Hey everyone, welcome back to this story! This is the FINAL CHAPTER of Away For Christmas!
Thank you all so much for the support you've given this story, it's been incredible. Yes, I didn't exactly keep to the upload schedule I originally planned, but I'm still pretty happy with the way it's all turned out. I wanted to post this yesterday, but again I ran out of time, so instead it's here on Christmas Day as my Christmas present to you!
Merry Christmas everybody!
I hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally or anything you recognise from the show in any way, shape or form, nor do I own any recognisable brands, songs or lyrics within them.
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Chapter Eight
Ally's POV
It's Christmas Eve in Palm Bay. I've loved every single second of my time here so far, from the moment I walked through the front doors of the lodge for the very first time. I'm not leaving yet, though. In fact, I don't know if I ever want to leave here.
The situation with Austin is… well, the same. I've been thinking non-stop about him since the almost-kiss and my talk with Mimi, but I still haven't decided what I want to do. Whenever I'm around him I want nothing more than to be with him, but honestly I haven't really seen him that much since our day decorating the lodge together.
I told Trish everything that's happened, and she really wants me to go for it, she thinks if nothing else it will help me get over Dallas… but I would never use Austin that way. He deserves so much better than that. If I decide I want to be with him, it will be because I really like him, not because of my desperation to move on from Dallas.
I've tried to convince Trish to come up to Palm Bay too. I think she'd love it here, plus she may be able to rekindle things with Dez – they were such a cute couple back in Miami! But she said she can't get any time off work before Christmas and then of course she's spending Christmas Day with her family. She said she'd see what she could do but I'm not really holding my hopes too high.
This trip has really let em get back to being close friends with Dez, though. We've spent a lot of time together here, because obviously I didn't know anybody else (apart from Austin, who was with us sometimes). I can tell he really misses Trish. To be honest I don't know why they didn't try a long-distance relationship… I mean, yes, they are very difficult and lots of them fail, but I really believe that if your love for each other is strong enough you can get through anything. And I genuinely think theirs was. Hmm, maybe I should try and get them back together... but I know that won't happen unless they meet face to face again.
Anyway, yeah, Christmas Eve. I got up as normal and spent the morning wrapping the few gifts I had bought for Dez, Austin, Mike and Mimi. The Moons are already like a second family to me, they've been so generous and kind to me since I arrived, it's gonna be so sad when I have to leave.
I'm even spending Christmas Day with them tomorrow. As soon as they realised I was going to be here, and therefore on my own, for Christmas they immediately said I could spend it with them. Initially I declined, because I don't want to be a burden and intrude on their family time, but they insisted and said it would just be the three of them anyway so a change in company would be 'refreshing'.
At around 1pm I decided to finally open my curtains. I've had them closed all morning, lighting the room with some fairy lights I'd picked up from a store a few days ago. It felt more Christmassy using those instead of sunlight, especially when combined with the Christmas movies I'd been watching.
I walked over to the window and yanked the curtains open, and saw nothing but white.
Snow.
Snow everywhere.
I'd gotten my white Christmas! Well, Christmas Eve, but close enough!
At first I clapped my hands together and jumped around a little, excited, but then I realised just how much it had snowed. It was a lot! It reached halfway up my car door, and was completely filling the entire parking lot and the road outside it. It was still snowing too, and heavily at that, and I let out a gasp as I realised that I was probably snowed in… not that it really mattered, I hadn't planned on going out.
I ran down to the lobby, which was empty, and saw the snow piled up against the glass front door, completely blocking any hopes of leaving. Yep, I was definitely snowed in. Wow.
"Yep, we're stuck here." Came the voice of a familiar blonde behind me. "Hope you weren't planning on leaving me today." He says as I turn around and see him with a small smirk on his face.
"This is incredible!" I say, beaming. "Has it ever happened before?"
He shrugs. "Every couple of years or so. Why? I'm guessing this doesn't happen in Miami…"
"Never." I reply, shaking my head, my gentle curls bouncing around my face as I do so.
"Well, the bad news is we're snowed in. We can't go anywhere." He says, starting to walk towards me. "The good news is, we've got the whole place to ourselves." He continues with a smile.
"What?" I ask.
"My parents have gone out again, and so have all the other guests. They left earlier this morning, before the snow had built up, and now they won't be able to get back in. So that just leaves you and me."
