Chapter 9

Austin typed in a number he knew by heart, but he hadn't called the person in three or four long years.

"Hello?" His call was answered after five rings.

"Hi! Dez? It's me Austin!" he replied.

"Austin! Hey buddy! Nice to hear from you!" Dez exclaimed.

"I know. Its been years." Austin sighed. He didn't know what happened. They were the closest of friends but years being apart, somehow put some strain on that bond. But Austin knew Dez, and he'd still be best friends with him even after all this time.

"Yeah," Dez agreed. "Way too long. Been four years actually."

"Four years?! Wow. So uh, how are you these days?" Austin attempted in casual conversation.

"Great actually. I'm directing this new movie to be release next year. So pumped for it." Wow Dez must have gotten past the stage of those weird gimmicks and dress-ups. At least Austin hoped he did.

"That's great, Dez! I'm so happy for you!"

"Well, not just me. I heard you got signed to be part of the Colorado Avalanche..." Dez began.

"Oh, yeah! But I'm off for the season. Injuries," Austin explained.

"Oh. If you were playing this season, I'd have bought some tickets. But next season, I guess?"

"Yeah. Next season." But Austin's thoughts were else where. He called Dez because there was a reason to it. "Um, Dez? Can I get some advice?"

"Sure. What's it about it?" Dez asked.

"I need some girl advice. Or more like lady advice." He mumbled the last part.

"Girl advice?!" Dez hooted. "I thought you got past the player stage. Guess not," he joked.

"No! I'm not a player." Austin argued.

"You sure? You left that one girl heartbroken. And I could say you're a heartbreaker!" he said in a sing-sing voice.

"Dez..." Austin whined.

"Okay, okay. So you landed a girl? Nice. I remember how you had started dating again and that was a terrible failure." Dez chuckled across the country.

"Yeah, she's great. But I think she's cheating on me." Austin hesitated to say it, but he needed some advice.

"Cheating on you?! So Austin Moon's getting some of his own medicine!" Dez teased.

"Dez! Quit with the jokes! What should I do?" Austin looked at the café and he saw Ally in anger.

"Oh! You were serious?" He chuckled again. "Okay. I'll lay off with the jokes. Are you sure she is? Have you got any solid evidence?"

"Well... uh, not really," Austin admitted. He was closely watching Ally's and Elliot's conversation and he could tell that it wasn't going too well.

"So how can you say she's cheating? And if she's around another guy and you accuse her of cheating... I think you really fell for her," Dez theorized.

"You think so? I really like possibly love her?" Austin asked in wonder.

"Yep. But hey, I got to go, but call me later. 'Kay?"

"Sure, buddy. I have to go too. Bye."

"Bye." And Dez cut the call first.

Austin quickly got out of his car and ran up to Ally who had just stormed out of the café. "Hey, Ally!"

"I can't believe that jerk! He doesn't have the right to say -" Then she noticed Austin. "Oh! Hey Austin." She laughed as Austin engulfed her in a giant hug. "Au-Austin. Let m-me down."

"Fine. So what do you want to do today?" he asked her as he led her to his car. He would put Elliot to the back of his mind for now and focus on Ally. There was no way she was cheating on him with that jerk. And plus she had called Elliot a jerk, too.

"Um... I don't know."

"So what happened back there?" Austin flinched. He couldn't help but asked.

Ally's face darkened for a minute, but she let it go. "I really don't want to talk about it. Can you drop me home? You want some dinner after?"

"Sure," Austin simply replied. The rest of the car ride was filled with silence as each of them were in their own thoughts.

A few hours later, bathed by dim lights sat Austin and Ally in Ally's apartment eating dinner. She had prepared a simple yet filling dinner of creaser's salad with crab cakes. It was simple recipes and it took only thirty minutes of preparations. And Austin as proud to say he helped because the food was oh-so-good delicious.

"Mmm. Ally this is delicious. I must have the recipe," Austin complimented.

"Thanks. Actually its a homemade recipe. I never really thought anyone would like my cooking."

"You kidding?! But I did help so that might be the difference," he gloated.

"Oh, really?" She raised her eyebrows. This guy really had such a huge ego.

"Might be. So you done?" Ally looked up and down to his plate. It was already cleared!

