Hi all, hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

The next morning as Austin got dressed, he couldn't stop thinking about what Ally had said. It had kept him up almost all night. When he walked passed Sonic Boom, he saw Ally focusing her attention on the cash register. He stopped and watched her for a moment, and almost felt a pang of heat run through up his forehead, seeing her flash a beautiful smile at the customer. He had never noticed this smile before. It was flawless. Before Ally could catch him watching her, he headed over to the mall food court and found Dez sipping a drink as Trish sat down next to him and noticed Austin coming toward them.

"Hey Austin, what's up?" Trish asked casually.

"Ally told me she loves me." Austin blurted out breathlessly. Dez spit out his drink right in front of Trish, to get an evil glare from her.

"Are you surprised?" Trish asked, raising her eyebrow. Austin flopped down on a chair next to Trish and breathed carefully.

"Yes! No? I don't know …" he spilled, running his hands through his hair.

"I knew that she developed feelings for me when we spent the night together … but I didn't know she was in love. I thought she hated me because I didn't react the way she wanted." Austin said, looking at them.

"You do know that you're in love with her too, right?" Dez pressed, making Austin's eyes widen.

"What, no I'm not. I just don't - want to lose her … I know that not even performing is fun when she's not there … Everything is just better when she's around." Austin said. He looked up to see Dez and Trish smirking at him.

"What?" he asked.

"You are so in love with her. It's only fitting, Austin. You don't how to communicate your feelings when you write, and you don't know that what you feel for Ally is love." Trish explained. Austin thought about what she was saying. He stayed silent for a moment, before widening his eyes over at them.

"You're right … I am in love with her." he said. Dez jumped up from his seat.

"YES! Finally!" he screamed, making the rest of the mall look over in his direction. Trish and Austin widened their eyes at him.

"Sorry, I've just been waiting a long time for you to realise that." Dez defended casually, placing his hands on his hips. Trish shook her head.

"This is so great, I'm so happy for you." Trish said with a smile. Austin smiled, still trying to fathom that he was in love with her. He turned back to Trish but something suddenly caught his eye.

Ally, flashing her beautiful smile again, was walking a few yards away from them with Jeremy holding her back. His heart thudded in his chest, a rush of heat running through his head.

*with Ally and Jeremy

"Ally, you're just so talented. You really are amazing." Jeremy said as they walked. Ally wasn't sure how she felt about being with Jeremy, but she knew he was making her feel better about herself. Unfortunately, the Austin drama was giving her heart ache, especially after what she had said to his the previous night.

Ally looked up and lightly smiled at him.

"Thanks, Jeremy. You're sweet." she said. Jeremy led her to a low brick wall which barricaded the beach from the mall walk, and they both sat down. Ally looked out onto the beach, looking at the ocean, and saw people playing in the water, a group of people wearing sunglasses and basking in the sun. She let out a short laugh under her breath. Jeremy smiled questionably at her.

"What?" he asked with sincerity in his eyes. Ally shook her head.

"A while ago, I hated the beach. I never had one good memory there, but there came this time when I had to write a song about the beach for Austin and he helped me remember a great time of my childhood right here …" she drifted off, realising it was probably inappropriate to speak of Austin. Jeremy looked down, the wind blowing through his hair.

"Speaking of Austin … what's with you two? What was he on about last night?" he asked. Ally sighed.

"Have you got three hours?" she murmured, narrowing her eyes toward the mall. Jeremy raised his eyebrows.

"What? Look, I don't wanna get in between anything, so …" Jeremy said. Ally looked at him.

"To be honest, Jeremy, it was only me. I had a thing for Austin, and he didn't feel the same way about me. Unfortunately, he was more interested in the peak of his career, and pretty much just didn't care about me or how I felt about him." Ally said, looking down.

"He really hurt you, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ally breathed. "But it's my fault. I mean don't get me wrong, we work really well together. We make great music, we make a good team, and we were great at being friends. I just can't forget how he treated me." Ally poured out to him. All of sudden, Jeremy took Ally's hands in his own. Ally shifted a little and looked up into his sincere eyes.

"Ally, you can't blame yourself for what between the two of you. He was a jerk. It's not your fault." He repeated. Ally took in a deep breath and exhaled.

"Are you sure he doesn't like you? He was acting so weird last night." Jeremy reminded her. Ally remembered Austin calling himself her boyfriend as he first saw Jeremy.

"I'm sure. I yelled at him afterward." Ally said. Jeremy took his hands away from hers and looked to his side.

"Ally, I really like you," he said gently. Ally smiled, flattered. "But I don't wanna get in the middle of anything. You and Austin seem to have this history that can be seen in your presence, in the media, everything. I just … want you for myself." He said. Ally was taken aback.

"Jeremy …"

"I've never felt about anyone the way I do about you, Ally. You're an amazing girl. Austin is crazy not to want to be with you." He said shakily. Ally widened her eyes.

"Ally, I want you to be my girlfriend." He said firmly. It sounded more like a statement than a request. Ally looked at him shaking her head.

"Jeremy, I'm still trying to recover from everything that's happened. It's not that I don't want to be with you, or that I don't like you, I'm just not ready to commit to anything yet." Ally explained. Jeremy breathed in and lightly smiled at the rejection.

"I still want to keep this going on between us. I enjoy your company." She said comfortingly.

