Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Ally slapped me on the arm. "Dez, did Austin send you to spy on me?"

I stared at her. "What? No. I was just hiding from Mindy."

Ally looked a little disappointed. Hmm, did Ally like Austin?

"Oh right. But still I'm not going to work with him!" she said and stormed away.

I laughed, and shook my head. She sooo had a crush on Austin. I was gonna go after her, but I saw Mindy, so I dove in the planter again.

Ally POV

"Thanks for sorting through all this stuff with me guys. Everything has been so cramped." I said looking up from a box and at Dallas and Trish.

"It's no problem Ally. We're glad to help, right Trish?" Dallas smiled at we looked at her. She was sitting on a box and flipping through a magazine.

"Hm?" she asked looking up from the magazine. "Oh yeah. Glad to help."

"Trish!" I laughed pulling the box out from under her. I opened it up and saw all the Austin Moon merchandise. "Um actually, you can just sit on that."

"Wait, what is it-Ally." Dallas looked in the box and gave me a look. "You can't keep putting this off. Let's just put this in the keep box."

"What? Why? Austin an I aren't even friends anymore." Ally shrugged. "We should sell it."

"Ugh. No one wants that stuff. It's worthless. Austin's music sucks now." Trish said bluntly and sat on a new box. I frowned, and couldn't help but feel bad.

"Trish!" Dallas exclaimed and shot a look at me. "Anyway, maybe you should give it back to Austin. I bet he would appreciate it." Dallas pulled out a doll and pulled the string.

"I'm awesome, I like pancakes."

I smiled remembering the first time I went to his house to yell at him.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I nodded. "Hey Trish, do you think you could take all this stuff to Austin?"

Trish looked up. "Um, that would involve work, and I don't do that."

I turned to Dallas with an awkward smile. "Hey Dallas-"

Dallas immediately started shaking his head. "No way. You have to face Austin sooner or later." he grabbed a bottle from the box. "What's this?"

"Austin's sweat." I replied.

"Oh!" Dallas dropped the thing back into the box with a disgusted look on his face. "Yeah, you should take this to him. Like now."

I frowned. "Maybe I should just sell this stuff…or throw it away." I didn't like that idea. All this stuff was proof that Austin and I were actually once friends, and even though I was so unbelievably mad at him, I never wanted to forget that.

"Ally-" Dallas started but he was cut off my phone ringing. I grimaced and shut it off considering my ring tone was the Insta-Cakes jingle. Trish shot me a smile.

"You do miss Austin!" she accused.

"What? Psh, no! I don't miss Austin." I laughed unconvincingly. My phone rang again, causing Dallas and Trish to laugh. I answered my phone. "Hello?" I growled.

"Ally?" my dad responded.

"Oh hey dad."

"Hi sweetie. I'm going to go take my break, so I need you to come downstairs and watch the store."

"Downstairs? Oh, okay."

"What are you doing up there anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing important." I closed my phone and turned to my friends. "I have to go work. You guys can leave if you want."

Trish stood up. "I'll come with you." we turned to Dallas.

"I'll just sort through some stuff. They don't need me at the libary today." he smiled and I winced at his mispronunciation.

I stared off into space and thought about Austin. This had been happening to me a lot, and I found myself staring at the sign that drove Austin away.

"Excuse me young lady!" A woman snapped her fingers in front of my face. I snapped out of the zone and turned towards her.

"Sorry. Here's your change." I handed her back her change.

She gave me a confused look."No that's the money I gave to you for this tambourine." She reminded me, holding up the instrument.

"Right I'm sorry." I apologized. "I'm just really focused about this guy that I used to be friends with but then we got in a fight and now I cant stop thinking about him and his dolls and his music and his sweaty cologne and-"

"Alright I'm just gonna go now." The lady rushed away.

"But ma'am, your change!" I shouted after her.

"Keep it!" She called back.

I sighed and put the money back in the register.

"Dang it. That's the third customer that ran away without their change." I said turning to Trish.

"Then maybe instead of complaining to the customers about your Austin problems you should, hmm I don't know, talk to Austin about them?" She offered and I grimaced.

"Eh, who really needs change any way?" I shrugged and Trish gave me a disapproving look. That's when I knew it was getting bad. If even Trish didn't approve, then you know its bad.

"Ally I'm back!" My dad sang and walked passed me.

"Hey dad, you know we can take the Anti-Austin sign down?" I suggested and he reacted like I expected.

"What?" He asked. "Ally, if we take down the sign then Austin will think it's okay for him to barge in unannounced."

"I was just thinking that its a little unnecessary considering Austin doesn't even come here anymore." I explained but my dad shook his head.

"Ally, that boy hurt you really bad. I don't want that to happen again." My dad sighed and held up his hand.

I smiled through my annoyance and we did our handshake."Boom." He smiled and walked away.

I was about to continue my work when I heard a strangled yelp from upstairs.

"Trish, you're in charge!" I commanded and ran up the stairs.

When I walked into the practice room, I couldn't stop laughing. Dallas was covered from head to waist in foam and he was holding the Austin Moon foam spitter.

"Oh you think that's so funny?" he said and turned the foam spitter towards me.

"Dallas, don't-" I tried but it was too late. I shrieked as I felt the foam cover me. "Alright, alright. Now we're both all foamy." I sighed and went to the closet. I handed him a towel. "Alright, you need to go home and change."

