Walls

I wasn't sure about Meg's plan. For one, I wasn't sure I could make Alex fall for me, and two, I wasn't sure hoe he'd take it. I was the only one who knew about his brother, about how broken he really was. I didn't want to hurt him more but Meg seemed to think it was a good idea because she didn't know. She didn't know he was falling apart at the seams. She did know Alex pretty well though because she was right about him wanting to hang out again. He called on a Wednesday and asked if I could come over to practice the song a bit so we wouldn't mess up when we performed in Music Comp. With Meg's plan in the back of my mind, I agreed.

"Are you and Lisa dating?" I asked after we'd gone through the song a few times.

"Kind of," Alex shrugged.

"Why?" I prodded, "What do you see in her?"

"A nice rack," Alex laughed.

"It was a serious question," I smiled at his antics.

"Honestly Jersey," Alex sighed, "She cheats on me and I cheat on her and that's just how it is. At the end of the day she's still my girlfriend. She's still there. She's always gonna be there."

"Because she's a fame whore and she knows your band is gonna make it big someday," I pointed out.

"All Time Low is destined to play in Ryan's basement forever," Alex laughed.

"I know I said I'd never bring it up again but I think your brother's death has affected you more than you know," I said softly, hoping he wouldn't get upset.

"How do you mean?" he asked.

"You keep Lisa around just because you know she won't leave," I told him, "She won't leave. Like your brother left."

"Why do you care?" Alex questioned, curiosity coursing through his veins.

"Because we're friends, aren't we?" I asked rhetorically, "and as a friend, I care about you."

"Like you cared about Jack?" Alex seethed, suddenly furious.

"I was a bitch to him," I admitted, "I wish I could take it back."

"You do?" Alex asked, anger dissipating.

"Yeah," I mumbled, wondering just how angry Meg would be if I told her I didn't want to go through with her plan.

"I have band practice in twenty minutes," Alex glanced at the clock, "Jack will be there."

"Is that an invite?" I asked hopefully.

Alex nodded. Meg would not be happy about this. Meg would kill me. I had missed Jack though and that had to count for something. Besides, Meg couldn't be mad about what she didn't know about. I just wouldn't tell her. Alex seemed to really want me to go so I agreed. I was worried that Jack would still hate me but Alex assured me that Jack didn't hold grudges. I hoped he was right. Band practice was at Rian Dawson's house. I'd known Rian since forever, our mothers were friends, but we were not very close.

Jack was already there when Alex and I arrived at Rian's house. Rian was sitting at his drum set and Jack was running in circles around him screaming something unintelligible. Off to the side was a boy with straight black hair shaking his head at Jack's stupidity. I decided he must be Zack, the kid Alex said went to Towson. Considering that he was tuning a bass guitar, I figured it was safe to assume that Zack played bass for the band. Jack stopped running in circles around Rian when he saw me. He scowled and stomped up the basement stairs.

"He doesn't hold grudges, huh?" I snapped at Alex.

"He doesn't?" Alex assured me, "Just go talk to him."

Jack was in the kitchen, no surprise there. He eats like a pig. He was chewing on a sugar cookie, freshly baked by Mrs. Dawson. He looked up for a split second, long enough to glare at me, and then returned his focus to the cookie. He finished it rather quickly and grabbed another.

"Don't eat too many," Mrs. Dawson chided as she entered the room.

"I won't," Jack mumbled, his voice mumbled by a mouthful of unchewed cookie.

“Good to see you Jersey,” Mrs. D grinned, “You haven’t been around in a while.”

“Mom wants to do a dinner,” I told her, remembering something my mom had said in passing, “Ri can bring Kara if he wants.”

“I’ll ring your mother tomorrow,” Mrs. D smiled and hurried off.

“I suppose you want to talk ,” Jack said when she was out of earshot.

“I’d like to,” I replied, “Yes.”

“I’m listening,” Jack said while grabbing another cookie.

“I’m sorry,” I offered lamely.

“Okay,” he shrugged.

“Okay?” I all but yelled, “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“I was but you apologized,” Jack smiled, “I forgive you. I get why you did it. I stopped being friends with Pete Jameson in 2nd grade because Alex said so.”

“So you’re not mad at all?” I asked in disbelief.

“Nope,” Jack took yet another cookie, “I’m glad we’re friends again.”

“Can you at least pretend to be mad at me? I feel like crap,” I laughed.

“As long as you never ditch me for Megan Chung ever again , we’re good,” Jack smiled, “No need to pretend.”

Alex grinned when he saw Jack and I walk down the basement steps together. He was fiddling around with a blue electric guitar that made me quite jealous. I only had an old acoustic but I wanted an electric guitar. Jack held his out to me.

“I want to hear the song that you and Alex wrote. He’s been talking about it nonstop,” Jack told me.

“He says it’s the best song ever,” Rian added.

I smirked at Alex, “Think you can keep up if I improvise a bit?”

“Try me,” he smirked back.

We played through the song but I added a few nasty guitar riffs and sped up the tempo. Alex kept up just fine. After a little while Zack started playing a bass line that didn’t sound half bad and Rian gave us a sick drum beat. It’s safe to say it sounded amazing.

“That was incredible,” Alex exclaimed.

“Can I have my guitar back?” Jack asked happily.

“All yours,” I laughed.

“I’m so glad I got you as a partner for the project,” Alex said as he put his guitar down, “I don’t think anyone else in that class could write something half as awesome as our song.”

I blushed at Alex’s compliment and instantly felt guilty. He was telling me how great I was while I was secretly plotting his demise. Technichally, Meg was plotting his demise and I was just doing as she said but I still felt horrible. And I just got Jack back too. If he knew what I was doing he’d kill me. He hated Meg. Recently I hadn’t been liking her all that much either and I was supposed to be her best friend. Maybe it was time to rethink that.