Snapped Guitar Strings and Broken Hearts

BANG

Dad’s home.

“ Gwin, you up there?!” He screamed up to my room.

“ YUP!”

“ Okay, do your homework, sweetie!”

“ Alright!” Psh. Yeah right. I never do my homework until around 9:00 pm. He should know that by now. Until then it was guitar, Robby, and other random things.
So, until Robby IMed, I picked my guitar up and slung the strap over my head. I began to play the first song that popped into my head. The last one that I’d played on my iPod. ‘This Is How I Disappear’. Such a wonderful song by My Chemical.
I began to softly head bang and tap my foot to the beat. That swiftly turned into jumping around and blasting my amp, extreme head banging and singing along above the guitar.
“ TURN THAT DOWN, GWIN!” Dad yelled, barely audible over my guitar.

Oops.

This happened all the time, I could play one song and then he’d tell me to turn it down. Ugg.

One hour later the computer beeped and I reluctantly set down my guitar, settling into the seat.

Robbeh2468: HEY GWINNY!
Gwinny666: Hey, Robby. Whatya want?
Robbeh2468: You wanna come over to my house?
Gwinny666: Music or talking?
Robbeh2468: I dunno. A bit of both. Bring the elec.
Gwinny666: Okay, will do. Be over in 15-20.
Robbeh2468: Kay, see ya here.
Gwinny666: See ya.
Robbeh2468 has logged off.

And with that, I quickly unplugged my guitar from the amp—we had a spare at Rob’s—and packed it into its case. I shouted to my dad downstairs and asked him if I could go and he eagerly said yes, happy to have me having contact with humans.

“ ROBBY!!!!!” I pounded on the door and he answered, grinning.
“ GWINNY!!!” He shouted into my face. I took a step backwards.
“ Be a bit more mature, will ya?”
“ No. I’m immature. That’s my job, Gwin. Now c’mon in…” He pulled me into his house, which was mainly empty because his parents worked 2nd and half of 3rd shift. That was awesome for Robby—he could have parties until midnight.
“ RAPE!” I yelled, collapsing onto a ragged couch in his basement. He pounced on top of me and began to tickle my sides. I squirmed underneath him.
“ GET OWF, ROBBY!” I screamed, kicking him in the stomach madly.
“ Fiiiiiine. Be that way, man.” He crawled off of me and sat cross-legged on the floor, chuckling madly.
“ Oh! Gwin, I have some friends com-“
“ When at, I’ll leave.” I interrupted, trying to avoid contact.
“ GWIN! I want you to meet them. They live up in Eldon.”
“ No, Robby, I don’t want to…” I began to whine, throwing an oversized tan pillow at him.
“ Gwin, they’re like us. They play instruments. They’re not like the preps and regular, normal people. They’re…. what do they call us… oh, yeah. ‘Emo’.” Robby laughed again and used air quotes. He was so weird….
“ Fine… When are they going to be here?”
“ Oh, 10-15 minutes.” He grinned evilly as my eyes widened and jaw dropped.
“ You suck…” I mumbled.
“ I know I do.” I began to laugh furiously. “ WAIT! I do not….” His voice got really soft and he began to wring his hands.
Wait. Robby, my Robby, was…. gay? No, he asked me to the dance. He was…bi…?
“ Robby….” I looked up at him. “ Robby are you bi?”
“ Nooo….” He said in a high-pitched voice.
“ Liar.” I said, poking his head, which was now hung.
Being Robby, he tried to change the subject and began to sing, something he was very good at. “ Liar, if we’re keeping score, then we’re all choir boys at best, did you see an a-“
“ ROBBY!”
“ Um. What?”
“ Robby, are you bi?”
“ Y…yes…” He whispered.
“ Robby…. Robby, I’m not mad or anything… Don’t worry, I’ll always be your friend…”
“ Reaaally?” He looked up at me, smiling. “ My parents weren’t…” His eyes were downcast for a few brief seconds and then they were vibrant and cheerful again.

