Okay, so I'm not really sure if anyone will still be interested in this, but I've been trying to get back into writing and so here is a chapter for you guys!
Super sorry about being slack, I've had some serious writers block. Anyway, enjoy. The next chapter won't be too far away.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
"So, Ally, how have you been?"
Ally wanted to run. She had no desire to sit here with this man and tell him how she'd been since he'd last seen her – since he left her and never came back. But she needed to be an adult about this; she needed to show him that leaving hadn't hurt her.
With as much confidence as she could muster, she answered. "I've been great. Ethan and I both study at the Music University of New York." She glanced over at Ethan and smiled. She didn't notice Austin grimace slightly.
He grinned when she looked back at him. "That's great, I'm glad you ended up attending. When I left Miami I figured you'd come up here, but I never got around to asking Dez."
"Well, you probably have more important things on your mind these days," Ally said tightly, but kept the smile on her face. Austin frowned at her but didn't say anything in response. Ethan broke the uncomfortable silence.
"So, who was that guy with you before?" he asked. The man that had accompanied Austin into the restaurant had offered to wait elsewhere while he caught up with Ally.
Austin smiled at Ethan. "He's my publicist. We came here to talk a little business over dinner."
Ally saw this as an opportunity to get rid of Austin. "Oh, if we're holding you up, don't feel obliged to stay here. We were about to finish up when you walked through the door anyway."
Austin cocked his head at her. She remembered how cute she used to find it when he did that – usually when he got confused or suspicious about something.
"If I didn't know any better, Ally, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me," he said with a raised eyebrow. Ally laughed humourlessly.
"Why would you think that?" she asked in response. "We're friends. At least we were last time we talked. When was that exactly?"
Austin looked over at Ethan and then back at Ally. "Ally, I'm really sorry that I didn't try as hard as I could have to keep in touch, but our friendship was a two-way street. You can't tell me that you didn't have commitments that you chose to put above calling me."
Ally shook her head. "Yeah, I did. Because I still needed to work to get what I wanted. You already had everything you wanted, Austin. And then you forgot about the people you left behind, the people who helped you. You moved on without me, you moved on without any of us."
Austin sighed. "I tried as hard as I could, Ally. My schedule was hectic, I didn't have enough hours in the day to sleep, let alone call you. I'm not making excuses, trust me, and I missed you guys like crazy. But we haven't seen each other in a long time and I'm trying to reach out right now. Can't you just forgive me? We can use this week to catch up."
Ally sat there listening to Austin try to win her over, just as he always could in the past. She'd forgotten how persuasive he could be. He was waiting for her to forgive him, to agree that they could pick up where they left off.
Not this time. He could think what he liked; she wasn't going to forgive him for ignoring her for over two years. Remembering that Ethan was there as well, she cleared her throat and stood up. It was time to leave. Ethan and Austin stood with her.
"It was nice seeing you, Austin, but I don't think I can catch up this week. Maybe next time you're back. Ethan, I'm ready to go. Could you take me home?"
Ethan raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure? We can totally stay a little longer if you want-"
"Now," Ally replied, interrupting him. "Please."
Ethan nodded, and then looked over at Austin, who was staring at Ally. "Ally-"
Ally smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Next time you talk to Dez, let him know we ran into each other. He'll be thrilled."
She turned around and started walking towards the door before Austin could say anything else, but she could hear Ethan mumbling to him. When she got to the main entrance, she turned around just as Ethan caught up to her. He was holding what looked like tickets in his hand.
"Austin gave us two VIP tickets to his concert this weekend, isn't he cool?"
Ally sighed, but gave him a smile. "The coolest."
Austin watched Ethan follow Ally out the door, the tickets he just squeezed out of him visible in his hand. He hadn't wasted any time in asking for them.
"Could you help me out, man to man? I really like Ally and I want to impress her. Plus, you guys could catch up again. Maybe Ally will be in a better mood after she's had a good time at your concert."
Honestly, if anyone else had asked him for tickets, he would have handed them over a lot sooner. His fans were the reason he was at this point in his life, the least he could do was give out some free passes.
Ethan, however, made him hesitate. Maybe it was because his demeanour screamed rich kid who expected everything to be handed to him, or maybe it was because he wanted the tickets to get close to Ally, but he suddenly didn't feel so charitable. But it was in fact for Ally, and he wanted her to come, so he handed over two of his VIP passes in the hopes that he would get to see her one last time before he left New York.
After he could no longer see the couple, he turned around and walked further into the restaurant, finding the table his publicist occupied. He sat down and sighed heavily.
"I ordered for you," his publicist, Mark, stated. "I know you like steak. Did you catch up with your friends?"
