AN: Ok, so I don't have a clue what went on when I tried to upload Chapter 27 on Wednesday! It was going fine but when I went to check it, it didn't show up! So I deleted it and put it back up but the same thing happened. My friend kept telling me she couldn't get at it either... It said it had updated but nothing was there. Some people could see it but others couldn't. Some weird stuff was going on! I deleted it again and put it back up and it seems to be going well now.. I'm getting reviews for it so I assume people can see it, haha! Sorry if you got a bunch of notifications for it! Hopefully it won't happen with this one:)

Anyway, how about we step up those reviews for these last three chapters? Give me a 2 digit number that's higher than 10! Haha:P

Thank you if you have reviewed or favourited or followed. Honestly, I just love hearing what ya think:) Here is Chapter 28. You may recognize the structure from an earlier one:P Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Parties & Mistakes

Chapter 28: Third Person POV

Trish loudly knocked on the wooden emerald front door of Austin's house. She drew her oversized navy blue cardigan around her shoulders, there was a slight nip to the air. The wind whipped around the railing's of the Moon's front porch, making the fence and shutters rattle. Trish's dark brown curls blew around her face and into her eyes. She impatiently shuffled, running her feet along the tiny step into their house and glancing down at her wrist which held no watch. She held her fist up to the door once more, and knocked three times.

She knew Austin was home. He had nowhere else to be, after all. The suspension was still in effect and his car was still in the driveway. The even more telling sign of Austin's whereabouts, was Dez's bicycle leaned up against the side of the house.

They were home, they just might not be listening.

"Trish," Austin said, his mouth dropping in shock as he swung open the door. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Of course not," Trish muttered, shoving past him and into the house. Without any invitation, she shed her knee high boots and dropped her backpack onto the foyer floor.

Austin watched her make herself at home and walk further into his house. She eventually found Dez ruffling through the refrigerator and freezer, creating a mess of food on the counter.

"So why are you here?" Austin asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to yell at you."

Austin narrowed his eyes and walked into the kitchen, watching Dez unload all of the ice cream in the house, out of the fridge. Chocolate, Vanilla, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookie Dough, Birthday Cake, and Strawberry - all lined the counters. Why the Moon household had such a plethora of ice cream, no one knew.

"What the hell are you doing?" Trish asked, running her fingers around the giant ceramic bowl Dez had brought out for his sundae.

"I'm getting something to eat," Dez explained, rolling his eyes. "What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're taking all the junk out of the cupboards and throwing it together," she said, crinkling her nose at some of the ingredients. "Since when does vinegar go on ice cream?"

"It heightens the flavour," Dez said flippantly.

Austin and Trish cocked their heads to the side. They had learned not to question these whims anymore. Just let Dez do what he wanted, and ask later.

The two watched in silence as Dez piled each flavour into the yellow bowl. Soon there was a mass of colour that had been doused in chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, vinegar, cherry juice, white chocolate syrup, and maple syrup. Eyebrows were raised as Dez continued to pile more on top. Cookie pieces, cherries, orange slices, sprinkles, marshmallows, tootsie rolls, and mounds of whipped cream all came into one.

"You can't seriously tell me you're going to eat that!" Trish moaned, unable to keep the disgust out of her voice.

Dez pulled out a ladle and looked Trish in the eye as he took a giant bite and swallowed it whole. He smiled as Austin and Trish looked on in distaste.

"Want some?" Dez asked, pulling spoons out of the drawer in the counter.

Trish shook her head and pulled another stool up to the island. Austin hesitantly picked up a spoon, took a small bite of the sundae and immediately spit it into a napkin.

"God, Dez," Austin sputtered. "How do you even eat this?"

Dez shrugged and confusedly stared at his two questioning friends. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

Trish rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. She hadn't taken time out of her day and come here just to watch Dez eat ice cream. Every time she dealt with Dez her body just itched with annoyance. But, on the other hand, they had come up with some pretty good plans together - and for that, she needed him.

"I don't know what to do anymore," she spoke.

"What?" Austin asked, turning away from the sink where he had poured a huge glass of water. He came over and sat on the stool next to Trish, tilting his head in an attempt to understand. "What do you mean?"