"Yeah, right." Jeremy commented sarcastically. Ally shook her head, taking his head.

"No, really. You're like a breath of fresh air. You don't know how grateful I am to have met you." She said with sincerity.

"Yeah, I feel the same way." He said from the corner of his mouth. Ally smiled and got up from the brick. She slowly moved in to his space and wrapped her arms around his back. Jeremy sunk his face into her hair, taking in the sweet scent of it, and wrapped his arms around his waist.

She let go gently and waved him goodbye as she headed back toward Sonic Boom. Jeremy started walking toward the mall food court and saw Austin sitting with Trish and Dez.

Austin had seen them hugging, holding hands, getting lost in deep conversation. It all hurt. It all made his heart ache. But seeing Jeremy burned a fire through his stomach. Fearing he would punch him straight in the face, he looked away pretending he hadn't seen him. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky.

Jeremy had rage in his eyes, shaking his head at Austin.

"You're an idiot, Moon." Jeremy said, leaning down to him and proceeding to keep walking. Austin practically jumped out of his chair and pointed toward him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he yelled at him. Jeremy turned around and glared at him.

"I'm talking about the way you treated Ally. She's a great girl, and you didn't deserve to be the one she fell for." He replied.

"Yeah, and who did deserve her … you?" Austin retaliated. Jeremy clenched his teeth.

"Yeah, maybe." He said. Austin shook his head.

"Hmph, You don't know anything about her." he said.

"Well, I know all about you." Jeremy said with a sinister smile. Austin raised his eyebrow and looked over at him.

"What are you talking about?" he muttered. Jeremy smiled and walked around him as he spoke. Trish was suddenly getting nervous and texted Ally to come back to the food court.

"Austin Moon. Overnight internet sensation. You stole a song from the talented and shy songwriter Ally Dawson, and begged on bended knees to keep her at your side to continue making hits. For, as we all know, you couldn't write one lyric without her and you would soon become what you are now …" he said. Austin looked down.

Ally looked at her phone and immediately ran to the mall food court, and stumbled upon a scene she never expected.

"A big flop. You're useless without Ally, everybody knows that. Ha. You deserve to taste failure, Austin Moon." Jeremy said.

Ally stood behind a large pot plant, making sure neither of them could see her. She couldn't believe Jeremy was speaking to Austin like this.

Austin stepped closer to Jeremy after a moment of silence.

"Who the hell do you think you are, telling me about myself, about my Ally?" Austin blurted out. Ally, Trish and Dez all gawked at Austin. Ally nearly tripped over.

"Your Ally? Please, you're just threatened by me." Jeremy said. Austin stood firmly with his glare in level with Jeremy's vision.

"No, I'm not. Ally is a part of me, and I'm a part of her. We complete each other and we need each other, that's just the way things are." Austin explained still firm. Jeremy laughed. Ally took a small step forward.

"Maybe you need her, pal. But she doesn't need you. If you ask me, she'd be better off without you. In fact, you're probably better off being road kill." Jeremy spat. Ally scrunched her eyebrows at Jeremy's change of behaviour. He seemed so different when they spoke to each other alone. Austin shook his head at him, turning away from.

"I have no idea what Ally ever saw in you, you fucking has-been." Jeremy called after him. Austin clenched his teeth and turned back.

"What did you-" before Austin could even finish his sentence, Jeremy was lunging to punch him, and hit Austin straight in the eye. As Austin looked up, holding his eye, he saw Jeremy roll up the sleeves of his leather jacket. Ally held the plant and felt a pang of pain run through her body as Austin opened his obviously pained eye.

"Come on, fight back you bastard!" Jeremy yelled as he punched him in the stomach, the hip, the shoulder blade, and again in the face. Austin finally punched him in the face and the stomach before Ally finally flew to the scene and wormed her way between the two fighting teenagers.

"Stop it! Please both of you! Stop it!" she repeated begged as they both continued to attempt fighting one another before realising who was trying to stop them.

"Ally!" Jeremy breathed, realising she had probably witnessed the entire situation. Ally looked up at him with hatred in her eye.

"I think it's time for you to leave, Jeremy." She said coldly, slightly blocking Austin. Jeremy smiled frighteningly and looked at Austin.

"You're gonna throw me out of your life, just to be with this useless 'pop star'?" he lifted his fingers up as quotation marks around 'pop star' with a mimicking tone. Ally's eyes now burned with rage.

"I still believe in him." she said flatly. Jeremy just stared at her.

"Come on, Ally. He only ever had a career because of you." Jeremy tried to persuade her. Ally looked toward Austin.

"And I only have a career because of him." she replied. Jeremy looked at the both of them.

"Now I think you better leave before I let Austin thrash you." Ally threatened. Jeremy began to step away, glaring at Austin and leaving in silence.

As he left, Ally stepped away from Austin and watched him leave. She couldn't believe how two faced he was. How sincere he seemed when he confessed his feelings for her. She was suddenly very aware of Austin's body nearing hers. She looked up at him, expressionless.

"I think we need to talk." Ally said, breathing in carefully.

"Yeah, we really do." Austin nodded.

So there you go! Sorry to those of you who were starting to like Jeremy, but of course Austin has to be the only perfect one for Ally. Hoped you enjoyed this and pleaseeeee review I love reading your thoughts! xx