Mr. Brightside
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Travis/Lily, Ray/Lily, Travis/Parker
Summary: "Destiny is calling me/Open up my eager eyes/'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside." Travis' POV of the Ray/Lily relationship...kind of.
Dedications: Yes, that's right. Dedications. To Rini, for being evil and making me come out of my pretty little closet.
A/N: I like run on sentences and use them too much. Oh, well. Takes place after 'There Will Be No Encore Tonight.'
I just can't look its killing me
And taking control
Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies
Choking on your alibis
But it's just the price I pay
Destiny is calling me
Open up my eager eyes
'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside
Travis watches them, watches her. Watches the way her eyes light up when he says her name, the way she looks up at him with adoration whenever he talks, the way she leans forward and whispers in his ear, blonde hair brushing his cheek, hand resting on his forearm, whispering the way that people in love always do. Travis watches the way his hand always seems to find her knee, even if they're sitting in the complete blackness, and the way she kisses his cheek when he squeezes it. He watches the way she moistens her bottom lip with her perfect pink tongue before he kisses her, the way the second their lips touch, their eyes fall closed and they become completely oblivious to the rest of the world.
To him.
Travis can remember how broken he felt after Bridget dumped him, how all he wanted to do was sit still and never move, never breathe again. He can remember the way Lily wouldn't let him, partly by just being there, partly by giving him a task: mending her broken heart.
Sitting on the curb outside of Sound Wave on "The Night," as they referred to it, staring blankly at the headlights whizzing by, the lights glowing in store and house windows all around them, there was no need for words. No need, but Lily talked anyway. And Travis listened to ever word she said, absorbed every syllable like he needed her words to keep him alive. Or sane.
She babbled on and on about Ray, about memories both good and bad, about realizing she liked him and later that she made so many mistakes, and even later that she was in love with him. And then the topic changed, and she was talking about Travis, about what had happened between them months and months ago. Memories that he had somehow allowed to become fuzzy in his mind screeched back into sharp focus, and he turned his head, tearing his eyes away from the bright lights to look at her, really look at her in a way he hadn't since before Bridget.
He noticed things he hadn't let himself notice since before Bridget. The way she chewed her bottom lip in concentration as she tried to remember, the bitten nail of her right index finger, bitten down so far it revealed the pink flesh of that finger. He noticed the faint glitter she had brushed on her cheeks before her performance, watched it reflect the light as she made different facial expressions, and the places where there was no glitter: the paths of her tears. She tapped her foot carelessly to a tune in her head, and when Travis listened for a minute he recognized it as the tune to her song, the song he had barely heard because he was so wrapped up in his own life.
When she said his name, he jumped slightly, and she smiled. "I need to go home." She moved to stand up and Travis grabbed her wrist. "Stay. I…need you." He hadn't known why those words had come out, didn't think he needed her, or anyone for that matter, but it made Lily pause. She swallowed and sat back down, her knee touching his the tiniest bit.
Looking over at her "The Night" on the curb, he fell back in love. He knows it seems so simple, maybe even too simple to be possible, but he can't control what he's feeling. And ever since that moment, his feelings for her were stronger than ever, stronger even than after they kissed. All with a simple turn of his head.
The two months after "The Night" sped by faster than any day ever had. He blinked, and when he looked again, Lily had gone from sitting next to him on the curb to dancing with Ray at the year end dance, his arms around her waist as he told her that he loved her, too. And he danced with Parker, tried to focus on her and ignore the way Ray and Lily looked at each other, because, really, it was no different than the way they always had.
When the gym got too stuff, too mushy, for him to deal with, he stepped out into the warm June air. Parker followed, and when he looked at her he thought, maybe, he could pretend. She was quirky like Lily and had glitter on her cheeks that reflected the moonlight and always had a song stuck in her head. But she didn't bit her nails, didn't chew her lip until it bled. Her glittery cheeks were missing the tear streaks Lily's had, and he knew that without the glitter, she wouldn't sparkle the way Lily did.
But he kissed her anyway and tried to pretend, and she kissed him back and he liked it. So he kissed her again and again, pressing her into the brick wall of the school, and she didn't even seem to mind. And things somehow became official, and Parker didn't mind and Travis didn't care.
So he watches them, thinks they're Siamese twins connected at the hips, no, at the lips. He watches them and knows they're in love, sees it in everything they do, together and separately. He watches them, his arm around Parker's waist, and instead of trying to forget, he locks every memory in his mind. He locks them in so that even though he lost Lily, he never loses the memories, never loses the way she sparkled on "The Night," the night everything changed.