Last chapter! I hope you enjoy (I apologize in advance , if there are any grammar mistakes)

I don't own Austin and Ally or The Duff

This is one of the most awkward moments of my whole life. It's definitely falls into the top ten moments where I wish I could just disappear. It falls right behind the time Austin walked in on me and Dallas kissing and the time Austin saw my dad super drunk and then punched him after he hit me. The night air was so cold, I even started to shiver.

Austin must have noticed
"Here" he shrugged off his jacket "Take this" he handed it to me

"Austin, you don't have to-"

He interrupts me "Will you stop arguing with me for once? I want you to take it"

"Fine" I relent and allow him to drape his jacket over me. I had to admit I did feel a lot warmer instantly

But now it's back to silence. Austin and I are in front of each other looking anywhere but at each other.

"We need to talk" we say simultaneously

"You go first" we say again in synch

We both laugh at that

After another moment of silence I just can't take it anymore

"What are you doing here? " I ask

"I could ask you the same thing" he says

"Yeah, but I asked you first"

He smiles at that " Fair enough, I came to check on you. Why did you leave like that?"

"I needed some fresh air"

"Don't lie"

I sighed deeply" I just had to get out of there it was becoming too much"

He looked down at his shoes "Oh"

Now I felt guilty. I hated seeing Austin upset especially when I was the cause of it

"I really liked the song though. it was great" I was telling the truth

I see him smile a little when I say that and I feel a million times better at the sight of it " I meant it you know"

" Meant what?"

"Everything. What i wrote in the letter, what I said on the stage, the song I. I meant every word, i still do"

"Austin"

"Ally, please just let me say this, I need to say this" his voice was a little pleading

I give in to his request partly because I don't really know what to say either

He take a deep breath "Ally I-I. Ally I love you"

My heart is beating so loud and fast that I swear I can hear it beating in my ears. I know Austin said he thought he was falling in love with me in the letter wrote for me. But hearing the confirmation from his own mouth that he is in fact in love with me is a whole other experience. My head was spinning

"And I know that's crazy" he continues "for me to say that I'm in love with you when we haven't even been on a real date, unless you want to count the carnival which sort-of , kinda felt like one, maybe? . I don't know. Ughh. See? I'm even rambling like you!"

"Austin" I try to get him to stop

He ignores me "And I probably seem like some weird stalker with me sending you flowers, and leaving you notes and writing songs for you, but what can I say "he shrugged his shoulders "I'm a man in love" he said the last part with a bit of a with a weird chuckle almost like he couldn't believe what he was saying either

"Austin" I try again to get him to stop, I needed him to stop

Again he ignores me and continues "Do you wanna know when I realized I loved you? It wasn't when you ran out of my house that morning, I just felt confused. And it wasn't even when you started avoiding me at school. I felt something, but I just thought I was missing you, I didn't think those feelings were anywhere near love. I didn't think it was possible. I started to suspect that I might being falling in love with you after I walked in on you and Dallas. It actually made me want to punch his face in but I digress"

"Austin! Just stop!" I yell for him to stop but to no avail he just continues

"After I sent you that letter, I thought maybe if we just had some space from each other that these feelings would just magically go away. So I decided to leave you alone for a week, give you time to think. Give myself time to think"

I couldn't even bring myself to say his name again, I was too shocked at what he was saying that I just let him continue

"But all I could think about was you! Where you were? What you were doing? Who you were with? And that is when I realized that I, Austin Moon, was in love with you Ally Dawson. Crazy huh?" He finally finished his rant and now he was looking at me with his hazel eyes

"Austin "I start, trying not to look him in the eyes because the way he was looking at me was too much "I think you –"

"It's actually not that crazy when I think about it" he interrupts me "Because you're in love with me too"

"What?" I shrieked. I could hear my voice echo through the alley

"You heard me. I said you're in love with me, because you are" he said calmly almost like he was talking about something as casual as the weather or last night's football game

"Austin" I said in the calmest voice I could muster "Do you understand that love is a rare and special thing that most people never get to experience? And do you realize that for the people who are lucky enough to experience it, that it takes years and upon years to develop that amount of trust and intimacy with another person? Do you understand that love is something special that people who are as young and inexperienced as us just don't get to have? Do you understand?"

