ALLY

April 22nd, 2015

1:35 PM

"And today's top music video of the week is- Prom Night by Gavin Young!"

I sighed and clicked the power off button. It has been a month since any of my songs were featured on music video countdown. Granted, I was in a bit of a rut these past couple weeks. I sighed and opened my songbook and readied myself.

My fingers glided softly across the piano keys. The slick feel of the ivory against my fingers caused chills filled with musical creativity. The music gently reverberated throughout the open space, causing slight resonance through the other instruments.

My best friend Trish stood at the counter, lazily looking through the newest magazine of Cheetah Beat. She was supposed to be helping out customers while I worked on a new song for myself, but it was a slow day so I decided to let it slide. It was better at times to allow this so that I could get songs done for my new album releasing soon, and possibly write some songs for Austin's upcoming tour.

Mine and Austin's success over the past 3 years has been crazy. We have been through all the ups and downs within our friendship and partnership that you could ever imagine. All of our hard work has been starting to pay off. I was currently up for a couple awards at the MVMA's, while Austin was prepping for his first ever upcoming world tour. The best part about Austin's upcoming world tour was that Ronny Ramone, the head of my record label, was allowing us to go together. He truly has started to see the positive influence on my work when the two of us were together, and is facilitating that positive atmosphere to make sure I achieve greatness.

CRASH!

I sigh and turn around to see a certain redhead, surrounded by fallen guitars, violins, and with a sousaphone on his head. Dez was the final piece of team Austin and Ally that always kept us on our feet. However, he was truly essential to our team, because of his wacky antics, mine and Austin's music videos very rarely strayed from the top 5.

"ALLY!" Dez screamed from inside the sousaphone. "Help me out! Help me out!"

I rolled my eyes and walked up to him, when Trish ran over and put a finger up to her mouth, telling me to be quiet. I sighed. This wasn't going to end well. Dez and Trish never got along, or more so Trish hates Dez while Dez is indifferent. Trish made her way to the mouthpiece of the instrument, and blew as hard as she could,

"Aaahhh!" Dez screamed. He then started running around, knocking down more instruments, running around and creating even more of a ruckus then usual. I glared at Trish telling her that she would have to help clean up and then ran to the hysterical man-child. I pulled off the sousaphone and glared at my ginger friend, who just looked at me with fear in his eyes. Once he saw it was me he instantly looked relieved and confused. "Thank god it's you Ally, but why did you scare me like that?"

I gave Dez a look, showing the frustration in my eyes. "Dez, first of, Trish did that. Second of all, you are going to help her pick up the mess you made. Got it?" I pointed towards the fallen instruments. Thankfully not too many were broken. I would charge him to pay back for any broken instruments, but the times I've tried that in the past he just forgot about it. It's easier to just budget Dez into the store finances. As the two started to pick up fallen instruments, I made my way back to the piano. I truthfully wasn't writing a song for Austin, or a song for my career. The song I was working on was more therapeutic for me. I have been experiencing a lot of stress recently due to the amount of work with Ronny, Austin, Sonic Boom, as well as school, and I just need to take a break to make music for fun, not for work.

I nodded as a placed my fingers back onto the ivory keys. I started with my fingers placed at the E chord, followed by an A. Using this motif I decided on, I was looking for a way to transition from the elementary verses into an emotional chorus. I fiddled around with a couple different chords when I heard the squeak of familiar high-tops on the recently waxed floor of the store. I turned to see my best friend and music partner, Austin Moon at the door searching for something. Once his hazel brown eyes made contact with mine he smiled and ran over to where I was.

Austin and I are just friends. We work very closely together, and even though he was an extremely attractive man, we both know that staying friends is the best for how we work. We've never even considered going any further.

"Ally! Ally! Guess what!" Austin chanted, hopping over the store counter, knocking over a stand of harmonicas right into Trish's path. He silently cursed and picked them up, while saying sorry to Trish, who was not happy one bit. He noticed the commotion around the store caused by his best friend earlier. "What happened in here?"

I sighed, looking up to the blond haired man. He was the living embodiment of a golden retriever. Easily distracted, super extroverted, and undeniably loyal. "Dez somehow got a sousaphone stuck on his head. And when I went to help him, Trish scared him by blowing into the mouthpiece. Good thing nothing was broken, I…" Austin interrupted me by turning to Dez.

"Musical Mini Golf?" The red head nodded excitedly. "Dez!-" I smiled as Austin was finally taking responsibility for something in the store. "-I thought you were gonna wait till I got here to play!" And instantly my smile turned into a frown. I playfully slapped Austin, and sat back down to continue my search for the pre-chorus. I saw Austin observe my playing, not being able to hold back an excited smile, even though I was only playing chords at this point. I got to the pre-chorus. E, followed by A, followed by E, and then I tried C. I turned to Austin to see what he thought. His arched eyebrow told me everything I needed.

