Guitar Lessons From Alex Gaskarth

I strummed the string, the pain on my fingers growing. I strummed again, then again.

“Ugh, break time!” I announced, frustrated.

“Okay,” Alex mumbled.

I was at practice again. But this time, Alex was really quiet, which was really weird.

“Are you okay?” I asked him after two minutes of silence. His quietness was freaking me out.

“Yeah, why?” he asked slowly.

“Well, you’re really quiet. Is something wrong?”

He laughed, a bit of nervousness in it. “No, why would anything be wrong? I’m fine!”

I knew he was lying. The “I’m fine” had shown it. Something was obviously wrong. “Something IS wrong. You’ve been acting like this since the party. Please, tell me.”

He sighed. “Well, when you told me about Gemma and that guy, I got kind of upset…because—”

I gasped. “You like Gemma?” I asked a bit excited. He didn’t look like the type of person to like Gemma.

“Yes,” he muttered.

“Oh, so that’s why you were all grumpy,” I said, receiving a glare from him.

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“I could get you two together, if ya want,” I suggested, playfully winking at him.

He looked unsure. “I don’t know. Isn’t she with that guy?”

I thought about that for a moment. “Well, they just started dating. But, it’s too soon to see if they’re going to last. So, we’ll just have to wait, m’kay?”

He laughed at my “m’kay”. “Alright but don’t tell her that I like her yet.”

“Ok, now, onward to the guitar lessons!” I exclaimed.

He laughed and went on teaching me.

^.^

“Sup, Alex,” I said, sliding next to him in lunch.

“Sup, T-Dawg,” he answered before taking a big bite of his burger.

I made a face at the burger. “Yuck, how can you eat that?” I asked, pointing at the burger.

“What do you mean?” he asked, putting the burger down.

“That,” I pointed at it again. “It’s full of meat and its greasy and nasty looking and smelly.”

“Hey, when I’m hungry, I’ll eat anything. And, I’m always hungry,” he said.

“But you’re so skinny.” I poked his side; he squirmed.

I poked him again. “Stop it!” He swatted his hand at me, an attempt to make me stop.

I kept poking him, though. “Tegan, s-stop it,” he said between his laughs.

I giggled. “No,” I said like a little kid.

I kept poking him until he fell to the ground. Instead of helping him, I laughed until my sides started to hurt. Alex got up by himself, muttering something about rude people and their actions.

“Alex, come on,” I pleaded when I tried talking to him.

“I’m sorry. I was just playing around.”

“Alex, don’t be mad! Be glad!”

“Alex, pleaseeee forgive me, gosh dang it!”

“Alex, I’m really, really sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Please, Alex?”

“Alex, please—”

“Fine!” he interrupted, annoyed at me.

“Yay!” I cheered, giving him a surprise hug.

“Aww, look at the love birds,” we heard.

I rolled my eyes, letting go of Alex, who was still surprised by the hug. “Get a life, Bassam.”

He slid right next to me and started to eat his burger.

I frowned at the burger. It was the same as Alex’s. “Gross.”

“What?” he asked, his mouth full of food.

“Eww,” I said in disgust. Did his parents ever teach him manners?

He shrugged and went on eating his nasty burger.

“Alex, Tegan, Jack, what’s up?” Zack practically screamed, scaring all of us.

“Whoa, Zack, you’re going to kill us with your loudness,” I told him.

“Blah, blah,” he replied before eating his burger, the same one as Alex and Jack’s.

I frowned. They were all eating the same, nasty thing.

“Where’s Rian?” I asked, trying not to think about the burgers.

“He had to leave early,” Jack answered.

“Why?” Alex asked.

“I think he had to go to the dentist,” Jack said before chugging down the carton of milk.

I scoffed. “Why does he need to go? He has the perfect teeth ever.”

“I know, right?” Zack said. “I keep asking him that, but he gets mad.”

“He’s sensitive when it comes to his teeth,” Jack said, making us all laugh.

For the rest of lunch, we talked about Rian’s teeth.