Wow can I tell you guys that you are all super fabulous? (Oh… )
Anyways I didn't expect a big reaction from the last chapter since it took me so long to update, and I know I have two other stories that are in major need of some lovin and I swear I'll get to it. This chapter is bi-polar
Thank you very much
Chapter twelve:
Ally and Connor had walked the rest of the way to her shabby apartment in a peaceful quiet.
She still wasn't completely comfortable being with him, let alone looking at him, but she decided she wasn't going to be rude and avoid him just because he possessed a few similarities of her deceased best friend. She was going to try to at least be friends, for Mitchell's sake.
As they came up to the run down building, Ally suddenly felt embarrassed. When she stopped walking she eyed Connor observing the place in front of him.
"Home sweet home…" She mumbled under her breath. She was becoming sick coming back to this dump. She stepped towards the front door, stopping before going inside and faced Connor. He was still looking up at the building.
"It was nice meeting you Connor, thanks for walking me home." She said hoping to capture his attention away from the dirty bricks.
She didn't.
Not wanting to stand there any longer she turned to open the rusty door handle but was grabbed by the arm and held back.
"This dump is your home? This is no place to have a child…" He said appalled.
She simply shrugged. "I've been living here for months now. If it were any nicer I wouldn't be able to afford it. Plus it's not that bad of a place." She played off eyeing the crumbling walls and the overgrown weeds spewing out of the cement cracks.
He shook his head madly. "Uh-uh. You are coming with me."
The small brunette felt a sudden grip on her right forearm and was then being tugged in the opposite direction of the building. She began to protest; dragging her heels on the sidewalk, but was struggling for power against the full-grown man.
"Stop…Stop it! LET GO OF ME!" She wailed with one last yank, setting herself free from his grasp.
He turned and raised his brows.
They were now standing a good five feet from each other. Just staring back and forth on the pavement.
Ally spoke first.
"What the hell?" She said throwing her small hands up in the air.
Connor licked his lips before speaking. "What?"
His tone was breathless. He didn't know for sure what he did wrong. He was about to find out though.
She rolled her eyes at how oblivious he was.
Men.
"What were you trying to do?" She pressed, feeling like she had to literally spell out what she was trying to say in order to get through to him.
He scoffed as if she was the oblivious one.
"I'm taking you somewhere else because a girl like you shouldn't be staying in a place like this…"
He walked to her trying to grab her hand again. She stepped back and continued to question him.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that this place is dangerous, unsanitary and looks as if the building just might topple over any day now!" He huffed. "You can't stay here."
That did it. Ally folded her thin arms in a tightly manner across her chest so they were resting on the top of her belly.
"You don't know me! At all! We literally just met, so what makes you think you get to decide what I can and cannot do? Because I have been on my own here for the past 8 months and I think I am just fine."
She spat the last part of her rant. She was being a little edgy she thought. Blame it on hormones, whatever. She didn't really care at the moment.
Connor was staring at the ground. She figured because he was too skimpy to look her in the eye.
"You weren't alone." He said finally in a low voice.
The frustrated girl couldn't seem to find any sort of resentment in him. She let out the breath she was holding slowly. She too found her eyes traveling to the ground.
"I know." She whispered barley audible.
He glanced up for a second, thinking all the venom had worn off, but shuttered at the cold stare he was receiving.
"I had Mitchell." She spoke again coldly.
He had remained unusually silent. He did not want to set her off again. He was thinking of just turning around and leaving. Nothing could have been worse then standing there getting a lecture from a petite hormonal girl. He knew he made a mistake by trying to talk to her and get to know her. But yet he couldn't get the motivation to move.
She did that for him.
"And you're not him." She snapped one last time before spinning around and marching into the building, leaving him alone in the cold on a wide, old New York City sidewalk.
Jimmy Starr reached for the silk handkerchief from his left breast pocket and wiped away the sweat droplets that had formed on his forehead. He was feeling worn out and stressed from planning the last few details for Austin's tour.
His office felt more warm than usual. It didn't phase him however once his eyes caught the sight of the pile of folders and papers scattered across the floor.
He let out an irritable sigh, walking over to the mess and gathering it up into one individual pile and placing it back on his desk.
He figured that they had just toppled over on their own, so he made sure to place them farther onto the table where they couldn't fall on the floor again.
Jimmy sat in his chair before picking up his phone and calling his client.
He groaned when it went straight to voicemail, and then proceeded to call his parents.
