Clearing The Mind

Chapter 14: Golden Arms.

For a bit, he stood and smiled just to himself. He sat alone this time, something he'd not done for a long time.

It felt different for him after so long. It wasn't him performing this time. He wasn't even on stage.

It felt kind of refreshing to let his girlfriend take over once in a while. So for his pianist to take the stage with Daphne for a song. After what happened that week and only a couple or so before the wedding they also had to perform at, he wanted to take a break.

And she took it for him. She looked at the pianist and then smiled at the audience. She then looked at Julian and gave him the warmest smile he had ever seen.

'Sly bastard.' He thought to himself.

The chords were half jazzy, half R&B. Julian smiled. Her voice had that soprano feeling. It was light, and jumpy, just like when he first met her. Granted, he had never heard her sing that much compared to him.

18, we were undergrads
Stayed out late, never made it to class, uh
Outer Richmond in a taxi cab
You were sweating bullets on the way to my dad's and oh
You said, "Baby, think we're moving too fast", ah-ah

He melted looking at her. The song complimented the dynamic they both had at the moment. After what she did when the breakdown happened, it actually gave him a kind of new hope for them after he himself said that he started to have lowered faith in their relationship.

Gwen was sitting a few tables away from him. She knew that whole story, and she was happy for them.

And I swear the magnolias flashed a smile (flashed a smile)
And that's when I caught me hoping you'd stay a while (stay a while)

The chorus came in a very mild high belt. The pianist continued on the keyboard while the drummer started playing fun with his beat while singing alongside her.

Baby, I'd give up anything to travel inside your mind
Baby, I fall in love again come every summertime
My daddy taught me to choose 'em wisely, but you don't have to try
'Cause, baby, I fall in love every summertime

25, man we're missing church
Laugh 'bout everyone we're hating at work
Dinner with your sister and the jokes kinda hurt
Cry the way home, and you're putting me first, oh
Yeah, we just always know what to say (mh, ah, yeah)

(FLASHBACK)

He remembered what happened.
It was a simple scene between two lovers.

"Juls?" She heard the shower running a bit too long.
She knew his door was left open just in case she wanted to get naughty, but not tonight.

She saw him there standing.

He was standing there, emotionless as the water kept running.

Her heart broke when she saw him this way.

She took off her clothes.

And she went to hug him from behind. She knew what he'd been going through ever since then, she wouldn't be surprised if things like this would happened after she saw him by the cemetery talking to her as so.

They just stood there in complete silence other than the rushing waters the showers produced.

She couldn't feel his tears streaming or the difference in temperature those tears had as he was crying softly with no sound uttered.

Inside his heart, he felt warmth again. He'd observed that she doesn't know how to initiate intimate moments, and it really had to hurt him at times, too. He never really wanted to speak it out, however, because he didn't want to hurt her.

This time, things felt different.

Inside his heart, he wouldn't show it that time, but that gesture he loved on its own.

For a woman he was scared of losing something with as he did before, perhaps that was nothing more but an overthinker's perception.

(FLASHBACK ENDS)

We're strolling down the boulevard
And dancing under streetlights (oh, the lights)
Every year we get older, and I'm still on your side (oh, I)

He was there, by his mouth, in his heart, in his mind, in his soul, he was singing along with her.

He loved her. He just needed to find a reason in himself to confer that he could.

Baby, I'd give up anything to travel inside your mind
Baby, I fall in love again come every summertime
My daddy taught me to choose 'em wisely, but you don't have to try
'Cause, baby, I fall in love every summertime

Every day is summertime
Every day is summertime
Every day is summertime with you

Every day is summertime
Every day is summertime
Every day is summertime with you

Gwen saw those two as the song ended and Daph went backstage.
He hugged her warmly, the embrace as warm as some weird expression he would call a kind of golden arms.

"You okay, Juls?" Daph asked him. There was nothing wrong with him at all, but she just wanted to ask.

He smiled. It was nothing less than the smile she gave him while she was onstage. He just wanted to radiate the same light she gave him while she needed it.

While he was in the embrace of those golden arms that can turn anything to shine, he didn't know what else to say.

"How was my performance?" She asked, a bit anxious perhaps about how she'd done.

In his mind, he was still thinking about the past, and yet some part of him started asking himself, one still cannot focus on the past too much and neglect the present in front of him right now.

Daphne was in front of him right now.

Her head was buried into his embrace.

He knew the answer to what he and Gwen asked himself a few weeks back ago.

He placed his hand into hers. And said it very gently as their foreheads were leaning on one another.

"Thank you. I couldn't ask for anyone better."

She smiled at him and didn't give him any answer.

In her heart, she was fulfilled too. She saw this emptiness inside of him. She'd observed it for a long time without speaking out on it until she was clear.

Now it was clear to her, and it surprised her that she didn't even need to try and dissect that heart to find a way to love him again. She'd seen her fair share of challenges on how to face this relationship, she now knew how.

In the place of all the emptiness he had in his heart even when he was with someone else was a matter of joy trying to win his heart over.

And perhaps for once after a long time since it last happened, looked like it would actually win again. Perhaps love was something always worth believing in after all.

A/N: This is a short one after I don't know what to write for so long. Hope you guys enjoy it, and I'll wring out the rust and write more to the wedding as I go. And babes, I'll be there tomorrow.