Chapter 2: New House Guests

Ally's P.O.V

29 June 2012

I wake up well rested, there's still almost two months until I begin my senior year and I plan to let this summer count since it's the last summer in high school. I spend the morning writing on one of my unfinished songs, Gavin helped me with the arrangement and the lyrics is almost done. My friends and I like to go to Shedders, it's the beach club and it's in walking distance from my house, I love when they have open mic night because I get to sing. I wasn't always thrilled about performing in front of an audience, but Gavin helped me move past it an audience doesn't scare me anymore.

It's almost noon when I walk downstairs to help my mother, she's making lunch for when Mimi and Austin arrive which could be any minute now. My mother told me that Mimi only brought her clothes and a laptop while Austin brought most of the things in his room apparently, he's not too happy about moving away from New York, a knock on the door brings me out of my thoughts. I open the door; a beautiful tall blonde woman stands before me and I have no doubt that this is Mimi.

"Ally, wow, you're really grown up!" She says sweetly as she hugs me. "You are a beautiful young woman now."

"Thanks." I return her smile even though I don't remember her. "Come on in." I say opening the door wider, she steps inside and only a minute later a tall blonde guy is standing awkwardly in the doorway. He's tanned, muscular in a handsome way, his hair is dirty blonde and untamed, but the first thing I really notice are his dreamy chocolate brown eyes.

"This is my son, Austin." Mimi introduces him.

"Hi, I'm Ally, Penny's daughter." I introduce myself friendly I hold out my hand for him to shake.

"Sup' I'm Austin." He says coolly as he takes my hand, I raise my eyes to meet his and when our eyes meet for the first time, I feel safe like I've known him my entire life. Something about him is drawing me to him and making me want to know him, I feel drawn like a moth to a flame. We let go of each other when my mother speaks up and it breaks the connection.

"Austin! You've grown a lot since I last saw you." My mom smiles, and he just nods at her, saying nothing.

"I'm so happy you're finally here." My mother says excitedly as she hugs Mimi, I look at the two of them and I see it clearly. It's like looking at Trish and I, they must have been the best of friends once upon a time. "You've had a long drive, so what do you think about lunch first? Afterwards Ally and I will help you get your things upstairs." She asks.

"Sound good, Penny." Mimi says smiling warmly at my mother. They follow us inside and to the table where lunch is waiting for us. I take a seat beside my mother, Mimi and Austin are across from us. I notice that Austin doesn't seem to like his mother too much and I can't help but wonder why that is. She seems very nice, but of course I only just met her.

"So Ally, what are you doing now?" Mimi asks me curiously.

"I go to Marino High School and I work part time in my dad's store." I explain.

"Oh, that's nice." She smiles at me. "I enrolled Austin there as well." She says, and I watch as Austin sends her a death glare.

"It's a very good school, Austin. You'll fit right in." My mother says trying to lighten the mood.

"We'll see I might be back in New York by then." Austin says looking angrily at his mother the entire time he talks.

"You may like it here besides when you were a kid you loved it here, you and Ally we're best friends almost inseparable." My mother says in a desperate attempt to once again lighten the mood.

"I don't think so… I don't remember this place and my home is in New York." He shrugs it off showing no interest at all in being here.

"Of course, it is, you've lived there for most of your life, but Miami still has its charm." My mother says.

"I don't really care." He says disinterested.

"Now that enough! You hate me, I get it, but don't you take it out on these nice people who was kind enough to let us stay." Mimi says, I feel so bad for her in this moment because her son is clearly giving her a hard time.

"Whatever…" He says.

The rest of the lunch is in complete silence after the disagreement between Mimi and Austin, I look over at him wondering if this is how he truly is. I hope it isn't because from what I've seen so far, he's a world class jerk and I can't understand why I have once have been close with him. His good looks can only get him so far…

"Ally, can you clean up after lunch?" My mother asks me, her eyes is almost begging me.

"Sure mom." I say trying to make this easier and she looks relieved.

"Austin, you can help Ally with the clean-up. Penny and I will get started on the boxes." Mimi says to her son and to say he doesn't look pleased is an understatement.

"No way!" He protests.

