Guitars and Love Notes

Walking into his house twenty minutes later he threw his stuff onto the couch and made his way towards the kitchen with the intention of getting a snack.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do Gayle,” his mother said keeping him from going into the kitchen and standing right outside it listening into his mother’s conversation, even though sadly he could only hear her side. “I don’t know, I guess I was just hoping that he would realize that I need this; that I need to get away from his father. It’s not like I’ll never see him again. It’s just that I’ll be a little further away than normal… Maybe if his father wasn’t such a bigoted jerk, and I actually had family that lived around here it wouldn’t be so bad to stay here.”

Not wanting to hear any more of his mother’s conversation, and hearing her trying to stop herself from crying Alex quietly grabbed his bag and guitar from off the couch and ran up the stairs planning on hiding away in his room and thinking about everything. He had to think about what this mysterious Z person was saying to him in the letters; he had to think about what to do with Lisa and her desire to never go out with him; and he also had to think about his mother and how she was feeling and coping with everything.



The next morning, pulling into the school parking lot Alex grabbed his bag and guitar and went up to the steps to meet Jack.

“Morning Alex,” Jack said with a wide bright smile.

“Morning buddy,” Alex said as he sat down next to Jack and turned to him with a smile. “I think today is the day I’m going to break up with Lisa.”

“Seriously?” Jack asked excited for his best friend. “What made you decide that?”

“I drove her home yesterday and she basically told me I was insensitive for asking her to spend time with me instead of Marie, who just broke up with her boyfriend because I see her in class every day. But sometimes with the amount of time I spend with just her, and the amount of time I spend with just you, it seems like I’m dating you and not her,” he said with a laugh.

“Sorry dude, but you’re not my type,” Jack laughed punching Alex in the shoulder.

“I know that, it’s just that I spend more time with you than my own girlfriend. I mean I totally understand hanging out with your friends, but I just wish she would want to spend time alone with me.”

“Totally understand. So when are you going to do it?” Jack asked as he looked towards the parking lot and noticed Lisa coming over. “Because she’s on her way up here now.”

“I think I’m going to do it now,” Alex said grabbing his bag and guitar and standing up. “See you in third hour,” he said before heading down towards Lisa, who was thankfully alone.

“Hey babe,” Lisa said with a smile standing up on her tip toes to kiss Alex’s cheek.

“Hey Lisa, mind if we walk around for a minute and have a little chat?” he asked steering her towards the path that lead to the football field before she even answered.

“Sure what about?” she asked with a smile seeming as though she forgot they had fought just the night before.

“Us.”

“Well what about us?”

“I think we should take a break,” he said staring straight ahead not wanting to look at Lisa in fear of seeing her sad and changing his mind about his decision.

“Why would we need to take a break?” she asked with a shaky voice letting Alex know that she had tears in her eyes without even looking down at her.

“Well you’re friends obviously are going through a lot and need you, and Jack and I are working on writing a bunch of new songs and possibly starting a band. So it’s blatantly obvious that we both need time to focus on our own things and maybe someday down the road when we’re both not so busy we can give us a try again,” he said finally chancing a look at Lisa.

“You can’t be serious about this Alex, I love you,” she said batting her eyelashes hoping that she could sweet talk him into changing his min.

“I’m sorry Lisa, but this is something that needs to happen. I love you too, but I feel as though at this time in our live we should be apart so that we can try and explore other options,” he said trying to sugar coat the break up for her.

“Well fuck you Alex,” she said starting back the way they had come. “Just know that you just lost the best thing that ever happened to you.”

Shaking his head at her dramatics he let her walk away without another word, glad that he now had one less thing to worry about at night.



“So is it safe for me to assume that our next song is going to be a breakup song?” Jack asked as Alex sat down next to him in third hour.

“You’re so funny,” Alex said glaring at his friend as he set down his guitar case and started opening it.

“Oh, what is this? New lyrics perhaps,” Jack asked as he grabbed a single piece of paper off of Alex’s guitar.

