Austin's POV
"If you want to protect me..."
"What? Tell me what I can do Alan please." I begged, my heart starting to pound harder against my chest in antisipation. I'd do anything to protect him the best I could and I couldn't help but feel a little hopeful, but worried at the same time. "I-I'd do anything."
There was a pause, silence filling the air, I knew Alan well enough to know he was thinking, hard and having a debate with himself. And then the silence broke with three words that made me literally want to burst at the seems with joy. "Stay with me."
"Stay with you?" I really shouldn't have questioned it, but I had to be sure he meant what I thought he meant.
"Austin..." He sighed. "You know what I've just realised? All along, all we've been is pawns in Ronnie's games and we played right into his hands. That's all we've ever been...pawns and we where dumb enough to fall for them for various reasons. We let him play us off each other, use us against each other to tear us both down. And now clearly, the satifaction he once felt after destory me, destorying us, is wearing off, so he's finding new ways to play us against each other. He's using a mistake I made, my heartbreak, everything to make me vunerable. He's using you because he knows, if I saw you go back to them...it would just kill me that little bit more but he knows that you still love me and would do anything to protect me. I...I don't want to be pawns anymore Aust because you know what, in all these games, we...we found each other, and we made each other happy. We found love in a hopeless situation that could've only ended in failure and we let him ruin it. I-I don't want to be pawns anymore Aust, I just want to be happy again, and you are what made me happy."
I felt my eyes brim with tears of joy, I could barely believe what he was saying, it was almost too good to be true. "S-So...you want there to...to be an us again?"
"In short." Alan gave a small nod of his head and I literally just wanted to grab him and hold him as if my life depended on it. "But, the fact still remains you hid the truth for me Aust, you could've told me and saved all this heartache. You still lied to me and I-I still don't know if I can fully trust you just yet, but I'm willing to try, if you are. It's going to take a while, a-and we're going to pretty much have to go back right to the start, but I can't deny it Austin, I still love you, I'm in love with you, and I'm a complete mess without you."
I couldn't hold back the smile that spread across my face and I reached out my hand to him. "Hey, I'm Austin, you must be Alan, the new kid." Alan looked at me confused and I couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Work with me here Alan, going back to the start...but doing it right this time."
Alan's face lit up and he reached out and took my hand. "Yeah, I'm Alan, nice to meet you Austin."
"So, Alan, how you enjoying California so far?" I asked casually.
"Oh you know, the weathers nice but had a rough start. See, there was this guy, but he was like a total jerk and broke my heart, pretty much turned me into a wreck, but you know, shit happens I guess."
"What an asshole! Though I can't really talk, see I met this guy, not so long ago and I fucked up really bad. I was thee biggest fool in the universe and ruined everything. See, I used to be someone who wasn't so nice, in fact I was one of the school's biggest bullies, but that guy...he opened my eyes, and my heart to everything I had been doing wrong and...well, he made me want to change, not for him, but for myself. He made me realise that deep down I was only making myself more miserable and in turn I was making other people miserable. I-I didn't want to do that anymore, so I changed my ways and I never intend on going back. But sadly, I failed him, I was too scared to be honest with him, scared of what he'd think, so I tried to find away, tried to protect him, but I only ended up hurting the one person I never wanted to hurt. But, that...that is the old me, I'm a changed man and I've learned not to make that same mistake again." The whole time both me and Alan where trying to hold back laughter and smirks, it felt so surreal, but yet so...perfect. This was a fresh start for us and a chance to do it right this time.
"Well what matters is that you've learned for your mistakes and maybe next time...things can work out differently."
"I really hope so." I nodded in agreement. "So, I'm just going to throw this out there, but, uh, would you like to maybe get a coffee with me sometime? You know, get to know each other better?"
"I'd like that, you know, new town, new school, plus I appriciate your honesty so far so you seem okay. How does Saturday, five P.M sound to you? I work at that small music store in the mall, meet me there?"
"I'll be there." I smiled. "So, I guess I'll see you around school then?"
"You sure will." He smiled back, god how I missed that smile, it always made my heart melt. I wasn't quite sure where to go from that point, but I knew his grandparents would be home soon, and I wasn't sure if I was quite ready to face the wrath of Nana Ashby just yet. I mean, todays been one hell of an emotional rollercoaster and I'd be lying if I said Nana Ashby didn't scare me just a little, so I stood up to take my leave.
"Aust, wait a sec..." Alan spoke back to his serious voice and standing up himself. "You know this isn't going to be easy right? Ronnie's going to try and tear us down all over again, and while we're trying to re-build and get to know each other again...we're going to vunerable."
