Chapter 33


Ever since that night in the studio, I had been singing. I didn’t want to turn it into a profession and follow in Nick’s footsteps, but he was right; I loved the way it made me feel. And according to Nick, I was a natural. I knew every single song of Nick’s by heart and sang the ones that were the most cathartic to me. “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely,” an oldie was for Jen. “Poster Girl,” another oldie was for Chelsea. “Unmistakable,” one of my favorite songs, was for whoever was out there that I haven’t met. That was the song I sang the most. I hated not knowing what was out there and how people would react to me. I knew Nick had been right; that ultimately it doesn’t matter…but I couldn’t believe that wholeheartedly.


Because there was still a hole in my heart that needed to be filled.


Nick had told Alex about my new endeavor and demanded that I get on Skype to sing it to him but I refused. But Nick had dragged me to the computer anyways and broke out his guitar. “Hi baby,” Alex grinned at me.


“Hi Alex,” I smiled back, “I’m still not singing for you.”


He gave me his lethal puppy eyes, “But you love me don’t you?”


I scowled at him, “you know I do, but it doesn’t mean I’ll sing for you.”


“What are you so afraid of?” He sighed, “You think I’ll laugh? You seriously think that I, Alexander McLean, the love of your life, would laugh at you?”


I laughed. He did have a point, but I still wasn’t sold. “Sorry Alex, I’m a one woman girl and Nick’s already heard the goods.”


Nick laughed, “yeah but I don’t mind sharing you.” I elbowed him in the ribs. “C’mon Ally, just this one time. And I mean, there’s already a recorded version…”


“Yeah, and the next time I see Nick, he can slip me a copy, and just to spite you, I can send it off to a local radio station and then the entire world will hear your beautiful pipes.” I stared at him incredulously. He wouldn’t dare…


I knew the only thing to get him to shut up was to give in. I turned back to Alex, “because I love you, and you’ll probably annoy the hell out of me until I give in…fine, I will sing for you my love,” I sighed dramatically, which caused Alex to burst into laughter. “It’s going to cost you though.”


“Oh yeah? Cost me what?”


“A visit,” I grinned.


They both chuckled and Nick started to tune his guitar. “Well, it just so happens that I will be in the area in about two weeks. Nina has some work to do over in Orlando and I thought I’d pop over and see my favorite person named Ally.”


I laughed, “Awesome! I can’t wait to see you.”


“Damn. I fly to LA in two weeks, I was hoping we could catch up,” Nick frowned.


“Nina and I will only be in town for a few days, how long you in LA for, a week?”


“Two,” said Nick and I looked up at him. He never traveled for more than a week at a time when I was in school - the whole wanting me to have stability issue. He grinned down at me, “as much as I don’t like it, you’re old enough to stay by yourself for long periods of time. And even though it scares me to leave you and Chelsea alone in a house for two weeks, I trust you both.”


I smiled, “it’s fine, as long as you promise not to show the song to anyone.”


He feigned innocence, “would I ever do that?”


“Yes,” Alex and I responded at the same time. “Now let me hear this future number one.”


I rolled my eyes but sat up straight when Nick started to strum. I closed my eyes and got lost in the music and the words. Nick was pitch perfect, and together, we sounded perfect. When I opened my eyes again, Alex’s expression was unreadable. “It’s called ‘In Front of the World,’” said Nick when he put his guitar down.


“That…was awesome,” Alex said softly. “You seriously wrote that Nick?”

I looked at him with pride when he nodded, “for this little one.”


I chose to ignore the ‘little one’ comment. Alex grinned at me, “I can’t believe he convinced you to sing. I’ve been trying to get you to for years. And, I was right, your voice is unbelievable.” I blushed at the compliment and Nick wrapped an arm around my shoulders.


“Isn’t it? I was blown away.” I elbowed him in the ribs again.


“And don’t think I didn’t notice the look on your face girly. You look exactly like your father when you sing…like at that moment, it’s the only thing that matters…like it’s a glue that holds all your jumbled pieces together.” I rolled my eyes at his metaphors even though they were slightly true.


“It’s a once in a lifetime thing boys.”


“We’ll see,” they said in unison and I frowned.







Chelsea couldn’t shut up about the Homecoming Dance. She’d been trying to convince me to go, but I hadn’t been to one yet; I didn’t want to break my streak.


“Ally, it’s the last one you’ll ever go to, you don’t want to leave high school thinking that you didn’t live out your last year to the fullest.”


But she was wrong; I could definitely live out my senior year to the fullest without going to the Homecoming. “I don’t think I’m going to be written out of the books if I don’t go to the dance Chels.”


She looked like she was ready to drop to her knees and beg me. “Please Ally? Come with me. This will be a perfect night to sort of forget all the shit that’s been happening lately and we can dance the night away.”


I frowned, “you can dance the night away with your date.” But she did have a point; it’d be a nice excuse to forget all the bad things that surrounded us lately.


“You’re my date; remember the whole staying away from boys thing? That includes the Homecoming Dance.”


“But that means I have to buy a dress,” I whined. Homecoming at Tampa Prep was like a dressed down Prom. Guys wore dress shirts and girls wore frilly dresses and it was something I absolutely did not want to be a part of.