Looking over at his friend and realizing just what it was that he had holding Alex couldn’t help but panic slightly. “That’s mine, and it’s personal; give it back,” Alex said as he reached forward and tried to rip the paper out of Jack’s hand.

“I could tell the weekend was good to you. Maybe next weekend would be the perfect time to spend a day out and about with your mother. You only have so much time left with her before she moves away. You really should take her out and spend the day with her. I promise you won’t regret it once she moves. –Z,” Jack said reading the note aloud. “What the hell is this?” he laughed finally letting Alex grab the note out of his hand.

“I told you, it’s personal which translates to; none of your business,” he said as he shoved the not into his pocket and hoped that Jack would drop it. But then again Alex wasn’t known for getting what he wants.

“So who’s this ‘Z’ character?” he asked using air quotations.

“I don’t really know,” Alex said as he sat back in his seat and reread the note from Z for himself with a smile on his face. “But I’m planning on finding out, because this Z person seems like they could be a good friend. Plus if it turns out being someone hot, maybe they could even be a good girlfriend,” he finished looking up a Jack.

“I think that’s a sign that you should go out and try to find this Z. I’ll even help,” Jack said with a wide, bright smile.

“Thanks Jack,” he said with a smile. “I’m trying to figure out who it is, but it’s so hard. The only people I can think of with a name starting with Z is my lab partner in chemistry Zack and Zoey from fifth hour, but Zack’s a guy and Zoey had a boyfriend.”

“Maybe Zoey’s on the lookout for a new boyfriend,” Jack said with a wink.

“I’d rather avoid that since I know her boyfriend could easily pulverize me,” he said shaking at the thought of how he wouldn’t be able to walk if Zoey’s boyfriend Andrew got a hold of him.

“Well I guess we better be on the lookout for other people whose name start with Z.”



“You seem to be upset,” Zack mentioned as he sat down across from Alex.

“Maybe because I am,” Alex snapped as he pulled out his notebook and threw it on the table.

“Want to talk about it?”

“No offence, but we’re not really friends and I don’t really feel like talking to you about my problems,” he said opening up to his notes. “So can we get started?”

“Sure,” Zack said pulling out his own notes. “Mind if I take a look at yours and see what we have?”

“Whatever,” Alex said as he slid his notebook across the table to Zack before pulling out his phone and finding a text from Jack.

Lisa’s pissed about the breakup. I heard from others that she’s having a ‘girls only’ party to talk about all the men who have done them wrong.

With a laugh Alex hit reply and started typing. How many men could have done them wrong? We’re still in high school.

“So it looks like we have enough information to start our paper,” Zack said as he finished checking over Alex’s notes and pushing it back to him. “Maybe we could start on our paper tomorrow. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said as his phone buzzed signaling him to an incoming message from Jack.

God only knows. I guess that just means we should go out drinking that night.

“So… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Zack said getting up and leaving the library.

Good plan. Friday night drinking is the best. Alex said replying to Jack before putting his stuff in the bag and leaving.



Walking into school Wednesday morning Alex couldn’t help but feel a little freer than he had in a long time. He had spent the morning on the steps playing his guitar with Jack, after slipping his note from Z into his pocket of course. It was so nice to be able to play his guitar without a girl hanging on his shoulder. Once his guitar was stowed in his locker he made his way towards first hour, hoping that it wouldn’t have been as awkward as it was the day before. He couldn’t help but smile a little bit when he realized that Lisa had had her seat switched with someone else so that he wouldn’t have to feel her glaring at him all class period long.

Once class had started he pulled his note out of his pocket and started reading. I know you’re trying to figure out who I am. But I would really prefer to stay hidden and help you out through these notes. –Z

Alex couldn’t help but feel disappointed as he read the note. Why didn’t Z want his true identity to be known? Alex really wished that he could find out who Z was so that he could talk to Z in real life. As nice as it was that Jack now knew about his parents’ divorce, he wished he could talk to someone who had experienced the same thing.



