Part 2 of my original Austin and Ally back-to-back concerts in Atlanta story- read the description in part 1 for more info about this extra little plot line. There will be one more final part, which I plan to post sometime in the next week, hopefully within a few days. Make sure to look out for Part 3 soon! I'll get back to my normal chapters that stick to the episodes soon, so thanks for your patience if you aren't so into this. Thank you for reading and giving suggestions :)
Experiencing Austin's concert in the amphitheater Saturday night made Ally giddy with excitement to have her own performance there. It was also great because Austin did an amazing job, and she always loved to see him sing and dance passionately on stage. That was when his soul shined the most. After he closed the night with "chasing the beat of my heart" he ran to her where she waited just barely offstage and she nearly jumped in his arms to hug him.
"Austin you did amazing! They love you." Ally shouted as she squeezed him tightly.
"Thanks Ally, I can't wait to see you out there." He replied enthusiastically, wishing to kiss her. The crowd was screaming for him to come back like they'd never heard it before, so he decided he should step out on stage one more time and say a couple more words. Ally nudged him towards the stage as they broke apart and he ran out, grabbing a microphone on his way to the center.
"Thank you Atlanta! You guys rock, and I just wanted to thank you one more time. I wouldn't have made it here without my incredible manager Trish and my best friends, and seeing you all-." Austin's speech faded out as the volume of the room became overwhelming enough that he could make out what they were chanting.
What he could make out was a mix of "Ally!" and "Kiss!"- the second one mostly coming from the left side of the amphitheater. He realized that the left side probably had a clear view of him reuniting with her offstage. He became a bit antsy and didn't know what to do because he'd already awkwardly stopped his speech.
"Uhh… well what I was saying was, seeing all of you guys here-" he attempted to continue, but his bodyguards had taken the stage by then due to the sudden amount of energy in the crowd. It seemed like everyone was simultaneously riling up with the same thoughts as the chant grew louder. This had to be one of the wilder things that had ever happened to him at a concert, and several objects had been thrown at him before- everything from phones to food to shoes. Having stuff like that thrown at him always confused him… who would want to lose their shoe to the concert venue just for him to dodge it? Or get hurt by it? Not to mention he had once almost flung his shoe right into the President during his tour… But even with all that, he'd never seen an audience so wild and adamant that he do something. They were jumping up and down and screaming like crazy, and with no music playing and the lights on the scene was a little shocking.
One of his bodyguards told him he needed to get off stage and gave him a slight push towards the side where he'd just left Ally, so he began stumbling that way. Austin felt disoriented. What did they want? For him to come out on stage with her? And do what? Kiss? It was a strange feeling to have thousands of people shouting like that just to see him with Ally. It hadn't gotten that loud during the entirety of his performance, and now for some reason seeing her offstage made everyone freak out. Austin couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed that his fans almost seemed to care more about his relationship than his music, but he knew that wasn't really the case. They were all probably just extra excited to see the two of them after the recent verbal confirmation that they were together. Verbal confirmation as in everyone at their prom did not hesitate to spread the news of their kissing and dancing that night to anyone that asked. Luckily Trish had done a thorough job of deleting any pictures and videos of them, but all of the juniors and seniors from their school talking about it was enough to make it a hot topic all over the internet.
When random reporters asked Austin about it, he couldn't deny that those events at prom had happened, but he wouldn't give anymore information. He was disliking how much his fans wanted to focus on his personal life, and he knew that bothered Ally a lot too, but they hadn't had a chance to have a very good talk about it yet. For now he just figured he wouldn't flaunt that they were together and just generally kept quiet about the relationship for the last few weeks. He would have loved to tell the whole world that she was his girlfriend, but there were several things that held them back.
"What in the world is all that? The audience is going ballistic. I can't tell what they are saying but it sounds like chanting." Ally shouted as she pulled him farther backstage; his feet were dragging a bit and he looked wrapped up in thought.
"Oh uhh, yeah, I have no idea what they are saying. It just got super loud in there all of a sudden when I was trying to give my little speech. Maybe I shouldn't try that ever again." Austin stammered at first, glad to hear that Ally wasn't aware of his fans crazy obsession with the two of them as a couple right then. Was he going to have to be more careful about hugging her? They already avoided PDA, but this outburst was downright frightening for him.
"Very weird… maybe I could tell what they are chanting if I listen closely." she said, and he put an arm around her to lead her even farther away from the stage.
"Nah it's fine, I'm sure they just want an encore or something. We should find Trish and Dez." He said a little too quickly. Ally gave him a weird look for a second but let it go and allowed him to walk her to his dressing room where Trish and Dez awaited them, happily chatting about his Atlanta concert experience together.