"Mrs. Moon, it's Jimmy Starr."
The sweet woman's voice chimed back. "Oh! Mr. Starr! What can I help you with?"
"Well I just needed to get a hold of your son but he isn't answering his phone. May I speak with him?"
"Mr. Starr I'm sorry Austin isn't here. He had told me he was going to your office about… 4 hours ago."
"Oh. Well I just got back from a meeting. Do you know where he might of gone to?"
Mimi paused for a second to think. "Try Dez. Oh wait maybe he is with Naomi, that pretty girlfriend of his." She gushed. She wasn't in on the fake girlfriend thing. Austin had asked Jimmy to leave her out of it.
"Alright I will. Thank you Mimi."
"Anytime Jimmy."
After the line went dead Jimmy called Dez, who also had no idea where he was. Naomi had no idea either.
Jimmy was becoming nervous, that sweat droplets were reforming on his forehead. He didn't know whom else to contact. He tried Austin's phone again, but with no luck.
His mind began to spin. The fact that no one knew exactly where the blonde boy might have been was certainly something to be concerned about.
What Jimmy didn't know was that not only was he missing his client, he was also missing an important file on a little certain someone.
There was really nothing to do when you live in a shabby old apartment with no cable or wifi. But Ally Dawson never saw that as a major problem. She found her apartment very quiet and peaceful, a good place to read. However with the poor lighting it was quite difficult to see the words most of the time. Still with Ally Dawson being who she was, she always tried to make the best of things and squinted to see the letters on the pages instead of just sitting in the quiet doing absolutely nothing.
The cranky receptionist had given her an old box filled with books. They varied from fiction to science fiction, non-fiction and even a few dictionaries. Nonetheless Ally accepted them with gratefulness. The lady had referred to them as a baby shower gift, if she were to even have a baby shower.
She was currently in the middle of an adventure novel, about time traveling spies. The plot was a little out there but Ally found it kind of interesting. She was greatly multitasking by holding the book in one hand, and eating noodles with the other, while conveniently balancing the bowl on her round stomach.
She was in the middle of shoving the fork with twisted noodles into her mouth when there was a rap on her door. She paused her reading and set the bowl of noodles aside, carefully pushing herself off the couch and waddling towards the door.
She rapidly finished her chewing before taking a peak on the other side to observe her company.
A groan instantly escaped her lips as her eyes landed on the older doppelganger of Mitchell.
"What do you want?" She barked.
Connor looked into her eyes pleadingly. "Can I come in?"
She was now standing fully in front of him with her arms crossed.
"Why should I let you in?"
He sighed. "I know. You're right. I just…"
He paused as if waiting for permission to continue.
"I'm sorry." He concluded and with that he began to turn away to leave her sight.
"Wait,"
His shoe hit the floor abruptly. His head twisted over his shoulder.
Ally bit her lip in hesitation; not knowing for sure what she was about to do was a good idea.
She refused to make eye contact. "Do you want to come in? I don't really have food but I can make you some noodles if you want."
Connor thought about the invitation. The corners of his mouth gradually lifted into a genuine smile. "Yeah that would be great."
Ally had given up with her novel and decided not to be rude and eat with Connor anyway. They were currently chilling on the wood floor, on top of a ratty blanket. They faced each other, and slurped up long lanky noodles in the dark silence.
Her brown eyes roamed around the room, looking everywhere but his baby blues. This was probably the most awkward situation she's ever encountered. She couldn't think of how it could get worse.
As she slurped up her last noodle, she set her bowl aside and finally glanced at Connor, who was still working to keep the pasta on his fork. So she was just sitting there, watching him eat.
It was worse.
"How are your noodles?" She asked blankly, just trying to fill the empty air.
"Mmm," His cheeks were slightly puffed out while he chewed. All he could do was nod and give her encouraging thumbs up.
He wasn't oblivious. He knew quite well how uncomfortable it was. He was simply trying to finish the meal she had cooked up for him, because he didn't want to be rude. He didn't have the heart to leave the bowl unfinished.
The noodles were also cold. But he wouldn't let her know. Never tell hormonal pregnant woman her noodles are cold. It was a bad idea.
When he could finally talk he decided to start a conversation in hope on saving both of them.
"You were right. Your room isn't so bad. Sure it could use better lighting, or furniture but it looks livable."
She scrunched her nose. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?"
He laughed, a sweet chime to her ears. "You could say that."
She smiled. "Thanks. But it wasn't livable when I first came here."
