Chapter Nine:
"I'm crazy for you."
I pace anxiously around my empty house, trying to figure out something I can do to preoccupy myself. But I have nothing, since Dallas is definitely not an option, and neither is Dez. I can't believe that he took Dallas' side after everything we have been through. I know that lately they have gotten closer, but come on. Isn't there a rule about being friends longer or something? Well, I guess if that were true, then I'm supposed to be picking Dallas over Ally, and Dallas should be picking me over Ally. Friendship is too complicated these days.
When I'm about to lower myself to moping the floors without being asked, my home phone rings. I check the caller I.D and the number doesn't look familiar, but I pick it up anyway, "Hello?"
"Hey Austin it's Trish." She says.
"Oh hi, what's up?" I ask, confused that she called me.
"I was just checking on you, making sure that you are okay after everything last night." She says.
"That's nice of you. Yeah, I'm doing okay I guess." I tell her.
"Did you end up finding Ally?" She asks.
"Yes, I did." I say, sitting down at my kitchen table.
"And how did that go?" She asks.
"Fine, we just talked for a while." I say.
"That's good. I haven't heard from her today." She says.
"Yeah she was supposed to…" I start to say but I stop myself. I don't know if I'm supposed to share that information with anybody else.
"She was supposed to what?" She asks.
"Um nothing, I don't know." I say.
"You're a liar! Tell me." She says.
"Do you promise you won't tell her I told you?" I ask.
"I promise." She says.
"She told me last night that she was ending things between her and Dallas." I say.
She sighs from the other end of the phone, "Well I really hope she does it this time."
"What do you mean this time?" I question.
"She's said it before, that she's going to end things. But she never does. I don't know if it's because she doesn't want to or Dallas manipulates her." She says.
"Oh," Is all I can reply with.
"I hope I didn't disappoint you too much." She says.
"Huh, what do you mean?" I ask.
"I know you have feelings for her." She says.
"I do not." I tell her.
"You don't have to lie to me. I'm like a psychic when it comes to love." She says.
"She's my best friends… ex best friend's girlfriend, I wouldn't do that." I say.
"I know you wouldn't do anything. But I know you have feelings for her, which isn't illegal." Trish says.
"Trish." I whine.
"Austin, just admit it." She says.
"Can we meet somewhere and talk?" I ask.
"Of course we can. How about Mel's, like right now?" She says.
"See you there." I say, hanging up.
When I get there, she is already there waiting for me, with a fresh batch of curly fries on the center of the table. I sit down across from her, and she just sits there, grinning wide at me. I take a fry cautiously, as if it might bite my finger off and look at her, "What!" I say finally.
"You love Ally." She says.
"Trish!" I say.
"I rather her be with you than Dallas, any day." She says.
"What?" I ask.
"Yeah, I really don't like him. As a person, he's okay, but as Ally's boyfriend, no. I've always thought she could do better." She says.
"Well he's obviously the guy she wants to be with." I say.
"You told me she's going to break up with him today." She says, eating a fry.
"You told me she's said that before." I reply back, dumping ketchup into the basket.
"Well, maybe with you in her life now, she will actually do it." She says.
"I have been in her life since she's started dating Dallas, Trish." I tell her.
"Yes, but its different now. You two have gotten close, haven't you?" She asks.
"I guess so." I say. I can't really tell her about our musical meetings every morning.
"I'll talk to her about it, and see what she says." She says.
"Don't do that." I tell her.
"Well why not?" She asks.
"I know she doesn't feel the way I do about her, and I don't want to ruin our friendship." I say.
"So you admit it!" She says, throwing down her fry and smiling triumphantly.
"Ugh." I say, face palming.
Before Trish could say anything more, Ally appears into the restaurant. She see's us and Trish waves her over, "Be cool, be cool!" Trish whispers.
"Me? You be cool!" I say eyes wide.
"Hey guys!" She says, sitting down between us.
"What's up Ally?" Trish asks.
"Nothing much, just came from Dallas'." She says.
Trish glances at me and then back to her, "How did that go?" She asks.
