Heart Skips A Beat {ACM}

Chapter 8

Ally's POV

We sat in silence as we waited for the principal; it felt as though we'd been waiting for hours now. As time passed I became more and more anxious. I could only imagine the look on Mrs. Phillips face when she found out that I wasn't here to have one of our occasional conversations about life. Her door flew open, her smile turning into a frown at the sight of Austin.

She turned her attention to me; "Alright Ally, I guess I'll talk to you first," she replied, a smile returning to her face.

"Uh... well.... Actually I'm here with Austin today," I mumbled, not daring to look at her.

"Why?" she asked her eyes almost popping out of her head.

"It's a long story.... Actually the assistant knows," I said.

She turned her attention to Becky, she was expressionless, as always; "She's in trouble for getting into a verbal fight with Mr. Mahone, says here there was cursing, and it got pretty loud."

"And what class was this in?" Mrs. Phillips asked, as she rubbed her temple.

"Homeroom with Mr. Hawkins," Becky replied. Mrs. Phillips frowned, then gestured for us to come into her office. I stood up, and stiffly followed behind her. She closed the door behind us, sat down.

"Take a seat," she ordered. I hesitantly sat down and waited for her to begin talking.

"That means you too Austin," she said. He plopped down in the seat next to mine, and slumped over.

"Alright, someone want to give me an explanation as to what happened?" she raised a brow.

"Well.... Um, it's a long story," I said.

Austin chuckled beside me and lifted his head; "No it's not, it's actually pretty simple, Ally was being a bitch after I said hi, so asked her if she was giving me the silent treatment and she said no, please stop talking to me, and I said well stop acting like a bitchy pregnant lady and I will, and then it all went downhill from there," he rambled.

"Well Austin, first of all, I've told you about cursing, and second, it seems like you both could have dodged this argument, Ally you could have said hi, and Austin you could have just left her alone."

"No, I couldn't just say hi, Austin is a jerk to me on the daily, why in the world would I ever want to talk to him?!" I exclaimed.

"Mrs. Stewart, please lower your voice. It seems like Austin was trying to make a simple and friendly gesture, and you didn't accept that, though Austin, like I said, you could have just listened when Ally told you she didn't want to talk," she said.

"When did you become a therapist?" Austin asked, his voice showing hints of irritation.

"Austin, she's just trying to help, don't be so rude," I reminded him.

"Well I don't need her help, I don't need to listen to her because I don't care about a single thing either of you have to say," he scoffed.

"Mr. Mahone, I'm trying to stay as calm with you, but with you talking to me like this, I'm not sure I'm going to get very far with it," she said in a rougher tone. He slumped over in his seat more and sighed deeply.

"Now, as I was saying, you could have respected her," she repeated.

"Yeah It would have been easy to avoid, I know that, but I like a challenge," he argued.

"Austin, could you please just stop, she's trying to help without yelling at you," I replied.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

We sat in silence as Mrs. Phillips thought up a punishment for the two of us, even though I wished she would just let us off with a warning.

"I don't want the two of you returning this you, but judging from what I've seen- and heard, I think you might, so I'm going to-,"

"Please don't tell me you're going to make us hang out or something, or take more classes together," Austin interrupted.

"Well that's exactly what I'm going to do, Ally I know your father isn't in the best condition right now, so I'm going to call up Austin's mom and let her know that every Tuesday and Thursday Ally should be over at your house," she stated.

"But I work!" I exclaimed.

"What time do you start work?"

"Usually 5:30 to 8:00 but sometimes my boss will call me in to work earlier than that."

"Well until it's time for you to leave for work on Tuesday's and Thursday's, I want you over at his house," she said.

"And what if we don't want to do this?" Austin challenged.

"Then I'll have you two in all of the same classes, and you will both be required to take on an afterschool activity together."

"Uhh...Okay, I guess her coming over won't be the end of the world," he muttered; "How will you know that we're listening to these rules?" he asked.

"Austin, you know that your mom and I are close friends, I think I'll know," she replied; "You guys may go now, I don't want you to miss your classes," she said. Upon hearing those words, I jumped up and exited the office. I felt relieved being out of there, and away from Austin.

"Hey Stewart!" I heard from behind me.

So maybe I wasn't away from him just yet; "What do you want Austin?" I asked.

"I just wanted to remind you that we're out of the principal's office, you can stop freaking out now," he said.

"I'm not freaking out, I'm trying to get the hell away from you," I informed him.

"Oh well before I let you walk off, I want to remind you that it's Tuesday," he said.

I sighed heavily; "I know what day it is Austin, now please stop following me," I quipped.

"What if I don't want too?" he teased. I rolled my eyes and ignored him, stopping at my locker and putting in the combination.

"I like messing with you," he said, leaning on the locker next to mine.

"Yeah well I hate it when you mess with me," I muttered.

"And that's why I do it."

I rolled my eyes once again and turned to him; "Look, if you gain happiness from bothering me all the time then so be it, I've learned to cope with it anyway," I replied, grabbing my chemistry books and walking away.