Trish drummed her red and white stripped nails on the granite counter. "It's Ally. I just, I think she doesn't know what to do with herself, or with anyone for that matter."

"I don't know either, Trish," Austin mumbled, his voice strained.

"I know she broke up with you."

"Not break up," Austin deadpanned. "Just taking a break."

Trish scoffed. "Well, you know how that worked out in Friends."

"It worked out fine. Ross and Rachel ended up together."

"Is that how you think your story is going to end?"

"How do you think it's going to end?"

Trish sighed. "I don't know. I really want you two to be together. You work so well together, it's just everything is in the way."

"I'm familiar with all of that," Austin muttered, plunking his head down on the counter. He groaned and shut his eyes, trying to gain perspective from what Trish had said.

The kitchen became shrouded in silence. There wasn't much to say about the matter at hand, other than the fact that it was happening. No one knew how to deal with what had been going on in Ally's life. It wasn't a problem that seventeen year olds were meant to face. Cheating, lying, pregnancies, miscarriages, revenge, affairs - they were all more suited for people who had actually graduated both high school and university. The only part of this situation that was familiar, were the rumours.

School yard, nasty, untrue rumours. They went around and grew. That's what a seventeen year old is suited to deal with, everything else is just above and beyond.

Trish absently picked up one of the spoons Dez had taken out of the drawer. She swirled it around the ice cream, making patterns with all the toppings. Without thinking, she brought the spoon to her mouth, only to discover the concoction actually wasn't that bad.

Or maybe she just wasn't thinking about everything that Dez had put into it.

"See!" Dez exclaimed. "I told you it wasn't that bad."

Trish stared down at the spoon, then back at Dez. "Do you even care about any of this? Do you care that your supposed best friend is dealing with a lot right now? Do you understand that?"

"Yeah," Dez said, staring at Trish as though she had stepped out of line. He dropped the ladle into the bowl of ice cream and gripped the edge of the counter. "Yeah, I care and I know what's happening too. I'm not an idiot, Trish. I just choose to sidetrack myself and other people so that they aren't constantly focused on the negative. What do you think this sundae was all about?"

She downcasted her eyes, trying to gain some composure. She hadn't expected that from Dez. In all of his antics, there never seemed to be a point - a new perspective was gained. Maybe Dez held things together a lot better than anyone had expected.

"Oh," she mumbled, taking a tiny bite of the ice cream. "Sorry."

Dez threw Austin the tub of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, the only kind he truly loved. "Here! I care about my friends, Trish. I may not show it in what you think is the right way, but I do care."

"So what're we supposed to do about Ally?"

"I don't know," Dez stated, picking his ladle back up.

"She wants space," Austin mumbled into the counter. "So we give her space."

"That's like, the exact opposite of what we should be doing!" Trish moaned. "She doesn't want to be left alone, she's forcing herself to be alone. I mean, you talked to her yesterday, Austin - did she want to be alone?"

Austin looked up from his spot on the counter. "She broke up with me. What do you think?"

"I thought you said it was just -" Trish started, but from the scowl on Austin's face, she changed course. "Never mind... It's like I was saying. She's forcing herself to be alone, even though she doesn't want to be. She regrets telling you goodbye."

"How do you know that?" Austin scrutinized.

"She texted me."

"Then why isn't she telling me that?"

Trish rolled her eyes. "Because she's forcing herself to be alone."

"But that doesn't even make sense!" Austin yelled, slamming his fist on the counter and accidentally hitting the spoon. It clattered to the floor, making an ugly metal noise resound.

"Kinda does," Dez said through a mouthful of ice cream. "I hide behind food and she hides behind her writing."

"What?"

Dez scoffed. "Is it that hard to believe when I come up with good ideas? She just doesn't want to drag anyone else down with her."

"But that wouldn't be dragging anyone down!" Austin said, unable to keep the frustration out of his voice. "That would be helping her! That would actually allow her to heal!"

"I know," Trish spoke, keeping level and trying to calm Austin down. "That's why we can't leave her alone."

