A Beautiful Melody (22 page)

The sound of raised voices
catches my attention, and I just know it must be the guys. Quickly, I wipe at my face with my hands to dry away my tears of self-pity, and run for the door. When I fling it open, it’s just in time to see Marcus roar like some sort of caged animal and dive at Theo, sending both of them rolling into the lift’s cabin.

“Holy shit!”
yells Lachlan, who only just managed to jump out of the way in time.

The lift doors slide closed,
and Jack rushes to the button panel hitting it to open them again, but he isn’t fast enough.

“
The stairs!” I scream, attracting both Jack and Lachlan’s attention. They nod and run for the stairwell, with me following closely behind them. We have no idea what floor they’re going to land on, so we head straight for the ground, hoping that we are the ones that make it there first.

“Oofff”

I don’t think that’s a word.
But it’s the sound of the air being forcibly expelled from my lungs as Marcus lands a blow in my guts, followed by a quick head-butt to the face that sends me stumbling backwards into the wall of the lift. Pain radiates through my face and stomach as I hunch over, desperately gasping for breath.

“Fight back!” he demands.

I shake my head in the negative, as words refuse to form from my lack of breath.

“No,”
I manage to force out, wiping at my mouth where it feels like my lip has been split.

“FIGHT!” he commands, shoving me harder into the wall. “You’ve never passed up a chance to punch me before Theo. Fucking fight me now!”

“No,” I gasp. “I’m not doing this.”

“WHY?!” he screams into my face
, his own red and twisted with pent up fury.

“Because I’
m sick of fighting with you! I love her ok? I’ve always loved her, and I’m not going to fight about this. I’m not going to let you ruin it – again! I got the girl Marcus. After everything you did to try and keep us apart – it still happened. She loves me. She’s going to marry me,” I tell him, my voice as calm as I can keep it.

He grabs the front of my shirt, twisting
the fabric in his hand as he pulls me toward him, his other arm cocked back, fist clenched, knuckles white - ready to punch.

“Do it.
If it’ll make you feel better – just do it,” I tell him in a low voice.

The look of rage that had set into his f
eatures falters as he glares at me, obviously having an internal battle.

“Do it,” I repeat, daring him to take a swing.

The lift pings to signal our arrival on the ground floor, and a second later, the doors open. Marcus blinks a couple of times, as if he’s coming out of a trance, then relaxes his grip on me and lowers his fist.

“You know what? You’re not worth
it,” he states, leaning down to pick up his bag. “Have a nice life.” With that, he strides off, crossing the lobby without as much as a backwards glance.

Still leaning up against the wall, I watch after him until the lift doors start to close, feeling both relieved and saddened. The guy is my brother, he’s my family – but that doesn’t excuse the way he treated Nao
mi, the band, or me. If he’d just talked to us instead of making a public display of his anger, then maybe we could have sorted this out. We could have dealt with this like adults. But in true Marcus fashion, he chose a public tantrum and selfishly made it all about him.

“Theo!” I hear called out
, as a small arm and leg wedge themselves into the decreasing gap of the closing doors, causing the safety feature to engage and reopen them. Naomi bursts through, breathless, and beautiful as always, closely followed by Jack and Lachlan. “Oh god, are you ok?” she asks the moment she sees me. “You’re bleeding. Does it hurt? Where is he?”

“I’m fine, and he’s gone. Don’t worry, he’s gone,” I tell her, sliding my arms around her and hugging her to me.

Her face crumples. “Everything is such a mess Theo. I’m so sorry,” she cries.

“
No, everything’s perfect now that you’re here,” I whisper to her, as I tilt her head up to mine, and softly kiss her lips, ignoring the pain coming from my own.

“Um, we’ll just take the stairs,” Jack informs us, hit
ting the number for our floor before he backs out of the cabin with Lachlan.

As we ride back up to our rooms, Naomi tells me how Marcus caught h
er packing up his things and confronted her about his feelings and the fact she chose to be with me.

“He’s so angry with us Theo,” she whispers, shaking her head slightly like she’s trying to shake the hurt away. “This just… it wa
sn’t how he was supposed to find out. It wasn’t supposed to get this messy.”

“I know baby, and I’m so sorry. I should have stayed away from you until we got home. I should have waited too.”

“No. Don’t ever be sorry for that. I love you and I want to marry you. Don’t ever be sorry for how we feel about each other.”

“You still want to marry me?” I smile, loving the sound of those words.

