My Guitar

We got through work okay. Tess didn't bring up the song I'd promised to play her, but I grabbed the music and a guitar and played it anyway. I even sang for her. I tended to only do that when alone, but I figured we both needed to be cheered up. There were people in the shop at the time, but we didn't care. There wasn't an opportunity to, we were just trying to distract ourselves from what was missing. It felt weird to be playing on that guitar, though. We left work at five, running back to our dorm for a minute to get Tess' stuff and drop off my school supplies. Then we set off for the stadium.
When we got there, there were a thousand preteen and teenage girls screaming, along with their annoyed parents. I saw a teenage boy with a guitar case, talking to a guard. He seemed unhappy, but the guard seemed to say he had to deal with it. He unhappily stalked inside, but I think I was the only one that saw it. That case was familiar, though... It was mine! That kid had to try to play and tune my guitar, clearly it wasn't going very well. I laughed to myself, thinking about the sound he was probably getting.
Tess and I finally made our way inside, getting to our seats reasonably quickly. Suddenly, there was an announcement. "Would the employees from Eau Claire Music in the crowd please make their way to Hallway U." Tess and I looked at each other. Us? Why? Shrugging, we made our way back through the crowd to find Hallway U. It was where my orchestra concerts set up, so I quickly led Tess to it. There was a heavyset man there, who ran a metal detector over us, then led us to another room. In the room were five boys about our age, and I recognised the kid from outside. I grinned, holding out my hands. They seemed surprised I knew what they needed, but I just got to work.
Holding out my hand, I requested a guitar pick. One boy handed me one. "Anybody particularly attached to this?" I asked, and - with the green light from them - broke the pick in two. I then used the pieces to tune the guitar, holding the pegs in on one end, tuning with the other. Once satisfied, I turned to the boys. "What did you do to that poor guitar?!?! Anyway, some things you need to know. Who's to play the guitar?"
"That'd be me." One boy answered.
"Right, you need to know that that's the only way to tune this guitar, so if it un-tunes itself you might need me again. Other then that, it'll only play certain chords with a pick, so if you have to play only A minor, Eb Major, C# Major, D minor, or F Major, you'll be fine, but otherwise I suggest no pick. Good? Great. You ready to play guitar on the big stage?"
"Now I am." He grinned, and I smiled back. Then I turned to Tess.
"You ready to go?" I asked, and she barely nodded. We walked out, but she stopped me outside the door.
"Do you know who that was?" When I shook my head, she sighed. "Girl, that was One Direction! You just tuned - not to mention taught - how to play the guitar Niall Horan is about to play on stage! Wait, I hear something!" We both pressed our ear to the door, listening.
"How was she so calm?" One voice asked.
"Dunno... Maybe she's not a fan?"
"Dude, with a friend like that, she HAS to be a fan! Besides, why else would she be here?"
"My friend, you may not be aware, but people get dragged to our concerts all the time. Hey... Niall? You okay?"
"Huh? Yeah, yeah. I'm... I'm fine."
"Bro, you're trailing your hand over where she touched on that guitar like she's some huge celebrity you can't believe you just met. You sure you're fine?"
"Yeah, yeah. I just... I can't believe she knew just what I needed. It's like... Like this is her guitar."
"Yep. Maybe it was. But as of now, it's yours. And now that you know how to play it, you're all good, right?"
"Yeah... All good." Tess turned to me, freaking out. I just laughed, leading her back to our seats. The lights dimmed, then came up bright. The concert was beginning.

Notes

Thanks for reading!
xoxo
~Stormy