She Wrote it on a Red Notebook (Epilogue), an Austin and Ally fiction

I do not own Austin and Ally. This is the final installment, so please enjoy and review.

When he said that they would tell them about being together after he kisses her, he did not mean directly after. Especially not two seconds after, when he can still feel her breath on his face, the faint taste of maple syrup lingering in his mouth.

"Aww," Dez and Trish chorus from the doorway.

Next time he's getting a 'do not disturb' sign. One with big block letters that scream 'listen to me.'

Well, technically it'd be screaming 'do not disturb,' but right now he's too busy worrying about what will happen next to be logical.

"Were you guys spying on us?" Austin asks.

"The door was ajar," Trish says, as if this was some sort of invitation to come in.

Ally's eyes trail down to where Dez and Trish's hands are connected. They jerk apart.

"You wanted to tell us something?" He stretches his hand out to them. Anything not to look guilty.

She rubs her thumb along the back of his hand. She'll be the one to handle this. And as excited as she is, there is still that bit of fear lingering.

It's that bit of fear that makes her stumble over her words.

"I uh- we're dating." She sighs. It feels nice to say the words out loud. She wants to repeat them over and over until they don't make sense anymore.

The smile she breaks into stops her.

Trish thinks back to the conversation they had this morning. Pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place.

"How long as this been going on?"

"Just a few days," she says casually. Inside her heart is doing flips. She can't do a cartwheel in all of her joy, but her heart doesn't seem to have the same inhibitions. To think, last week she was fantasizing about what it'd be like to get together, and now she's dating him.

My, how time flies when you're in love.

Normally when someone gets an idea in a cartoon, a light bulb goes off over their head.

When Dez catches on, the light bulb burns out. The room gets darker. The early morning sunshine is pouring in, just bright enough to let them see each others' faces.

"Why didn't you tell us? Dude, I thought you chickened out."

"We didn't want you two to feel like third wheels," Ally explains. She glances back to their hands that are lingering next to each other. As if she can mentally will it, she stares. 'Move right,' she tells Trish's hand. 'Go left,' she tells Dez's hands.

Neither of the hands listen to her telepathic messages.

"Can you have two third wheels?" Dez takes a step forward. The hands move farther apart.

Austin shrugs.

His hand moves into his pocket, and Ally loses any hope of it intertwining with Trish's.

(the page breaks here)

After lunch, where Austin and Ally got to snuggle on one side of the booth while Dez's hand awkwardly stalked Trish's, he makes an announcement.

"I finished editing Attack of the Toys last night." He holds up the DVD he's burned it to.

"Let's put it in!" Austin takes the disc to place in the player. The chairs are stacked so that the boys are sitting behind the girls. He takes the chair behind Ally.

Leaning forward, he wraps his arms around her neck. She takes one of his hands and plays with the fingers.

He is so glad she agreed to tell them.

Judging by the smile on her face, he isn't the only one.

Dez has the remote. This keeps him from doing the same to Trish. Not that she'd let him if he had the opportunity.

Her name flashes in huge letters. Then there she is, being attacked by the toys. There's the shots of her fighting back. In the background he's put music. It sounds like warrior music.

Considering she filmed this in a store that played bubble gum pop over the loudspeaker, she thinks she acted rather well.

The employee cameos, which consisted of them bowing down to her for saving them from the evil toy, not so much. They could have done a better job of worshiping her. Though the one did kiss her shoe.

At the thought, her mind jumps to a different kiss.

Her friends break into applause. At this point, she should be getting up to bow or curtsy or wave like the queen or something that isn't thinking about what happened yesterday after wrapping up.

But his arm is over her shoulder. It was only there because he couldn't get the remote signal to the DVD player from his seat.

That didn't explain why it was still there, long after he had pushed the stop button.

She plucks his arm off of her and stands. "Thank you, thank you."

He stands. Rummaging around in his backpack, he finds the other copy. He has to take it over to the toy store. They want to use scenes for their new commercial.

He'd rather make them a commercial, giant props and all, but if it's what they want, he's not going to argue. All his extra energy is going to trying to forget about that kiss.

Now he knows why he hesitated. It wasn't because he didn't want to do it. It's because he did, but didn't know how she'd react.

If only he didn't have to fake that face of disgust.

(the page breaks here)

Three hours later, he finds himself trapped in a closet. Backing up, he hears a yelp.

Looks like he isn't the only one trapped in the closet.

"Trish? Is that you?"

"Why'd you let the door close? I've been trying to get out for ten minutes now!" She shoves him into a mop in a bucket.

Water splashes onto his foot. "Why are we in here?"

This time, it's not her that answers.

"Since you two obviously didn't sort everything out yesterday, we're locking you in there until you do," Austin says.

"You can't stay out there forever." Trish bangs on the door.

"We brought Candyland."

She groans. They could sit there for hours. And if they do get bored, they're dating. She's sure Candyland isn't the only way they can entertain each other.

Her back hits the door and she slides to the ground. Might as well get comfortable.

At first, they just sit there, foot to foot. In the dark, she can see only his eyes. There is probably a light switch in here somewhere. "Help me find the light."

"Okay," he says standing up. They run their hands across the wall.

His hand runs over hers by mistake.

The hunt for the switch gets put on pause. Right now, she'd prefer to find the switch to turn off the thud thudding of her heart. A few mixed emotions and a kiss, and now she can't control her own heart. It's too much to hide. She wonders how Ally could have hid it.

"I lied."

"You don't want to find the light switch?"

She takes a firmer hold of his hand. "I mean about the kiss."

Ally, who is advancing her game piece to the next green square outside of the closet, gasps. She mouths the words 'they kissed' to Austin. He leans across the board, careful not to knock over the pieces. Then he kisses her.

'So did we,' he mouths back. He takes her hand, pulling her towards him. He tilts his head backward.

She realizes he thinks they should give them some privacy. The game gets quietly placed back in the box. He moves the chair from being jammed under the knob.

Tiptoeing away, they let the conversation continue without them.

"So you're saying that you faked looking disgusted?" Dez asks after she's explained herself.

"That's what I'm saying." She takes a deep breath to calm down.

Ally was right. It does smell like dirty mop water in here. Why had she given her the idea?

On the first try, he misses. It's dark, and his lips hit a roll of toilet paper.

He gets it right on the second try.

"I think I might like you." He rubs the back of his neck, elbow striking with the wall.

Surprising herself, she lets the words come out of her mouth.

"I think I might like you too." She sets her hand on the doorknob. "Though it would be nice to get out of here."

Her hand slips and the door swings open. Austin and Ally are nowhere to be seen.

They share a look of confusion. Weren't they trapped, with no hope of escape?

Stepping out, Trish notices that the light bulb is operated by a pull cord.

There was never a light switch to be found.

(the page breaks here)

That evening, the four of them are out in the parking lot. They're playing the line game again.

"Can you believe that school starts tomorrow?" Austin says, grabbing his girlfriend around the waist.

"And this year, both of us will be starting with boyfriends." Trish wobbles, almost falling into the black.

This statement distracts Ally, and she steps off the line. "You two are dating?"

With that, she squirms out of his hold, knocking him off the line. She hugs Trish, forcing her into the black as well.

"I win!" Dez pumps his fist into the air.

She rolls her eyes. "Remind me again what I see in him?"

"A future?"

At least, that's what she sees with Austin.

You never know if things are going to last. They could split tomorrow or in five weeks or five years. They could be together forever, happily or not.

But if you never try, you'll never know.

His arms wrap themselves back around her waist.

It only takes a leap of faith.