Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plotline :P
It feels so good just to relax. It felt like we were doing a lot for the past few days and the flights wiped me out. I've already got dressed and stuff 'cause I didn't want to feel icky, but just into a baggy graphic-t and basketball shorts. Trish got up a little earlier and went somewhere with Dez, frankly, I don't know or want to know. Deciding that I've been watching TV for long enough, I shut it off and put my cereal bowl in the dishwasher. I think I will accept Austin's invite to come over and play music and visit his parents. After grabbing my song book that no one is allowed to touch I head over.
Mimi answers the door, just like the first time I visited. "Hi, Ally! Would you like to come in?" she asks.
"Yeah, thanks, Mimi." I wonder if Austin hasn't told them about us dating yet, it was a bit quick after all and might be worried about their reaction. I sit down in their living room and Mimi comes back with a glass of water for me. "Thank you," I say as I smile.
"No problem, Ally. Austin, come down here!" she calls up the stairs.
"Mom, I'm 24, why do I need to come down?"
"You live in my house and when I'm here you will still obey me! Plus we have a guest so get your butt down here now!" She smiles at me, "Sometimes we have to be a little clearer with Austin." I nod. I hear loud thudding on the stairs as Austin comes down.
"Hey, Ally," Austin says as he sits down on a chair. He draws out the "l" in Ally, trying not to say Als.
"Make friends, she's a very nice girl Austin." Mimi walks out of the room to do something.
"She'll be awhile, she winked at me so I think she's trying to get us together," Austin tells me. He comes, sits next to me on the couch and puts his arm around me.
"Why haven't you told them?" I ask, curious.
"They just got here this morning and there hasn't been a very good time yet. I stayed up late last night making sure everything was clean so that when they got home there wouldn't be anything to bug me about and that made me sleep in. In fact, I woke up with them above my bed and my mom saying, 'Good morning Austy! We're home!' She still thinks I'm a little kid and if I told her she'd start freaking out about that her 'little boy is all grown up'. Once she recovered from that she'd plan our wedding and her grandchildren and every other possible detail of any future we'd have," he explains, running a hand through his already messy hair.
"Oh, ok. I agree on the not telling them yet then, but we'll have to deal with your mom trying to get us to like each other and we can't act like we're dating around her."
"Yeah," Austin sighs, and then notices my song book. "Hey, what's that?"
"My song book. I thought since I managed to show Rydel one of my songs, I could write or sing with you today."
"Oooh! Lemme see!" Austin reaches out to try and grab it; he manages to touch it, but I pull away.
"Don't touch my book!"
Austin pouts, "Aww, c'mon, Als! Why not?"
"'Cause it's my book and I won't let you."
"You won't let me, will you?" he asks, pout turning into a mischievous grin. Before I can react he starts tickling me. I could have not been ticklish and his plan failed miserably, but unfortunately, I am extremely ticklish.
"Ahhhhh!" I scream and drop my book. "Stop…it…Austin! I…can't…breath! HAHAHAH!" Austin's laughing as hard as I am. He stops momentarily to let me catch my breath and while I do, he snags my book and sits on it so I can't get it! "Au-hahahahah! D-don't…touch my book!" Austin continues to tickle me and laugh. I'm squealing and trying to talk the entire time, "If you…stop, I'll…let you…look at my book…even though…you already have it!"
Finally he stops, "Good. Thank you, Als." I roll my eyes; this boy! "Let's go up to my room, I have my guitar in there and maybe something you can play."
"Fine," I say and go up the stairs ahead of him.
"Hey, don't be so put out at your ticklishness!" I get into his room, even though I've been here before I didn't notice all the instruments. There are at least five guitars on the walls not to mention the acoustic one he usually uses that is sitting on his bed, a drum set sitting in the corner with an electric keyboard similar to Rydel's.
"You have a lot of instruments; can you play all of them?" I ask as Austin steps in behind me.
"Yup, I can play most instruments including the violin, tuba, a trumpet through another trumpet, aeolian harp and the theremin which was one of the first fully electronic instruments."
"Impressive. I can just play the piano, violin, flute and guitar," I tell him as I move the keyboard so it's not in the corner anymore. He's flipping through my songbook, pausing every once in a while to read something.
"That's a lot too. Wow, you are an awesome song writer, Als! Some of it's kinda depressing, but I like almost all of it. Can you help me write a new song? Maybe we could perform it together or at least write it as a duet."
"Thanks, Austin," I answer, choosing to ignore the fact that he called some of my songs 'depressing'. "Sure, but don't you write your own songs?"
"Yeah, but I'd still like to write a song with you. We could just do it for fun if you prefer."
