Love Of My Life

24

Ben

We got to come in a little later today. No one knows why, not even Aria, but we aren't questioning it. The lot of us decided to go out for lunch in the meantime.

"So you never perform?" Joe asks Aria. He then takes a bite from the chicken he ordered. 

She shakes her head, swallowing her food. "Never in public," she responds. 

I remember her telling me this a little while ago when she was upset outside of the set. I wanted to bring it up so many times, but did not know even where to begin. I'm almost glad that it came up in conversation now. 

"I think you should," Gwilym says. 

"I mean I've thought about it. It's not like I don't want to," she says, giving me a knowing look from the side. She takes a sip from her water. "The press will have a field day if I go public with it,"

"Why?" Rami asks.

She sighs. "No matter what I do the press compares me to my father and all they care about is if I'm similar to him and if I live up to everyone expectations. No matter what I do it won't be good enough. So I do other things that I can't be compared to," 

"I don't know, Aria, I think people would absolutely love to hear you perform," Joe says. "It's sort of like Freddie is there through you,"

"Well that's another thing. I'll always be associated to Freddie in that way too so do people care about my singing or connecting me to Freddie?" she argues. 

Aria is so stubborn about this. I wish she could see that everyone genuinely wants to hear her perform. Yes Freddie influences it, but it's not a bad thing like she's making it out to be. I have a hard time seeing it from her point of view, but I'm trying. Of course some of it makes sense, but I think she's fighting some feeling inside of her. 

I remember she told me Rufus Taylor wants to do music with her and she's thought about it. What's stopping her from at least trying? I mean she grew up with Rufus so I think she should. 

"I know it might not make sense to you, but when the time is right I'll play. It's just not at this very moment in time," Aria adds. 

"Well we are in a restaurant," Joe jokes. Aria gives him a look. 

We finish our meals and eventually get a ride back to the studio. I wish it wasn't so late because that means we are going to get out late. Lindsey greets us in her normal spot, but besides her is someone who none of us expected. 

"Brian!" Aria yells when we get out of the car, running into his arms. 

"Hi Aria," he says, giving her a hug and kissing the top of her head.

"What are you doing here?"

We all walk up to them, just as shocked to see him. He should be in London after all.

"I wanted to surprise you all. We had a change in which scene we are doing today. It might not make the final film because of story line issues but we want to film it anyways. Partially for you, Ari," Brian explains, slinging his arm over Aria's shoulders. "I came because it is such short notice and I wanted to watch it," he admits, laughing. "We're going to do '39,"

I can practically see the excitement coming off of Aria's face. A smile spreads and she obviously cannot contain it. 

"I know it's your favorite Queen song so I figured we could film it and if it fits, great. And if not we'll always have the scene filmed," he says.

We walk into the studio, being whisked away to hair and makeup as per usual - Lucy following Brian, Aria, and Lindsey. We all have our long wigs on today. I also notice my outfit is a little bit more form fitting than usual but it's fine. 

I start to get excited as we walk onto the actual set. '39 is one of my favorite Queen songs, along with White Queen. I just love the musicality behind them and I think they're beautiful. 

As we walk on set, Brian and Aria are fiddling around on a couple guitars, strumming the chords of the song. I hear them humming with it as well, Brian on melody and Aria on harmony. Although it is just humming, it sounds wonderful. 

"Come in, come in," Brian tells us when he notices us hovering by the door. Aria turns around and gives us a smile, putting her guitar down on a stand. 

"I like this get up on you," she says to me, grabbing both of my hands in hers. "You know, we don't have any pictures together,"

"Are you hinting at something?" I ask her with a smile. She bites her lip and nods. "Let's take one then, yeah?"

She lets go of one of my hands, but keeps the other tight in her grip and leads me towards where Lucy is.

"Luce can you grab a photo of us?" Ari asks her. Lucy nods and take Aria's phone out of her hand, that she pulled out of her pocket. 

Aria and I move closer to the set. Luckily the other boys are talking with Brian off to the side so they aren't paying attention. Not that I would have minded, but still.

We take a couple, Aria unable to decide which pose she wants. I hate taking a lot of photos but I let her, seeing as it makes her happy. We take one where my arm is around her waist and her hand is on my chest, another where we're hugging (kind of), and another one where I kiss her cheek last second. I wanted that one for my phone background.

Aria takes her phone from Lucy and the two immediately examine the photos. I smile at how excited Ari is. 

"The surprise one is my favorite," Lucy says, pointing at her phone.

I run up behind them and peer down at the screen. It's cute. Aria smiles like a fool in it. 

"Can you send those to me?" I ask her. 

"Of course," she tells me.

"Okay let's make magic," Brian announces. 

I must say that this was by far my favorite scene to film so far. I love this song, and the energy in the room. Everyone is in a good mood and by the end of one of the takes we have the whole cast and crew singing along. I take it we won't use this one in the movie.

Brian and Aria belt out the lyrics in perfect melody then harmony. They're voices are beautiful together and I'm shocked that Aria is singing right now. Maybe our conversation from lunch is still on her mind. 

I grab her hand and we dance to the music. I forget about 'playing' my drums, seeing as everyone else has forgotten about theirs as well. Rami and Lucy dance together, I notice. It doesn't take long for the crew to join us on set. 

I wish I could stay in this moment forever. Singing and dancing with Aria, surrounded by friends who I consider family at this point and doing what I love. 

The song ends and there are countless cheers from literally everyone. Aria wraps her arms around my neck and I pick her up and swing her around.

"I love you," I say in her ear, before I can even comprehend what I just said. Oh no Ben, you moved too soon. You done messed up.

Aria pulls away and puts a hand on my cheek, running a finger up and down my jaw. For a second  I think I messed up, maybe even ruined everything.

"I love you," she whispers, a smile spreading across her face. She leans in to kiss me gently.

I take it back. This is the moment I wish I could stay in forever. 

...

When I wrote this initially I didn't realize how soon they moved into saying 'I love you' soooo just go with it lol