Ally shrugs, taking a fry, "Yeah, I broke up with him." She says casually.
Trish grins at me and immediately turns it into a frown when Ally looks her way, "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" She asks.
"I guess." She says.
"I'm sorry Ally." I tell her.
"I know." She says.
"Well, this calls for a spa day!" Trish says.
"That's nice of you Trish, but I don't feel like doing that today." She says.
"That's okay, I understand." She says.
"Well you shouldn't go home; it will just make you think about it." I tell her.
"I know, I'm not going to go home. I'm going to go work at the store." She says, standing up, "I just saw you guys in here and figured I'd let you know in case you talked to Dallas." She says.
"Ha, I don't think I will be talking to him for a while." I say.
"Good." She says, with a small smile, "He doesn't deserve your friendship."
I smile back as Ally walks away. Trish grins and plays around with a curly fry, "Well, now that Dallas is out the way…" She says.
"Don't start Trish." I tell her.
"Whatever, this has been nice but I got to get home." She says, "Call me later if anything good happens!" She says. I give her an odd expression as she leaves.
I realize that Trish left before paying the bill, which was typical Trish. Luckily, it was only fries so I really didn't mind paying. After that's settled, I get up and start heading home, walking down the boardwalk. I notice Sonic Boom isn't even opened as I walk by, so Ally must just be in the practice room. She wouldn't say it in front of Trish though.
I stop in front of the door, aching to go in and visit with her. But is that what she wants? She probably wants to be left alone at a time like this. I start to walk by when my cell phone rings. I stop and answer, "Hello?" I answer.
"Hi, I was just wondering if you wanted to work on the song." Ally's voice says.
I laugh, "I'm actually walking by Sonic Boom right now." I tell her.
"Perfect, come up to the practice room, the door is unlocked." She says.
"Be right there." I tell her before hanging up.
I walk in and jog up the stairs. I open the door to the practice room and see her seated at the piano. She turns around and smiles, "Hello." She says.
"Hi." I say, walking over and taking a seat next to her.
"Did Trish leave you the bill?" She asks.
I laugh, "How'd you know?"
"So, did you write a song yet?" She asks.
"What?" I ask.
"You know your homework." She says.
"Oh, well kind of…" I say.
Her eyes brighten, "Did you really?" She asks.
"Well, I wrote some stuff down." I tell her.
"Do you have it with you?" She asks, looking me over.
"No way, I wouldn't share it anyway." I say.
"Well why not?" She asks suspiciously.
"Never mind, just forget I said anything." I tell her.
"Well you'll share with me when you're ready." She says, shrugging and playing a few chords on the piano.
"You know, we really haven't gotten anywhere with this song." I say.
"I know right. We suck." She says, sighing.
"Well, I'm just happy I get to spend time with you." I say to her cautiously.
She smiles, "I like spending time with you." She agrees.
"So are you doing okay?" I ask her.
She nods, "As okay as I can be."
"Well if you need someone to talk to, you know I'm here." I tell her.
"I know Austin, I really do." She says, resting her hand on my shoulder. I smile at her and look into her beautiful brown eyes. Her smile slowly fades and she takes her shoulder back, clearing her throat, "Well, I guess we should get moving on this. We don't have much time." She says.
"Um Ally, we actually have a lot of time until that contest." I say.
She laughs, "Yes, I guess you're right."
"But we can try anyway." I say.
"That's a good attitude!" She says happily.
I play a few chords, fast and upbeat like I want it and she puts her thinking face on. It's really cute actually. She gets all this wrinkles in her forehead and her nose scrunches up. Damn it, there goes those thoughts again.
"I'm like that," I pause, thinking, "Boom box outside of your window." I sing out loud.
She looks at me, question written all over her face, "What was that?" She asks.
I shrug, "I don't know, it just came to me."
"Is it your homework you are finally sharing with me?" She asks, smiling.
I shake my head, "No." I say blankly.
"Well fine." She says, sighing.
"I'm like that DeLorean blowing past eighty-eight." Ally sings.