"Ok. So what kind of sound do you want?"
"Something fun, and cool, but can still have meaning."I nod.
"How would you approach this?" I ask. He gives me a look communicating that he wants me to be the main songwriter here. I lay on my back on his bed which smells surprisingly clean. "I'm just curious and want to know more about your style as well."
"Fine. Well, I always think about strong emotions to influence my songs. You know, happiness, sadness, hate, etc." I nod and he continues, "What's the last strong emotion you felt?"
"Love," slips out. I blush furiously and so does Austin. I feel like we've been avoiding the four letter word because we don't know how the other really feels; I'm still confused to how I feel. I don't know if it's love, but I'm almost always happy with Austin, I get this warm, jittery feeling in my stomach and there's an electric current every time we touch. I can't be in love though can I? I remember Austin saying something about him being in love with me and here comes forever, but I don't know for sure. Maybe in my subconscious I love him?
"R-really?" Austin asks.
"Uh, yeah. When I saw that beautifully made acoustic guitar hanging on your wall I thought, 'I really love that guitar.'" I try to cover up my fumble, but what's already been said can't be undone and I'm a terrible liar. I'll have to unravel my feelings later. Austin runs his hand through his hair and then rubs the back of his neck; I've noticed he performs these habits when he's nervous.
I can tell Austin knows it was a sad excuse for a cover up, but he goes with it, blush decreasing slightly, "Ok… Let's go with love then. What do think's great about love, Als?
"Real love doesn't end, it just keeps going, it's timeless. Oh, I got it!" I snatch my book back from Austin and scribble the lyrics I thought of into it. He leans over my shoulder to see but I turn so he can't see.
"Hey! Let me see!"
"Hmmm, no. Don't touch my book!"
"Pwitty pwitty pwease, Als?" he asks in a baby voice, his adorableness makes me relent.
"Fine." I roll back over and let him look.
"This love is never gonna fade, we are timeless, we are timeless. My heart will never ever change, we are timeless, we are timeless, and we're gonna last. Hm, that's a cool start, we'll use that as the chorus."
"Ok, cool." We get up and I stand by the keyboard while Austin grabs his guitar.
"What about this?" Austin asks and plays some chords; I nod happily and start playing a melody. Austin gets into it and starts singing lyrics he's making up on the spot, "Every day, day, day, I fall for you a little mo-o-ore. And every night, night, night, I dream of you so beautifu-u-ul. Yeah-eh."
I sing along, filling in lines as well, "Every time we laugh, I see sparks fly."
"And every time you blush, I feel those butterflies," Austin sings and I see his face turn a little pink.
Together we sing, "And baby how we feel, will always be in sty-yle. Forever and ever… This love is never gonna fade, we are timeless, we are timeless. My heart will never ever change, we are timeless, we are timeless, and we're gonna last! Our love will always feel this way, we are timeless… We are timeless…" We play a last few notes and then finish. I smile and hurriedly write down the notes and lyrics in my book so I don't forget them.
"And that is how you write a song!" We high-five; both ecstatic at how well we worked together. "That was awesome!"
"Hey, Als, you know what's great about music?" Austin asks out of the blue.
Yeah, there are a lot of things that are great about music, but don't know what he's talking about, "What?"
"That the lyrics come from the heart. The lyrics that I came up with are true," he tells me, smiling.
"Ye-yeah. Me too," I feel my cheeks heat once again and Austin smiles even wider. We sit back down on his bed, our hips touching. I let him look as I flip through my book; I want to show him something that I drew. My book is very multifunctional; I use it as a diary, song book, and drawing journal. I'm about to show him the song I wrote and then played for Rydel when there's a knock at his door.
"Austin, are you in there?" It's Mimi, what are we gonna do? I sure hope Austin has a good excuse for me being in his room since she doesn't know about us.
"Yeah, come on in."
"Hey, did Ally go home, I didn't see her downstairs." Mimi notices me in the room, "Ally, what are you doing here, in Austin's room?"
"Uhhh…." I don't know what to say, we're both standing awkwardly because when she opened the door we jumped up from the bed.
"I wanted to show Ally my guitars. She likes music too," Austin says, rescuing me from answering.
"Why couldn't you just bring one down?" Mimi asks suspiciously, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Ok, WE WERE NOT DOING ANYTHING AND WE WON'T BE, WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO ASSUME THAT?
"'Cause then I'd have to go upstairs, grab the guitar, bring it down and show her, and then go back upstairs," knowing this is something Austin would complain about, Mimi buys it.
