Disclaimer: I do not own PhofOp.
Friends Can Be Very Pushy
When Erik got back to his place, he closed the door and did not go back out. Since he turns down the heating when he is not there, the inside was pretty chilly. He turned up the heater then got changed into more comfortable clothing then a day wore suit with rain damage.
Once presentable, he set aside the damaged suit to see how much it would cost him to fix later, and he did another more thorough inspection of his music sheets. There were five that would need to be completely rewritten from the ink stains seeping all over the pages, luckily they were more recent portions so it should not be too hard putting the notes back together.
Again Erik refused to let himself get drawn back into the despairing pit he had fallen into the previous evening, so placed his full attention in his music. His mind zeroed in on the music and only the music, allowing his conscious to come to the surface when bodily functions averted further progress. The other thing that would make him aware of the outside word would be the alert sounds of texts and phone calls he received, even heard his email tone go off twice in the evening.
When he got around to checking his phone, he was not the slightest bit surprised when the calls were from Mme. Giry and the text messages were from both Meg and Mme. Giry. However, when he caught sight of who sent the emails, his lungs took in a sharp intake of breath.
One from Miss Daae, the other from Mr. de Chagny.
Erik's phone was put on permanent silent.
After that evening, his mind was once again lost in his work. It was frustrating at times when one right note could not be identified to make the piece perfect or when the words just could not be pulled forward, no matter have much he tried.
The worse were the romantic scenes, so he continuously skipped over them when they came to close to bringing back certain memories. The tragic scenes, now those were an inspiration. That was when he allowed the pain, the confusion, the frustration to take over and let it pour over his sheets. He knew he would have to do some editing once he have gotten over these emotions, but for now, he did not seen why he should not let them be put to something useful.
Even though he was in a frenzy, Erik did have alarms set to bring him back into reality for the sake of relief and nourishment. Sleep was always the hardest chore to get down, so it was the least paid attention too. What ended up happening more often than not were the occasions when he would find himself waking up at random times, his mask poking into his face uncomfortably, having not realizing he had fallen asleep, or had even been tired in the first place.
When Erik heard the sound of keys entering his front door, his concentration was broken. If he had been playing, he would not have heard it, but he had been writing, so the sound of the door opening was sharp in his ears.
"Erik Destler!"
The point of Erik's pencil broke under the weight of his sudden overwhelming alarm at hearing Mme. Giry's voice rang out through the house. Quickly he look around for a place to hide, but it was not to be as the door to the room banged open and standing in the doorway was a very crossed Mme. Giry.
He watched, frozen to the spot as Mme. Giry's eyes roamed the room before settling on him with a narrow gaze.
"One week. One week it's been since you've left us with no explanation as to why you were upset. Asking for time, which I gave freely and now I come to see you working on your piece as if you are fine?!"
Erik winced at the volume increase on the last part. "My dear Madame—"
"Don't you 'dear Madame' me!" Mme. Giry spat out harshly. "I gave you time. Do you have any idea how worried Meg and I have been?!"
She raised her finger to stop him when he opened his mouth, before pointing it at him aggressively. "You will get yourself out of this room and into the living room right now! We are going to talk, you understand?!"
He nodded quickly and Mme. Giry let out a huff before beckoning him to follow her. He did so obediently. He followed her into his living room and when he entered he did a double-take.
"Meg?!" Erik exclaimed in disbelief.
"Well what do you know, you can say just my name." Meg fake gasped, from her spot on the couch.
Erik turned to Mme. Giry questioningly and she shrugged before sitting on the couch next to her daughter. "I would have told her everything anyway, she might as well hear it from the source and be able to give advice if she wishes."
"This is feeling more like an interrogation than discussion." Erik noted as he sat down in the arm chair that Meg must have moved so that he was facing the two ladies on the couch.
"For all intents and purposes, you can consider it one." Mme. Giry replied simply. "Now tell us everything."
So he did. Not leaving a single thing out from the moment Miss Daae came in for her session. Erik knew better than to try to hide anything. Even with the mask on, Mme. Giry had the uncanny ability to tell when he was hiding something or lying. Something she apparently seems to have gifted her daughter with as well. No doubt in his mind the mother-daughter duo make an unstoppable force when they work together, especially against him. Which happens considerably more often than he would like.
