"Dez!" Austin yelled alongside Trish and Ally. This was the fifth time Dez had let go of the steering wheel because he had been distracted. They had barely been on the road an hour and yet at the rate they were going they wouldn't get there until tomorrow or worse they'd have an accident and die.

"Where are we?" Ally asked.

Austin craned his head to look back at the brunette sat behind Dez. "Just leaving West Palm Beach."

Ally nodded and turned her gaze back to the world outside of the car. Austin sighed. He somewhat wished he had never kissed her. She was his best friend after all, and now he'd gone and ruined that by plantin' one on her right in the middle of the practice room, in front of the guy she liked no less. However, that's not say he regretted the kiss entirely. It was enjoyable, and nice, and awesome, and magical, and… so many other adjectives that Austin could use to describe it yet none of them seemed to do it justice. The kiss was just… wow. And she kissed back.

He looked over his shoulder at her again, making sure she was okay. He'd been worried about her ever since he'd seen her puke on the sidewalk an hour ago. He could tell she was scared, or cold, maybe both. She was shivering slightly and he fought the urge to offer her his jacket, he didn't want to make their already messy friendship worse than it already was.

After five minutes of debating in his head the pros and cons (something he swore he'd picked up from Ally) of giving her his jacket, Austin was just about to take it off and hand it to her when Trish brought up a subject that would no doubt bring a whole bundle of problems, with Ally at least.

"This is fun, in a weird way," Trish stated as she turned away from the dark window, to look at Austin and Dez. "But there's one thing that's bothering me about this whole thing."

"That it's happening in the middle of the night or that it's illegal?" Ally asked, her tone laced with irritation, probably due to her lack of sleep.

"No," Trish waved her off and leant forward as if to block out Ally's incessant grumblings about their illegal journey. "Where did you get the car from?"

And there it was, a subject that had been mutually agreed on being taboo between Dez and Austin.

"Um…" Dez turned his eyes to Austin as if looking for help, but of course the blond was useless. His mouth was opening and closing so quickly that it felt like he was drinking air.

"Dez, Austin. What aren't you telling us?" Ally leant forward too, her shoulders now touching Trish's as they both squeezed together to fit in the gap between the passenger and driver's seats.

"Well you see…" Austin began, hoping to come up with some brilliant lie that both girls would believe.

"We stole it," Dez finished.

Austin almost slapped him self with the palm of his hand. Could Dez have said it any clearer?

"You did what?!" Trish and Ally chorused, both of their eyes wide with shock and anger.

"That's even more illegal than driving it!" Ally cried hysterically as she grabbed a lock of her hair and crammed it into her mouth.

"It's not like we stole it from some random stranger," Austin defended. "It's my mom's so it's not totally illegal."

"It's just as illegal Austin! It's still stolen, since I doubt you told your mom and when she finds out –"

"She's not going to find out."

"Yes she will!" Ally yelled exasperated as she yanked the soggy hair from her mouth so that she could yell with ease. "You think she's not going to notice that her car has been stolen and that you're not home? When she finds out she's going to go nuts! You thought she was angry when you started forgoing school to work on music, well she's going to be livid when she finds out that you broke the law!"

"Ally calm down," Trish said placing a hand on her friends shoulder.

Ally brushed her off, there seemed to be no stopping this tirade. "Do not tell me to calm down! We're breaking the law!"

"We've been breaking the law for an hour," Austin pointed out. He was trying to act cool and collected but on the inside he could not deny that he was beginning to freak out. The pace at which his heart was pounding in his chest proved that. "And we haven't been caught so –"

"We're going to get caught the minute we get back! Or maybe even before that. Do either of your parents know where you are, huh? No, they don't. When your mom sees that you're gone and so is the car she'll call the cops and they'll find us then we'll all get arrested and go to jail and –"

"Shut up both of you!" Trish snapped, glaring at the pair beside her. "Do you want to die? 'Cause if you do then please carry on because your arguing is doing nothing for Dez's driving." Trish had a good point, whilst Austin and Ally had been caught up in their own little world they hadn't noticed the effect it was having on their inexperienced friend. Trish turned to Dez who resembled a terrified woodland creature who had just been caught in the headlights of a truck, or in this case a sedan.

"Okay, Dez? Pull over at the turn off, according to the map app on my phone there's a Mal-Mart not far from here," Trish instructed, as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Austin couldn't help but notice the small smile that appeared on her lips when Dez nodded and glanced quickly at her through the mirror. What was that all about?

"Mal-mart? Why are we stopping there?" Ally asked. "Wouldn't it make more sense to keep driving towards Lake City? That way we could get there by the cover of the night and not get caught."

Whatever Trish was about to say was cut off by Dez sharply turning right at Trish's request.

Trish and Austin both laughed along with the driver at the sharp turn. Austin couldn't understand what Ally was so worried about. If she'd just relax for a moment she'd see that driving with Dez felt just like being on a rollercoaster at Dingo World. Then again Ally was afraid of rollercoasters… heck! Ally was afraid of everything.

Austin shrugged and tried not to feel too concerned by the look of nausea on his song writer's face and instead chose to enjoy the speedy journey to Mal-Mart. If he worried then he sense of fun might disappear, and worse still, he might turn into Ally…

"Ally, Austin you go that way," Trish said as they paused at the front of the super sized store. "Grab snacks and anything else that you think we might need to keep us going for the rest for this trip. Dez, you come with me."

"Wait, what are you and Dez getting?" Ally called after their friend's as they hurried away from them and cut through the clothes department.

Austin shook his head and began walking towards the section of the store that was mostly food. "Come on."

