Chapter 3

"Ally?"

Just Awesome.

Ally gulps, and exhales; praying to god that the person she thinks is behind her isn't behind her because if the person she thinks is behind her is behind her then she is doomed. She takes a deep breath, and purses her lips, turning around nice and slowly...

Oh, just as she had feared; the person she thought was behind her is behind so therefore she is doomed.

"Um, hiya!" she said like the idiot she is, "What're you, uh, doin' here at this hour?" Ugh. Well, what do normal people do at music stores? Oh! Thats right! Buy instruments.

"Uh, well, I was just gonna look at some of the guitars, actually." So Austin Moon is into music? And Austin Moon plays the guitar? Well, she would be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit attracted to him at this moment, "But wait a second, you work here?" He raises a brow at her, stepping closer so that he was right in front of the counter, where she was stood.

Ally smiles nervously, trying to calm her racing heart, "Actually, my Dad owns the place. But, yea, I sorta just work here. Most of the time by myself; My Dad just goes to conventions and meetings and all that stuff." She scolds herself for talking too much. He was probably bored out of his mind already...

But Austin just grins, "That sounds so awesome! Your Dad actually owns a Music store," he says the word as if it's a treasure worth a billion and a half dollars, "My Dad owns a Matress store." He adds flatly.

Ally giggles, "So you play guitar?"

"And piano, and drums, trumpet, bass, ukulele, and I'm learning to play violin and mandolin- But I especially specialize in guitar." Austin boasts proudly, grinning at Ally, "And I sing."

"Wow." Ally bites her lips, "Well, I, uh, I play piano,and I sing a little bit... I'm kinda trying to learn how to play guitar, so... Yea." She felt like a talentless garbage disposal compared to him.

"Cool." He says kindly. "You know... I could teach you to play guitar if you like..." he raises his eyebrows in that way that makes her think he's flirting with her, but she's sure he isn't.
"Um..." she feels her cheeks heat up, and she looks down so that he won't see, "OK. I'd love that. Thanks." She smiles widely at him.

Suddenly, his eyes are traveling down. Down, down, down, down, down- to land on her-

Songbook.

"What's that? Is it like your diary or something - ?" he asks, pointing at it, his finger almost touching the brown leather...

Ally snatches it out of the way quickly, and he looks at her confused.
"Oh! Uh, that's just my... Um, my book. Yea, you could call it a diary- Except, um, I write songs in there, sometimes - "

"Woah, you write songs?" He smiles her, "Thats so cool."

She watches his eyes widen in shock and surprise, "Well, yea, I do... But I don't really know if they're all that good because I haven't really shown them to anyone yet, so..."

"Well, what're you waiting for?" He says softly, and her stomach squelches just like it did that morning when they decided on that 'date'.

"It's not exactly as easy as saying it... I have horrible stage fright. I mean, it's better than it was before... I can actually get up on stage, but..." she pauses, gulping, "I'm just... afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Austin whispers.

"Afraid that people won't like my songs. Or my voice. Or my hair! Or my-"

"Ally! How do you know if you never try?" Austin cuts her off, laughing at the fact that she mentioned being of afraid of people not liking her hair. "And by the way, your hair is awesomus." he added jokingly, but she still blushes madly, straightening her curls out with her fingers and smiling.

"Thanks." She replies, grinning and playing along. She felt her nerves starting to act up again, butterflies soaring into her stomach and sweat threatening to trickle down her forehead.

To her relief, Austin starts to walk around the store, looking at the instruments and the walls and even the ceiling. Ally sighs as she watches him; wondering how on earth she would be able to get him to fall in love with her if she acts like a complete bozo whenever he's around. She felt herself falter slightly at the thought. Millions of thoughts entered her head, but before she could even acknowledge any of them –

"Hey, Ally! Guess who got a job at the Library?! Y'know, I though I wouldn't like this job, but it turns out that I actually love it! There are sooo many breaks because people hardly ever need assistance at the library. And even if they do, Cindy's the one who always does all the work! The Hot Chocolates there are amazing, too! And the lattes– Oh! The smoothies rock! I thought they weren't allowed food in there! But apparently that rule doesn't apply to employees. Omigosh! You have got to try this delicious ketchup flavoured smoothie! I know it sounds gross, but trust me, it's heaven in a cup. You know what? I think I might actually keep this job! So, what's up?"

