Hello, readers of That Cliché Love Story. Thank you for returning for the sixth addition to the rewritten version of this story. I've been gone for a while, as many of you may have noticed, and many of you who have stuck around since the original TCLS are probably used to it by now. I sincerely apologise, especially since I can't promise that my hiatus won't happen again. I will try my hardest to warn you guys ahead of time, though, if it's been over a month since I'd last updated the story and if I can't guarantee when the next update will be.

Anyway, enough with my blubbering! You guys came from the story after all. To apologise for my unexpected hiatus, though, I decided to post two chapters! One for the beginning of the week and one for the end of this week. This won't be a regular thing, sorry, but at least I'm giving you something for this week, right?

That Cliché Love Story

Chapter Six

Previously on That Cliché Love Story:

Standing at the doorway to the backyard, the birthday girl stood awkwardly in the kitchen, a sheepish expression on her face as she glanced from Austin to Ally, from Ally to Austin, and back and forth in silence.

Ally resisted the urge to face-palm as reality finally hit her that she had been caught making out with Austin, and not just by anyone; Cassidy! Her friend who planned this party, who invited her, and who she hadn't even bothered to try to find for the half hour that she had been here.

This was definitely the worst present ever.

"Hey, Cassidy-"

"I didn't mean to interr-"

"Happy birthday!"

The three stared awkwardly at each other, unable to form words or complete sentences as the bass of a Nicki Minaj song dropped in the background, followed by the cheering of teenagers as the music started again, the sound a muffled echo in the background as Cassidy pursed her lips.

Despite being caught in the middle of a makeout session, Austin was almost thankful that she had interrupted them. He wasn't sure how he felt about it all, and he wasn't sure how far he and Ally would've gone if they hadn't been stopped because the fact is that he enjoyed the kissing and the feeling of Ally running her fingers through his hair. He just… didn't know if he enjoyed it because it was physically stimulating or because it was Ally that he was making out with.

Cassidy cleared her throat, and with that, his thoughts were cleared too. "You.. uh, you have a little something… Well, everywhere actually." She snickered, pointing to Austin's face an gesturing around. He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, unable to comprehend what she was saying. He hadn't eaten anything, had he? Cassidy rolled her eyes, a bright smile appearing on her lips. "Never realised how much red lipstick looks good on you, Austin."

At her words, Austin's eyes widened, glancing at Ally. His eyes flickered over her face, seeing the bright red shade of her lipstick now a lighter, dark pink smudged past her lips. He could tell Ally was staring back at him too, quickly scanning his face in return before her hand came up to her mouth to muffle her laugh.

Austin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, shocked to see Ally's bright red lipstick angrily staring back at him. By that point, Ally wasn't trying to hold back her laughter, even taking her phone out to snap a photo as Austin stared at her in shock.

He exchanged a glance with Cassidy, who shot him a smile before laughing along with Ally. With a shake or his head, he reached around Ally and grabbed a tissue in an attempt to wipe the lipstick off. Seeing what he was doing, Ally grabbed the tissue from him and gently wiped it off his lips and the area around his mouth as her hand cupped his face, a grin still playing on her lips.

"It's a new look he's been trying out," Ally played along with the joke after she finished wiping off her own lipstick, "but I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of it."

Shaking his head, Austin pulled away from Ally to put the tissue in the bin. "Well, I personally don't like it all." He wiped his mouth just in case, glad to see no residue was left over. He turned to Cassidy and pulled her into a quick hug, "Happy Birthday, Cass. I would've brought a present, but I think my presence here is already big enough of a present, don't you think?"

Cassidy rolled her eyes at his playful teasing. "Oh, please, Ally's presence is the real present for me." She and Ally exchanged a quick hug before being interrupted by a hard knock on wood. Pulling apart, the three friends turned to the doorway to see that it was Kimmy, one of Gabrielle's friends and someone who had regularly bullied Ally, at the door.

Ally avoided eye-contact with the blonde cheerleader, choosing to play with the stray threads that hung from her denim shorts and hoping Kimmy would ignore her. Fuck, I thought this would be easy but look at me, feeling pathetic just because some popular girl walked into the room. Ally lifted her head, trying to feel less small than she actually did and glancing at the blonde girl who'd walked in.

"Hey, Cass, some of us have gathered to play Truth or Dare upstairs. You wanna join us?" Kimmy plastered a smile on her face, merely staring at the birthday girl and not even looking at Ally.

She couldn't tell if she was glad, or if she was hurt by it, but Ally shrugged it off mentally nonetheless.

Cassidy nodded as an answer to the cheerleader, who left immediately afterwards with a quick glare at Austin. The strawberry blonde turned towards her two friends, a smile tugging on her lips. "Do you guys wanna join us? It'll totally be fun!" She grinned at Ally, taking her hand in hers and raising an eyebrow at them. "You don't have to join if you really don't want to, but please? For the birthday girl?"