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Things with Ally hadn't been too good after the ki – incident, and now they were even worse after the argument they'd had in the car. Austin knew that she'd made a good point though, and the longer he dwelled on it the more he regretted borrowing his mom's car. He didn't regret joining Dez though; he'd do anything for his friends.

"What do we get?" Austin asked, looking up and down the aisles. He was at a loss. What sort of food do you take on a road trip? Aside from pancakes, of course. "Trish didn't exactly say… Maybe we'd be better off stopping by a Fun Burger before we hit Lake City, there's bound to be one on the way, right?"

Ally shook her head and rolled her eyes somewhat playfully. Austin almost jumped for joy at this. That meant things were slowly getting better!

"Austin, fast food may be quick and easy to pick up on the side of the highway, but it contains tons of empty calories and fat that may cause bloating or upset stomach that can make this trip even worse than it already is, and there is no way Trish and I are sitting in a car for the next five hours with a gassy you and Dez."

Austin giggled at the thought but quickly composed himself. "Okay, so what do we bring?"

"Sandwiches are by far one of the best foods to pack as an entrée on a road trip. Not only are they cheap and to make in bulk, they are nutritious and filling," Ally explained as she led him down an aisle filled with coolers stocked with sandwiches, wraps, tiny pot salads and pastas.

"Road trip, huh?" Austin quirked an eyebrow up at her and smirked.

Ally blushed, realizing she had been caught out. "I figure if I just pretend this is a road trip instead of an illegal journey in a stolen car I might stop coughing up hair balls."

"Coughing up hair balls?"

"Chewing my hair has some serious issues, okay?"

"Finally!" Dez said loudly as he ran across the very empty parking lot to help Austin and Ally with the shopping bags. "I'm starving."

Austin thinking Dez was about to take the heavy paper bag which was over flowing with food off of him released it but instead discovered Dez was only rushing over to grab a cereal bar balancing precariously atop the other items in the bag. The bag dropped to the floor and Austin glared at Dez as he scampered off to join Trish at the car.

"What did you get?" Trish asked taking Ally's bag off of her to search through it.

"Trail mix since it contains protein which will keep Dez alert and focused while driving," Ally said taking the cereal bar from Dez's greedy hands and instead handed him the bag of trail mix. "Cereal bars, crackers, pretzels, um… oh, and Austin's got a ton of bottled water."

"And pancakes," Austin added a large grin on his face; he couldn't wait to get back into the car and start eating them. Austin alongside Dez took the bags and placed them in the trunk of the vehicle.

The foursome regrouped at the side of the car, Trish began talking about some plan she had when Austin frowned and asked, "Hey Ally?"

"Uh, yeah Austin?"

"Where did you get that jacket?"

"What?"

"The jacket," Austin pointed to the burgundy jacket she had on. "Where did you get it?"

"From the store, remember? It was cold in there and it's getting colder out here and – OH MY GOD!"

"What?" Dez, Trish and Austin chorused all feeling an overwhelming sense of panic at Ally's sudden screams.

"The jacket, I didn't buy it! Oh my god, I'm a criminal!" Ally grabbed her hair and stuffed it into her mouth as she simultaneously tried to shrug the jacket off of her body. "What do I do? What do I do?"

No one had time to answer for they were cut off by the shouts of a security guard yelling at them to halt.

"Get in the car!" Trish yelled as she raced towards the passenger seat, Dez quickly following her lead before remembering that he was the driver.

"No Trish, I can explain to him and he'll let us go," Ally said in her attempt to stay calm.

Austin shook his head as he watched the petite brunette begin making her way towards the security guard headed towards her. Austin wasn't dumb, there was no way that guy would just accept that it had all been an accident. He would call them in, call their parents and they'd never make it to Lake City. What Austin did next shocked even himself.

The blond dashed forward and scooped Ally up in his arms before sprinting back towards the car which Dez had already started up. Austin shouted a quick apology to the poor security guard chasing after them as he tossed Ally onto the back seat before jumping in next to her and slamming the door.

"DRIVE! DRIVE! DRIVE!" Trish yelled at Dez, slamming her hands against the car's dashboard as if that would make it move any faster. When they were out of the parking lot and back out onto the interstate, the Mal-Mart security guard far behind them, Trish turned and said, "I've always wanted to do that."

"What? Steal a car? Drive illegally? Rob a Mal-Mart?" Ally snapped.

Austin wasn't concerned, he knew she was angry but since she was leaning against his body and had yet to pull away, she knew she was angry at the situation and not her friends.

Eager to change the topic of conversation Austin asked, "If Ally and I bought food… and stole a jacket, what did you guys buy? Or you know, steal."

Ally jabbed him sharply in the ribs with her elbow obviously unimpressed by his attempt to make light of their criminal activities. "Austin, this isn't funny this is serious. We could get arrested and go to prison and die!"

"Why would we die in prison?" Dez snickered at her worries; Trish too seemed to be highly entertained by Ally's reasoning.

"Well, you and Austin won't because you're tall so people will be afraid of you, and Trish is Trish so she'll be fine," The Latina in question smiled with pride and nodded along in agreement. "But I'll get eaten alive in prison because I'm small. Haven't you ever watched Beyond Scared Straight?!"

"Ally, relax. Everything will be fine," Austin assured her, booping her on the nose playfully.

"Anyway, whilst you two were flirting, Dez and I were putting our plan into action."

"We weren't flirting," Austin blushed embarrassed. Okay, so maybe he was flirting but Ally wasn't… at least he thought she wasn't… he hoped she was though.

Trish rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Dez pull over when I say."

"Why?" Ally asked, Austin just seconds behind her.

A mischievous smirk began pulling at the corners of Trish's lips. "You'll see."