"That's bad for your voice, you know."

Austin jumped, pulling the cigarette away from his lips. He looked over to where he'd heard the imposing voice. The startled look faded from his eyes and was replaced with an annoyed look. He glanced down at his cigarette again and placed it back between his lips.

"Yeah, and what exactly are you planning to do about it?" Austin scrutinized, the death-ticket wobbling as he spoke. Ally watched him, her eyes trading glances from his cigarette to his careless gaze.

Her eyes shifted a couple more times before she gave a small shrug, "Just saying."

"Well, stop." Austin demanded, not even caring enough about what she said to sound angry. "I also heard it's simply the best ticket to death." Austin added. He took the cigarette from his lips and stared down at it with narrowed eyes and the corner of his mouth quirked slightly in a confused manner, "Must not be working then."

Ally shook her head. "You perform in less than four hours. I would suggest you put that thing under your foot."

"Hm, they never mentioned that you were bossy." Austin mumbled, a tight and annoyed smirk plastered onto his lips. Ally's eyes narrowed at him, but they weren't quite hateful and that annoyed him. It's become a goal to make her hate him the way he hates her. According to his own cognition, he's doing a good job. Any more snide remarks from him and he should be under her skin any day now.

"Just spit it out so you don't sound like you swallowed a frog when you get on stage." Ally spat, finally feeling her temper slipping. He had been so utterly repulsive all day, making comments and remarks about every little thing.

"Yes, Ma'am." he smirked at her before taking the cigarette away from his mouth again and placing the end of it on his wrist. Ally's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" she questioned, charging towards him. He gave her a mock-confused look, moving away slightly so she couldn't grab him.

"Putting it out?" he replied, the scent of his own skin burning tickled the insides of his nose. The sharpness of the pain sent a blast over every inch of his body but he didn't flinch.

"Stop!" she demanded, her eyes getting a little more wide when she noticed the other small circular burns crowded along his wrist. This wasn't the first time he'd done this, obviously. She wondered why he did this. Finally, he flicked the cigarette to the ground, killing the thing with the toe of his shoe and the face of the cement.

He gave her wink and started back into the building. Ally's frowned deepened as he waved goodbye to her with one movement of his index finger raised in the air. He heard Ally call his name again but he had already walked back into the building. After all, he still needed to get himself done up for the concert.

To his luck, she'd followed. "Austin! Stop!" she grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop. He turned and looked at her with raised eye brows. She grabbed his arm and flipped it over, staring down at his scarred and freshly burned wrist. Her gaze fixated on newest one which she had witnessed not even moments ago. It was red and swelling. It looked painful, but he still didn't show any signs of pain. "Why do you do this?"

He started laughing. He only tore his wrist from her grip when she traced the small injury with the tip of her finger, probably wanting to soothe it but only actually making it sting more than it already was. She stared at him in confusion. He was laughing?

"What? You think I'm some broken boy who self-harms?" he snorted, "I'm better than that, Ally. People who self-harm are weak."

She furrowed her brows, angrily, "That's not true."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't." he shrugged carelessly, "That wasn't self-harm."

"Austin, you placed a fresh cigarette on your wrist...If that wasn't self-harm, then what was it exactly?" Ally still felt shocked and Austin was only starting to thrum up a beat of confusion inside her head.

"A routine? I don't know." he replied, shrugging which started to seem like the only thing he was good at, "But it wasn't self-harm. Maybe it was just something to tease you with."

"That's not funny, Austin!" she growled.

"You're a killjoy." he winked at her, lips tight. "Don't think I'm some depressed kid who needs to hurt himself in order to feel something. This isn't a Hollywood movie. Get off your high horse." With that, he walked off in the different direction. He was clenching one fist and Ally didn't know if it was from the burn or his moment of anger.

She wanted to know why he burned his wrist like that. She could tell he wasn't lying when he told her it wasn't self-harm, but she couldn't figure out why he would want to burn up his wrists like that. She figured it was a form of self-harm, he just didn't want to admit to himself that he fell into the category of people who hurt themselves.

"Ally."

Ally turned her head and saw Trish. Ally turned to her best friend, smiled and said, "Hey."

"What's wrong? You look like someone just insulted your dancing." Trish guffawed at her own joke. Ally rolled her eyes, grabbing her best friend's shoulder and twisting her around. She pushed Trish forward.

"Shut up, Trish." she said, walking away with her to continue preparing for the concert, already brushing what happened with Austin to the back of her mind.

. . . . . . .

Austin stood beneath the platform. He was staring over at the TV where he was watching Ally's figure. She was all dolled up with pretty curls and an outfit that made people gawk about how cute, how pretty, how absolutely wonderful she was. She had the microphone to her lips and Austin was trying not to roll his eyes in annoyance at her little speech as she gushed about how grateful she was for them, how she thought it was odd that they cried in the crowd, that people camped out just to see, and he quotes, somebody so simple, so weird, like me, unquote.