"Now that's good, and surprising coming from you." I say, laughing.
She shrugs, laughing too, "It's my favorite car, and it sounded right." She says.
"So, I'm like that boom box, outside of your window. I'm that, delorean blowing past eighty-eight." I sing.
"That sounds pretty cool actually. Would you look at that, we are making process already!" She says, clapping her hands.
"We are professional, what can I say." I say to her, laughing.
"Okay okay, let's focus now." She says, closing her eyes.
She starts playing the piano, "And where we're going," she pauses, "Girl, won't be needing roads 'cause."
"Ooh ooh ooh." I say happily.
She opens one eye and looks at me, "Good one." She says.
"I thought so!" I say.
After that, we continue to throw lines at each other, but nothing seemed it fit. It's like we were on a roll, which came to an end fast. Ally looked at the clock and her eyes widen, "Austin." She says.
"What?" I ask.
"It's almost one o'clock in the morning." She says.
"Crap!" I say, checking my phone, "My parents are going to be pissed." I say.
"My dad won't mind, I'm texting him to tell him I'm spending the night here." She says.
"You're spending the night here, alone?" I question.
She shrugs, "Yeah, I've done it before, plenty of times actually." She says, getting her phone out and texting.
"Okay, if you're sure that you'll be okay." I say.
"Yeah…" She says, "You can stay too though, if you want." She says.
"What?" I ask, surprised at her offer.
"We could pull an all-nighter working on the song." She says.
"We could." I say.
"If you want to you can." She says, shrugging.
I pick up my phone and text me parents that I'm staying over at Dez's house. I know we aren't getting a long, and that it's a lie and all, but I don't know if they'd let me spend the night with Ally or not, and I don't want to take the chance of them saying no.
"I'll stay." I tell her.
Her face brightens up, but she tones it down a bit. I almost think she didn't want me to notice, "That's cool." She says casually.
"I haven't stayed up all night in a long time though…" I admit.
"Wow, you are sort of boring…" She says.
"Wow, thanks." I say sadly.
"I'm just kidding!" She says, punching me in the arm like she always does.
"Good!" I say, pouting.
"Oh stop you baby, now let's write this song." She says, going back to the piano.
She sits down and plays what we already have. I lean against the piano and watch her. She hums the words to herself, trying to find the perfect chords to go with it. I don't really understand why she wants to help me so bad with this song, but I don't mind it at all. Her eagerness to write the song, her passion for it, makes me fall for her even more.
It's about four in the morning now, and we still haven't gotten anywhere. Ally is letting her elbows support her on the piano, and I'm sitting next to her, yawning every five seconds, causing her to yawn after me, "Jeez Austin, I know you are tired and all, but can you try not to yawn so much?" She asks and then yawns.
"I'm just so tired." I groan.
"I know. Staying up all night to write a song when you actually need to focus was probably a bad idea." She admits.
"I guess so. Should I go home?" I ask.
"We can just sleep here." She says.
"But what if we over sleep and your dad finds us in the morning?" I ask.
"Well, we are closed tomorrow so I really doubt he's going to come in." She says.
"Alright cool." I say.
She goes into the closet at the other side of the room and pulls out a bunch of blankets, two sleeping bags and pillows. I raise an eyebrow at her as she throws them all onto the floor, "Why do you have all of those?" I ask.
"Trish and I have had many sleepovers here." She says, shrugging.
"Well, I call the cheetah sleeping bag!" I say, causing Ally to burst out laughing. It wasn't that funny, that much I know, so she must be really tired.
She tosses me the sleeping bag and I unravel it, lying it down next to my feet. She throws me another pillow and another blanket. I stuff the pillow at the end of the bag and lay the blanket on top of it. It actually looks pretty comfortable, but that might just be because I'm very tired. She walks over and sets up her sleeping bag right next to mine, which surprises me. I guess Ally is just full of surprises lately, and I don't mind it all.
"Okay, so just to warn you, when the lights go off; it gets extremely dark in here, it's almost creepy. And second, if you end up needing to go to the bathroom, it's outside the door, which is locked because I locked us in because well yeah." She says, talking fast.
