Mimi told me that I didn't have to stay through rehearsals, because there would be plenty to come this week, and I gladly took her offer to have a cab bring me home.

I was exhausted. I did the inventory for the store on auto pilot. Luckily, the guy I had hired to take over from me while I was doing this had done a great job, and it didn't take too long.

I didn't even have dinner. I just went to bed, staring at the ceiling.

Austin definitely had the wrong impression of me. I realized that maybe, I had the wrong impression of him too. He loved his fans. He clearly loved his mom. And if I remembered correctly, the way he was behaving towards me at the beginning, when we'd just met, was more teasing than mean.

The bitterness and coldness came later.

Maybe he really did think I had my mind made up already.

And if I was really honest, he would've been right about that.

I shouldn't have judged him that soon. I promised myself I would actually try tomorrow, to be nice to him.

Which wasn't as hard as I'd expected, because when I walked into his hotel room the next morning with Mimi, he actually smiled at me.

Smiled. Not smirked.

"Morning Ally!"

"Good morning," I muttered.

Dez looked up.

"You two are talking to each other? Wow, that's a turn around."

"Just wasn't having my day yesterday," I told him. Mimi raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"It's a Christmas miracle!" Austin exclaimed.

"It's not Christmas yet," I said, "and I don't believe in miracles."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

Dez gasped in horror, grabbing the table in order to keep himself standing. Austin just stared at me.

"Wait, what?"

"I don't believe in miracles?" I repeated. It came out sounding more like a question.

"How can you not believe in miracles?" Dez exclaimed. "What is next, you don't believe in aliens?"

I looked over at Austin, to see if Dez was actually serious. He shrugged. I decided that a change of subject would be the best thing.

"So, what are we doing today?" I turned to Mimi. She smiled happily.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun guys! We have a photo shoot, which might not be that much fun, but after that, we're going to meet fans! We have a signing at the mall."

"Awesome!" Austin pushed past her, walking out of the hotel room. He seemed genuinely excited. Mimi followed him, and so did I. Dez came last, and I could swear I could hear him mutter:

"She doesn't believe in miracles…"

The photo shoot wasn't much fun. Austin didn't seem to enjoy it a lot either.

It did made me write something else on my list.

Handsome.

Because let's be really, really honest here. I might not really like the guy's personality, but he was cute. Really cute. And he had abs to die for, which I found out when the photographer asked him to lift his shirt up just a little bit, just to 'tease the readers'.

Well, let me tell you, teased they will be.

The thing I personally found most attractive about Austin were his eyes, though. Not that I complained about his dirty blonde hair, his biceps, his abs or his cheek bones, but his eyes definitely got me most.

They were big and brown and they reflected him. They would turn a little darker whenever he was upset and they would twinkle when he was happy. You could tell a lot about his eyes.

Not that I'd been paying attention to them, of course.

Why would I do that?

After the photo shoot, we went for lunch. And then it was time for the signing.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that showed up. We drove past the queue, me trying to count the people and failing, Austin with his nose pressed against the window, with a smile so big that I thought his face could burst.

He did have a nice smile, when he was genuinely smiling and not smirking.

"You can sit behind Austin so you can see how he interacts with his fans. That would be useful for your interview, right?" Mimi said. I nodded.

And so I sat down, behind Austin, while Dez and Mimi sipped their coffees and observed from a distance.

I would really rather be with them, since the screams were ear piercing and a lot of the girls were looking at me like they would kill me right there if they got the chance.

"So, you ready?" Austin asked, moving his chair so I wasn't sitting directly behind him but more next to him.

"I don't think I'll ever be," I admitted. "I don't understand how you do not have any hearing loss yet."

"What?" he said. I was about to repeat myself when I got the joke.

"Ha ha. You must be the funny one of the house." I playfully slapped his arm and he pretended to be hurt. Then he smiled again, before turning around to start signing.

I realized that was the first normal conversation we had. He was actually acting nice to me, and his mother wasn't even around.

It felt a little weird, suddenly pretending that there was no bad blood between us at all. But it didn't feel wrong. Just weird.

I could get used to that.

Again, I promised myself I would give him a chance and not be so judgemental. Maybe he was nice. Maybe it wouldn't be such a disaster, to spend a week with him.

Then, I observed the signing.

It was crazy, how dedicated these girls were. We sat there for four hours, and we couldn't get through everybody. But the mall was closing and we had to stop.

Austin wanted to continue until he got everybody. But he would've been there all night.

One of the last girls that came up to him, looked at me suspiciously.

"Who's she?" she asked. Austin smiled at me.

I was about to tell her I was a reporter, when he started talking.

"Just a friend."

"I know you're not my friend, okay," Austin said. We were sitting in the car, with Dez, waiting for Mimi.

He must've noticed my shocked expression when he had said that.

He didn't know that I was only shocked, but not bothered by him calling me a friend.

I remembered the little tingle in my stomach, at his words. I was acting silly, of course, but I liked the idea of having another friend besides Trish.

I just wasn't sure if I was sure I wanted it to be Austin, yet.

"Then why'd you say it?" I asked.

"Because I don't want word to spread that I'm having a reporter around. That would only mean more reporters want to do this kind of thing and I'm not planning to live my entire life being judged."

"I am not judging you!" I said offended.

He started to say something, but was cut off.

Mimi got in, chatting happily about how amazing Austin's fans are. I turned towards the window, leaning on it.

Just when I thought Austin and I were sort of on civil terms.

"That's not what I meant," he whispered.

"Wasn't it?"

Silence fell. God, was I ready to go home.