CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Okay, now Gabe was nervous.
Though he was admittedly surprised by how much of it was from his plan and how little of it was from being at a rave. Though that was probably because Krystal was right: this was not what he had envisioned when he thought about raves.
It was a lot more chill than he would have imagined, though he could see the big knot of people in front of a stage that had been erected at the back of the cavernous space, and they looked pretty rowdy. The music was...interesting.
A kind of techno-rock blend he hadn’t heard for a while.
They had stopped a little to the right of the main entrance. Krystal wanted to scope the situation out. Gabe had his phone out.
I’m inside the building. Are you sure you’re cool with this?
While he waited for a response, trying to relax the tension currently worming its way through his guts, he did some scoping of his own.
It all seemed a little random. There were islands of chairs and tables scattered around the vast area, what looked like a bar off to the left, and about three hundred people.
He saw one group gathered around a pair of people who were, of all things, break dancing.
He also noticed that people were beginning to stare at Krystal. Well, that made enough sense. As he often did, he wondered what exactly people thought when they saw a woman as attractive as Krystal, or any of the other women now in his life, with him.
Gabe found his mind turning back to his plan yet again.
This was definitely the most ambitious thing he’d done when it came to his relationships. Which felt weird to think about because, practically speaking, he basically just got really lucky. He’d taken a chance and it had paid off massively.
Hopefully.
His phone chimed and he checked it.
Ha ha, yeah man! You gotta chill, we’ve done stuff like this before. It’s awesome! Don’t worry, it’ll go fine. Plan is still the same, right?
He breathed a sigh of relief and responded. Yep. Thank you again.
No problem. Good luck!
“Who are you texting over there?” Krystal asked.
Gabe somehow managed not to drop his phone or show his anxiety. “Kim. She’s getting...needy.”
It kind of wasn’t a lie. He’d been texting her a lot. Simple stuff. Questions and answers. The occasional nude pic.
His phone chimed again. Speak of the devil. It was almost like the universe was trying to cover for him.
Hey, so like can I have a video of you guys fucking? I wasn’t going to ask but I’m actually getting CRAZY horny.
“Wow,” he murmured. This was so weird.
“What?” Krystal asked, coming closer.
“Kim wants a video of us fucking.”
“Us specifically?”
“No, she didn’t specify.”
“Ooh! Send her that one from last week, the missionary anal? That was hot.”
“That was really fucking hot. Okay, if you’re cool with it.”
“Come on, Gabe.”
“I just, you know, it’s important to ask,” he murmured as he found the video and began sending it. Once it was sending, he put his phone away and took one last look around. “So now what?”
“What do you wanna do?”
Gabe checked his phone once more as Kim responded: THANK YOU!!!1
He laughed and checked the time. Okay, about an hour. He had to kill roughly an hour before it was time for the main event.
“Go listen to music? The pit doesn’t look that rowdy,” he replied.
“Awesome! Come on!”
Krystal took his hand and they started walking towards the group gathered before the stage.
…
It was a strange hour.
While Gabe had fun, it became apparent to him that this wasn’t really his scene. He just wasn’t extroverted enough.
He and Krystal went up and stood near the edge of the group, watching the current band play through its setlist. When the next one came out, it got rowdier.
They were a heavy metal band and started with a cover of an old song he’d been pretty in love with about a decade ago.
It went hard and he and Krystal got bumped around enough that he felt like he was involved.
When the first song was finished, they headed off, Krystal wanting to get drunk. He’d been a little nervous about that, and had managed to successfully get her to agree to just get tipsy by technically telling the truth again.
He wanted the day to keep going well, and he wanted her to remember it.
Both were very true.
So she’d had a beer and they had sat and talked on one of the islands of chairs and tables.
A few people drifted over and they talked for a little bit, too.
He had to admit, it was adding up to be a nice atmosphere.
There was definitely a part of him that always envisioned places like this as openly hostile and borderline dangerous.
It was nice to see this was not true.
“You’re nervous again,” Krystal said.
