Time After Time

Rose cooked two egg in the basket for their breakfast. After they finished, Gustav and her sat together at his sofa, watching Lestat eating his food while they were chatting.

"We are still friend, right?" he asked.

She nodded. How can we're not anymore?

"We can still go to places, right?"

She nodded again, but this time, she spoke, "You're not gonna get a mad me?"

"What?"

"You told me that you hate staying with people who understand the reason why you're sad."

"Well… I did say that, but I don't feel mad at you. Not at all. You've been… so kind to me. I can't just leave you and angry at you because you finally found out who I am. I've never told you but… but I'm ready to face you and still staying with you, even after you know who I am."

"… really?"

"Really really," he smiled a sad smile and Rose cried again. Tears were just flowing from her eyes.

"Thank God… I'm so happy… I was so scared you'd get mad at me… I'm sorry…"

"Oi, Rose…" he hugged her again. "Why are you crying so much?"

"I… I have too many emotions."

"How can you have too many emotions?"

"I think… I think it's because I'm a girl?"

He chuckled and stroke her back again, "Look, I'm very happy that you cry for me, just… don't cry too much. You're gonna get tired and everything and I don't want bad things happen to you when you cry too much. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Think like this… you care about me, so I want you to understand that I would be happy as well if you take a good care of yourself. Can you do this favor for me?"

"Y-yeah… sure…"

"So… now you know. I basically can't sing anymore… well, not every day, not a lot of time in one day… let's just talk about this a little later, okay? I'm still not ready yet."

"Of course, Gustav. Of course. I'm very happy already that you're not mad at me."

"Do I look different after you know who I am? How did you find out?"

"Well… you sure do look different, but you're still the same Gustav for me. Oh, I was… my friend Gabriella visited me this afternoon. She loves a lot of band and she has billions of music magazine. She told me about Young Guns and then I… well… I Googled it. I was bored. Then I was thinking about the fact that the vocalist can't sing anymore is really really sad and I want to know whether they're going to be fine. Then I watched Bones. I was like… it was pretty stupid, actually. I watched it with Lestat and told him that 'the vocalist looked like someone I know'. Then I know that it's you… God, Gustav, you have such a great voice!"

"Was," he corrected her gloomily.

Rose sighed but she didn't say anything. She was trying to make him comfortable as much as possible.

"You looked so cool," she said, trying to bring lighter topic. "And when I saw your other videos, vlogs and everything, I kept asking myself, 'Are you sure this is that Gustav Wood who stayed at your bed when he was ill because of flu? Are you sure this is actually him?' You looked as if you were different. But you're not. You're still Gustav."

He smiled slightly to her, "Well… I can be in front of the crowd when I'm healthy but I can be ill and lying on your bed as well." He sighed a long sigh, "That was my happy time. The best time of my life." He stared into the distance again.

"… Gustav…" she wanted to say things like, 'The best time in your life so far. You can make new memories!' but she wasn't able to say anything because she felt her throat was dry.

"That's okay, Rose. Lately, I've been thinking that living like this isn't bad. I have you, I have Lestat and I have all the tuna in can that I need… and kangaroo. Plenty of kangaroo to make me happy," he chuckled.

"W-what about your friends? John, Fraser, Simon and Ben? What about your mum and your brother?"

He didn't stare at her when he answered, "I don't know, maybe they don't care anymore about me. Maybe. … anyway, let's eat at Hungry Jack's tomorrow morning. I think it would be better to spend the rest of this day by… well, rest more. You need your rest as well and we didn't exactly sleep nicely last night."

She could feel that it was probably enough talking about his life because he didn't feel comfortable to keep talking about it, so Rose followed, "I like the rest idea, but… Why? Junk food for breakfast? Really, Gustav?"

"Aw, come on, just one time…" he made that face that he showed her when he said he really wanna see kangaroo.

He stared at her and she could feel her defence weakened as she stared those pale blue eyes. And that expression! I can't say no…

"… alright, then," she smiled.

She later came back to her house and couldn't stop smiling. Everything went better than she expected. She opened up her laptop again to see her browser and she thought, Seriously, I was with Gustav Wood. This is a kind of dream comes true that should happen to people like Gabriella…

Rose yawned not long after that. She brushed her own face with her face sleepily. She surely needed the sleep.

