Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this (The plot or the characters, nothing). This is when Rachel realised that Ross was in love with her and written as Austin and Ally. Enjoy!
"Ugh I can't believe I have to fly all the way to China tomorrow" Austin groaned as he lid across the counter of Sonic Boom.
"Hey just think how happy all your fans will be when they get to see you!" Ally cheered as she patted his chest lightly and he gave her a slight smile.
"But I'm missing your birthday" he frowned.
Not only was Austin missing the birthday of his best friend but also the love of his life, although she doesn't actually know that yet (perhaps she may never). Overall, he was devastated as he had gotten her a gift that he knew she would love and he wouldn't be there to see her face when he gave it to her, and that killed him.
"Come on, I'm still young! We're going to spend so many birthdays together you're gonna be sick of me" she leaned over and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. If only she knew what that simple kiss did to him.
God why did he have to love her so much?!
And why was she so oblivious?!
"Yah I guess, it's just so far away and I'm so bad with flying and worst of all you guys can't come with m-"
"Austin! Relax! You're gonna have so much fun and you won't even remember you miss us"
"Doubt that" he chuckled, "thanks Als" he placed his hand on hers and gave it a light squeeze and she grinned up at him before walking away to put away some instruments.
Austin sighed to himself as he watched her walk away and curse himself for his own cowardly actions that he couldn't grow a pair of balls and tell the girl of his dreams how he truly felt about her.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Ok guys I'm leaving!" Austin called to his friends as they lounged around their apartment.
"Ok, have fun" Ally smiled as she gave him a hug and a firm kiss on the cheek. He smiled down at her.
"Have a good birthday, I'm sorry I have to miss it"
"Oh would you stop!" She giggled, "I'll be fine"
He smiled and moved to give the rest of his friends a hug and he casually pulled Dez outside the door.
"Hey man, can you give this to Ally later?" He said as he handed the red head a small box wrapped in lilac wrapping paper.
"Don't you want to give it to her yourself?" Dez questioned as he took the box from his friend.
"Nah... I..uh... I don't really know if I have the confidence to give it to her in person" he gave a small smile and Dez slapped a hand on his back. Jace and himself were the only ones who knew about Austin's undying love for the brunette.
"Yah of course I'll give it to her. You have a safe flight man" He said as the blonde smiled and walked down the stairs.
XXXXXXXXX
After a few hours, the party died down and people began to leave. They had had a great night but Ally still felt like something was missing, that something being her lack of the loveable blonde.
Trish, Dez, Jace and Carrie sat around the living room as Ally ran into the room after wishing the last of her guests goodbye and exclaimed, "present time!"
The four friends laughed as she raced over and sat in the chair in the centre of the room. She began picking up the boxes from each of her friends.
"Ok who's this froooom?" She giggled as she picked up a large pink box.
"Me!" Carrie exclaimed as she jumped up and down in her seat excitedly.
Inside the box was a pair of faux fur go-go boots and Ally couldn't help but laugh as she ran her hands along the fluffy exterior.
"Thanks Carrie" she giggled softly.
After opening the rest of the presents, a skateboard from Jace (and a free lesson from his truly on how to ride said equipment), a cheetah print crop top from Trish (figures), and a pair of rainbow roller skates from Dez (what was with her friends gifting her with dangerous sporting equipment that they knew she couldn't use). Nonetheless, she loved every single one.
"Who's this one from?" She asked as she picked up the small lilac box.
"Oh that's from Austin" Dez said as he watched Ally's face light up.
Ally ripped off the wrapping paper and opened the box and her smiled dropped in amazement.
"Oh my god" she whispered to herself.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Trish asked as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"I can't believe he remembered" she gasped, "it was months ago and we were walking past this jewellery shop and I saw this necklace in the window and it was the exact same one my grandmother had when I was a little girl" she cooed as she looked down at the box in her hand. "He remembered"
It was a delicate gold chain with a single soft pearl placed carefully to fall gracefully against her chest.
"Oh wow, this must have cost him a fortune" Carrie said as she looked over Ally's shoulder at the piece of jewellery.
"Yah but I mean this is Austin we're talking about! Remember in middle school when he was in love with Jessica Fisher and he spent all of his allowance on some ridiculous gold bracelet" Jace said as he looked around at the groups shocked faces.
"What did you just say?" Ally said as she looked up at the skater boy.
"Dude" Dez glared at him as he shook his head violently.
"Uhh... hey Ally, you want to test out this new skateboar-" she cut him off before he could finish.
"What do you mean... love?" She said lowly.
"Ally he's been in love with you since you guys were 16" Dez said as he picked at a piece of wrapping paper on the table.
"Oh my god!" Trish exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. "This is huge!"
"No! No! It's not huge, it's nothing!" Jace tried to convince everybody as they all ignored him.
