Just wanna remind all of you that you're awesome and I appreciate that you read my story.

I lose track of how much time I had been sitting out on the balcony for. I listened to almost an entire album so I gather it was long enough. I stand and stretch then take a deep breath. I can't imagine myself ever getting tired of this view. I turn and walk back into my room and shut the balcony doors. I sit on my bed as I try to decide what to do next.

I'm not in the mood for playing piano or Netflix. I decide I'm in a bummed mood because I miss my old school and all of my friends. Speaking of my LA life, I wonder how all of them are doing? It was their first day of school today too.

I pull up Instagram on my phone and type in Cassidy's account first. She has a new picture from today of all of my old friends from LA standing along a wall of the school with their arms wrapped around each other. I double tap the picture.

I move on to start stalking each of the girls in the picture. Tilly, Kimmy, and a new girl named Madison. There isn't much to see considering all they do is post about their Starbucks drinks and boyfriends.

I hesitate a moment before typing in the next username. When the page pulls up I scold myself for doing this. I'm just going to get my feelings hurt. I push those feelings aside and begin to look through every picture and comment he has. I hadn't been on Instagram in a while, and I've especially avoided his account. I had to know how he was doing though. Even though he broke my heart, I'll always love and care about him. He just had a really hard life and doesn't know how to deal with emotions and feelings he has.

He hasn't posted much in the 3 months it's been since he dumped me. He posted a selfie of himself. He looked better. Not necessarily happier, but he looked a bit more cleaned up and the blank expression on his face didn't hold a frown or angry eyes like it always had before. I decide I feel happy for him. I hope that life is getting better, easier for him. I close out of his account and check mine.

I had 2 new followers, they were from my old school. I had done cheerleading with them. I follow them back and look at my pictures. My account consisted of pictures of my mom, dad, and I, my friends, my dog Velvet whom my dad kept in the divorce, and a couple selfies of me. I go through and delete my selfies, and any pictures that had my dad in them. I delete the picture of Velvet. Even though I love her I'm not a very good photographer and I had no reason to post the picture of her.

I click on a picture I had taken with him. We had taken it on a good day when he wasn't mad at the world and himself. When he convinced me to ditch school that day with him so we could go hiking and swim up in the lake and have a picnic under a huge tree. It was our spot. He had shown it to me when we first met, before we even started dating. It was where he'd go when he wanted to escape the world for a while. He wanted to share it with me. I had gotten grounded and yelled at by my parents when I got home that night. I remember not even caring because he had been so happy that day and I'd get in trouble a thousand times just to be able to make him happy like that once more.

Before I can think it through I press the trash icon to delete the picture. The warning message appears that asks if I'm sure I want to delete it. My finger hovers over yes for a few moments before grief and sadness washes over me and I press no instead. I'm not ready to let go of that memory yet. All of a sudden the front door opens signaling that Tom is home. That means that dinner will be ready soon. I step into my bathroom and begin carefully wiping the tears from my eyes, trying not to mess up my mascara. I don't want anyone knowing that I was crying, especially what I was crying over. Voices fill downstairs. More than two voices, and unfamiliar ones at that.

We have guests over. Damnit. I hate when people come over to the house without my knowledge. I'll just stay up in my room for as long as I can so hopefully by the time I go downstairs they'll be gone.

"Ally!" Well, there goes my plan. "Come down here and meet our neighbors, honey." I let out a groan and check my appearance one more time. I can barely tell I was crying. My eyes are a little glossy and my cheeks are slightly flushed and red but other than that I look normal.

I go downstairs and walk into the kitchen where everyone is. I meet the gaze of the man first. He is tall and has brown greying hair. His eyes are a deep brown and he is wearing a suit. He extends his hand to me in a friendly gesture. I take it in my own and we shake hands.

"Hello, I'm Mike." His voice sounds like one of a TV anchor but he seems kind all around.

"Hi, I'm Ally. Nice to meet you." I say and plaster a fake smile on my face. I'm so not in the mood for socializing right now.

"The pleasure is all mine." He replies as our hands finally break contact.

My eyes shift from his to another set of brown eyes. These ones are familiar. The blonde boy from the office stands before me in my kitchen. I become slightly uncomfortable and pray that he can't tell I've been crying with the way he's studying my face. His lips slightly curve upward in a casual smile and he shoves his hands in the pockets of his black jeans.

"We met earlier this morning, right?" He asks me in a mellow, casual tone.

"Yeah, in front of the office. Sorry about that again." I grow slightly more uncomfortable and hold my hands together behind my back. I just want him to stop looking at me. My mother raises her eyebrow and Tom speaks up before he can reply.

"You two know each other?"

"I guess you could say that. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going this morning and I accidentally ran into him." Tom looks at the blonde for confirmation and he nods. For the life of me I cannot remember his name. Tom just nods and a thoughtful smile rests on his face.

"Well that's great! I'm glad you two have already been acquainted." I don't really know what to say so I just give a small smile and nod then focus my attention on my feet. Mike speaks up.

"I apologize that Mimi isn't here at the moment. She made a quick last minute trip to the farmer's market to grab some things for dinner. She would've loved to meet you, Penny. She stays at home also and I think she gets lonely some days. I think it'd be nice for her to have a friend like you to be able to have coffee with or just to talk to, y'know?"

My mom gives him a warm smile and nod. "I know exactly how she feels. I mean today was Ally's first day and although I love staying home I can see myself getting lonely being home by myself. Especially when she starts making friends. She doesn't have any right –"

"Mom!" I exclaim, suddenly feeling very embarrassed. "I have friends."