"And you sleep here alone sometimes?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, only once, because I fell asleep. Trish is usually always with me." She says.
I laugh, "Okay, gotcha." I say.
I climb into my sleeping bag, wishing I could strip to my usual sleeping attire; boxers. But I didn't think Ally would appreciate that, so I decided I can just be uncomfortable for one night. She walks over and flips the light off, and she's right, it's extremely dark. I hear her little footsteps run over, and then I feel movement of her getting into the sleeping bag next to me.
"I told you its really dark." She says.
"Wow, I guess you were right." I say, "You need to get a night light in here."
"That's for sure." She says.
"Ally, did you and Dallas ever spend the night together?" I say suddenly. I felt very stupid after I said it out loud. First of all, why would I even mention Dallas to her now, after they just broke up, and why would I even ask something like that?
I figured she wasn't going to answer because of the long pause, but she does, "Nope." She says causally.
"Not aloud?" I ask.
"I never wanted to." She says simply. I wanted to ask her why, or something, anything. But I felt like there was no need to continue to ask questions. I couldn't help but smile though, because she wanted me to stay with her, something she never wanted her boyfriend of a year and a half to do. That's got to call for something, doesn't it?
"Austin?" Ally asks, after a long pause.
"Yes?" I answer, putting my hands behind my head.
"Were you and Trish on a date earlier?" She asks.
"What?" I ask, shocked.
"Well, you guys were at Mel's together, and it kind of looked like…" She starts.
"No, no way. Not a date." I say.
"Okay." She says.
So that's why she was acting a little strange when she came over to us, and why she must have left so quickly. I guess I can see why she would have thought that, but does this mean she was kind of, jealous? No, I doubt it. She was just curious. Man, I over think things, and imagine things the way I wish they were.
"Austin, do you think you and Dallas will ever be close again?" She asks.
"I don't know." I say truthfully.
"He's changed." She says simply.
"I know." I reply back.
"Is it possible, to fall out of love with someone?" She asks, but I'm not sure if she's asking me, or herself.
"I don't know, only one girlfriend remember?" I ask, sort of laughing.
"Did you love her?" She asks.
"I don't think so." I say.
"Well, have you ever loved a girl you've never dated?" She asks.
I find it an odd question, especially because of the situation I'm in. I don't know how I should answer it, and I argue with myself for that answer, finally deciding to be as truthful as I can, "Yes." I say.
"When did you realize you didn't love her anymore?" She asks.
"Well, I never stopped." I said.
"So does that mean you never stop loving your friend love?" She asks.
"It's possible." I say. I want to say yes, it's probably true. But that'd mean she'll never stop loving Dallas, and all I want is for her to love me, like I love her.
"It probably is. I mean, a lot of people get over their first loves eventually." She says.
"Yes." I say. It's all I could say.
"What's she like?" She asks.
"What's who like?" I ask.
"The girl you love." She says lowly.
I don't know why she asked, I was hoping she wouldn't. I wanted nothing more than to tell her it was her, and how amazing, and special and perfect she really is, and how Dallas doesn't deserve someone like her. She deserves to me treated the way she treats everyone else. But I couldn't do it, for many reasons.
"She's amazing." I say.
"Does she love you too?" She asks.
This conversation was actually killing me. All of the stuff I couldn't tell her that I wanted to so badly, "No." I say.
"Well that's dumb. You're a great guy Austin." She says.
"Thanks Ally." I tell her.
"You deserve the best." She says.
"And so do you." I say, and that's the end of our conversation.
The silence lingers as I stare up at the dark ceiling, thinking of everything that happened today, and our conversation we just had, causing more song lyrics to come into my head. All I can think about is my 'homework' causing me to smile. I want you bad. I sing in my head.
Author's Note:
I think i kind of enjoyed this chapter... I hope you did too! Thank you so much for reviewing everyday! I think i'm going to start replying to my favorite reviews on my next chapters so everyone can see, so keep reviewing! :)