"I'm getting sick of your attitude. Go help Ally and be nice, that final!" She says harshly.

"Whatever." He says rolling his eyes at her. My mother and Mimi walk outside leaving me in the kitchen with Austin. "Let's just get this over with." He murmurs.

"Sure." I say not wanting to get on his bad side as well. I grab a few things from the table, so does he and follows me to the fridge, when it's all back in the fridge I get started on the dishes. Austin dries it without saying a word, but I prefer the silence over his attitude. It doesn't take us long before it's all done. "Hey, let's go grab a box and then I'll show you your room." I ask him, hoping he won't argue with me as well.

"Fine." He says showing no signs of gratitude. Austin gives me one of his boxes and I take it, I notice for a moment how strong he appears to be. He lifts the heavy box with ease as he grabs one for himself and follows me back in the house, up the stairs. I walk into the guest room with him right behind me.

"This is it. The bathroom is behind that door." I say pointing to the other door in the room. "Remember to lock the doors on both sides because my room also have a door leading right to this bathroom that we'll be sharing." I say hoping he'll remember it. I really want to avoid walking in on him in the shower.

"Sure, thanks for the tip." He says sarcastically, and it pushes my buttons.

"Lose the attitude. It's hard for all of us. You could try to make the best of it like the rest of us instead of taking your frustrations out on all of us." I snap getting sick and tired of the way he acts.

"Well thank you captain obvious." He snaps with a roll of his eyes.

"Enough Austin! Ally is trying to help you. This is our life now." Mimi says.

"It may be your life, but it's not mine." He says rudely.

"Okay then, if this is how you want things to be then fine, you're going with Ally tomorrow to help her with the store and that's not up for discussion." She says tiredly.

"I hate you, just in case you didn't know…" He says before he walks away.

"I'm sorry, Ally. He's not usually like this, in fact, I've never seen him this way before." Mimi apologizes.

"It's fine. I get that this is hard, but hopefully he'll accept being here." I shrug.

"I hope so. I miss my sweet and kindhearted son. I hate that I had a part in making him this way." She says looking completely miserable.

We spend some time carrying boxes upstairs and as I take one of the last boxes I notice a guitar case, my curiosity gets the best of me, so I take a quick peek at the guitar inside. It's a very nice acoustic guitar and a quite expensive one too, I close the guitar case before anyone catches me with it and carry the box upstairs. I can't help but wonder if it belongs to Austin, I don't really see Mimi as the musical type. My mother puts the last box down on the floor.

"That was the last one." She says a little out of breath. "Mimi and I wanted to talk to the two of you about this arrangement, but we should go downstairs for that." She adds, and for the first time today Austin doesn't protest. The four of us take a seat around the table, my mother serves tea for everyone. My mother and Mimi are sitting across from Austin and I, this time and I have a feeling this is a serious conversation.

"Anything serious?" I ask worriedly.

"No not at all honey." My mother reassures me. "Mimi and I thought it would be good to go over a few house rules from the start. The first one is curfew, here in the summer your curfew is 12 pm unless we agree on something else. You can of course go to parties and come home later, but not without discussing it with us first. Curfew when school starts is 9 pm without exception." My mother says, but I already know this.

"We won't allow girlfriends or boyfriends in your rooms unless the door is open." Mimi says.

"That point is moot since I no longer have a girlfriend, right mom?" Austin says making it clear that he thinks she's to blame, but this time Mimi ignores his harsh words. The hurt look in her eyes is not to miss though and it makes me feel sorry for her after everything she has been through.

"Now that we're this many people you'll need to help out a little around the house, so we've agreed that Monday through Thursday you'll do the dishes together and on Sundays you'll be cooking together." My mother says, and I nod.

"You have to clean your rooms every Sunday and every second Sunday the two of you will clean the downstairs area. You also have to take turns cleaning the bathroom you share or do it together, it just has to be done by Sunday every week." Mimi says.

"Parties has to be discussed so we know why you aren't coming home and the same goes for sleepovers. You can have friends over, but more than 3 people has to be discussed first." My mother says. "One last thing… It will sound weird especially today when you've only first met, but it has to be mentioned. You two live in the same house for the time being and during this time dating is strictly forbidden between the two of you." My mother says awkwardly.

