"Welcome to my room." Ally say with a bored voice as she opens the door to her room for Austin.
They had been partnered together up together for a speech, and essay, in their English class. As much as she was indifferent to school, she was in Advanced English. It was her only advanced class, she didn't mind, though.
Fortunately, this was the first partner project of the year, so they had simple subjects for the first time.
"Your room is so messy," Austin comments as he takes a seat on her bed, which is surprisingly made.
Ally flops on the bed next to him, smiling as she did so. "The one perk of not having a mom around? I'm not told to clean up my room."
Austin frowns a bit, but shrugs it off, knowing her mom not being around must've became a normal thing. "Doesn't Laura tell you to clean up?"
She sits up and stands again, going to her desk to grab something. "Yeah, and I do. Twice a week, anyway."
The blond chuckles and stands also, only to bend down and pick the clothing off of the floor. "Well, I suppose I'll clean up for you."
He hears her laugh and as she bounces back on to her bed, her legs criss-cross.
"Good. I didn't feel like cleaning up this week, anyways." Ally tells him, laughing when he picks up one of her bras. He's holding it as if it's burning his fingers. "It's just a bra, Austin."
Austin holds it to his chest, making her snicker. "You're so tiny,"
Ally raises an eyebrow and looks down at her chest. She brings her hands up to her breasts and cups them both, leveling them up and down. She scrunches he nose as she says, "I'd say I'm pretty good up here."
The blond raises an eyebrow, chucking. "You're odd."
"As I've been told," the brunette says nonchalantly. "Okay, while you clean, let's discuss the subject."
"It's just a basic personality project. Like, you learn things about your partner, but describe it in a more enchanted way."
"I have no idea what that means."
Ally opens her notebook and crawls towards her desk to retrieve a few pens, high lighters, and pencils (mechanical pencils, though; she hates wooden pencils).
Austin picks up a shirt and throws it in an empty basket. "Hmm, like, what's your favorite color?"
"Um..." she thinks for a moment, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "I suppose red, I guess."
"First thing that pops up in your head when you think of red."
Ally shrugs and says, "Relationships, maybe?"
"Why does red remind you of relationships?"
"My heart is basically black, because blood is black until it hits air, then it turns red," Ally starts to explain, writing something down. "like, when I wound myself, it turns red. It's almost like opening up to someone. When I first meet them, I'm locked in with the black blood, no way to get out. I'm closed to them. Then, we start to get closer and closer that it wounds me, making the black blood escape with no way to return, so it turns red"
"Once I've let my black blood escape me, I can't put it back. It's red forever. Which is referring to my memories; I can't forget someone once I've established them in my head."
Austin blinks, trying to process her words. It's not that he didn't under it, he's just shocked. He didn't know she was going to be so deep and creative with her response. At least he knows why she's in Advanced in this class now.
Shaking off his shocked feeling, Austin picks up an arm full of her clothes and puts them in the basket. "That was amazing; I didn't know you could think like that."
Ally smiles as she writes the stuff down that she has said in her notebook. "Thank you, I guess. I think I got it after my grandmother; she used to write children's books."
"Do you want to be a writer when you get older? An author?" Austin asks, throwing a fruit snack wrapper in her small garbage basket. He finishes the floor and starts to organize her papers.
"I don't know what I want to be, honestly," she says honestly with a sigh. "Laura had her life planned out at this point and now she's in college. In just two more years, she'll be working for her teaching degree."
"You're not Laura."
"I know that, but---"
"Then don't compare yourself to your sister."
"It's hard not to. I mean, she's my sister! She has a nice job that pays well, she's in college, and, as much as I don't want to admit it, she has a sweet boyfriend."
"Ally, do you realize none of those were planned?" Austin asks her, walking over to the bed and sitting next to her. "Laura could've gotten a crappy job, I'm sure she didn't expect to get in DVERS (idk) because they barely accept anyone unless you're close to perfect, and Ross asking her out wasn't planned at all."
Ally sighs and looks up to meet his frowning face. Before she can stop herself, Ally's wrapping Austin into a hug, throwing her arms around his neck, her head in his shoulder.
The hug catches Austin off guard, so he falls back on the bed, laughing a bit. He returns the feeling and squeezes her body. "You're soo warming up to me," he teases, making her laugh.
"I know, and I kind of feel good about that."
--- --- ---
"Can we take a break?" Ally whines, falling back on her bed. "I'm stressed, tired, and overworked."
"We've only been working for an hour and thirty minutes."
"Exactly!" Ally exclaims in exasperation, covering her face with her arms. "I'm dying from exhaustion!"
Austin laughs and says, "You're most likely dying from laziness."
"Same difference, Blondie."
"Thought I was Clumsy?"
"Shut up," Ally murmurs, sitting up and scooting back to her pillows and lays there. "how are you and Valerie?"
Austin groans and lays down on the mattress. On her stretched out legs, to be exact. "She fucking kissed me today at school," before she could get the chance to congratulate him, he cuts her off. "and it was all because of her ex was flirting with another girl. She forced herself upon me and grabbed my wrists so, I couldn't push her off. It was horrible."
Ally then frowns and sits up. "That's sexual assault; did you tell anyone?"
"I tried to tell Mr. Jamis, the coach, but he just patted me on the back and 'nice to see you finally maned up, Moon.'"
"First of all, I hate the fact that males can get sexual assaulted and harassed and no one do shit about it, because all male are supposedly so evil to mankind. And 'man up' is such such a fucking sexist thing to say! Gosh, I hate this fucking world!"
Austin's eyes widen a bit and he sits up, too, grabbing her wrists when he sees she's digging her nails into her palm. "Hey, hey, hey, Ally, I'm fine. I mean, it was just a little kiss---"
"But that's the point!" Ally exclaims, pushing his hand away. "If you were a female and you said a male just forcefully planted a 'little kiss' on your lips, he'd at least get detention or suspended! But when a female does it to a male, that's perfectly fucking fine!"
