You Belong With Me

Alex’s P.O.V.

Hey
You always seem to catch me when I’m lying
about the stupidest of things
Okay
Sit around I’ll stab you in the back
with words I never never should have taken this so far

Go ahead and buy yourself a drink
Cause you know you’re deserving of it
Go ahead and cry yourself to sleep
And think how you hate me so bad.

I groaned as “Believe Me, I’m Lying” by Forever the Sickest Kids came blasting out of my alarm clock and hit the snooze button with all the energy I could. When I came home last night, the first thing I did was shut my curtain and climb into bed. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get any sleep for the second night in a row. My mind was of course on Taylor and our fight last night. I half expected her to call me and apologize for everything that went wrong, but she didn’t. She was the one who went out and got drunk and nearly raped last night and I got her away from that douche bag, but she didn’t seem the least bit thankful. I noticed that, when I accused her of being jealous of Katelyn, something in her expression had changed. It was almost like she wanted to defend her reasons for being jealous, not deny them. That’s what convinced me that she was lying.

It’s a really awful feeling knowing that our friendship will never be the same again or if it can even be considered a friendship anymore. Never in a million years would I have thought that Taylor would do something like this to me. How could she lie to me like this after being my best friend for fifteen years? After my family, she is the only person that really knows me inside and out. She was there for me during all the hard times and it blew my mind how she could turn so completely in such a short amount of time. This just goes to show that you really can’t trust anyone but yourself.

My alarm clock went off again, so I let out a long, frustrated sigh and got out of bed. Rian had a family wedding to go to later, so we had to get our meeting done early in the day. If we could have had it any other way, we would have had the meeting in the afternoon and not 10:30 in the morning. In my opinion, anyone between the ages of thirteen and twenty-two should not have to get up any earlier than noon on weekends.

I went through the usual boring morning routine of getting dressed and brushing my teeth and went downstairs to grab a bowl of cereal. I was not surprised to find Eric sitting at the kitchen table reading the sports section of the newspaper when I walked in. He was the exact opposite of me; he loved waking up early and having a nice morning.

“Hey, Bro, what are you doing up?” he asked me. “It’s only 10:00AM. That’s pretty damn early for you.”

“We have a band meeting at 10:30. Trust me, if I had any other choice, I would still be in bed. Rian has some dumb wedding to go to later.” I sat down across from him and began digging into my cereal. When he caught sight of me, he lowered his newspaper and stared at my face.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, avoiding his gaze and focusing on my delicious cereal.

He shook his head. “You know I can always tell when you’re lying, even if the dark circles under your eyes didn’t give it away. Is it Katelyn?”

I sighed. He was going to find out one way or another anyway. “No, it’s Taylor.”

“What happened?” I could tell that he was concerned now.

I told him everything that happened last night. By the time I was done, he had his head in his palm.

“What a mess,” he said breathlessly. “Are you sure she’s lying to you though? It really doesn’t seem like Taylor to be that petty. After all, Taylor has been your best friend for practically your whole life and you’ve only known this Katelyn girl for like three days.”

I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure she did. She seemed like she was going to defend her reasons for being jealous instead of denying them, which, to me, is a dead giveaway. Even if she’s not lying to me about this, she’s still hiding something. We have never kept a secret from each other for all this time. For all the time we’ve been friends, she has never acted like this.”

“If she’s keeping something from you, I’m sure she will come to you about it soon. Maybe it’s just something that’s really hard for her to admit to.”

“Maybe, but she usually talks to me about it even then.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know then. Trying to understand a girl’s mind is like trying to understand a foreign language that you’ve never even heard spoken out loud before. Unless you have a translator, it’s impossible.”

“I just wish things could go back to normal.”

“I don’t blame you. She’s been your best friend for most of your life. It would be a shame to throw it away over one little fight.”

“Yeah, it would,” I said. I looked at my watch. 10:25. “Shit, Eric, I have to go.” I got up, put my bowl in the sink, and ran to get my keys and guitar.

“Hey, Alex?” he asked as I was about to run out the door. I turned around to look at him. “Just don’t forget what’s important.” I nodded then opened the door and left.

We usually met at Jack’s house. He had a basement that was quiet and easy to work in with little distractions. Of course, when we did need the distraction, we could whip out Halo or Rock Band. His house was only like ten minutes away from mine, so it wasn’t so bad that I left so late. At this point, the boys had come to expect it of me.

When I got there, the door was left open for me, so I just went right in.

“Who is that?” a female voice floated down from upstairs.

“It’s just me, Joyce,” I yelled back.