Austin clenched and unclenched his fists. A girl fiddled with a strand of his hair that kept flying out of place before leaving him to sink inside his hate towards Ally. You're famous, people get excited to see you, get over it, Austin thought sourly. He could hear a few of the stage crew mumbling to each other about how down to earth and genuine she was. It made him want to tear the TV right from the wall but he forced himself to keep his hands by his side.

He glanced over at Jimmy when he felt the familiar hand on his shoulder. Jimmy gave him a proud look, "Are you ready to break some hearts?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Austin spat, suddenly feeling offended. Jimmy was caught off guard and looked at Austin. He blinked twice in confusion. Austin wasn't a sensitive one and that was generally how Jimmy had always sent Austin out on stage. He wondered what happened to the wild-eyed, excited and giggly Austin Moon.

"I didn't mean anything by it, Austin...I was just..." Jimmy trailed off and shook his head, deciding there was no point to an explanation, "Hold your ground. She's about to call you up any minute now."

Austin peeled his eyes away from Jimmy. He stared at the TV and watched Ally. He felt annoyed just listening to her ramble a supposedly 'sweet speech' for him to go on that went something along the lines of: "There are many very amazing musicians who come from Miami, I'll bet you knew that. There is one musician in particular who is here tonight! He's incredibly talented and I think we are so lucky to have been blessed with his music. He's probably one of music's best-selling artists thus far! I know he's very excited to meet you and I hope you are just as excited to meet him...Ladies and Gentleman..."

Ally's voice trails off slowly, a smile widening on her lips. Suddenly, the lights beamed from behind her and there Austin was in all of his glory, guitar strapped around his shoulder, hanging low by his stomach as the spotlight rested on him. Ally exclaimed loudly, "Austin Moon!"

The crowd went wild but it drove him crazy that he knew his applause was slightly quieter than when Ally had appeared on stage. He tried to tell himself that this was her tour, of course they would be more excited to see her, but then he recalled every musician he's ever guest-starred for, he had always had the loudest cheers.

Not for this one.

He fixes himself with a smile and begins with the melody, letting the sound of the electric guitar echo throughout the arena. Ally tried to keep the smile on her face but she'd caught the cocky vibe he'd sent towards her. It seemed he was trying to prove something, but Ally had no idea what.

She pushed away the thoughts of what had happened early and his attitude right now and began to sing. Austin felt the urge to mess up on the guitar on purpose, feeling the need to ruin her performance but he knew Jimmy would only be appalled and he knew that if he messed up, the only one he would truly be embarrassing is himself. Ally would probably do something like laugh whole-heartedly, tease the crowd, and keep singing with or without the instruments. He was feeling pissed again.

Jimmy sighed from backstage, rubbing his forehead. It seemed impossible for Austin to do something as simple as putting on a fake smile for ever one night. Jimmy watched his musician purse his lips and not even cast a kind glance to the crowd once. He shook his head and wondered what to do with Austin. The only one who was causing the fallout for his career was Austin himself.

"He's going to wreck her career!" growled Ronnie, angrily, his arms folded in front of his chest. Jimmy sighed. Austin needed this but his bad reputation might backfire the entire plan and end up giving Ally the wrong end of the stick.

"He can't." Jimmy assured Ronnie, "I won't let him and that girl's got too much talent to be destroyed by somebody as ignorant as Austin Moon." The end of his sentence was spoken through gritted teeth.

Ronnie glanced at Jimmy. He was right, but Ronnie knew that Jimmy cared for Austin and his career. He felt a twinge in his chest that said that he knew Jimmy needed his help. "We'll do something about this kid." Ronnie said to Jimmy, "Even if it means running to desperate measures."

Jimmy sighed, nodding his head. They looked back to the TV screen just as the song was nearly over. The lights dim on stage and Ally comes running through the doors as it's now time for Austin's solos. The crowd still seems to like him at least a little bit and that was enough to make Jimmy relax for now. He casted Ally a kind smile and then went back to powering through his thoughts.

"You sounded great!" Trish assured her. Ally smiled at her before locking herself into a change room and getting into her next outfit.

Ronnie slid his tongue over the front of his teeth. When Ally exited the change room, he grabbed her arm. Ally looked at Ronnie in confusion. "Ally," he said lowly, "Don't you dare let that boy destroy your career."

Ally gulped slightly. She knew that everyone had felt the tension of the performance and she also knew that the only one making it difficult was Austin. She was okay with faking smiles and laughs, but Austin obviously didn't love his fans enough to make them happy even if it made himself miserable. She nodded her head at Jimmy. She knew Austin had a chance at wrecking her career by his behavior, and she also knew she wouldn't let that happen. She took a deep breath and went towards the make-up room before having to get on stage once more.