SHATTERED

twenty-eight

alex

"do you need help finding anything?" i asked as a customer walked in and stood there for a moment as he looked around. he looked completely lost.

"uh, yeah, actually... i need new strings for my acoustic, but i only just started to learn how to play, so i'm not really sure what i'm looking for," he admitted embarrassedly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

i stood up from my stool behind the counter. "follow me."

he followed me over to where all the guitar strings were. i explained to him what strings i personally use and pointed him to more beginner-friendly strings. he thanked me, then followed me back towards the counter so that he could pay for them.

after he paid and left, i sighed. i propped my elbows on the counter and held my face in my hands as i closed my eyes.

i'm hungover as shit, and the bits and pieces i remember from last night are confusing the fuck out of me.

why does saylor keep helping me? i don't get it. like she said, i've been nothing but an asshole to her, so why does she keep helping me?

not that i need her help... but still.

i rubbed at my face as i tried to recall more from last night. i let my head fall onto the counter as i remembered that i had fell to the floor, and she had helped me up.

"i don't need your help," i grumbled. "i just told—"

"shut the fuck up," she cut me off.

honestly, i'm still a little taken aback by that. i am at everything that happened last night. she actually went off me, which just seems so unlike her.

that being said... i did manage to get her to talk to me, like i said i would, so, there's that.

after an entire damn month.

i held back a groan as i heard someone plug a guitar into an amp and start playing. i looked up, and i saw that a customer had grabbed a guitar to play it. they weren't half-bad, but considering the fact that my head was still pounding, i wanted nothing more than for them to stop.

•

two days later, jessie is back in new york, so we're all in the studio again. it's the first time i'm seeing saylor since the other night. she didn't say anything about it, but she actually greeted me with a small nod and didn't avoid looking at me... so it seems that she's done with the silent treatment or whatever.

finally.

we finished the song that we didn't get to finish the other night in almost no time at all. once it was finished, we moved onto the last song for the ep. we actually struggled quite a bit for this one, and we were pretty stumped.

i looked down at my guitar. i was trying to come up with a chord progression. sometimes, we'll get the chord progression and everything done before we even write any lyrics... which is how it seems this one is going to be.

"saylor, could you play something like this, while i play?" i asked before i played what i had come up with.

she glanced over at me. her brows knitted together a bit as she watched my fingers on my fretboard. "wait, i'm not following. what the fuck are you playing?"

i rolled my eyes. i moved closer to her on the couch. she had her own guitar in her lap, since she had also been trying to come up with a chord progression. "give me your hand."

i gave her no time to argue as i took her left hand in mine. i positioned her fingers on her fretboard. "like that, alright? now watch."

i sat back, and i positioned my own fingers back on my fretboard. "watch," i strummed a few times. "now, slide it down."