"Like that would ever happen." Austin snaps.

"Mom, you know I love Gavin and I don't see that changing." I say embarrassed about it all.

"I know honey, it's just a precaution." She explains.

"Why?" I ask confused.

"Because you might not remember each other, but we remember how you were together for the first 5 years of your life. You were so close and did everything together, we actually have both pictures and videos if you want to see them sometime." Mimi says with a soft smile.

"No thanks. Is there anything else?" Austin asks making it clear he wants to go.

"No, that's it." Mimi responds.

"Good." He says getting up from his chair and leaves the room, seconds later I hear him on the stairs and then slamming his door shut.

"Can I be excused?" I ask politely.

"Of course, honey." My mom smiles, and I leave the kitchen as well. I don't get too far before I hear them talking about what just happened and Mimi seems to be really upset.

I sit down on the piano bench in my room because after this roller-coaster I just need to forget everything for a moment. I place my hands on the keys and close my eyes as I begin playing the music right in my heart, I let myself get consumed by it the way I always do.

Austin's P.O.V

I listen to the piano playing and for a moment I close my eyes to the beautiful sound of it, I've always love listening to music especially music filled with passion. Her playing is not only flawless, but also beautiful and filled with undying passion. Back in New York I would have taken my guitar and joined her right away not wanting to miss a chance of playing music like this, but here it only seems to anger me. It reminds me what I've lost and most of all it makes me want to play again, that makes me even angrier. I don't want to be here, I don't want to fit in, I don't want to like these people, but they're so nice I'm almost forced to.

I think back to the moment I took Ally's hand and our eyes met. I suddenly felt safe looking into her hazel brown eyes, it was just a moment, but I felt like I could trust her with anything and the feeling was oddly comforting. I just don't want to trust or to even like her, it made my blood boil and at the same time I liked it.

It's tiring trying to keep up this image, but I'm trying to make a point, so my mother will see that it wasn't for the best when she made me leave New York. I miss everything from there my dad, my friends, my band and most of all I miss Cass. I look at my phone hoping to see a text from her, but there's nothing. I haven't heard from her at all after we left, and I have the feeling I won't. I decide to at least try to text her.

Hey Cass.

I'm in Miami now and it's awful being away from you.

I miss you so bad.

I just want to come home.

I'll come back to you as soon as I can get out of here.

I love you – A

I press send hoping she'll reply, I feel hopeful when it says 'read' in the bottom of the screen and I see the three dots, but after a minute they disappear. I sit there staring at it for minutes before I realize that she won't answer, whatever she was writing is gone because clearly, she decided not to send it. I open my Facebook app and go into her profile, but I shouldn't have done that because she has already set her status to single.

I feel pain consuming me once more, she's already on her way to moving on and here I am nowhere near ready to let her go. I haven't changed my status on Facebook, but when she did her name disappeared from my profile and my status only says, 'in a relationship'. I change it to single because I don't want her to think I've found someone else. I look through her pictures and there's lots of pictures of the two of us together, the more I look at them the more I miss her.

I click in on Luke's profile and the first thing there pops up is a picture of him, Will, Cass and a random dude. I read the description under the picture 'introducing our new lead singer Liam Davis who is the newest member of 4 connections.'. It makes my blood boil, I just left, and they already replaced me with that dude. It feels like the ultimate betrayal since I was the founder of the band, I chose the name and I wrote every single song we ever performed.

I continue clicking and find a video of the gig we had today that I got for us, I see this Liam dude singing my songs and playing my solo. He has nothing on me, but it's still painful seeing him singing with my girl, in my band and one of the songs I wrote for her. I throw my phone against the wall not wanting to see anymore.

Ally is still playing piano and even though it's very beautiful music I can't stand listening to it any longer, that possess me to get up from my bed and leave my room. I knock on her door and when she says 'come in' I open it, she looks confused to seeing me in here.