He looks at me and calmly nods "Yeah but I don't care. I know I love you and I know you love me"

I felt like I was in a parallel universe, did he not understand what I was trying to say? Or was he choosing to ignore me?

I take a deep breath" Out of curiosity, why are you so sure that I'm in love with you?"

He grins, that stupid, cute, arrogant grin I never realized I missed so much "There are several reasons really" he takes a step towards me making take one back

"Reason number one, you and I are one in the same. We both love and want a career in music, we both have screwed up families, and we both understand each other like no one else. We're a perfect match"

"Reason number two" he takes another step forward, I take another one back, why did he keep moving towards me "You constantly run away from me"

"I don't why you think that helps your case"

"Let me finish. One thing I learned about you is that tend to run away from things that scare you and what else could be scarier than you being in love with me?" he asked

"I'm not scared or running away! I'm with Dallas because he is a nice boy" I said trying to convince him and even more myself. I wasn't doing a good job

"But you don't have feelings for him" Austin said "Which brings me to my third reason"

He takes another step and I take another one back but this time my back hits the alley wall. He moves in front of me and puts his arms on either side of the alley wall caging me in. No more running

"I saw your face when I was singing back there, you were feeling something that's why you ran out here … with me. And that's why you haven't even attempted to leave and go back to your boyfriend, all this time" As he spoke he got closer and closer. Our faces were only inches apart now

"And do you want to know, how I really know you have feelings for me?" he asked. I could feel his breath on my skin and it sent shivers down my back

"How?" I asked breathless due to our close proximity

"Because I'm about to kiss you and you're not going to stop me" he moved one hand from the wall to caress my cheek and leaned in. I knew it was wrong to be here, about to kiss another boy while my boyfriend is probably inside worrying about me but in that moment I couldn't find it in me to care as I closed my eyes and let the moment take over

Just as our lips were about to be reunited again. I hear the Alley door open. Both Austin and I snap our heads to look at the intruder

"Oh sorry. I didn't know I was interrupting something" Trish says staring at us. I can tell she's shocked at what we were about to do "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, Dallas was asking about you"

The mention of Dallas' name snaps be back into reality. I realize where I am and what I was about to do. And the guilt immediately washed over me

I pushed Austin -who still had his arms caged around me- away and turned to Trish "Yeah I'm okay. I just needed some fresh air" it was a horrible lie, she clearly knew what was about to happen

But Bless Trish's heart she played along" Okay, well are you ready to go back in? Don't want your food to get cold right?" and now she was giving me a much needed escape route from this awkward situation I was in. she really does deserve best friend of the year award.

"Yeah, good idea" I say and walk towards her ready to get out of here as fast as I can

Trish stops me"Um Ally" she gives a pointed look to my outfit

I look down and notice I'm still wearing Austin's suit jacket "Oh right"

I shrug it off my shoulders and turn around dreading having to face him again when I was so close to getting away. I see his eyes are on me, they looked sad, defeated

"Here" I hand him back his jacket and when our hands touch for barely a second I feel the electricity move through my whole body

I can tell he feels it too

I quickly turn around and make my way to the door leading back to The Beat. If I stayed one more minute I knew I'd kiss him, Dallas and Trish be dammed. I risked one more glance at him he was just standing there, looking so sad. This just sucks

As we re-entered The Beat, I felt like a ghost

"You know" Trish said "I'm your best friend so you don't have to tell me what happened back there if you don't want to"

"Good, I won't"

I could see her frown a little at that I couldn't help but smile a little. But my mind stayed on Austin, everything he said it left my mind reeling. But those thoughts all came to a halt when I spotted Dallas

"What are you going to do? Trish asked

"Tell him the truth" I told her and walked in his direction

My feet felt like led as I made my way to the booth. This wasn't going to be easy or pretty, but Dallas deserves better than this, and so did Austin and so did I

"Hey' I said sliding into the booth"

"Hey, you just missed an awesome performance from an EMO band. It was…. interesting " he said