DING-DOOONG

“ Your doorbell is soooooo lame, Robby.”
“ Like yours is any better,” He muttered, running up the stairs. There was a brief chatter that I could here and then he was back, with 3 of his friends.
Wow. I’m glad Robby made me stay.
“ Gwin, this is Jake.” He pointed to a tall boy that looked a grade older than me with jet black spiked hair and a lip ring.
“ Craig,” he pointed to another guy who looked our age, an inch or two shorter than Jake. His hair was flung in his face on one side, and by the looks of it dyed the underside purple, while the rest was a blackish red color.
“ And this,” He gestured to the last, who had bleach blonde hair that went to his ears which were pierced multiple times and silver snake bites with blue eyes. He was smaller than the others.” Is Caleb.”
“ Err… Hi?”
Jake chuckled and held out a hand, which had a black glove with the fingers cut off. “Hello, Gwin, right?”
“ Yeah… and you’re Jake.”
“ Right. You play guitar?” He nodded to my case, which was littered in random stickers from concerts.
“ Yeah, I do. That’s my electric.”
“ Wow. Me too. Craig plays bass, and Caleb does drums.”
So that was the reason Robby had drums in his basement…. They were never used. He just had them and I occasionally would start to bang on them, but that’s it.
“ That’s really cool!” I said, actually excited for once in my 15 years of existence.
“ I TOLD YOU TO STAY!” Robby said, tackling me again. He was on top of me and I was crushed enough before Craig crashed on top of him. I noticed how pale he was, almost like me. His nose was pierced too.
Robby turned so his back was on my stomach and he kissed Craig hesitantly. Craig immediately kissed back, almost hungrily.
“ I knew it…” I muttered, punching Robby in the back. He was crushing me….
“ Robby, you’re crushing me….” I whined and he finally pulled away, untangling his hands from Craig’s hair. Craig attempted to pull him back but Robby was stronger and pushed him off the couch.
Robby climbed off of me and I rubbed my stomach, groaning as I sat up.

“ Ow. That’s gonna hurt tomorrow…”

“ Oops… My bad.” He snickered, standing over by Craig with a grin plastered on his face. Wait, was his lip busted open? That wasn’t there before. No… There’s a hole in it… Ew…

“ Robby, I’m gonna kick your butt tomorrow in algebra…” I growled, balling my hands into fists.

“ Yeah. Right.” He chuckled, grabbing a drumstick that lay astray on one of the many guitar amps.

He threw it at me and it clipped at my shoulder. Not very hard, but it stung.

“ Gosh, Robby… That hurt.” I growled, throwing it back at him. He caught it. That is soooooo not fair.

“ Well, rawr.” He said and went to grab a microphone. It had a piece of tape on it with ROBBEH scrawled on it in black ink.

“ Plug in, people.” Robby said, alarming me. I didn’t know what they were going to play. My God, this was getting weirder…

So I took out my lovely black and white Fender, turned it on full volume, grabbed a randomly selected pick and plugged it into the amp.

“ What song?” Caleb asked, whapping Robby in the back of the head with his drumstick. And he didn’t get hit back. Rob is soooooo overly nice to his friends but beats me to death. Gosh…

“ Uhhhh…. You choose, Gwinny.” Robby stood, clueless. He bent over and began tying his converse before they fell off.

“ I dunno… Um…Emily. By FFTL.” I said, jumping up, with the strap thankfully around my shoulder.

“ Sounds cool to me!” Jake said, plugging in on the opposite side of the room.

And for the next two hours or so we played, Craig occasionally coming up to scream with Robby, and kissing him while he was up there. Those two were so
weird.
The boys had really good taste in music and I got to know them really well. They were all going to drive to Arizona this coming summer to see Warped Tour.

And they invited me!

All of the sudden, the day with Brent slipped from my mind and I was overwhelmed by my new friendships. This was more than I had ever expected out of George.