“Of course I do,” she assures me.

“Good,” I state, reaching into my pocket. “
I actually spent a bit of time shopping.”

“Just
breathe. You’re going to be great,” Naomi assures me as I prepare to head out on the stage. This is the first time I have ever fronted a band, and I’m about to do it in front of an audience of thousands.

Taking a hold of Naomi’s hands, I twist the engagement ring I bought for her before we left Melbourne, around her finger, focusing on the way the diamond sparkles to take my mind off what I’m about to do.

“I’ll be right there with you,” she assures me.

“Dude, it’s packed out there. This is going to be our biggest show yet,” Lachlan claims as he bursts through the door.

“Holy shit,” I say in response, my heart beating even more wildly than it was a moment before.

“Good one dickface,” Jack tells him.

“What? What did I do?” he asks innocently.

“Theo’s a bit nervous,” Naomi informs him.

“Oh shit. Sorry man. You’re gonna rock though. No need to worry.”

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” I growl through clenched teeth. The guy who’s going to be our drummer for the next couple of shows comes to the door to tell us that it’s time to get on stage.

We were lucky that one of the entourage that travels with Radio Silence is a capable drummer. He’d watched all of our shows and could play well enough to carry us through. But once we’re finished with the tour, we’ll need to find someone more permanent ourselves.

“Thanks Ben,” Naomi says as she picks up her bow and violin then takes my hand. “Let’s do this,” she says.

The crowd cheers for us as we make our way onto the stage at the entertainment centre. There are big screens set up on either side of the stage to project the show to those in the back seats. This is all a little out of my comfort zone. It’s a lot easier to be the one in back, writing and producing, then keeping beat. Being in the limelight isn’t my thing.

I look over at Naomi, who nods and smiles at me, urging me to start.

Slinging my guitar over my shoulder, I approach the microphone. “Bear with me guys. This is my first time doing this.”

“Yeah Theo!” I hear ring out of the audience.

“Oh good. I’ve got one fan,” I laugh uneasily. A slight ripple of laughter rolls through the crowd as well. “You know what? We might as well get this out of the way - if you’re after a repeat of the Melbourne performance, you’ll need to watch YouTube. There won’t be any flying guitars tonight. I like this one too much.”

The audience laughs again, and I hear a couple of people dare me to throw it anyway. “Alright. Here goes. This one is called
Fragile
. I wrote this one about trying to have a relationship when one of you is scared to get your heart broken.”

Focusing on my guitar, I let my fingers move over the strings, plucking out the intro before it’s time for me to sing. I pour my heart into it, feeling every emotion behind every lyric.

The band plays perfectly together. I know we’re doing our best. I just hope it’s enough. I hope I’m enough. Will they still love Matiari without Marcus?

Why did you sing your song to my heart

When you knew we were fragile right from the start

As I sing the last two lines
, and play the final notes on my guitar, my heart starts to thud in my chest. I know that this is it. This is the moment where I’ll find out if this band I’ve worked so hard on is still going to make it. It’s the moment I’ll find out if Marcus’s stunt ruined everything for us.

My fingers dance over the strings, and I wish I could just keep playing. I’m not sure if I want to know…

One year later

“Well, at least he’s doing well for himself,” I say as I drop the paper in front of me on the kitchen table. Naomi, slides her hand over my thigh and gives me a reassuring squeeze.

“He still hasn’t returned your calls then?” she asks, leaning her head against my shoulder as she peers at
the article in today’s paper. There’s this great shot of Marcus, singing in front of a screaming crowd at a music festival, the headline states that he’s signed up to start a world tour.

Leaving
Matiari seems to have been the best thing that could have happened to him. His public airing of our dirty laundry in Melbourne was so popular that it went viral online. I guess that’s what happens these days – there’s always someone filming you, and you never know what’s going to make you famous.

His instant popularity, earned him legions of fans and a recording contract with a big label. His first single titled
Lovers and Sinners
was a huge smash, although I find it hard to listen to as its lyrics are obviously directed at Naomi and me.

I’ve tried to contact him, to smooth things out between us. He’s my brother after all, and truthfully, I miss having him around.
Naomi and I are still engaged, but we don’t want to tie the knot until Marcus and I are speaking again. Something about getting married without my brother present just doesn’t sit right with me. So we’ll wait. Hopefully he’ll eventually come around and return a call.

