Strings Attached

~Chapter 11~

Manchester, England.

(Daniyal Hasan)

Hey girl I'm waiting on ya, I'm waiting on ya

Come on and let me sneak you out

And have a celebration, a celebration

The music up, the windows down

Yeah, we'll be doing what we do

Just pretending that we're cool and we

Know it too (know it too)

Yeah, we'll keep doing what we do

Just pretending that we're cool, so tonight

Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun

I know we only met but let's pretend its love

And never, never, never stop for anyone

Tonight let's get some and 'Live While We're Young'.

Everyone gets into a jolly mood as I get to the middle of the song and I feel the last dregs of my anger creeping away from me. All the jolliness around energizes me and I keep strumming my guitar relentlessly. All the strength I have, I channel into the strings and suddenly, they snap!

There's a collective 'Awwh!' as two of the chords come undone. I was expecting as much. And what's more, I wanted it to happen. It will prompt me to a take a sooner than expected detour to the repair shop. I've been pushing it off for quite a while.

People are concerned about my guitar and ask me if I need help getting it repaired, but I just laugh it off. "It's no big deal, guys. You loved the song?" I ask them, and they hoot in answer. "I'll take that as a yes," I tell them, my eyes twinkling. "And that's all the incentive I want."

As the excitement dies down a little, I take a seat at the back and chat with a few of my classmates, the ones with whom I've a good rapport. Everyone is surrounding me like bees to honey. I haven't really given any impromptu performance like this before, so they're pretty excited after seeing me in action. I love the attention they're showering on me. I should do this more.

"You were really awesome back there!" a girl comes and says to me, excitedly. "Too bad your guitar didn't support you till the end." She has a different accent than everyone else, she dulled her consonants and rounded her vowels when she spoke. And when I lift my head to see who it is, I realize it's the same girl whom Chuck was looking for today. The shorty. The one with the flat, sturdy shoes. The sassy one.

"Aren't you the girl from the parking lot episode yesterday?" I ask her, smiling quizzically. Her face immediately scrunches in distaste. "Yeah, and you're the guy who helped me get away." She breaks into a grin. "Thank you." "Yeah, no problem," I tell her, imitating her grin. "My friend was looking for you at break, though." Her eyes widen in surprise, and I think a bit of fear too. "Thank God! I wasn't in the cafeteria then." "He's not so bad, trust me." "Only because he's your friend." "No, I'm serious."