Author note:

Reviewer Phantomgirl7338

Please, reviews tell me what I'm doing right or wrong. I learn from them -puppy eyes-

I'm sure most of you skip over this part anyways. So I'll stop wasting my typing energy.

TheDragonEye

Learn to be Lonely

Erik sat alone on the edge of campus, a few books and papers spread out about him on the grassy hill. Many were held down by rocks or shoved in books to prevent the light pieces of paper from being blown away in the light breeze. Though he had already gotten a bachelors degree and the school semester was ended he remained at the school. Same with a few other students who had no homes to go to, or while they had a summer job, or if they just felt like sticking about for campus parties.

Erik stayed there for there was no where else to go yet. However, he stayed because it was a place of memories, the good and the bad, but mainly because all these memories included Christine and Raoul and himself. It had been a month since they left, right now nearing the end of June and Erik had been miserable ever since they both left him. But they had lives they could be living and probably were living right at the moment while he poured over old music books and wrote out a tune which kept playing over and over in his mind.

It always started slow, a mourning sense and by three minutes into it the music had picked up and grew to play in harsh tunes, but ones that were surprisingly easy on the ears. It whirled around like 'Flight of the Bumble Bee' but was no where near as light in notes and so airy a sound. Faster, faster, the music taking him far away- removing his own conscience mind from his body. All that remained was the music in his mind. The guilt and regret of letting them leave without words he had thought up to be better now had swarmed in his brain.

Raoul's words of what love was continued to linger whenever he went back to their old dorm room, and he remembered the time spent there. It was always hard to loose a friend, but Erik still felt as though he owed a debt to Raoul. Raoul always defended him, always had his back in situations. Now he was off with his fiancé and he was sitting here missing him and being jealous of the lives his friends were probably living at the moment. He, on the other hand, was a man with nothing more then a Bachelor's degree, next to no money, and a distortion that would prevent him from ever living out a life he could have lived without it.

The masked man gave a sigh and stood up, collecting his things and shoving them in a worn bag which he slung over his back as he headed back towards campus. A newer tune was playing in his head and his fingers were itching for the reassuring feel of the ivory keys of a piano beneath them. So to the music hall he headed. Of course there wasn't a soul inside, probably because the doors had been locked, but they didn't prove to be much of a task for him. He had made certain to get a forged copy of the keys needed for this building.

More than once he had gotten caught, but by now the administrators knew he never caused harm. Oh how long it had taken to work up their trust. Silently, Erik slipped inside the long familiar building. Suddenly a world of hurt hit him, instantly dampening his already sullen mood. He remembered a time when he used to bring Christine into this hall and play for her a new composition or have them both sing. Once in a while Raoul would have come along and it would have been a trio of singers. Erik smiled when Raoul had claimed to be a Baritone when it was so easy to tell that he was a tenor just as himself. He always did have a good voice even if he claimed not to.

Erik found the room he had been looking for and he sat down on the piano bench after he unlocked the door and set his bag by the door. His fingers took their positions on the instrument and began to play. It was a light song, one that really wasn't so sad, but it was slow. One of those songs where one couldn't really tell the mood of it but it was pleasant on the ears. Maybe it was how he felt whenever he thought of Christine. . .

Raoul was gone, he had left a week before for Italy to meet with his family and soon to be wife. Now it was the day of Christine's departure and neither of them could hide their sorrow. Erik had taken Christine one last time to the music room, sitting down on the piano bench as she stood behind him.

"What would you like to hear, Christine?" he asked as he looked up at her.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Whatever you wish to play, Erik; you know I will enjoy it either way."

With a nod of his head Erik began to play. It was a light song, one that really wasn't so sad, but it was slow. One of those songs where one couldn't really tell the mood of it but it was pleasant on the ears. . .

Erik jumped from his flashback when a hand was lain on his shoulders and he whirled around on his spot, nearly sending the piano bench to the floor.

"May I help you?" he asked as he regained his composure. Standing there was someone he would have rather not seen. It was Carlotta- Piangi's ex-girlfriend. He would have thought that she would have left campus by now and gone back home until the next semester. Even the look of her made his blood boil for her lips were drawn in a sneer and he repeated his question once more with a waning patience for the woman.

The red head clucked her tongue at him and shook her head, "Now-a, that's not-a very polite, 'tis it? But I can see why-a you're so sour." How he hated how she had to add a 'a' to almost all of her words but he grit his teeth and continued to glare at her.

"I-a came here to return-a something you left behind." She waved a piece of paper in front of his face, one of the compositions he had been working on earlier.

"How kind of you." He grumbled and made a grab for it but she snapped it from his reach and she shook her head.

"I-a came here to return-a it to you, but perhaps I have-a reconsidered. Maybe where this belongs is-a feeding a fire." She smirked at Erik's cross of emotions, his scowl flickering as it faltered for a moment. "Why do you-a care what happens to it? Soon it becomes forgotten that you-a ever wrote it. The same-a happens with people."

Erik who had been moving and pushing the bench back in and closing the piano top paused. "What do you mean by that?" he asked and turned to look at her.

Carlotta grinned; good she had gotten his attention. "You-a know exactly what I-a mean. I mean-a, Piangi left me, but I still have-a friends. You, on zee other hand, don't have anyone." She shook the paper in front of him, "No, one but you're music."

Oh she was good, but not so good at teasing to get him angry and bothered by it and his arm shot out, grabbing it before she even could tell what had happened.

"Playground bullying will not get to me. It is sad that you do have no friends and nothing to do but to come here and bother me." He replied, coldly. He couldn't help but smirk at the way she flinched and without another word she shrugged and left the room. Well, at least she had left quickly.

Erik looked down at the piece of paper he had just gotten back and frowned. She had taken and written all over it, making sure that it obscured the notes he had written. Then, there were some writing which was not hers and he swiftly looked up towards his bag which was gone.

Oh, that was the last straw.

Erik walked across campus about an hour later, heading towards his dormitory with his bag over his shoulder and his fist and face pulsating in pain. Oh well, Carlotta and Joseph had gotten what was coming to them. Joseph got the hell beat out of him and well. . Carlotta wouldn't have a fuck partner after where his damage had been to Bouquet. It was a grim victory, for he was alone to celebrate it.

But with that fight that had occurred maybe it was best to leave campus before he was thrown out without his dignity. He would go, pack his things and head down to the main building, hand in his keys and payment for as much as he could and go. Where? Who knew? He would start his own life, on his own if need be. He just wished he didn't have to be alone. He wished his friends were here. He wished he had told Christine how he truly felt, for when two hearts race as one, both win. Maybe hers had been racing just as his on that last day. Erik cast a glance towards the west and gave a soft sigh.

"The perfect end to a day like this. A mosaic of colors, fading into the slate of darkness in an end of one life."

He opened the door to his lonely dormitory and cast one glance over his shoulder once more.

"And the beginning of another. The beginning of one life."

Ending note: Yeah, it's a bit shorter and it took a while but I really haven't been so inspired to write with the lack of replies to the story. The hits on the other hand. . . oh well, just reviews will be much accepted and praised.

-TheDragonEye