When he got to the portion that was after Miss Daae's lesson, Erik's voice unconsciously got lower and slower, the weight on his shoulders coming back to attempting to drag him down, the lump in his throat trying once again to choke him. He forced himself to continue, ending the part when he ran out in one breath trying to get it out as fast as possible before he was choked. He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
"Then I got to my car and drove to you house. The rest you know."
The three of them sat there quiet for multiple minutes. It was Meg who broke the silence first.
"Yeah, okay. You messed up big time." She stated matter-of-factly.
Erik let out a heavy sigh and brought up his hand to his forehead above the mask. "Yes, dear Meg, I am very much conscious of that fact."
"I thought you said that you would be opened to being with them if they wanted to be with you? Well, they definitely were upfront about that point." Meg continued, a puzzled pout on her lips.
"I am aware. But, I believe, in my state of shock I had panicked and refused to accept what they were saying because..."
"Because you do not trust anyone to love you for who you are? Because you think that as soon as you allow them to see you unmasked, that trust and love will be broken and leave you beyond repair but at the same time prove to you that you are unlovable?" Mme. Giry probed.
"I…" Erik stopped, not wanting to admit that Mme. Giry was right on all accounts. But the thing is, she was. "Yes."
"Well then. I guess we'll just have to show you that you're wrong." Mme. Giry remarked casually.
His brows furrowed underneath the mask and he stared at Mme. Giry with the bafflement in his eyes. She saw and gained a smirked.
"Tell me Erik, how much have you been paying attention to your phone? Not much by the number of call and texts you didn't respond to."
He brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck, thinking. "I had it turned on silent after the first day I got back and have not even peeked at it since. It is probably dead by now in my room."
Mme. Giry rolled her eyes at that and nodded to Meg, who was now beaming in excitement. She took out her phone and began messing with it, as she did so Mme. Giry continued.
"Since you were not answering, I had figured you would not be doing any of your work for the theatre either so log into your email to request your time off. Low and behold I found something most interesting. Several in fact."
As she talked, the sense of foreboding built up in Erik's stomach, not allowing him to speak. As if sensing his inner dread, Mme. Giry's smirk twitched. "Before you had placed your phone on silent, did you happen to see any specific emails sent by Miss Daae and Mr. de Chagny?"
All at once the breath in his lungs rushed out. Trying to catch his breath, even letting out a small cough, Erik answered her.
"Yes, I saw the notices on my phone that I received them but did not open either of them. That is what made me put my phone on silent in the first place."
Mme. Giry nodded as if he confirmed her thoughts, which knowing her, he probably did. Then he realized something.
"Wait! Are you saying that you read my emails?!" Erik indicted.
"Of course," Mme. Giry said without a hint of regret and when he scowled at her, she scowled back. "I was not about to let them try to play any games on you. I wanted to make sure they were being sincere!"
That brought Erik up short. Mme. Giry was just being a friend. A dear friend whom he knew he could never be worthy of even if he would live eternally. He was still a little bit upset, but he could understand why she would do such a thing, and it is not like this was the first time either. He knew that he would burn down the entire country if it were to make her happy.
"What did they say?" Erik asked instead.
Mme. Giry smiled softly. "What didn't they say, is a better question. You did not only get the two you remember seeing. They have been sending you one each and every day for the past week. At the same time as well."
"My favorite is Mr. de Chagny's third one." Meg added with a grin, holding out her phone to him.
As he took the phone in his hand, Mme. Giry spoke. "Ah yes, that one was rather amusing. I find myself fond over Miss Daae's sixth email as my favorite."
Erik playfully glared at them, but they paid it no mind, seemingly content to watching him at the moment. When he looked at Meg's phone screen he realized that he was looking at his email account, at the top were seven emails each from Miss Daae and Mr. de Chagny appearing as Mme. Giry said. Every day and at the same time, every single one had the subject line name "Reasons Why". Scrolling to the first of the emails, he press to open the first, one from Miss Daae and begin to read:
I do so love it when the Giry's get fussy with Erik. Mme. Giry is an awesome character.
Next chapter doesn't have a POV. If you haven't guess already what the chapter is going to be, you'll find out next update. ;)