Nothing Can My Love Erase

Take Me Back Again

She spread out her jacket on the wooden tiles of the stage and lay down on her back while he got his guitar ready. She didn't have to look at him to know he was biting his lip while he was fiddling with the knobs on the amp and his guitar to get the best possible sound. From time to time he'd play a short note to see if it finally sounded right. He still seemed to be as meticulous as she remembered when it came to finding the right sound. Eventually he started to turn those single notes into a soft melody.

It was very slow and sounded a little melancholic, but he managed to make it sound beautiful from the beginning. A few notes in Brian started to hum along quietly, he had always been a little shy to sing in front of her even though she kept telling him she adored his voice. She hoped he'd remember that. But maybe it wasn't that he was too shy, maybe he just didn't have the lyrics worked out yet. Billie closed her eyes and let the music envelop her.

Brian was such a good musician and it amazed her every time. She was proud she could play a few very basic things on the bass and the guitar but every time she listened to him she felt like she didn't know a single thing about music. He was simply too good.

He continued what seemed to be one song for a few minutes before he played a beautiful transition into the next song. He sat on the floor beside her and continued to play song after song, just anything that came to his mind. Not wanting to stop he kept playing because he was afraid that if he put down the guitar he would say or do something that would make Billie want to leave again. He didn't want her to leave. He had everything he wanted right there and he would do everything in his power to keep Billie close to him, or rather to bring her even closer to him. He hoped more than anything that they could go back to being as close like they used to be. He missed that.

He missed always having someone who was there for him, who really listened to him and cared about what he had to say, even if it was about the most random topics. Sure he had his friends, but their patience when it came to listening to him about astronomy or science in general wasn't very high. She always listened to him. Maybe she was just a good actress, but to him it seemed like she wanted to listen to him because it was interesting and he always liked that. She always made it seem like she cared about him and what he did. She probably really cared, but even if not it was enough for him the way it used to be.

His mind wandered back to when he played for her when they were younger. He had just started to write brief songs, often not more than a short melody and a few sentences, but he was always very proud of them. She didn't just let him play for her, she asked for him to play these short songs. It was like she wanted to hear them and that inspired Brian to write more of them. She always had such a beautiful smile on her face when she heard something she liked.

She had the same beautiful smile now. He was glad she seemed to like it so much because the song he had started with was one he had written for. The song was finished, but he was too shy to sing because he didn't know what to say if she asked who or what it was about. He didn't know how to tell her he had written a song about her, especially a song with lyrics like those.

He sighed a little and looked at her. She was still lying on her back with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. She looked so at peace. He couldn't get enough of the view, he couldn't get enough of her. He couldn't believe she was actually there, next to him again. It felt so surreal to have her there after all these years, and it felt even more surreal to not have her snap at him or run away. He was still curious what that had been about, but he was almost certain that if he dared to ask she would shut herself off again and leave. It was too early for that.

But at the same time it felt like she had never been away, it felt like she had never acted so weird the past weeks, it felt like nothing had changed. However, he was a curious guy and he and he had missed her and talking to her so he gently stopped the strings, making her glance at him with one eye.