Sing It for the World

“Babe, don’t worry about it,” Frank murmured into Aurelia’s hair several nights later. Aurelia sighed and turned her head into his chest, not wanting to argue, but not wanting to drop the subject, either. She had been asking him when they were planning on heading further out of Tennessee. She knew that, while good things awaited them here in the Music City, they could only stay in Nashville for so long. Things were becoming tense, but it wasn’t between the five of them.

Tonight, they had been watching the news in a restaurant to celebrate a meeting that Ray had landed with some guy at a record label, and Aurelia had seen her mother putting out a ‘desperate plea,’ for anyone who had information on her missing daughter to contact the Belleview Police Department. Her mother and the police in New Jersey had taken things to a federal level, and now instead of just running from state police, they had the feds to deal with as well. Aurelia was scared that everything was going to come crashing down, and she didn’t want to lose Frank or any of her new friends.

Frank noticed that his girlfriend was still upset about everything that had happened, and he sighed before tilting her head up so that she was looking at him. “’Rel, nothing is going to happen to us. I won’t let it. We love each other too much for anything to happen,” he murmured before pressing his lips fully to hers.

Aurelia gave him a half-hearted smile before nodding, though she didn’t agree with him. Just like her gut feeling that had told her good things were going to come out of Nashville, she had bad feelings about the news conference her mother had issued. If it was airing here in Tennessee, almost a thousand miles away from home, then it was probably airing all over the country. This wasn’t just a small little runaway from home trip any longer. This was something that could land Frank in a lot of trouble, and his friends could be charged with aiding and abetting. She didn’t want that to happen, and she was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t just leave the apartment in the middle of the night and return back to her parents so that Frank would never get in trouble. Maybe she wasn’t meant to sing. Maybe it was the four of them that were meant to go on and achieve great things. Aurelia didn’t know, but she did know that she couldn’t stand to lose any of them.

“Alright,” she whispered into his chest as she held on tight to him. “Can we just go to sleep for now? I’m tired,” she continued before she pressed her lips to the inside of his neck. Frank shifted underneath of her so that they were both in a more comfortable position before he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, nodding.

“Yeah,” he whispered, a smile on his face as he closed his eyes to fall asleep. He couldn’t until he heard her breaths turn into short, quiet snores, and it was only then that Frank allowed the smile to fall from his face and his eyes to open again. He would never admit it to Aurelia, and he would never let his confidence falter in front of her, but he too was scared now. He had known it was illegal to leave the state of New Jersey, and he especially had known it was illegal to go on the run with a minor.

But while Frank had known that, it hadn’t stopped him from leaving with her. He had seen the way that Aurelia was fragile in ways that no girl ever should be. The world her parents were forcing her to live in had been constricting her, and he had known that if he left her there with all that pressure, she never would have survived. Sure, she might have been alive according to government records and a steady heartbeat in a doctor’s office, but the Aurelia he knew—the smiling, beautiful girl who truly had something to offer the world—would be dead. And if he allowed that to happen, Frank figured he might as well be guilty of murder. Allowing something as precious as that to die was a crime, and that wasn’t something that Frank was prepared to do. Yes, leaving Belleview with Aurelia had been the only thing he could have done. It might have been illegal, but he could live with himself for having taken her out of that hellhole and releasing her into the world to spread her wings and fly. She had a voice, and she needed to let the world hear her sing. She needed to let everyone know who she was, and leaving was the only way that had been possible.

As Frank’s eyes finally began to drift closed and his body sunk into sleep, the fear was still there. But along with that, he had something much more powerful. He had an emotion that no one could take away from him, even if they said it was illegal. He felt love for Aurelia, and he knew that it was never going to go away. And that was why he decided that as tomorrow, he was going to work up the courage to ask her to marry him. They might not be able to do it now; they might have to wait until she was eighteen, but he knew that he needed to ask her.

