I hear footsteps walking across the room towards me. I make myself as small as possible. I feel myself being stood up but I still refuse to open my eyes. They push me out of my room. I know we're nearing the stairs but I'm still afraid to open my eyes.
"Step down," Tilly tells me. I open my eyes just to go down the stairs. Then I close them back because I'm afraid of what's going to happen. I hear the front door open. I feel the cold pavement on my bare feet and know that we're in the middle of the street in front of the house. I begin to shiver from the cold. Tilly's hand leaves my back.
"Don't move," she orders. I just stand there with my eyes closed. She's very silent and all I can hear is my own heavy breathing. I've stopped crying but my face is still wet. I hear a car coming. I want to move my feet but it's like they're glued to the ground.
"Ally?" I hear someone ask. I still don't open my eyes. "Ally, what are you doing?! Get out of the middle of the road!" they scream at me. Arms encircle me and carry me to the yard. My legs give out and I fall to the grass. A car drives past me into the driveway and I still haven't opened my eyes. The person picks me up.
"What are you doing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night?" they ask, beginning to walk. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. "Answer me," they say when I don't answer. "At least open your eyes." I pry my eyes open, which had been glued shut with dried tears, and look up. It's Austin, of course. Tilly is nowhere to be found. She must have left when she saw the car coming so I'd look crazy. I know Austin thinks I am.
"Where were you?" I ask.
"Jimmy wanted me to come to the studio whenever I could and I was awake so I went," he explains quickly. "The important question is: what were you doing in the middle of the road?"
"Tilly led me there. She..." I trail off, realizing that that was the whole explanation.
"Then where is she now?" he asks. It came out accusingly. It sounded very rude, the way he said it.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I ask.
"I just asked where she went," he says innocently.
"Oh, don't play innocent with me," I tell him. I jump out of his arms. "My legs work," I mutter. I walk into the house and up to my room. I close the door and lock it behind me. Austin tries to open the door but when he can't, he knocks.
"Als, what did I do wrong?" he asks me through the door. I climb under my covers and realize it's colder than it should be. That's when I remember the window. I walk over to it, close it and get back into bed, pulling the covers over my head. Austin continues rapping on my door and asking what he did wrong. The rhythm of his knocking eventually puts me to sleep.
I awake early in the morning. It was midnight, I think, when I went back to sleep and now it's—I glance at my phone—seven in the morning?! I sigh and stand up. I drag myself across the room, still in my pajamas. I walk out of my room and trip over something. I don't fall but I do stumble a bit. I look down and see Austin sitting by my door, wide awake and staring at the opposite wall.
"Austin, what are you doing down there?" I ask. "You should be sleeping right now." He stands up.
"I couldn't sleep knowing I did something wrong to make you upset," he tells me. I smile. Not because he felt bad, no. Well, yeah, kind of because he felt bad. Because most boys wouldn't care if you're mad at them or not. They would just think that the girl is on her period or something. The smile is wiped off of my face when I remember why I'm mad at him.
"You think I'm crazy," I say quietly.
"What are you talking about?" he asks me.
"You were talking to me like I didn't have a bit of sense," I spit. "Last night." He looks at me... like I'm crazy. He shakes his head. No. I didn't ask a yes or no question. He's not denying that he thought I was crazy. I roll my eyes, scoff, and turn around.
"You aren't denying it," I say as I walk down the stairs.
"Ally, I don't think you're crazy," he tells me, following me down the stairs.
"Like I believe it," I mutter. When we get to the foot of the stairs, he grabs my shoulder and turns me around.
"Ally... I... do not... think... that you're... crazy," he tells me slowly to make sure I understand.
"Yeah, right. I know that you think I did all that stuff to myself. Well, maybe not the shark thing. But I know you think that I just walked out into the middle of the street for no reason," I say. He scratches the back of his neck. Again, he isn't denying it. "Just as I thought." I turn on my heel and continue toward the kitchen.
"If I think you're crazy, it's the good kind of crazy," he says, following me.
"The good kind of crazy," I mumble, "hilarious." I grab a bowl and the box of Frosted Flakes. I pour in the cereal and some milk. It takes a minute but I finally get a spoon from the drawer. I sit down at the table and he sits beside me.
"You know I don't think you're crazy, right?" he asks me. I shake my head. "Ally, I-" Mimi walks into the kitchen and he falls silent.
"Again, am I in-?"
"No, Mimi, you aren't interrupting anything," I tell her, grasping the spoon in my fist and bringing a spoonful of cereal to my mouth. Austin pours himself a bowl of Trix cereal and sits back down. He starts eating it as Mimi brews some coffee. She stares at us when she sits back down.
"You both seem tense... Are you two in the middle of an argument?" Mimi asks, breaking the silence. I sigh. "I'll take that as a yes?" she tells us questioningly as if asking for confirmation. I nod my head slightly. "What's it about? If you don't mind my asking," she says.
"Austin thinks I'm crazy," I mutter, staring down at my bowl of cereal. I hear a clang of metal against glass.
"I never said she was crazy," Austin argues.
"Yeah, but he acts like I am!" I say, my voice getting louder with every word.
