You Belong With Me

Taylor’s P.O.V.

I guess you could say it’s a coincidence that Alex and I are best friends who were born only one day apart, but to us, it was only another advantage to our relationship. Our mothers loved it because that meant that we could share birthday parties; we would get to have the kind of parties we wanted and our parents could split the cost. It was a win-win for everyone. When we got too old for parties, our whole family would go out to a nice dinner and then come back to one of our houses for cake and presents.

This birthday, however, was different. We no longer had Eric to help us celebrate and no one was the same. Our birthday dinner was spent mostly in silence and Melanie did not even bother to come. She was the only one who hadn’t found a way to return to her normal life. I didn’t feel like it was my birthday; I felt like I was just going through the motions.

Alex was a wreck, to put it mildly. On my birthday, he put up a front and faked a smile so that he wouldn’t ruin it for me, but I could see right through his apparition. His eyes were red, bloodshot, and puffy from lack of sleep. He was very nearly catatonic at dinner; he would only sit and stare blankly, only speaking when spoken to. The next day, he didn’t even acknowledge the fact that it was his birthday. When someone said, “Happy birthday,” to him, he would just nod and say, “Thank you,” and then go back to being silent. The combination of losing his brother and a girl he loved must have really thrown him for a loop. I was scared of what he would do next.

The night that Katelyn broke up with him, he punched his fist through the wall. By the time we all reached the room, his hand was turning red and purple and his knuckles were bleeding. His whole face was red and he was very nearly hyperventilating. It almost seemed like he was having a nervous breakdown.

We decided to take him to the ER when we were finally able to calm him down a little bit. The x-rays showed that he broke his hand, so the nurses put him in a dark blue cast. He would have to keep the cast on for the next month. He made himself hurt so badly that he actually broke a bone.

During the week, things got worse instead of better. Even though Alex came to school, he would not interact with anyone and he tried to avoid Katelyn at all costs. There were times when I would run into her in the hallway and look at her with venom in my eyes. I would never forgive her for what she did to my best friend. He would go to school and then come home and sit in his room for hours. No one could get him to become more responsive, not even me.

“I just wish things would return back to normal,” said Jack on Wednesday of that week. We were sitting in the cafeteria watching Alex as he walked in and joined the lunch line.

“Don’t we all?” I said dejectedly. “I feel so helpless; like there’s no way that I can help him. She really did a good job breaking his heart.”

“At this point, I think all we can do is be there for him. He knows he can come to us if he needs us.”

“But he hasn’t had a full night of sleep in almost three weeks and the only thing he does anymore is sit in his room. That’s not normal, Jack.”

“I know, but I think that, at this point, if we say anything about it to him, he’ll just push us away. What we need to do is figure out a way to distract him from all the drama in his life right now.”

“How do we do that?”

“I think I have an idea. Leave it up to me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see,” he said mischievously. Alex approached the table, so the subject was dropped. Jack did not bring it up again.

Friday was December 18th, Rian’s birthday, so we all decided to go out and celebrate, even Alex. He didn’t want to ruin Rian’s birthday either. After we went out to dinner, we were about to go to a club, but then Jack said that he left something at my house from when he came over the previous night, so we drove back to my house. When we got there, he insisted that everyone come in to help him look for it. When I opened the front door and turned on the lights, people jumped out of the shadows and yelled, “Surprise!” I looked up and saw that there was a banner hanging up that said, “Happy Birthday Rian, Taylor, and Alex.”

“Wow,” I said and my mouth formed a surprised “O” shape.

“Holy shit!” Rian exclaimed. “I had no idea that you guys did this! Thank you!”

“No problem,” said Jack. “Now, let’s have some fun and party!”

“Wait, Jack, where are my parents?” I asked,

“I convinced them to go spend the night next door. They promised that we could have the party just as long as we don’t trash the place or let people drive drunk.”

“Whoa, you really did your homework. I’m impressed,” I replied.

“Contrary to popular belief, I’m good for more than just sex,” he responded and I laughed.

Someone turned on the music and people began to dance around the living room. Jack took my hand, led me to the center of the room, and we began to dance. Rian, Zack, and Alex disappeared into the crowd. After dancing for a little while, we went in the kitchen to grab some alcohol. When we got there, we saw Alex slumped on the floor holding a bottle of Stella Artois beer. I tried to pull him up by the arm, but he would not budge.

“Alex, come on, get up.”

“No! I don’t w-want to.” It wasn’t even an hour into the party and he was already drunk.

“You don’t even want to come out and enjoy your own party?”

“I’m enjoying it from right h-here. Th-there are things out th-there that I d-don’t want to s-see.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” asked Jack.

“She’s out there,” he said, taking another swig of his beer, “and she’s with another guy. I s-saw them m-making out.”

As soon as he said that, I stormed out of the kitchen and walked through the crowd to find her. I wasn’t going to let this bitch ruin my party. After what seemed like forever, I saw red hair out of the corner of my eye and made my way over to her. I tapped her hard on the shoulder, so she finally stopped kissing the guy she was with and turned around to face me.

“What the hell do you want?” she said harshly, giving me the once-over.

“What I want,” I responded venomously, “Is to know what makes you think you are welcome in my house.”

“It’s a party, dumbass. That’s what I’m here for. I can do whatever I want and be wherever I want, so deal with it.”

“You know what? I couldn’t be happier that Alex dumped you. You don’t deserve him and you never did. Everyone knows that you are the world’s biggest slut. Now that I think of it, I should probably take him to the hospital to get checked because God only knows how many S.T.D.s you could have given him.”

Someone turned off the music so that the rest of the crowd could listen to the drama between Katelyn and me.

