A Burning Thing {Avi Kaplan fanfic}

- 21 - (the end)

With only three days left in our Japan stop, Kevin finally got up the nerve to ask Mina on a date. Almost instantly, Ellie and I were officially replaced as the band’s most adorable and nauseating couple.

On our final morning before flying to Melbourne, I rolled my eyes at Kevin as he got up to pull out Mina’s chair and accompany her to the breakfast buffet. He stuck out his tongue at me, clearly not caring in the slightest if I thought he was a sap.

“At least they keep it PG around the rest of us,” Mitch said, jabbing me in the arm, “unlike another couple I could name.”

“We might not be PG, but we spend a lot less time staring dreamily into each other’s eyes,” I retorted with a smile. “And I generally let Ellie cut up her own food.”

“Oh stop it, can’t you just be a normal person and say you’re happy for them?” Ellie glowered at me.

“Of course I can, but what’s the fun in that?”

In truth of course I was happy for my best friend, but he’d given me plenty of grief over being smitten with Ellie, so I was enjoying the opportunity to dish a little back.

“El, your hair looks incredible!” Scott gushed, reaching over to pet her gleaming red hair.

“Kirstie deserves all the credit; it would probably have turned out orange if I’d done it on my own.”

“I do know a thing or two about changing hair colour,” Kirstie said with a coy smile, swinging her own hair off of her shoulder. “Since none of these boys will let me play with their hair, I’m very happy to finally have someone else to experiment on.”

“Hey, I let you colour mine a few times,” Scott pouted.

“That’s true, but the biggest change I ever talked you into was platinum blonde and you changed it back almost right away.”

“That colour did NOT suit me,” Scott shook his head. “I looked like I had no eyebrows. Or eyelashes. I basically looked like a mannequin.”

Ellie pulled off my beanie and wrapped a piece of my hair around her finger. “I think we could have a lot of fun with this, don’t you Kirstie? He was pretty cute back when he was blonde.”

“OH NO you don’t,” I grabbed my beanie and shoved it back on my head. “You are not about to turn me into BassCannon Barbie.”

Everyone was laughing at that image when Kevin and Mina returned, but I couldn’t help but notice that Kevin’s grin seemed to have doubled in size.

“Why so excited, Kev … they bring out some barbecue at the buffet?”

“No – Mina just told me that she’s gotten a job in LA starting in January, isn’t that amazing?!”

I laughed, then hollered as Ellie stomped on my foot.

Kevin looked perplexed. “Something I should know about?”

“Sorry,” Ellie jumped in, “I may or may not have pinched him in an inappropriate place.”

“Ew, you’re doing it again!” Mitch complained.

Ellie ignored him. “That’s great news Mina! I’m so thrilled that we’re going to get to see you again.” Ellie got up to hug Mina, as I slowly clued in that I should pretend I didn’t already know.

“That’s really great, Mina, I know none of us were ready to say goodbye to you,” I said, punching Kevin in the arm. Kevin blushed and mouthed towards me: “Sleepwars … it’s ON.”

I laughed, but made a mental note to ask Ellie to poke me if I started to drool on the plane.

~~

Two nights later, standing on the stage of the extremely cool old Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, I found myself surprisingly nervous. Scott was about to introduce Ellie, and I really wasn’t sure how the crowd would react. We’d already done our traditional chair-girl song, and judging by the volume of the squealing, there were a lot of very excited female fans in the crowd.

“I am so thrilled because tonight you are going to be the first people to see us perform this particular song live the way it was meant to be performed,” Scott teased the audience. A few fans tried to guess what the song would be and started to cheer. “With us tonight is the beautiful and talented Miss Elizabeth Brown, who I know some of you will recognize from Mr Avi Kaplan’s Instagram pictures as the special lady in his life.”

I smiled and put a hand over my heart as the volume of the cheering grew. Thank goodness.

“Not only is she gorgeous but she is also an amazing violin player …” Scott paused as the cheers grew even louder “… and we are honoured to have her here tonight to help us perform this next song for you.”

The cheers turned to screams as Ellie emerged with her violin and she and Kevin began to play. With her new fiery hair and confidence to match, she looked as though she belonged on a stage. As the violin soared above our harmonies, it felt right, almost like when we recorded it with Lindsey Stirling, and the crowd’s earsplitting response at the end was proof that our experiment had worked. Ellie was glowing as she took her bow, and I thought my chest would burst with pride.

We had one more surprise up our sleeves, and this one wasn’t only for the audience. Ellie was about to leave the stage when Mitch ducked behind the curtain and came out carrying a stool. He set it beside Ellie and bowed low before taking her hand and helping her to sit down.

From the look on her face (which was somewhere between “What the hell?” and “Oh no you didn’t!”) I could see that she thought we were doing the chair-girl routine again. I guess you could call it that, but this was much more special.

“I know you’re all wondering why we’ve brought out a chair again, when we’ve already sung to one beautiful lady here tonight,” I said, with a mischievous grin and a small bow to our earlier ‘victim’.

“As you all know, PTX Volume 3 is coming out in another month,” I paused to let the cheers swell and die down again. “We’re all very excited too, and tonight you are going to get a special sneak performance of one of the songs on that album that means so much to us.”

I counted us in, and as I started to sing the first verse, I took Ellie’s hand. By the time we reached the chorus, tears were running down her face.

But now I know,

My heart is strong,

Where you belong

Is by my side.

So will you hold,

'cause time is cold,

But in your soul

I'm standing by.

It had been a long time since I’d sang anything that meant so much to me. When the song was over, I swooped Ellie into my arms and kissed her as the crowd went wild. We all took our bows and crowded into the wings, and I took advantage of the few moments we had before our encore to take Ellie aside.

She was still teary as she clung tightly to my neck.

“I love you so much, Avi. I know I can’t be with you everywhere you go, but I would be honoured to be the beacon that guides you home.”

I kissed her tenderly as the others beckoned me to the stage. “Then I promise you, as long as you love me, I will always come back to you.”

                        - The End -