"Sounds fun" I said weakly. I just have to man up and say it

"Dallas I –"

"Hey did you finish Wuthering Heights? Did you like it" he asked me out of the blue, I answered him still

"Well, it gave me a lot to think about." I said. At least that was the truth. I had to steer the conversation back but it looked like Dallas had other plans as he went into a full on book review

"You know, I've always wondered what made Emily Brontë choose to write such unpleasant characters. I mean, throughout the whole book, I just thought that both Heathcliff and Linton were such jerks, and Cathy…"

I swirled my straw in my drink, only half listening. Every time Dallas said Heathcliff, my mind automatically thought of Austin. Especially how he looked after I left. My eyes darted around the place to look see if he was still I couldn't find him. He was gone

"Ally are you okay?" Dallas asked snapping me out of my thoughts

I was messing with my hair ready to resort back to my old chewing habit "I'm fine."

"Trish warned me that you're probably lying when you say that," he said.

I gritted my teeth and searched the dance floor for my so-called friend. She was being added to my hit list.

"And I think she's right," Dallas said.

I sighed. I had to put an end to this. Right now

"Um, actually I have something to tell you" Just rip off the bandage Ally. No more running

He raises a hand to stop me "Let me guess, Austin Moon is in love with you?"

I almost spit out my drink. "What? Why do you think that?" I asked hoping, praying I sounded normal

"Several reasons really, but this is the biggest one" he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of wrinkled piece of paper and handed it to me

I looked down at the paper and realized it was the letter that Austin wrote me. I didn't have it in me to throw it away so I just left balled up in a corner of the kitchen, as if it would magically disappear. Dallas must have saw it when he went to my kitchen earlier tonight. Oh no

I look up from the letter in horror "Dallas I can explain"

"Don't worry Ally. I kind of suspected Austin had feelings for you. The way he looks at you at school and the way he looked when he walked in on us … you know, it made me think something was up. Plus the way he was looking at you while he was on stage singing confirmed it

Wow. I never realized Dallas was so observant.

"And by the way you look at him" Dallas continued "I think you're in love with him too"

"What? No,no,no" I cried "Love is a big word, a very big serious word"

Dallas gave me a small smile and said, "Okay, but you do have feelings for him."

I couldn't see any sign of pain in his eyes, just a touch of amusement. That made it a lot easier to give him an answer. "Um… yeah."

"Then go to him."

I cringe at how cheesy that sounds "Dallas, that sounds like a line out of a bad movie."

Dallas shrugged. "Maybe, but I'm serious, Ally. If you feel that way about him, you should go be with him. Right now."

"But what about-?"

"Don't worry about me," he said. "If you want Austin, that's who you should be with right now. Dating me won't make your feelings for him go away… I should know. Definitely don't worry about me, because, Ally the truth is, I'm in the same situation as you. I just didn't want to admit it."

"How?"

Now Dallas was looking guilty "I'm not over Emma."

"Emma Your ex?"

He nodded. "We broke up over a month ago, but I still think about her a lot. I really do like you, but-"

"I'm the not the right girl" I finished for him knowing exactly how he felt

He nods sheepishly" I thought that if we dated, maybe I'd forget about her. For a while I did, but…"

"Well then, you should call her," I said. "Instead of just sitting here pouting, you should call Emma and tell her how you feel. Tonight."

He brought his eyes back up to meet mine. "You're not angry? You don't feel used?"

"That would make me a huge hypocrite since I was kind of using you, too. Even though I really didn't mean to." I slid out of the booth and paused to steady myself on my shoes. "And for the record, if Emma doesn't take you back, it' her loss. I think you're probably the sweetest, most polite guy I've ever met in my life, and I've had a massive crush on you for years. I seriously wish you were the one for me."

"Thanks," Dallas said. "And if Austin breaks your heart, I promise to… well, I would say I'd kick his butt, but we both know that's physically impossible." He frowned down at his skinny arms. "So I'll write him a strongly worded letter."

"Okay," I snorted. I leaned across the table and kissed Dallas on the cheek. "And thank you."

He gave me one more perfect smile, one I would remember for the rest of my life, and said, "You're stalling. Hurry up and go."