"Whoa! How much do you eat?" She looked down at her plate and compared the two. She had only eaten about half.

"Well as a brilliant hockey player as me -" Ally jokingly scoffed at this "-What?! Okay an athlete like me needs food for energy. By the way do you need help eating your food?"

"No. I'm good," Ally stated and then continued once more, eating.

Ten minutes later, they were gathering the dishes and washing them. Ally believed that hand washing was much better than dish washing them. She didn't really know why that is, but she grew up that way. She had chores and that was to wash the dishes, as a little girl, there was no dishwashers then and she kept it that way. Well at least in her household.

"Why do we have to wash dished anyway?" Austin whined. Ally was washing the dishes and rinsing them as he wiped them dry. It was quite an efficient system.

"Because I don't believe in dishwashers," Ally replied as she continued her work.

"But why?" He repeated.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know its been that way since."

Austin quickly stole a look at Ally. He scanned her features. Her dark eyes, sharp and cautious. Her full red lips curling up to a smile. She was beautiful. Then he thought of something. She was so immersed in washing the dishes she didn't notice that Austin had stopped wiping the plates. Then out of the blue he splashed some water onto her.

She squealed in surprise as the water hit her. "Austin!" Then she caught his smirk. "Oh, you're going to get it!" She splashed some water onto him and pretty soon it ended up in a full-out water fight with the dishes forgotten on the side.

After finally washing all the dished they were seated on the living room sofa. Ally had changed her clothes and Austin had quickly ran to his apartment to grab a change of clothes. She had her hair up in a towel as he had one slung around his neck. They sat there staring at the flickering lights of the TV screen.

"Austin?" Ally began.

"Yeah?" He turned to face her.

"Were you always this good of a guy?" she hesitantly asked.

"What do you mean?" he questioned.

"Were you always this nice? To girls I mean? Urgh! Like in relationships, were you always like this?" she tried after a few times, finally getting it right.

"Well, no." He flatly admitted. "Remember when I told you that I lost the love of my life?"

She nodded.

"Well, your the second girl I've dated after she left me. This relationship turned out far better than the first time."

"Explain."

"Well when she left, I was utterly heartbroken." He looked at her with sad eyes, and she leaned in closer to him. "I started dating this girl a year after she left, the summer before I left for college. We started with a first date and you could say that date didn't end so well."

"Really? What happened?" Ally begged for him to continued.

He looked away as if trying to remember, then looked back at Ally again. "Well all I could think of was my lost love. And she thought that I was too hung up on my heartbreak. I guess she was right. I wasn't ready to start dating, yet. So I laid off of girls for the next several years. Then in college I played hockey as a sport to get my mind off of girls and her. And one day as I was playing a team with the guys, a scout for the Colorado Avalanche was in the crowd. He saw me play and asked if I was interest for playing professional hockey. I said yes because I really didn't have much going for me and I guess, the rest is history. Then I met you and it turns out that I could forget her after some time. But I'm glad because no one is better than you."

"Wow," Ally said softly. "I really mean that much to you?"

"Yep. You are my life." And he pulled her in for a quick kiss.

"And you are mines too. Because something similar happened to me."

"Really? What happened?" he asked.

She sighed. "I'm not ready to tell you the full story, yet. But in high school I dated this jerk and he only ended up breaking my heart."

Austin's face turned stony when she mentioned a guy breaking her heart. "Whoever the guy is, I'll pummel him!"

"Austin, don't worry. I'm not hung up on him. At least not anymore..." Ally couldn't believe she was telling him this. She had built her walls way high. And the guy next to her was the only one capable of breaking them down. Austin Moon was really something. "... I was so broken, I left because I couldn't face him. So I moved here to live with my aunt. And in my last year of high school a guy asked me out. I accepted but that date didn't go so well." She scrunched up her face remembering the memory.

"What happened?" Austin was fully intrigued by this.

-Flashback- (Austin is listening to the story, as you see it the flashback)

Ethan knocked on Ally's Aunt Nancy's front door.

The door opened to reveal a stunning Ally in a floral print sleeveless dress. It was a simple design but stunning as well. "Hey Ethan."

"Wow, Ally. Just wow." He looked at her, up and down. "You look amazing."

Ally giggled. "You, too."

"Ready for our date?" He held out his arm as he handed her a bouquet of flowers.

