#2: Not A Love Song

An Austin Moon and Ally Dawson song-shot

~ ~ ~

She knew nothing good comes out of coming down to the beach or even attending a party. To make matters worse, a beach party. Why the shy songwriter, Ally Dawson was in a beach and in a party, was because her best friend Trish forced her to tag-along!

* * *

“Come on Ally, just this one time. I know you don’t like parties and beaches but I promise you, no more beach parties after this.” Trish reassured.

Ally sighed as she crosses her arms over her chest; eyeing all her three friends helplessly. “Do you really think—”

“YES!” Austin, Dez and Trish exclaimed in unison causing Ally to flinch.

“—I should go?” she finished.

Austin walked up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. Ally smiled up at him. “Ally, you should go. It’s your chance to actually make a good memory on the beach, since last time we got all glued together. Besides, I heard Dallas’s going to be there.” Austin said the last part in a singsong voice.

That got Ally.

“Come on Trish, it’s time to get some sand between our toes and party!” Ally exclaimed, grabbing Trish’s wrist and headed out of Sonic Boom; leaving Austin and Dez in-charge of the music store.

* * *

Ally let out a tiny shriek as soon as the beach came into view. She glanced over at her Latina friend who was smiling excitedly.

Ally sighed.

She thought about how she should push her fears aside just for this day because she doesn’t want to disappoint Trish and ruin her fun and excitement. Plus, Austin said Dallas would be at the party.

Dallas, Ally thought, he was the only reason why I came with Trish. If it weren’t for him being in this party, I would’ve stayed at Sonic Boom.

She must’ve been wearing a worried expression on her face, as Trish asked her if she was all right.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry about me.” Ally said.

“I promise, you’ll be fine.” Trish blurted out.

As the two walked down the sand and towards the party, Ally immediately searched for Dallas. There seemed to be more guys than girls in this party. It would be quite hard for Ally to spot Dallas.

Nudging her by the elbow, Trish easily caught Ally’s attention and pointed to a certain direction. She followed Trish’s finger and soon found herself looking at the guy she’d been searching for since she came here, which was approximately five minutes ago.

“Go talk to him. I’ll just be around partying.” Trish told her.

“Wait. Tell me, why can’t Austin and Dez come again?” Ally asked.

“Oh, Austin’s grounded and the Sonic Boom’s the only place he’s allowed to go to. Dez…I don’t know. Let’s just say, Dez keeps Austin entertained.” Trish responded.

Ally nodded, pressing her lips together. “Okay then, I should go now. I might lose…Dallas – where did he go?” Ally asked noticing Dallas wasn’t in the position where she last saw him.

Trish shrugged. “Find him.” And just like that, Trish left Ally alone.

Her eyes wandered around and as easy as she never thought it would be, Ally finally eyed Dallas in the massive sea of people. Her eyes glimmered; the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile. Collecting as much courage as she could muster, her small feet dragged her whole petite frame towards the tall boy.

Ally’s breathing started shaking as she was nearing the boy. There were a lot going on inside her head at the moment: questions, thoughts, possible lyrics to a new song (her current situation being her inspiration), and a lot more.

Few more steps and she have reached her destination.

One more step.

Before her left foot barely touched the sand, Ally stopped.

Dallas was speaking…to someone.

Whom with?

And then she heard it, a female’s voice. It was sweet but bitter to Ally’s hearing. It was so flirty, making Ally want to vomit right on the spot. It was lulling though it seemed to Ally, the girl was lulling Dallas into sleep so she could haunt him in his dreams and be Dallas’s (or her) sweetest nightmare.

“I don’t know Alison but I’ve never felt this way to a girl before.” Dallas spoke.

“Oh Dallas,” the girl replied.

And just like that, just before Ally’s eyes, the boy who recently told her he love her yesterday, was making out with a girl named Alison!

“If replacing me with a girl named Alison is what you’re doing, why not just me? I mean, come on, how stupid is that? Flirting with a girl who has the same name as mine?” Ally snapped causing for Dallas and the girl named ‘Alison’ to break apart.