"Right. Okay. See you in class, Dallas."

"Good-bye, Ally."

I searched the whole club, but no sign of Austin anywhere. I even checked the alley as if he would seriously be there still waiting for me.

I was currently searching the dance floor when I saw Trish dancing in the crowd. She really did think she had the Moves Like Jagger. I make my way over towards her to ask if she has seen Austin

"Trish" I yell over the deafening techno music "Have you seen Austin?"

"What? Have I've been to Boston? No why do you ask?" Trish yells back over the music

I roll my eyes and drag her off the dance floor and to the bar. "I said 'have you seen Austin?'"

"Sorry,no" she the narrows her eyes "Why are you looking for Austin? What happened with you and Dallas?"

"We broke up and I'm looking for Austin, I want to be with him" it felt so good to say that out loud

I could tell Trish was trying to contain her excitement

"Go ahead, let it out"

"YES!, Alex and Ava live on!"

I roll my eyes "They might not if I don't find Austin. Do you think Cassidy has seen him?"

"Cassidy left for prom a while ago when she heard Elliot was going to be there"

Prom. Of course he had to be there "I know where he is" I said

"What? Where is he?" Trish asked

"I'll tell you later. I got to go" I ran out of the club-well, as fast as I could in these stupid heels.

I entered the gymnasium where the prom was being held. I felt like I was playing the biggest game of 'Where's Waldo' ever! Except in this version Waldo is blonde and has a much better sense of style. I spot Austin's friend Dez by the punch bowl, maybe he would know where he was.

When I was about only a few feet from Dez, a sound filled the speakers that were blasting music through the gymnasium. A screech of feedback assaulted my ears-and totally scared the life out of me. I was so startled that I jumped, which wouldn't have been a big deal in any other shoes.

My foot landed on the side of my heel, throwing me completely off balance. Before I could recover, my ankle gave way and I'm about to fall. But before I hit the ground I feel two strong arms wrap around my waist from behind me, balancing me and saving me from falling flat on my face in front of everyone. I don't even have to turn around to know who it is.

"Are you okay?" his deep voice ask in my ear both confirming my suspicions and sending a shiver down my back

I turn around to face him he still had his arms around my waist "Yeah thanks. I hate these shoes"

"Then why did you wear them?" I could tell he was trying not to laugh

"Shut up. I didn't really feel that embarrassed. Not with Austin. Had it been anyone else, I would have ran-or hobbled away, but with Austin it felt okay. Like we could laugh about it together. "You know you can let go right?"

"Yeah I know" but he just stood there with his arms still wrapped around me "What are doing here? Where's Dallas?"

"We broke up"

"Are you serious?"

I nod "Yeah we just broke up"

"Why?"

"Because I have feelings for someone else." I said smiling "He is probably the most arrogant, annoying, infuriating man I've ever met"

"Damn. I thought you were talking about me" he smiled

I smiled even more, which I didn't think was possible. We both just stood there smiling like idiots

But then Austin's smile faded and his face became serious. He stared at me for a long moment making me feel uneasy he finally opened his mouth. "Ally, I-"

"Ally! Omigosh!" Cassidy materialized at my side, her cheeks pink from. Behind her, the speakers were working again but now they were playing slow songs. I noticed people pairing off and beginning to slow dance around us

"Oh, Ally, I finally found you! Did you see? Elliot and I were dancing together! Isn't that great?"

"Good for you, Cassidy."

"I have to go tell Trish!" Then she spotted Austin. A knowing smile spread across her face as she said, "See you two later." And with a whip of her blond hair, she was gone.

Austin watched her vanish into the crowd with an amused expression. "She does know Elliot prefers men, right?"

"Let her have hope," I said, smiling to myself.

He turned his attention back to me "Speaking of hope, I hope you'll let me have this dance" I smile and take his outreached hand

We go to the center of dance floor and start to sway to the music. His arms around my waist and mine around his neck. I could feel people staring at us but I don't care

"I knew you'd give in sooner or later." Austin says holding me close to him. "You're finally going to admit that you love me, aren't you?"

