Did he just thank Trish for punching his girlfriend? Trish smiles brightly at him as Austin carries Hannah into the house. Did that really just happen?
"Whoa," Blake says to Trish, his eyes wide. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." Trish smiles a bit sarcastically. "Anyway, come on in. This is gonna be awesome." He leads us inside.
"Don't touch my nose, you fucking idiot!" I hear Hannah scream from a door to my right.
"I'm sorry!" Austin exclaims from the same room. Blake takes us down to the basement. He leads us through the tangle of instruments and we try our best not to knock them over. Finally, we make it to the couch on the other side of the basement and sit down.
I notice the tuba Dez brought in his right next to my head. It doesn't look as if it'll be knocked over. I wonder what's going to happen with that. Blake sits down between Trish and I and puts his arm around me. I take his hand and pull his arm from around my shoulders, resting it in his own lap. Dez walks in seconds later sits down in a chair near the couch.
"Austin!" Blake calls. "Hurry it up!" Austin walks in, leading Hannah carefully through the instruments by her hand. He sits down in a chair identical to Dez's, also near the couch. Hannah gives me a dirty look and sits down in Austin's lap. Austin sighs annoyed but Hannah doesn't seem to notice. He gives me a sad smile.
"Sorry," he mouths, pointing to his cheek. He's apologizing for his girlfriend attacking my cheeks. I return his sad smile. When Hannah looks at him, he pretends to scratch his ear.
"Who's gonna start this thing if we're all sitting down?" Dez suddenly asks. A woman with brown hair and blue eyes appears at the door, yawning.
"What is with all the screaming, Blake? I'm trying to sleep up th—What is going on in here?" she asks, noticing the instruments.
"Mom!" Blake exclaims. "Perfect timing! Do me a big favor please?"
"Will you wash the car like I asked you?" she asks.
"Yes, Mom. Can you—?" Blake starts, pointing to a guitar case they didn't buy from Sonic Boom but his mom cuts him off.
"And will you steam clean the living room?" she asks.
"Sure, Mom, whatever. Can you—?"
"And will you—?"
"Mom, I'm not cleaning the whole house! Will you just push that guitar case?" he asks. She sighs and rolls her eyes. She pushes the guitar case and leaves the room. I flinch as each of the "dominoes" hit a fragile instrument. To my surprise, nothing breaks.
I'm smiling until it gets to the tuba. As the small amplifier falls onto the accordion, the tuba shoots out some kind of sticky substance... all... over... me... I stand up immediately. I wipe it out of my eyes but my right eye continues to sting.
"What. Is. This?" I ask disgusted. I notice Hannah is laughing really hard at this.
"It's pudding!" Dez exclaims happily. Dez runs out of the basement as Trish runs after him. I wonder why she's chasing him. I try to open my eye but it stings too much.
"Ow, ow, ow," I murmur as I run out of the room.
"Ally, wait!" someone exclaims. I run into the room Austin and Hannah were in. I open my left eye. Luckily, it's the bathroom which is what I thought it was. I close the door behind me but it soon opens. Austin walks in and closes it again. I close the lid of the toilet and sit down on it.
"Are you alright?" he asks, taking my head in his hands and tipping it upwards so he can look at it. I exhale.
"Yeah, I guess. My eye hurts. Really bad. I officially hate pudding now," I tell him with a small laugh. He eases my eye open slowly and gently with his thumb. "Ow, ow, ow," I say again as air hits my open eye. He lets it slide close.
"It's really red," he tells me. He hands me a towel and I clear the rest of my head of pudding. Then I start on my shoulders. Austin grabs a wash cloth and runs cold water on it. He kneels down in front of me, holds it to my eye and the water slowly seeps in through my eyelid.
"Thanks," I mumble. He smiles.
"Anytime," he says, removing the wash cloth from my eye. I slowly try opening it. It still stings a little but not as bad. It's that kind of sting where you've been staring at something for a long time and you finally blink. I keep blinking until my intraocular fluid fills my eye and gets absorbed. Austin looks at my eyes.
"They're still a little red but they're better than they were before," he tells me, still staring into my eyes. Suddenly, we're both leaning in towards each other. His eyes close and so do mine. I feel our noses brush and... and... I hear the door open. Our eyes snap open and our heads toward the door. It's only Dez. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Hey, sorry about the pudding explosion. Are your eyes okay?" he asks. I glance at Austin and stand up.
"Yeah, they're fine," I say quietly, leaving the room. Dez follows me. I walk to the door of the basement. "T-Trish, we need to go. Wait, where's Trish?" I ask. I look around and she comes up behind me. "Okay, Trish, we need to go. Blake, Dez, I have to admit it: this was pretty amazing. I'll see you guys later. Hannah, you're a bitch." That wasn't necessary but I walk out feeling awesome for saying it nonetheless. Trish follows me down the hallway.