"I do not! She just got mad at me for no reason!" he yells. I don't know why we're speaking indirectly to each other like this. Mimi shushes us.
"You'll wake up the whole house," she says quietly. I continue eating my cereal.
"Austin shouldn't have acted like I was crazy," I tell her.
"I never said she was," he says.
"Well, you have a point," Mimi says. My head snaps up.
"What? You think I'm crazy too?" I ask. "I knew it. You both think I'm crazy!" I pour out the rest of my cereal and stomp up to my room. I change into clean clothes, run a brush through my messy hair, pick up my songbook and walk back downstairs.
"Ally, I didn't mean-"
I close the door, cutting Mimi off. I see Dez walking up the drive. I walk right past him, not caring why he's here so early. He turns around and follows me all the way to the police station. I walk up to the man at the tall desk.
"Hello, I'd like to file for a restraining order," I tell him.
"Ally, I was so worried about you. Where were you? Why didn't you answer my calls?" Austin asks when I walk through the front door with Dez.
"I was at the police station. And I didn't bring my phone with me," I tell him, setting down my songbook and turning to him. I see Dez reach for my book out of the corner of my eye. "Dez, don't touch my book."
"Why were you at the police station?" Austin asks me.
"I filed for a restraining order," I say, stressing the last two words. "I have to wait until tomorrow to know if they granted my request or not. So, whether you believe I'm crazy or not, this should all be over soon."
"Ally, I didn't-"
"Save it. It doesn't matter anymore," I tell him. "So what are you doing here, Dez?" I turn around. "Where's... my... book?"
"I don't know," Austin says suspiciously.
"Dez!" I yell. I look back up and see Dez standing with my book pressed against him. He panics and throws it to Austin. I turn around and Austin's eyes widen. They end up playing monkey in the middle with my book. Finally, I just sit down in the middle of the floor and start crying.
"Alright, Dez, I think that's enough," Austin says, kneeling by my side. He hands me my book back and I cease my fake crying immediately.
"Thanks," I say, smiling brightly and standing up.
"You tricked me," he tells me, playfully mad.
"Well, if you two wouldn't have taken my book..." I say. Then I realize something. "Wait a minute. Wasn't I mad at you, like, less than five minutes ago?" He smirks. I hit his shoulder and stand up. "So what do you losers want to do today?"
"Ooh, we should—Hey!" Austin says. This time, I smirk.
"You were saying?" I ask.
"Oh, I was gonna say that we should go to IHOP!" he exclaims.
"We should go somewhere fun," I specify.
"Hey, pancakes are fun!" he argues.
"Okay, let's go somewhere that we can do something," I say. "And before you say eating is doing something, that isn't what I mean." Austin closes his mouth.
"Hey, we should go to the zoo," Dez pipes up. I turn around and his bag is open on the counter. He has panda ears on his head now. "I've been wanting to take my best friend and my new best friend to meet my other best friends at the zoo."
"Lemme guess. They're pandas?" I ask. A weird look crosses his face.
"No? I hate pandas. They're monkeys," he says, his goofy smile returning.
"Let's go see Dez's friends then," I agree. We tell Mimi then we set off for the zoo. Dez runs straight to the monkey section. The thing I forgot about River Dale Zoo is that it's an open cage. Which means we can walk inside and the animals could attack us if they wanted to.
"Benjamin!" Dez exclaims, running over to a brownish-blackish monkey. The monkey crawls onto Dez's neck and I latch onto Austin's arm. Dez walks over to us. I whimper as the monkey stares at me. "He wants you to pet him," Dez says. I shake my head.
"No thanks," I tell him, shaking my head again.
"Come on, Ally. He'll hate you if you don't," he tells me. The monkey makes a monkey noise and I jump. I scratch the monkey's neck. He climbs onto my arm and crawls to my neck. I whimper again as he begins to pick through my hair.
"What is Benjamin doing?" I ask.
"He's looking for fleas," Austin answers.
"I don't have fleas!" I exclaim. Austin looks up and laughs. He begins to pick through my hair too. I stare at Dez with wide eyes. "I don't have fleas, you freaks!" I push Austin away and set Benjamin on the floor of the open cage. He whimpers and puts the saddest face on. He crawls around in a circle. Then he just lies down.
"Aw, Benjamin! Ally, you made him sad!" Dez yells at me.
"I'm sorry!" I pick Benjamin up and cradle him in my arms. "You're not so bad, are you?" I ask, rubbing his stomach. My voice turns to a baby voice. "No, you're not. Benjamin's a cutie pie! Yes, he is! Yes, he is!" I look up at Austin and Dez who are staring at me. "Um, can we go somewhere else now?" I ask. They nod. "I'll see you later, Benjamin." I kiss his cheek and set him down.
"Don't try and steal my Ally," Austin says with a pointed look at Benjamin. "I'm watching you." I can't help but laugh as he puts his arm around me. As we walk to the section with the wolves, I see a girl. A blond girl. I forgot all about her for a while. Tilly freaking Thompson.
Oh, my gosh, you guys. I could have SWORN that I uploaded this chapter last night but I guess I didn't. I'm sorry. Forgive me? Anyway, I'll try to get caught up today. No promises; only hopes. Review!
Love, Kenzie