Miami, Florida. July.
"Ally, as your best friend in the entire universe, I love you, but if you play this song one more time, I will be forced to kill you."
Trish sat on the bench inside Sonic Boom, waiting from Ally to wrap up her shift at the store so they could go to the beach and make fun of the cliche couples that had always made them gag. Ally had only stepped in for one of her dad's employees for the day since they had eaten something not on the menu at Mini's and it resulted in them not getting any sleep the night before. Not that she minded, she actually enjoyed working at the store. It was where she grew up and where she fell in love with music. Nothing could ever replace Sonic Boom.
"But it's such a good song!" Ally insisted, walking away from the register to join her friend, all clad in her bright pink zebra suit with even brighter neon blue shorts on.
"As you've told me before, and your dad, and his girlfriend, and this entire store," Trish paused for a moment. "In fact, I'm pretty sure the entire population of Miami knows because it's on non-stop. Here, on your playlist, in your car. Ally, it's even your ringtone!"
She blushed just a bit. All of that was technically true, but she couldn't help it. She was hoping that this was going to be Austin's first single off his new record and she recalled telling him that he'd lose her as a fan if it wasn't. She smiled to herself and was willing to bet that the song was chosen all because of her and even if it wasn't, she was okay thinking it was.
It had been three months since she last saw Austin, but only three days since she talked with him. As soon as he landed in Los Angeles, despite the time difference, it was her that he called. She could hear the tiredness in his voice and listened to his breathing as he fell into a deep sleep on his bed that night. She had graduated a week later and two days later, it was her on the ferry to Marco Polo Airport, hopping on the flight headed towards Rome, en route to Miami. It was her with her last Santoli's coffee in her hand and a box of food from Silvana; which she wouldn't lie, she loved that meal. It was so much better than anything served on an airplane.
"When do you get off?"
"About ten minutes. Did you pick out a movie?"
"I was thinking Baby Be Mine or that new one with Jennifer Aniston," Trish offered up as Ally grabbed her small bag from behind the counter and switched off with another employee.
Slipping her sunglasses on, Ally walked with Trish as she talked about which movie to go with, all while complaining about not getting enough time off from her job. Together they only got the long weekend off for the Fourth of July weekend and honestly, she was okay with that, but Trish was not. Trish wanted the entire month off...and that only got her thinking about Austin and his story about his family actually spending the entire month of July celebrating the summer time.
Turning out of the mall and down the walkway to the beach, Ally let her friend go on and on, not really paying attention to what the hell she was saying...up until she just happened to spot the Moon's Mattress Kingdom across the road and it made her heart skip a beat. It wasn't just any Moon's Mattress Kingdom either. It was the original location. The original where, if she had known Austin while they were both growing up in Miami, he would've been working after school and selling people mattresses and be wearing a silly costume crown that he told her was the worst thing to ever wear.
She laughed at him for that, but now kind of wished she could've seen him wear one. She saw him in the one Gianna had made up for Carnevale but that was entirely different. This only got her thinking about just how close they actually were to each other while they were teenagers and she was berating herself about why they didn't.
"Ally," Trish tugged on her arm, smacking her when she was still staring at the store front. "Ally!"
"Sorry, Trish," she shook her head, snapping out of her wonderment for the moment. Trish raised an eyebrow, wanting to know why she was staring at some random mattress store in the middle of the street. "It's his family's business."
Trish let out a short 'ah'. "That explains why you've been staring at it for the past ten minutes and we missed the last three traffic walks. When's the last time you talked to him?"
"Three days. He called while I was in the shower, I called back and he was recording. We finally made contact at like eleven."
"And you got to sleep at..."Ally bit her lip, a bit embarrassed and happy all at the same time,
"Um...five?"
"Five a.m.?!" Trish exclaimed as the two stopped in front of the store. "Who are you? What have you done with the Ally Dawson I grew up with? You know, the one who was a stickler for rules and had to have her lunch, dinner and breakfast at the same time every day and the one who was in bed and asleep by ten every day, no matter if it was summer or not?"
Ally laughed at Trish. That Ally was long gone. This Ally, this Ally was very different...well, kind of. She still took her breakfast, lunch and dinner all at the same time but the staying up late and doing random things because she wanted to and needed to, that was born in college. And the Ally that fell in love? That was the new Ally, and the new Ally definitely stayed up late to talk to her long distance boyfriend, who was on the other side of the country finalizing and mastering his new record for his fans.They'd been talking like that for a while.
Since she returned to the States, he was the first one she called and every week, in reality it was every few days, they'd be on the phone with each other or texting throughout the day and when her dad and his new girlfriend had left for a little getaway to Vero Beach, where her family was from, Ally had utilized Skype to it's fullest. There was breakfast, there was dinner, there was a little strip poker in there for a little fun and then there was Austin telling her that he wished he was there and her telling him the same thing. She missed him and she was counting down the days until she could see him again...whenever that may be.
"We should go in there. You can meet his family, see what you're in for."
"Trish, no!" Ally started to pull her best friend along.
"Why not? Hey, doesn't he have a brother? Is he single?"
