Concert 3 By D.I. Jolly

A good few weeks and many dates later, Jack had finally worked up the courage to ask his potential new boyfriend to come to one of his concerts. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed about his music, or scared to perform it. He was worried that if he leaned to hard on being a singer in a band he’d come off as cocky, or just trying to promote himself. He was also aware that he had, in the past, oversold himself and seem too much the renaissance man. But that hadn’t been a problem since he started dating people who also had actual life experience. But it stuck in his mind.

That said, when he did finally walk out on stage and spotted Oscar in the audience, a long-dead stomach butterfly magically came back to life and his cheeks got just a little bit warmer than he’d expected. The crowd cheered and Danny the drummer shouted,

“1! 2! 3! 4!”

And thankfully, well-practiced reflexes kicked in. 9 songs later, the room was screaming encore and a woman destined for disappointment lifted her shirt at him while screaming that she wanted to have his babies. But Jack had eyes for just one man.

One man who had stood mesmerized as he watched the performance. Around him, people danced and sang and jumped to the beat, but he was still. He heard the music, but it seemed secondary to what he saw. While he liked and enjoyed spending time with Jack, he felt that he was a bit, shallow. As if there was either a part of him missing or deeply locked away. Like he was only half a person. But seeing him on stage was like watching him come alive. Everything he thought Jack could be, every ounce of life he felt missing, was suddenly there, and there was more of it than he could have imagined. Jack had gone from kind of handsome to beautiful, from nice to amazing. As he watched he saw a kind of life he’d never seen before, in anyone. Jack on stage was completely alive and present, and for just a moment he couldn’t understand why someone like that had chosen him, and then he couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

A smile lit up Jack’s face as he leaned towards the microphone and said proudly.

“This one goes out to Oscar.”

And while the woman with the lifted shirt felt rejected, Oscar felt like he’d suddenly landed in the party. He jumped into the crowd and finally started dancing, feeling the music ring through every fibre of his being as if he’d never heard a song so completely before. When it was over his voice join the rest screaming for more, and when Jack finally did get off stage Oscar couldn’t wait to see what happened next. He couldn’t wait to find out how their story would continue together. He couldn’t wait, to fall in love.

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