His Last Chance

seven • the way i loved you

As Anthony headed off to bed early, Eric decided to stay up. He couldn't go back to sleep since he was too busy writing a new song for Midnight Red's new album.

"Hey," Anthony says to his boyfriend standing at the doorway, "what are you still doing up?"

Eric, who was sitting in his chair, turned around to look up at him. "I'm just working on something."

"Do you need help? Because I can stay up with you, if you want."

"Babe, I love you. I really do. But-"

"But, what?"

"You really don't have to do this. Trust me, I'll be fine."

"Too bad, I'm going to stay with you anyway." Anthony said with a smile, before sticking out his tongue out at him.

"You shouldn't even be up this late. You're gonna ruin your sleeping schedule for sure, man."

"Well," Anthony started to walk towards him giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "you're lucky I'm even here to help. And by the way, I'm doing this because I want to."

Eric sighed and laughs, as he sees his boyfriend pulling a chair over to sit next to him. He looked at Anthony for a minute, who's looking through the messy desk with papers with lyrics that Eric scribbled out. He smiled, loving how much Anthony was willing to stay up with him very late, even if it meant losing countless hours of sleep and being late for rehearsal.

Anthony immediately looked up, noticing his boyfriend was staring at him, and he started to blush.

"Stop staring at me like that. You're gonna make me feel bad."

Eric laughed and smiled, cupping his face and kisses him. He pulls away after a brief moment, winking at him, before going back to work. Anthony decides to get up from his chair, sitting on Eric's lap. Eric looks up at him, trying to see what his boyfriend's doing.

"You did on that purpose, didn't you?" Eric asked.

"I mean," Anthony looks back at him, "I am helping you, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Eric intercedes, "but you sitting on my lap isn't helping me right now." Anthony audibly sighs and just stares at him, trying to walk away.

"I'm kidding," Eric says, as he catches him by the wrist, "now, can you just help me write this song?"

Anthony gives him a shy smile, as Eric smiles back, pulling him back into his lap. This was going to be a long night for both of them, but it's going to be worth it.

***
Anthony still remembers the fight that he had with Eric a few days ago.

"Why are you acting like this? Why can't you talk to me? I'm trying hard, and I mean, very hard not to be mad at you, but you're not making this easy for me!"

"If that's how you feel, then maybe we should break up!"

Those words hit him harder than the actual fight itself. It was the only thing that stuck in the back of his mind. He usually never blows up at Eric like that. He couldn't have said that, but he did.

"Is that what you want?"

The question that Eric asked him that night made him so angry...he didn't know what to say. Regardless if he said something, it would have made things worse. The way Anthony loved him, it was...different. It was real and genuine. He felt so loved and cherished by Eric, that it made him like he was the only person in the world. He never felt that way about anyone before, and it scared him. The commitment wasn't the thing that scared him. It was the fear of hurting Eric that scared him; it was being vulnerable, it was opening himself to the possibility of getting hurt by losing the one he loves.

He'd never want to throw it all away over a stupid argument. To him, he knows it wouldn't make any sense at all, but he did. Thoughts and emotions of sadness, heartbreak, anger, and everything in between started to fill his mind. It was becoming more and more apparent that he didn't want to deal with this at all. All he wants to do is just run away and hide. He didn't mean what he said, but now he can't take it back. There was no way that he's able to fix this, even if he tried really hard.

His phone started to vibrate with a new text message. To his surprise, it wasn't Eric this time. It was from Thomas.

Dude, where are you? Rehearsal's gonna start soon.

Anthony shuts off his phone, tossing it onto the bed. There was absolutely no way he's going to rehearsal again today.

"He's not coming, is he?" Colton asked Thomas.

"No," Thomas says as he puts his phone back into his pocket, "he's not."

Joey, Thomas, and Colton let out a huge sigh.

"This is your fault, you know." Colton said to Joey.

"Me?!", Joey raises his voice, "how is this my fault?"

"You're the one who made him feel like crap for breaking up with Eric!" Colton said.

"You were way too harsh on him, man." Thomas said.

"I wasn't thinking."

Colton said. "I understand that he's being stubborn, but you didn't have to do that."

"I didn't think that he-"

"You should be lucky he actually showed up the other day, but thanks to you, I don't know what's gonna happen now." Thomas said to Joey.

Little did they know, Eric was listening in on their conversation. He looks down at his phone, his fingers itching to call him again a fourth time before putting it back in his bag. It was hard not seeing Anthony all the time, but it hurt even more not hearing back from him.

The way Eric loved him... it was consuming. Despite everything that happened between the both of them, this was the first time that it felt right. Forget about the arguing and screaming, Eric really loved him, and Anthony knows that. But, why did Anthony do that? Did he even have a good reason?

All he could do now is just accept the fact that him and Anthony are not together anymore.

Joey agreed, "Where is all this fighting coming from?"

"Anthony's not like this." Thomas said.

"You think he's insecure?" Colton said.

"About what?" Joey said.

"The fact that every girl across the country loves Eric?" Colton said.

"Have you seen the hate that he got on Twitter a few months ago?" Thomas said. "What makes it worse is that most of these comments are coming from the fans."