"Why are we leaving so soon?" she asks.
"Austin and I almost kissed," I whisper as we walk down the hall.
"Ally!" Austin says, running up to me. I swallow and face him. "Ally, I'm really sorry. I don't know what cam over me. I just... I don't know..."
"It's fine, Austin. Whatever. Water under the bridge. Let's go, Trish," I say, grabbing her hand and leading her down the hall. I hear about five pairs of footsteps behind me, including Trish's.
We walk outside the door and I let go of Trish's hand. Immediately, someone grabs my hair and I spin around. I already know who it is. It's obvious.
"Dez told me what almost happened in the bathroom," Hannah spits. My hands don't ask me to do what they do next: I rip the bandage from her nose and she screams in pain. I turn her around and push her into the side of the house, making sure her face hits it first. I hear her nose crack.
I'm not sure if I broke it more or snapped the bone back into place. It doesn't matter as long as she's hurting. I turn her back around and slap her. She deserves it. She's slapped me... three times now? Somewhere around that number.
"Ow!" she exclaims.
"Yeah. Hurts, doesn't it?" I ask her through clenched teeth as I keep her held up against the side of the house as she holds her nose with one hand and cups her cheek with the other. Arms encircle my waist as I bring my fist back to punch her. "Hey! Put me down!" I shout. I kick, trying to get out of the person's grasp. "Oh, lemme at her! I can do much worse than that!"
I pull my foot back and I'm dropped as soon as my heel makes contact with something. I run forward toward Hannah and she's smart enough to move... but I'm smarter and I follow her. She turns around quickly and I take this as an opportunity to jump on her. We both fall to the ground. I punch her face twice. She's crying now.
"Ally, I think that's enough," Trish says.
"No, Trish! She deserves to hurt!" I scream, still punching her.
"Ow!" Hannah whines, her cheeks becoming very red from my punches.
"ALLY!" Austin and Trish shout together. I hear another crack from Hannah's face as Austin and Trish drag me off of her. Tears roll down my face as I realize what I've just done. I think I broke her jawbone. I'm not sure. But I don't apologize like I expect myself to. My mouth just stay closed as I try to get out of Austin and Trish's grasps. Finally, I just relax and let Austin pick me up, bridal-style. He carries me back to Sonic Boom. He sets me down on the counter and, to my surprise, he has a bright smile on his face.
"Ally, that was awesome!" he exclaims.
"Wasn't that your girlfriend's jaw I just broke?" I ask.
"Oh... Yeah, there's, uh... there's that too. I can't believe you did that," he says.
"And it's all your fault," I tell him.
"My fault?" he asks. "If anyone's, it was Hannah's because she's always such a bitch to you."
"Well, you tried to kiss me," I snap.
"Yeah, 'cause I was the only one who was leaning in," he remarks. I swallow.
"I'm sorry," I say quietly. "I shouldn't have leaned in. If I hadn't, we wouldn't be in the position we're in right now. I wouldn't be in trouble with Hannah, because I know she'll get me for this later. Hannah's jaw wouldn't be broken, though I'm not sure it really is. And everyone would be happy. Perfectly happy," I say. I sigh. "Perfectly... happy..." I whisper. I look down at the floor. Austin leans down to catch my eye.
"Ally, it was partly kinda sorta maybe my fault too," he says. Then he notices my expression. "Okay, it was both of our faults. It was equal. Half and half..." He swallows. "And I'm sorry." I let out a small chuckle through my tears and look up. He walks up the stairs quickly and walks back down with a bottle of water. He hands it to me and sits beside me on the counter.
"You're sorry... for almost kissing me?" I ask, sniffling and wiping my tears. I take a sip of water. "That's any rabid, Austin Moon fan's dream come true."
"Oh, so you consider yourself a rabid, Austin Moon fan, huh?" he asks with a smirk. I push his shoulder.
"Ah, shut up," I snap playfully. We share a smile but it's quickly interrupted by someone walking in the doors of Sonic Boom. Austin takes my water bottle and begins to drink it.
"Keep your distance from her. I broke your nose once and I can snap your neck," Trish says angrily. "Oh. Sorry, Dez. I thought you were Hannah."
"It's fine," he says. He walks past her and up to me. He raises his hand for a high five. "Ally, that was sweet! Awesome sauce!" I give him a high five and smile. "Girrrl, you took dat skank down!" I giggle. "She deserved everything you did to her for cheating on Austin! You were all like, 'Pow! Pow, pow! Kaboom! Shoo! Kapow!" he exclaims, punching the air. Austin jumps off the counter immediately, some water splashing onto the floor.
