Chapter 8: How He Promised Me.
Ally hummed to herself, singing meaningless words to herself. She was walking to work, and for once she wasn't running behind. She was having a nice calm walk to work. She had no feeling of anyone following her, and she felt at ease.
Her heels set a steady beat on the concrete, and she played with the ends of her curly hair. She sung a tune, and had a skip in her step, unable to wipe the smile from her face. She couldn't deny it, she was happy, of course she was happy.
She came up to the city, and that's when her mood changed. She noticed people were staring at her. She kept her head down, not wanting to draw attention to herself, but then they started talking, and pointing, whispering, 'is that her?'.
Is that who?
Ally looked up, and people glanced away. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and she began to run through endless things in her mind, but then her footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
No...no...no, I definitely didn't just see that...n-no...
Ally slowly turned her head, and she stared at the television through the glass. She gulped. Holy shit. Ally took a step closer, and she edged herself closer to the window. Oh fuck. She reached out and rested her hand against the glass. A squeak escaped her lips, and she finally released the breath she had been holding back.
Oh fuck, shit, shit!
She stared at the picture on the television. It was her...pinned up against his car...his leg in between her legs...and their lips locked together in an aggressive kiss...oh crap, everyone's going to have seen that...oh crappy, crap, crap. Ally's forehead rested against the window, and she sighed.
So much for today going smooth.
Ally's shoulder's slumped forward, and she decided to lug her dead weight body to work. She saw the revolving doors, and she walked inside, stepping into the reception. Everyone stopped, and looked at her. Ally groaned, and threw her head back.
She carried on towards the elevator, and she got into the packed space. They were all whispering, and Ally rested the side of head against the metal wall. She pressed the button on the panel, and she watched the numbers go up as the elevator moved.
She was just going to wait until she got into her room, then she was going to scream. She glanced at a woman who had turned to look at her.
"What?" She groaned.
"Nothing!" She spat, and turned away from her. Ally narrowed her eyes at her. The elevator doors opened on her floor, and she scurried past the people. She stumbled out, and saw Elliot standing in the kitchen. He looked over and smiled.
"I'm guessing you had a fun night last night," He smirked. "I mean it's just a guess. It's not like I have proof-" He lifted up the magazine that said, 'The hot bachelor, Austin Moon, is now off the market!'. "Oh wait! I do have proof!" Elliot was laughing, and Ally crossed her arms across her chest. "Let me guess, you just saw it walking to work?" Ally nodded her head, and he walked over and patted her shoulder. "Poor you."
"I'm going to go and sit down," She whispered, and she walked through the workroom, ignoring all the stares, and she walked into the waiting room. She went over to her desk, and she slumped down into her chair.
That's when she let out her frustrated scream. Her head fell forward, and her forehead landing on her desk.
"So, you saw the news," Ally screamed, and she jumped up, her heart hammering in her chest.
"Austin, you scared me!" She exclaimed, and he smirked.
"Sorry," He said, and he nodded towards his office. "Follow me."
They walked into his office, and he grabbed the spare leather chair, which was by his desk, and placed it down in front of his desk. Ally took a seat, and she nervously played with the end of her skirt.
"Why does Cassidy keep bringing me coffee?" He asked, taking a sip of coffee from his mug.
"She either gets there first, or snatches it from me," Ally explained.
"Well, today, she slammed it down on my table, and got coffee over some very important files. I almost fired her ass," He replied, and Ally smirked.
"Why are you changing the subject," Ally got to her feet, and walked right up to his desk, so her knees were touching the wood.
"There's nothing to talk about," He responded, and he pulled the magazine from the pile of files. "It's just a picture."
Ally scoffed. "You may be used to having your face plastered over magazines for the world to see, but I'm not, and I don't like it. I don't like the attention."
"Are you saying I'm an attention seeker," He raised an eyebrow at her, and she crossed her arms across her chest.
"Pfft. Austin, yes you do crave attention. You walk into a room, and everyone looks at you. It's how you build up your ego," She narrowed her eyes at him, and he chuckled.
"Someone's very feisty this morning," He mused, and Ally rolled her eyes.
"What are we going to do?" She asked.
"Nothing."
"What? I can't have this being seen-"
"Everyone in Miami has already seen it. I may be a billionaire, and a very handsome man, but I'm not God," He remarked.
"Was there any need for the handsome in that sentence," She returned, and he just smiled some more, taking another sip of his coffee. "I think someone just needs their ego stroked."
"I know what else I'd love to have stroked," He grinned, and Ally grabbed the magazine, and hit his arm with it.
"Ow!" He exclaimed, laughing some more. Ally stared down at the front cover of the magazine, and she bit her bottom lip.
I'm so glad my mom isn't here anymore...I'd never hear the end of this.
Something dawned on Ally then, as she stared at the picture. She blinked, then she sat back down in the chair. She saw on the front cover there was a page number to turn to for the full article. She flicked to the page, and she saw two other pictures. One was of them arguing, and the other was when they were kissing, but she wasn't up against his car.
The mansion was in the picture, behind them, which meant that someone had taken it from the woods, which surrounded them, and hid the mansion from the outside world. Ally slowly looked at Austin, and he was staring at her over the rim of his mug.
"Why would paparazzi hide in the woods?"
"I don't know, they do weird shit sometimes," He shrugged his shoulders, and put his mug down. "Why?"
"Why were they there, I don't get it?" She questioned.
"They were there for the charity event, but I'm pretty sure they had left before we even got there...I guess not," He explained, and Ally's face tightened. "What?"
"What if it wasn't paparazzi," She said, her tone flat.