Austin chuckled under his breath but didn't say anything. Cassidy turned towards Ally, who lowered her gaze, not noticing the unsure glance Austin gave her. She stared down at her silver ankle boots and wondered what she should say.

As much as she really didn't want to be in the same room as her bullies, she still had her end of the deal to keep up with. She could suffer a few rounds of Truth or Dare, right? She could take the stares from Gabrielle, and Kimmy and Kira, and all the other girls. She could ignore the glances Trent and his buddies threw towards her. She's endured them for most of her schooling life, so why not now?

'Why not now?' Maybe because this is a different situation than the others, Allison. The annoying, logical part of her brain spoke up, reminding her of the reality. Because this is a social situation where you will be surrounded by your enemies, who you have to become friends with to make sure Gabrielle's popularity deteriorates and yours rises. Because your revenge and almost a thousand bucks are on the line.

Ally knew the voice was right; this was more than just a silly game. There was a lot riding on this, and if she failed to gain popularity and gain the approval of the popular clique, what's going to happen to her? Austin could only help her so much with the boys, but the girls? They were a pack of hyenas, waiting for a victim to tear apart – and if she couldn't join the pack, she had the highest potential to be prey.

She sighed softly, raising her head and forcing a smile on her lips. "A game of Truth or Dare wouldn't hurt, would it?"

Except, it might. The voice teased.

"No, of course not!" Cassidy replied, beaming down at her friend. "Okay, well, I'm gonna go up first. You guys take your time, okay?" She gave them a wink before walking out of the kitchen, leaving Austin and Ally in silence again as a bad EDM song blasted out of the speakers a few walls away.

The entire time Ally was debating with herself internally, Austin had been watching her. He knew she was conflicted, and he completely understood why she would say no to participating in the game, but at the same time, he had hoped she would agree to it. They had a deal, after all, and if Ally couldn't play a game with the popular crowd, he couldn't expect her to keep her end of the deal. Despite how he was beginning to form some kind of friendship with the girl, revenge was something he desperately needed and that came first before anything else.

Austin turned towards his fake-girlfriend, watching her nibble on her bottom lip as if she was thinking about worst scenarios that could happen once they went upstairs. Before he even knew what he was doing, Austin had reached out his hand and grabbed hers, bringing her attention to him. "Don't worry, Ally." He murmured, gazing into her anxious eyes. "I'll be there with you, remember? You won't be alone."

She blinked up at him, finally letting go of her bottom lip to let out a trembled sigh. His assurance was oddly calming and comforting. With a nod of her head and a tightened grip on his hand, Ally led Austin out of the kitchen and out into the hallway, ready to head into battle.

Well, as ready as she could possibly be at that moment.

Truth or Dare. Ally absolutely despised it – it was such a stereotypical party game played by teenagers (not that she'd actually know because she was never invited to high school parties), and she's seen enough movies and shows to know the game never ended in a good way.

Thinking about how stupidly she'd agreed to play the game made her want to slap herself silly, but it was too late to back out now. If she refused to play, everyone would look at her like she was a loser again (as if their opinions have changed just because she's dating Austin Moon) and tarnish the reputation that Ally had yet to gain.

"Alright, you motherfuckers," Kira Starr spoke after she finished the fifth shot she had to take in a row (thanks to a dare from Cassidy), "who's next?" Her eyes searched the faces in the circle, skipping over the birthday girl, before they landed on Trent. With a glint of trouble in her eyes, she leaned forward and spun the bottle expertly. A few spins later, and the bottle landed on Trent.

Ally couldn't help but be impressed by Kira's bottle-spinning skill, it seemed she had quite a lot of practice to land on Trent Andreas precisely. Thinking about the rumours she'd heard last year, she remembered how the girls would gossip in the bathrooms about Jimmy Starr's daughter getting trashed over the weekend, sneaking into college parties or going to clubs underage. She shook her head to rid of the thoughts, knowing they would be unhelpful opinions to keep if she was to ever befriend the girl.

Kira smirked at quarterback, reclining against the guest bed. "Trent, truth or dare?"

Without missing a beat, Trent said, "dare, obviously." He scoffed as if the idea of him choosing truth was ridiculous.

Kira nodded, as if expecting the answer, and spoke of her dare quickly. "I dare you to run naked down the street and sing Blurred Lines at the top of your lungs."

Austin, along with the rest of the popular crowd, laughed as Ally suppressed a smile. Trent was the only one not amused, his dark skin flushing at the dare. Everyone knew he wouldn't turn down the dare – Trent was always the type to show off his male dominance and strength – so they watched as he pushed himself off the floor, stalking out of the room with determined steps. Kira and a few other people followed behind him, while Austin, Ally and four others remained upstairs, watching from the balcony of Cassidy's guest room.

They watched as Trent stepped out of the house in the midst of stripping his clothes off and throwing them at Kira. The brunette rolled her eyes as she caught them, but promptly left them in a heap on the grass. Just before he tore his briefs off, Ally turned her head away and stared up at the night sky. One thing she'd swore to herself was that for the rest of her high school life, she wanted to be one of the few people to have never seen Trent Andreas' penis. If she was lucky enough, she would never have to, and no matter how much she wanted to watch her bully embarrass himself, she refused to see him fully naked.

Sensing a pair of eyes on her, Ally turned her eyes away from the stars and watched Austin as he raised a questioning eyebrow at her. With a small smirk, Ally turned towards Austin and stepped into his space while his arms automatically wrapped around her back. "I don't ever want to see Trent's dick," she murmured quietly into the crook of Austin's neck. "Don't want to be on the list of girls who have seen him fully naked, or else people will think I slept with him."

At her words, Austin chuckled, the vibrations sending a shiver down her spine. A cold breeze hit her as she listened to Trent singing – well, shouting, to be more precise – Blurred Lines while teenagers laughed in the distance. A few more seconds and the awful singing died down as she heard people cheering downstairs.

"It's over," Austin murmured in her head. "He's not naked anymore."

Ally snorted, pulling away from his neck to glance down and barely registering the fact that he kept his arms around her. She watched as a flushed and panting Trent finished putting his shirt back on and becoming fully clothed again. With a grin, she observed the scene as people patted his back sympathetically while he glared at Kira. The group began to trickle back inside, including the other teenagers who were on the balcony with Austin and Ally.

Ally watched as the last person to slip back inside was Gabrielle and Kimmy, who nudged the former girl and gestured upstairs.

Her smile faltered as she realised Gabrielle and Kimmy were looking at her, with Austin's arms still wrapped around her midsection. Her cousin's blue eyes were cool as they made eye-contact with Ally's honey-brown ones, and, for a moment, it felt like they were kids again. Like they were back at the elementary school recital, and Ally had won first place in the music category and Gabrielle came second. Like they were back in third grade and Ally got the highest merits in her class and beat Gabrielle by half a mark. She felt cold, and not just because of the late summer breeze; it was like her cousin's gaze was replacing the blood in her veins with ice and her body was becoming numb due to it.

Unable to keep still any longer, Ally broke eye contact and quickly turned around in Austin's arms, seeking warmth. He was staring up at the stars until that moment, her sudden movement catching his attention and bringing his light brown eyes down to her dark ones.

Not noticing how tense she was, Austin smiled down at her. "Cold?" He asked, no trace of teasing in his voice. Despite the shake of her head, Austin shrugged off his leather jacket anyway and draped it over her shoulder, making sure it was on snuggly. "Better now?"

With a weak smile, Ally nodded.

She couldn't find the words to tell him that the wind had nothing to do with why she was shivering, so she merely leaned forward and placed her forehead on his shoulder, arms wrapping around his middle and his vice versa.

"I saw Gabrielle staring up at us," she muttered quietly, unsure if he could even hear her over the background noise as people began to fill the room again. The way his arms tightened around her told her that he had, but he remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. Except, she didn't know what else to say. Was there anything else more she had to say? "It was when everyone was coming back inside... I think Kimmy noticed us and told Gabrielle, and when she looked up, she saw your arms around me. She didn't look particularly happy."

Austin was silent for a moment. "I guess the plan's working then. She's beginning to take more notice."

"Hmm.." Ally hummed, burrowing her head against the crook of Austin's neck and watching everyone gradually come back inside the guest room from over Austin's shoulder. She was still cold and the hairs on her arm were still standing up. Despite how warm Austin was and despite the fact that Gabrielle was probably inside the house by now, she could still feel her ice-cold gaze still burning into her skin.

And this, Ally knew, meant that her cousin won.

Congratulations! You've made it to the end of Chapter Six. Almost nothing has happened this chapter, and almost nothing will happen in Chapter Seven too (which will be posted by the end of this week), but they're here for the purpose of building more characteristics of the side characters and give you some 'insights' on some relationships. The story's going pretty slowly, but please bear with me.

Next chapter, we will meet the last of the original core four who we haven't been introduced to yet in this rewritten version. She will definitely play a role in the forming of Austin and Ally's relationship and will be someone who we will appreciate for being by our leading lady's side.

Anyways, let me know how you feel about this chapter. It's slow, I know, but I hope you guys found some interesting hints I've given about Ally and Gabrielle's past. (It's important for future chapters, I swear.) Don't forget to review to let me know how you're feeling about TCLS, and also favourite and follow to keep up with the story!

Until next time (a.k.a the end of this week), love from FashionLovah.