"Could you please turn the noise down, I'm trying to relax and enjoy the silence." I snap at her and I feel bad as soon as I see the hurt in her eyes. Wow, I am really an asshole.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." She says in no more than a whisper and instead of replying I leave her room. I feel like crap for what I said, but I had to get her to stop playing. I go right back to my room and let myself fall down on the bed. The rest of the day is pretty dull, everyone keeps to themselves and the house is deadly quiet, that's until nighttime when there's a knock on my door.

"Come in." I say grumpily, and my mother opens the door.

"Hey Austin, how are you setting in?" She asks carefully, but it only fuels my rage.

"There's no reason to settle in! I want to go back to New York! I want to go live with dad!" I snap at her, but it doesn't make her go instead she walks in with that damn guitar in her hand.

"This could be good for us, Austin. A new start, give it a chance." She says frustrated.

"No! You took everything from me! My dad, my friends, my girlfriend it's all gone!" I snap.

"There'll be others." She whispers.

"No, you don't get it! I love Cass, and I didn't want to leave her behind. You could have let me stay with dad, but you didn't even care enough to ask or consider what I wanted!" I say angrily.

"I'm sorry, Austin." She whispers. "I thought you might want this." She puts down the guitar.

"You thought wrong. I told you, I won't play ever again. That thing is just a reminder of what I've lost." I say refusing to even look at her. "Just get out." I say, I have no energy for her now.

She stands there for some time clearly wanting to say something, but she wisely decides against it and finally leaves my room. I look over at the guitar case, my first instinct is to smash it the way I did with the other. Out of side out of mind. I decide against it for now, I won't even go near it and I wish she hadn't come in here with it. There was a reason I chose to leave it behind in my old room… I didn't want it here.

I look around in my new room and it's a complete mess, they're filled boxes everywhere and to be honest it looks kinda depressing. My room looks like I feel at the moment, but I also don't feel like unpacking because if I do it'll look like I actually want to be here. I end up just going to bed too mentally exhausted to do anything.

30 June 2012

The next morning.

It's very early when I'm woken up by a knock on my door, I ignore it hoping whoever is on the other side will respect that I'm not interested, but of course I'm not that lucky because only a second later the door opens.

"Austin, time to get up." My mother says, but I ignore her completely. "You have work with Ally in a half hour." She adds.

"I'm not going." I mumble.

"Oh yes you are even if I have to drag you all the way there." She warns.

"Fine!" I snap at her.

I get out of bed as she leaves my room, I look through some of my boxes to find a pair of jeans and a shirt to wear today. I don't really care what I wear anymore, why should I? I'm not in a band anymore, I'm not even playing music and I don't plan to anytime soon. I leave my room since I figure I better get some breakfast, I have no idea how long Ally's shift is. I walk into the kitchen to see my mother, Ally's mother and Ally sitting around the table. All I can really think is 'oh great, there goes my quiet breakfast', but my mother may punish me some more if I say that out loud.

"Ally made pancakes for breakfast, you're welcome to have some." Penny says, and I nod, normally I would be jumping like a kid on Christmas eve, but I don't want my mother to think I'm any kind of happy here. I silently take a few pancakes onto a plate and add enough syrup to drown them in it, I take a seat next to Ally. I note quickly that these pancakes are some of the best I've ever had, but of course I won't tell her that.

"Mimi and I will clean this up, so you won't be late for work." Penny says to Ally.

"Thanks mom." She says kindly. "Ready to go yet, Austin?" She asks me.

"I guess." I reply. "Mom, do you know if my car is here yet? Dad said he'd get it shipped down." I ask my mother.

"I bet he did." She says gloomily. "It's not here yet, but when it does you'll need a job to pay for the gas and I'll help you with insurance." She says and when I look at her I feel bad for a moment, she looks so tired and worn-out.

"Thanks." I say, my mother looks surprised and it's most likely because it's the first civil thing I've said to her since she told me we'd be moving.

"It's not far, we can walk there in 15 minutes." Ally says, and I nod in response. I follow her out of the door and we walk side by side.

"By the way, thanks for breakfast, it was nice." I say, it's kind of a peace offering since I went off on her yesterday.

"I'm happy you liked it." She smiles softly at me.

"I did, you're pretty good at that." I nod, and then I realize what I said. I don't want to be too nice to her.

"Thanks."

