Chapter 32

Stevie McGabe

It was fast approaching the end of senior year, and things were looking a little more like I had dreamt they would. I had my best friend by my side, Darryl as my boyfriend, and I was on track to graduate in the top five percent.

Letting myself into the Nelson’s house, I wave at Jake and Abi on my way upstairs, following the loud noise that Darryl likes to call music.

He looks up from his seat on his bed where he was air drumming and flashes me a wide, sexy grin. I dump my armful of junk onto his desk and flop down next to him.

He turns the volume down to a less ear-bleeding level and leans over me to press a lingering kiss to my lips.

“Hey you,” he rasps, deepening the kiss until I can feel my toes metaphorically curling. When he pulls back, I can feel the warmth of my blushing cheeks as I try to catch my breath.

“Hey babe,” I smile.

“So, what’s all that?” he asks, nodding towards my pile of leaflets.

“Oh!” I pop back up and grab them all, settling back on his bed with my legs crossed.

“I thought we could start going through universities together. I was thinking obviously first choice is San Fran, but I didn’t know exactly what you were thinking of studying, but I’m sure we can find somewhere that would offer us both what we want, even if we’re not at the same facility and just in the same city, we can still make that work…”

I trail off as a weird look settles on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Uhmm…I’m not even sure I’m gonna graduate, to be honest.”

Darryl runs a hand up the shaved back of his head. “I’ve missed so much school, so many assignments and tests, and if my practice SATs are anything to go by, I’m not gonna get great scores there either…and well…” He stops and looks away from me.

“What is it?” I shuffle forward and slip my hand into his.

“The band was kinda offered a spot on The Sons of Hyperion tour, which is a huge fucking deal.”

He stands up and starts pacing as he starts waxing lyrical on the great points of leaving school before the end of the year to go on tour for what sounds like months, and how the last support act that this band swooped up on their last tour is now signed and making some actual money off their music.

My chest starts to ache as my college dream of living off campus with my boyfriend slowly crumbles in front of my eyes as I watch how animated he becomes talking about his band and the opportunity this would give them.

I try my best to give him an excited smile, but I know it falls short when he kneels down in front of me and takes my hands.

“Stevie, you know this wouldn’t change anything between us, right? I know you always wanted us to go to the same college and shit, but to be honest, I don’t think college would have been on the cards for me anyway, even without this band shit.”

“Okay.” With a watery smile, I gather up my leaflets.

“Stevie, come on…you don’t need to go. I can still help you figure out where you wanna go.”

I turn away from Darryl’s hand so he can’t see the tears which are already escaping my eyes. “That’s okay. You probably need to start planning stuff with your band anyway.”

“Stevie…” I cut him off as I pull his bedroom door closed behind me.

By the time I had made it back across the driveway to my house, the tears were freely falling down my cheeks, dampening the pages of the prospectuses I was still clutching, even though right now my entire future felt like it had been set on fire.

“Honey?” My mom’s worried voice drags me out of my whirlpool of distress. “What’s wrong?”

“Mom…” My voice cracks, as she pulls me into a tight hug, and I bury my face in her familiar soothing scent.

She just holds me as I let it all out, gently rubbing my back like she used to when I was a little kid—like she did the last time Darryl unknowingly broke my heart.

I eventually calmed down enough to get out what had just happened, and she sent me off to bed with a huge mug of hot chocolate and her secret stash of biscuits.

As I settled myself back into my pillows, I heard the deep rumblings of Darryl’s voice downstairs. “Just let me go and talk to her. Please.”

“Darryl, I think the two of you need to take a little time and space while you both figure out what is best for you as individuals. Then you can talk about you as a couple.”

My mom’s patient voice drifts up to me, and I can picture her placing a hand on his forearm to stop him pacing. “Just give her a little bit of time, sweetie.”

“Fuck! Whatever.” There’s a slam of a door which makes me flinch. I push myself up to look out of the window, just in time to see Darryl flip off my house as he storms down the street.

I scramble in my sheets for my phone and send off a quick text to Smit to check on Darryl, and then press call on Rhea’s name. “Can you come over?”

***

“So…New York, huh?”

“Brooklyn, to be exact, but yes! New York.” I try to temper my grin as Darryl flicks through the welcome pack I’d just received for New York University.

It had taken us a few days and some long conversations, some including our parents which went as well as you can imagine with Darryl’s explosive temper, but we were finally getting ready to move on to the next stage of our lives.

After graduation, I was going to university on the other side of the country, and he was going on tour in two weeks with his band on the proviso that Mikey, the drummer from his mom’s band Ashes Within, came as a kind of chaperone/manager.

It meant that he and Smit would miss graduation, but he wasn’t bothered seeing as how he had just about scraped a passing grade anyway. “I can’t believe I get the chance to study literature under one of my most favorite writers!”

“And Rhea got in too? You two are gonna room together, right?”

“Yes,” I say with a knowing smile as I scoot closer to my boyfriend. “No mixed dorms, no shared bathrooms, just a cute little apartment together.”

“Good,” he growls, making my skin prickle in that good way. “No men allowed within two fucking feet of my girl.”

He nuzzles into my neck, nipping at the sensitive skin and making me shriek. “And the same goes for you, too. No getting swept up in the rock and roll world of groupies!”

“Never,” he promises. “I love you, Stevie.”