"Just the one," Austin replied distractedly, staring at nothing. "Ally. The guy was her boyfriend I think."
"The same Ally that used to be your partner?" Mark asked curiously. Austin nodded slowly.
"One and the same."
Mark chuckled. "I take it the catch up didn't go as well as you'd hoped."
Austin scoffed. "That's an understatement. I swear the room temperature dropped twenty degrees when I sat down at their table."
Mark shook his head. "Well, you're in town for eight days. Maybe you can do a bit of damage control while you're here. Speaking of damage control, we managed to squash those dating rumours of yours."
"Thanks," Austin breathed out in relief. "It's crazy, I can't say hello to a girl without wedding predictions being thrown around. Honestly, though, they give me way more credit than I have. I don't think I'd seriously be able to land half the girls they pair me with."
Mark laughed, drawing attention from the nearby tables. "Now you know that's not true, but I'm glad to see that you're still as humble as when I met you. Now, for the main reason we're here. I know that you've thought a lot about it, but I want to make sure you're absolutely certain. Announcements are going to be made by the end of the week about you starring in your first movie. There's going to be a lot to do once everything is made public, are you ready for this? We can push the announcements back, or we can tell them to find someone else because of tour clashes-"
"I want to do this," Austin replied, interrupting Mark. He smiled. "I think this will be a good experience for me, something out of my comfort zone. Who knows, I might even be good at it."
Mark raised his eyebrows. "Knowing you, it wouldn't surprise me if you became the next Leo."
This time it was Austin laughing loudly, earning curious glances from the diners. "Yeah, I wish."
After that, their meals were delivered and a comfortable silence settled over the table. Austin was indeed excited for his very first movie role, but as he looked over the restaurant, his good mood disappeared when his eyes fell on the empty table he sat at earlier with Ally.
Ally Dawson. His best friend. At least, she used to be, before he completely destroyed what they had.
He had lied to her tonight, when he'd told her he hadn't known if she was in New York or not. He'd known she'd been living here since before she moved upstate – Dez had told him as soon as she decided to go. Dez was the only person who he still kept in constant contact with these days. Trish still talked to him of course, but it wasn't often, and it was hard for her to still be friends with him when Ally so clearly hated his guts.
A couple of weeks ago, Austin had finally asked Dez what Ally's address was so he could go and talk to her. He wanted to apologise for being selfish and ignorant, he wanted to beg for her forgiveness and convince her to give him a chance to be her best friend again. He knew it would be hard to get her to listen to him, which was why he was planning on going this afternoon. That way, if he didn't convince her then, he'd pester her like the nuisance he was until she did.
Unfortunately, Mark had called him and asked him to dinner to talk about the movie and go over everything for tour presses. As luck would have it, he ended up coming to the same restaurant that Ally was on a date in. When he saw her, he couldn't believe his eyes. Out of all the days, all the restaurants, Ally was sitting right in front of him. Her hair had been longer, he noticed, and lighter than he remembered. Those eyes were still the same, though. A dark chocolate brown, just looking into them gave him warmth. They pulled him back to two years ago, when he kissed her goodbye and promised to call her every day.
He told her that she'd put her commitments above their friendship, but that wasn't completely true. It was most definitely his fault that things fell apart. When his tour slowed down near the end, he'd had plenty of time to call; the fact of the matter was he didn't want to.
That first year had not flown by, it had dragged on and on, getting slower by the day. His only solace was knowing that he could go home to Ally and his friends at the end of it. And then the tour had been extended, and he had been so tempted to call Ally; or better yet, leave his commitments and go back to Miami. But he'd worked so hard to get here, and he didn't want to risk losing it by hearing Ally's voice and giving it all up.
So he'd stopped calling. He'd stopped calling and pretended like everything was fine as he extended his tour, knowing that in reality he had just compromised one of the most important things in the world to him. So over two years after seeing her, he was finally finishing up his tour and would be working on a movie that gave him more spare time than he'd had in a while, which meant he could finally mend things between him and Ally.
Trouble is, he had a long way to go, and he wasn't sure if one week was enough to achieve that.
Well, he needed to try. He'd wasted enough time; he needed to see Ally. Again.
He stood up from the table, his steak barely touched. Mark looked up at him curiously.
"Going somewhere?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"If you've got nothing else to discuss," Austin replied in determination, "there's… kind of somewhere I need to be. I'll catch up with you again tomorrow at rehearsals."
Mark shrugged. "Go ahead. And good luck, it sounds like you'll need it."
There we go. Now, the characters might seem pretty OOC, but it's just how I imagine they would be after how long it's been and how they've grown as people.
Thanks again :)