The next part of the night was a rush to get out of the amphitheater without being attacked by any fans, and Austin made sure to walk far away from Ally as they passed anyone so that it wouldn't fuel them to go crazier. The robots were leading them to the car that would take them back to the hotel, and fans had a lot of energy behind the security barriers. The fans nearly wacked Austin and the others' heads with the signs they waved as they passed, as per usual, but he was a little more on edge that night after his speech disaster so he moved quickly. It didn't stop him from still smiling and thanking the fans as he passed them however; he was grateful no matter what.
"Dang, the robots were not happy tonight. I think Tom even frowned." Trish whispered to Ally as they finally shut the door to the SUV.
"Yeah, I've never seen one of Austin's concerts get so loud, and he wasn't even performing. Doesn't surprise me that they'd get a little stressed up there." Ally replied.
"I couldn't fully hear them because Dez and I were… uh… listening to music in the dressing room. It sounded like they were yelling something though." Trish answered, sounding a little nervous around the middle.
"Why were you 'listening to music' during Austin's concert? Where he plays music? The whole time?" Ally answered skeptically as the car began to move. Ally was in the middle backseat with Trish and Dez on either side, and Austin was up front on a call with Jimmy Star while Tom the bodyguard drove. Dez seemed like he was trying not to blurt something out.
"We were just um… tired of it?" Trish answered.
"Uh huh. You guys were backstage with me at every concert on his tour dancing and singing."
"I was in more of a Maroon 5 mood and so was Dez." Trish said his name with a bit of emphasis and a pointed look at him, because he was now looking desperate to blurt something out.
"Alright, whatever. I'll leave it alone." Ally said, which made Dez stop holding his breath, but she planned to question Trish more the next day. Trish and Dez never wanted to hang out together.
Once Austin was off the phone the four of them spent the rest of the thirty minute car ride planning what they wanted to do the next day.
"We have to go to the coca cola museum, it looks dope!" Austin started off the conversation with the attraction he'd been thinking about for weeks.
"Yeah! They have a room where you can taste different sodas from all around the world! And most importantly… the coca cola polar bear will be there." Dez said, looking like he would melt when he mentioned the bear.
"I'd be fine with that, but what about the aquarium? Spending a few hours seeing the beautiful creatures showcased with informative displays about organisms everywhere from freshwater to saltwater habitats sounds divine." Ally said, practically swooning. The other three were just silent for a few seconds, their faces scrunched up in a way that said visiting the Atlanta aquarium was the last thing they wanted to do.
"Oh c'mon guys, it would be so cool!"
"Ally, we've established this before but I think we have different definitions of cool."
They had their day planned out by the time they were back in their hotel rooms, and nobody felt like staying up any longer. It was nearly 1 AM, and by the time they'd all showered and the ringing in their ears had begun to die down, beds looked very inviting. Austin and Ally only had time to kiss goodnight before their adjoining door was closed for the night, which didn't help her desire to have a good talk with him, but they would have been too tired anyway. Instead she just let herself sink into the covers of her bed, and without even writing in her book she let the serene view of the city put her to sleep.
Ally woke up feeling confused- she was hearing noises and it was disrupting her sleep. Irritated, she groped for the bedside lamp switch to turn on the light and figure out what was going on. Once the light was one she realized that Trish was not in her bed, and it was almost 2:30 AM. And the noises she was hearing… it sounded a lot like zombie screams. She'd had enough with the boys and was confused about Trish, but she decided she needed to force Austin and Dez to sleep first because if not it would drive her crazy. She threw her covers off and stormed to the door adjoining their rooms, swinging it open with no hesitation. What she saw was certainly surprising.
"Oh, umm Ally! What's going on?" Trish sputtered out, Xbox controller in hand, balanced on the edge of Dez's bed to be as close to the TV as possible. Dez looked the same next to her, but didn't move his eyes from the screen when Ally barged in. To Ally's surprise, Austin was actually in his bed, trying to sleep with two pillows pressed against his ears.
"Poor Austin. But what have they done to Trish." Ally thought, her brain feeling foggy as she tried to comprehend what was going on in her sleepy and angry state. She walked over to Austin first thing before responding, and realized he was not actually asleep, but holding the pillows against his ears with his eyes open looking desperate for a moment of silence.
"Ally! Thank goodness you're here. Dez convinced Trish to try playing the zombie game and now she won't stop. They've been playing for an hour in here and I seriously just want some sleep." Austin said, almost sounding panicked as he rose from his pillows to face Ally. She almost laughed at his expression- how in the world had this happened?
"Trish? Are you serious? How did they convince you to play in the first place? You hate their addiction to this game." Ally said disbelievingly, but she was humored by the entire scene. She sat next to dazed Austin on his bed and started massaging his shoulders.