"First of all," I began, "I don't love you. I love my family and Trish and Cassidy, but like I said romantic love takes years upon years to develop. So I don't love you. But I will admit, I've thought a lot about you lately and I definitely have feelings for you… feelings other than hatred for the most part. And maybe it's possible-in the future-that I… could love you." I hesitated, a little scared of the words that'd just left my mouth. "But you still annoy me half the time"

Austin's grin turned into a genuine smile. "Man, I've missed you." He leaned down to kiss me, but I reluctantly held up my hand to stop him. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"I want to take things slow" I said, remembering Piper and the scare she'd gone through. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. We're going to move at the speed of a normal high school relationship."

Austin moved one hand that was on my waist up to brush a lock of hair out of my face. His hand stayed there caressing my cheek "But neither of us is normal."

"That's true," I acknowledged. "But this part of us will be normal. Look, I'm not saying we can't build back up to that point. We'll just… take it a little more slowly."

Austin thought about this for a moment before letting that crooked grin slide across his lips again. "Okay," he said, looking at me with his piercing brown eyes. "That's fine. There are other things we can do." His fingers moved from cheek to across my collarbone, gliding down my arm and sending a shiver up my spine. "I have a job to finish, I believe. We were interrupted last time-in your bedroom-but I could show you again. I look forward to showing you."

I took a deep breath, trying to ignore this statement and the burst of excitement it gave me. "We're going to go on dates," I continued, clearing my throat. "Nice dates. And you're never ever going to call me Duffy again either."

Austin's smirk faded and he bit his lip. "Ally," he said quietly. I could barely hear him over the music. "I'm sorry. I didn't know how much it hurt you. I should never have called you the Duff in the first place. I didn't know you then. I didn't-"

I shook my head. "Stop," I said. "I know you're sorry and I know you wouldn't' have said it if you knew how it made me feel. But it did make me realize something, I am the Duff. But so is everyone else in the world. We're all Duffs."

"I'm not the Duff," Austin said confidently.

"That's because your only real friend is Dez."

"Oh. Right."

"And," I continued, "If we are going to make this work, we are going to have to put in the work. That means a lot of communication, listening, building trust and especially-" I never get to finish my speech because Austin closed the distance between us by kissing me, effectively shutting me up .and it feels incredible and electric. It's been way too long and I couldn't care less that we were currently in front of the whole student body making out like fools

When we finally pull apart, we press our foreheads together and , just look into each other eyes. I swear he could hear my heart with how loud it was beating

"Wow" he said smiling

"Wow" I said back in agreement.

That kiss was different than any we ever had before. It had this spark that I didn't even realize was missing. It was amazing, it was incredible, it was… Love. I can't believe Austin was right again... But right here in this moment I knew I was in love with Austin Moon, logic be dammed. But there was no way I was going to give him the pleasure and tell him. At least not now

We spend the next few minutes staring into each other's eyes, goofy grins on both of our faces. I finally get the strength to break eye contact from him. I could stare into those eyes forever.

I look around to see everyone is staring at us.

Trish who must have arrived while we were dance, is looking at us with a face that I know means I told you so

Cassidy was smiling from ear to ear

Both Kira and Piper faces were a mix of shock and confusion. I couldn't blame them I never thought I'd be here either

I even saw Austin's friend Dez happy dancing. Although it kind of looked like he just had to go to the bathroom

I grow a little shy at all these people looking at us

I turn back to look at Austin

"Everyone in school is staring at us"

"You're the only person I see"

I was about to tease home for sounding so cliché but one look into his eyes and I knew he was being sincere

"I guess the school can't believe the school dork and the bad boy player are actually together"

The smile he had immediately turns into a frown

"Ally, you're not a dork and I'm not a bad boy player" he says "I'm just Austin and you're just Ally"

I smile "We're Austin and Ally"

He smiles back "We're Austin and Ally"

And our lips connect again, and it feels so right

Austin and Ally, we really are a perfect match

Well I hope you enjoyed. I can't believe this is the final chapter. I'll officially thank you guys for support in the epilogue and I also have an announcement in there as well so I'll try and get that posted soon. Til next time!