Writing music with Austin was so easy now, because we were so in sync with each other that we barely had to speak to communicate. I shook my head and started to reply the pre-chorus. E, A, E, Db7? I didn't have to turn to Austin for that progression, it sounded absolutely awful.

"What kind of song are you making?" Austin asked, trying to inspire what chord to come up with.

"I'm not sure yet, I kind of want it to be a love song. I'm not totally sure yet, but I want the pre chorus to kind of lead into a stronger and more emotional chorus, but I'm not sure how to spur that emotion." I shook my head. I have been trying to find this one chord for over an hour now. Maybe it was time to move on to a new song.

Austin piped up. "How about instead of relying on one chord to cause that emotion, you try to chords within the measure. So you can artificially create that tension and release you are looking for." He sat down next to me, brown eyes looking into mine, then turning to look at the book, reaching out to flip the page. I smacked is arm much harder this time. "Ow! Ally?!"

"Don't touch my book."

"I was going to see what else could help."

"I don't care don't touch my book." Austin couldn't help but smile, and I laughed to myself. I decided to take Austin's suggestion into account. I started back at the beginning, while Austin fiddled around with a baseline to match. That was truly one of the most amazing things about Austin's musical ability, he had perfect pitch and knew music theory as an instinct. I got to the pre chorus and played E, followed by A, slowing down to think I played E again, and then shifted up to play F#, causing the tension I was looking for. Austin nodded, and on beat 3 added adding in an E to play an F#7. I smiled and resolved the pre chorus back with an A chord.

I cheered and hugged Austin. "That's exactly what I was looking for! Thank you Austin!" I sighed as I stood up. I figured I spent enough time on my therapy song that I would get back to work. I felt like something was wrong and instantly knew. "Don't. Touch. My. Book." I scolded without even turning around.

Austin laughed and jumped up. "How do you do that". I replied with a snarky, "I just do." Austin rolled his eyes and walked over to where I sat on the counter, turning to make sure that Trish and Dez were cleaning up instruments and not fighting. After a stern look the two lowered the violin bows they had pointed at each other and set it back on the rack. "So Ally, is that going to be a song for me or you?"

I turned to him quizzically "I told you it was a love song? You typically don't like singing love songs, especially more melodic ones" I heard a bang and twisted my body to see that Trish had broken a tambourine over Dez's head. She threw a ten dollar bill on the table. That covered about a fifth of the cost, but I decided to pick my battles with those two.

"I mean- I do like love songs…" Austin trailed off, looking at his sky blue high-tops, hands in the pockets of his black jeans. Something was unusual with him today, but I decided to let it slide. He didn't seem too upset, and I would rather not force him into a therapy session in the middle of a public area, with Trish and Dez being absolute menaces today.

"I know, but this song isn't for either of us. It's more of a therapy song for me." I said while pulling our stock order website, to order more tambourines as the last one in stock was being worn as a necklace around Dez's neck now.

Austin's eyes furrowed together. "How so?

I looked up at him. "It's just I've been pretty stressed with everything going on lately. Your music, my music, the store and school can all just get pretty overwhelming. It's nice to produce a piece of music that is just for me. Something that sticks with me."

Austin nodded. "I'm sorry if writing for me is taking up a lot of your time. I can help cover the store for you if you ever need help."

I shook my head with a smile. "That's not needed Austin, but thank you. I am able to handle everything. Plus, last time I had you watch the store, Owen flew away"

Austin stuttered "But we got him back! And Owen typically isn't here every day. Please Ally! I want to be able to help my partner!"

Ally sighed. "Fine, if I feel like I ever need a break and I have no-one to watch the store, I will call you up."

Austin cheered. "You can count on me, Als!"

I smiled at Austin's nickname for me. He truly has become my best friend in the whole world. I went back to ordering more goat-skin tambourines, when my mid wandered. You can count on me. I don't know if I liked that title for the song I was currently writing, but it was a start. I looked back to see Austin on his phone, with a huge smile on his face.

"Why so happy Aus?"

Austin laughed at the nickname I shot back at him. He looked up to me. "Oh nothing." He said. I leaned forward, and poked his stomach. He recoiled in shock. "Is it a girl Austin?"

Austin immediately got shy. "Maybe"

I cheered and jumped over the counter to hug him. "Oh my god Austin you got a girlfriend! That's awesome!" I jumped up and down while hugging him. I let go of him and decided to press even more. "What's her name? What school does she go to? Is she pretty? How old is she? What are her…"

Austin put his hand over my mouth before I could ask anymore questions. "Her name is Piper, she goes to our school, one grade above us. She is beautiful." He smiled thinking about his new girlfriend. I squealed and punched his arm in excitement. Truly didn't know why I punched his arm, I guess it was the quickest way to let go of all my excitement. Dez and Trish made their way over to us, finished with their cleanup. Dez still had the tambourine around his neck.