Ally rolled her eyes and dragged her along, ignoring all the ridiculous things she was saying about going in the store under false pretenses. Even though she couldn't help but think about what his family was like. After hearing everything about them, Ally almost felt like she knew them. She knew that his dad was old school and the definition of tradition. She knew that his mom, although not a natural blonde, went on and on about how she was. She also knew that his brother, Christopher, was a beach person and also a natural salesperson. She smiled, recalling that Austin told her that Chris could sell a toothpick for an insane amount of money.
She wondered, still staring at the store front as Trish rambled on about what the family could be like, that if Austin were here, would he take her to meet them? She remembered what he said in Venice about July and showing her off, but it had been three months. Three months since she last truly saw him, touched him, kissed him. Who knew if he still felt the same way about wanting her to meet everyone now.Ally glanced at the watch on her wrist and grabbed Trish's hand.
"We have to go. The movie is starting in like ten minutes."
"We're so not going to make it anymore," Trish said.
"Your fault," Ally replied back. "And I know you don't run, but we have to run for this."
"This was not my fault!"
"Oh, yes it was!"
+++
Tess Walters was amazing, just like her father told her she was. Ally had first met her at the airport where her dad stood with Tess on one side and balloons, a big sign and even a noisemaker in his mouth when she first arrived back home in Miami months ago. Since then, she'd been in and out of Miami a few times while she was getting set up in New York with Trish as her new roommate (verdict was still out on how that was going to go), but every time Ally returned, Tess was always there and always even more sweeter than the last time she saw her.
Ally watched her dad dance away with Tess on the beach while they were enjoying the Fourth of July firework show and she couldn't help but smile...and be a little sad all at the same time. She was happy for her dad and the love he'd found with Tess but deep inside, was still missing that it wasn't her mom with him. Ally supposed it was every little girl's dream -- to see her parents in their old age, still in love, and still dancing with one another when they were gray haired and had knees that would give out on them at any second. Like Suzetta and Guisto and even Silvana and Benedetto.
She hadn't spoken to her mom in months, and the conversation they had after she returned to the States was short and rushed. It wasn't the conversation she imagined having with Penny, but it was something. It was more like, 'Hey mom, just to let you know, I graduated,' before Penny had said a forced congratulations before making up an excuse about some animal in need. Ally hadn't expected it to be long, but she was banking on it being longer than ten minutes.
Maybe that was the reason her parents' relationship broke up. There was never enough time spent together and never ever enough communication. There was always her mom running back off to Africa to study more animals and her father burying himself in the store and earning more money to support her mom's dreams and also her own. Ally had been mad at her mom for a long time and when she finally let it go during high school, it was possibly the best thing she could've ever done. It made her appreciate her dad more and love him even more than she thought possible.
Lester twirled Tess around as the music got faster and Ally pulled out her phone, snapping a quick, but blurry photo of the two. Looking down at her phone for just a brief second, she noticed the little exclamation point in the corner of her screen. Opening up the message, Ally couldn't wipe the smile from her face when she saw it was from Austin.
"I am in Fourth of July hell," his text read and made her laugh. "Missing you like crazy right now."
"I miss you too," her fingers typed right back. "So much. Why is your Fourth of July hell?"
"Because I'm not with you."
Her squeals over his words were muted by the first boom going off in the sky. The colors were blue and white and the lights sprinkled over the skyline and it was gorgeous, but somehow, it wasn't the same. It wasn't the same without Austin with her. Not that she knew what a fireworks show would be like with him, she just knew that the show would be amazing with him by her side and him holding her hand and them watching the show together. With him still in Los Angeles at the moment, it just wasn't living up to her expectations. They would be the ones dancing to the lights in the sky, and they would be the ones doing crazy things on the beach. She wanted to be that crazy couple with him.
"You're sweet. Still in LA?"
"Just got through security at LAX. Coming home tonight. Dez is directing a mini-film with my fans and I'm actually in hell."Ally laughed. She could only imagine the scene before her.
"What time tonight? I'll wait up for you."
"Flight gets in early tomorrow."
"I leave tomorrow."
"What time?"
"My flight is at 4. Trish and I are back at work on Tuesday."
"Then I'll have you until three."
That was the plan anyway...up until she woke up the next morning to another couple of texts from him about how the plane had made an emergency landing in Houston for a mechanical issue. While she was glad he had been safe on the ground again, that meant he wouldn't be in Miami in time for them to even spend an hour together. He was back on another plane now and texting or calling him back wouldn't do anything right now.
The plan was for them to spend how many hours they had wrapped up in each other, breathing each other in and not letting the other out of their sight up until three p.m. when he would drive her back to the airport and kiss her like they were in a movie where her foot would pop and he'd lift and twirl her around and maybe, just maybe, he'd screw security and hop the line, running to her before she got on the plane and do it all again. That was the plan. And now, thanks to airlines and their completely messed up crap, it wasn't going to happen.
