You jam with Jenna and are interrupted

Guitar? Were you allowed to bring guitars? You hadn’t brought one. You remember the hint that was offered. You glanced around the Island resort while you sat there with Jenna on the edge of the pool. As if your eyes were magnetically drawn to it, you see a guitar hanging on the balcony on the second floor of the main Island complex. It was placed on the wall as a decoration to fit in the Spanish style of the resort building.

“You said you really wanted to learn how to play guitar right, Jenna?” You ask her.

Her eyes lit up.

“Oh my god. You have a guitar here? Can you really teach me?” Jenna asked.

You point to the guitar hanging on the balcony walls and smile, “Someone up there must really like you.”

Jenna claps her hands and gets up and drags you up with her. She holds your hands and pulls you to the main building of the Island villa, saying, “You got to teach me, Matt.”

The cheerful girl dragged you up the stairs to the second floor of the Island resort and through the shaded balcony area. She takes off the decorative guitar off the hanging of the balcony wall and plucks a few strings. A pick fell out of the soundhole as she did, and she picked it up it.

“Yee! It works,” Jenna exclaimed.

“That’s great. We got to tune it first,” You say as you sit in front of Jenna on a bench as she fiddles around with the guitar.

“Show me how,” Jenna said, placing the guitar on my lap and putting her hands under her chin, staring eagerly.

You started tuning the guitar and turning the tuner, plucking strings, and showing her how to tune it. She looked on attentively.

You showed her how to play an E minor and A sus2, a basic chord, and handed her the guitar and the pick. You watch over it as she worked mechanically over the strings and strum it. Her hand and playing looked robotic and stiff.

“Like this?” Jenna asks, smiling and strumming. The sound is way off, but you could tell she is having fun.

You decide to be bold and sit directly behind her on the bench in front of you, putting your body behind hers and guiding her from behind. You overlap her arms and hands and show her how it's done.

“Your arms should be fluid, just do it like you are painting the board,” You say coming behind her and guiding her hands correctly on the guitar.

You help her place her fingers on the fret with your hands and then show her how to strum the guitar in a fluid motion. She watches you carefully and tries on her own, all the while smiling.

“You’re a regular Eric Clapton,” You say as Jenna starts rocking out and strumming the guitar nonsensically.

“Oh, shut up. I’m a beginner,” She laughs.

“It takes practice. You shouldn’t be worried if you don’t get it right away.” You say.

“I want to hear you play something Mr. Professional,” Jenna says and hands you the guitar, and you sit in front of her again.

You take the guitar and think to yourself and begin hitting the chords to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” by the Beatles. As you play, Jenna says, “You have to sing.”

You stop strumming. “I really can’t sing.”

“Who cares if you can’t sing. I don’t recognize the song if you aren’t going to sing it.”

You consider and let go. She wanted you to be confident right?

“♪Yeah, I’ll… tell you something,♪” You say in a deadpan, non-singing voice. “♪I think you’ll understand.♪”

“♪When I say that something. I want to hold your hand,♪” Jenna joins in. Together you both sing offkey and out of sync in quasi singing-speaking voices and laughing as you go along. All the while a long buzz goes off in your pocket.

A knock on the door interrupts your jam session.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I,” Tom asked, smiling. Jenna immediately lit up upon seeing Tom. A look that you despaired you has never seen directed at you from her... at least not yet.

Jenna responds, “No. Matt was just teaching me how to play guitar.”

“Sweet man. You know how to play the guitar?” Tom seemed genuinely interested and friendly.

You nodded. “Yeah, man. You want to learn too?”

“Nah. Music was never my thing brah. Sorry to ask this, but you mind if I borrow Jenna real quick for a chat?” Tom said.

“I don’t mind. It’s really up to her though,” You say.

“I’ll talk to you later, Matt,” Jenna says and gets up and leaves with Tom.

You can’t help but feel a bit pained as you watch her go but smile to yourself and put the guitar back in it’s a place. At least I’ll have one friend maybe.

She was way out of your league anyway. You just wanted someone to talk to. Might as well make the best of a bad situation and try to take some experiences away from this. You stay on the balcony looking out onto the Island resort. Rick and Liz were sitting on beanies laughing and talking by the pool. You couldn’t see where Rachel and Mike were. Paige swung on a hammock by herself. You see, Jenna and Tom walking out of the villa beneath you and go to a private area right above you. You look at Paige, who is eyeing them with a bit of malice behind their back as they disappear into a side alley near the balcony directly below you.