Wonderwall (Austin & Ally Fanfiction)

The shelter

Ally was done. Completely and utterly done. She paced down the hallways of Marie's Shelter, her mind driving her nuts. She couldn't take this job anymore. She had just witnessed yet another breakdown of one of the teens and was close to having one herself. This was not the job for her. She needed to go back to her old blog online and deal with simple problems. Not the kid down the hall, hysterically crying because of abuse suffered months before this.

She was hyperventilating and was unable to stop. Why did the world allow things like this? She considered herself great at giving advice, found she was able to be the rock to many people when they needed one and most of all, they trusted her. But she couldn't take another day like this. In the matter of only the two hours she had been there, the new kid had tried to slit his wrists, the girl who showed up two weeks ago without saying a word had locked herself in the bathroom, and well, now the kid hysterical down the hallway, unable to listen to anyone.

She marched toward the offices, tired of her boss throwing her these kids and not helping at all. She couldn't do everything. She was only sixteen and had problems of her own. The place was over packed and under staffed. In fact, she was the only one around other than Marie, who didn't even want to deal with some of the people she took in.

But it was in that moment when someone pulled her to the side, looking frantic.

"Riker, not now," she begged. She needed to get this over with so she could leave and get on with her life. She loved the boy in front of her, probably more than anyone else in this entire fucked up place, but she had to leave, even him.

He tugged on her arm again, as if he was pleading with her. Could he possibly know what she was thinking?

He shook his head angrily and pointed to the door down the hallway. Dez's room.

"What's wrong with Dez?" she asked.

Riker sighed, looking to her as if to say 'you think I'm actually able to tell you?'

"Okay, let's go," she sighed too, following the mute boy. She walked down to the room where Dez and Riker shared, noticing that the bathroom door was locked. Immediately, Riker made motions to his wrist, as if he was slicing it. She looked alarmed and pounded on the door, yelling for the redhead to open it. No answer. "Are you sure?" she demanded to the blond boy.

He looked sad and nodded.

"Dez! Please open the door. We talked about this the other day. You can't lock yourself in a room. There are better ways to deal with this. You know that. Please, let me in."

Riker looked terrified as he leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. She knew this was his escape from life; closing his eyes brought him to a place she didn't even know about. But she knew it brought him peace that no one was able to shake from her. Her heart ached momentarily, knowing he was hurting from watching his roommate do this, and then focused back on the door in front of her. "If you don't let me in, you know I'm going to break the door down!" she yelled.

As if she could, but it was a nice idea. Well, not a nice one, but it gave her the edge she needed to make the boy understand.

Riker chuckled without noise and shook his head, walking over to the door. He paused, staring at the wood for a moment, and then backed up. "Riker, I didn't actually mean for you to…"

He shook his head again and came running forward, plowing the door with his shoulder. What should have been a loud cry of pain was a gentle sounding thud, and the door imploded, cracking at the lock and sending the blond boy toppling into the room. Dez was in the corner, not moving. Blood around him. She cursed wildly, picking up Riker off the floor. "Go find Marie, and tell her to call for an ambulance," she demanded. Riker didn't need another second, and took off toward the office at the other end of the building.