"Did you know?" She said to Ally who was still staring into space.
"No! I mean Austin has always been so sweet to me and cared about me but I never thought he was... in..." she looked at the necklace and shot up out of her seat. "Ok I have to talk to him"
"His flight doesn't leave for another half hour" Carrie said as she looked at the reminder on her phone. Ally raced towards the door and pulled on her coat.
"Ally please don't do this!" Jace pleaded.
"What are you gonna say?" Trish asked.
"Uh I don't know... I'll know when I see him"
"Well do you love him too?"
"I don't know Trish ok!"
"Lee if you're just going to break his heart then I think that can wait until he comes home" Dez reasoned.
"Look Dez I have to see him ok? I can't wait!" She said as she pulled open the door.
"Ally wait!" Jace yelled and she turned around. "I love you!" He would do just about anything to make her stay at this point.
Ally grumbled as she shut the door and made her way to the airport.
"You're an asshole" Trish glared at Jace as he smiled at her nervously and knew he was in deep shit with his girlfriend.
XXXXXXXXX
Ally raced through a field of people to get to Austin's gate and she could see him in the distance and she ran desperately towards him.
"Austin!" She called. Nothing. "Austin!"
She could see he had his headphones in and there was so many people she couldn't reach him.
She started walking past the desk but a tall blonde woman stopped her before she could go any further.
"I'm sorry miss, may I see your ticket?" She smiled at the songwriter.
"I'm sorry, I just have to talk to my friend" Ally pleaded.
"No ticket, no entry"
"Well then can you pass on a message?"
"What's the message?"
"Uh... uh..." Ally tried her best to come up with something but she ultimately went with the simplest option. "Uh... just... just tell him that I loved my present and I can't wait to see him"
She backed out of the line and watched as the woman locked the doors. She let out a breath that she didn't even know she was holding and she couldn't wait to see that boy again.
Little did Ally know that her message never got to Austin.
XXXXXXXX
Ally woke up the next morning, absolutely exhausted after having gotten home at 4 am. She got out of bed and walked out into the kitchen where she saw Trish making a smoothie.
"Hey! How was last night?! How's you're new boyfriend?!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"I didn't talk to him" Ally rubbed her temples with her fingers. "I don't think I'm going to talk to him at all"
"What?!" She exclaimed as she accidentally hit the button of the blender, making smoothie fly up into the air.
"Oh Trish! There's banana on the ceiling"
"Why don't you want to talk to him?" She asked, "Ally I think this would be great! I mean you two? It's perfect"
"Look I thought long and hard about it and I figured that I wouldn't be dating Austin. I'd be dating all of you and that's just too much pressure for me right now Trish" Ally said as poured a cup of coffee.
"Ok... um... if that's what you think"
Ally let out a sigh, something she had been doing more often lately, and remembered her date later.
"Anyway I have a date later so that should keep my mind off of him"
"Wow so you're cheating on my best friend?!"
Ally looked up at her with a helpless look on her face.
"Sorry" Trish cringed.
Ally glared at her and began getting ready for her date in any hope to get the blonde boy out of her head.
XXXXXXXXXX
"So then I was like, you can't photocopy a picture of a butt on the office copier, do it in your own time Asshole!" Dallas laughed obnoxiously as him and Ally stood on the balcony of the apartment while Ally downed her second glass of wine and forced a laugh.
She couldn't stop her mind drifting to Austin. She wanted nothing more than for him to be the guy standing across from her, telling her some stupid knock knock joke while she struggled to catch her breath from laughing too much.
But no. He just had to be over in China. Just perfect.
But it didn't matter. Because she wasn't in love with him. She doesn't want him. She doesn't want him. She doesn't wa-
"I can't believe you think this guy will stop you thinking about me" She looked up and saw Austin standing in front of her. Obviously she clearly couldn't stop thinking about him due to his unbelievable presence.
"Do you mind? I'm trying to have a date here" she sneered as she turned back to Dallas.
"Als, come on." She felt him grab her upper arms gently and turn her towards him. "We would be great together. I mean I've loved you since 9th grade. Everyone can see it but you"
"But Austin what of it doesn't work out an-"
"Who says it won't work out?"
He leaned in and just as he was about to press his lips to hers, he disappeared.
"So you want to take this inside?" She was pulled back to reality by Dallas' suave voice.
"Huh?" She squinted her eyes, "oh um... you know what? I actually have to go do a thing and I'm... I'm sorry Dallas" She said as she climbed back into the apartment, leaving the brunette boy standing in the middle of the balcony holding two full glasses of wine.
XXXXXXX
Ally woke up the morning Austin was coming home more determined than ever.
This was it.
She was gonna tell him she loved him too.
She wakes out into the kitchen and was met with Trish, Dez, Carrie and Jace all sat around the table.
"Hey Als, how was your date?" Trish asked.