I smile and nod. "Great. So what do you want to do?" I ask.
"Well, I was thinking…" He says, pausing for dramatic effect. "we bake us some cookies, then make some hot chocolate, and then a movie marathon. How does that sound?" He asks in a quiet but excitable voice, like a 5-year-old explaining their secret plan for raiding the cookie jar.
I giggle before looking back into his eyes. "Sounds perfect." I say.
"Great! Let's go!" And with that he takes off, sprinting up the stairs towards his apartment, leaving me confused and semi-dazed in his wake.
I run after him, laughing loudly. "Hey, Austin, wait up!" I say as I trail behind him up the stairs which he is taking about 10 at a time.
He reaches the first floor in no time, turning round and leaning against the wall as he waits for me, not even slightly out of breath. I, on the other hand, regret running after him and almost lose the will to live only halfway up the stairs, stopping for a very long time once I reach the top to re-catch my breath, which Austin finds hilarious judging by his laughter.
"Its… not… that… funny!" I say between wheezes, feeling embarrassed about how unfit I am.
"Sorry, Als." He says in a way that makes my heart flutter slightly.
About 30 seconds later I've regained enough breath to stand up straight and we continue to his family's apartment. The door's unlocked, since nobody else is here, and we walk in and through to the kitchen.
Luckily, the Moons already happened to have all the ingredients I needed for my famous chocolate-chip cookie recipe, and I smacked my hands together in glee, causing me to receive a questioning glance from Austin, and that in turn made me blush… only making me more embarrassed because I was blushing, which therefore made me blush even harder. Urgh!
"So, I'm guessing you know how to make cookies?" Austin asks me, getting the final bowl we will need out of a cupboard.
"Pfft, no just cookies, I happen to know how to make the best chocolate chip cookies the world has ever known." I reply cockily with a smug grin.
"Well, someone's confident." Austin replies with a smile, turning the oven on to pre-heat. "So, how do you wanna start?"
"Step aside, Moon." I say, bumping him out of the way and standing in front of the bowl.
He chuckles, before I hear him walking back towards the door to the living room, saying "Hold on, one thing first."
I feel his presence return behind me a few seconds later before a large piece of cloth that I quickly recognise to be an apron appears in front of me. "Hygiene first." He says in my ear, before he ties the strings of the apron in a bow behind my back. I feel tiny electric sparks every time his fingers brush against my back and it makes me blush again.
When he's done we walk over to the sink and wash our hands, before he puts on an apron himself. We walk back over to the mixing bowl with all the ingredients laid out next to it and begin.
We start by creaming together softened butter, white sugar and brown sugar using a mixer, because I'm way too weak to effectively mix it by hand. Next we have to beat in eggs, but halfway through beating in the first one the electric mixer stops working. Of course, Austin uses this as an opportunity to roll up his sleeves and demonstrate his almighty strength by using a hand whisk… not gonna lie, he does a good job, and it's not exactly unpleasant to watch his muscles at work…
I have to tear my eyes away when it's done though, but my recipe happens to call for two eggs, so I get to witness the whole thing again. I'm not complaining. Next we add in baking soda and a tiny bit of salt.
The next ingredient we need to add is flour. I carefully scoop three cups into the bowl. Just after I empty the third cup into the mixing bowl, I hear Austin's voice. "Hey Ally." He says.
I turn to look at him, only to have him throw a tiny handful of flour in my face, causing me to cough a little and scrunch my face up at the contact of flour on my skin, and also causing Austin to break into hysterical laughter. Most girls in this situation would be so mad that he did that, but I just found it hilarious too. I refrained from laughing, though. 'Two can play at that game.' I thought to myself.
I still had the measuring cup in my hand, and a mischievous smirk flashed onto my face when I thought of my plan. Austin was still doubled over in hysterics, so he didn't notice me scoop a full cup of flour up and move it behind my back.
I put on my sweetest smile and gently tapped his shoulder. "Hey, Austin." I said in a nice voice. He looked up, and the second we made eye contact I swung my other arm around from behind my back, catapulting the entire cup of flour into his face. It completely smacked him and engulfed his entire head with a satisfying "whumpth" sound. I lasted about half a second before bursting out into the biggest laugh I have ever laughed in my entire life. It was freaking hysterical.