“We really should be working on our paper,” Zack said taping his pen on his paper while watching Alex texting away on his phone.

“Yeah, okay give me a second,” he said as he continued on with his conversation with Jack.

Two minutes of silence later and Zack was starting to get very annoyed. “Seriously Alex, we need to get working. Can you put that phone down for two minutes?”

“God, what?” Alex asked as he slammed his phone down on the table and looked at Zack.

“Our paper Alex,” Zack said as with a sigh as he pushed his notebook away slightly. “If you don’t care about this then we really don’t have to do it. I can do it on my own, but at that point it will only be my name going on the paper.”

“Sorry, I’ve just got a lot of stuff going on right now. But anyways, how do you want to start the damn paper,” he said with a slight glare.

“Well, could I see your notes again, so that we could find a good place to start?” he asked quietly hoping to not anger Alex anymore.

“Yeah, whatever,” he said sliding his notebook across to Zack and picking up his phone again.

Thirty tense minutes later, Zack handed Alex back his notebook and they parted ways in hopes that tomorrow would be a better day to work on their project. Walking out of the school and to his car he couldn’t help but realize how much of a dick he was to Zack for no reason. It’s not like Zack was the guy that decided to hit on Lisa after he had broken up with her a little more than two days ago. Yes, he dumped her but he still cared about her. He had to make a promise to himself that he would apologize to Zack tomorrow.



“Alex, could I please talk to you?” his mom asked as he walked in the front door.

“Can we make it quick?” he asked as he set down his bags and walked over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“I was just hoping that maybe this Saturday we could go out and do some shopping. I was doing laundry the other day and I noticed that a few of your pants had holes, I thought we could go get you some new ones.”

“I like my pants the way they are mom,” he said before grabbing his stuff and trying to leave before she could say anything more.

“Well I don’t. A few of my friends are having a going away party for me Sunday night and I wanted my son to be there too, but I would really appreciate it if your pants weren’t covered in holes.”

“Fine, whatever, I’m going to go upstairs and do my homework,” he said before fleeing upstairs and away from his mom.



The next morning Alex walked up the steps of the school and sat down next to Jack. “So my mom is having a going away party Sunday and is forcing me to go,” he said with a sigh as he leaned forward and put his head in his hands.

“It won’t be that bad,” Jack said trying to comfort his friend. “She’s probably only having you go because some of her friends have kids around your age and she wants you to keep them busy.”

“Way to make me feel even worse about going,” he said turning his head slightly to glare over at his friend.

“Sorry,” Jack said with a shrug. “That’s the only reason I could think of her wanting you to go, because if she wanted to spend time with you she would have planned something just you and her.”

“Whatever it’s not like I’m going to be enjoying it at all,” he said before turning to his guitar case and opening it to find another note that made him smile.

“What’s got you so happy all of the sudden?”

“I got another note,” he said hoping that he wasn’t sounding too much like a love sick girl. In the beginning he had to admit he found the notes creepy and weird, but now he looked forward to them every day and hated when he didn’t get them over the weekend.

“Oh, Alex’s secret admirer left him another note?” Jack said teasing his friend. “What’s it say this time?”

Opening the note with a smile, Alex read it aloud to his friend. “As mean as this may sound, I’m glad to hear you finally broke up with Lisa. Not only can you focus more on spending time with your mom before she leaves, but it also give people, especially me hope that one day I could have a chance with you. –Z”

“Well isn’t that sweet? Z wants a chance at dating you,” Jack said with a smile. “Maybe Z could help you move on from Lisa.”

“It would really help if I knew how this person even was,” Alex said with a sigh. “I really wish I could talk to this Z person in real life.”

“I know buddy, we’ll figure out who it is eventually.”



Walking into second hour Alex couldn’t help but want to turn around and run the other way the second he saw Zack. He knew he should apologize for the way he acted yesterday, but at the same time he really hated apologizing to people.