***
They ate together at Hungry Jack's tomorrow morning.

After five minutes passed in silence as they eat, Gustav stared at Rose and asked, "What is it? I can still spot you staring at me, but I think now you have different kind of stare… now that you understand what's wrong with me."

"Well… yeah… I mean… you're actually Gustav Wood of Young Guns! You were in Kerrang! Magazine and everything… I feel guilty because I'm eating burger here with you… me, Rose Lette, a girl who still doesn't know what bands like Asking Alexia… is that Asking Alexia?" she sounded guilty. "It's not Alexia, is it? It sounds wrong…"

"Alexandria," Gustav chuckled.

"Right, Asking Alexandria, and you're Gustav Wood and… I don't know anymore. I mean, you're still my friend, but I think I'm going to get time to get used to the fact that you're actually very famous."

"I'm not gonna say 'very'."

"But still… alright, I'm gonna shut up now and just eat…"

But Gustav smirked at her, "Do you remember when I kissed you?"

"Aaaargh!" she groaned loudly and everyone on Hungry Jack's was staring at her. "S-sorry, People, nothing to see here, I think I just… never mind…"

Rose stared at him, her face was all red, "Oh God, no, if all your female fan knows, I might be killed. I'm not safe anymore. Good God, I'm just 23. I still wanna go to Egypt to see the pyramids! Nooo…"

Gustav looked entertained.

"Don't worry. Even rockstar can have girlfriend. A kiss on the cheek is nothing."

"… really?"

"What? Do you think when someone is famous, they can't have girlfriend?"

"… oh. I was just… you know, all my source about band and music is pretty much Gabriella… she was the scary kind that will write 'Grrr, I will kill that someone's girlfriend. He's miiine!' even though she have her own boyfriend…"

"Well, now you know. You heard that from me myself."

"… and you're Gustav Wood. I can't believe this."

"I'm real. And I'm just human being like you. … have you finished your meal? Let's go out somewhere."

"I'm not hungry anymore…"

"Finish it, at least. You need to eat and healthy and everything."

"And that comes from a someone who asked to have breakfast in Hungry Jack's."

"The world is full of contradiction, Miss Lette," he chuckled and then smirked.

"I should've seen that coming."

There was an easiness in the air after she knew who he really was.

They visited the beach and walking around there for hours. He told her a lot about how does it feels like to be in a great place and doing great things with his best friends. Meanwhile, she could see that he was ready to talk about happy things from the past but not ready yet to talk about the part that actually made him suffered. But Rose Lette completely understand that everything takes time. She also thought that it would be better if she could make him as happy as possible in the mean time.

Sometimes, all Rose could do was staring at him and wondering how to make this amazing person to be happy.

"… so, I end up stay awake until 3 or 4 am in the morning," Gustav ended one of his story and chuckled. "I think there's something in staying up all night long and getting inspired and write song."

She was still staring at him and didn't say anything.

"So… yeah," he shrugged, waiting for respond.

Rose leaned closer and pat his head.

"W-what…? What is that for?"

"You're a good boy, Gustav. You're very good boy."

He laughed, "Thank you. … can you do that again? That actually feels nice."

Rose patted his head again and he chuckled.

Some other time, they finally visited Sydney and Melbourne where there were more people recognize him. Thankfully, almost all of them are polite enough when they told him that they love Young Guns and they were thankful for their existence. There are only few people who actually saw him and complain about the fact that he couldn't sing again. Once, Rose who was standing next to Gustav was the one who snapped.

"Don't say that, please…? I understand that you're disappointed that your favorite band can't perform or make new album again, but it's not like Gustav doesn't want to sing again. He can't. I hope you understand that the person that suffers the most from the reality that he can't sing again is him. So can you please stop make him feel worse when you don't even know how does he feels?"

She turned back and walk away right after that.

Rose was the one who were angry after that kind of meeting and Gustav somehow thankful to had her on his side on that kind of time, because she said exactly the words that he wanted someone else say about him.

Days were flowing just like that. They were having fun as if there are no tomorrow and they can stay in that situation forever. It was a very bleak kind of life if you think about it, but those days are one of the happiest days of their life.