A/N: School and work and extracurricular activities and grad planning suck. They're taking my time away from you guys! :O Senior year kills haha.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter! You might want to kill me at the end of it :/

I'll be working on a new Parenting 101 chapter within the next few days so if you follow that story, stay tuned! :)

Disclaimer: don't own A&A but own other characters not associated with it. Oh, and I took a quote from The Fault in our Stars, let's see if you can point it out! :) I don't own TFIOS, it belongs to the lovely John Green!

Ally POV

It was unusually cold outside for Florida on the day I was to hang out with Austin, so I was in boot cut jeans with heels and a long red button up coat. My hair was down so I could put a black slouchy hat on to keep my head warm.

My mom was working and Bryce was out with friends, so it was just Claudia, Mike, and George at the house.

"I'm leaving," I told Mike as I walked past the kitchen door.

"Have fun," he said. "Call if you need anything."

"Aye aye, captain," I muttered. As I got to the door, Claudia came around the corner from the den.

"Tell him," she sing-songed as she brushed past into the living room. Her long curls whipped me in the face when she went by, and I flinched.

I rolled my eyes, fixed my hat, and headed out the door. Austin drove up in his truck a few minutes later.

"Hey," he greeted as I climbed in.

"Hi," I replied, putting my seatbelt on. "So what are we doing?"

He drove down the driveway and then took a left onto Pembina Grove Ave. "Are you cool with the zoo? And then we can get coffee after, and see what happens from there?"

"The zoo? Isn't it a little cold for that?" I took in his jeans and white long sleeved shirt. He was also wearing a beanie, except in baby blue. His blonde shaggy hair curled out from under it. He looked sort of...good.

Oh god, what have you done with Ally?

He shrugged. "We can do something else if you want."

He said it casually, although he looked kind of disappointed, so I said, "Oh no, the zoo is fine. I haven't been to a zoo in years."

"Seriously? Why not?"

"Uh...just didn't really get around to it, I guess, with my parents always working and such," I said quietly, looking out the window at the passing buildings and traffic.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything," Austin said.

"It's okay," I told him. I changed the subject. "So how's basketball going?"

He grinned. "I didn't think you cared about sports."

"I don't. I just wanted to start a conversation."

"Well, at least you're blatantly honest. But to answer your question, it's great. If we win our next game, we qualify for the semi-finals in a couple of weeks."

"Nice," I replied. "Sounds interesting. For you."

He glanced my way before looking back at the road. "What about you?"

"Well, I live a very exciting life," I said.

"Oh, the sarcasm," Austin laughed. "Come on, there must be something you like besides music. Art? Poetry? Animals? Gossiping about hot guys with all of your popular friends?"

For that last one, I reached over and hit him in the shoulder as he laughed hysterically. "Screw you!" I exclaimed.

"Okay, okay, but seriously. Who is the real Ally Dawson?"

"I'm Italian."

"That's cheating; I already know that."

"You didn't say it had to be something you didn't know," I smirked.

"Fair enough," he said. "But now I'm saying it has to be something I don't know."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You never quit, do you?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'P'. "Come on."

I thought about it for a moment. "I don't like to be what people consider normal. Why should I change in order to please other people instead of myself?"

Austin looked my way again. "So don't."

"Don't what?"

"Change," he said. He shook his head. "I don't know."

"What?" I asked again.

"Nothing, it's just..." He shrugged. "You're something else, Ally."

I looked over at him. "Meaning?"

"It's a good thing," he told me. "You're not like most people I know. That's good."

"Uh...thanks," I said.

"Sure," he smiled.

We got to the zoo and after we parked, headed towards the entrance.

"Two youth," Austin told the guy in the booth.

"What? No, I'm paying for myself," I told him. I turned to the guy. "One youth."

"No, I'm paying for both of us," Austin said. "Two."

"This isn't a date, Austin," I argued.

"Could have fooled me," the guy in the booth spoke up. His name tag read Brian.

I glared at him and Austin quickly slid a twenty under the window. "Thanks, Brian!" He said before dragging me away so I couldn't say anything else. "Ha, I win."

