We've Got a Big Mess On Our Hands

WILLIAM’S POV

I stood next to Gabe, crying my eyes out. He did it. He actually did it. . He came out to the world. I couldn’t believe what he was doing. When I’d first met him, I never could have imagined he would be so brave, or make me so proud.

I was pulled out of my proud boyfriend moment when I saw Gabe move from the corner of my eye. I turned to face him and had to look down to see him, which was a change.

My tears flowed freely now,my heart beating wildly.

There was Gabe, down on one knee in front of me.

“Willy?” he said, smiling, “Would you do me the extreme honor of marrying me?”

“Yes.” I said, grabbing and pulling him up. “Yes, a million times, yes!” I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him slowly and passionately. The crowd exploded, the cheers more deafening than any other concert I’d played at. I smiled into the kiss. I really couldn’t ask for better fans.

I missed this. It had only been 4 days, but I’d missed kissing Gabe so much. The sparks that flew between us wherever our skin touched was something I’d never felt with anyone else, and never would again. I smiled into the kiss and pulled away, still smiling.

“Are you sure?” Gabe said, smiling softly, “You could do so much better than me.”

I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t. I love you so much. I never want to be away from you again, not ever.”

“I love you, too, Willy.” he said, pulling me in for another kiss.

We stayed connected for awhile, completely forgetting our audience. .

“Okay, so since the lovebirds over there have decided to forget about the concert entirely, I’ll be your entertainment for tonight!” Vicky said. The audience laughed loudly, pulling us out of our moment.

Gabe and I broke apart, smiling shyly. “Hey, watch it, missy.” Gabe said into the mic, still holding me around the waist.

She smirked. “ I got you two back together. No complaining.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. And anyways, I want to thank all of you out there tonight. I couldn’t ask for better or more supportive fans. You are all amazing and I’m so thankful.”

I smiled, gently taking Gabe’s mic from him. “Thank you, so much.” I said, “We appreciate everything you guys do. We wouldn’t be here without you, and knowing that you support us makes me so happy. I can’t express how thankful I am for that.”

Vicky grinned, “Sorry about the disruption, guys, but is it okay with you all if we only do one more song? I think these two want some alone time,” she said, winking.

Alex and Nate made the bow-chicka-wow-wow noise and played a sort of 80s funk riff I heard in the terrible porn I watched as a pimply teenager, getting a cheer and laugh from the audience.

“Okay, then!” Gabe said. “William, what song do you want to sing with us tonight?”

“The World Has Its Shine?” I offered, knowing that the song reminded him of our relationship. It had always been a part of our lives. Every once in a while, I felt like he’d written it about me, but I’d never thought to ask. It didn’t seem to matter, somehow.

“You know, I wrote that song about you.”

I smiled. “I had my suspicions.” I said into my own mic.

We started up the song and the whole audience sang along and swayed, even though it wasn’t slow song.

“I'm not one for love songs
The way I'm living makes you feel like giving up
But you don't,
And I want everything for you
But disappointment
'Cause you've been left behind
And the world has it's shine,
I would drop it on a dime for you”

I watched Gabe as he sang the verse to me, putting his heart and soul into every word. I’d made the right decision. I can’t imagine my life without my Gabey, and I didn’t want to. He smiled, and I smiled back. I sang the bridge along with him, neither of us looking anywhere but each other.

“And whatever it takes
I'm gonna make my way home
We can turn our backs on the past
And start over...

Not long ago
I gave up hope,
But you came along
You gave me something I could hold on to
Woah-oh
And I want you
Oh, woah
More than you could ever know”

The song ended and Gabe and I kissed once again,quickly. We waved goodbye to the audience a bit too quickly, rushing off stage.

The moment we got backstage, I jumped on Gabe, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

He wrapped his arms around my neck and smiled. He touched our foreheads together, looking straight into my eyes.

“I love you so much, Willy. Please don’t ever let me be that stupid again.”

“I promise.” I said, smiling so widely I thought my face would split in two. “As long as you promise to never let me be that stubborn again.”

“I promise.” Gabe said, leaning in to kiss me again.

“Hey, guys, no fucking backstage. Keep that shit for the bedroom.” Alex yelled at us.

We both laughed and I jumped off of Gabe.

“Thank you all so much.” I said.

“Yeah.” Gabe said. “We owe it all to you.”

We ran over to our bandmates and wrapped them all up in a huge group hug.

“Yeah, we love you, too.” Vicky said.

“But could you please stop squishing us?” Sisky said.

We all pulled back and I noticed Sisky and Vicky standing a bit closer than usual. I looked down to see their hands intertwined at their sides.

“Soooo…” I said. “I see we’re not the only inter-band couple.”

They both blushed profusely, looking at each other and smiling.

“Yeah.” Vicky said. “You aren’t the only ones.”

“What?” Gabe said. “When did this happen?”

“Calm down, papa bear.” Vicky said. “He just asked me out today. And there’s no way you can keep us from going out, so don’t go all protective older brother on Sisky’s ass. You know as well as I do that he’s the best guy out there. Well, for you, that would be William. But you know he won’t hurt me. So don’t give me that ‘you’re too good for him’ bullshit.”

“I wasn’t going to.” Gabe said. “I was just going to make fun of you two the whole time. It’s fun to see you two blush.”

We all laughed, except for Vicky and Sisky, who blushed. Again. I smiled, looking around at our bands.

We had become closer than just two bands touring together. We’d all bonded together to form a sort of strange, dysfunctional family. There was no coming between us, no matter how much we fought. We were linked together forever and there was no breaking that bond.

I smiled up at Gabe and rested into the crook of his shoulder.

This is where I belonged: backstage with my boyfriend fiancé and our family.

There was only one thing missing…

“DADDY!!!”