"Awful" ally grinned as she pointed some coffee into her cup.
"Why do you look so happy?" Dez asked.
"Because Austin's coming home today. And I'm going to march my butt down to that airport and he's gonna see me and I'm gonna see him and I'm gonna tell him that I love him too" she laughed and she couldn't seem to wipe the grin off her face.
"Oh my god really?" Carrie jumped up and gave her a hug.
"Ally this is great oh my god I'm so rooting for you two" Trish hugged her as well.
"And I owe it all to you two" Ally bend down and gave Jace and Dez each a kiss on the cheek and they smile cheekily.
"Thanks" they said in unison, looking down bashfully.
"Oh this is going to be perfect"
XXXXXXXX
Newsflash, it wasn't perfect.
Ally stood at the gate with a large bouquet of flowers as she waited to spot a blonde head in the distance, she couldn't break the smile on her face as she placed her hand on her gorgeous new necklace. Once she spotted him, she waved him down and was extremely surprised when she saw he wasn't alone.
Under Austin's arm stood a beautiful small Asian girl who looked up at Austin with so much delight in her face, she was surprised her face hadn't become stuck in that huge grin.
"Als!" Austin raced towards her and pulled her into a hug. "How are you? How was your birthday? You're wearing my present" he grinned.
"Yes, I... I... I love it" she sighed as she looked past him at the girl holding his hand. "Who's this?"
"Oh, this... is Julie" he smiled as he wrapped his arm around the petite girl.
"Hello" she smiled as she stuck out her hand to Ally.
"Um... uh" Ally couldn't string a sentence together, she was too shocked.
"Are those for me?" Austin pointed at the flowers.
"Huh?... oh! These?! No, these are for you!" She gestured towards Julie. "Welcome- to- America!" She spoke slowly as she assumed the girl's English was probably poor.
"Thank you, I'm actually from Miami" she laughed as she took the flowers.
"Yah Julie was visiting some family and we ended up meeting and really hit it off. And by coincidence we happened to be getting the same flight back to Miami"
"Oh well isn't that just great?!" Ally exclaimed forcefully as she tried not to cry. "Ok um... baggage claim?" She raced off ahead of the two and couldn't believe her luck that the man she loved was holding some other girl.
XXXXXXXX
Ally raced up up the stairs ahead of the couple as they were getting out of the car to give her friends some warning. She bust in the door of the apartment panting and she put her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
"Hey how'd it go? Where's Austin?" Trish asked as the four friends watched the brunette gasp.
"Austin... girl... Julie... cute" she stuttered as she caught her breath.
"What are you talking about?" Dez asked.
Just as the question left his mouth, Austin and Julie walked through the door of the apartment with two big smiles on their faces.
"Don't worry Als, we got the bags" he smirked at the girl as she gulped a glass of water. "Everybody, meet Julie"
A chorus of unsure greetings were said as they all looked at Ally who was frowning at the couple.
"Well we better head to my room, we are beyond jet lagged" Austin said as he walked Julie towards his bedroom.
All of the friends turned to Ally and frowned. They couldn't believe that this had happened, they were perfect for each other.
"You ok sweetie?" Carrie placed a hand on the girls shoulder as she forced her to sit down in the chair and rest her feet.
"Um... uh... no" she decided that that was the right answer, she could always pretend that she wasn't upset but what was the use in that. "I was gonna tell him I loved him"
"I'm so sorry Lee" Jace placed his hand on top of hers and gave it a firm squeeze.
She leaned back in her chair and felt as if her whole world had just crashed down.
XXXXXXXX
The days went on and Ally could see Austin (and her best friends) fall more in love with Julie.
Ally still tried to hate her.
Stupid Julie and her perfect skin and good natured personality.
Did you know she recycles?
Bitch.
"Hey can I use the landline? I need to call Julie" Austin asked as Ally hung up the phone after talking to her dad.
"Uh... sure" she handed over the phone as she began flipping through a magazine, quite violently the friends seem to notice.
After a rivetingly boring conversation, as Ally puts it, the couple couldn't decide who should hang up first and was quickly driving Ally insane.
"No you hang up first... no you hang up... no you-" the phone was ripped from Austin's ear and he watched as Ally pressed the end call button. He gave her a confused look as she smiled innocently.
"Oops... I thought you were talking to me"
Austin just let out a chuckle and shoved Ally gently.
"It's cool I'll just call her back" he said as he stood up and climbed out onto the balcony.
Ally stood up and walked over to her friends who were sat around the table.
"What is happening to me? Two weeks ago, I was fine. I mean Austin was just Austin and now he's this amazing guy that I can't have!" She exclaimed.
"I know Lee, we wanted you to have him too" Dez said as he rubbed her back.
