Twenty minutes later she'd came out of the room, trying to adjust a headband, humming something off of the self titled CD. Taking a seat on one side of the couch, she smiled.

"So. Um, I texted William finally, and he doesn't care how long I stay, not that he knows I'm here. Did you guys have any plans today? If you need me to go home, just tell me."

"Plans? What are those?" Jeff asked half-seriously, grabbing for the guitar the case on the other side of the room.

"So you're all just okay with me chillin' here then? For a few more days atleast..."

"Yeah, it's cool."

"Hey Seb, I totally didn't think of bringing one of my guitars with me...mind if I use one of yours?" AJ asked, already admiring the hardware of the blacktop American deluxe Fender Strat that Jeff was messing with before she added, "And usually I'd bring my Martin & CO, I've had a travel size one since junior year, it's been with me everywhere, I just wasn't thinking and kind of left in a rush because my emotions got in the way."

"Have you ever played Takamine ones before?"

"YOU HAVE A TAKAMINE?! Ugh they have such rich sound, they're warmer than M&C's and tend to be anywhere from $200 to $2,000 more per guitar and OH MY GOD IT'S SO PRETTY!"

"Look at her, she's like a teenage boy at a car show." David said, shrugging as he went to head downstairs to fire up the xbox, intending to smoke everybody this time in halo now that AJ wouldn't be playing that round.

"THAT'S NOT A BAD THING WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE!" AJ called after him, eyes wide with awe as Seb handed her the black acoustic.

Immediately she started messing around with different chord progressions, two minutes later realizing why one sounded so damn familiar.

"Oh! Duh, why didn't I think of this? Isn't this- I need a capo."

"Here."

The minute Jeff handed her it she put it on the the first fret and started playing the chords again, this time remembering the strum pattern with the palm mutes.

It didn't hit her what song it was until she realized Jeff had started playing a lead lick over it, which only made her smile so wide her face hurt.

It'd been Welcome to My Life.

"Damn. Can't believe it took me half the song to figure out what this was! And like, I don't even remember looking up chords or anything, I just think I listened to it so much I learned it by memory!"

Seb only looked at her and shook his head, "You sure you need us to teach you stuff? You seem like you're pretty good self taught."

She giggled.

"Trust me, that's the only song I can play like that,, everything else I need chords for. But seriously, out of everything the one thing I really want to learn is the repetitive little lick from Crazy, or the intro to Your Love Is A Lie. Oh, and Perfect, too - I've spent like three years trying to play that and I always do it wrong. And then I'm cool with whatever else you guys wanna throw at me."

"That's doable. Seb, I'll teach her the lead parts for that stuff and then you can follow up with the rhythm, that way if she ever feels like doing a cover or something she'll know both."

He nodded.

Half an hour later, she'd finally got most of what she'd wanted to learn done - save for the intro to Your Love Is A Lie, where her fingers kept fumbling over the frets just milliseconds late.

"Hey, do you mind if I work with chords for a bit? I've got this thing where I can only play lead for so long before my coordination goes out the window - then if I switch to chords for a bit it comes back, so I flip back and forth."

"That's fine, Seb, why don't you take over for a bit? I'm gonna go see how badly David's ass is getting kicked, he thinks he can actually play, it's sad. Chuck and Pierre are probably teaming up against him with plasma grenades and lack of ammo."

"You guys want to go another round later, I'll own you all again and then I'll pay for dinner to make up for it." AJ suggested, but he'd already left the room.

"Paying for dinner for the six of us? You sure you have enough cash?" Seb teased, turning to look at AJ, then the guitar, then the way her fingers were already forming chords against the frets.

"What do you want to start with? I think since you've got Crazy down pretty well, that'd be the best to start with."

"I'm perfectly fine with that. There's so many different ways to play stuff though, usually I just do traditional long chords...it's weird but that's how I play. OH WAIT I GOT IT! How did you guys play that one version of it when Pierre was really sick so David had to sing the chorus the entire time? I mean, that's probably how you always play it, but I'd still like to learn because it's different for what I normally do and-"

She went crossed-eyed at the finger he put to her lips, but the answering smile cleared the moment of confusion as he leaned over and kissed her, pulling back with a slight smirk.

"You're talking too much. And it's just power chords, really. Simplified versions of the ones you already know." he explained, getting up, and before AJ realized what the scene before her was turning into, she already knew how things would end.

'It's like I've stepped into a Nicholas Sparks book...I mean, come on. He's doing the typical musician teaching his girlfriend stuff pose...' she mused as she realized he'd gotten up and came to sit by her on the couch - well, he'd climbed partially over her, so he was sitting behind her with she between his legs, one of his arms resting over the side of the guitar she held, his other hand resting over her own near the fretboard.

"Really? This looks like a scene right out of the video for Keith Urban's You'll Think Of Me...man, now there's a blast from the past. Funny how things change...I just."

