Hi everyone! This is my first fanfic EVER, so if I receive any notice from this I may cry haha. Anyways, I would love any and all feedback; I have never "published" a story before, so if my approach to this is quite terrible, or decent, I would love to know. My thanks in advance for reading!

Disclaimer: I own nothing about Austin and Ally, except the CD I bought the other day.

"Please don't touch that!" Ally Dawson screeched nervously at two adolescent boys who were messing around near the Zildjian cymbals at the front of the store. She strongly disliked the sound of ten crashing cymbals, and of course, the mess that would come along with that collision. The boys gave her that "look", the look of dissatisfaction that all the young customers gave when they got caught.

She sighed and glanced at her watch. 'Just one more hour…' She adored working at Sonic Boom, she really did; but tonight, for the first time in what seemed to be ages, she actually had a date. It's honestly been so long, which gave the flutter of anticipation the extra amp to distract her from almost everything around her…except ten crashing cymbals.

*CRASH*

"Alllllllly!" The familiar accent rung through the room with such intensity, almost every customer turned to see what the commotion was, but of course, Trish de la Rosa was never affected by the judgment of others. She smiled brightly and posed in a "ta-da" stance, her right hand waving around gracefully in the air as if she were a model showing off a toaster for someone to win. "Guess who got a job at Mini's?"

Ally rounded the corner of the check-out counter, giving her best friend a genuine smile. "Some things never change," she mused to herself. Trish cocked her head in confusion. "I mean, wow Trish, that's great!"

Trish rolled her eyes. "Ally, I know what your mind is on—"

"The fact that my eardrums busted about 45 minutes ago because of these two inconsiderate, blonde-haired boys—"

"Not important," Trish happily interrupted. "You have a date tonight!" She almost squealed at the idea of it. It was almost as if she were going on the date herself.

"Trish, it really isn't a big deal…"

"Yes it is! I mean it's been forever sin—"

"I don't want to discuss it," Ally walked speedily back behind the counter. Today was not the day to bring that up. She was over it, of course…but it still was a bad memory; a wound that had healed, but the scar was still there, and those had no room to be talked about on a day of "new beginnings".

"I'm sorry Ally," Trish followed her and leaned forwards beside the cash register. "I know it's been rou—"

"Accccck!" Ally was on her way to covering her ears when Trish grabbed her left arm.

"I'm sorry, I'll stop," Ally sighed as she caught sight of a familiar figure standing outside the Sonic Boom doors. Her eyes suddenly went into deer-in-the-headlights mode as all the things she'd tried to suppress inside of her wanted to be released. The golden hair, the hazel eyes that reminded her of maple, the tanned arms she had learned to memorize, and the shoes that she always thought were too tacky to fit his persona….

Austin Moon.

"Ally…?" Trish waved her hand in front of Ally's face, attempting to figure out what was going on. She's only seen that look a few times in the course of their friendship, so it must mean…

"Oh God, Ally, I'll run him off—"

"NO, no," Ally instinctively pulled her friend back to the counter. Trish seemed overly offended.

"Why do you keep interrupting me? I just want to hel—"

"I'm curious," was all Ally could say. Trish raised her hands in surrender, deciding not to mess with what Ally called "Fate". Surely this was the rationale behind her openly allowing the one person she should never want to see again into the store. Otherwise, Ally was crazy. "Plus, I can't run him off when he hasn't broken store policy," it was almost as if she could read Trish's mind.

"Well we could always break a guitar and blame it on him…"

"Austin, I'm suuuuure there is another store you can buy a guitar from," A ginger spoke as he followed a blonde-haired boy down the mall parking lot. "I mean, why here?"

"Dez," the blonde stopped in his tracks, turning to face his follower. "It will be okay. The sky isn't going to fall; the world will not end if I step into Sonic Boom," he smirked and rolled his eyes. Dez held a hand up to physically show he had a point, but his mind drew a blank.

"I'm telling you, man, I really think this is a bad idea. You guys have yet to speak since that nigh—"

Austin abruptly stopped, forcing his friend to stop right in front of his face, "Dez, Dez…" Austin placed an index finger to his lips and mouthed a lingering 'Shhhhhh'. "The past is the past. Focusing on it won't change anything."

"But trying to fix things with Ally like this isn't the way either!"

"Who said I was?" Austin smirked and started back on his task. Dez, speechless, let his mind go on auto-pilot as he followed his friend into the mall center.

They rounded the front of the store when Dez grabbed Austin by the shoulder. "Austin..." Dez's tone was something it never was: serious. His eyes had a glint in them that even made Austin's eyes widen. It was the most intensity he had ever felt in a conversation with him. "I'm telling you, if you walk into that store, things will change, and, while I know you are trying to play it cool, you may not like the result…or what you face in there," Dez gave a pat and was quickly distracted by a lingering smell of pork, "ooooo, hot dogs!" He skirted off without a second glance.

That uneasy feeling returned to the pit of Austin's stomach. That feeling had loitered there for months. It was an intangible feeling that his head could never quite rationalize. No explanation would describe, nor validate its existence; he wondered why it wouldn't just go away. Once he woke up today and decided it was time to "make a move", it was almost as if the feeling chose the same exact day to take absence from him. Were they correlated? As the thought of him giving up on his intention rose, the feeling seemed to creep back into his abdomen. The harsh reality surfaced, and he knew that they were related.

Austin wanted nothing more than for it to go away: the feeling, the dreams; everything about the one person who has had the largest impact on his life. So many nights he spent brainstorming ways to fix this. It was almost desperation, as he noted that no efforts were ever made in his opposition.

Since that night, he has yet to hear from her. No calls. No songs in rebuttal. No awkward run-ins at school. The connection he felt almost seemed unreal to him, as if it never happened, and it was so hard to discredit that when Fate just kept him and Ally apart. Now, he wanted to take things into his own hands, but if she was making it just fine…why should he even take a double-take?

And as the anger from that thought rose to the fore-front of his mind, he walked off towards the hot dog cart.

Trish smiled as the menace walked away from his momentary stop near the front of the store. "Oh thank Jesus," she sighed and turned to find a surprising sight.

Ally twiddled her fingers, looking down at the counter. It was obvious she was finding a way to distract herself. "Ally…are you okay?" The brunette lifted her head slightly, biting her lip. Her eyes had a slight glaze to them, which Trish immediately noticed. "Oh…"

Ally placed a hand to her piano necklace and fiddled around with the charm, unable to look her best friend in the eyes. "Trish, I don't know what's wrong with me. Why…why is everything the way it is. I don't understand, I don—"

Trish made a move for Ally's wrists, lowering them to the counter as an attempt to signal importance for what she was about to say. "You know, everything up until now has been messy. It has been terrible, unexplainable, heck, even unfair. I know it's been hard, and it seems like it will never have closure. You deserve so much better than this, but you can't have that better until you let go of the past. Hell, you saw him stand there. He chose to not see you. Now it's your turn. What do you choose?"

Even though tears were already streaming down Ally's face, her eyes almost seemed to soften at Trish's words. Ally cracked a smile...a genuine smile. "I choose tonight."