31. Wesley
Wesley
I don’t know how long we sit in silence. Me, catching my breath. Avery and Luca, soaking in what I’ve told them.
None of us seem to know who should be the first to speak. In the end, it’s none of us.
“Mr. Hart, we’re hoping to get a status update,” someone calls through the door.
The couch shifts under me as Avery gets up. “I’ll talk to them, you two take all the time you need. See you back at the hotel after?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you there.”
Before leaving, she presses a kiss to my head. “I love you. I’m proud of you.”
The room seems to shrink in her absence, with just Luca and I sitting across from each other.
“I’m sorry,” I start, my voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t know how to say it before without it feeling like a lie. You deserved to know the full truth before I asked you to forgive me for what I’ve done. Still, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t.”
I’ve pretended that a false sense of control was better than reality. No apology meant I didn’t have to learn whether he would forgive me or not. Now it’s in his hands.
“I forgave you a while ago, and sure. I didn’t know all of this.
Fuck. I wish I had.” He shakes his head, sending his hair over his eyes.
“You know you were one of the first people in my life who believed in me? You came up to me with this opportunity and helped me become someone who mattered. And I lost that for a time.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeat, not knowing what else I can say.
“I know. I’m sorry too, it took me longer than I’d hoped to show up here. I actually had tickets for the first show but couldn’t get on the plane. I ended up calling my therapist instead.” His eyes fall to the grey carpet and cheeks tinge pink at the admission.
“Jared really got to us both, didn’t he?” I smile. “How dare he help us become better people, am I right?”
“Yeah, now I have to owe him for it? There’s no getting out of that.”
“Bet he did it on purpose. It’ll be impossible to tell him no.”
“Dick.” Luca cracks a grin and my chest squeezes at the sight.
“You’re happy now?
“Yeah.”
“Tell me about it?”
So that’s what he does. We sit and talk, catching up about his life in Atlanta, how his bar’s renovation has gone and how his girlfriend, Lacey, has helped him fall back in love with music.
I tell him about the months on tour, how Avery and I are truly and completely back.
It’s an easy conversation, one that finds its natural rhythm only after a few minutes.
The familiarity of it fills a hole in my chest.
Eventually, the lights go dark in the hall, and we trade a look.
“I guess they’re about to kick us out then?” I say, standing. “Thanks for being here, Luca.”
He follows suit. “You know, my friends call me Drew now.” Which I recognize as a shortened version of his middle name, Andrew.
“Do I qualify?” I ask, not wanting to overstep.
Luca was the first person who helped the band become a reality and I’ve missed him and his gentleness for years. Truly, out of everyone in the band, he was the most like me, the only one completely reliant on music to express themselves. And it would mean a lot for him to be back in my life.
“I hope so.” He smiles softly.
“Drew,” I test the name. “A few of us are getting together to perform, nothing big, just twenty-thousand or so people. If you’re up for it, we’d like to have you there.”
“Can’t let you all have fun without me, now, can I?”
I hug my old friend for the first time in a decade.