"Ally," Austin speaks in a calm voice, grabbing her wrists once again. He gently pries her hand open, shushing her as she did so. Once they're open, he grasps them and laces their fingers together. "I'm fine."
Ally frowns and looks him in his eyes, searching for some kind of lie. She slumps when she can't detect anything but a tingly feeling at how he's looking her. Sighing, she apologizes, "Sorry."
Austin rubs rubs her hands soothingly. "It's fine," he says genuinely. "I actually think it's quite attractive and amazing that you're so passionate about equal rights for everyone."
Ally smiles at him and then looks down at their hands. The brunette sighs before pull her hands back and turning them over so that he can see the marks where the bandage was a few days ago. "I do it when I'm upset."
He stares at her confused. "What?"
"I dig my nails into my palm when I'm upset. I do it until I bleed." she confesses, looking him straight in the eye.
Austin raises an eyebrow and grabs her hand, examining her palm. He only then realizes the cuts are like little Moons, the same shape was her nails. "So... you didn't get any glass stuck in your hand on Tuesday?" She shakes her head. "Why were you upset, then?"
Ally opens her mouth, but closes it right back, not ready to talk about it. It's strange, she has only known him for a month, but it seems like they've been friends longer. It's even more strange that the fact that she was going to actually thinking about telling him.
Honestly, the only reason she doesn't like telling anyone about him is because they'd give her pity; she didn't want pity. She wanted to be over it. Giving her pity and sympathy isn't going to help, especially if she doesn't want it.
Simply, Ally grabs his hands again and gives him a slight smile. "One day, I'll tell you everything you want to know. I promise you."
Austin grins and squeezes her hands lightly before pulling his back. "Alright, I guess we should get back to the---"
Ally groans exaggeratedly, giving him a disgusted look. She knows what he's going to say. "I want hot chocolate."
Austin grins as she gets up from the bed and walks out of, stretching as she did so. Austin follows, taking the notebook and two pencils with him, so she still won't be able to escape the project.
"Hot chocolate is a winter beverage. It's barely fall." He remarks as he takes a seat on the stool by the counter.
Ally raises an eyebrow as she reaches for the box of packages of hot chocolate. "You mean it gets colder than this?"
"Yup," Austin giggles. Ally smiles at the cuteness in his voice, reaching for a foam cup from the cupboard. "but I suppose I'm feeling a bit cold. Can I have some, too?"
Grabbing another cup, she nods. "Of course," she agrees and sets both cups on the counter. She then bends down to grab the metal teapot and fills it with water.
"Hey, we should work while we drink the cocoa." Austin recommends, opening the notebook.
Ally shrugs as she puts the pot on the stove. "Whatever."
Instead of taking a seat next to him, the teenage girl hops on to the counter and sits there, crossing her legs in the counter.
Austin just gazes up at her in amusement. "You're too much."
"I've been told that, too," Ally tells him, snickering. "Now... hm, what animal represents you, and why?"
"Maybe a lion?" Austin thinks out loud, making Ally laugh. He raises an eyebrow at her. "What?"
"You're nothing like a lion. Lions are fearless andintelligent. They're not afraid to hunt down their prey, and are really persistent to get them."
"I'm fearless---"
"You're fearful."
"I'm intelligent, though."
"That, you are," Ally agrees. "but you still don't have the qualities of a lion."
Austin sighs and rolls his eyes playfully. He leans on the counter, staring up at her. "What animal do you think of me of, then?"
"Maybe a monkey," she says, looking up at him. "it's playfully and funny, it take care of themselves and also its family and friends, they're quite intelligent, and its fearful of things but only when it's a threat."
Austin stares at her in shock for the second time that afternoon. "That's great, Ally."
"What's great?"
"It's so cool that you can... like, take an item and compare it to something that's not even relevant to the item. You have an amazing skill."
Her cheeks light up from the compliment. She's embarrassed to be flustered over his compliment, resulting in her looking down at her suddenly interesting fingers.
As she's looking down, she senses familiarly.
"Can we go swimming?" She asks as they walk down the shore of the ocean, on the beach. "The waves are clearing up."
"Unless you want to walk home, I suggest you don't jump in the water. You know I don't like it when my seats get wet in my car."
"Oh, don't worry!" She says cheerily, grinning at him. "I have a swimsuit on under my dress."
"You're not taking off your dress," the brunette chuckles out, humorlessly. "I don't appreciate the bikini you're wearing."
She looks at him in confusion. "Jasper, that makes no sense." She tells him, chuckling.
"You know I hate it when you dress like a slut, Ally. Today doesn't change that."
She looks hurt from his comment and frowns. "But it's bikini, babe. It's suppose to look---"
"Ally?" A voice pulls her out of her thoughts. "Ally? You alright? Allllly?"
Ally's eyes blinks a few times, adjusting from the memory. The first thing she sees is Austin, a confused look on his face. Although, it's replaced with a grin when he sees she has returned from her spacing out.
"Sorry," Ally murmurs, frowning.
She's kind of surprised. Ever since those had started coming back, they had ended with her crying or upset. She wasn't even digging her nails into her flesh. It's weird.
Also, it's kind of weird how Austin must've pulled her out of her thoughts by not even yelling and judging by his face, she hadn't zoomed out long enough for him to worry.
Not even Laura could stop them. Especially not in the middle of one. But he somehow stopped it before she could even retrieve the whole memory.
What the hell.
"I think the water is done boiling." Austin tells her, pulling her out of her thoughts once again.
Ally nods slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Uh, okay."
hmph. i hope you enjoyed the chapter, though. see ya later :) vote and comment, please! -e