“Morning Zack,” he said with a smile.

“Morning,” Zack said barely lifting his head to look at Alex while he doodled in his notebook.

“Look, I’m really sorry about yesterday. I have a lot of shit going on right now and I took it out on you for some stupid reason,” Alex said with an apologetic smile.

“It’s fine,” he said still not looking at Alex.

“No it’s not fine, it’s not like any of this is your fault. I shouldn’t have taken any of this out on you.”

“I understand. Are we still on for working on our project after school?” he asked finally looking over at Alex.

“Definitely,” he said with a smile. “I even brought my computer along with me so that we could start typing it up.”

“Okay, beats having to find a computer at this school that actually works,” Zack said with a laugh as their teacher called the class to attention.

“So today some of you might be a little happier than you have been since we changed seats,” Miss Martinez said with a smile. “For this project you can choose your own partner and are going to have to go around the school and do this little scavenger hunt I have set up for you guys. So what I want you to do is find a partner and sit next to them and I’ll explain the scavenger hunt a little more,” she said before letting them go to find their desired partner.

“Will you please be my partner?” Alex asked turning to Zack with pleading eyes.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t want to be paired up with Lisa?”

“I really don’t want to be paired up with her, I would much rather work with you,” he said hoping that Zack would say yes.

“Fine,” he said with a smile right as Lisa walked over.

“So, I guess it’s safe to say you’re going to be my partner,” she said with a smile as she leaned across the table and smiled at Alex.

“Sorry Lisa, Zack’s going to be my partner for this project.”

“Seriously Alex?” she asked looking unsure. “You’re already stuck working with him for our paper. Are you sure you want to be stuck with him for this too?”

“I don’t see it as being stuck with him. Plus I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to work together. We both still need time to get over this breakup,” he said with a shrug. “You better hurry up and find a partner.”

“You’d really rather work with me?” Zack asked surprised.

“Yeah, you may be quiet, but you’re a nice guy, and if I worked with Lisa she wouldn’t work on the project, she’d work on getting back together with me and that’s something I really don’t want.”

With a smile Zack turned back to their teacher and listened to what was expected of them.

“Ready to get started?” Alex asked as he stood up and grabbed his worksheet off the table.

“Well it’s now or never,” Zack said getting up and following Alex out of the classroom.

“So the first clue… it sounds like the library,” Alex said as he read their paper while walking down the hall.

“It definitely is,” Zack said as he himself read it. “Now let’s just find whatever it is Miss Martinez hid in there.”

With fifteen minutes of class left, the two boys were working on figuring out their last clue, which also had them solving an equation.

“Does this look right?” Zack asked as he passed his paper over to Alex for him to double check the work.

“Yeah, looks right,” he said handing the paper back and heading down to room 621, just like the clue told them too.



Friday afternoon Alex walked into his bedroom and stored his newest note into the shoebox that held every other note he had received from Z. He really wanted to meet this person and the newest note, just made him want it even more.

“Alex sweetie, do you have any laundry that needs to be done?” his mom asked from his doorway.

“Umm, yeah,” he said as he went over and grabbed his clothes hamper to give to him mom.

“Alright, thank you,” she said with a smile. “Also don’t forget we are going clothes shopping tomorrow. Be ready by ten please.”

“You’ll be lucky if I’m up by ten,” he said as he flopped down onto his bed and pulled out his phone before calling Jack.

“What’s up Gaskarth?” Jack asked as he answered the phone.

“Nothing much Barakat,” he said with a laugh. “Know of any good parties tonight?”

“I don’t know about good, but I do know about some parties,” he said doing that indecisive thing Alex absolutely hated.

“As long as I can get drunk, it’s good,” Alex said hoping to get his point across to Jack.

“In that case I know quite a few of them. Be there to pick you up in twenty minutes?” he asked as Alex heard him open his closet, no doubt going to get ready.

