To Fall in Love With a Musician (boyxboy)

Chapter 14~ Carmen

Carmen should have been worrying about his performance that was in less than five minutes. He should be be freaking out as he usually did before he got on stage, but he couldn't bring himself to care about it.

All he could worry about was...

I'm not a virgin anymore.

It really didn't feel that different. Being a virgin and not being one.

Walking hurt, and he feared (or hoped maybe?) that his relationship with Osmond would be different, but on the inside he didn't feel any different.

"Are you feeling okay?" Osmond asked and Carmen blinked, coming back to his senses and turning to Osmond, who was looking down at him with a blank expression.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Carmen asked. They hadn't talked much over the past hour, though they had been in a rush.

"I don't-" Carmen just then noticed that Osmond was holding his phone and when he looked at the screen he could clearly see Keith's name. "Your brother does. Why doesn't he just text you?"

"Because he knows that I'd never bring my cellphone on stage with me. Put that thing away, please," Carmen said and Osmond blinked at him slowly before sliding his phone into his pocket. "Did you turn it off?"

"Why would I?" Osmond asked, looking ahead to the stage where the state band had finally finished after a thirty minute set and was exiting on the opposite end. That meant they had less than two minutes before they had to go on.

"Because... because what if it goes off?" Carmen asked and Osmond looked amused by this.

"It's on silence".

"But it still buzzes," Carmen pointed out and Osmond raised his eyebrows, apparently still not getting the point.

"It does," Osmond agreed.

"Doesn't that distract you?" Carmen asked. He could recall one of his first concerts, which would have been back in elementary school, when his small flip phone had spent the entire time buzzing in his pocket. Multiple mistakes had been made and afterwards he had been scowled heavily by his mother and sent to his room. Without dinner.

"I think you're overestimating how often it goes off," Osmond said with this new undertone of playfulness that he was apparently using now. "Not many things can distract me, anyways". Carmen averted his eyes when Osmond looked at him as if he was one of the things that could.

Osmond had been different all- well, for the hour they had been awake. Where they hadn't talked a lot, when they did it was a different kind of talking. Osmond seems lighter, less uptight. Maybe, Carmen considered, this was good for him. Sex had made Osmond less bitter.

What fun.

"Would you like me to turn it off?" Osmond asked, and Carmen was about to say no but Osmond had already withdrawn his phone from his pocket and switched turned off. "There".

"Uh- thank-"

"Next for your tonight is-" began from the stage and Carmen swallowed, his hand tightening on the neck of his violin.

"Hey," Osmond said, his voice soft now as Carmen chewed on his lip. "We're going to do great". When Osmond said we're it took some of the pressure off of him, making him relax just a little as a hand was placed in the small of his back and gently lead him forward onto the stage.

***

"I feel bad," Carmen whispered, leaning into Osmond's side so he could be heard. The seating section of the auditorium was dimly lit so they could barely see each other's faces, but they could still talk as long as they kept it quiet.