Title: Real 2/4?

Author: Princess Joyce

Rating: T (This part is definitely a T as it mentions child and wife abuse)

Summary: Yes, I'm back. I am trying to update all of my stories, but finding the time to do so is very hard. I will do my best to get this thing finished quickly. I've already written the ending so you can be assured that it will be finished eventually.

Real-2

Later that evening I found myself at Richard's house. He and Joey played video games while I studied for my geometry test.

After thoroughly going over my notes and doing my best to ignore the sounds of shouts and blips from the living room, I started to pack my things back in my bag. I should be at home studying. Richard had insisted I come to his house to study so that we could spend more times together. Honestly, if this is how he 'spends time' with his girlfriend, maybe I should rethink our relationship.

I wondered if Erik had a girlfriend.

As if that thought summoned it, I suddenly felt an extra folder in my bag. I pulled it out and gazed thoughtfully at the white mask and rose that decorated the front.

My heart began beating a little faster as I slowly opened it. Inside was the complete script for 'Phantom of the Opera'. Christine's lines had been highlighted, and little notes and tips had been scrawled in the margins.

An envelope bearing my name was stuck in the middle. I looked over my shoulder at the guys, but they were so absorbed in their game they had no clue what I was up to.

I quickly opened the envelope and pulled out a small letter.

Christine,

I hope you have decided to take me up on my offer. I could tutor you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after school if you'd like. Regardless, I do hope that you will audition in January. If you accept, meet me in front of the auditorium this Monday at 3pm. I hope to see you there.

-Erik

I glanced back and forth between the letter, and the back of Richard's head.

I was being silly. Erik was offering to tutor me, not date me! I debated a good twenty minutes about whether or not I should tell Richard. What if he was jealous?

"Take that alien scum!" He screamed from the other room.

I frowned and went to speak with him. Easier said than done.

"Richard?"

"Hmm? NO! Damn it!" He yelled at the TV.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to audition for the lead in the Spring Musical."

"That's nice," he said absently, jerking the controls to the right as if that would help Super Mario jump farther.

"That's great, Christine! If you can sing as good as you act I'm sure you'll have no problem," Joey told me happily.

"Thanks Joey." I gave him a smile.

"Who's gonna sing?" Richard asked, absently.

Joey smacked him on the back of the head and took the game controls away from him.

"HEY! What-?"

"Your girlfriend is trying to talk to you!" Joey reprimanded with a laugh.

Richard looked up at me, clearly annoyed.

"What?"

I sighed and shook my head.

"I was just letting you know, that I will be practicing with an acting/singing coach after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays through January to prepare for the Spring Musical auditions." I said firmly.

He arched an eyebrow.

"I thought you wanted to learn more about acting before attempting something like that."

"Yes, that's why I got a coach," I said slowly.

"Oh, what's her name?"

"HIS name is Erik."

"A guy? You want to spend all this time with a guy and you thought I'd be okay with it?" He demanded standing up.

"Rich, it's just Erik…" Joey said making a slashing motion over the left side of his face.

Richard looked confused for a moment, then his eyes cleared.

"Oh, yeah. The guy with the…" he mimicked the slashing motion again.

I admit I was curious. But not enough to ask them.

"Well, whatever. You just let me know if that freak gives you any trouble." And with that, the video game resumed.

Well, at least when Erik stole me from him, I could say that I didn't go behind his back!

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I had butterflies in my stomach as I walked thorough the school to meet Erik on Monday at three o'clock. What would he look like? How would I know it was him?

I needn't have worried. His tall thin form was pretty visible, but it was the gleaming white mask that covered half his face that was most noticeable. Students were giving him odd looks and a wide berth, but he didn't seem to notice. When his yellow-brown eyes met mine, I stopped noticing all of the other students too.

"Already in character?" I asked, giving him my brightest smile.

Instead of the smile I expected in return, he gave me a worried frown and absently touched the mask.

"It looks dashing," I said, hoping to undo any damage from my last comment.

"I always wear it. It has nothing to do with the character," he mumbled, blushing slightly and looking at the floor.

Weird? Sure, but keep in mind that I was the girl who had refused to wear pants until I was sixteen. From the way Richard and Joey acted the other night I was expecting some sort of deformity or scar on his face, I'm not a complete idiot. If he wanted to hide it behind a mask, who was I to say anything?

He took a deep breath and looked straight at me, his face settling into a blank expression.