We walk the rest of the way in silence and as much as I hate to admit it, I feel like this place is familiar and I like the looks of this place. It's not home to me, but I'm afraid I might actually come to like this place. Ally stops in front of a music store called 'Sonic Boom' and I wonder for a moment what we're doing here until she unlocks the front door. You got to be kidding me, of all the possibilities, it had to be a music store. I groan internally in annoyance.

"This is it." Ally says as we walk inside.

I like the vibe of the place as soon as I walk inside, and I hate it, I don't want to be drawn to the instruments, but I am. I admire them and their beauty, I can't help it. Music has always been such a huge part of my life and even now when I've chosen not wanting to play I still feel the pull.

"Is it just gonna be us?" I ask her.

"Yeah, my dad is on a convention and I've promised to take care of the store until he gets back, but I love being here, so I don't mind." She explains.

"What's upstairs?" I ask her.

"It's my practice room. My dad made this room for me where I could write and record my songs, wanna see?" She asks.

"Sure." I agree and follow her upstairs. She unlocks the door and once we step inside I look around, if I had seen this a few days ago I would have been ecstatic. It's like a recording studio up here, it's perfect if you want to go anywhere with your music. "You write songs?" I ask her, remembering she said that.

"Well yeah, I have since I could write. It's a passion of mine, I enjoy writing and playing." She shrugs.

"I did too once." I admit, but she doesn't look surprised. "What do you play?" I ask.

"Mostly piano, but sometime guitar as well." She smiles as she runs her fingers over the piano and I notice how passionate she is about it, but I kinda knew that already after I heard her play yesterday. "What did you play?" She asks me curiously.

"Guitar, but I can play anything really." I shrug like it's no big deal.

"Cool." She nods. "Shoot, I have to open up the store." She says and hurries downstairs, her outburst makes me smile in secret for a moment, just talking about music gets her to forget time just like I used to. I close the door to the practice room and follow her down. I help her carrying out the signs and once we're done she goes to the cash register, I notice how comfortable and professional she seems to be when she's here.

It doesn't take long before costumers begin to arrive, and Ally seems to take a personal interest in every single one of them, I notice as I watch her. I never really looked at her before now, but when I do, I have to admit she's a natural beauty. I feel drawn to her hazel brown eyes because for some reason they feel so familiar to me, I feel better when she's around and I don't understand why.

I quickly fall into the routine she has provided me with, and I help her out by helping customers find the instrument they need. I have a lot of knowledge when it comes to music, so helping others find their instrument comes quite easy to me. I watch Ally in between customers and she's great at this, she's so sweet and helpful. She's the kind of person I enjoy being around and we're alike in many ways, but at the same time very different, but I kinda like that. I really don't want to like her, but how can I not? My mother may not have been too far off believing we could be friends because in a different time and place we may have been.

I notice that the more time I spend with her, the more I like her and in time she might be a reason to stick around, but I don't want any attachments to this place. It's confusing because a part of me just want to enjoy being in a music store with someone who is as passionate about music as me, but at the same time I hate it. The thing is, I only hate it because I love it and that is why it's so complicated.

"Hey Austin, do you want to join me for lunch? I usually close up for an hour to get something to eat?" She asks politely without looking at me and I only have to look at her to know she's afraid that she'll anger me again. Great now I really feel like I'm the villain rather than my mother, who is to blame for all of this… I decide I better be civil with her – this is not her fault.

"Sure." I shrug, I don't want to be nice just civil. She seems relived by my answer and I follow her out of the door, on the way she takes the sigh which says that we'll be back by 1 pm and hangs that on the door before locking it.

"I know a place and it's not far. Do you mind?" She asks.

"No, you pick." I say. I follow her to a sandwich place called Mini's and as I look at it, I notice that I might have chosen a place like this if I had known it was here. I silently appreciate that Ally and I are alike in this way as well, but I'm determined not to let her know that.

"My mother gave me a bit of money for lunch for the two of us, so pick whatever sandwich you'd like and something to drink." Ally says and that surprises me and annoys me a little bit. I've never let a girl pay before and I wasn't planning on it, but I decide to hold my tongue since it isn't Ally who is paying but her mother. I would have protested this morning though if I had known.

