We watched the bands before us, commenting to each other what we liked and didn’t like about their performances. We had a lot of fun just seeing what our competition was like, and soon enough, we needed to get our instruments ready to set up next. I kissed Archer briefly but hotly and then followed the rest of the band to the backstage area. I saw Gus walk away from backstage and my stomach dropped. I ran ahead of the group and came into the staging area to find my guitar destroyed.
“Oh I’m gonna fucking kill him,” Varick said and I could hear him cracking his knuckles as Nigel and Zack stopped him from leaving.
Archer had followed us and was looking at the guitar while shaking his head. “Get everything else set up. I’ll be back.”
“We can’t play without my guitar,” I told him.
“Just stay here and get ready,” Archer replied and then disappeared.
“Luckily, there are cameras,” Nigel said and then he called over one of the assistants to ask them to call the police and pull the footage. He also started taking photos of the damage. “Gus won’t be going to any of the schools he wanted after this.”
I shook my head as I took in the damage. I’d bought that guitar on my own, using money I got from odd jobs like mowing people’s lawns, painting fences, babysitting, and more around the neighborhood. I was so proud of myself and it had held up for so long, and now it was gone because Gus was an asshole who wanted to see me fail, and why? Because I left him?
I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time because I was so angry, at both him and myself. We got to work getting things ready, and we were watching the last band bring their stuff off stage when Archer came back with a guitar case carried on his back. I looked at him in confusion as he put it down on a chair so he could open it. Inside was an absolutely gorgeous custom guitar with a rainbow on it to match my hair. I took it from him to check its tuning, and it sounded perfect.
“It was supposed to be a congrats for winning the gift,” Archer explained. “Nigel helped me tune it correctly.”
I looked back at him with so much awe and love that I could feel tears stinging my eyes. “Archer, this is…I don’t even have words.”
Archer kissed my cheek and I put the strap of the guitar around me and moved it to my back so I could throw my arms around him and hug him like it might be the last time I ever get to. I heard him chuckle in my ear, one of my favorite sounds in the entire world, and he wrapped his arms around me before kissing my temple.
“Now, you go out there, and kick everyone’s ass,” Archer said to me. “I love you and know you will win.”
It’s hard to argue with the man when he had not only come to my rescue, but was giving support so freely and willingly. Plus, he looked hot as hell in his dark wash jeans and maroon button up shirt. I kissed him deeply before I followed the others onto the stage to plug in the guitar and get ready to go.
It was once we were on stage and in front of the bright lights and cheering crowd that I let go of the last remaining bit of tension I had in me. This was what I lived for and loved. The roar of the crowd and the heat of the stage thanks to the lights and all of the bodies in the venue. We got everything plugged in and then we were announced. The loudest cheer of course came from the table where Jason and his — our — family was.
After just a brief breath, I gave the others a nod, and we started our set. We had some of our biggest songs on the lineup. On The Edge, which detailed my long drawn out history of suicidal ideation and self harm in a three-minute song, along with the new “Archer Song” as the rest of the band dubbed it, Breaking Barriers, which was about love winning out. We had a song that was meant to be a bit of a misfit anthem, which always got everyone dancing.
I was on cloud nine by the time we finished, and the whole venue was alive with cheers and whistles. We thanked everyone and then broke down our stuff and got them moved. We didn’t get to stay on cloud nine, though, as we had to deal with the cops now. We showed the broken guitar, where it was, and the venue was happy to show them the video security had. When they asked if I wanted to press charges, I was quiet for a moment as I thought it over, despite the look on Varrick’s face.
In the end, I decided too, which was usually against my character, but Gus had done so much to try and ruin all of this for me, and I was more than happy for him to get charged with vandalism. He was lucky he had only gone after my guitar. Had he ruined all of our instruments, it would have for sure been a felony. Gus might slip through with only misdemeanor charges for this, though guitars were expensive.
It was a low point of the day, as I hated dealing with cops, but I hated that Gus could just get away with things even more. With a criminal record, his first choice schools likely wouldn’t take him anymore, and I couldn’t find it in myself to be sad about that.
The security team escorted Gus out, and we got to see it happen, where he was taken outside to where the cops arrested him. After that, I put him out of my mind and went back to enjoying the different bands’ performances. By the end of the night, the old guitar didn’t matter that much. Sure, I was annoyed, but somehow my boyfriend had saved our entire set.