"Go ahead. Ask the question I know you're dying to," he said sounding resigned.

I just gave him another bright smile as I asked, "So, where are we going to do this?"

He blinked, the question obviously caught him off-guard.

"Mrs. Mabry has given us permission to use her music room," He said gesturing to a closed door down the hall.

As we walked, he kept shooting me odd glances out of the corner of his eye. I did my best to pretend I didn't notice. The door was locked when I tried to open it, and I turned to him with a frown.

He gave me a mischievous smile, then reached forward and pulled out a key from behind my ear.

I couldn't help but giggle like an amused child.

Erik smirked, unlocked the door, and held it open so that I could enter first. Just this morning Richard had unthinkingly let the front door to the school shut in my face as he hurried to catch up with Joey. A girl could get used to this…

He flipped on the lights, shut and locked the door and headed over to the piano.

I looked nervously at the locked door, but he was too involved with setting up his music sheets to notice my reaction.

When he had everything arranged the way he wanted, he waved me over to stand beside the piano.

"We'll start with a 'C' scale to warm up," he said, his long fingers dancing across the piano keys.

"Um, huh?" I asked, intelligently.

He gave me sharp look and tilted his head to the side.

"'C' scale" he said again, holding down one of the keys so that the note resonated strongly throughout the room.

I shifted on my feet nervously.

"I don't… I'm not sure what you want me to do," I said, cringing a little at the look he gave me.

"You mean to tell me that you have never had a music lesson?" He asked, incredulously.

I blushed and looked down at the floor.

"I had music class in elementary school, but we just sang. No one has every told me anything about scales," I said quietly.

Never in my life had I felt so inadequate.

"Look, you obviously thought I had more experience. If you don't want to do this anymore, it's okay. I understand…" I said, blinking furiously in an effort to hold back tears.

I felt his fingers lifting my chin before I even heard him move.

"Christine, I did not mean to upset you. You surprised me, that's all."

His voice was so soothing. I looked up at him, as he wiped a tear from my cheek.

"You sing so magnificently that it seems impossible that you would have not had any formal training at all," he explained, and I felt silly for getting so upset.

"D-do you think you can teach me?" I asked, hesitantly.

"I think you already know more than you think you do. But yes, I can teach you," he said, picking up a box of Kleenexes and handing it to me.

After a quick break to regain my composure, we began.

Learning music was so easy and so much fun, I wondered how I had gone so long without knowing it. He taught me the basics of composition, and had me singing scales like a pro within an hour.

The hours flew by and soon Charles was calling my cell phone to let me know he was waiting on me in the parking lot. After assuring him I would be out in a moment, I looked at Erik and realized we were both breathing hard.

"I never realized how exhausting music can be. I almost feel like I've spent a few hours at the gym," I said, wiping a bit of sweat from my forehead.

He nodded, running a hand through his now-wet hair.

"If you don't feel like this after a practice session, then you aren't practicing hard enough."

I smiled at him, and resisted the urge to tell him he should take off his mask to cool down.

"You did very well. If you continue to work as hard as you did today, you will have no problem at the auditions in a few months."

He gave me a few sheets of music to look over before we met again.

"Next time we will try a bit of sight reading, so be sure to study your scales and note value sheets."

I nodded and gathered up my things to go.

"So, I'll see you Wednesday at three?" I asked as he stood from the piano bench and stretched.

He nodded.

"Until then, Christine."

Acting on impulse, I stepped forward and gave him a quick hug before dashing out of the room.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"You know the part of Christine calls for some ballet dancing as well," Erik said one evening after practice a few weeks later.

I looked up at him with a teasing grin on my face.

"Are you going to teach me ballet as well?"

He grimaced.

"No. It's not really my forte," he said dryly as he stood up from the piano bench.

"Oh, I don't know. You might look good in tights," I continued to tease him, pleased to see the blush that spread across half of his face.

"I've already enlisted Meg's help with the ballet," I told him, picking up my bag.

Meg's only hobby, other than boys, was ballet. She'd lived and breathed it almost before she could walk. Aunt Anita had been a professional ballerina when she was younger, and it looked as if Meg would follow in her footsteps.

"The evil witch queen Meg?" He asked, amused.

I laughed and nodded.

I had told him all about Meg a couple of weeks ago. Erik always seemed so curious about my life, but was never very forth coming with his own. At first I was a little embarrassed about how child-like and protected I used to be. But Erik never teased me about it. He seemed to understand me better than anyone ever had before. He also liked the nicknames I gave people.