"I know it's not going to be easy, but I'm never giving up on you Alan, now I've lived a life without you in it, after having you...I-I can't ever go back there. As long as we fight, together, there's nothing we can't do." I causiously place my hand gently on his cheek, wondering if it was a good idea. Thankfully the risk paid of when Alan let out a happy sigh and pushed his face into my hand.
"Together." He looked up at me, with his eyes filled with promise as one of his hands rested over my hand that held his face.
"Now, I know that we're supposed to be, you know, starting again but please can I brake that just once to kiss you right now before I go, because I really want to fucking kiss you right now." It was true, it was taking everything ounce of strengh I had in me to not just crash my lips on his and kiss him like there was no tomorrow.
"Just this once...but then back to the whole fresh start act." He smiled. "And no tongue."
"I'll take it." I grinned before gently bringing my lips to his, leaving just a small gap between mine and his. I wanted to be sure he wanted this, so I left it for him to decide to close the gap. My heart skipped a beat and goosebumps ran over my skin as joy overwhelmed me as I felt his lips press softly against mine. We let it linger for a moment before Alan pulled away.
"Well, it was nice to meet you Austin, I guess I'll see you around school and on Saturday for that coffee." He grinned brightly, taking a step back from me.
"I look forward to it." I nodded with a smile. "See you Alan." And with that, I left the house. I had to admit, I felt so foolish for not just being honest with him in the first place, how could I not? But I finally got a second chance, and this time I wasn't going to screw it up.
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Alan's POV
"Woah, woah, woah, you're smiling! I haven't seen you smile in freaking weeks! Tell me!" Shayley almost instantly demanded as we met in our usual spot, just outside of the school the next day.
"Nothing to tell." I shrugged, I knew it would probably be a really bad idea to tell Shayley about the whole me and Austin thing right now, after all, Shayley hated his guts more then ever. It was the first time I felt happy in so long, so I really didn't want Shay putting a damper on my mood right now, I knew it wouldn't last long, so I wanted to cherish it while I could.
"No way, nu uh, you do not get to tear stain half a dozen of my t-shirts for weeks and then suddenly be all like...happy and shit, something happened and I want to know what. I feel, as your best friend, I have a right to know."
"Chill Shay!" I chuckled. "I will tell you, I just can't right now. But what I can tell you right now is, Karen has helped me realise a lot of things, and I've realised a few things myself. Things are...looking up again and I've decided to just, go with it. The detail's I will tell you later, because it's still a little uncertain right now and I don't want to jinx it."
"Hmmm okay." He eyed me suspiously, clearly wanting to push for more details but thankfully his face curled up into a smile. "Well, as long as you're happy and you don't leave me hanging too long here."
"I won't, I promise." I smiled at him. "Say, what you doing after school tomorrow?"
"Uhhh, most likely nothing, why?"
"Well, you've been such an amazing friend to me since the day I got here, so I just thought we could do something and you know, I could do something to say thank you." I shrugged as we began walking towards the school.
"Awww you don't have too, but sure, doing something sounds good to me."
"I know I don't, but I want too. I shall confirm details of the plan tomorrow morning."
"Perfect." He beamed at me as we walked down the corridoor of the school towards our lockers.
As we stuffed our things in our lockers, I couldn't help but notice Austin doing the same thing a little further up the hallway. Our eyes caught for a moment and he shot me a small smile which I happily returned, before we quickly looked away before any one, especially Shay or Ronnie and his minions noticed anything.
For the first time in a while I had hope again. I knew we had a long road ahead of us and I knew it was going to be hard, but I held hope that this time, me and Austin would get it right and we'd survive all the bullshit and drama. It was tough for me to decide to give Austin a second chance, to give us a second chance, but I knew how deeply I loved him and that he loved me. We had both been so blind the first time to realise what was really going on around us, but this time we knew and we owed it to each other to give it one last shot, but to do it right this time and go in with our eyes open. Was I sure that we could make it? The short answer was no, nothing could ever be certain, but we where going to try, I was going to try, and so was Austin. I could only hope that we could surivive this time, that Austin had learned from the mistake he'd made before and that I wouldn't regret deciding to give us a second chance.
A/N: Ok so this chap was going to be dedicated to booty25, but after swearing at wattpad for a good ten minutes, I went on the profile and go 'user not found' :(
So it's now going to be dedicated to xoCrashfire as that was going to be the next one anyway :)