To be completely honest, I dislike most of this chapter. Writing it was like pulling teeth. But at least now I can move on with the story, and that was the most important thing. I hope you all enjoy it more than I did :)

Sometime around seven, I found myself wandering around the beach, lost in a crowd of familiar faces. Most of them gave a nod in my direction and exchanged a quick hello, vaguely remembering the girl from the music store. However, some of the younger ones recognized Austin's old partner, and even shocked me by remembering my name.

It was a while before I'd put together what was going on. Finding an empty beach chair, I made myself comfortable as I began to sort through the plan once more: Dez would convince Austin to come surf with him. He'd drive him to the beach, blindfold him, and bring him down. We'd yell 'surprise,' he'd be surprised, then we would proceed with the festivities such as grilling, surfing, and-of course-karaoke.

"Party's here!" My head snapped up at the familiar voice just in time to catch the short brunette throw her hands up in the air.

"Trish?" I exclaimed, standing up.

"Ally!" she made her way toward me and threw her arms around me, "Oh, I missed you!"

"I missed you!" I returned her embrace, thinking for a moment, "Wait, Trish… I thought you had a job up at Universal…"

"Yeah, well, I decided to take the day off." she let go of me, surveying the party, "So, where's Austin?"

"Dez is picking him up right now- Wait, how did you know about the party in the first place?"

She began to laugh as if I'd told some joke, "Ally," she chided, "I have my sources." I raised my eyebrow in question.

"Dez?"

"Dez."

My hand flew to my pocket, as my phone began to vibrate with a new message..

"Quiet, people! They're pulling up right now!" boomed Trish, apparently having read the text from over my shoulder.

The steady murmur of conversation diminished into silence as everyone looked around, anticipating his arrival. I ripped my gaze from the crowd at the sound of approaching conversation.

"Dez, I already know that we're going to the beach… you told me to put on my swim trunks, remember? Besides, I can feel the sand through my shoes." I held my breath at the unmistakable voice.

"Alright… but you're still keeping the blindfold on. Besides, you don't know which beach we're at."

"Dez, we're in Miami… what other beach would you be taking me to?"

We could see them now, walking around the corner. Dez trailing Austin, leading Austin with his hands on either shoulder. I almost smiled at the makeshift blindfold, the tie that was missing from around Austin's old plaid shirt, "Almost there…"

Having successfully lead Austin through the mess of beach chairs and plastic tables, Dez began to untie the knot which had held up blindfold. The crowd erupted into a cacophony of 'surprise's as the cloth fell to the sand.

He was obviously shocked, the way the corner of his lip rose up a bit higher than the other as he let loose a nervous laugh. He immediately turned to embrace Dez in a bear-hug, before doing the same to everyone in the circle around him.

It wasn't long before he'd reached the edge of the crowd and began making his way toward where we stood. "Trish!" he shouted, pulling her into an embrace, "You're here, too? It's so awesome to see you- How are you?" He pulled away to get a better look at her.

"Pretty good, I guess." she laughed, "I hear you're doing pretty well, yourself." This earned a chuckle from him as well.

"Yeah, you could say that…" he began to look over the crowd again, seemingly pleased.

I watched, unmoving as his gaze drifted toward me. Our eyes locked for a moment, his shining brown eyes losing their sparkle as they met my own. The grin that had been tugging at the corners of his lips fell completely from his face. My eyes dove to the ground and I suddenly found myself fascinated by the patterns in the sand.

"I- I should go…"

My eyes pleaded for her to stay. A slight expression of guilt spread across her face as she disappeared back into the crowd. I could feel his eyes as they flickered between the crowd and me, seemingly fighting some war inside of himself.

"I figured you'd be in New York." his strangled voice broke our silence.

"Summer break…" I simply answered, regretting not following my instincts and staying home for the evening.

"Is it everything you thought it would be?" If his eyes had lost their sparkle earlier, now they were perfectly lifeless.

"Yeah… Columbia's great." I had to turn away, "How's superstardom?"

Sighing, I watched the waves as they broke just before the shoreline. "Is it everything you ever wanted?"

"Ally…"

"You know," I almost felt guilty cutting him off, "I was watching the news this morning and they were showing all these clips. People who didn't even know a word of English were screaming your name… it's got to be amazing to have something like that. I bet you that's what it's like to go on tour, isn't it? All of these incredible, moving little things…"

"Yeah," his let out a frustrated sigh, "It's really great, but I wanted to-"

"You must see so many beautiful places, too: Paris, China, Puerto Rico…" I wasn't sure what exactly I meant by that.

"Ally, will you just let me-" his voice was getting louder to match my own, but I still refused to hear him.

"But you must be so busy, so involved in your work all of the time." I plowed ahead, "It must get so hard to keep track of things like calls and emails and personal lives… It must take over your life so much that everything becomes affected by it: your schedule, your home, your identity…"

"And how exactly would you know all this? From all of the-"

"Hey sweetheart," the blonde appeared out of nowhere, making her presence known with a peck on his cheek. I felt like I was going to be sick. "Sorry it took me so long to get ready, I was just so nervous about meeting all of your old friends…" she stepped back, turning to look me over, "I don't believe we've met."

I stood there, lamely, unable to find my voice as I looked over the skinny blonde. I couldn't decide what was more fake: her long blonde locks, her golden tan, or her cynical smile.

"Ally." he answered for me, looking as if he were in physical pain.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Sydney." Another fake smile was cast in my direction, "It's a shame I haven't met you until now, I've heard so much about you!"

"I wish I could say the same." I returned a tight smile, knowing the words were much truer than they'd seemed.

"Syd," he began to introduce us once more, looking just as shocked at his own words as we were, "This is Ally… she'll be going on tour with us."

Three questions: Who saw that coming? Who wants to see Dallas (anyone?) And who hates Sydney?