He was grateful that she didn’t seem drunk at all. She’d finished her beer, and she’d seemed a little more relaxed, but still very present and in the moment.
It was almost time.
He laughed. “Krystal, I think you’re being a bit of a worrier right now.”
“Mmm,” she replied, staring at him for a moment. Then she shrugged. “Maybe. I just...worry about you not having a good time, and staying here for me.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, babe. I’m doing fine. I was right that this isn’t really my thing, but I’m not suffering. This is cool, fun. I’m having a good time.”
“Okay, good,” she replied, relaxing the rest of the way.
Gabe suddenly wondered why he was able to keep this kind of thing hidden from them.
They were so damned good now at noticing when he was upset about something.
Maybe that was it. He wasn’t upset about this, he was anxious it wasn’t going to go off right.
It had to be something subconscious, almost like their nervous systems were working together.
Like his was putting out: Please don’t notice my anxiety, I’m going to surprise you with something nice, and hers was replying: Understood, I won’t notice.
Or maybe that was complete bullshit.
Regardless, it was a good thing.
“Hey, babe,” he said, checking his phone again. Shit, he’d gotten a text from Kim and had missed it. He resisted the urge to check it. Now was Krystal’s time. “That band you like is about to start playing.”
“Oh shit, already? I thought that was-wait, how the fuck do you know about them?”
“I have my ways,” he replied.
“What band do I like?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Polaris.” She sighed. “Oh, I’m so sorry for knowing what you like.”
“It’s...I’m not mad, I’m just...I don’t even know.”
“You’re annoyed because I anticipated something about you accurately. Which I just did again...and I get it, Krystal. I actually do. It feels like a weakness.” He stood and offered her his hand. “Come on, let’s go watch.”
She smiled and took it, letting him pull her up. “I guess you’re right. It does feel like a weakness, a vulnerability. But we’re going to be vulnerable around each other.”
“We are,” he agreed. “Come on, I want to be in the front this time.”
“Interesting, but okay.”
Was she onto him? God, he’d gone through this with Chloe and Ellen, too. He’d been convinced they both were onto him, but they hadn’t been at all. He reached down and patted his right pocket gently, ensuring to himself that it was still there.
The urge to take it out and visually inspect it was suddenly overwhelming. With great difficulty, he ignored it, and it began to pass.
They were so close anyway.
The band was on the stage now. The lead singer of Polaris was messing with his mic.
He looked somehow more striking in real life than he did in the promo pictures.
He was bald, pale, and had blue eyes. He had a kind of presence to him, and Gabe couldn’t really figure out if it was real or just something he projected onto him because he was famous.
Liz had been the one who’d told him about the band, mentioning it offhand when they were discussing the rave before all this.
They’d been around for some thirty years now.
They’d come up in the nineties, and then saw something of an explosion of popularity in the two thousands, but ultimately it seemed not to have been enough to carry them for the rest of their career.
While he doubted any of them were hurting for money (or maybe they were, he understood that bands could live expensive lives), they weren’t really the stars they had been a decade ago, at least not in the eyes of the public.
He’d initially assumed they were playing this place a little out of desperation, but his research had led him to understand that they just did shit like this sometimes.
Even at the height of their stardom they sometimes took obscure, small gigs for the fun of it.
He imagined it was intensely nostalgic.
The singer, Roland, finished messing with his mic and looked up and around. Then he saw Gabe and grinned slightly. He nodded slightly to Gabe, who nodded back.
“Whoa...what was that?” Krystal asked.
“What was what?” Gabe replied.
“Roland like...nodded to you? Or am I imagining things?”
“I don’t think that was to me,” Gabe lied. Very successfully apparently.
“Oh...probably an old fan or friend in the crowd or something,” she agreed. “Man, this is so cool! I’ve been to a few of their shows. I’ve got all their CDs...aw, man! I should’ve brought one, I bet I could’ve gotten them to sign it.”
“I bet they have some to sell,” he replied.