"Sure thanks." I say looking at the options then.

It amuses me to notice that we both have picked a club sandwich with curry and falafel along with an iced tea without looking at each other. Her lips tug upwards when she notices too, but only for a second and says nothing. For a moment I wish I knew what she had been thinking off but shrug it off. After Ally paid for our lunch, we found a table in the corner where we begin to eat silently and from time to time our eyes meet, but we say nothing.

"I hope it isn't too awful for you to join me for work today." She says quietly and for a moment it throws my façade and makes me want to assure her that it's fine, but then I remember that I don't want to be too nice.

"It's not the worst. I find it better than sitting in my room waiting for the time to pass – at least I got something to do." I say offering her a small smile and she smiles back. For a moment I stop breathing… Wow, I really like her smile and it warms me up to be the reason she does.

"That's me as well. I prefer to have something to do rather than nothing. Don't take this the wrong way, but I really like your smile." She says with a small smile on her lips and her word lightens my mood and I can't help but smile at her, it makes her giggle.

"Thanks, and just so you know… I like your smile too." I say before I can think about it, but I can only partly regret to have let my façade fall. We smile at each other for a moment before returning to our food, but I can't get her smile, her giggle and her kind words out of my head. It'll be hard to keep my guard up around her given I already enjoy her company this much.

"Our hour is almost up. We should head back to the store." She says regretfully and I wonder if she enjoyed this lunch hour as much as I did.

"Lead the way." I say and follow her out of the restaurant. We walk in silence, but only it's even more comfortable than this morning. I might not want to be here, but I'll enjoy every moment with Ally whether I really want to or not. She's too sweet, too nice for me to hate her – I've already let my guard fall around her.

"Ally." An unfamiliar voice calls behind us and I turn as Ally does.

"Piper." Ally responds warmly and throws her arms around the gorgeous blonde as she caught up with us. I take in her appearance and I won't deny that I find her attractive instantly partly because she reminds me a little bit of Cass, but of course this girl is beautiful in her own way.

"Oh… Who is this?" The blonde asks Ally while looking astounded at me.

"I'm Austin." I introduce myself.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Piper." She says and I can tell she's smitten. It makes me smile a little.

"Austin is a friend of the family and he's with us for a while." Ally explains.

"Oh really? Why haven't you said anything about it?" She asks Ally.

"It's pretty new and they only moved in yesterday." Ally explains with a smile.

"Oh." She blushes looking at me.

"Sorry Piper, but we're working in my dad's store today and we have to get back." Ally says as she realizes that we'll be late unless we hurry.

"Sure, I'll see you around. Please bring him to the beach party…" I hear Piper whisper to Ally and it makes me smirk.

"I'll see what I can do." Ally says.

"Nice to meet you too, Piper." I say in a farewell as I follow Ally back to the store. "She seems sweet." I say to Ally as we walk.

"She's the best." She smiles fondly while talking about her friend and that makes me appreciate Ally even more.

We return to the store and removes the sigh, it's quiet for a little while before costumers begin coming around again and I note that it seems like they know the opening hours well. We fall into the same pattern helping customers with ease and we don't even have to talk or consult each other – I enjoy how easy it is and it makes me thankful that my mother made me go even though I'd never admit to that.

We have been here for a total of 7 hours when the last customer leaves, and Ally closes up the store, but it feels like no time at all and once thing is for sure. I'll rather be here than sit in 'my room' all day with nothing to do and the time goes by faster here – being around Ally is easier too since she doesn't question me or try to make me want to stay, she just let me be.

"Hey Austin." Ally says, and I look at her. "You did great today and if you'd like me to, I might be able to get you a job here, at least for as long as you're staying." She says, and I smile at that, she knows I want to leave, and she doesn't question it. She's the only one who doesn't make me feel bad about wanting to leave here. I have to like her a little for that…

"Sure, that would be cool." I nod.

"Then you can afford gas for your car." She smiles, and I get the feeling she's teasing me.

"It would be nice to be able to drive it when it gets here." I say in agreement.

"I'm gonna stick around for a while, but you can go home if you want. I can draw you a map if you don't remember the way." She offers nicely.