"This isn't a date," I repeated.

"I'm aware of that," he shot back. "I can still pay for you and be a gentleman."

I snorted, and he pushed me in response. I rolled my eyes. "Where to first?"

"Might as well just make our way around," Austin said. He looked ahead of us. "Oh, giraffes!"

I gave a little laugh as I watched him run ahead of me to the enclosure with three giraffes eating from the trees. "They're so tall," he said.

I shoved my hands in the pockets of my coat. "Yep. They're giraffes."

"I wish we could feed them."

"Well, I'm sure there are ducks around here that you can feed," I said.

"That's no fun," he whined.

"Too bad, so sad," I told him. "Come on, before you start crying."

He stuck his tongue out at me, but we kept walking. As we went from exhibit to exhibit, I started to loosen up a bit and I realized I was having fun.

When we were walking to the lions and tigers, Austin spoke up. "So, I noticed you were kind of…off, on Friday."

"You did, did you?"

"Yeah. Want to tell me what's up?"

"It's nothing."

He let out a short laugh. "God, I hate when girls do that."

"Do what?"

"Say 'It's nothing' when there's clearly something wrong," he told me. "It drives me insane!"

"You won't even care about what's wrong with me anyway," I blurted out.

"What?" He said.

"You heard me," I said.

"Ally, stop right now." He grabbed my wrist to keep me from walking, and I froze immediately. "I wouldn't be asking if I didn't care."

I looked down at the ground, not saying anything. Why did he want to know so badly?

"Ally, please tell me. I want to help."

I sighed and turned to look up at him. He did actually look concerned.

"I got told I have to perform a solo at the Christmas concert next month," I said quietly.

"Why is that bad?"

"I have massive stage fright."

"Oh," he said, wincing. "So what are you going to do?"

We started walking again. "I can't go up there in front of the entire school," I told him. "I can't even perform for my mother."

"So you either have to tell Mrs. Hastings you can't do it and to find someone else, or you just go for it." Austin shrugged. "Kelsey always says if you feel like you want to, then just do it. It's like ripping off a Band-Aid. Why do you have such bad stage fright?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I told him.

"Then I won't pry."

I looked sharply at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. It's not my business."

"Thank you," I told him.

He smiled down at me. "No problem."

I gave him a genuine smile back, and we arrived at the lions. There were two cubs in there, and I pressed my hands against the glass. "They're so cute! I want to take one home."

"Good luck with that," Austin laughed, coming up beside me.

"But they're so little and adorable and squeezable," I cooed. "Ah, I want one."

A group of girls who looked like freshmen walked by us. One of them sighed and said, "I want what they have."

"Who?" I heard another one say.

"That couple standing by the glass," the first girl replied. "They look like they're the perfect couple."

I turned absolutely red, and the girls went out of earshot. I don't think they knew I could hear them, and I'm assuming Austin did, too. I was right when he cleared his throat.

"Um, shall we carry on to the tigers?" he asked, scratching his neck.

"Sure," I said quickly, hurrying ahead of him.

"Austin!" I heard a girl call from behind us.

I turned around to see the girl Austin was with at the coffee shop that day Claudia and I were spying on them. As if. She was with a little boy.

"Hey Cardin," he grinned, giving her a hug. He turned to the boy. "What's up Adrian?"

"Looking at lions!" the boy, Adrian, said happily.

"Atta boy," Austin grinned. "Ally, these are my cousins, Cardin and Adrian. Cardin, Adrian, this is friend, Ally."

Cousins.

"Nice to meet you," Cardin smiled. "Austin's mentioned you before."

"He has?" I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Like once or twice," he said. "No big deal." I saw him shoot a death glare at Cardin, who giggled.

"Sorry, we'll let you two carry on," she said, picking Adrian up. "Let's go see the lions, buddy."

"Yay!" he said. "Roar!"

"Oh yeah, roar," she laughed. "Bye, guys."

"Bye," we waved. I turned to Austin. "So, I'm the topic of conversation, huh?"

"I just told her about the dance thing," he said. "I didn't say anything bad about you, I promise."