About three seconds later I looked up to see him spitting out an enormous mouthful of flour. I guess he was smiling when I chucked it at him. "That's karma, Moon." I say to him before continuing to feel like I'm gonna die of laughter.
"Oh, it is on, Dawson." Austin replies in a playful voice, before grabbing a handful of flour straight out of the bag and throwing it at me, but I squealed and managed to dodge it just in time, picking some up off the floor in the process and jumping to tip it over his head and down his face. He then proceeded to scoop another handful and chase me around the kitchen, our laughter filling the room.
He eventually caught up to me and wrapped on arm around my waist, lifting me up with ease whilst the other hand rubbed his stash of flour in my face, making me laugh and him the same. He puts me down and I instinctively turn and throw my arms around his neck in a hug, which he quickly returns.
I never had this much fun with Dallas. Our relationship always seemed so serious, so… well… boring. Sure, at the time it felt like it was great fun, but I realise now that in comparison to the time I spend with Austin it was dull as hell.
We stay in the hug for like 10 seconds, before I look up and murmur "We should probably clean this up."
He looks back down at me and nods with a small smile. "I need to get changed, and you better borrow some clothes, you're covered in flour." He chuckles again and I smile.
"You sure?" I ask.
"Of course, it's no bother." He replies with that charming grin that I'm growing weak at more and more.
"Okay." I say meekly before stepping away, allowing him to walk off in the direction of his bedroom. He emerges a few minutes later.
"Alright, here, this is the smallest pair of sweatpants, t-shirt and hoodie I own." He says, handing the clothes to me. "The bathroom is just down there on the left." He says, indicating down the hallway.
"Okay, thanks." I say, before walking off in the direction he showed me.
I quickly wash the flour off my face and get most of it out of my hair, before changing into the clothes Austin provided me with. Surprisingly, they weren't too bad a fit, it was just like having a normal oversized hoodie with slightly baggy sweatpants and a t-shirt.
I walk back out into the living area and see Austin already there, with almost no traces of flour left visible. He hands me a small bag to put my clothes into and we leave it on one of the couches before walking back into the kitchen and quickly cleaning the flour from the floor and work surfaces.
We then finish the cookie mix with some chocolate chips and mix, before scooping the mix onto a backing tray in small individual circles.
When they're in the oven we go back into the living room and start arguing about what movie to watch. We agree on avoiding the typical Christmas movies for a change, but from there we can't agree.
Eventually, after much playful arguing and mock-stern glances, we decide on a movie called Begin Again with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. We get the movie ready but pause it at the start whilst we go to make hot chocolate.
Thankfully we manage it without getting into another food fight, working well in a mini hot chocolate production line, resulting in two, if we do say so ourselves, perfect cups of hot chocolate.
We walk back out into the living area and set down our mugs on the coffee table, before going and closing the curtains to make the room darker, like a movie theatre. We return to the couch and sit down next to each other but not too close.
The movie begins. It's about an aspiring British musician who travels with her boyfriend to New York to help his career, only to be left by him and forced to try and make it on her own with the help of a down-and-out record label producer. A few minutes in, Austin speaks up. "You know, I used to dream about moving to New York to become a musician."
I look up at him. "Really? I didn't know you were into music!"
He grins. "Yeah, I've always loved music since I was a little kid." He replies nostalgically. "I always wanted to become a rock star when I grew up. I learnt to play pretty much every instrument you can imagine, I was ready to make it a living."
"What changed?" I ask quietly.
He looks down at me with a sad smile. "My parents couldn't afford to send me to a good music school. I began to think more realistically about everything and realised that I could never just leave everything here behind and move thousands of miles away when there was such a high risk it wouldn't work out." He explains. "I've never lost my passion for music. I'll always love it. But I've realised that my family and my life here is more important to me, and I'm happy with that." He finished with a smile.
"Wow, that's really mature of you." I say. "I think that was a really wise decision for you to make. And hey, you never know what might happen."
"Exactly." He replies with a smile. "What about you? I'm guessing you like music."
"Yeah, I'm a bit like you in that I always loved music since I was small. My Dad owns a music store in Miami, Sonic Boom, and I help him run it. I practically grew up in that store, so naturally I learned to play a lot of instruments too. I love it. I've never really been into the whole performance side of music, though, I kind of have stage fright." I explain. "But I just love making music for me, that I can enjoy. That's all that really matters to me." I finish.
