughed. "Yeah."

"Yikes," I muttered to myself, hoping that I wasn't saying anything else out loud or else I'd be really screwing myself over. "Got anything?"

He let out a long yawn, then stretched. I watched as his shirt slightly lifted up, revealing a peek at his abs, which were very much in existence. I gulped. "Nope," he said. "You?"

"Nope," I mimicked. He made a face at me, and I chuckled. "Why do people think fishing is a leisure activity? Because it's honestly not."

"Maybe we're just fishing in the wrong sorts of places," he said. "Imagine if we were somewhere where we could catch a guaranteed fish. Then that would be a lot more fun."

"That's true, but nothing's guaranteed." I felt something in my chest droop and darken. It was so easy to talk about other things, simple things, like this: fishing. It was easy to drift away on this boat and forget the reality of everything. To forget that back home, things were probably messed up.

Really messed up.

Mom and Dad probably called the police, maybe even the whole damn fire squad. Or maybe the U.S. National Army. Who knows. Dad was really overprotective.

Dad.

I closed my eyes, forcing all the horrible thoughts to go away, dismissing the pain. I wonder if they had perhaps figured it out by now, if they knew that I had found out that somewhere out there in the world, I had a sister. Younger, older, I had no clue. Because they chose to not tell me. Maybe Mom wanted to tell me. Maybe she'd been wanting to tell me for a long time, but Dad was against the whole idea because he knew it would unravel ultimately into a giant fiasco. But you know what?

I'd rather have known in the beginning than find out now. Now, when I'm older, when I understand everything better. If I'd found out when I was six or seven, it wouldn't have been as traumatizing or life shattering as it was right now.

"Ally," Austin said. He was always snapping me out of my spiraling haze. I was thankful.

"Hm?" I said. He nodded towards my rod, which was tugging against the water. I flew out my daze, smiling and squealing. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Okay, okay, what do I do? Do I just...? What do I do?" I turned to Austin, that tha-thump going off in my chest again, this time shooting all the way down to my ribs. The feelings were undeniable, but what could I do about them?

Nothing. Or something.

His arms wrapped around my own, his hands covering mine as he helped my fingers go around the knob, rolling it up so that the string would become free from the lake water, revealing the flopping fish. I looked at it, how it flopped like its life depended on it, and it did.

"What do I do now?" I asked, still watching the fish flop and flop.

"That's up to you," he said. So I let it go because I felt bad. I watched him swim away, back down to the lake, swim faster than any other fish I've ever seen. He swam away from me like I was some kind of monster. I looked to Austin.

"Let's never go fishing again, okay?" I said, my voice shaky.

"Agreed," he replied, squeezing my hand for comfort.

It ended up being me who decided that we had to go back home. That I had to face my parents and my... sister... sooner or later. Austin, on the other hand, seemed determined and very stubborn.

"Let's just stay here for a few more days," he whined. I patted his head.

"We have to go back," I said softly, looking around at the cabin. I was going to miss it. "I have to try."

His shoulders grew limp. "I know you do," he said. "And you're brave for thinking that you do."

I shook my head, smiling. "Not really, no. It's just the right thing to do."

His face flinched, like he knew something I didn't, but I brushed it away. Maybe he was just tired. "This was nice while it lasted," he sighed, looking at me with some strange intent in his eyes. Something flickered in them for just a second, like a burning fire that he longed to put out, but what that fire was there for, I had no clue.

As we packed our bags, Austin kept shooting me these looks, somewhere between confusion and a grimace. I felt my heart flutter, but not because I thought something was going to happen. Mainly because I knew something would not. My life was already a wreck. I didn't want to drag him into my mess.

I cared about him too much to do that.

On the ride home, we blared the stereo loudly, singing along to the songs loudly and obnoxiously, getting a few honks and annoying glares from people in their own vehicles. But I didn't give a damn, really. Austin had become something for me, more than just a friend.

He had become a symbol of hope.

Which was why now, at this exact moment in his car, I lowered down the volume. He looked over at me, startled. We were almost home, and I had to get this out of my system before I really became emotionally unavailable. It seemed an awkward place and an awkward time to say it, here in the car, with the radio playing some rap song that completely did not match what I was about to say, but life was short. If we all constantly waited to do something at the right time, nothing would ever get done.

"What's wrong? You okay?" he asked, making a left. One more turn of the wheel and we'd be in front of my house, maybe facing an entire squad of people that were going to pepper me with questions.

"Austin, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate everything that you've done for me these past few days. It means the world that you helped me escape, even if it was for just a little while," I said. He smiled.

"You know I'd do anything for you, Ally."

I felt the pitter patter in my heart buzzing wildly now. He turned that last corner and I opened my mouth to say it, just because I wanted to. Because this was the one thing I had control over. I didn't care if he couldn't reciprocate the same feelings. I had to let him know. Not just for him, but for me, too. And then maybe we could all move on. Maybe I could move on. Yet as he made that one last stop in front of my house, I felt my face fall and my heart go still.

Because standing on the lawn were people I expected, like Mom and Dad and some policeman and Austin's parents. But who I didn't expect was Kennedy, with my Dad's arm wrapped around her shoulders.

HOLY SNAPPLE, I don't even know what I just wrote because I wrote this all in one sitting for two hours but I LOVE it! It's a cliffhanger, I know, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself! Thank you guys so much for taking the time to read this chapter of AMWILY; I seriously, truly appreciate the time you guys take to read my stories, ANY of them. :) It makes me happy to know that some people are still reading or rereading Just Another Cliche. Don't forget to leave a reviewto let me know how I'm doing, what you thought of this chapter or the story in general, and what YOU think is going to happen next! You can also tweet me, my username is on my profile page. Have a beautiful day! xoxo ~