Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Whatsoever.

It hurts like hell.
It's rather ironic, really, usually when she experiences this kind of heartbreak, he'd be the one she runs to.
This time, he's the one she's running from.

She ruined it. She took a risk for just once, for one of the first times in her life, and it went about as well as she figured it would. She'd hoped that maybe this time, it'd be different.
This was why she'd spent her whole life keeping to herself. Laying it all out on the line clearly didn't work for her.

Tears stream down her face as she shakes her head at her own stupidity. I should've known, she thinks, staring up into the hot fluorescent lights of the practice room.

She's locked the door, just in case. If he were to come looking for her, this was the first place he'd look. But she couldn't think of anywhere else she'd want to be.

/
Sometimes he wondered why all of her "personal" lyrics were so sad. Sometimes he thinks she's hiding things from him, like there's this whole other side to Ally Dawson she shows absolutely no one. Even past all of the walls he'd had to break down himself.

It made him happy to realize that she wrote happy songs when he was around. But maybe she was just really that good.

No, she was happy now, right?
Right?

/

Her fingers hover over the glossy keys, her mind itching to write lyrics that wouldn't come.
It was one of the first times in her life where she had absolutely nothing to say, especially in a song.
Wasn't this supposed to be one of the moments that she could draw the most inspiration from?

Calm down,Ally.
It had just happened, she told herself. The wound was still fresh. You can't numb out this one.

She tried though. She tried telling herself that he didn't matter, that he wasn't worth her tears. But that was the thing. Out of the (very few) guys she'd actually approached with her feelings, he was the most important. Because he was first and foremost her best friend.
Was.

She stood up from the piano bench. Whatever. It obviously didn't matter how much she cared about him. He was Austin Moon. He was a star. And while she'd been thinking he was different, she'd been clearly oblivious to all the ways he was exactly the same.

/

He was still a little confused. Actually, a lot confused. He couldn't remember anything that had occurred in the last twenty minutes. It was all a blur.

"What…what just happened?"

Dez jumps up from his chair. "Well, Ally admitted her feelings to you and then you just sort of sat there like 'uh..uh…I' and Ally got really upset and ran off and now we're all just sitting here waiting for you to come to your senses." He claps in Austin's face. "Are you back now?"

Trish rolls her eyes. Dear God, they were both idiots. In their own respective ways.

Austin looks over at Trish, fear in his eyes. "Is that true? Did I do that?"

Trish nods. "What do you remember?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know. Barely anything. I don't know why I'm so lost…. I think I sort of remember Ally crying.. that was my fault?"

Trish's eyes soften. "Yeah. I think she was really hurt. And it was my fault. Again."

"What do you mean?"

Trish sighs and sat down at one of Mini's plastic chairs, adjusting her airplane headband from the new travel agency she was working at.

"I guess I push her too much sometimes." She gives a small, sad smile. "Last time I knew she felt so strongly about a guy, I kept telling her she needed to tell him, and eventually she did. It went even worse than this did. Actually, it went so much worse. After that, she kept swearing she'd never care about someone like that again, and then you came into her life and…yeah. I pressured her to tell you, too. I thought you'd be different."

He frowns. "I didn't mean to be like that guy. I didn't mean to hurt her, at all. But, Trish?"

"Yeah?"

"What, exactly, happened with the other guy? Like, why did it scar her so badly?"

Trish shook her head. "I shouldn't tell you."
He was kind of shocked to see his friend like this. This protective side of Trish was reserved for rare occasions and was only used for Austin, Ally, and Dez. Mostly Ally.

"Trish." He locks their eyes firmly. "Please."

She sighs again. "When we were all freshmen, Ally and I had this friend Carter, right? Well, she was always closer to him than I was, but the gist of it is that this kid became more and more screwed up as the year went on, drugs, alcohol, that kind of mess. I don't know why or how, but Ally just became more and more infatuated with this kid. Eventually it got really bad, like he was just a drunken asshole at this point. It was like April, I think, because it was around her birthday. Like I said, they were always closer than he and I, so I didn't know just how screwed up he was. All I got was from Ally, who obviously like adored him, so I was thinking he was at least a decent guy, so I kept pressuring her to tell him how she felt, because, y'know, she's Ally, she wouldn't do it without someone telling her. I guess eventually she did, when he was drunk or high or something. I guess she thought love would guide him to the light or something, but instead he got really cruel and kept telling her how no one would ever love her and that she was ugly and.. yeah. That's why, if I'd thought she was cautious before, she's even worse now."

Tears well in his eyes, but he restrains them and runs his hair through his hair. He exhales deeply.
"I feel like the worst person in the world right now."

Trish puts her hand on top of his in comfort. "Don't, Austin. It's not your fault. But I do suggest you go and comfort her. And tell her how you feel. However that is."

He nods. He rises from his chair and collects his guitar from where it had been laying under their table.
"I'll see you guys later." He nods at Trish and Dez. Trish nods back, but Dez has fallen asleep.

/

He knocks on the practice room and jiggles the locked doorknob. "Ally?"

She rolls her eyes and wipes away a few stray tears with the back of her hand. "Go away."

He leans against the door. "Please, Ally? I really need to talk to you."

"Honestly, Austin, I'm tired of always doing things for you. It's time I do something for myself. So please, Austin, just leave me alone right now."

He sighs. "But Aaaaaaalllllyyyy. It's really important. Just five minutes. Please."

"No. If it's really important, you can say it through the door."

"But I want to see you."

"I don't want you to see me." She tries swiping away some more tears, but they've already stained her face.

"Please?"

And so she caves, because he's Austin and he just holds far too much power over her.

He smiles at her and starts playing the first chords to Not A Love Song.

"You're always on my mind, I think about you all the time…um, yeah. "

She stares at him, completely perplexed.

"What?" Her brown eyebrows furrow, and she feels like smiling but she's not exactly sure what's happening quite yet.

He grins at her again but he doesn't explain himself, he just continues with his song.

"I love the things you do, it's how you do the things you love, and this time it's a love song.
Yeah, it's a love song." He trails off.

She gapes. "Austin, I…"

He shushes her. "Ally, I'm so sorry that I hurt you earlier. It was stupid and I was stupid and so confused. But I mean, I guess we both know I'm not exactly good with words. That's kind of why we're here."

She laughs. "Yeah, I guess."

He takes his guitar off his chest before he wraps her in a huge, staggering hug. "I hope you know how much you mean to me, Ally. You're amazing and beautiful and I've been wanting to tell you for a while, I just couldn't figure out the right way."

She starts crying for about the fifth time today into his shoulders, this time not out of grief, but because this is perfect and it was everything she could want, and it's happening. It's real.

"And Ally?" He whispers into her hair.

"Uh-huh?"

He wraps his arms around her even tighter around her. "I'm not ever going to let anyone hurt you again."

…fin...

A/N Sorry guys, I have no clue what this is. I wrote it in like an hour XD. Because y'know, I said I would. I just wanted to finish it quickly :P Um, this is influenced by not a love song by Ross Lynch (obv) and also Fall by Justin Bieber (I don't know how I ended up liking that I'm so ashamed) So yeah, I hope it doesn't suck all that much
ALSO AUSLLY IS CANON ASDFGHJKL YAYYYYYY OMG.