I pushed thoughts of it all away and decided to just be present with the band, our families, and Archer. I danced with Archer to the music from the other bands; sometimes jumping up and down in time to the beat with the entire crowd, other times dancing close with our arms around each other. I wasn’t sure there was anything that could ever feel this perfect to me.
I wanted to capture this moment and stay in it forever, but I knew all things must come to an end eventually. It was already getting late when all of the bands had finished their performances. Dorothy made a joke about it being way past her bedtime, but she didn’t seem upset or bothered by it.
The MC of the event came up onto the stage, asking everyone to quiet down. “Thank you to all of our amazing bands tonight for their performances! Let’s give them one last round of applause!”
The entire venue erupted in cheers before the MC waved his hands to get everyone to calm down again. He had a grin on his face, and I was just barely breathing as I waited for him to continue.
“Now, the judges have talked, and I have some results for everyone,” the MC said, his voice booming through the venue.
They decided to announce the winner of the original song contest first, announcing the two runners up as my band all surrounded me. It almost felt like a dream when the MC announced the name Jason de Léon. I let out the breath I had been holding as my band mates started jumping up and down around me before they pushed me towards the stage. It felt unreal, like I was watching myself instead of being inside my body, as I took the stairs up and accepted the envelope that explained the scholarship for school I had won with that.
It was a quick event, and then I was back on the floor with my bandmates and Archer had his arm around my shoulders, telling me how proud he was of me. Then the MC was quieting the crowd again and telling us all that he’s going to announce the winner of Battle of the Bands.
I know in movies, and books, they talk about how things go in slow motion. In a way, it felt like they did, but at the same time, it felt like everything went incredibly fast too. He announced the third place winner, and we all applauded while they went up to get a trophy and token prize. Then came the second prize winner. I was insanely nervous, especially because our names hadn’t been called, and the people who were the runners up had been amazing on stage.
Of course, somewhere in the back of my mind, I worried that we weren’t as good as everyone else. I wondered if maybe we had just barely made it here by the skin of our teeth, but then another part of my brain pointed out that my song won. “On the Edge” won against so many other amazing songs, and my stomach flutters that maybe, just maybe, we would take it all tonight.
“And the winner of the entire Battle is…” The MC cried into the microphone, and a drum roll sounded in the background behind him. “Tormented Accord!”
The whole place erupted in cheers and whistles while colorful confetti fell down all around us. I could hear our table behind us cheering the loudest though, and soon we were pushing through the crowd to get up to the stage.
We were handed a trophy made for this event, with a guitar on the top and held it up high as everyone cheered. I barely remember what I said for the acceptance speech, but mostly we thanked everyone who had supported us, especially Dorothy, and then there was more cheering.
The night turned to partying, which Dorothy let us do while she took the girls home and my mom took Eliza home. We were old enough to be out later, though we couldn’t drink. I didn’t even care though, I was on a high with the knowledge that we had won and were about to have a record deal!
It was only when we got home that my joyous feelings were beginning to wane. We had won and gotten what we had always wanted, but now I was watching as Archer got out of the clothes he had been wearing, and it occurred to me that his dreams did not include moving around the country touring with a band he wasn’t part of. He had plans to go to college and make something more of himself, and I couldn’t stand in the way of that.
“Archer,” I started, but he put his hand up to my mouth to stop me.
Archer shook his head at me. “Let’s just let tonight be about celebrating, okay?”
I nodded at that and then let him begin undressing me. He did it in silence, with a reverence that let me know exactly what this was. A goodbye for now. I pushed away the pain of that and focused just on him as he ran his lips and tongue over sensitive skin. He followed each new patch of unclothed skin with his fingers and mouth, riling me up, making me painfully hard and aching for him.
He left my boxer briefs for last, slowly peeling them down to let my erection spring free. Archer smiled at the bead of precum leaking out and took the head of my cock into his talented mouth. I swore out at the wet heat, loving every bit I was getting from him, until he pushed me back until my knees hit the bed and I fell back onto it. Archer moved with me, letting his tongue travel down my length and to my balls. I moaned as his tongue went to my perineum, and then I felt his wonderful tongue along my crack.