Among Broken Guitar Strings

It's funny how's he's gone the next morning when I wake up. It's funnier how I actually expected him to still be there. What was I? Stupid? It was so funny how he got to me, sunk into everything I ever was, everything I ever really wanted to be, and then just ripped himself away so effortlessly.I kind of felt like he'd hit me again. I kind of wish he'd done that instead.

It would have hurt so much less.

Ethan watches me as we drive from the passenger seat through the rear view mirror. I watch him too, but neither of us really ever look into each other's eyes for more than a few seconds before looking away like we'd seen a ghost or something. He's so childish. I'm so childish. Together, we'd just be completely hopeless, so why do I still keep hoping?

Eventually we pull into the parking lot of another hotel. This one's fancy. Way fancy. It's nothing we'd ever be able to afford on our own, but we're not living on our own money anymore. The record company said they'd cover room and board for us beforehand, but they never mentioned we'd be staying in a five star hotel smack dab in the middle of a city so beautiful, it could put Vegas and L.A. to shame without an issue.

I gasp. Ethan gasps. Ethan's father however just stares. He had to be at least twice our age, and yet even he had never seen anything so...amazing.

All we have to do is tell the people up front waiting for arrivals our names and they quickly lead us away from the shabby old Corvette into what could only be described as an utter fairytale. We don't even have to carry our own bags. Apparently, fancy places like this have people who are paid specifically just to cart other people's things around for them without even asking any annoying questions along the way.

Our room's so high up that when I ask about taking the stairs, our escort just laughs at me. The thirty-seventh floor. It's amazing to think we were only three floors down from the penthouse. I kept wondering, who could possibly afford to stay up there in a city like this? This wasn't California, but it damn well could've been.

We have an apartment suite. Two bedrooms. Three beds in each room. White sheets. Silk. Satin. The works. It was so overwhelming for someone so used to the simple things. Hell, I bought my guitar at Target for less than a hundred bucks. A pillowcase here was worth at least ten times that. Bathroom. Kitchen. Living room. Plasma screen T.V. Plasma? Plasma. Now I really was in love. It was literally was an apartment.

I didn't even want to see the bill for this place.

"Girls in this room, guys in that one." ,was the last thing the hotel worker said before vanishing into near thin air. My heart rose. So I wouldn't be the only girl stuck with a bunch of guys. I'd have someone to talk to.

Ethan goes into the guys room, and I slip into the girls, running to do an overdramatic belly flop on the bed I choose to be my own. There's already someone else's pack bags sitting on the one closest to the window, but I never liked sleeping next to them anyway.

Wow. Look at me. Here I was, this cherry among white, perfect sheets because of me hair. I probably looked like I was incredibly stupid, acting as if I was five years old or something....

And I loved it.