A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and the love! You've motivating me to keep going with this, a lot of you have tried to make me feel better about my age, but a las, still older than everyone who commented, but thanks. I have a lot of other ideas for stories, but I will do my best to finish this one before starting something else.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Rating: T to M for mild language

looking for the one tonight

chapter two: lovefool

Ally sat at the piano, diligently scrawling notes into her songbook, as Trish sprawled out on a chair, reading the latest issue of Cheetah Beat. Austin and Dez burst into the space and wordlessly started pushing furniture towards one corner of the room.

"Umm…Hey guys…" Ally started, as Dez pushed the piano out from under her fingertips. He grunted an unintelligible response. Austin wheeled her bench towards the couch. "Hey, I'm still sitting on this one!"

"Sorry, but we have to make a podcast, ASAP," Austin replied seriously. She gave him a questioning look. "Need to clear this space." She examined her friend closely. He appeared flushed, slightly sweaty and tired. There were prominent bags under his eyes, telltale signs of a sleepless night. Ally wondered how late he had stayed out.

"Didn't we just post a new song like three days ago?" Trish asked as Dez made a move to push her chair. "Don't even think about it, Dez."

He put his hands up, retreating. "This isn't for a new song, Austin kissed a girl last night."

"So you're making a video about that? Stop the presses, Austin Moon kissed a girl." Trish rolled her eyes and refocused her attention on her magazine.

"Not just that, Trish. Because if it were, we'd have to make like a thousand videos," Dez replied, matter-of-factly. Austin's face twisted.

Both girls looked at each other with disgust and stated in unison, "Eww."

"Dez, it's not a thousand girls!" Austin insisted. He leaned over to Ally, "Seriously, not a thousand girls." She made a knowing face at Trish.

"I only kissed one girl there, and now I'm trying to find her. We're making a video hoping that she'll see it."

"Austin! That's so romantic!" Trish squealed, leaping up off her chair. Ally pursed her lips, her eyes staring off at any direction other than at any of her friends. "But, here's an idea, there's this thing called the internet, why don't you just do a search?"

"That's the problem, she didn't tell me her name," he sighed. He plopped down on the bench beside Ally, his elbows on his knees. She shifted slightly to her right, so that no part of their bodies touched.

"What? Austin, that's usually the first thing you ask a girl…" Trish frowned at him.

'Thanks for the lesson on being a human being, but she just wouldn't give it up. We kissed and she got all coy and shy. Before I could pin her down and get it out of her, she ran off, just before midnight." He leaned over, resting his head against Ally's shoulder.

Ally chuckled, standing up and walking over to stand next to Trish. "Did she leave a glass slipper behind? Or leave in a giant pumpkin?" she joked, her fake laugh apparent.

"I wish, then I would've had something to go on." Austin stood up and slipped his arms around the girls' shoulders. He mimed a screen with his hands in front of their faces. "Guys, it was perfect. Picture this, it's completely dark except for the stars twinkling down on the both of us. I'm a little buzzed, not watching where I'm going and I literally run into this girl. Suddenly she's in my arms and we're just dancing. Then she goes for it and kisses me." His eyes glazed over in a dreamy stare.

"Ooh, that sounds so romantic!" Trish and Dez were practically giddy, their eyes glassy as they hung on Austin's every word. Ally smiled a little bit and just nodded even though his description left a little to be desired.

"It was the perfect kiss, soft and gentle, but hot. I just felt something. Afterwards, it felt like the universe shifted, everything was different, like I was looking at things from a new perspective. That's why I have to find her. I've never felt anything like that ever before," he drifted off, remembering the way her lips fit perfectly with his.

"You have to find her," Trish breathed. She reached out for Ally's hand and gave it a squeeze. "What do you know about her?"

"She's got soft hair, and these dark, shining eyes. And she's got these long lashes. She had these full red lips and rosy cheeks."

"Oh yeah, that's narrowing it down," Dez quipped.

"Well, it was so dark, and so loud, I couldn't really hear her. I wish I had more, but that's all I got."

"It's a start…" Trish offered, twisting her curls in her fingers. She looked at Ally, whose gaze was fixated on some invisible spot on the ground.

"All I know is that when we touched it was like…magic."

"Aww," Trish swooned. Ally felt a little nauseated.

"You're forgetting that one last detail," Dez goaded.

Austin inhaled deeply, his eyes turning to meet Ally's, "Oh yeah, you know what the best part was?"

"What?" Ally gulped.

"She was dressed as Juliet, exactly like the 1968 version, matched to my Romeo," he whispered as if it were his little secret.

Trish's eyes widened as she stared open mouthed at Ally. Ally gave her a subtle shake of the head as a warning. She dug her nails into her best friend's palm to keep her from spilling all her guts.

"Well, we're going to let you guys do your video thing, come on, Ally." Trish practically ripped her from the room and down the stairs.

"Allyson Dawson, you have some explaining to do!" Trish yelled.

"Shh, Trish, they'll hear you," she tried to hold a finger to her friend's mouth, only for it to be knocked out of the way.

