A/N: Only one chapter left now! I hope you like it!
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God, there’s so many people.
It may take longer than expected.
It’s a nightmare trying to get a taxi!
Don’t eat all the food, I promise I’ll make it somehow.
Chris chuckled to himself and read the message again.
Don’t worry, J
I won’t leave you starving
I’ll just eat all the good bits and leave you the things I don’t like.
He sent.
Fucking wanker
Chris laughed at his friend’s answer, imagining the sound of Jon’s voice uttering those words.
Fine. I guess I’ll wait for you. Take your time, I’m not going anywhere.
He wrote, pressed send, left the iPhone on the sofa next to him and he returned to the picture he’d been ogling before Jonny’s message came through.
It had been taken at Jonny’s last birthday, they’d been unaware of their bassist and friend taking the picture, they’d been chatting and eating cake and the Scot had been rather sneaky. By now Chris was used to having his photo taken without permission and he was usually very good at spotting the wayward photographer, but when Guy had come to him one day with that printed copy of the picture he had been utterly flabbergasted.
“I thought you should have it,” he had patted him on the back and carried on inside the office.
Chris scanned the picture again…his heart soaring at the sight of Jonny and him, thousands of memories rushed in; then, he got the other picture he had, also taken by Guy back in the day, one of them as college students, playing guitars in Jonny’s bedroom.
The bedroom where everything had happened so many years ago, he swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat when the feelings of that Boxing Day morning unexpectedly resurfaced.
Feelings, memories, moments, they all came in and Chris was immobile, his mind lost in those days.
In the end, spending some days with his family before returning to their routine had been for the best. In Devon, away from the city, surrounded by his loved ones he had had time to process everything that had happened between him and Jon and he had returned to London at the beginning of the new year in a more serene state of mind.
By the time he had come back, their friend and flat mate Tim had returned as well, which meant Jonny and him were no longer alone in their flat. Before they had known it they had been both immersed into their routine: working, rehearsing with the guys, studying for their mid-terms.
No one had noticed anything different about them. They slipped back into being best friends almost naturally, as if their roles had never been altered, but Chris now could see that they had both been in denial for those first weeks after the holidays. It had been a coping mechanism; they wanted to succeed so badly, to make things work with the band and being friends, after all, that was simple for them, they had a history together as best friends, they had been the first ones to form the band, their friendship was familiar and reassuring.
Things had happened very quickly after that, they had played more and more gigs at better places, for more and more people each time and in April they were signed by Parlophone, marking the beginning of their new lives. Their dream was finally coming true. Those months were nothing short of intense, they finished college and began their work on what it would be their first record as well as some small promo appearances. Plans for the future seemed unbelievable to their ears, producers talked about Festivals and tours in France, throughout Europe and even in America for the following year if things went well. Chris had been perplexed about it. They had had little time to sit around and ponder things, what had happened between them that night, what could have been, so they carried on. They had looked ahead and carried on.