The door opened, and they both looked over. Elliot and Trish came running in and Austin's face scrunched up in anger. Ally could see he was about to shout at them, but she cut him off.
"What is it?" She asked, placing the magazine on his desk.
"You need to see this," Elliot grabbed the remote from Austin's coffee table, and he turned on the TV, which was on the other side of the room. Ally stood up, and sat down on the edge of Austin's desk, and he walked around, and sat down next to her. Elliot put in the channel number, and the news came on.
Ally's eyes widened.
The woman was talking about Austin and his new 'mysterious' lover, and how an anonymous person had sent them more pictures, but Ally zoned that out. She stared at the new pictures on the screen. There was one of just her, when she had been walking to work on her own. There was another of her at the graveyard, and it was when Austin had found her. The next one that appeared was of both of them sat in the diner, and it was just before the loan shark had walked in. The final picture made Ally's hands curl around the edge of the desk. It was the photo of her in her apartment...it was the one the creep had sent her. She was wearing an oversized shirt, and standing by her table.
She looked at Austin with tears in her eyes. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyes glued firmly on the screen. Elliot turned off the TV, and glanced at them both.
"Ally, are you okay?" Trish asked, and Ally quickly nodded her head.
"I'm fine, thank you for showing us," Ally said, and Austin unfolded his arms.
"Get out!" He snapped, and Elliot and Trish left. Ally moved to leave, but Austin grabbed her arm. "Not you," He grumbled, and she turned to look at him.
"I'm guessing it was not paparazzi who took that picture," Ally tried to force a smile on her face, to pretend that it wasn't bothering her, but her tears gave it away.
Austin reached out, and pulled her against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, burying his face into her hair. Ally began to cry, and he held her tighter.
"I'm scared," Ally whimpered against his chest, and Austin grabbed the side of her face, and made her look at him.
"Everything's going to be fine," He whispered, and she sniffled.
"Promise."
"I promise."
...
Ally sat on Elliot's desk, and she waited for him to finish his work for the day. She had tried to keep herself busy for the rest of the day, trying to not think about all those pictures, trying not to think that her stalker had been taking a lot of pictures of her.
"Stop thinking about it," Elliot spoke up, and he stopped typing away on his laptop.
"How did you know?"
"I can read you like an open book. Seriously, it will all blow over soon," He said, and Ally sighed.
He didn't know that those pictures were taking by the person stalking me, and sending me death threats.
"I hope it does," Ally whispered, and Elliot closed his laptop. Then his phone rang.
"Hello," He said, and he seemed to turn away from Ally a bit."Yeah...okay...thanks...yeah, I'll pay you tomorrow."
Ally furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and she got off his desk.
"Something came up. We'll have coffee tomorrow," Elliot grabbed his bag and fled from the work room. Ally stared at the spot he had once been in and she tried to understand what had just happened.
Ally shrugged her shoulders, and left. Austin had one final meeting today, and Ally had finished everything that needed to be done. She left the building, and began her walk home. People stared, and pointed, but Ally ignored them.
Austin may be used to this, but I'm not.
Within ten minutes Ally was walking up the stairwell in her apartment building. She walked past her neighbours door, then she froze outside her door...well where her door had been. Ally's eyes widened, and she slowly stepped inside.
Her door was a splintered mess on the floor. Her couch had been slashed and the insides thrown everywhere. Her desk was smashed to pieces, and all the files and books had been ripped up and tossed around the room. Her small television was smashed into a million little pieces. Her kitchen was a pile of destruction. The cupboard doors had been ripped off, her refrigerator was on the floor, and looked like it had been attacked with a hammer. Her table was snapped in half. Ally ran to her bedroom, and saw the cotton from her pillows, and the inside of her mattress had all be ripped out, and her drawers were trashed and all her clothes smelt of bleach. Ally ran back out and saw her bathroom was shattered into a million pieces, then her heart sank.
The piano her dad had brought her...smashed into a pile of wood and piano keys. Ally let out a sob, and she collapsed to her knees. That was all she had left of him.
...
Austin.
Austin sat down at the end of the table, and tried to listen to the person that was talking, but his mind was elsewhere. He kept thinking about everything that had been on the news. He could deal with the magazine, he actually found that quite amusing, especially the way Ally had reacted to it, but the photographs on the news...now that was too far.
It's definitely the fuckin' freak who's been threatening her!
Austin stared at the twelve other people in the room. All boring fuckers. He sighed, and he stared at the television with the presentation on. He tried to focus on it, but his mind just kept drifting off.
He kept thinking about their last kiss. It was different. He felt like a right dick about the way he had acted towards her at the charity event, but he didn't know what came over him. He'd never been that jealous in his life. He didn't like the way all the men had been looking at her. He just lost his temper and took it out on her, and Ally had been the first person to not run away or cry when he was screaming at her. She had just argued back. Austin smirked.
RING RING RING.
Austin felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and the man stopped talking, and everyone looked at him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and went to hang up, but he saw that it was Ally.
"I need to take this," Austin got up, and walked out the door. He pressed the answer button, and held his phone to his ear. "Ally?"
"Austin," She sobbed. "S-Someone b-broke into m-my apartment...everything's r-ruined."
Austin's hand formed into a fist. "Ally, I'll be right there-"
"Hey!" She shouted. "Get off me!"
"Ally!" He yelled down the phone.
"Austin!" She screamed, then her voice became distant. "Help!"
AN: Sorry about the delay I just had a very busy two days, and I will not be updating tomorrow, because it's my birthday and I won't have time. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for the reviews for the last chapter, and I hope you review this once. In the next chapter Ally is faced with a HUGE decision... :)
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