Page 18 of Our Final Encore

She sways a little bit, her arm grazing against Alex’s, and a lazy smile fills her face. “So, you play guitar, right? That issocool. I’m totally jealous.”

He grins and nods, acting humble like he always does. Alex finally took my advice, after years of prodding, to start posting videos of himself playing guitar. It started on Instagram, and once he gained a small following there he moved to YouTube. Now he’s somewhat of a mini celebrity here in town. He covers pop and rock songs, but adds a unique folksy twist to them that’s all his own.

“Thanks. It’s not that hard, you could learn if you wanted to.”

“Maybe you could teach me,” she says playfully. I no longer feel like I’m part of this conversation, and it’s officially starting to feel awkward as I stand here and watch it happen.

It’s hard to deny that the two of them almost…match. Her long, platinum hair and big brown eyes compliment his golden boy features. I can’t help but think he must be attracted to her. Everyone is. She’s by far the most popular girl in our class, and Alex is quickly becoming one of the more popular guys.

Them being together would make sense.Way more sense than he and I ever would.

“Don’t you think, Opal?” Brooke’s voice cuts through my thoughts and I suddenly realize I’ve been staring at the two of them for way too long.

“Hmm?” I ask, my cheeks turning red.

“Don’t you think Alex would look even hotter with short hair?” Brooke shoots me a grin that’s laced with something less than innocent.I hate her.Wait, what? No, that’s ridiculous. I’ve never been competitive with other girls, and I really do try to stay out of drama.But part of me really does want to hate her right now.

“I like his long hair,” I say, keeping my face void of emotion as I take another tiny sip of beer. I don’t want her to see that her comment had any effect on me. Alex is just my friend, that’s what I told her because it’s the truth.

“I agree,” Alex says, but now he’s smiling down at her. She’s a couple inches shorter than I am, so their height difference is quite evident.

“I’m gonna go get some water,” I say before I slide through the crowd, desperate to create some space between them and I. What the hell was I thinking bringing him here?

I know what I was thinking, that maybe after years of teetering between invisibility and being a total outcast that I might finally have a shot at being cool. What a stupid idea that was.

“Hey,” Alex’s deep voice startles me from behind and I spin around, my eyes wide. “Are you okay?”

Grasping my bottle of water too tightly, I nod my head. “Yeah, great. Never been better.” It comes out sounding way more sarcastic than it should.

He narrows his eyes at me slightly. “You sure? You’re acting weird. Do you want to leave?”

I shake my head. “Of course not. We just got here.”

He doesn’t look convinced.

“Alex!” One of the guys from the baseball team comes up behind him and slaps him on the shoulder. “Bro, you gotta play us a song. Your shit is awesome, I listen to it all the time.”

He scratches the back of his neck. “Thanks, I didn’t bring my guitar, though. Next time for sure, man.” I can tell that even though he’s flattered, he’s a little overwhelmed by the attention. He’s never really liked being the center of attention, even though with a face and voice like his he practically demands it.

“Yo, Brooke! Doesn’t your sister have a guitar?” the guy yells over his shoulder.

“Yeah!” She yells from across the room, practically jumping into the air out of excitement. “Hold on,” she says before running upstairs. She comes back down holding a pink acoustic guitar, then bounces over giddily to hand it to him.

“That’s okay, I don’t really know what to play.”

She sticks out her bottom lip and pouts like a dog. “Please? For me? It’ll be my birthday present.”

Oh, brother.A nervous grin stretches across Alex’s lips, and suddenly a pang of jealousy shoots through my heart.

“Someone turn down the music!” Brooke yells over the crowd. Somebody turns it off entirely, leaving us all in silence.

“Okay,” he says as he puts the guitar’s strap over his neck and walks backward a few steps away from the crowd. Everyone watches him silently, clearly interested to see what will happen next. My stomach lurches and I look down at the floor. I don’t know why, but I don’t like this.

Alex doesn’t really perform for other people except online. I guess I kind of felt like it was our special thing, him singing to me. It was silly of me to think it would always be that way.

His fingers start strumming a melody I instantly recognize as Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. It’s one of my favorites. I peek up at him to see his green eyes are locked on mine, but he quickly looks away, his eyes darting over to Brooke as soon as we make eye contact. Everyone in the room seems to be transfixed by his guitar playing, and when he begins singing the lyrics, people whistle and clap.

He looks so…happy.I didn’t really expect that. As soon as he started playing it’s like all of his apprehensiveness disappeared. He looks completely in his element.

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