"I think I'll stick around if it's okay with you, there isn't much to do back at the house." I shrug.

"True, I'm going to the practice room. You can come if you like." She says leaving it up to me, but she doesn't wait for my answer. I follow her upstairs and she takes a seat on the piano bench, I take a seat on the couch by the wall.

She begins to play the piano and I listen to the soft tune she's playing, it makes me feel calm. I recognize it, but I have no idea where or when I've heard it. I feel draw to it and before I think about it I'm on my feet. I take a seat on the piano bench beside Ally, I look at her play and before I can stop myself I place my fingers on the keys.

I play along with her easily almost as if I've done it before, but even if I have I don't remember it. I close my eyes feeling the music with my entire body and completely in the moment. We move our fingers along on the keys easily, I don't remember having played this well with anyone before.

We move to press down the same key and the note rings in the air when my hand accidentally touches hers, I get this awesome feeling that no one not even Cass has made me feel. I look at Ally and for a moment I'm caught in her eyes, there's something comforting about her.

"I know this tune." I whisper.

"I don't know how you can, it's an original and hasn't been played before in public yet." She says as she bites her lip.

"I just know it." I say trying hard to remember where I've heard it. I get up from the piano bench and take one of the acoustic guitars. I sit down on a chair close to the piano. "Play it again." I ask her softly and she does.

It only takes me a second before I'm playing the piece on the guitar and suddenly I remember, I've played this tune before over the years. I don't know where it came from, I've just always played it especially when I felt sad or needed comfort. She closes her eyes as she plays and before I can think I've done it too, I'm completely caught up in the moment. We play the last note and it rings in the air for a while, I slowly open my eyes and so does she.

"Wow, you play beautifully." Ally says in a compliment.

"Thanks." I smile at her. "You play very beautifully as well. I'm sorry about yesterday, I wasn't mad at you. I liked what you played, but it just reminded me of what I left behind in New York." I confess before I have a chance to think over what I just admitted to.

"I get it. I wouldn't have been handling it well if my mom had made me leave everything and everyone behind. I won't hold that against you." She says and once again I'm reminded of how kind she is.

"Thanks."

"Why don't you play anymore?" She asks softly and when I look at her I just get the feeling that she understands me.

"I just don't." I shrug not wanting to tell her about it.

"Alright." She says letting it go. "Do you want to go back to the house, it's already 8 pm and we kinda missed dinner." She smiles a little.

"Sure." I nod, and I wonder how 3 hours just disappear like that, but I don't dwell on it.

I follow Ally out of the practice room and out of the store, we walk the short walk to the house in silence side by side. My mother and Penny is sitting on the couch talking once we walk back inside the house.

"Hey, you two, how did it go?" Penny asks her daughter.

"It went fine, mom." She smiles and I'm grateful when she doesn't tell my mother about the music, I don't need her to know I played. I don't think I'll be playing again and even if I do it'll just be for myself. I wonder if this was my mother's plan to make me accept being her by making me go work at a music store and spend time with Ally. I decide not to keep dwelling on that since the day hasn't been awful like I feared it would. Ally and I heat up something to eat in silence, but even in silence I enjoy her company. We eat and then help each other do the dishes. I retreat to 'my room' afterwards where I call my dad and he answers on the forth ring.

"Hey Champ." He smiles.

"Hi dad, how are you?" I ask him.

"It's okay, a little empty without you and your mother. How about you? Did you settle in alright?" He asks.

"I haven't yet. I hope my mother will come to her senses and let me move back to New York with you sometime in a near future." I say honestly.

"You just have to hang in there for a while." He says encouragingly.

"Sure."

"Your car should arrive in a week or so." He says, and it makes me smile.

"I can't wait. I miss it."

"Look, I have to go. I have a late night at work." He says.

"Ok, I'll talk to you soon." I say, and he hangs up.

I stare at my phone for a little while before I put it away, he only had 3 minutes for his son. I don't get that, but I hope I can go live with him soon enough at least then it'll be better. I watch a move to kill some time before bed, but I'm pretty worn-out after today and when I lie down I fall right asleep.