"Can I sit?" Theophilus asked. Lars nodded, still on autopilot. Damn! He was very good. The thing even sounded exactly like Theophilus.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Theophilus asked.
Lars' answer was immediate. "Because I don't want you to fade away. I don't think my conjuring powers are strong enough to hold a mirage of your magnitude for long. So, I want to look my fill. Do you come with the real Theophilus' memories as well? Because— Ouch!"
Lars looked down and rubbed the now throbbing spot on his arm. Theophilus' mirage was definitely not nice, although it wasn't like Theophilus himself was nice anyway.
Suddenly, he had a face full of Theophilus who had bent into his line of sight and was looking up at him. "See, you blinked and got distracted, and I'm still here. You've also felt pain, which means you're not dreaming either. It's the real me, idiot," Theophilus said and hit Lars' head lightly.
Lars rubbed his head and glared at Theophilus. "That's a fine way to talk to someone you haven't seen in over a month. Of course, I would conclude that you are merely a figment of my imagination! I searched everywhere and couldn't find you. Then out of the blue, you show up. What the hell did you expect me to think?"
"That your boyfriend, who had a lot of issues, took some time to work through them and came back because he misses you and is sorry for snapping at you, especially when you were just trying to help."
"Well, your words were also not without some truth."
Theophilus took his seat beside him on the bench. "I had shut myself away, and it was not taking me anywhere."
They both accepted the words as the apologies they were meant to be.
"I'm graduating," Lars said. He sneaked a glance at Theophilus who now had a big grin on his face. "I've been cleared by my psychologist and Professor Coleson, and I will be graduating with the rest of my class in three weeks."
"I'm happy for you," Theophilus said, still with the grin on his face. "I've started writing again. Although I know it's not as big as your news."
"Are you kidding? It's great news. Congratulations."
"Thank you. One question remains though. Is there still us?" Theophilus asked with a steady gaze on Lars.
Lars could barely keep the smile off his face as he replied. "No, we aren't. Obviously, I'm not needed anymore, especially seeing that you are back to your writing now."
Lars watched Theophilus open his mouth—obviously to argue about his declaration—when he could not keep the laughter in anymore and burst into hysterical laughter. "I'm just joking, silly. Of course, we're still a couple. And as far as my writing goes, I'm sure there are other bands in need of my song-writing skills."
"You still have the ability to almost give me a heart attack, you big tease," Theophilus said with a smile on his face.
"Of course I do. It's how I keep your life interesting."
A year and a half later
Phil played the closing notes to "Unforgotten" to the roar of the crowd. He could feel the energy and the excitement. The air thrummed with it. That was what came with having an open-air concert. It always seemed like the universe itself joined in the music, especially when the concert was still on at one in the morning in an otherwise quiet town. The open air carried every sound, and the crowd was making a lot of it. There were screams and chants and shouts of "We love you, Terr" and "Marry me, Phil" from both men and women.
At the sound of the marriage proposals, Phil turned and sent a quick wink to Lars who gave him the thumbs up sign, causing Phil to smile.
The last year and a half that they had been together had been the happiest time for Phil. He would not, however, delude himself and say that it had all been rosy. When Terr had released Acceptance and had to do a world tour for the album release, he had to spend months away from Lars. Lars had been working with another band at the time and could not get away. So their only contact had been limited to phone calls, e-mails and the sappy texts that Lars persistently sent to him every morning. The months had been lonely, but they had made the time he had spent with Lars all the more special.
Phil heard the crowd start to get restless as they noticed that his attention had shifted from them. Fans were always impatient. As far as they were concerned, they should be the centre of his world. Unfortunately for them, that space had already been filled by a blond-haired and blue-eyed man who had a penchant for running his mouth.
Lars at the moment was looking at him with a question in his eyes. He jerked his chin towards the crowd, indicating that Phil should turn to them. Phil ignored the move. The timing was perfect.
He had already talked it over with the band. Jason had smiled and wished him the best of luck. The stupid idiot never failed to tell Phil that being with Lars would always ensure that Phil would need every bit of help that he could get. Carlos had told Phil that he was thrilled that Phil was finally putting down roots so Phil would be more open to them going to exotic locations together—Phil with Lars and Carlos with whomever was the flavour of the month. Sasha—their new keyboardist—had wished him the best but had added that she saw no reason why Phil needed to make such a permanent decision. The only thing that should be a person's one true love, as far as Sasha was concerned, was music. Howard had spent weeks coming up with the many ramifications of his decision, which Phil had blown off. When he had finally decided that Phil's mind seemed to be made up and did not seem like it was going to be changed anytime soon, Howard reluctantly gave his blessing, too.
Phil had then spent the remaining weeks, writing and picking the brains of the Cains on best way to ask his question. It was Frieda that had finally brought the suggestion he was at the moment running with. He just hoped that he would receive a favourable response.
He gave a nod to Jason and Sasha to get ready and turned to the crowd. "So, I have one more song for your listening pleasure. Who wants to hear it!"
The screams of "we do" were unanimous and sounded so magnified that Phil was surprised the ground did not shake from the echo.
"I recently wrote it, and you all will be the first to hear it." The words caused the murmuring of the crowd to die down. Phil smiled at that. Ha! So they didn't want to miss any part of the song, huh? It would give them bragging rights over the rest of Terr's fans, especially since they could claim to be the first to hear the song and to hear it live at that.
Phil, though, wanted Lars, especially, to pay close attention to the words of the song. After all, he wrote the song for him.
He motioned for Jason to start with the opening chords of the song. As he waited for the note that would signal the start of the song, he breathed deeply to calm himself. This needed to be perfect.