“Yeah, that’s a good point. Oh shit, looks like they’re about ready.”
They both fell silent, watching as the band finished warming up, spent a few moments talking to the crowd, thanking them, and then launching into their first song.
Gabe had never heard Polaris, and he’d purposely avoided listening to them before now.
He wanted it to be a surprise. But as they launched into their first song, which immediately struck him as a surprisingly wistful and sad tune, he realized he had heard them before.
Krystal often listened to music and it often leaked out into the rest of the house.
And he liked this band, he knew immediately, despite their depressing sound. Or maybe because of it. He was kind of a miserable bastard sometimes.
Gabe felt his heart thudding in his chest. This was it. They were so fucking close now. Was he going to botch it? Hopefully not. Probably not.
No, he could do this. He would do this. For Krystal.
While all of their relationships were unique, there was something that felt a little...extra unique with Krystal. Her broken seemed a lot like his broken, and he’d never had a writer friend before. Let alone a writer wife.
The first song ended, and they shot into the second song.
This was it. Less than four minutes now, because once they finished that second song…
Before he knew it, the time was upon him.
“All right!” Roland said. “Before we keep going, there’s something we gotta do. We try to do nice things for our fans, especially when they ask! It’s not always possible, but tonight it is! You two, get up here!”
He pointed directly at Gabe and Krystal.
“Wait...what?” Krystal asked. “What’s going on?”
“Something nice, babe. Come on,” Gabe replied, taking her hand and leading her up to the stage.
“I-what-okay,” she replied, laughing.
They hauled themselves up onto the stage. They came to stand before the mic and Roland, who was just grinning happily at them both.
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Gabe said.
“No problem. The stage is yours, Gabe,” he replied.
“Ga-wait, what!? How do you-do you know him!?” Krystal cried, looking at Gabe with wide eyes now.
“Krystal,” Gabe replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the little box he’d kept in there all day long. He dropped slowly to one knee as he presented the box to her and opened it up, revealing the ring with the shiny red ruby and the black-and-silver band. “Will you marry me?”
Krystal shrieked at the top of her lungs. “GABE!” she screamed, and tackled him.
He cried out, surprised (but not that surprised), and wound up falling on his back with her on top of him.
“Shit!” he cried as the ringbox flew from his hand, the ring from the box itself.
Somehow, he managed to snatch the ring out of the air from beneath Krystal, who was kissing him hard on the mouth, as it fell towards him.
“Holy shit, nice catch,” Roland said, laughing.
“Yes!” Krystal cried the moment after she came up for air.
It occurred to Gabe that the crowd had been cheering and clapping and laughing ever since she’d tackled him.
Holy shit, this was surreal.
“Gabe, holy shit-how did you-what the fuck!? This is so cool!” she cried, accepting the ring from him and slipping it onto her finger. She studied it, straddling him now, and suddenly looked up at Roland and the band. “Thank you!”
They all shared a laugh. “You’re welcome. It’s always awesome when we get the opportunity to do something like this.”
Gabe hadn’t ever seen Krystal like this. She seemed like she’d been hooked up to a livewire and pumped full of way too much energy. She looked down at him, at the ring, at the crowd, up at the ceiling, then abruptly she stood up.
“Come on, Gabe! We have to go right now!”
He laughed, figuring this was something she’d want to do. It was exactly why he had asked them to get through two songs before calling them up, so she could enjoy at least that much.
“Oh, wait! We got something for you,” Roland said, reaching into his back pocket and extracting a CD jewel case. “We all signed it.”
“Holy shit! Thank you!” Krystal replied as she accepted it. She looked it at, then at the ring on her finger again, then at Gabe, then back at the band. “Um…”
Roland laughed. “Go on.”
“Thank you again!” Krystal replied, grabbing Gabe’s hand and yanking him towards the edge of the stage.
Apparently that was all she needed to hear.
Several people congratulated them and clapped him on the back, but he hardly noticed as Krystal led him relentlessly on.
And then they were outside in the chilly night air.