Austin sighed and nodded. The clock on the tiled wall of the kitchen ticked. It egged them on to find an answer. Forced them into this odd sense of calm. Made everything seem important - urgent.

"So you think I should talk to her?" Austin asked.

Trish shook her head. "No," she said to Austin's confused stare. "Not now. We've got some major damage control to do, right Dez?"

Dez looked up from his sundae. "What kind of damage control?"

"The kind that turns Ally's image at school from whore who aborted her child, to a girl who made a mistake and had nothing to do with pregnancy."

"But she was pregnant," Austin said, the hurt creeping into his voice. "I mean, not that she told me.."

Trish cocked her head to the side. "You're still on about that?" she pushed his grey sweater clad shoulder lightly. "The girl would have told you, I just jumped the gun. So I'm sorry for that. She's pushing away now, like she did then. I've known Ally for years, and the more stressed she gets, the more she locks herself away. She's majorly stressing out over all of this and what's happening at school isn't helping her in the slightest."

"I know I shouldn't be upset about that. I know it can't be helped anymore, I just wish I had found out differently. That there weren't so many grey areas."

"You're entitled to that," Trish said, assuringly. "And that's my bad. I shouldn't have told you I should have just left it. She would have done it eventually."

"I wish she wasn't so scared," Austin mumbled, running a hand through his hair and settling on his forehead. He rested against his hand and sighed.

Trish bit her lip, unsure how to comfort her friend. Dez pushed the Mint Chip ice cream closer to Austin, trying to get him to eat. Ice cream solves everything, after all.

"The thing with Ally," Trish hesitated. "Is that she's experiencing this first hand. You have this chance to walk away while she's stuck. It's just -"

"I wouldn't ever walk away," Austin said urgently. He stared at Trish and Dez, willing his words to be true. He picked up the second spoon Dez had shoved at him and dug into the ice cream, drowning his sorrows.

Trish nodded and took a bite of the giant sundae. "I know. But you get what I mean, right?" Austin nodded sadly and Trish continued. "This is so out of my comfort zone. How are we supposed to control all these rumours? We only have Thursday to curb all of this... What are we supposed to counter with?"

"Didn't Ally's mom come up with something to tell her dad?" Dez asked.

"Yeah," Trish sighed. "But they told her dad the truth last night."

Austin snickered. "My mom got that phone call. He was more than a little bit angry..."

"But what was the lie?" Dez encouraged.

"You can't counter lies with more lies," Austin said, dropping his spoon into the vat of ice cream. "That just makes everything even worse."

"I don't think we have a choice, Austin," Trish pursed her lips and patted his arm. "If she walks in there and everyone knows she lost the baby, it'll be just as bad. Everyone's angry at her now, but pity is worse. If she comes in and everyone is apologizing and saying 'sorry for your loss', she'll lose that baby about a thousand more times."

Austin blinked and ran a hand over his face, exasperated. "I didn't think about that."

"So I repeat, what was the lie?" Dez asked. He wiped his hands on his jeans and licked the ladle clean, eyebrows raised all the while.

"I still don't think we should lie," Austin mumbled. "But they said it was appendicitis."

"What do you think we should do then?" Trish asked. "Because that's all I got."

"I don't know," Austin sucked in a deep breath of air. "Lie? Anything that helps... As long as people don't find out, I guess."

Trish nodded and ran her fingers around the edge of the now empty ceramic bowl. She closed her eyes, forming a plan. "You won't be the one telling the lie anyway, it's Dez and I doing the damage control. All we have to get out into the rumour mill is that Ally thought she was pregnant because she was throwing up - that's a symptom of appendicitis. So then she went to the hospital to find out, going straight to the source instead of using a home test. That's the picture they got of us, and that's why she looks like she's freaking out. But then, when we were there they found out she had appendicitis and needed to have it taken out. Which also explains her absence from school."

"The fact that you just came up with that on the spot." Austin shook his head.

Trish laughed and turned to Dez. "Make sense?"

"Yeah," Dez nodded, hopping off his stool and grabbing the bowl. He took it over to the sink and grinned. "I mean, I did come up with it after all."