Chapter 28
Luc
All I Want
Kodaline
The lights hit, the crowd roars, and the adrenaline kicks like it always does. It’s hot, electric, familiar. My pulse syncs to the drums. My lungs expand with that primal rush that tells me I'm home.
But tonight, something feels… off. Like my bones know a truth my head hasn’t caught up to yet. The first chord of Dean’s riff strums out. I step up to the mic, opening my eyes as I lift my head, and then I see why.
Front and Center. Right in front of me. Right under the lights.
It’s her. My Lily. Her hair loose, eyes wide, breath shaking.
She wearing the little red skirt and white tank top she had on the very first night we met.
Her arms are raised high, holding a sign like she built it out of hope and terror and every heartbeat we ever shared.
LUC, I LOVE YOU
My world stops. The arena noise distorts then muffles like someone shoved my head underwater. My fingers freeze on the mic. My throat closes around the lyrics before they can leave.
For a heartbeat, I think I’m hallucinating. Is this grief? Am I dreaming her existence the way I did every night she was gone? But then she blinks fast, terrified and brave all at once.
And it hits me. She came back. She came for me. My chest fractures, pressure and relief slamming together so hard I swear my knees might give.
Dean follows my gaze. He sees her, sees the sign, and lets out a low, “Holy shit.”
Sadie doesn't take her eyes off Lily. Arms crossed, sporting a soft smirk like she knew this would happen.
The crowd follows my stare and a ripple goes through them; confusion, then realization, then screaming. Phones rise like a field of lightning.
But all I see is her. My girl. My future. My proof the universe sometimes gives second chances.
I step away from the mic, motioning with my chin for Dean and Hayden to follow me. I stop in front of Mikey’s drum kit, then speak to all three of them.
“You mind sitting this first song out?” I twist around to glance toward Lily, who’s wearing an expression of pure fear on her face. “I got one I want to sing. Just me.”
“Sure.” Hayden.
“Go for it.” Dean.
“Whatever, mother fucker.” Mikey, of course.
I grab a guitar off one of the racks, sling it over my shoulder, and then step back to the mic. I stare down at Lily and point to her, my voice barely stable. “This one. This one is hers. It’s called Anchor In The Noise.”
Silence drops like destiny. I play the first chord. The arena breathes with me. And I sing her song.
The one I wrote like a prayer and a confession, the one that hurt to breathe into existence, the one I didn’t think she’d ever hear in person. Every lyric I wrote bleeding truth.
I’ve been chasing thunder,
Living loud enough to drown
Every whisper of the quiet
That I never thought I’d want around.
Crowds screaming like they're saving me,
Lights bright enough to blind
But peace hit me in freckles
And blue eyes that crossed state lines.
And I swore I was fire,
Untouchable, untamed
Till you showed me burning
Doesn’t always mean flames.
You were sunlight in a storm,
Warm hands holding all my noise
I was lost in neon chaos,
You were steady, you were choice.
I thought love was just a lyric,
Till you turned it into voice—
When the world gets loud, I find you,
You’re my anchor in the noise.
I’ve been worshiped in the madness,
Been adored and left alone,
Built a kingdom out of stage lights
Never felt like it was home.
But your laugh in the morning,
Little footsteps on the floor
They were louder than my spotlight,
Now I can’t run anymore.
Yeah I swore I was chaos,
A wildfire with no end
But you walked through my wreckage
Like you could teach flames to bend.
I thought love was just a lyric,
Till you turned it into voice—
When the world gets loud, I find you,
You’re my anchor in the noise.
And if distance was a lesson,
I learned every aching mile
If fear keeps you from choosing us,
I’ll wait forever for that smile.
Baby, no halos here,
Just a man who’s come undone
But if you’ll have me, I will stand,
I don’t run from what I won.
You’re the calm inside the thunder,
You’re the truth I didn’t choose
But the heart don’t ask permission,
It just beats and prays it won’t lose.
And I’ll search every shadow,
Every echo of your voice
If it takes forever, I’ll find you—
You’re my anchor in the noise.
My anchor… in the noise.
I whisper the last line, eyes locked on her. When the last note fades, her eyes fill. Mine almost do. But I don’t break. I’m completely alive in this moment.
I don’t even think. I just move. I step to the edge of the stage and hold out my hand. It’s not demanding. It’s not claiming. It’s an invitation. It’s a promise.
“Come here, angel.” For half a second she just stands there, trembling. Then she nods.
Briana nudges her, and Lily climbs over the barricade into my arms like she belongs nowhere else.
The arena erupts, but I barely hear it. I wrap my hand around her waist and pull her onto the stage, into my chest. Into my life. Into every beat I have left. Mic still in hand, breath unsteady, soul wide open, I rest my forehead against hers.
“You came back,” I whisper, voice breaking on the edges.
“No more running.” She whispers back. “Not from this, not from us.”
I don’t care if the world hears. I want them to. I turn to the crowd, arm around her, heart in my damn throat, and yell into the mic.
“This is Lily. She is my everything. And I’m not hiding her or that ever again. And fuck anyone that has a problem with that!”
The stadium explodes. But I only feel her fingers curling into my shirt, grounding me like she did in a dark bus in the middle of nowhere, her voice in my ear, “I love you.”
I kiss her, slow, sure, sacred, and the world goes blindingly, beautifully loud around us.
And for the first time in my life, I don’t care who’s watching.
She’s here. She’s mine. And I am hers, every damn note in my body. I thought music was my purpose. Turns out it was the road I was on. That road that led me to them.