Fix You ~Completed~

Act Forty-Two

"Gale has a little date tonight. Nothing serious, but he met this girl named Dame and he's probably gonna spend a good chunk of tonight with her. So, it's gonna be just you and me for the most part, Clemmy."

I smiled at Eddie, watching the bright lights of the café blink to the beat of a song that was playing in the background. (Jimmy was by the light switches, off duty tonight, causing this phenomenon.) "That explains a lot. I was wondering what happened to that ginger dweeb," I mumbled. Honestly, I wasn't that curious about Gale's absence. I wasn't curious about much that night; everything was a simple blur and I enjoyed that.

"Let's just hope he doesn't start ditching us for that lovely girl," Eddie chuckled, and it was the most beautiful sound. Everything felt so beautiful right then and I had to start laughing with him. "Gale must really like her, though, because he usually says dating is a waste of time. He's got better things to worry about."

"That sounds like Ale," I commented, shaking my head.

We both went to say more on the subject, but we got cut off by a foreign object being stuck in our faces. "Hey, guys! Grab a slip from inside the hat!" Alto chirped, waving the old fashioned top hat in our faces.

Ed flashed him a questioning glance but reached into the hat and produced a slip of paper. I followed and squinted at the swirly handwriting that danced across the page. "Madison?" I read, confused.

"It's your partner for tonight. For our special night back, it's duets and you will be singing with someone random," Alto explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. The minute he stopped speaking, my face lit on fire because that meant I'd be singing with Barista Madison. Blue haired, Avril Lavigne loving Barista Madison who is best frenemies with Jesimae. The Jesimae who my boyfriend thought was hot.

That should be interesting.

"Why can't we just choose our partners?" Eddie asked, giving his slip an unsure frown. I nodded along, silently hoping Alto would just let Ed and I pair up together. Singing in front of people with my friends was hard enough. Singing with a stranger I'd admired since she started last fall but never spoke to would be absolute murder! "I mean, Kaito is nice and everything, but..."

"Nope! You get who you get and you don't throw a fit," Alto shook his head, giving Eddie a pat on the arm. "Don't worry. I bet you guys will just end up doing "Yellow Submarine" or some sea shanty."

Once Alto walked off to force the journalist girl to pick a name, Eddie turned to me. "I don't even know what a sea shanty is, embarrassing enough. I take it that it is a song sailors sing or something?" he shrugged, giving me a bad case of the giggles.

"Close enough," I assured him, picking up my latte to take a lingering drink. "I got Madison."

"Ooh, that's good! You both love Avril Lavigne. Just do "I Love You" or something," he suggested, lightly dragging his fingers against my hand as I tapped it nervously against the table. We shared a quick look that left both of us blushing. "I said that song just because it's one of the only ones Madison hasn't done yet this year that I can think of."

I stared down at the table. "It's a good song. It makes me think of you and Ale."

The way Eddie's voice squeak when he says, "It does?" makes my blush worsen. I can feel it eating my cheeks, my ears, and the tip-top of my neck. Hopefully, the turtleneck I had yanked under my hoodie covered at least some of my embarrassment.

"Well, yeah. I mean, the lyrics... they remind me of you guys. Your vibes m-make me feel comfortable. Like, you both are such vibrant people and I love that. And you... I love you. Both of you. You're so g-great." Great at making me stutter, at least. Gosh, I was starting to think Eddie liked my stuttering. He was grinning at me, his grin full and overcoming and it made my face feel as though it were being fueled by a wildfire. Why did he have to smile at me like that while I was stuttering like a fool?

"The Avril Lavigne song that makes me think of you is either "Fall to Pieces" or "Hush Hush.""

No more information was given. He didn't force himself to find reasons to give me to explain these choices; all he did was hand me that and expect my world not to get a little dizzy.

"They're both love songs," I said quietly, playing with the lid of my drink. Eddie and I had been listening to "Hush Hush" in the car. He'd sang along with it, the attempt to calm both of us down after the fiasco in my apartment obvious.

"I never meant to kiss you. You didn't mean to fall in love. I never meant to hurt you. We never meant for it to mean this much. Hush, hush, now..."

"Yeah. So was yours," he responded, his voice lacking volume the same as mine was.

"I wanted to keep you forever never to me. You know that I still do and all I wanted was to believe. Hush, hush, now..."

We both found the guts to look up at the same time. His grin slipped a little, showing me something that scared me. He looked so deeply interested in what he was looking at... me.

"So go on, live your life. So go on, say goodbye. So many questions but I don't ask why. So this time I won't even try."

"Okay, people! Are you ready for Karaoke Night to officially start?" Alto's voice cut right through our gaze, forcing us to snap our attention to the front of the room where everyone was busy clapping like maniacs.

That was good. I was afraid what would happen next if our eyes had kept that contact.

"Hush, hush, now."