Ally almost tripped over her own feet when she spun around to see... "Oh, Trish! You gave me a freaking heart attack! And no thank you, smoothies that taste like condiments just aren't my thing." She glared, face-palming when she felt Austin's eyes on her.

Trish smirked, "Oh, I get it..." she looked over at Austin, and then back at Ally, who was giving her the death stare of the century. Trish put her hands up in surrender, "OK, OK! I'll leave. But don't think that it'll make things easier–"

"Trish!"

"Sorry, sorry."

With that, Trish left as quickly as she had arrived. And Ally turned to face Austin, looking apolagetic at the fact that he had to witness all of... that.

"Anyways, um... 'Sup?" Inward face-palm.

Austin chuckles, "Nothin'. But you seem like you've got a lot going on up there," he tapped her forehead with his finger.

Ally blushed again, "Uh, no... It's just that I've got a lot of homework to catch up on, and I just haven't got time to finish it all." It wasn't a complete lie. She did have quite a lot Math and Spanish homework that she needed to finish; but she just couldn't be bothered, really.

"Right..." he sounded like he didn't believe her at all, "Are you sure that's what's bothering you?" he sounded genuinly concerned, even though he had only met the girl properly the day before.

"Yes. Yes I'm sure." She said it a little bit too quickly, but thank the heavens he didn't notice.

"Well, if you're sure then... I, uh, found a cool guitar that I want but... it's too expensive, so, I'll just go now–"

"I'll give it to you for free!" Another Inward face-palm.

Austin's eyes light up. "Really? You would do that for me?" He grins, and she just can't correct herself and say no.

"Yea, totally! Why wouldn't I? We're friends, right?" Ugh, that word again.

"Thank you so so so so so so so so so much!" He leaps forward, wrapping her in a big bear hug across the counter. She inwardly gasps, her mouth falling slightly open at the wondrously amazing feeling of his torso pressed against hers. All of her insides melt like slushies in a desert.

Austin picked up the guitar and grinned at Ally once again, "Thanks so much. Again. You're awesome!"

Ally's sure that he's only saying that because he's happy about that darn guitar, but that doesn't stop her cheeks from glowing bright red.

"Well," he straps the guitar around his shoulders and strums a little, his smile stretching from ear to ear, "I'll see ya 'round, Ally. Bye!"

"Bye..." she replies in barely a whisper, mustering a small smile even though it looked more of a grimace. She had just given him a $600 guitar for free. But it's all good.

And before she knows it, he's out the door. Gone. Just like that. And the store suddenly feels empty again even though there were at least 20 people looking around and not even buying anything at all. She sighed and pursed her lips, waiting for something interesting to happen – but all that happened was –

"I'm here for my ukulele lesson!" She might as well be in hell itself.

"Nelson. You don't have ukulele lessons. And even if you did, I can't play ukulele so I can't teach you- But wait; don't you have that tennis club today? The one you told me about?"

"Aw, narts!" He ran out of the store without even saying goodbye, leaving Ally sort-of-alone-but-not-really-alone again.

Suddenly, she heard another voice coming from the door of Sonic Boom –

"Can I come in now or...?"

Ally rolled her eyes, laughing slightly, "Yea, Trish. The coast is clear. You can come in now."

A/N: Yea, I know; stupid place to end a chapter blah blah blah...

Anyways, please review! I'll try and update as fast as I can! But it's not that easy considering the fact that schools already started (hoorah) and everything is pretty much homework homework homework.

But I definitely will try and update soon! :D