The Twists and Turns of Love

After the torture of playing guitar was over, the five of them sat at a table and got some drinks. In the end, it hadn’t been that bad playing, and she had found herself enjoying it. They had played classic songs that they all knew and the final result had been great.

Claire was amazing on the stage, dancing around and winning the crowd over in a matter of seconds. The guys in the band all seemed taken aback by her performance, and, as a matter of fact, were discussing it at the table.

“You were great out there,” Luke said, taking a sip of his glass.

“Thanks, but I’m nothing compared to you guys. You’re awesome. I’d really like to hear some of your songs.”

Sarah watched her, a little irritated. She loved getting all the attention and dazzling everyone with her perfect, amazing, wonderful looks. Now she was all buddy buddy with the band, when Sarah should be the one who talked to them about their music and how well they played because she understood things like that. Claire just said it because they sounded cool. And on top of that, they worshipped her because it had been her idea for them to play with the band.

“Sarah?” Tim asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

“What? Oh, sorry,” she said facing him. Claire, Jared and Luke were still engaged in their conversation.

“How did you like playing with us? Was it as bad as you thought?” Tim grinned teasingly.

“It was fun,” she admitted.

“You played really well.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I did that well. I hadn’t played in the longest time.”

“How come?”

“Well, I had this amazing guitar that was customized and all and once when I took it to a friend’s house, and it fell down the staircase. It was completely destroyed and then, since I didn’t have money to buy another one, I got caught up with school and forgot about playing.”

“That really sucks.”

“Yeah, but at least I didn’t completely forget how to play.”

“That would have been a pity.”

“We better start heading home,” Claire said, standing up and facing Sarah.

“She’s right,” Sarah said, doing the same.

“Can’t you stay a little longer?” Tim asked.

“We’ve got to go,” Claire declared firmly, adding a smile to ease her words.

“Wait. Sarah, can I, um well, can I have your number?” Tim said almost in a whisper.

Sarah felt her face turn a deep shade of red and she cast her eyes down.

“Okay,” she said in a voice no more audible than Tim’s had been.

She scribbled her phone number on a napkin and folded it as small as she could so the rest of them wouldn’t notice it.

She didn’t know why it embarrassed her so much for them to see her giving Tim her number, but it did. She didn’t want them to think there was anything between them, but when she looked in Tim’s eyes, she felt a wave of guilt. He was such a nice guy and she was so horrible. He probably wasn’t even thinking of her that way and she had just assumed.

“Bye,” she called back, looking over her shoulder, as they walked away from the table.
Tim was smiling and waving, watching them leave.

~~~

“Didn’t you have fun?” Claire said, sitting on the living room couch.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

“Maybe, but I beat you to it,” she said matter-of-factly

“Yeah,” Sarah replied, rolling her eyes. She was still kind of annoyed at Claire.

She didn’t really know why she had gotten angry in the first place. Maybe because Claire was so perfect and everyone seemed to fall under her charm. Or maybe because she noticed it and used it to her advantage. She had somehow been relieved when she hadn’t seen Eric there, because he would surely have fallen in love with Claire, like every other guy in the universe. And he wouldn’t even remember the dorky girl he had crashed into that day.

“Is anything wrong? You’ve been acting a little strange,” Claire asked, worried.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Here, let’s watch ET and stuff our faces with buttery popcorn, just like you like it.”

As Claire said that, Sarah felt horrible. Claire hated the movie ET but she was going to watch it for her , because it was Sarah’s favorite. And on top of that, Claire detested buttered popcorn (she liked kettle corn, which always led to an argument when sharing it at the movies). And she had been thinking so many bad things about her friend, and she was just so caring, Sarah hated herself. She felt like apologizing but, of course she wasn’t going to really do it.

“Claire…”

“Yeah?” she asked with a big smile on her face and her eyebrows raised in a comical way.

“Thanks.”

“Stop thanking me. I do things because I want to. Trust me, if you weren’t worth it, I wouldn’t do any of the things I do.”

“Should I be happy that you truly like me or scared that there is an evil person under your good girl appearance?”
“Well, now that you said that, you should be scared,” she laughed.

As they both doubled up, Sarah realized just how amazing her best friend was. All those guys who liked her had a reason to, apart from her looks. And she was happy for her, instead of feeling jealous, because Claire deserved it. She really deserved it.