-x-

When Aurelia awoke the next morning, the apartment was abnormally loud. Frank was no longer sleeping next to her in the bed, although Biscuit had taken his place and was curled up against her, his head tucked between his front legs as he slept silently. She patted his head a few times before pushing the blankets off of her, and then slipped her robe over her shoulders before putting on a pair of socks as she walked out into the living area, only to be greeted with loud laughter and boisterous cheers.

“What’s going on?” Aurelia asked, a confused smile on her face as she looked around at her friends. Ray looked the most ecstatic of all of them, though Frank looked amazingly happy as well. It was a pleasant change of scenery from the sobering thoughts she’d had the night before, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it was that had them so excited.

“Ray got signed!” Gerard exclaimed, rubbing his hand over the man’s afro before he jumped up happily, hugging his friends. Aurelia had long since become used to the red-haired man’s antics, and it only made her smile.

Ray had been signed, she thought to herself. She was more than happy for him. He definitely deserved this, and she knew that it was his chance to show the world what he had. He turned to her with a wide ass grin, and then moved to stand in front of her. “And you’re getting your wish, too,” he said softly before pulling her into a hug. “The guy who signed me is from some label in Los Angeles, and he wants me to fly out there within the next week so we can start laying down some demo work and shit. I told him I wasn’t leaving my friends behind, and he said he’d get tickets for you guys as well. We’re going to California, Rel! We don’t have to worry about your parents finding us anymore,” he smiled before giving her a tight hug.

Frank was grinning at her as well, and Aurelia couldn’t help but feel tears pricking the corners of her eyes as she walked over to her boyfriend, letting him wrap his arms around her to replace Ray’s.

“You and I are gonna drive the Trans Am since we can’t just leave it, and since we’re both kind of on the news at the moment,” he murmured softly. “But once we get to L.A., we’re ditching the car and nobody’s gonna know who we are out there, ‘Rel. They’re never gonna find us. They won’t be able to stop us from being together,” he whispered as he pressed his forehead to hers.

“I love you,” she whispered into his shoulder, holding him tightly. He grinned at her and nodded as he pressed his lips to her forehead before he held her back at arm’s length before turning to give the other guys a haughty look. They all groaned, and then rolled their eyes as they exited the apartment through the front door, leaving the two of them alone. Aurelia’s breath hitched in her throat when Frank took a step back from her before kneeling in front of her.

“Frank, what are you—” she started before he cut her off with a shake of his head.

“Lemme get this out, ‘Rel,” he murmured softly before looking back up at her, a smile on his face. “I know that our relationship has been anything but conventional. I mean, I’m twenty-five, and you’re seventeen. You’re not legal, and we’re not supposed to love each other. But we do, and…it’s never going to change, Aurelia. I fucking love you so much that I…I just couldn’t leave you behind in that claustrophobic little town. I can’t imagine going anywhere without you anymore. I need you, and…I hope that you need me half as much. Because you’re stuck with me. And I hope that you want to be stuck with me forever, because…”

Aurelia watched as he trailed off, reaching into his back pocket to pull out a small twisty tie from one of the loaves of bread they’d bought over the weeks. She couldn’t help but giggle softly as he twisted it into a circular shape, and then looked back up at her.

“Because I love you, Aurelia. And as soon as you’re old enough to marry me, I want you to do just that. So I’m asking, with the only ring I can afford right now, if you’ll be my wife someday. I’m asking that someday, you’ll let the world know you as Aurelia Iero instead of Aurelia Reed.”

Aurelia felt her breath hitch in her throat again, and she couldn’t help but feel tears fill her eyes as she nodded, letting him slip the twisty tie over her finger before pulling him off of the ground and into a hug. “I love you,” she whispered into his neck as she held him tightly. “And I wouldn’t rather marry anyone else.”

Frank grinned, and held her just as tightly. Loud cheering from outside the apartment told him that their friends had been eavesdropping, and he just rolled his eyes as he held her close. He knew that things were still going to be tense until they got to California, but he also knew that with Aurelia’s love, he could get through anything.