Her chest tightened remembering Mitchell when he was in his extreme interior-decorating mode, he was over constantly remodeling the whole place. From the bed-sheets to the light peach painted walls. It was a happier memory however, that made her miss him intensely.
Connor seemed to notice the faraway look in her eyes. "What are you thinking about?"
The chest pain increased. "Mitchell." She whispered, struggling to find her voice. Her eyes were glassy.
Connors mind went off, alerting him that she wasn't okay. He scooted himself closer and wrapped his arms around her comfortingly, just moments before she finally cracked, letting out all of her sadness, her anger, her pain.
He sat their motionless, feeling the despaired girl weep and shake in his arms. He knew it was the right thing to come back. He wasn't sure what exactly gave him the urge to. It was just one of those feelings that was more of an instinct and it kept poking at him ordering him to just go back to her.
He understood now though, why he needed to come back. She wasn't supposed to be alone tonight.
Ally was sorting out calming herself down so she could breath properly. His arms around her gave her warm tingles up and down her spine. Everything was calmer. She was still in his warm embrace. It was comforting, in the simplest ways. As they both sat there peacefully, she realized that she was feeling something that she hadn't felt ever since she came to New York.
She felt safe.
Jimmy awoke suddenly at the sound of his phone buzzing on his dresser. He picked it up and checked the screen. The bright light blinded him as he noticed the time. It was the middle of the night, but he was receiving a call from Mimi Moon. He answered.
"Hello?"
"Jimmy! It's Mimi, did you ever get a hold of Austin?" She rambled.
He sat up quickly. This wasn't good. "No, I haven't."
She cried distressed. "I don't know where he is! I found his phone in his room and his all of his clothes are gone! Jimmy, I think something happened."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to inhale properly. "What do you suppose we do?"
"Mike and I have decided that if we didn't hear from him by noon tomorrow, we're going to report him missing." Her voice sounded weak. Like she had been crying for the past few hours.
"Okay. Let me know if you hear anything."
"I will. Goodnight."
Jimmy breathed in sharply, trying to process all that was going on. This was not the time for his client to disappear. Austin's tour started in two weeks. If he didn't turn up by then he would have to postpone it, which would disappoint a lot of people and lose him a lot of money.
He didn't know where Austin Moon was, but he did know that he was going to do everything in his power to find him.
Ally couldn't explain it. Something had just sparked between them. One minute she could barley look at him and the next they were talking and all the other problems just seemed to fade away.
Moments like this however, tend not to last very long.
"How are you going to earn money? You're going to need it especially after the twins are born."
Ally shrugged. It was late; the entire state of New York was probably asleep. She never even thought about sleeping. She had the rest of her life to sleep. Right now she just needed to talk.
"I sometimes play for tips in the park a few blocks down. It's pretty much all I can do at the moment."
Something in Connors mind went off. "Oh, right I forgot you were into that music stuff."
Her eyebrow rose up in question. "That music stuff? Do you not like music?"
He bobbed his head. "Well yeah I listen to the radio, I just don't play anything or sing. That was all Mitchell."
"I don't believe that. I think all of you Lombardi's have something up their sleeves. Mitchell couldn't have been the only one."
"I don't know what to tell you."
Ally sat quiet with a look of concentration on her face. Connor didn't have to know her to know that whatever she was thinking, he was going to be forced to take part of.
She licked her lips and piped up. "Come with me tomorrow, and we'll perform at the park and you'll help me earn tips."
He shook his head and laughed. "I don't play anything. How do you know I can sing? You'd lose your tips."
"You can't be that bad. I refuse to take no for an answer."
Connors lips formed a tight line as he simultaneously furrowed his forehead.
"How about I go with you, but I don't sing."
Ally didn't have to know him to know that he was stubborn. It was a trait in which he had shared with his brother. And like any argument she'd ever had with Mitchell, she knew one thing. She wasn't going to change his mind. It was probably a Lombardi quality.
"Fine. But you're singing with me another time." She warned, poking him in the chest.
In the morning, Connor headed back his place to grab some fresh clothes before returning back to her apartment, so they could walk over to the park together.
Ally had her guitar case gripped firmly by her side. She tugged on her shirt that was slipping up and revealing her stomach as she walked. Her breathing was becoming heavier as they marched along the sidewalk. Being heavily pregnant was quite tiring she discovered.
When they arrived Connor set up the tip jar while Ally sat on the curb and began tuning her guitar. Her book was propped open in front of her.