"Yes, sweetie. Back in LA."

"Nonsense! Ally has Austin. You guys are friends, right Austin?" Mike says encouragingly as he pats Austin on the shoulder. So that's what his name was. Austin I try out in my head. It does suit him.

"Sure." He replies a bit uncomfortably. This is absolutely horrifying. I bow my head in embarrassment and rub my forehead with my hand in an effort to distract myself from this.

"Well, as much fun as this is. I have to finish going over some more school stuff for today so I should really head back up to my room." I say in the nicest way I can while backing up towards the stairs. My mom looks displeased and Tom looks clueless as him and Mike carry on a conversation about how Mike and Mimi should come over for dinner sometime.

"Hey, uh Ally? Would you mind showing me to the bathroom up there?" Austin looks like he'd rather be anywhere but that kitchen at the moment and the way Mike and Tom were chatting, he wouldn't be going home anytime soon.

"Of course." I smile at him. I turn around and start walking up the stairs. He's right behind me.

"I don't know if you were actually serious about the whole bathroom thing or if you just wanted an excuse to leave but just in case, it's at the very end of the hall." I say when we reach the top of the stairs and nobody can hear us. I begin to walk away when his voice stops me.

"Eh, I'd rather see your room." My cheeks instantly flush. I let out a shaky inaudible breath and chuckle lightly.

"In that case, right this way."

He follows me into my room and closes the door behind him. Why did he close the door? I decided not to question him about it. He seems innocent enough. I sit on my bed and he studies everything in my room.

"You know," he starts. "you can tell a lot about a person by their room."

"Can you now?" I ask while tilting my head to the side.

"Yeah. I'm learning all kinds of things about you as we speak."

"Hmm. Like what, exactly?"

"Well. I can tell that you're a clean freak because literally everything about your room is perfect. Except for that pile of clothes over there." He gestures towards the corner of my room that has a stack of clean clothes all sitting in an unorganized bundle.

"You don't know why I do that."

"Enlighten me." He says with a smirk as he shifts onto his right leg and crosses his arms in a gesture I can only describe as cocky.

"If you must know, it's because I have this routine that I do and in order for it to work properly the clothes have to be like that." He raises his eyebrows in a way to encourage me to continue. I sigh and rub my hands against my jeans. They were getting sweaty. "Every night I fold the clothes into piles before I go to sleep. Then, in the morning I go through and pick out what I want to wear and that kinda destroys the neat piles so they look like that." I gesture towards the clothes. "Then when I get home I get to do it all over again. It relieves a lot of stress."

"That's insane." He laughs. It isn't taunting or mean, just casual.

"It is not." I defend myself while laughing along.

"How could you possibly find that stress relieving? Laundry sucks!"

"Hey, don't judge my habits and I won't judge yours."

"You don't know my habits." He points out with a smile.

"Touché."

"I can also tell that you're into music. And not just a 'I like One Direction music and go to their concerts' kind of interest. A serious one."

"Hey! Don't pick on One Direction. I'm a fan." I tease, even though it's true. He holds his hands up in mock surrender before re-crossing them on his chest and stepping towards my keyboard.

"How long have you played for?" He asks as his fingers brush against the keys.

"13 years." He looks impressed as he turns to speak to me.

"You have me beat by 5 years. I learned when I was 9." It was my turn to be impressed.''

"You're into music?" Suddenly I'm very interested in this blonde-headed boy with girlfriend problems.

"Totally. It's my passion. I sing, dance, and can play quite a few instruments. I wanna go to U-of-SC."

"The University of Southern California. Which is why you want to move to LA when you graduate." It all makes sense.

"Exactly."

"Very ambitious. I'm impressed."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What are your plans for after high school? What are your dreams, goals, ambitions?" He jokes the last part. I chuckle before replying.

"MUNY."

"M-U-N- What?" He asks.

"MUNY. The Music University of New York. It's my dream to go there."

"It's my turn to be impressed. New York is very ambitious of you."

"What can I say? I've got big dreams." I smile.

"I like that in a person. Someone with goals and plans in their life."

"Me too." I agree.

"You know, Ally. You're pretty cool for someone with no friends."

"Ugh." I groan covering my face with my hands. "I can't believe my mom said that. She made me sound like such a loser." I can feel the heat rushing to my cheeks.

"Don't be embarrassed. My dad does it all the time. He has this very un-humorous way of making everything awkward." He says. I can hear the frown in his voice. I look up and sure enough, his hands are clenched at his sides and a deep frown is set on his face.

"Touchy subject?" I try.

"I guess. Me and my dad don't get along very well, despite how he tries to display us to other people." I nod in understanding.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm the same with my dad." I offer to him. His angry eyes meet mine and they become sympathetic.

"That doesn't make me feel better. That sucks. Dad's suck." He says.

"Can't argue with that one." A deep voice echoes from the kitchen calling for Austin to get ready to go.

"Speak of the devil." He grumbles. "You aren't bad company, Ally. Thanks for the talk."

"You aren't so bad yourself, blondie. Feel free to talk to me whenever you want."

"I might just take you up on that." He says sincerely before he turns to open my bedroom door. He looks behind his shoulder to look at me before saying,

"See you at school tomorrow. Try not to bump into me again, bright eyes." His tone is playful and I flush at the nickname he gave me. Maybe I really did make a friend after all.

So what do you guys think? Do you like the new story so far? I have so many great ideas and I'm really excited to see where this story takes me. I'd really appreciate it if you left a review to let me know what you think! Thanks everyone. (: