Guitar Lessons From Alex Gaskarth

“Tegan, I have great, great news!” Gemma beamed, trying to catch up with me.

“What?”

“I think he’s The One.” I stopped when she said that.

“What?” I asked; this time it was more of a demand.

“I know it’s been a week but we really get along and—”

“What are you talking about? Do you remember what happened last time when you said that?”

“You promised not to bring that up,” she said angrily.

“He cheated on you for two months and—”

“Tegan,” she warned me, her voice rising by the second.

“—you were heartbroken for weeks, plus—”

“Tegan, that was back then!” she interrupted, not wanting to talk about it.

“It was four months ago, not back then!” I retorted.

“What’s wrong with you? You were encouraging me at the party to go talk with me, and now you don’t want me to talk with him.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want you to talk with him—”

“Whatever!” she interrupted, then got quiet. “You’re jealous.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Why would I be jealous?”

Gemma crossed her arms. “Please, it’s all written over your face.”

“I’m not jealous; I just don’t want you to get hurt,” I honestly said.

“Whatever, Tegan. Is there some other reason?” she asked expectantly.

I bit my lip. Was there some other reason? I was doing this because I cared about her. I didn’t want her to be broken again. That what friends are for, right? But, then there was that thing with Alex…he liked her, a lot. And, with Gemma being with Steven made it hard for Alex to be with her. But, I couldn’t tell her that he liked her. He told me not to.

“That’s what I thought. There is no other reason,” she said when I didn’t say anything. “You’re jealous, and you’re lying about it. You wanna know what, Tegan?” I looked at her pleadingly. She was going to say something bad. “I’ll show you he won’t break my heart. But, in the mean time, I don’t want to be friends with you,” she finished and walked away, leaving me alone.

My heart fell. I couldn’t lose her. I already lost my dad but now her?

I wanted to call her name, tell her sorry for what I did, and to go get ice cream, but I couldn’t find the words. As she walked away, tears started to well up in my eyes, ready to pour like a water fountain. All I could think was I just lost my best friend.