“Sounds perfect to me; see you then,” he said before hanging up and going to get ready himself.

Twenty two minutes later Alex was getting himself into the passenger seat of Jack’s car with a smile.

“I am so ready to drink the night away,” he said as he worked on making himself comfortable and turning up the music just a little bit more.

“Sounds like someone had a rough day,” Jack said as he pulled away from the curb and towards the closest house party.

“More like rough week,” Alex said leaning his head back.

“That bad?” he asked hoping to give his friend some sort of sympathy.

“Yep,” he said popping the p. “Lisa tried to get back together with me for the last two days, and my mom wants to take me clothes shopping because according to her my clothes aren’t good enough for her going away party.”

“Why can’t Lisa just take a hint?”

“Who knows? I just really just hope that after she has that girl’s weekend you were telling me about she’ll realize that she needs to see other people.”



The morning after the party Alex woke up to a knocking on the door with the world’s worst headache.

“Alex, honey what are you still doing in bed? We should be leaving by now,” his mother said sternly after having let herself into his room.

“Sorry, I just had a really long night out with Jack playing video games,” he said thinking of the best lie he could while slightly hung over.

“Alex, I’m not an idiot. I heard you stumbling your way up the stairs at two in the morning. I know you were out drinking even after I have told you a million times that I don’t approve of such things,” she said as she opened Alex’s closet and started looking for something decent for him to wear.

“Mom, when are you going to realize that I’m a teenage boy? We are always going to do the things you tell us not to do,” he said as he got up and pulled on the closest pair of pants after making sure they looked halfway decent.

“I know I never really listened to my mother as a child either. I was just hoping that you would be a responsible young adult,” she said with a sigh before throwing a relatively nice looking shirt that she approved of at him.

“Just because I like to go out and drink on the weekends with my friends, doesn’t mean I’m not a responsible young adult,” he said trying to take on the tone his mother used to slightly mock her when he copied her wording. “I’m still responsible; I just like to have fun on the weekends when I really don’t have anything important to do.”

“Maybe we should work on getting you a part time job so that you have some more responsibility,” she suggested before throwing his nicest pair of tennis shoes onto his bed. “Now get ready, I’m hoping to leave within the next twenty minutes, so get ready.

Ten minutes later and Alex was down stairs grabbing a pop tart out of the cupboard and letting his mom know that he was ready. As he climbed into the car he started eating his make shift breakfast.

“You really couldn’t have taken the five minutes to eat that at the kitchen table?” his mom asked as she pulled out of their driveway and turned down the street.

“Nope, it’s more fun this way,” he said through a mouthful of food.

“I can’t help but wonder how Lisa puts up with your horrible manners. I know I raised you better than this,” she said with a shake of her head.

“Well Lisa doesn’t have to worry about my crappy manners anymore since we broke up earlier this week,” he said finally letting his mom know of his new relationship status.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” his mom asked sounding hurt. “Why did you two even break up? I thought you two were happy together.”

“She was happy to have someone’s arm to hang off of; I was unhappy because she didn’t care about any of my problems,” Alex said before shoving more pop tart into his mouth.

“So it was communication troubles. Maybe you two could have tried working a little harder on talking to each other.”

“Oh because you’re one to talk,” Alex said glaring over at his mom. “You’re having trouble with dad and you’re taking the easy way out. You’re getting a divorce and moving back to England, so don’t talk to me about working harder on fixing a relationship.”

“Alex, you have no idea how long your father and I have actually been working to try and fix our relationship. Sometimes you work so hard that you realize the only option to make you both happy is to separate. I’m not moving to run away from my problems, I’m just doing something that will make both myself and your father much happier.”

Not wanting to talk about this anymore Alex sunk lower into his seat and stared out the passenger side window while he finished eating his pop tart.