He opened the door for me.

"Hey Chrissy. Your dad asked me if I could pick you up today. He had to work late," Richard called as he stepped forward to meet us.

"Oh. Um, Richard, this Erik," I introduced.

Richard looked uncomfortable while Erik looked… angry? His expression was as blank as ever, but I had gotten to know him well enough that I recognized the slight tightening around his eyes.

"We've met," Erik said.

I shivered at the ice in his tone.

"Okay, I'll see you Monday Erik," I said, giving him a quick hug as I always did after practice.

However, this was the first time that he actually hugged me back.

Richard ranted and raved about it the whole way to my house. I remained silent as I thought about Erik and why he would have reacted to Richard that way.

He pulled the car up in front of my house and turned off the engine.

"Well? Aren't you going to say anything?" He demanded.

I looked at him warily.

"What did you do to him?" I asked finally.

Richard's eyes narrowed angrily, and he opened and shut his mouth a few times before turning away and slumping in his seat.

"I was a dumb kid then Chrissy, I didn't… It was stupid and mean, and I'm not proud of it…"

I felt a hard knot form in my stomach and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Tell me," I said, my voice wavered slightly.

"We went to the same elementary school. He was… is different. The guys I hung out with liked to give him a hard time. He was an easy target, and I did my fair share of messing with him so that the others would think I was cool. Even back then he wore that mask… I pulled it off of him one day at school on a dare. The kids around all screamed and called him horrible names. His face is messed up pretty bad. But I'll never forget the way he looked at me. Like I'd just ruined his life."

I couldn't stop the tears as I thought about poor Erik and how horrible that must have been for him.

"I apologized, but the damage had been done. School ended for the year a few weeks later, and we went to Junior High. I didn't have any classes with him. A couple years after that I heard he took some kind of test and he got placed in the year ahead of me. I hadn't even thought of him until you told me he would be coaching you."

I felt torn. I was angry at Richard for what he had done to Erik, but at the same time, it was obvious that my boyfriend was truly remorseful about it. Like Richard had said, he was just a dumb kid then. Kids could be very cruel, and rarely understood the kind of damage they could do.

Richard looked at me like he expected me to start yelling any minute.

I smiled and leaned forward to give him a kiss.

"I know you are sorry for what you did, and I'm not going to hold it against you," I told him.

He was so relived, he kissed me and laughed.

I pulled back and looked at him seriously.

"I do hope you'll understand when I ask you to not pick me up from practice anymore though. Erik is doing me a huge favor, and I don't want to do anything to bring up painful memories for him."

Richard was so glad I didn't hate him, that he happily agreed.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The weeks flew by after that. With school, rehearsals with Erik, and most recently ballet lessons with Meg every weekend, I barely had time to sleep.

A week before Christmas break, Mrs. Mabry informed us that we had to cut back our time in the music room.

"I'm sorry, but other students would like to practice too. I can't show any bias," she told us sternly one Friday afternoon before leaving us to what would be our last lesson in her music room.

I was devastated, but Erik took it all in stride.

"It's okay, Christine. We can always go to my house and practice. I have a music studio in my basement," he said, shrugging off my concern.

"Your house? Um, not to sound ungrateful, but that's not a good idea."

"Why not? I assure you that I have quality equipment at home," he insisted.

I sighed.

"My step-father isn't going to be happy about me being alone with you in a strange place."

"My house is a strange place?" He demanded and I rolled my eyes.

"I meant a place I'm not familiar with."

He stared at me in silence for a few minutes.

"What?" I demanded.

He blushed. He actually blushed.

"It's just… My mother," he admitted quietly.

"What about her?"

He sighed, his gaze on the floor.

"She wants to meet you."

Now it was my turn to look confused.

"Why?" I asked, growing curious.

Erik avoided looking me in the eye.

"I told her about you… and I don't know, she wants you to eat dinner with us."

I thought that over for a moment.

"Well, do you think Charles could come to? I mean, if he met your mom and saw your house he'd probably be more comfortable about letting me practice there."

He gave me a hard look, then nodded.

"I don't see how that would be a problem. If it's just you and your step-dad. My mom… we don't get a lot of visitors," he said, uncomfortably.

"Why not?" I asked.

