Chapter 65: It'll Never Be The Same
Hello everyone! Welcome back to the story. I hope you enjoy the chapter - it's the second last one! Let me know if your still interested in a sequel- I've started planning and writing and I think it'll be good. Anyway, enjoy!
Clary's POV
News broke of our engagement that night when I wore my ring onto stage that night. Media sites had a field day when they figured out my car accident, Jace and my encounter at the airport and our engagement all happened within 24 hours.
But that was all months ago. Jace and I hadn't even begun thinking about wedding plans plans. At the moment, we're just happily engaged.
But that's not to say that life has been breezy - it's been anything but. Our last ever concert is tonight, and in the lead up, the press has been almost doubled, we've been rehearsing longer so we can start rehearsing for Royals for a Day, plus actually doing months worth of concerts. Jace finished filming his movie and did the press tour, and finished all the premiers about a week ago. I flew out to go to the first one with him in London, but couldn't go to any others. Because of our busy work schedules, we'd only been able to spend the last week together, and even that was only about an hour a day, across the whole day.
Jace and I had already booked a private island in Greece to go retreat to once everything is over, so we can both spend time together, without distractions, just getting back to a normal schedule. We're going to have to fly out to go to a few award shows, seeing as he'd already won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for best leading actor, and everyone was tipping him to win again at the BAFTAs and Oscars.
After people realised he could take on a much more serious role, and was really good at it, he started receiving a lot more offers for roles, but so far he's turned them all down, telling me he just wanted to spend some time with me, and not get so caught up in Hollywood.
"I can't believe this is it," Simon says, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"I know," Alec says. "Our very last concert - at least for a while. After so many…"
"Part of me just never believed this day would come," Kit says, smiling sadly.
"I know what you mean," I tell him. "Everything we've done for the past… year, has been for this day. And now that it's here… it doesn't feel real."
"I've gotten so many texts and messages… just everyone congratulating us on everything and wishing us luck," Simon says, scrolling through his phone looking amazed.
"Yeah, and so many people are telling me that they're coming to the concert tonight. People I'd never even imagined getting to talk to, let alone coming to one of our concerts," Kit says.
"Shit's crazy," Alec says, and then everyone laughs, because our only other option is to cry. We'd all managed to hold it together for all the shows in the lead up to this one, but I don't think any of us will make it through this concert.
"Magnus has organised a VIP box for everyone, but he told them we wouldn't see them until after the show - he thought we'd want it to just be us tonight. You know, to really savour each moment." Alec tells us.
"Magnus knows he's part of that, right?" I say. I'd been beginning to wonder where he was anyway.
"He said he was just going to stay out of the way until the show, and then watch it from the box. I tried to tell him he should be with us, but he wouldn't have it," Alec says.
"Well that just won't do!" I say, and call Magnus, putting it on speaker phone. He answers quickly.
"Is everything okay," he says, sounding stressed.
"Not at all," I answer.
"Why, what's wrong?" he asks, sounding even more stressed.
"You're not here," Simon say.
"It's just not the same without you. And you've been as big a part of this as us - bigger probably," Kit says, being humble for once in his life.
"We can't really enjoy it without you here," I add.
"I told you," Alec says, grinning.
"Fine, fine… I'm coming," he says. I can tell he's trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing, but he's actually really touched. When he arrives a minute later, there is a clear tear streak through the glitter under his eyes.
"10 minutes until stage," someone tells us.
"This is really it," Kit says, like it's finally hitting him.
"Let's go out there and do the best goddamn show we've ever done," Simon says, quickly wiping away a tear. We hadn't even made it onto the stage yet, and we were already losing it.
"Let's leave it all on the stage," I agree. "Give it everything we've got."
"Places please," the stage hand tells us. For this show we were all going to walk out together, instead of running on separately like we usually do. Alec pulls Simon and Magnus into a hug. Magnus grabs onto Kit and Simon onto me so that were in this big hug. I can hear someone sniffling, but I'm not sure who it is. We all seperate a little so that we can see each other, but we are still clinging onto each other tightly. We just look into each other's eyes and nod, thinking about everything we wanted to do tonight. We let each other go, and then all grab hands.