"I don't know ok! I was bored while Austin was rehearsing all day. Dez asked me to play the game in his dressing room enough that I thought it would be less annoying for me to play than for him to keep asking. But it turns out, it's really fun! Once you start playing it's like it sucks you in and you can't stop!" Trish replied, seeming a little disappointed in herself but also not tearing her eyes away from the screen. Dez still didn't seem to have registered that Ally had even come in.
"You know what, whatever. I don't care that you like the game but just let us get some sleep? You of all people should respect that. Just turn it down at least?" Ally said, too tired to keep talking about it. Austin nodded his head vigorously. Trish just picked up the remote and turned down the TV to almost no sound without taking her eyes off the game.
Ally felt bad leaving Austin in there but she had an idea. She sluggishly jogged over to her carry on bag in her room and put a sleeping mask over his head and ear plugs in his ears, which he accepted gratefully. When they'd mumbled goodnight to each other and kissed again she wasted no time to collapse back into her own bed, needing sleep more than ever to shake off that weird experience. Out of everything she assumed when she heard noises from the boys room and Trish was missing, she hadn't expected that. One thing was for certain, nothing was ever boring with her people.
The first half of the day on Sunday turned out to be very fun and surprisingly disaster free, although Dez and Trish were rightfully exhausted after their night of gaming. The three things they'd done so far were all within walking distance of the hotel, and Ally enjoyed perusing through the clusters of interesting buildings with Austin by her side. The last time they'd travelled together they were just friends, and this was just so much better. They'd ridden the Sky view ferris wheel that they could see from their rooms, which resulted in some really cute photos of her and Austin- as well as all four of them together- at the top, that she wished she could post online. They then walked around "The Hub" mall at Peachtree center, where they ate some very greasy but delicious pizza. After that they enjoyed the fountains in Centennial park and became thankful that the bodyguards had come with them, because Austin and Ally found themselves taking pictures with multiple fans at the fountains, but they escaped before too many people noticed them. Austin was thankful he hadn't been holding hands with Ally right when everyone pulled out their phone cameras. That's when they headed to the Coca Cola museum, which they were all excited for. Austin offered to check out the aquarium with Ally, which warmed her heart, but she decided that they should just all stick together instead.
After they'd gone through all the displays, talked and laughed a lot through what was supposed to be a quiet tour revealing the secret cola recipe vault, and drank enough diverse sodas that they weren't sure if they'd be hungry for dinner, it was finally time for Dez' big moment with the Coca Cola polar bear.
"Th… that's him. He's here!" Dez squeaked, keeping his eyes on the bear as it moped to the photo area.
"Dez, you do know that just some sweaty dude in a costume right?" Trish said after belching from all the soda they'd just had.
"No no, don't be silly Trish, that's the polar bear! Look at that magnificent fur." Dez said with admiration. He was first in line to get his picture taken with it.
"Hey Dez, let's get one together and I'll jump on his back!" Austin piped up.
"Uhhh, guys, the sweaty guy in there probably can't handle wearing that huge costume and having a random teenager jump on his back." Ally suggested, but Dez and Austin just shrugged. Dez looked offended by Ally's assurance that the bear was not real.
Before they could come to a decision, the bear beckoned Dez forward. Austin had to shove him to get his legs to move, he was so starstruck. When Dez finished his picture- in which he looked frozen with awe next to the bear- they all joined in before heading to the gift shop to leave.
"I can't believe the Coca Cola polar bear gave me a hug. I'm gonna tell all of my friends." Dez said, and the other three gave him a puzzled look as they searched for souvenirs.
"Hey guys, the Coca Cola polar bear gave me a hug. Can you believe it?" He announced, as if the whole interaction was normal. Trish rolled her eyes and walked off, and Austin turned to Ally.
"So… I know you've been looking forward to checking out that restaurant on the top of our hotel. I was thinking, after we all swim at the hotel, Trish and Dez are probably just gonna play the zombie game again, so, would I be able to take you on a date there tonight?" Austin asked her sweetly.
"I would love that." She answered, giving him a huge smile. This would be the chance she had hoped for to have a good talk with him about some important aspects of their relationship and how it was progressively becoming public.
After the four of them walked back to the hotel with their new souvenirs, they swam and sunbathed at the beautiful rooftop pool, and Ally couldn't stop thinking about her romantic night ahead, which would be followed by her concert the next day. As she laid out on a beach chair next to the other three, looking up at the shining windows of the hotel that towered above the pool and listening to Steal Your Heart in her earbuds, she felt like nothing could go wrong.
Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 3 coming soon!