His fingers ran unconsciously over the mask on his face. It's funny, I tend to forget it's there. I mean, it's obvious that it's there, but it just seems like such a part of him that I don't give it that much thought anymore.

Erik sat on the piano bench and patted the spot next to him. I sat down and looked at him expectantly.

"You have never asked me about this," he said quietly.

I kept my face as neutral as possibly, though my heart sped up a little at the thought that he might actually confide in me.

"I just figured that you would tell me when you wanted to. I don't need to know all of your secrets to be your friend, Erik," I said softly.

I could have sworn I saw a few tears glistening in his eyes before he pulled me into a tight hug.

"You are a wonderful friend, Christine," he murmured into my hair.

My shock over this display of affection passed quickly and I rubbed his back comfortingly.

He sat back, and his eyes were dry.

Erik was quiet for so long, I began to think he wasn't going to tell me anything. Then he spoke.

"Unlike the Phantom, I was not born with a facial deformity. However I was so young when 'it' happened, I might as well have been."

His eyes stared unseeingly at the wall, and I remained quiet through his long pauses not wanting him to change his mind about telling me anything.

"My mom said I was three. I don't remember much. My father was an alcoholic with a bad temper. He wasn't… mentally stable. One night he came home and didn't like the way my mom was looking at him. He knocked her out, grabbed a knife and cut out her eyes."

I gasped and put a hand to my mouth. Even though he wasn't looking at me, his hand slid over and grabbed hold of mine.

"A neighbor heard me screaming and came over with a rifle. My father had grabbed me, and attempted to cut my eyes out too, but I wouldn't hold still. He kept missing and trying again. They said he got in seven good slashes with the knife before he was shot. I had several surgeries over the years, but the damage was too severe. Skin grafts wouldn't take. My face is rather hideous looking. My mom came out looking a lot better. Though she's completely blind. Her glasses cover the scars…"

"Oh, Erik," I sobbed, throwing myself in his arms.

He held me while I cried, and sang soothingly to calm me down.

"I don't like upsetting you, Christine. I just need you to know this ahead of time so there are no nasty surprises when you come over," he said after I had stopped crying.

I looked up at him and lifted a hand to caress the unmasked side of his face.

He closed his eyes as if savoring the contact.

I jumped when his hand caught my wrist and pulled my hand to the edge of his mask.

His eyes opened and looked into mine guardedly.

I swallowed.

"Are you sure?" I asked, shakily.

"If you are," he said, challenging me.

Slowly, carefully, I pulled off his mask and exposed his scarred face to my eyes for the first time.

It looked like a drunken man had tried to cut out his eye and kept missing. It was not a pleasant sight. But it wasn't horrifying. I thought of the 'Phantom' from the stage show that I had seen with my mom years ago. He did not look like that. He had deep gouges around his eye and down his cheek. The skin was discolored, and even appeared to be open in some places, but I did not feel the need to run away screaming.

Erik seemed to be waiting for something as he sat there with his hands at his sides and his eyes tightly shut.

"Does it hurt?" I asked.

His eyes opened, and he seemed surprised that I was looking at him so peacefully.

"No," he whispered.

I tentatively lifted my hand to brush my fingers lightly across the scarred skin. He shuddered at my touch, but brought my hand back to his face when I moved it away.

My fingers traced the scars, and I found myself wishing that I could heal this wound that ran so much deeper than it looked. I was startled to feel wetness on my fingers and looked up at his eyes to see he was crying.

I got up and moved to stand in front of him between his legs. His arms slid around my waist, and he buried his scarred face in my neck and cried.

I cried too as I held him. I was so thankful that he was allowing me to help him let go of some of his pain. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but soon my legs became too week to hold myself up, and he pulled me unresisting into his lap.

Charles called, and I realized that we had used up the whole lesson time without singing one note.

"So you'll come to dinner tomorrow night?" He asked as I stood up from his lap.

"Yes, I'll come even if Charles won't," I promised.

Something had happened to us tonight. I felt closer to Erik than I ever had to anyone. Even my own mother.

After securing his mask back onto his face, he walked me to the front of the school where Charles was waiting.

I was proud of my step dad. His kept his eyes on Erik's as I introduced them. I explained the music room situation to him, and Erik proceeded to officially invite both of us to dinner the next night.

Charles looked at me and I gave him my most hopeful expression.

"That sounds nice, Erik. What time would you like us to arrive?"

End Part 2

A/N: I don't know if there will be one more part or two, but it will get finished.

-PJ