"You're on," the stage hand says. We slowly walk on, all still holding hands, but leaving Magnus at side stage. When we walk on, there is a deafening roar, and take deep breaths to help me cope, to stop me from crying.
After about a minute, we all take our places, and work our way through the concert, giving everything to each song, because no one knows when they are going to get to sing it again.
Then it's time for that night's covers. In what seems to be a bid to make the concert last as long as possible, we'd chosen to do a few. For the first one, we all gather at the piano, with me sitting in the seat to play, and Alec sitting next to me. Kit and Simon are both sitting on the hood of the piano so we all make a little group. As I begin to play the piano and the crowd realises what song we're singing, there is another near deafening roar.
All of us sing the begining;
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
And then Simon sings by himself;
When the road looks, rough ahead
And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
And then Kit sings by himself;
Just remember what your old pal said
Boy, you've got a friend in me
Yeah, You've got a friend in me
We all sing together again;
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
And then Alec sings by himself;
You've got troubles, I've got 'em too
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you
We stick together and we see it through, cause
Like always, we all sing together;
You've got a friend in me
Yeah, You've got a friend in me
And then I sing by myself;
And some other folks might be
A little bit smarter than I am
Bigger and stronger too
Maybe, but none of them will ever love you the way I do
It's me and you, boys
I can hear everyone in the crowd 'aww' as I change the lyric from 'boy' to 'boys'. We then finish the song together.
And as the years go by
Our friendship will never die
You're gonna see
It's our destiny
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
After this, we all go back to our normal instruments, with Kit going to drums and me on guitar.
"This is Good Riddance by Green Day. As always, the lyrics will be on the screen… we'll probably need some help with this one." Simon says, before we play.
By the time the song finishes, all the guys have shed one or two tears, but I am full on ugly crying. I stood away from the microphone the whole song and just yelled out the lyrics while letting the tears fall. Upon seeing the state that I'm in, Simon quickly takes off his guitar and hurries over to me, helping me calm down a little. As I look down at the crowd, I can see heaps of other people crying in the mosh as well. I laugh to myself at the mental state of this stadium.
I then go back to my microphone. "So this is I'll Always Remember You From Hannah Montana. I couldn't even make it through the last song and I wasn't even singing, so I'll definitely need some help with this one… sing as loud as you can!
Surprisingly, I'm able to keep it together better for this song, and despite having to step away from the microphone a few times to steady myself, I make it through the whole song.
We keep going through the concert like normal until we get to Shiver. The song we had sung at every single one of our concerts. Our first ever single, our first ever song to go to number one on the charts. The song that defines us. We sing it through once, the crowd singing back the lyrics as loudly as they can, but I feel like I still have more to give. I look at all the guys, who look like they think the same. We nod at each other, and begin playing the song again. If possible, we go even harder the second time.
I look around at all the guys, who just shrug. Third times the charm. By the time we finish the song for the third time, Simon and I are literally gasping, barely able to breath. Everyone quickly takes off their guitars and we get into a huddle on the stage. We're grabbing onto each other so hard, onto everything we can just so we don't have to let go. Somehow, in a room full of thousands of people all screaming, it feels like its just us. We're all shaking due to the adrenaline, and crying and laughing.
We all eventually turn to the audience, still holding each others hands, our knuckles white. We're all crying hard - even Alec, which surprises me a little, and just look out at the crowd. We all yell, 'avata age vale' and you can't hear it at all over the yelling and screaming in the audience, but it's okay. We stand there for another minute, just soaking everything up, not quite ready to get off the stage, because we know the moment we do, nothing will be the same again.
I know that one was a bit short, but I didn't want to put too much into it. The next chapter - the last one :( will be heaps longer. So see oyu next week, and remember to let me know if you'd want to read a sequel to this story!