Dallas swiftly turned around; a terror look evident on his face.

“Forget it, Dallas.” Ally mumbled before turning to her heels and heading back to the music store and straight to her practice room.

~ ~ ~

It was closing to five o’clock so Austin and Dez decided to close up already, adding the fact that no customers were present in the store anymore. Dez already sprinted towards the practice room, leaving Austin to handle the remaining tasks downstairs.

He decided not to lock the doors since Ally and Trish would be coming back by seven and the four of them usually hangs around the store ‘till nine unless they lost track of time and decided to have a surprise sleepover.

Austin was already in his sixth step up the stairs when the doors flew open. “I’m sorry but the store’s already—” he turned around and saw Ally wiping tears away, and when she passed by him, he heard her let out a sniff.

Austin has zero doubts, Ally is crying.

When he was finally ‘back’ to himself, Austin rushed up the stairs and into the practice room. He pushed the door open and found Ally sitting on a new beanbag he got for her as an apology gift when they had a fight. Dez was trying to comfort her but knowing his freckled friend, he was no expert when it comes to this kind of situations.

“Ally, what happened? Why are you crying? Where is Trish?” Austin asked as he crouched in front of her.

Ally didn’t respond.

Austin sighed in lack of Ally’s response. He looked over at Dez, who was trying his best to cheer up Ally by making weird faces and weird noises to match his features that was twisting and twitching into ridiculous looks.

“Could you leave us for a moment, Dez?” Austin asked politely.

Dez stopped whatever he was doing and headed out the door.

Hearing the door click shut, Austin positioned himself beside Ally on the beanbag.

Austin sighed before speaking. “Tell me, Ally.”

She laid her head on Austin’s shoulder and sobbed harder. Austin wrapped his arms around Ally’s shoulders; whispering soothing words that somehow calmed the brunette.

“I saw him.” Ally finally said.

“Dallas?” Austin asked.

Ally nodded. “He was…he was telling some other girl that he loves her when he said the same exact thing to me yesterday!” she blurted out.

“Honestly Ally, I always knew there’s something about that guy that I don’t like. And now I know what it is. He’s a heartbreaker.” Austin said.

Ally didn’t say a word after.

Austin stood up and offered Ally a hand. “Come on, stand up.” He instructed.

Ally took Austin’s hand without any further ado and he carefully hauled her up. Only then Austin realized Ally was wearing his jacket. It was the jacket that he left in Ally’s practice room this morning and Dez might’ve made Ally wear it when she came inside the room crying. Plus, it was kind of chilly that day.

She stopped crying as soon as she saw Austin just standing in front of her, doing nothing. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“If you got a broken heart, you can punch me in the arm. Now, that’s what you needed.” Austin sang. “It’s a line from our song ‘Not A Love Song.’ It might just be a song but…I’d really do those things for you, Ally.” He added.

Ally smiled and Austin did too.

“Come on now, punch me. Let all your anger and pain out.” Austin said.

Ally punched Austin in the arm lightly.

“Really, Ally? That’s all that you’ve got?” Austin asked.

“Well, I just don’t want to hurt you.” Ally replied in a small voice.

“Okay, how about this: if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have seen Dallas with that girl—what’s her name?”

“Is that really necessary?” she asked.

Austin just gave her a look.

“Her name’s Alison.” Ally said.

“What!”

“I know, stupid right?”

“That’s so messed up.” Austin said. “Anyway, as I was saying, you should be mad at me for encouraging you to go to that party.”

Ally nodded. “Yeah, this is all your fault, Austin Moon!” she said as she gave Austin’s arm a good hurtful punch. It hurts so bad that Austin wanted to yelp in pain but held himself back. He has to stay strong for the sake of mending Ally’s broken heart.

Ally continues punching him.

“But look on the bright side.” Austin said. “You should also thank me because if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have realized how big of a jerk Dallas is.”

Ally stopped her punching and smiled. “I do feel better now. Thanks, Austin!” she said, wrapping her arms around Austin’s neck; him wrapping his arms around her waist, returning her hug.