"Don't touch me!" She slapped his hand away and pointed at him. "You!" And then pointed at Jace. "And you! You two are the reason I'm feeling this way, if you guys could have kept your mouths shut I would be able to carry on living my life not knowing that Austin was in love with me and I wouldn't currently be in love with him, watching him fall in love with a girl that isn't me!" She yelled as the two boys flinched. They looked at each other and quickly jumped out of their seats and ran out the door. Ally let out a heavy sigh and plopped back down in the chair, resting her head in her hands.
"Hey Als?" She popped up her head and saw Austin in front of her. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure" she smiled and walked with him out onto the balcony. "What's up?"
"So I wanted your advice, Julie and I have yet to... you know... have... Uh..."
"Sex?"
"Yes. And I was just thinking... you see... how should I make her want it? Because at this rate I don't think it's ever gonna happen"
Was he seriously asking her this right now?
"Uh... well... um... you should... you should make her wait for it" she smirked to herself.
"Huh?"
"Yah, girls find it so sexy when a guy puts off sex"
"Wow, really?"
"Mhm" she hummed as she watched the clogs turn in his head. "Drives us crazy"
"And for how long should I do it?"
"A year" she said as he spat out his drink.
"A year?!"
"Yup"
"Wha-. Why?!"
"It'll be worth it trust me."
"Uh ok" he cringed, "and guys have done this before?"
"Oh it works every time"
A gently silence rested between the two as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Thanks Als" Austin said as he turned to climb back into the apartment.
"Austin?" She called him back and he turned around. "I never got to thank you for my birthday present. So... thanks"
"You're welcome Lee" He smiled gently as he left the balcony.
Ally looked out into the city of Miami in the cool night air and she quickly came to the conclusion that she needed to do something about this situation before it's too late.
XXXXXXX
Ally was sitting in a bar as she nursed her 5th shot of tequila and she sure as hell was feeling the effects of said alcohol.
"Stupid Julie... stupid Austin... stupid love... Hey! Don't ever fall in love! It sucks!" She yelled at a young couple walking past her. "I'm gonna call him and tell him that I'm over him"
She picked up her phone and clicked on Austin's name and she waited for him to answer but it went straight to voicemail.
"What's up? It's Austin, you know what to do"
"Hello Austin, I was just calling to tell you that I hope you and Julie are very happy together. And I want you to know... that I'm over you... that's right. I'm over you and that my friend is what they call... closure" she smirked as she plopped the phone down and waited for a taxi.
This isn't going to end well.
XXXXXXXX
The next morning Ally had a huge headache and she couldn't remember anything from last night and that terrified her. She pulled herself out of bed and trudged towards the kitchen where Austin sat.
"Hey Als" he smiled as she picked up the biggest mug and filled it with coffee. "Rough night?"
"You have no idea" she said as she buried her face into her hands.
Austin was looking through his phone when he spoke up. "Hey there's a voice message here from you"
The minute the words came out of his mouth her head shot up.
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Austin don't listen to that!" She jumped out of her seat and jumped on his back to get the phone from his grip. He laughed as he held the phone to his ear. His smile soon faded as he listened to the contents of the message.
"You're over me?" He stared at her. "When... when were you under me?"
"I was drunk Austi-" he cut her off.
"What does this mean Ally?" He urged her to say something that could help him make sense of the situation but she just sat quietly. He picked up his jacket and marched out the door, slamming it behind him.
Ally leaned forward and shoved her face into her hands and she cursed herself for it telling him.
XXXXXX
That night Ally was working late in sonic boom and she was closing up when she looked outside and saw Austin staring in at her through the glass door in the pouring rain. She jumped slightly but calmed once she saw it was him.
She opened the door and he marched past her.
"Look I'm going to get straight to the point, do you like me?" He said as he looked her in the eyes.
"I love you" she says quickly without missing a beat.
"Oh my god. Why couldn't you have told me this sooner Ally?" He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
"Because I only realised when I found out that you loved me too!" His head shot up at that statement and his eyes were filled with fear.
"How did you know that?"
"The necklace"
He stared at her and he paced around the shop as he tried to figure out what to say.
"Well Ally, I don't know what you want me to say ok this isn't easy for me okay? It's not easy to see you with other guys"
"Oh and you think it's easy for me to see you with Julie?! You can tell me you don't love me now ok? I get it that you want to be with her now! Because she's this perfect girl who helps homeless people and I'm just a songwriter"
"Well then I guess that sucks for me then, because I broke up with her"
"What?" She must be dreaming.
"I broke up with Julie"
She couldn't believe what she was hearing and she didn't know what to do with herself now.
"Why?"
"Because Ally... all I've done is live and breathe you for the last seven years. And I'll be damned if I even go a second longer without you again" he whispered against her lips before crashing his lips against hers in a crazed, passionate, needy kiss that made her weak at the knees.
This was it. This is where they belonged. In each others arms.