“”At least he got some from me. He used to tell me how he would get bored with you. I was good enough to have him love me back, but you aren’t. You still want him and it’s killing you. Well guess what, Taylor? He’ll never want you because you will never be enough for him. Just face it; you aren’t good enough.”

“At least I’m important enough for him to want to keep me in his life. I can’t say the same for you. Now I won’t have to worry about him knocking you up. In fact, if you were to get pregnant, you probably wouldn’t know who the father is because you sleep with so many different people.” She pushed me hard and I pushed back, but Jack got between us and held her back before it could go any farther. “You better get the hell out of my house right now or, so help me God, I will throw you out with my own bare hands.”

She laughed. “I would love to see you try,” she said condescendingly and turned to the guy she was with. “Come on, Alex, let’s go. This party is lame anyway.” I watched as Jack let go of her and she took the other Alex’s hand and led him out the door.

I turned to go back to the kitchen, but then I saw that my Alex was standing right behind me. He still had the bottle of Stella in his hand and he looked broken. I opened my arms and he fell into them. The party continued around us.

A few minutes later, Alex asked me if he could go upstairs and try to sleep off the alcohol, so I walked him upstairs to my room.

“Taylor, I-I’m s-sorry if I ruined the p-party for y-you,” he said miserably as I tucked him into my bed.

“None of this was your fault. I hope you know that. I can’t believe she had the gall to show up here in the first place.”

“She said his name was Alex,” he said, laughing bitterly. “How ironic. She can replace me with the snap of a finger, yet here I am a fucking mess.”

“You can’t help the way you feel,” I said sympathetically.

“I want you to know that I am truly sorry if I ever made you feel the way I do now."

“That’s all in the past. Everything is good with us now. I’m not going to leave your side. I hope you realize that.”

“Thanks, Tay,” he said smiling weakly at me.

“Now, try to sleep. You are going to have a massive hangover in the morning.”

“Ok, but can you do me a favour?”

“What do you need?”

“Can you stay with me for a little bit? It’s nice knowing I have company.”

“Of course.”

I watched as he tilted his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes. Hopefully he would be able to make it through the whole night.

While he was falling asleep, I walked over to my shelf and looked at my picture frames. I noticed that there was a picture there of me, Jack, Alex, and Eric that was taken on Alex’s birthday last year. I picked it up and cradled it in my hands, rubbing my thumb affectionately over Eric’s face. We were so happy and carefree back then. It’s amazing how many things can change in just one year. I was a different person back then.

A few minutes later, Jack came up to check on us. When he opened the door, I put a finger to my lips to tell him to be quiet. He looked over at Alex in the bed and then walked over to me.

“How are you doing?” he whispered.

“I’m fine,” I responded without taking my eyes off the picture. “I’m pondering life and how it can change within the blink of an eye.”

He looked down at the picture too. “Things were so much simpler back then.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Life would be so much easier if Eric was still here.” I impatiently wiped a tear away from my cheek. Now was not the time to cry.

“It’s ok to miss him, you know. After all, you were pretty much just as close to him as Alex was. You don’t have to act so tough all the time.”

“It’s just so hard sometimes,” I said. Jack took me into his arms and held me for awhile.

A little while later, we went back downstairs to join the rest of the party. Jack went out of his way to make sure I had a good time. That kid always had my back no matter what. At the end of the night, once everyone left, I crawled into my bed and slept next to Alex.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Alex throwing up in the bathroom. What a great thing to wake up to. Here came the hangover. I sat up as he came back in and sat next to me in bed.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, even though I already had a pretty good idea of what the answer would be.

“Pretty shitty,” he responded. His voice was hoarse, his eyes were puffy and tired, and he had a bad case of bed-head.

“I thought so. You look it,” I teased.

“Thanks a lot,” he said sarcastically.

“Anytime. But, in all seriousness, I need to talk to you.”

“What’s up?”

“I really hate to have to bring this up, but ever since Eric died, you haven’t been the same.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“Alex, please be serious. You haven’t slept a full night in like three weeks. I heard you last night, so there’s no use denying it. You haven’t been living your life. This past week, you’ve been practically catatonic. Then, last night, you got so drunk that you made yourself throw up. I’m really worried about you. I’m scared that Eric’s death combined with your breakup with Katelyn was just too much for you to take.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying...I’m saying that I think maybe you should see somebody.”

“What?”

“Just hear me out, ok? I think a therapist would be able to help you sort through your feelings and help you grieve in the healthiest way possible. You can’t keep on living the way you are and you know it. I’ll even go with you if you need me to. I just don’t want to see you in so much pain anymore. I’m so scared that I’m going to lose you the way I lost Eric.”

“I would never do that to you,” he responded.

“I’m not willing to take any chances with you. All I’m asking is that you think about it. There’s nothing wrong with getting a little help every once in awhile.”

“Ok, I promise to consider it.”

“Good. That’s all that I’m asking."

“I’m sorry to make you worry so much. I promise I won’t leave you the way Eric left us, but I’m just going through a really rough time right now.”

I nodded. “I know,” I said and I hugged him. “I think we all are.”

“There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about too,” he said a few minutes later.

“What is it?” I asked curiously.

“I know that you wrote ‘Teardrops On My Guitar’ for me.”

“Oh,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything more creative.

“I just wanted you to know that, after I got over the shock, I was touched by it. It was so sweet of you to write a song about me. Your words were beautiful. I know I’m starting to sound like a broke, record, but I really am so glad that I have you. Right now, I’m not ready to be in another relationship so quickly, but I do know that anyone would be lucky to have you for a girlfriend.”

“Thanks, Alex,” I said. “That really means a lot to me.” He took one arm, wrapped it around me, and pulled me close to him. My best friend and I sat there and held each other for awhile; neither of us had the slightest desire to move from where we were at that very moment.