"I don't care who hears, Ally. You kissed Austin and you didn't even tell me? We've been sitting up there all morning!" She stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes slightly bugged out. Trish was scary as fuck when she wanted to be.

She held out her hands to placate her. "I know you're mad. But I wasn't counting on him remembering it, so I thought it would just blow over. I mean, he was pretty wasted, so it's a miracle he even felt anything. And it was like so loud, and super dark, and I could barely even hear him…"

"Ally! You're rambling…"

"I would've told you eventually. I just didn't really know what to do, I mean I kissed my best friend," she explained sheepishly. A big chunk of hair found its way into her mouth, her brow furrowing into a worried grimace as she chewed furiously.

Trish's eyes softened as she took in the image before her. She couldn't be mad at Ally, she knew how conflicted she must have felt. "Ally, do you like Austin? Is that why you kissed him?"

Ally shrugged, "I don't know. I was just so happy to see him, but he didn't recognize me and it was all so romantic, and I don't know what came over me. One minute we were just dancing, the next his lips were right in front of me. And I've watched his mouth move a million times, and I just wanted to see what it would feel like to kiss Austin Moon, you know? To have that moment, to be that girl. I mean, things like that just don't happen to me, you know? So I had to do it. You know that when I have a costume on, I get all kinds of crazy self-confidence. Remember Halloween?"

Trish nodded, remembering the night Ally got up on stage as Galexis Nova to sing with Austin. That was their first duet, and was around the time that Trish had realized that her two friends were MADE FOR EACH OTHER. She was glad she wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"But then I totally freaked after it happened and he asked me what my name was and I panicked. So I ran off before he could figure it out," she said, the shame creeping in her voice. "I'm a big chicken."

Trish leaned over and put her arm around her friend as Ally kept chewing her hair. The shorter girl's face suddenly lit up with recognition. "Ally, this was your first kiss! This is huge!"

"I know," she sighed. "It is pretty exciting, isn't it?" Ally gushed with a huge smile plastered to her face. "Even if he doesn't know it was me, at least I know that it was pretty good for him too."

Trish enveloped her in a hug and the two jumped up and down in unison. "Pretty good? I believe he overused the word perfect like a hundred times."

"Okay, Trish, it was perfect. There he was, just standing there, all strong and solid and I just had to feel him."

"Well, how did it feel?" she asked expectantly.

"Like a billion fireworks went off." Both girls swooned on the inside. "His lips are really soft. His skin is like silk and he smells so good. We danced and our eyes met, and he's right, it just all felt so different after that."

Trish nudged her, "You do like him."

Ally's cheeks glowed pink. "Well, I don't know. Maybe? But it's Austin. Isn't that weird? It's kind of confusing, but I know that I don't want him to know it was me."

"Why not?" Trish questioned, knowing full well that Ally was suffering from some serious overthinking. She could be such a head case sometimes.

"Because it might ruin our partnership and friendship!" she exclaimed.

"It wouldn't!" Trish was adamant. She was pretty sure that if they got together, Austin and Ally would become the cutest couple in the world and be pretty much perfect.

"What if he gets disappointed when he finds that his mystery girl is me? I don't want to risk that. I mean, he doesn't even notice me that way. It doesn't even compute to him that I could be the girl."

"He's not the sharpest tool in the shed…but he could get there, with some help," Trish encouraged, her eyes hopeful.

"Also, he knows that I knew what he was wearing, so I run the risk of looking like some sort of crazy stalker who was waiting to attack him with kisses."

"Oh-kay, I doubt he would think that. He'd probably be really flattered. And what if he likes you back?"

"I highly doubt that," Ally muttered, her head down.

"Why not?" her friend demanded.

"He's Austin Moon, Mr. Internet Sensation, he can date anyone. If he wanted to date me, he would have. We've been friends for like a year."

"What if he feels the same way about the partnership as you do? He might be trying to protect his feelings if he thinks you're not into him the way he's into you."

Ally's face scrunched. "Now you're just confusing me."

"I think you should tell him," Trish declared, her mouth set in a firm line.

"I think we should let this whole thing blow over soon, and we can all forget about it and move on with our lives. I got my moment, I got to experience the perfect first kiss with my best friend."

"But he doesn't know about it."

"And it's going to stay that way, Trish. Promise me." She held out her pinky. "Trish." The girl reluctantly hooked her pinky with Ally's.

"You can't tell me you wouldn't do it again. You just said things changed for you. You have feelings for him, you like him Ally. Subconciously, he likes you, too."

Ally shrugged, "Maybe. I'm happy with the way things are between us. I wondered how it would be, I now know, and I want things to stay the same. As friends. End of story." She walked off to help a customer, punctuating the end of their conversation. Trish just rolled her eyes in frustration, knowing that Ally couldn't ignore her feelings forever and that once the door on the relationship was open, she wouldn't be able to close it again.

A/N: Hope you're all pleased with the identity of the mystery girl. Keep the comments coming!