Chapter 8:

Ally's POV:

I stepped out of the car after Austin opened the door for me and headed towards the restaurant that looked really elegant. I watched as Mr. Moon and Austin went in to hold the two doors for us girls. I couldn't help the smile that crept across my face. I stepped inside, thanking Austin's dad and Austin himself as I made my way through the doors and out of the cold. We took off all of our coats and hung them on a hanger by our booth and then sat down, all of us snuggling in. The waiter that showed us to our seat, gave Austin's parents a wine menu and asked us what we wanted to drink.

"Coke, please." Austin said. I glanced over at him and smirked. I was surprised by his manners.

"And for the lady?" The waiter asked seductively. I felt Austin stiffen beside me and watched as he gave our waiter a cold look out of the corner of his eye.

"Can I please get a pink grapefruit virgin margarita?" I asked. I waited for Mimi and her husband to look at me questioningly but, when I looked up, they were smiling at me with surprise. I smiled back sweetly and nodded at them to tell the waiter what they wanted.

"We'll get the house red." Mr. Moon answered.

"A very excellent choice. All of you." Our waiter-I think his name was Thomas-said, taking our drink menus from us and walking away to get the waiter that would serve us our meal. I crossed my legs and sat up straight, a smile easily coming to my face. I heard Austin clear his throat as if he were going to say something. I turned in his direction, waiting for him to speak.

"So how are Adam, Aaron and Alec? Are they doing well? Have you heard from them?" Austin asked. For a split second, I got a confused look on my face and then wiped it off as quickly as it came. Mimi caught it but answered her son before responding to my facial expression.

"They're doing fine. They're going to come home for the weekend and until Christmas." Mimi answered. The words Christmas made me grin, I couldn't help it, it was my favourite holiday. Mimi caught my smile and smiled back. This caused Austin to turn his head and smile too, clearly confused as to why his mother and I kept smiling at each other.

"Adam, Aaron and Alec are Austin's brothers. He also has a sister, Athena, has moved to Miami with her husband and two children. She's also going to be coming home." Mimi stated. I nodded slowly, taking all of this in.

"I didn't know Austin had siblings, he's never mention it to me. Then again, he's always in his books too much for me to grab his attention anyways." I said. I caught a shocked Austin out of the corner of my eye and hid the smirk when I took a sip of my drink.

"That's great that Austin is all caught up on his school work. He used to be a little trouble maker when he was younger. And please, call me Mike." Austin's father said, a warm smile filling his eyes. I smiled back and nodded, letting him know that I was comfortable with that.

"Gee, thanks Dad." Austin said. I noticed that he couldn't keep the laugh out of his voice when he spoke to his father. For some reason, that made me melt even more.

"So Ally, tell me about yourself. How is your mother and father doing?" Mimi asked. At the word 'mother', a tightness started in my chest and moved throughout my body, making it hard to breathe.

"My father is doing well. My mother she, uhm, she died when I was seven." I said, my hand immediately reaching for my necklace. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Austin's brown eyes-that were a cold brown-turned a soft caramel colour. I sucked in a breath and swallowed hard to keep the tears from falling.

"I'm sorry Ally, if I had known-"

"No it's fine. If you'll excuse me, before we order, I would like to go wash up." I said cutting her off politely. She nodded and I got up, making my way to the bathroom in the back of the restaurant.

Austin's POV:

"My mother, she, she died when I was seven." I hear Ally whisper. I swallow hard; I feel my eyes turn sympathetic. I catch her eye even though she seems to be directly looking at my mom. I see my mother's lips move but I don't bother listening, it was probably her apologizing for bringing Ally's mother up.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would like to go and wash up before we order our food." Ally excuses herself politely. I watch as she stands up and starts to make her way to the back of the restaurant, towards the bathrooms. I watch as her composure switches from polite girl to fragile and vulnerable in a matter of seconds. I watch as she moves slowly, her shoulders and head hanging.

"May I be excused as well?" I ask my parents. They nod, knowing exactly where I'm headed. I get up and follow Ally-watching to make sure that nobody sees me go into the Girls' washroom. I watch as she stands in front of the mirror and look at herself in the mirror. She scoffs at herself and then she crumbles, her face scrunches as tears fall down her face and she hangs her head.

I can only take a few more minutes of this before I stand behind her so that she can see me. As soon as our eyes lock, she jumps and whirls around, her hand immediately going to under her eyes to wipe the makeup away. I walked up to her and take her hands in mine.

"Austin you scared me." She whispered.

"I'm sorry Ally. I really am. I had no idea." I said quietly. She just shook her head, as if it wasn't a big deal. I watched as she turned away from me and took out her makeup bag from her purse-I didn't even notice she had brought her purse with her.

"It's fine Austin. Don't worry about it. I deal with it by myself every day." She states. I watch as she turns the taps on the sink and cups her hand under the faucet, filling them with water. She continues to wash her makeup away with warm water and then reaches for a few paper towels to wipe away at what is left behind.

She looks up at her reflection again and sighs. She then pulls out the contents in her makeup bag and begins to apply them. I stand behind her through the whole process, as she turned from the vulnerable, fragile girl to a girl that seem to be strong inside and out, even though she was already broken. She sighs gain, puts her makeup bag away and then faces me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. She looked at me as if I werethe biggest idiot in the world. I guess I was.

"I didn't tell you because, before, you dint seem like you gave a shit about me." She answered coldly. I felt a rush of hurt go through me from her words but it was gone immediately because she smiled up at me and whatever hurt I had felt erased because of the warmth that filled me with that one smile.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready" I answered.

Ally's POV:

We walk back to the table and sit down. I notice that our menus have already come and Mimi has ordered another glass of wine for herself.

"Are you alright Ally?" Mike asks genuinely. I smile warmly at the both of them even though I want to cry again.

"Yes, I am. Thank you both." I answer. I pick up my menu and scan it, my mouth watering from each dish my eyes pass. I finally decide on steak and rice with vegetables dish. Austin gets the same but with mashed potatoes instead of rice.

Half way through our meal, we discussed me coming over for the weekend and possibly Christmas if I didn't have family plans already. I decided for myself that I wouldn't mind coming over for the weekend because it would be nice to meet the rest of Austin's family, plus, they were going to their cottage and it was, apparently, really amazing.

Honestly, I could not wait until this weekend came because, I was going over on the Thursday instead of Friday to meet their family before going up to the cottage with a bunch of strangers.