I walked him out; earning a few weird looks. I waved goodbye to Dallas, and turned around. I glared at the sign.

"Ally, I heard that you weren't giving change back, and that is just genius-what happened to your clothes?" my dad came up next to me.

"Dad, please get rid of the sign." I sighed and he nodded.

"Okay." he shrugged, folded up the sign, and walked away. I stared after him.

"Wait, what?" I asked walking after him. "Did you just say 'okay'?"

"Yeah." he nodded.

"Dad, just a couple minutes ago you were refusing to take it down." I said feeling ultimately confused.

"Ally, the only reason I put up that sign is because I know you. And I know that after what Austin did you wouldn't want to talk to him. I still didn't think you were ready when you mentioned it earlier today. But considering the fact that you're gonna return his stuff to him, I figured you're ready to forgive him." my dad explained. Yeah, that didn't make sense.

"So you weren't mad before?" I asked. "And who said anything about forgiving Austin?"

"Well of course I was mad before. I didn't think you deserved that at all, especially since you helped him out so many times." my dad said. "And sweetheart, I know Austin hurt you, but that boy never stopped caring about you. And I'd bet my Mercedes-"

"You don't have a Mercedes." I reminded him, but he kept going.

"-that Austin misses you and is sorry he ever even thought those words about you."

With those words in mind, I had gone up to the practice room and began to change into the spare clothes that I kept in the closet.

I sat on the floor of the practice room and rummaged through the box for Austin.

"Hey Ally!" Dez entered smiling. "Trish told me that you have a box I need to give to Austin."

I looked up at my goofy friend and smiled. "Dez do you think you could listen to me for a minute?"

"Sure, people tell me I'm a great listener!" he sat on the piano bench and stared at me.

"Okay, so everyone has been telling me that it's time to forgive Austin, and part of me agrees, but I don't if that's because my music career is suffering without him or if I miss him. My heart is telling me to forgive him, but my brain is telling me to keep away. I just, I don't think I can be friends with him right now, but does that mean that we can't ever be friends? Or am I just sounding crazy, Dez?" I asked and it was silent. "Dez?" I looked up to see Dez's head hanging and I was about to ask him what he was doing when he let out a huge snore. "Dez!" I exclaimed and he snapped back up wide awake.

"Huh, hmm, what?" he asked.

"Dez, I was trying to tell you that I miss Austin, but I can't be friends with him!" I explained quickly, and Dez thought about it for a second.

"Well, Austin doesn't really think he deserves to be your friend yet. He just wants to work with you again." Dez explained thoughtfully.

"But how do I know he wont take me for granted again?" I asked sounding like a little child.

Dez laughed. "Ally, that's what makes your guys' relationship so cool. You take each other for granted all the time, but you always stay together. At least you used to."

I stared at him. "When did you get so smart?"

"Oh I've always been smart, I just don't show it often." Dez said innocently, and his eyes widened at the foam spitter. "Oh awesome! The foam spitter!" he grabbed it. "I'm gonna go spray Trish with it!" he announced and ran out of the room.

I laughed at him and grabbed my laptop. Hesitantly, I clicked on the link to Austin's website and went to the most recent video of one of his original songs. I scrolled down the comments.

Anonymous says: The song stinks, but the guy is cute.

Hater231 says: The song is almost bearable if you turn the video on mute.

I looked down at the box full of Austin's junk and made a snap decision that might have been a mistake.

I knocked on his bedroom door, and he answered almost immediately. Austin froze in the doorway and stared at me. It took him a good thirty seconds before he reacted.

"Ally? What-what are you doing here?" he asked.

I looked down at the box of stuff I had in my hands. "Um, I was going through some boxes of stuff in the practice room, and I thought you might like your old merchandise back."

He stared at me and I waited for him to invite me in.

"Um, can I come in?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Oh yeah, um sure." he opened the door widely and I walked in. The room looked exactly the same. Messy.

"So I have everything in here. Your pillows, lunchboxes, peanut butter, your horrible cologne, your dolls, and-"

"And the foam spitter?" Austin asked excitedly making me smile a little.

"And the foam spitter." I giggled. "Although I had to wrestle Dez for it back."

Austin smiled a little. "Thank Ally. It means a lot that you gave it back."

"Your welcome." I smiled and remembered what I had originally told myself. Don't look him in the eye, you will instantly forgive him. I blinked and stared at my feet. "Actually Austin, there's a reason I can down here and it wasn't just to give you the Austin Moon merchandise back."

"Um, it wasn't?" he asked nervously.

"I was actually thinking that maybe…maybe I could start helping you write a couple songs again?" I said.

"Really?" Austin asked excitedly. "Yes!" he exclaimed and jumped in the air.

"Of course," I rushed quickly. "The relationship would be completely professional and we can only meet in the food court after school, and I'm only helping you get back on your feet and teach you some song writing skills."

"Yeah, that's totally fine." he said, but he sounded a little less enthusiastic. "Thank you so much Ally."

Austin POV

Sure, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. She didn't run into my room, give me a hug, and tell me that she would love to work with me and be my best friend again like I always imagined she would. But it was still a deal, and I would still get to see her after school.

But if she thought that this was just going to be professional, Ally Dawson had another thing coming.

I know that most of this chapter was Ally's point of view, but I felt a little like I was mostly using Austin's POV.