"Well, ok, I believe you. I just came up to ask if you knew where Ally was and to tell you dinner is ready. We found Ally so how 'bout you two come on down now? Dez and Trish also came by and they're joining us," Mimi informs us as she walks out. Austin and I follow her downstairs, ready to eat. I didn't realize how long we spent up in his room. Dez, Trish, Mike and Mimi are all seated when we arrive downstairs and the only two seats left are side-by-side for Austin and me. I don't mind, but what is with this woman? Mimi is really nice, but the way she's obviously trying to set Austin and me up is kinda weird and creepy.
We sit down and dig into dinner; it's pasta coated in that creamy white sauce with tuna and peas mixed in. Austin keeps discreetly poking me in the side and I have to suppress my giggles. Finally, I playfully swat his hand away and kick him under the table to get him to stop. Dez and Trish tell us about their day; apparently they had to take Mr. Carrot-skiddilywhiffers to a llama farm, but Dez can visit whenever he wants. Dez, for some idiotic reason, decided to ride Mr. C, he didn't even get a chance to get on before Mr. C kicked and spit on him. Trish just watched from the sidelines, laughing, I'm sure. That story explains the black eye and purple bruise Dez has on his arm. Mike tells us about his day at the office and how some lady can't get his coffee right, who knew he was that petty? I nudge Austin's arm and cough out the word, "Camping," to remind him he still needs to tell them 'cause even though he's an adult he basically house sits for his parents and they should know if he's leaving.
Austin nods his head in recognition, "Mom, we're going camping tomorrow so I just thought I'd let you know that I won't be here for a few days."
"Ok, your father and I want to take a break after that long business trip anyway so we'll just stay here." Once everyone is done with their food, we clear our places and put our dishes in the dishwasher. Mike invites us to stay a little longer to watch a movie, we accept and then there's a whole dispute over what movie to watch. Eventually we settle on watching Now You See Me, it's about magicians or something. Mimi and Mike sit in the love seat together and somehow Dez and Trish manage to take up the entire couch so Austin and I are left sitting on the floor, leaning on the couch. We sit about a foot apart and it feels very uncomfortable, I wish I could scoot close to him and rest my head on his shoulder, but we're not telling Mimi so I can't do that.
The movie was very interesting, I thought it was brilliant how one of the guys came up with this whole mastermind plan and managed to have it orchestrated perfectly. Dez and Trish leave, claiming tiredness even though it's only ten and I know Trish can stay up way later than that. It was a nice, calm day, but I have to get up early tomorrow morning to pack so soon after Trish and Dez leave I get up to go as well.
"Thank you for having me, Mike and Mimi," I say getting up.
"Any time, Ally," Mimi smiles.
Austin gets up too, "I'll walk her to the door." He steps outside with me, the cool night air brushing our cheeks. A lawnmower is going a few houses down, I don't know why the guy that lives there likes to mow his lawn at night, but after a while the noise actually becomes soothing. Austin looks down at me and then gently kisses my forehead. "Good night, Als. See ya tomorrow."
I hug him tightly, "Good night, Austin."
As I cross the street I hear him singing some of the song from earlier, but not loud enough for his parents who are inside to hear, "And every night, night, night, I dream of you so beautifu-uh-ul. Every time we laugh, I see the sparks fly. Every time you blush, I feel those butterflies…"
Changed and laying in my bed, I decide now might be a good time to tackle my feelings for Austin. I Google, "Define love" on my phone. The definition it gives me is, "an intense feeling of deep affection." I love being around Austin. I love his laugh and his messy blonde hair. I love the way he makes me smile, the meaning behind his songs despite the popular sounding upbeat style and his childishness. I love his adoration for pancakes and coloring books. I love the way his chestnut eyes make me feel like my heart is melting every time I look into them. I love the warmth of his lips when he kisses my cheek or forehead. Doesn't love usually take a while of knowing each other though? How could I love someone I essentially just met? How can I love someone this quickly, how could I have let myself fall? Ever since my mom died my heart has had a protective wall placed around it, making me even fall way from relationship with my dad, but Austin made it crumble. My doubts are crushed at that; Austin broke down the wall I worked so hard to create, not letting anyone get close. I would be friendly in memory of my mom, but I was usually a quiet, hard working, business cool and professional. Austin got close, Austin got to my heart, Austin made me love him. I love Austin Moon. I love Austin Moon. I fall asleep as those four words swirl and repeat in my mind.
A/N
Ally admitted to herself that she loves Austin! I hope you enjoyed! Please follow, favorite and/or review; I really love receiving them. If you already have, or do the previous three often, thank you for your continued support! :)
~Maggie