“We can go shopping!” Chelsea clapped excitedly and I think the reason for all her enthusiasm was for the both of us, because I was rolling my eyes. “Let’s go to the mall!”


She grabbed my hand and pulled me off the floor. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my Saturday at the mall, shopping for dresses…and high heels. Nick and Aaron were both in the kitchen, each with their glasses on and each had their nose buried in notebooks. “If you two weren’t eight years apart, I’d swear you could be twins.”


Aaron laughed, “Triplets darling, I already have a twin.”


I chuckled, “yes but Angel never comes to see me.”


“You two heading out?” Nick looked up from his notebook just enough so he could peer at us. But he gave us his full attention when he saw the look of disdain on my face.


“Yes,” Chelsea grinned, “we’re going shopping for dresses for Homecoming.”


Nick’s face broke out into a grin, “Ally’s willingly going?”


“No,” I frowned, “I’m being forced against my will. Are you sure I’m still not grounded? Because, I don’t have to go.”


“No, no,” Nick said quickly, “I think you and Chels should go.”


“You have dates yet?” Aaron asked and then Nick frowned.


“Just each other,” said Chelsea. “It’s not going to be as much fun if we bring along boys.”


Aaron laughed, “That’s the spirit Chels. Have fun you two.”


“Use the credit card I gave you,” said Nick, and then he grinned, “For the both of you.” I tried to hide my smile. Nick had given me a credit card last year to use for emergencies only when he was traveling. I had never used it for emergencies before, but more than once, when I asked to go somewhere, he told me to take it and use it.


“No,” Chelsea protested, “you don’t have to do that.”


Nick winked at her, “I know I don’t, but I want to. While you’re here, you’ll be treated the same way I treat Ally.”


“Yeah, and he spoils her,” Aaron laughed.


I frowned, “I’m not spoiled. I buy the things I want, and if I ask for something, Nick makes me work for it.”


“He made you work for the Mercedes sitting in the driveway?”


I blushed but Nick said, “It was her birthday gift. Every girl needs a car for her sixteenth birthday.” Then he waved us out, “Go before he starts spewing more lies. Have fun girls.”


If he meant fun as in torture, then I was sure going to have it.






I was right, dress shopping was torture. We drove to the mall and Chelsea dragged me around from store to store until she spotted a bridal boutique.


“Um, I am so not going in there.”


Chelsea frowned, “why not? I bet they’ll have cute dresses.”


I snorted, “For getting married yeah. Chels, it’s just Homecoming, it’s not prom or a wedding.”


“So? We can just look. I bet we’ll be the two hottest girls in the room if we find killer dresses here.”


“Fine,” I sighed, “we’ll look, but I doubt we’ll find anything.”


But, of course, we did find something, for each of us. I didn’t hide my annoyance for Homecoming, but when I saw it, I literally gasped. It was hanging on a mannequin, and it was simple, but I was a simple kind of girl. Chelsea grinned at me when she saw the look on my face and I wanted to tell her to shut up, but I couldn’t stop staring at the dress. It was white with some sequins detail along the bottom and a one shoulder with a subtle ruffle along the top hem. When the sales lady saw me gawking at it, she brought me to the dressing room with the dress in hand. When I showed Chelsea, she gasped too.


“Holy shit Ally, this dress was made for you.”


“I love it,” I whispered, staring at my reflection. It was a little short for my taste, it hung a little above my mid-thigh, but I actually felt gorgeous in it. “I’m so buying this dress.”


Chelsea grinned, “Perfect!” Then she turned to the sales lady, “she needs shoes and some accessories to go with this too.” I turned back to the mirror to stare at myself again. I couldn’t believe that in this dress, I looked like that. I didn’t want to take it off.


When I came out of the dressing room I turned to Chelsea, “now let’s find you a dress.”


She frowned just a little, “I really don’t want your Dad paying for it.”


I smiled, “he loves you Chels. He spoils the ones he loves.”


She rolled her eyes, “If I ever win the lottery, I am so giving him a million dollars.”


I laughed, “And he so wouldn’t accept it, you know that.”


“Okay, so what do you think I’d look good in?”


“You look good in anything, you have the perfect body,” I rolled my eyes. It really wasn’t fair.


Chelsea laughed, “I have the perfect body? Are you serious? Ally, you have the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a human before. You’re skinny, your boobs aren’t too big or too small, and you have blonde hair and blue eyes so clear they almost look gray.” She made a face, “if you look up perfection in the dictionary, there’d be your picture next to it.” I blushed and rolled my eyes.


I so didn’t believe that.


“Whatever, let’s find you a dress that makes you look like perfection.”


“Yeah, I can be a tease, show all those boys what they’re missing now that I’m done with them,” she giggled.


Chelsea ended up finding a dress that seemed to be made for her as well. It wasn’t as simple as mine, but it screamed Chelsea. It was a slate gray one shoulder gown that had a gathering of fabric down the side of the dress and a split that came up almost to her hip. But she looked fabulous in it.


I tried not to wince when the sales lady rang everything up, and when I handed Nick the receipt I’d probably run and hide afterwards, but Chelsea and I were happy and I knew he’d think that that was all that mattered.


Once we left the boutique, Chelsea turned to me. “Okay, since Nick bought the dresses, how about I buy lunch?”


I grinned, “sounds perfect.”