The Treble With Love

5: blessed with good looks and stupidity

School was finished, and I was walking with Elijah, Andrea, and Jack to the parking lot.

Danny and Jerrold were standing next to a mint green mini van decorated with purple peace signs that was parked next to Jack's yellow corvette.

"Hey." Danny waved at us.

"Yo....what up....dudes?" Jerrold said. I noticed he had a guitar of his own, so I'm guessing he won't need to use mine again.

"Hi." I said.

"Hey." Jack started. "So we are all gonna meet up at Betty's Burgers downtown, then head to Bri and Selena's house to practice."

"Sounds good. I'll see you there." Andrea said, getting into a rusty blue Saturn decorated with various bumper stickers.

Danny and Jerrold got into the minivan.
Elijah got into a red Ford pickup truck, and Jack and I went into his corvette.
I was looking out the window as Jack drove, trying so hard not to stare at his beautiful features.

"So, uh, Bri?" Jack sounded nervous. It felt weird, hearing his tone of voice like that. This was Jack. He was supposed to be confident and cool at all times.

"Yeah?" I asked, shifting my attention. to face him.

"Do you think Selena likes me. Like, like likes me?"

I almost laughed. Jack was supposed to be this super cool bad boy with no insecurities whatsoever.

"Of course she does. The question is why wouldn't she like you? Your so nice and sweet and-" I started, then stopped. I could feel my face start to burn red in embarrassment. I was about to pour out my entire feelings to him.

And furthermore I should have taken this chance and made it seem like Selena didn't like him. Then maybe I might actually have a chance.

But I wasn't the kind of person that did that, was I?

"Really? You think so?" He looked happy that Selena liked him.

"Yeah." I said, looking back out the window.

I hated that he liked Selena, and I could feel the jealousy rise up in my my stomach. It was a bitter and really unfamiliar feeling.

I hated that I was jealous.

When we arrived at Betty's Burgers, everyone, including Selena, was already there, sitting in a big corner booth.

Jack ended up sitting by my sister the on left end, while I ended up by Andrea on the right side.

The waitress came and grabbed our drinks. Jack and Andrea both ordered Cokes, Selena got a water, Danny got a sweetened iced coffe, white Jerrold got some hot tea, and Elijah and I both got strawberry milkshakes with extra whipped cream.

"Okay, so the party is on Saturday night, which means we have roughly two days to get our act together." Jack said.

"I think it would be dumb to learn a bunch of original songs in that time frame." Andrea pointed out.

"Yeah, maybe we can just do some covers of songs that we all know, and finish with the one that Bri wrote." Elijah suggested.

"Yeah good, idea."

The waitress came back with our drinks and we then gave our food orders.

Everyone but me and Selena ordered the same thing: classic bacon burger with fries. Selena got a Cesar salad and I got the triple threat heart attack. It's a five pound burger with basically everything from bacon to lettuce to seven different types of cheese on it.
We talked about different songs we all knew and our food eventually came.

"Holy shit." Andrea said, looking at my burger.

"You gonna eat that all?" Jack asked with an amused look on his face.

"Yep." I said looking at it hungrily. I love  food.

"Yeah, you go!" Elijah high-fived me from across the table.

"I don't even know how we are related." Selena picked at her salad.

We all talked about music as we eat our food and made out a game plan for the party.

We finished up at Betty's Burgers at about 4:30 and we all went to mine and Selena's house to practice.

"Gah," Andrea said when Selena started singing. "Make it stop!"

"Be nice." Elijah teased Andrea.

"The girl sucks." Andrea muttered as Selena sang on.

I couldn't argue with her on that, but all of the other guys looked at Selena like she was some kind of goddess, so me, Elijah, and Andrea didn't really get much of a say in the matter.

I really do love my sister, but right about now I would like to superglue a gorilla mask onto her face and see if the guys still worshipped her.

I pinched my arm. That's terrible of me to think about my sister like that. It's not her fault she got blessed with good looks and stupidity, while I just got the brains.

After practice, we said our goodbyes and everyone headed home.

"Jack totally loves me." Selena plopped onto the couch.

"I'm sure he does." I just sat on the floor, ignoring one of the four leather couches.

"He says I sing like an angel."

"Oh really?" My voice was coming out in monotone.

"Yeah. I can't wait to perform in front of everyone! It'll be so exciting!" Selena cheered before standing up and running out of the living room and up to her bedroom.

And then a thought occured to me.

People were going to hear Selena sing.

She would be utterly humiliated.

I was going to have to do something about it. I couldn't let Selena make a fool out of herself.

I had to let her know.

"Selena!" I called running up the stairs.

"Yeah," she said as I burst into her room.

I pulled out my phone an pulled up the record app.

"Have you ever actually heard yourself sing, like on a recording?"

"No, why?"

"Because you sound worser than you think, and I can't let you embarrass yourself. " I told her.

"Excuse me!?"

"Just sing! I can prove it to you," I held up my phone.

"Get out of my room." She glared at me.

"But Sel-"

"Out."

I slumped my shoulders and walked out of her room.

It was later in the night, when Selena walked down the stairs.

I was making my cold lunch for tomorrow, when she came and sat on the counter by me.

"Your right. I suck."

I know.

"Sorry Selena." I responded.

"But I still want to be the lead singer."

"I-I have an idea." I can't believe I going to say what I was about to suggest. This could have been my moment where Jack hears Selena for who she is.

"Have you ever seen that Hanna Montanna episode were Miley sings hidden backstage so everyone thinks its Lily that is singing?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"That's what we can do."