"Wait, Dez, say that again," he demands.
"Okay. I'll slow it down for you," Dez says. He punches the air in slow motion and speaks in a deeper voice. "She... was... all... like... 'Pow...! Pow... pow...! Kaboom...! Sh—!"
"No, Dez, before that," Austin says, getting annoyed. Dez looks up, trying to remember what he said.
"Girrrl, you took dat skank down!" he exclaims again.
"After that!" Austin yells.
"Um... Oh! She deserved everything you did to her for cheating on Austin?" he says questioningly.
"'Cheating on Austin'?!" Austin repeats. "No." He shakes his head. "No... With who?"
"Blake," Dez answers simply.
"What? No. No. What makes you think that? I think I would have noticed if my girlfriend was looking at another guy a certain way," he says, shaking his head, not believing it one bit. He casually takes a sip of water.
"Well, I noticed when she was looking down his throat with her tongue," Dez says. Austin promptly chokes on the water and he coughs several times.
"When did this happen?" he asks. I take the water he got for me back from him and bring it to my mouth, not caring about his disgusting germs right now. I'm enjoying this way too much.
"When you were about to look down Ally's throat with your tongue," Dez says, smiling his usual goofy smile. Now it's my turn to choke on the water. It wasn't all the way down my throat so I spit it all out onto the floor.
"Um..." I say loudly, wiping my mouth.
"Okay. I know you guys don't like Hannah but you don't have to tell em that she's cheating on me to get me to break up with her," Austin says angrily. His anger was mostly directed at Dez though. He storms out of Sonic Boom. Dez frowns and looks around at Trish and I.
"You-you guys believe me... r-right?" he asks sadly, tears forming in his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him and, surprisingly, Trish does too.
"Of course we do, Dez. All we need to do is get some proof," Trish says. "And that'll be really easy for a girl as mischievous as me." Trish takes on an evil look. She laughs manically.
"Trish, that isn't necessary..." I say slowly.
"I just wanted to try it," she says, sticking her tongue out at me. Then she glances at her hand on Dez's shoulder. "Ew! Am I comforting Dez?! Gross!" She takes her hand off of his shoulder and wipes it on her shirt as if it had germs. "Well, I'll see you two later. I have a job to go get fired from." She walks out of the door.
"So was Hannah really kissing Blake?" I ask. "I mean, I believe you. I just want to make sure. Because you're a really good liar so I want to make sure you're telling the truth and I'm overexplaining this..."
"Yeah, I walked back down the stairs to tell Hannah you and Austin almost kissed because you and me and Trish all want them to break up. She was in Blake's lap, the way she was in Austin's, and they were kissing in a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really—"
"Dez!" I exclaim, getting tired of his monotonous tone.
"—Really, really disgusting way," he finally finishes.
"Oh. Yeah, we need to get that proof. And soon. Hey, why was Trish chasing you?" I ask.
"She was mad at me for hurting you. That reminds me. Does your eye feel better?" he asks. I nod.
"Yeah, it's better," I say. I sniff my shirt. "I smell like pudding though." We both laugh. I jump down from the counter, walk behind it and bend down to get the bowl of guitar picks so I can open the store back up. I hear footsteps and I freeze. What if it's Hannah? What am I talking about? I can take that skank!
"I knew you'd be here. You'd have to apologize to that little weakling for hurting her eye," Hannah snaps at Dez. "Was Austin here?" Dez's response is silent. "He was? You didn't tell him about what you saw, did you?"
"Psht. What? No. I would never. And even if I did, he wouldn't believe me since he knows we all hate you," Dez says, sounding nonchalant.
"And you won't tell him, right?" she asks.
"Right!" Dez exclaims happily.
"Good. If you do, you'll regret it," she snaps through clenched teeth. "Hey. Where's the bitch?"
"Who?" Dez asks.
"Ally," Hannah answers, annoyed.
"Oh, I don't know. She could be anywhere. Ally! Ally! Not here obviously. Bye," Dez says quickly. I hear the click, clack of her heels leaving. "Ally... I'm in trouble..." Dez says quietly.
OOH, HANNAH. GO DIE IN A HOLE. RIGHT NOW. Don't hurt Austin like that :( If you're gonna hurt him at all, hurt him physically. At least that'll heal. You can't fix a broken heart. Well, you can fix Austin's broken heart with Ally but that's just an exception... Anyway, review, my lovely loyal minions! (Haha, LittleKitten816, ;) ;) )
LoVe, KeNzIe