“Oh, hello, Alex dear!” Joyce, Jack’s mother, said as she came down the stairs and gave me an awkward hug. Joyce thought of me as another son because I was over there so much. My mom felt the same about Jack. “The boys are in the basement. You can go right down.”

I let go of Joyce and walked downstairs to find Rian, Jack and Zack sitting on the couches, the latter two with guitars.

“Well, it’s about fucking time, Gaskarth!” Rian said trying to pretend to be mad.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up. Let’s get started,” I responded. I wasn’t in the mood for fucking around today. “I have a new song I wrote a few nights ago.” I took the song out of my pocket and handed it over for them to look at. We messed around with the song for a little while, changing some words or phrases and working on the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies. By the time we were done, the song was practically ready to be performed. We worked on the song for pretty much the whole day. By the time we were done, it was about 4:00PM and we decided to play Halo.

“So, Alex, when are you going to tell us what’s wrong?” Jack asked in the middle of the game.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the screen. Why did every single person I knew have to be so damn observant?

“Oh, come on!” said Rian. “You look like shit and you haven’t been acting yourself at all today.”

“Yeah, you didn’t even make fun of Jack for how much he sucks at the guitar. That’s usually an everyday occurrence,” said Zack.

“Taylor and I got in a huge fight last night,” I responded. It was no use lying to them; they would see right through it.

Jack shut off the game and dropped his controller. “Ok, Gaskarth, spill your guts.”

We all sat back down on the couches, Zack and I on one couch and Rian and Jack on the other. I told them about everything that happened last night including the club since Zack and Rian weren’t there to witness it like Jack and I were. By the time I was done, Jack looked like he wanted to punch me in the face.

“Dude, you are such an asshole,” he said shaking his head at me.

“What the fuck? Why am I an asshole?”

“Seriously, you are going to believe some girl you’ve only known for a few days and who is notorious for being a slut over your own best friend? I don’t blame Taylor for kicking you out of her house.”

“But I could tell that she was lying to me! She got all defensive and her tone changed when I said that she was jealous, which obviously means that she is jealous.”

All of a sudden, Jack was in my face. “You really don’t get it, do you?” he asked angrily. He searched my confused face. “Katelyn has got you wrapped around her little finger and you don’t even realize it. Taylor never said anything like that to her. In fact, it was the other way around. Why do you think she wanted to go out and get drunk? She told me all about how Katelyn threatened her when we got drinks.” He backed up off me and went to sit back down.

“But then why wouldn’t she just say that in the first place?”

“Maybe she was trying to save you the heartbreak,” Rian suggested.

“She was going to, but she never got the chance,” said Jack.

“Bullshit,” I said. “She was completely silent on the ride home from the bar. She could have told me then, but she chose not to. How am I supposed to believe that she was telling the truth?”

“BECAUSE SHE’S YOUR FUCKING BEST FRIEND!” Jack exploded. “You have known her longer than any of us and she has been with you through everything. You have no idea how hard it is for me not to punch you right now.”

“I can’t believe you can defend her after the way she treated you last night. She left you there and ditched you for some asshole.”

“That has absolutely nothing to do with this. Taylor is going through a hard time right now, not that you would know anything about that.”

That statement stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean she’s going through a hard time? What’s going on?”

“You have been spending all your time with your fucking girlfriend these past few days that you didn’t even realize what was happening to her right before your very eyes. But don’t even think that I’m going to be the one to tell you what’s wrong with her. That’s up to her and her alone. She’ll come to you when she wants to.”

It felt strange knowing that Jack knew something about Taylor that I didn’t. For some reason, I absolutely hated it. I was the one who was her best friend. I was supposed to know more about her then he did, yet here I found myself at a loss. God, why did this girl have to be so fucking frustrating?

At that moment, I felt my phone begin to vibrate, so I took it out and answered it.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hi, Honey,” said my mom. “I just wanted to remind you that we have plans to go out to dinner with the Swifts tonight. Barbara and David want to spend some time with Eric before he goes back to school.”

“Ok, where are we going? I can meet you there.”

“We’re meeting at Maggiano’s at 5:30 to beat the dinner crowd. Taylor said she wants Italian. It’s around 5:00 now so you might want to get going.”

“Ok, I’ll see you soon then, Mom.” We said goodbye and hung up.

Five minutes later, I left Jack’s house and drove toward the restaurant with everything Jack had just said still stuck in my mind. Why would Taylor tell him something about herself and not tell me? I decided that this dinner would be the perfect way to get the answers I needed.