"What's going on here? Why so excited?" Trish asked, while Dez sauntered behind her, shimmying his upper body so he could make as much noise with the tambourine as possible. Trish turned around and smacked the front end of the tambourine, causing the back end to come up and hit the back of his head. After a yelp from Dez and a snicker from Trish, they turned back to Austin.

"Well…"

I interrupted him "Austin has a girlfriend, her name is Piper, and she's a senior at our school!" I started jumping up and down again, joined by Dez, this time. The cheering slowly turned into Dez screaming at the top of his lungs. Trish smacked the tambourine again to get Dez to shut up. She rolled her eyes at Dez's yelp at turned to Austin.

"Austin, I'm happy for you and everything, but you've got a world tour starting in 2 months. There is a lot that needs done before June 10th." Trish warned. I sighed. Trish was horrible at most of her jobs. However, the one job she has kept with and is the most serious about is managing Austin. Sometimes she could be too good at her job though.

"Trish, you gotta be easier on Austin. He can't just not have a girlfriend because of his career." I scolded. I turned to Austin. "I'm happy for you Aus. We all got a lot going on, and we all are making time for everything. I know it will work out. Right Trish?" I turned and looked at Trish. She sighed.

"As long as you don't let it get in the way of your career." She made sure to add.

"Of course! I wouldn't dare!" He cheered and gave Trish a hug, and then turned to me. "Thank you Als, you are truly the best!" He leaned down and gave me a big hug, causing me to blush a little. "I'm gonna go tell Piper that I want you guys to meet her! I'll bring her by Sonic Boom tomorrow!"

Trish and I nodded, while Dez was busy playing his neck tambourine. "Of course Austin." He smiled and started for the store entrance. I thought of something and stopped him before he could leave. "Hey Austin!"

"Yeah Als?" He turned, his chocolate eyes meeting mine.

"You still on to write tomorrow afternoon? 3:30?" I asked, pulling out my schedule. He laughed as he walked over to me, and grabbed my calendar. In his pocket he had a sheet of moon stickers. He placed a full moon sticker on Thursday May 23 at 3:30. This was a system we had come up with, after missing a couple rehearsals; we decided that if we put a sticker on a date, we committed to that time. I have had to cancel two times, for special emergencies, but other than that, we kept our word. I smiled, took out my sheet of star stickers, and placed it right next to his moon. He laughed, said his goodbyes, and practically skipped out of the store.

"God you guys are disgusting."

I turned back to Trish shaking her head. Dez was behind her attempting to take the tambourine off his head, with no success. I laughed and shook my head. "It works for us, Trish. We've been partners for 3 years now, and there's no end in sight to that."

Trish sighed. "Yeah, this Piper chick may put a dent in that"

I tilted my head. "What do you mean?"

Trish looked at me as if it was obvious. "She's gonna be the only thing on Austin's mind. We all know how jealous Dez got when Austin dated Kira. He's going to miss important meetings for his upcoming tour. We all know she's gonna interfere with the Auslly sexual tension going on…"

I shook my head. "Trish!" Auslly was the ship name many of mine and Austin's fans came up with. It was really weird, but it never made us uncomfortable. Only thing that made it uncomfortable was Auslly's biggest supporters. One had curly hair and the other had a tambourine around his neck.

"Ally, it's obvious. Trish and I see how much you guys love each other." Dez butted in, somehow getting a triangle caught in the tambourine disks. I shook my head.

"For the last time, Austin and I are just friends. He is dating Piper. End of story."

The two of them sighed and went back to what they were doing earlier. I shook my head and went back to the piano. I was truly happy for Austin. He has so much love in his heart to share with the world, and having a girlfriend is great for him. I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly jealous. Not due to any feelings, but because I know it would start to be harder to plan time to write songs or hang out. But that's what growing up was all about.

I looked back up at my book to see it was at the page with the song Austin and I were just working on. I smiled and wrote a title at the top.

You Can Count On Me.

Author's Notes

Welcome to my first ever story! I hope you guys enjoy it!

I plan on this story having 40 chapters, and it will contain mostly POV from Austin and Ally, but there will be some Dez and Trish POV throughout as well.

A bit of backstory- this takes place in the canonical Austin and Ally universe, taking place probably early season 3. However, in my story, Austin and Ally had never had any of the romance arcs. So Kira was broke up with for other reasons, there have been no feelings discovered yet.

Most Characters will be slightly OOC, where one Character (that I can think of at the time) will be very OOC. Not saying yet so that I won't spoil future chapters.

I am putting an T rating on this for now, but I may raise the rating to M later. I do not write smut, however there are going to be some graphic depictions in this story, relating to many tough topics. I will be putting warnings at the beginning of those chapters as well.

Please review! Those will be the only things that encourage me to keep writing.

I plan to upload weekly, so keep an eye out for Chapter 2, where we will