You Belong With Me

Chapter 6 // Guitar Strings and Piano Keys

"Let's see here...G major, G major 7th, back to G major, and then E major..." I spoke out the tune as I played it on guitar, scribbling the chords down on the notebook next to me.

"Hey!" I suddenly heard from beside me, causing me to jump slightly.

I looked up to see Avery with her hands behind her back, leaning over to look at my notebook.

"Whatcha doin'?" Avery asked, imitating Isabella from Phineas and Ferb, one of her favourite shows and one of the only ones that I can actually tolerate.

"Just messing around on my guitar," I mumbled, shaking my head as I calmed myself down from the scare.

"Oooo! Can I sing with you?!" she asked, eyes lighting up at the thought.

"Well, I wasn't really singing, but if you want to I guess. What song?" I decided, trying to be a decent big sister despite the fact that she barged into my room unannounced and scared the living daylights out of me.

As soon as I saw the mischievous grin on her face as she opened her mouth, I knew I had made a mistake by asking. "How about-"

"Actually, I think I'll choose!" I hollered, drowning out her voice.

"Hey, no fair!"

"Look, Avery, my young grasshopper, you're going to have to learn one day that you can't always have it your way. If anything, I'm doing you a favor. Trust me, you're going to thank me in the long run," I argued persuasively, trying to smooth talk my way out of the track of Frozen.

"Fine, you big butt."

"Woah, woah, language," I joked as I raised an eyebrow at her to which she just rolled her eyes, causing me to laugh.

"Okay, what about 'Butterfly Fly Away' by Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus? You should know that one from Hannah Montana."

She sucked in a big breath of air in a gasp before releasing it into one excited sentence, "Yeah, I know this one!"

I just smiled, looking down at my guitar as I set my fingers on the frets.

I led her into the song and pretty much dragged her through the rest of it since she didn't know all of the lyrics and was practically tone deaf.

It made me smile at first at how - let's say inexperienced - she was, but I soon felt that smile fade as I remembered when Madison and I would sing or play together, sometimes with Avery too.

We would always have so much fun making music, Madison playing the couple chords that she knew on piano, or just singing with me.

I would even sometimes write songs for us to perform. I remember she would learn the corresponding piano chords off of Youtube just to perform it with me in front of our families.

We never liked the same genres of music, but that was the one musical thing that we could do together that we could just laugh and have fun with, not caring about our different tastes.

I was snapped back into reality when I realized we had already reached the end of the song and I was still repeating the proper chords.

Noticing this, I brought the song to an end by repeating them one more time and then brushing my hand all the way down on the last one, letting the tune fade into silence.

"That was awesome!" exclaimed Avery, grabbing my attention.

I put on a small smile just for her as Dad appeared, leaning against my door frame.

"Alrighty, time for bed, munchkin!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," mumbled Avery, slowly making her way to the door.

"If you know, then why aren't you in bed yet?" Dad joked as he raised an eyebrow, reminding me where I get that habit from.

"I'm going!" she shouted back, already halfway down the hall.

Dad turned to leave when he did a double take, looking at me.

"So...are, um - are you good?"

Dad was never the best at talking about more sensitive issues or really anything that wasn't a joking matter.

"Yeah, all good, just tired. Goodnight," I decided to say.

I wasn't sure if he fully believed me or not, but he let it go either way, waving as he left the room.

"Goodnight, Mom!" I hollered as I peaked my head out of my room, hearing her shout back a goodnight from her own.

I closed the door, leaning against it as I let out a large sigh, still thinking about what used to be and wishing I could have it back more than anything.