When we all left I noticed the car that was driven. Jake was driving—I’d learned he was 16—was very expensive. Probably able to fit all of a couple more and us. I laughed and waved and they honked their horn, probably waking up a few neighbors.
The walk home seemed longer. I thought about Brent. I thought about Robby, how nice he was being, introducing me to his friends. And we even got to play as… a band almost. Who to choose?
“ What took you so long, Gwin?”
“ I made a couple of new friends…”
“Really, how many now, sweetheart.” God, I hated it when he called me that…
“ Three, Dad. Now, can I get some sleep, it’s midnight…” I whined, already dragging myself up the stairs reluctantly.
“ Alright, Good night then.”
“ Night.” I lazily called, shutting the door to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and pulled my black hair into a tight bun. It looked so different like this, out of my face. Mom had always told me how beautiful this was, but I disagreed, and I still do. I vaguely wondered what Robby would think about it…
I trudged back into my room, setting down my guitar case carefully, not wanting to snap a string. Rummaging through the messy draws for some sweat pants, I threw my tight band tee off and slipped into a longer, baggy t-shirt.
“ There those pants are…” I mumbled, pulling them on and falling back onto my bed. I flicked the switch on the side of my alarm clock, setting it for 6 in the morning, and drifted off to sleep once again, the last thought being of Brent again.

I was in between two tables. At one was Brent, no food, just sitting there. At the other sat my friends, Robby, Caleb, Craig, and Jake. I had to choose.
But that wasn’t fair. Brent was irresistible. My friends were all I had.
What kind of sick game was this?
Why couldn’t I bring them together? They seemed to glare at each other and then beckon to me. Which was more important?
If I lost my friends my life was gone. If I lose Brent my heart was gone. But Robby was there, he was always there… but he had Craig…

I woke from that horrid dream to my own screaming. Screaming because I had to choose between two things I didn’t want to. Screaming until my lungs were about to burst and I couldn’t anymore.
After I eventually quieted, Dad had rushed into the room, worried that there was somebody in here or a spider or something else that would scare me. I blinked back a few unwanted tears and slowly shook my head.
He left and I took a glance at my clock. 5:00, the neon green numbers read in the dark. Well, I had a half hour until my alarm normally went off to my complaints and groaning.
I was awake now, so why not stay up? There was no reason not to, so I turned to the computer to see who was logged on. I didn’t expect anybody, but was surprised when only one name flashed on my buddy list.
XxDeathstarxX
Interesting…. Why would Brent be on right now?
Gwinny666: Hey, Brent. Why are you on right now?
XxDeathstarxX: I have insomnia. I can’t sleep sometimes.
Gwinny666: Oh, that must suck…
XxDeathstarxX: Yeah, it does. I get bored really easily too.
Gwinny666: I see, I hope I didn’t bug you.
XxDeathstarxX: No, don’t worry. You didn’t.
Gwinny666: Oh, okay. Well, I’ve gotta go.

No, actually I didn’t. But he didn’t have to know this…

XxDeathstarxX: Okay, well I won’t burden you any longer. Bye.
Gwinny666: Bye.
XxDeathstarxX has logged off.
So now I had another fact on Brent. Dang, he had a lot of problems. Anorexia, insomnia… wow.
I slowly shook my head and spun around in the chair, easily amused. After a couple of minutes, the feeling of dizziness passed and I was laughing hysterically. Then I fell out of the chair and collapsed into a fit of unstoppable laughter on the floor, my eyes watering.
Why? I had noooooo idea. This was something I did when I got extremely bored and had nothing else to do…and I made you think Robby was weird… Ha.
Oh, crap. There’s my alarm. 6:00 AM. Oh, boy… I removed the hair tie to let my hair fall down and randomly tossed it on the floor. Good Luck finding that later.
Feverishly, I rummaged through my drawers, coming out with a black From First To Last shirt I’d recently acquired and a pair of tight fitting blue jeans. I slipped two belts on, the three-row hanging down to my thigh.
“ BYE GWIN!” I heard my dad call before the door slammed shut. I murmured a farewell that was barely heard by myself.