The next day at five o’clock Alex was down stairs in the nice new clothes him mom bought him, wishing that he was anywhere else in the world. If it wasn’t bad enough that he was once again being reminded that his mother was leaving soon, but all her friends and their kids where there, except for the one person he would have wanted to associate himself with. Unfortunately Jack and his mom couldn’t show up because of prior engagements so now he was stuck mingling with a bunch of kids he barely knew, and would rather not talk to.

“Alex, would you please stopping sitting here and sulking. I know Jack isn’t here, but please go talk to someone,” his mom said as she came over and handed her son a glass of pop.

“I really don’t want to be here,” he said taking the glass and glaring at his mom.

“I know, but please do this for me,” she asked as she sat down in the chair next to him.

Before anything more could be said a woman Alex had never seen before came over and gave her a hug.

“Amy, I’m so glad you could make it,” his mom said with a smile returning the hug.

“Well seeing as one of my best friends is leaving in a little over a week, I had to come to her going away party,” she said with a smile. “Also, where should I put the cake I brought?”

“Here, I’ll show you,” Alex’s mom said as she got up and patted Alex on the shoulder.

“Zack, why don’t you stay here and mingle with Alex,” Amy said revealing her son, who just also happened to be Alex’s lab partner.

“Hey Alex,” Zack said with a smile as he sat down next to Alex.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Alex said finally setting the drink his mom had brought him onto the table in front of him.

“Well I don’t know if you didn’t realize this or not, but my mom is friends with your mom. She kind of forced me to come along with her to this thing. She didn’t want to be the odd ball out that didn’t bring her own kid along,” he said with a shrug.

“Hope you have fun,” Alex said as he got up. “I’m going to go hide. If my mom asks I’m in the bathroom or something,” he said before heading towards the stairs in hopes of sneaking up to his room and hiding out for the rest of the night.

On his way to the staircase he got stopped, right as his right foot hit the first stair.

“So Alex I don’t think I’ve ever introduced myself, I’m Amy Merrick,” Zack’s mom said with a smile.

“Nice to meet you Mrs. Merrick,” he said returning the smile to be polite so that his mother wouldn’t have as much to yell at him about in the morning.

“I take it Zack couldn’t hold your interest,” she said motioning over to her son who was now sitting alone. “It’s a shame really; here I was thinking you two might be able to be friends because Zack really doesn’t have many of those.”

“It’s not that he couldn’t hold my interest, I was just going to get something real quick,” he lied, not liking the face that Zack didn’t have many friends, because everyone deserves friends.

“So you two might end up being friends?” she asked looking hopeful.

“Yeah, it’s definitely a possibility,” Alex said with a smile.

“That’s good, because Zack’s a bit of a loner and I hate seeing him that way,” she said seeming as though her son having friends was the most important thing to her.

“Me too,” he said before taking another few steps up the stairs. “Well I better go get what I was planning on grabbing. See you around.”



“Your mom seems nice,” Alex said as he sat down next Zack.

“That’s because she’s trying too hard,” he said glaring at his mom.

“What are you talking about, she seems as though she loves you.”

“She doesn’t want me, it’s all an act,” Zack said before taking a sip of his drink.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Last year my parents got a divorce and my dad made it clear he didn’t want me, and so did she when she took to ignoring me. I’ve been living with my brother ever since,” he said glaring at the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” Alex said looking over at the boy. “If I had known,” he started only to be cut off by Zack.

“If you had known you wouldn’t have acted like your parents actually caring about you despite the divorce wasn’t a bad thing?” he asked with venom in his voice before standing up and walking away.

“Zack--,” he started before being cut off once again.

“No Alex, I really don’t care what you have to say. Both my parents hate me and I’ve learned to accept it. I really don’t want, nor do I need your sympathy.”

“I really wasn’t--.”

“Whatever Alex, like you tried to do earlier, I’m going to go and try to make an escape. Have fun at this totally awesome party,” he said before getting up and sneaking out the front door.

Once again Alex knew that he was going to have to apologize to Zack the next day in class.