Ally glanced at her watch. It was one right now. Trish was still with her family, or as she called it, was "kidnapped" by them for the afternoon before she'd meet up with her at the airport later on. This left Ally with her dad and while she loved spending time with her dad, she wanted it to be Austin. The airlines screwing everything up had messed up her whole mood for the day and she was fairly certain that Lester could see it...which was why he was playing all of Austin's songs over the speakers in the store regardless of the looks he was getting from some customers.
"Are you hungry Ally?" Tess caught her attention from the doorway of the practice room. She had been sitting at the raggedy old piano that she had learned to play on for the past hour, her hands just laying over the keys. "I'll get you something anyway. You're a pickle person, right?"Ally nodded and got a thumbs up from Tess before she left.
Turning back to face the piano once again, Ally pressed down on the C key, and then the A, and before she knew what was happening, she was playing a completely new melody. The melody that sounded like Venice and the days when she was still just friends with Austin. It reminded her of their little tour and her telling him random facts about The Floating City that no one else would actually find interesting.
Pulling out a few blank pages of sheet music from the bottom of the pile on top of the instrument, Ally scribbled the notes on them. Listening to them all over again as she wrote and circled in the notes with a pencil that was on it's last leg. She played it over again on the white keys at her fingertips, turning another page to extended the song and by the time she stopped writing, it was just a little past two. She folded the music up, holding it in her hand before heading downstairs just as her dad caught her attention.
"You really do know him, don't you?"Ally looked back at her dad confused, as he handed her her phone that had been buzzing off the counter.
"You thought I made that up?"
"No, I just...well, maybe."
"Dad!"
"This has been buzzing all over here for hours," he pointed at the gadget and she opened her messages.
They weren't texts. They were actually phone calls with voicemails. Sticking the phone to her ear, Ally waved to Trish as she arrived at the store, along with suitcase and brother JJ who was driving them to the airport, and listened to the notes Austin left.
"I had French Toast this morning. Actual French Toast," his voice paused and she brought her hand to her mouth in a bit of shock about his declaration. "They were drizzled with cinnamon and bananas and it were good...but it wasn't your French Toast. My pancakes will still top the list, but I wanted you to know that I had French Toast today and as soon as I put it in my mouth, I missed you even more. I hate being apart from you. I hate not being able to reach over and kiss you right now."
There was another pause and Ally made sure to catch the little tears that were in danger of spilling out of her eyes. They'd been apart for three months and it was torture. She wanted to reach through the phone right now too, and hug him tight and that longing almost made her want to quit her job she had worked so hard for and race to be with him. But the moment she thought about it, she scrapped that idea for many, many reasons including the one where he would never let her do that."I'm going to call you later on again and talk with you until the sun rises. I love you."
+++
He was tired. Tired beyond the definition of tired. It was a well known fact that Austin Moon flew a lot, but not a ton of people knew that he never slept well on planes; and when said plane to get him to Miami and his girlfriend and his family was making unprecedented landings in cities he didn't want to go to, sleep wasn't ever going to come to him. He pulled out his phone, checking the time: 3:37 p.m., jumping at the pat on his back that came from Dez.
Austin walked ahead, leaving his redheaded best friend behind and checked the monitors, searching for outgoing flights to New York. Not that he was going there, but someone very special was and knowing her flight was at four, he was hoping to race to her gate and give her that cliche movie scene they were laughing at just days ago. "Dez, what gate are we at?"
"H7," Dez quickly spat off, stuffing his headphones into his carry on bag beside him.
Austin's eyes caught the flight Ally had to be on...and it was all the way across the airport in the D terminal. Not that he couldn't run there, but running there in five minutes and stopping the flight? Probably not.
He glanced down at his phone, pressing her name on his favorites list and begged her to pick up the phone before he was caught by fans and had to get security involved. Austin shook his head, this was Miami, that wouldn't happen here. That never happened here. It happened everywhere else though.
"Hello?"
"Ally?"
"No, Trish. One sec," the other girl, Austin remembered as Ally's best friend passed the phone to her and his face lit up as soon as she answered.
"If I pulled a Ross Gellar and told you to get off the plane right now, would you?" he asked, not waiting for an answer. "I'm standing in the H terminal and really upset that I am not a warlock or witch or whatever so I could beam myself to you in three seconds because I'm pretty sure they've already locked up the door and even though I am Austin Moon, would not open it back up just for me."
"I think you should try," she said and he could see her smile curl up on her face. "You never know."
"I don't think it would work. I'm so mad at this airline. Never flying it again," Austin turned back at Dez, who was the one that got the flight in the first place for them.
"Yes, you will," she teased. "But I'm mad at them too. They screwed up everything."
"There we go. Get on the 'I hate Delta' train with me," he chuckled into the phone just as he heard the flight attendant tell her they were going to taxi in just a few minutes. "I'm still calling you tonight."
"Good. I'll be expecting it."
"I'm sorry Ally."
"It's Delta's fault. Not yours."
"Actually, let's blame Delta and Dez. He's the one who booked this flight."
"Hey!" Dez yelled behind him, but Austin ignored his friend.He let out a sigh, knowing she had to get off the phone in just a few seconds.
"I'll talk to you later."
"I love you, Austin."