Matiari
is still going strong. The Sydney shows, with me as the front man, were a huge success, and we’ve been booked solid ever since – we’re not a worldwide sensation like Marcus is, but in Australia, we’re someone and have our own recording contract too. So, I’m not managing us on my own anymore, our label is doing all of that stuff for us now. I didn’t think I’d like giving up control, but really, it’s a load off my mind. Now, I can concentrate more on the music, instead of worrying about booking venues and getting paid promptly.

Swallowing the last mouthful of her coffee, Naomi takes the paper from my hands and flips it over. After everything that happened in Melbourne, she still hasn’t quite forgiven him for the way he treated her. But she understands my need to sort things out with him
, and says she’ll be willing to forgive and forget as well. 

Admittedly, after what he did, I spent a good six months wishing I could find him and rip his head off, but as time went on, I started to calm down. It also helps that my parents like to remind me how important family is. They won’t get in the middle of what is going on between me and Marcus, but they won’t put up with it either. Christmas is coming soon, and they’re expecting to see all of us, although by the looks of today’s paper, Marcus will be busy overseas.

Naomi stands and takes her empty coffee cup over to the dishwasher. “Alright, I’m going to get ready. Since they’re filming shots of tonight’s performance for the music video, I’m going to have to take some time to get my gorgeous on,” she smiles, batting her eyelids at me coyly.

As she walks past me toward the door
, I grab her by the waist and bring her down on my lap, kissing her fervently. “You, are always gorgeous babe,” I whisper.

“You’re not so bad yourself Goth boy,” sh
e laughs, getting up from my lap and heading out of the room. Just as she gets to the door way, she leans back in. “So are you coming?” she asks, producing the silk gown that I know was the only item of clothing she was wearing and dropping it on the kitchen floor. “Maybe you can show me how that tongue ring works again,” she smiles.

What kind of a question is that? Of course I’m coming….

***

Tonight’s performance is at The Metro in Sydney. It’s the first place that I saw Matiari play, and the last time they ever played without me. So tonight’s kind of special for me. I feel like we’ve come full circle - even if we are missing a member.

The guy we have playing drums is excellent. His name is Rob, and unlike a lot of drummers, he’s reliable and spends as much time as is needed to get the sound just right. He kind of reminds me of Theo a little
.

Theo is a brilliant front man.
I’d go so far as to say that he is even better than Marcus was, only because Theo has a lot more invested in our music. He’s the one that writes most of the songs so the emotion of his music is more raw than it was before.

Tonight though, we’re debuting a song that I wrote. So far, we’ve only played it in the studio while we were recording the album. This is the first song where I will be on lead vocals, so I’m nervous as hell as we stand up on stage and work through the songs that are leading up to mine.

Ok – nervous doesn’t cut it. I’m freaking out. I’m petrified that I’m going to forget the words, that I’m going to forget how to play and sing at the same time and…  I’m just losing my shit.

When Theo introduces me, he walks across
the stage and takes me by the hand, walking me to the centre of the stage to stand by him. Noticing my worry, he leans in close and whispers in my ear.

“I love you.”

I smile, “I love you too,” I tell him back. Those three words have more power to calm me than any other sort of encouragement out there.

I step forward to the microphone and take a deep breath
as Theo stands by me, his fingers flicking back and forth of the strings. With my violin at my side, I lean into the microphone to begin… 
(Click to hear song)

I once swore to believe

In love’s conspiracy

My every affection

Was never reflected

Maybe I deserve to feel so lowly

But now you echo my heart beat.

Baby I felt you sweep in slowly

And now you resonate with me

Like a Beautiful Melody

I heard my own heart strings

Be pulled by dark and light

Triangle confusion

A ying/yang infusion

Maybe I deserve to feel so lowly

But now I echo your heart beat.

Baby I felt you sweep in slowly

And now you resonate with me

Like a Beautiful Melody

Theo strums out the music, looking at me proudly as I raise my violin and play a solo.
He moves beside me, almost dancing around me as we play together, our music melding, the same way our voices will when we sing the final chorus. It’s taken a lot of practice, but with his vocal assistance, I can sing the last part while I continue to play the violin.

Maybe I deserve to feel so lowly

But now you echo my heart beat.

Baby I felt you sweep in slowly

And now you resonate with me

Like a Beautiful Melody

When we finish, the crowd screams and whistles and my heart soars, knowing that I’m right where I need to be. On stage, singing with the love of my life – if heaven really is on earth, then I’m one of the lucky ones who’s managed to find it.