"I believe you," I told him. "It's cool. But come on, we've seen everything and I'm frozen. I'm in the mood for coffee."

"I thought you'd never ask; let's bounce."

"So you mean to tell me that Jadis actually stuck a pea up her nose last year because she thought it would be funny?"

"Yeah," Austin sighed. "She needed surgery to get it removed."

"I'm sorry, but that's kind of funny," I said, trying to stifle my giggles with my hand.

"Laugh all you want," he smiled. "Anyway, she's completely fine now. My mom doesn't let her touch peas anymore."

We were walking through a large park with our coffees, talking about random things. It was nice to get away from all of the chaos. It was the evening, and it was getting dark. Truthfully, I didn't want to leave. Austin had put on a leather jacket since it had cooled off even more.

"Hey, check it out," Austin said, taking me out of my thoughts. He was pointing at the sky, where a bunch of Chinese lanterns were floating.

I gasped. "It's so beautiful."

"Yeah," Austin said quietly. "I've never actually seen them in the sky before."

"Me neither," I told him, taking a sip of my coffee. "Listen, Austin. I had a lot of fun today; thanks for asking me to hang out."

"I had fun, too. Actually, this is the most fun I've had in a while," he told me. "And you're welcome."

We stood in silence for a minute before he spoke again. "I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?" I asked.

"This," he said, gesturing between us. "Pretend that all I want is to be friends with you."

"What?"

He threw out his coffee in the nearest trash bin. "Ever since that night at my house after Homecoming, all I've been thinking about is you. Annoying, sarcastic, totally frustrating you."

"Austin," I said in shock. "You can't be serious."

"Ally, I'm dead serious," he said. "When I said you were something else, I meant it. You're nothing like the girls around here; you're just yourself. The way you chew your fricken hair when you're nervous, the way you roll your eyes when I say something stupid, just all of your annoying habits and attitude makes you interesting. Sure, I tripped you when you first got here and was a serious asshole, but I've gotten to know you better and you're just…I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that being just friends with you isn't working for me anymore. I've spent too much time with you." He put his hands in his pockets. "Ally, you're a serious catch."

"That's not fair," I said, stopping him. "You can't just drop this on me after one hang out, Austin."

"It hasn't been just one hang out, Ally!" he exclaimed. "You think I wanted to fall for you? I didn't exactly plan on it happening, but it did, alright?"

"Then why did you let it happen?" I exclaimed. "Damn it, Austin, it's not supposed to be like this. You just ruined this whole thing. You were doing really well, too."

"I can't help what I feel," he replied. "And you can't deny that you feel something, too. I know you do; I can tell just from spending time with you all day today."

I threw my now finished coffee in the trash bin, too. "I don't."

"That's bullshit and you know it," he said. "God, what is your problem with opening up to people and admitting things? All you ever do is shut people out!"

"What's my problem?" I said. Luckily, we were almost alone in the park, so no one was around to hear our conversation getting heated real quickly. "I don't open up to people because I'm scared I'm going to end up losing them in the long run, and I'm going to be hurt all over again! I'm going to get too close and then they'll just be gone," I said, my voice cracking at the end; I continued anyway. "You know why my parents divorced? It's because of me. It was all my fault and I completely screwed our family over. My dad left us and ever since then, I've been trying to mend my relationship with him because it was my fault. I shut people out because it's just easier."

"Ally, your parents splitting up was not your fault," Austin said.

"You don't even know the story," I snapped. "You know what? I'm done here, I'm going home."

"Excuse me?" Austin exclaimed.

"I said I'm going home. I'll take a cab." I started walking away from him, and he yelled after me.

"Ally, don't be ridiculous!"

I turned around. "Ridiculous is my practically my middle name. Or so everyone says." With that, I ran. I just…I just ran.

And he didn't chase after me.

A/N: Awe shiiit, drama. Y'all are definitely gonna kill me lol, sorry guys! Truthfully, I struggled with what to write this chapter and how I wanted to go about with it. Anywho, review it up, boys and girls! Love you all, muah! xx

joelle xx

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