Austin and Ally were at the piano, writing a song. As a joke, Austin kept reaching around and playing the notes on her side of the keyboard, so his arm was stretched across her back. He was touching her, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him to stop. That wouldn't mess up their friendship, would it? Friends were allowed to touch each other.
They were doing their vocal warm-ups together. Their voices mingled together, tripping across each other with nervous laughs, giggles, and sighs.
Then Austin picked up the guitar and tried to play with his hand in the cast. His hand thwacked the strings uselessly, making a horrible noise.
Ally covered her ears. "That's terrible!"
He broke into a smile. "Let's see you do it."
"Okay, I will."
To prove him wrong, Ally got up to take the guitar from him. When she was in front of him, Austin lifted the guitar over her head and placed it against her back. The guitar strap was still around his neck, and they were suddenly underneath the same guitar. The surface of the guitar pressed into Ally's back, and forced them closer together. Her chin practically knocked into his collarbone.
"That's not…what I meant…" said Ally. She pressed her hands to his chest and tried to put some distance between them, but it was impossible. "Austin, let me out!"
She squirmed against him until he lifted the guitar and they were separated. He put his guitar pick between his teeth and went back to strumming, as if nothing had happened. Ally sat back down at the piano, pretending the same thing.
After Austin was finished, he sat down to play with her. Their hands accidentally brushed on the keys, and Ally froze. This was different. It was skin-on-skin contact, and hands were a very intimate part of the body, in her opinion. Usually when Austin played music, he was so concentrated that he didn't notice anything around him. But he stopped playing and curled his fingers into his palm.
"Sorry," he said.