Her smile dropped in an instant, the emotions in her eyes seemed to change just slightly. She actually almost dropped the guitar, and would've if Seb hadn't been sitting how he was with her.

"It was Amelia and I's first concert, back when we were kids. I was in junior high then, about to graduate. Wow, times have changed." she said sadly, before she started strumming at the chord she was on.

"So...how does that go then?"

"Well, here," he started, and her hand dropped from the fretboard so he could show her the chord progression, to which she mimicked, doing some blind palm muting just to get a feel for it.

"Now you start strumming it, don't bother palm muting, and I'll do this," he grinned, moving her hand along the fretboard through the progression as she played, trying to remember how exactly the pattern went.

Before long she'd gotten the movement of both the fretting and the strum pattern down, and Seb hand moved his hands from the guitar to wrapping them around her waist, resting his head on her shoulder as he listened to her play through it a few times.

"You should try singing with it."

"Uh-" she paused, dropping the pick. "I don't- I can't- my voice is-you don't want to hear me sing."

"Please?"

"I swear, if you do puppy dog eyes I'm gonna- damnit, fine!" she giggled, reaching for the pick again, trying to remember how it went so she wouldn't screw up.

"Tell me what's wrong with society When everywhere I look, I see

Young girls dying to be on TV They won't stop till they've reached their dreams

Diet pills, surgery Photoshopped pictures in magazines

Telling them how they should be It doesn't make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy? Is anybody gonna save me?

Can anybody tell me what's going on? Tell me what's going on?

If you open your eyes You'll see that something is wrong," she sang, stopping just after the first chorus.

If she'd still been human, she would've blushed scarlet, she never sang anymore - well, she did, just never in front of anyone.

"See? Your voice isn't so bad. It's all in your head. And besides - little off topic here, but you play really well for someone with such small hands," he remarked, which caused her immediately to turn her head to look at him, lips set in a half smirk with an eyebrow raised.

"Please tell me you're not going to make a joke out of that."

He laughed.

"Judging by what you just said, your mind's quicker than my mouth. And you said you weren't as bad as David, yeah right."

"Do you want to see how corrupted my mind is?" she challenged, setting the guitar down resting against the side of the couch, turning where she sat so her legs were sprawled across the cushions and over his knee.

Before he could answer however, her ears picked up a familiar song, although it wasn't something she was glad to hear.

"Fuck." While she'd been playing guitar, her phone had flipped to the spotify app and had opened one of the playlists - the one she listened to when she needed to make herself cry.

Within the first two chords of the piano, the familiar melody brings back so many memories, and before the singer gets the first word out tears are running down her face and she's standing, trying to act normal.

"AJ, what is-"

"I can only imagine What it will be like When I walk By your side

I can only imagine What my eyes will see When your face Is before me...

I can only imagine..."

The sharp crack of her phone being thrown across the room is heard, and upon hitting the opposite wall the back of it opened, dropping the battery and memory card, silencing whatever song had acted as a trigger.

"Adeline, what-" Seb again went to ask her what was wrong and what'd caused her sudden change in behavior, but she'd already ran to the bathroom and slammed the door.

Sebastien sat there in shocked silence for a few minutes, unsure of what exactly had happened. One song had caused her to throw a complete fit in the span of thirty seconds.

Getting up and walking towards the bathroom, he figured he'd atleast check on her, whatever song it had been had really shaken her.

Well, until he heard the guys coming back upstairs, Chuck complaining about how they always ended up teaming up against each other and then would all turn on him when he thought they were all going to turn on David.

"Uh, Seb, where's AJ?" Jeff asked.

"She's in the bathroom, sobbing. Her phone started playing this song and she just...reacted to it instantly. I was gonna see if she's okay."

"Did she say why the song got to her?"

"She didn't even get to the chorus, threw her phone and it split apart. I tried asking her what was wrong, but she'd ran to the bathroom already."

The others nodded, "It's probably her and an exes' song or something, girls can get like that." Pierre suggested as they all went to walk.

Chuck was the first person to knock on the door.

"Hey AJ, you okay? If you need to cry, it's fine, it's not like we're gonna laugh or anything."

"Music can hit people in different ways, we get it," Jeff added.

It was quiet, and the guys realized it didn't exactly sound like a girl sobbing from inside the bathroom. It sounded more...almost like a dog whimpering.

Pierre and David exchanged a look, "Dude remember when she took out that kid from Panic as a wolf? That's 'cuz she got really angry...what if she gets like that when she's emotional?"

"Nose goes! Just kidding guys, Seb gets to deal with this one!" David announced, grabbing Pierre's hand and pulling him back a few feet, Chuck and Jeff shrugging as they looked at Seb.

"If she's like that, you're the only one that'll understand her right now."

He nodded, looking at the door before knocking on it.

"Adeline, peut vous ouvrir la porte, ma chérie?" he tried, knowing she might actually do it if he asked in french.

Reluctantly the door opened, and everyone got a shock.

Instead of the short blonde girl standing there, well, it still was her, but it wasn't.