Meeting you turned my life upside down
You frustrated me, transformed me is what I found
Falling for you is as easy as breathing
Making you happy is my reason for living
And although I try my best to keep you from pain
It doesn't work out, for sometimes I hurt you to my shame.
But all the same, I'm devoted to you
To comfort you, strengthen and love you is all I want to do
Give me the chance to show you my desire
My love for you burns. It's blazing like a fire.
Thoughts of you lie constant in my head
I always thought it was impossible for that to happen 'til we met
And now, you're the reason for my being
The only one I'm seeing
I hope to always make you happy
Although I won't lie to you, sometimes, you might get lonely.
At this point of the song, Phil walked to the corner of the stage where Lars was standing—Lars whose mouth was open in disbelief. Phil watched Lars mouth, "When did you write this?" and shrugged in reply.
When he got to Lars, he took his hands in his, grateful for the headset and microphone that kept his hands free to do so, and continued with his song.
But all the same, I'm devoted to you
&nbs
p; To comfort you, strengthen and love you is all I want to do
Give me the chance to show you my desire
My love for you burns. It's blazing like a fire.
The rain falling is refreshing
You enjoying it is delightful
Let's have our time together
Give me your hand and we'll have forever
Forever with you is what I desire.
For truly, I'm devoted to you
To comfort you, strengthen and love you is all I want to do
Give me the chance to show you my desire
My love for you burns. It's blazing like a fire.
Sasha played the closing notes to the song, taking them slowly. The crowd exploded into motion and sound, stamping their feet and screaming. Phil raised his hands in the air. "Can I have some quiet please? I have a very important question to ask, and it would help my nerves if you would give me some moments of silence, please."
Immediately, a hush descended on the crowd, and Phil lightly squeezed Lars' hands and said, "We've been together for a while now, and there's nothing I would love more than to put down roots. So what do you say to us getting a dog together?"
Phil watched Lars open and close his mouth and blink multiple times. "Huh?" Lars finally managed, still stunned.
"Yes. I was thinking about a German shepherd or a Rottweiler. What do you think?"
Lars squeaked. "That was the important question? You want us to get a dog together?"
"No. That was me messing with your head and giving you a taste of your own medicine." Damn! It felt good getting one over on Lars. He really should try doing it again sometime soon. "Marry me, Larson Graves."
Lars' response was instantaneous. "Idiot. How many times do I have to tell you? You need to learn to ask instead of just informing me about things."
"So you want me to take back the proposal and go meet someone who will train me in the fine art of asking the man I love to marry me before I can then come back and ask again?" Phil deadpanned.
"Hell, no! You're too stubborn. It will take you forever to learn that." Lars' face then burst into a smile. "Yes. I'll marry you."
As Phil pulled Lars into his arms and kissed him deeply, he dimly heard the crowd screaming and Frieda harping that he had better take care of Lars or else. That woman was truly a mother hen.
About the Authors
Kayla Bain-Vrba
Kayla Bain-Vrba has been living in daydreams ever since she was a little girl and writing about them for as long as she can remember. It was her discovery of m/m romance that inspired her first published work at age nineteen and is the genre she feels most at home in. When she’s not writing—or is procrastinating writing—Kayla fills her time with music, her boyfriend, and planning things to a tee, even though her beloved self-help books all tell her this is even more unhealthy than her addiction to sour gummy worms.
Connect with Kayla at:
@KaylaBainVrba
kaylabainvrba.livejournal.com
kaylabainvrba.tumblr.com
[email protected]
Mell Eight
When Mell Eight was in high school she wrote a short story for an English class. The assignment was for no more than five pages, yet she had turned in ten and the story wasn’t completed. Her teacher was impressed, but writing stories for fun was her main source of procrastination from homework; handing in an assignment that actually asked her to write fiction was too good to pass up. Since then Mell has continued writing, posting in many online communities for fanfiction and original fiction and eventually branching into slash fiction. She mostly writes paranormal or fantasy stories, but has been seen exploring the real world once or twice.
For more information on Mell’s stories and future writing plans, visit her website.
L.J. LaBarthe
L.J. is a French-Australian, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she has gone on to dabble in many things! She wrote a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school year book, her university newspaper and in her early teens, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English with a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places and researching.
L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica.
L.J. lives in the city of Adelaide, and is owned by her cat.
Publications include an essay written for the now-defunct Veinglory publication produced by Emily Veinglory, in the 2003 issue and a short story for the 2004 issue. A research paper on medieval women that L.J. wrote has been used extensively as a reference guide for other writers at ‘All About Romance Novels‘ in their ‘Ask An Historian‘ section. L.J. has had fiction published by Dreamspinner Press, Noble Romance Press, Freaky Fountain Press and Less Than Three Press. Her blog is at http://misslj-author.livejournal.com/profile.
Cassandra Pierce
Cassandra Pierce has been a fan of romance novels and Gothic literature for most of her life, even studying the origins of the genre in college and graduate school. Before long, she got the urge to create paranormal romances of her own. When she is not writing, she teaches English at a small New England college and is active in a charity that rescues and rehomes abandoned pets.
Alessandra Ebulu
For as long as she can remember, Alessandra Ebulu has always had her noise buried in a book. The characters appeal to her and it is not uncommon to find her talking to the various characters in her head—both the ones she created and the ones she has read about (of course she does this while walking down the street, but she’s not crazy or anything).
When not reading or writing, Alessandra can be found watching movies, sitting in front of her laptop (watching animes, reading mangas or surfing the Internet), and listening to all the genres of music that make her life complete.
You can find Alessandra Ebulu on her blog, livejournal, or twitter, or email her at [email protected].
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