"Thanks. and Yes." She took his arm and the flowers and they started off down the street. After a ten minute walk they entered a local restaurant. It wasn't too casual or too fancy. Just the type of mood, perfect for their date.

Once they had chosen their table, and the waiter had given them their menus they looked down at the choice of meals.

"So what are you having?" Ethan asked, trying to bring up conversation.

"Can I choose anything?" Ally asked.

"Of course. It's my treat." Ethan smiled at her.

Ally returned the smile. He was so nice and such a gentleman. "Maybe I'll have their famous baked ziti with some iced tea."

Ethan looked up at the waiter. "Make that two."

When the waiter left, Ethan looked at Ally. "So um... what are your hobbies?"

"I love reading and school. I play piano and song write. I must sound like a nerd," she introduced herself. "How about you?"

"First of all, you don't sound like a nerd. You sound like me. Except that I'm captain of the soccer team and I don't song write," he replied.

"Thanks. That means a lot."

-Pause the Flashback for Interruptance-

"Aren't you going to the disastrous part?" Austin asked.

"Why?" Ally looked at him.

"You don't need to go through every detail of how much of a good guy he is. It's kinda hurting me right now," he whined.

"Okay. I'll skip. But your special Austin, don't forget that." Ally smiled at him and continued with her story.

-Back to Flashback-

Once the dinner was served, talk started out again.

"So Ally why'd you move here?" he asked causally, stuffing his mouth with food.

Ally looked at him, disgusted, but answered anyway. "Well its complicated."

"Rweally?" he said though all the food.

"Yeah. He was such an amazing guy. I had like him for like several years and only last year he started to notice me. We went our for most of the year but he left me heartbroken. I left because of him. I couldn't face him," Ally explained.

"Wow. That's sad. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I moved so I can start anew. And thanks for that."

"Yeah, no prob. I mean I took a chance tonight and I'm glad I did." Ethan then started to talk about the latest game he had played and he gave a play by play in excruciating detail of the events. Its been ten minutes since Ally had spoken so he stopped and looked at her. She was staring out the window, probably not listening at all. "Ally. Hey Ally!" He waved a hand over her face.

"Huh? What? Oh, hey Ethan." Ally jumped a bit and looked at him.

"Are you okay? You spaced out for like five minutes."

She blushed. "Oh. Sorry. I was just... Um, I can't really stop thinking if this was the right choice, Ethan."

"What? What do you meant? I had a great time? Did you not?"

"It's great, for you. But I just realized that I can't really start dating just yet," Ally said, looking at him with sad eyes.

"What?" he gasped. He thought it had been a truly great date.

"Its just that I can't forget what happened in Miami. I can't really get over the guy yet. I'm sorry. I just keep think about him. I really think that this was a mistake on my part. I shouldn't have accepted. I'm sorry. You're a great guy and all but I'm not ready. I'm sorry."

"Stop saying sorry!" he exclaimed making several people look at them.

Ally looked around and tried to hush him. "Please people are looking!"

"No! I don't care!" He stood up and threw his napkin onto his plate. "It's a mistake?! Well then it was for the both of us!" Then he stormed out, leaving Ally to pay the bill and walk out in humiliation.

Once out of the restaurant, she took off her heels and made a run for home. She let herself in, up to her room, and slammed the door behind her. Ally let out a strangled scream and landed on the bed, crying for all she was worth.

-End of Flashback-

"So first dates are disastrous for the both of us." She smiled meekly.

"I can't believe that guy!" Austin raged.

"Austin. That date was my fault and it was history, calm down," she soothed.

"Okay." He pulled her closer and held her tight.

Then Ally got a fire going, and took out her phone to play some music. It was quiet between them, both inside their heads. Then the next thing Ally knew, her eyelids were getting droopy. She looked at Austin who was sound asleep with his chest rising and falling with each breath. She looked at her phone and realized that it was nearly midnight. She looked at the fire which was reduced to embers. She shrugged and closed her eyes.

They stayed in that position for the rest of the night.

A/N: Longest yet. How'd you like it? I'd like to know. Personally I loved it. And thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites.

Fun Fact: When Dez was speaking with Austin, the way he talked was mostly based on me when I'd sass my friends. I find that funny.

Review, follow, favorite?

Until next time, adios.