Old Scars/Future Hearts (Adopted by Alex Gaskarth)

Chapter 4

Jack sits down with me and a guitar. "It will be a little harder since you can't move your wrist. Which band do you want me to try and find a song that would be easy or semi-easy for you to learn?" "Sleeping With Sirens?"

He thinks and I watch him play around a little. "Ooh, I have an idea." My mind immediately sticks on the word idea. "Ray, not that type of an idea." I give him a guilty smile. He messes with the guitar a little and I recognize he is tuning it.

"Okay put your pointer on third string, second fret, your middle on sixth string, fourth fret, ring on fifth string, fourth fret, and pinky on fourth string, fourth fret." I do as he says. "Okay, strum the sixth string. I'm going to just refer to that as bass for now. Then, strum up, strumming all of the strings. I'm just going to say up for that."

I remember what he is saying. "Okay, now repeat as I say. Bass up, bass up bass bass bass up, bass up, bass bass up, bass up bass bass bass up, bass up." I do it as he says. "Okay, now you are going to take off your middle, ring, and pinky fingers." I do so.

"Now repeat again. Bass up, bass up bass bass bass up, bass up, bass bass up, bass up bass bass bass up, bass up." He smiles. "Okay, the whole verse is repeating that five times." I watch him write it down as I practice it.

"Okay, the next part, the chorus, is starting with the first chord again. You strum it. Up, up down, down up down, down up down, down up down." I do as he says. "Now your pointer goes on fourth string, second fret and your middle goes on third string, second fret. Same strumming. Up, up down, down up down, down up down, down up down."

I do it and he smiles. "The final chord is pointer on third string, first fret, middle on fifth string, second fret, and ring on fourth string, second fret. Same strumming. The last chord repeats the strumming pattern twice though. That makes up the chorus which repeats twice. The second time the strumming pattern for the last note is played once followed by a single strum of the chord left to ring out."

Jack continues teaching me how to play Two Chord. He works on it with me for a while. Eventually, he has me play it all the way through on my own. I sing while doing so. I finish and there is clapping. I look up and see Dad as well as the rest of their band.

Dad is holding his phone. I see him text something. My phone vibrates. I see a text from him on the group chat. "Look what I just found." I see a video of me playing it and I immediately turn red.

A few minutes later, replies begin coming in. "Holy shit, that is amazing. How long has she been playing?" "That's the thing... Jack had her for three hours after she got the cast off. She has never played guitar before." I look at him curiously. "Is that not normal?"

"Normally, people can't learn something like that so quickly, especially memorized, without having played for years." "Oh." "Do you typically learn things fast?" I nod. "I was in all advanced classes. I was graduating with a bachelors this year." "As a 15 year old?" I nod.

Their eyes all widen. "Damn, you're smart. What else do we not know?" "I've done a ton of acting in school plays. We did The Sound Of Music last year. I was Maria." "Really?" I nod. "Wouldn't you have been a lot shorter?" "Keep in mind that I am currently about the average height of most American boys. It's Alex's genes that are making me tall."

"I thought you said you never talked to anyone besides Riley?" "I didn't unless I was on stage. Preforming is where I let go. All of my previous worries drift away." "Do you have footage?" I smile and nod. I put the DVD into the TV. We watch it.

"Wow, that was amazing." I smile a little. "How much do you project your voice when you are singing those songs?" "Wanna test?" "Maybe not on the bus." I pout. Jack does as well. "Jack, why does at least one of my 15-year-old daughters act more mature than you do?" I smirk.

"Ray, who said I was talking about you?" I playfully glare at him and stick my tongue out. Dad's phone rings. He answers it on speaker. "Hey, what's up?" "Alex, you and Rachel need to come home. Riley was in a softball accident. She's in the hospital."

My heart completely breaks. I try to stand up but Jack grabs onto me. "Let me go!" I pull myself free of his grasp and sprint out the door. I hear someone behind me. "Ray, please stop." I continue running and tears are falling from my eyes. I have no clue if Riley is okay.

"Ray stop!" I go sprinting out into the road in front of me without looking and I hear screeching. A rush if pain goes searing through my leg and then I black out. I wake up again and Jack is next to me. I'm in so much pain. "Ray, you're awake! Oh, thank god." I try to sit up but Jack stops me.

"You have to stay still. We don't know where or how badly you are hurt. We need to wait for the ambulance to arrive." I feel him lightly wipe the tears from my face. "What hurts?" "My leg. A lot." Sirens come close to us. A guy comes over.

He doesn't talk to me much and Jack supplies him with the information he needs to know about me. He puts a splint on my leg. I get put on a back board and they put a neck brace on me. I get loaded into the ambulance. "Wait, I want Jack." The guy nods.

"Jack, come on." Jack comes in. They begin moving. "It's okay, Ray. I think you're being brought to the same hospital your sister is." I feel a sharp prick of a needle. "When is that last time you ate or drank anything?" "Last night." Jack's eyes widen. "You haven't ate anything today? I wouldn't have-" "It's not your fault. I was upset this morning which is why I didn't eat. Frankly, the idea of food didn't even cross my mind today."

I get brought into the hospital and they take a lot of X-rays. I get brought back to a room and Alex is there. "Okay, I'm assuming you are her father?" He nods. "It appears Rachel has a broken femur, a broken tibia, and a broken fibula. She'll need surgery for her leg especially since she has compound fractures of both her tibia and fibula, and her femur is a comminuted fracture. She is very lucky that she doesn't have more injuries; however, we will also do an CAT scan to make sure there is no severe internal bleeding or hemorrhaging."

Dad hugs me. "I love you." A few tears fall down my face. "I'm scared." "Everything will be fine. I'll see you soon." I feel some cold liquid through my IV and I relax some fairly quickly. I get brought back to the operating room. They hook up monitors and put an oxygen mask over my face. I feel some cold through my IV again before I fall asleep.