"That's great, Als. I love performing though. Just something about making people happy when they hear me play just gives me this amazing feeling. Especially if it's something I've written, but I'm not really the best at writing my own songs." He says.
"But you have written some before?" I ask.
"Uh, yeah, a couple." He replies.
"Would you, uh, would you play one for me?" I ask timidly.
He smiles. "Sure." He says with a small chuckle. "I'll just go grab my guitar."
He stands up and pauses the movie (which we've both completely lost interest in anyway) and walks off towards his bedroom, meanwhile I have some of my hot chocolate.
He returns shortly after, acoustic guitar in hand, and sits back next to me.
"Ready?" He asks, and I nod, before he begins to play.
The song is amazing. No other word can describe it. It's fresh and original and beautiful, and his voice, oh my God his voice. It's just unreal. He is insanely talented. Is it possible for him to get any more attractive right now?
When he finishes playing I clap and cheer loudly, and he chuckles at my standing ovation before standing up and hugging me. "Thanks Als." He says in my ear.
"No problem!" I reply. "You're really amazing."
We pull back… well, our heads do at least. I keep my arms around his neck and he keeps his wrapped securely round my waist.
I'm lost in his eyes again, as I have been so many times before, and I swear they get more perfect each time. I slowly see him leaning in again. I wait for that tiny voice in my head telling me that maybe I'm not over Dallas yet… but it never comes. Instead is another voice saying "Oh screw it. Just go for it!" And I decide to listen to that voice and start to lean in too.
That's when the timer starts ringing like crazy – our cookies were done.
Way to kill a mood.
It completely snaps us out of our trance and we jump apart as if we'd burnt each other, mutually blushing like mad and looking at the floor. "Let's, uh, let's get our cookies." I say, before quickly turning and walking towards the kitchen.
I walk in and he follows behind me, and I open the oven door slightly to check the cookies are baked. When I decide they are, I turn the oven off and open the door fully, grabbing some oven gloves and removing the tray and placing it on the counter.
I see Austin smiling like a little kid, clearly eager to get at them which makes me laugh. "Okay, let's go and watch the movie whilst we wait for these to cool." I say and he nods, and we walk back into the living room.
We sit back down on the couch – slightly closer together this time – and restart the movie. We both seem to forget about our cookies, getting lost in the movie's plot and music (which is beautiful). Throughout the film, though, we seem to find ourselves edging closer together and at some point my head finds itself resting on his chest, my left arm wrapped around his torso as his wraps itself around my body. I'm not uncomfortable, let's put it that way.
The movie reaches its emotional climax, with one character trying to win another back (I won't spoil it for you) and we find ourselves looking into each other's eyes again. This situation is becoming all too familiar. We both subconsciously start to lean in, but I find myself stopping and I don't know why. My brain has decided I want this, but my body has stopped.
We stay a few inches apart for a couple of minutes, in complete silence, arms still wrapped around each other, until I feel something gently brushing the top of my head, and I think Austin does too as his face scrunches into confusion and he looks up, and I do the same… to see a piece of mistletoe hovering just above our heads.
Held by a hand, attached to an arm which I follow to find it belonging to Mimi. "Mom?" Austin asks. "What are you doing here? How did you get in? We've been snowed in all day."
Mimi laughs. "Luckily your father keeps a shovel in the trunk of his car." She explains. "But enough about that! Look, you're under mistletoe!"
We look back at each other and smile. "It is considered bad luck to break the tradition." I say.
He nods. "That it is." Our eyes lock again and it feels like everything darkens around us. "Third time lucky, huh?" Austin says with a chuckle as we start to lean in.
I just giggle, before he leans forward to completely close the gap between us.
Best kiss of my life.
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That is it ladies and gentlemen! Away For Christmas is finished!
Now, I am not completely closed to the idea of writing a sequel, as I do have some ideas for what could happen, BUT I NEED TO KNOW THAT YOU GUYS WANT THAT TO HAPPEN! SO REVIEW!
I just want to say thank you so much to everyone for supporting this story, I've really enjoyed writing it, especially the last couple of chapters!
Without your follows, favourites and reviews I would have no motivation or encouragement to keep writing, so thank you for making me want to do this.
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Catch you later!