The park was quiet but there were a fair amount of people wandering about. She would be drawing a crowd shortly anyway.
Connor peaked at her book. "What are you singing?"
She threw daggers at him with her eyes. "You'll see."
Once she finished tuning, she adjusted the guitar on her lap, which was a little struggling with her big belly in the way. When she tried strumming the first chords she found it challenging to reach the strings. She sighed.
Connor had been observing her struggling and he was feeling a tinge of guilt. He gave in, and took the guitar away from her.
She was confused.
"I'll play. You sing." He said.
"I thought you said you didn't play anything." She pushed.
"I lied. All Lombardi children learn how to play an instrument by the age of five. Do you want to do this or what?"
She nodded. Connor looked at her book and started playing with the chords until he got a feeling of the melody.
"There's a whole nother conversation going on, in a parallel universe, where nothing breaks, and nothing hurts."
"Theres a waltz playing frozen in time, blades of grass on tiny bare feet. I look at you, and you're lookin at me."
Connor tried to focus on the chords. But he was stricken by her captivating voice. It moved up and down like silk. People were already starting to notice, and were drawing nearer.
"Would you beam me up, give me a minute, I don't know what I'd say in it, I'd probably just stare happy just to be their holding your face. Just beam me up, let me be lighter I'm tired of being a fighter I think a minutes enough, just beam me up."
Saw a blackbird soarin' in the sky, Barely a breath I caught one last sight
Tell me that was you sayin' goodbye, There are times I feel the shiver and cold, It only happens when I'm on my own, That's how you tell me I'm not alone"
Could you beam me up, Give me a minute, I don't know what I'd say in it
I'd probably just stare, happy just to be there, holding your face
Beam me up, Let me be lighter, I'm tired of being a fighter, I think a minute's enough,
Just beam me up."
In my head I see your baby blues I hear your voice and I, I break in two and now there's One of me, with you"
Connor didn't have to interrogate her to know that the song was about Mitchell. It was so powerful and her voice was full of emotion. The number of people surrounding them amazed him. She had managed to attract more people than there were in the park to begin with. Not to mention the jar was now stuffed with dollar bills and loose change. He smiled to himself.
So when I need you can I send you a sign, I'll burn a candle and turn off the lights
I'll pick a star and watch you shine"
"Just beam me up, Give me a minute, I don't know what I'd say in it I'd probably just stare, happy just to be there, holding your face. Beam me up, Let me be lighter, I'm tired of being a fighter, I think, a minute's enough,
Could you beam me up."
With one last strum everything was dead silent for a moment before the audience began cheering and clapping. Ally was beaming, standing up and giving them a small curtsy, yelling back 'Thank you's' to those who donated to her jar and complemented her on her voice. A few even acknowledged Connor playing guitar, which surprised him.
The crowd never seemed to notice the soft glisten in Ally's eyes after singing such an emotional song. She kept on smiling though she knew Mitchell appreciated it.
As everyone slowly faded away she turned to Connor with the widest grin he'd ever seen. And then she punched him in the arm.
"Why would you ever lie to me? You were amazing!" She gushed.
He scoffed. "I think we both know who blew away that crowd. Where did you learn to sing like…" He stopped. There was a man dressed head to toe in black. His face completely covered, but Connor knew all to well he was eyeing the jar full of money sitting by itself on the sidewalk.
"Hey!" He yelled, but it was all too late, the man had snatched the jar and was now running away in full sprint.
Connor reacted instantly, and started chasing him. Ally had no idea what had just happened, but she didn't hesitate to try and follow him.
She hurried quickly but already knew that she could never catch up to him so she stopped to catch her lost breath and entered a coffee shop to wait. She didn't really care about the money being taken; she could easily earn it back. But she would let Connor play hero while she sat down in a cozy corner booth to rest.
A waitress came over and gave her a glass of water, which told Ally that she in fact did look winded. She thanked her and started to sip it. Her eyes wandered around the dainty shop until she glanced at the muted television hung up on the wall. She immediately choked on her water after reading the breaking news headline, and seeing a picture of a familiar face with blonde hair.
Pop Sensation Austin Moon: Missing
Gahh sorry it took long to update loves.
What do you think?
I don't really like this chapter.
Let me know what you are thinking! I cant read minds!
Song: Beam me up by P!nk
Wheres Austin? Dundundun
Remember you guys can ask me anything but I will only answer in PM
Thank you for 100+ reviews! You guys are super fabulous
~Sydney