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Chapter 27: Chance

"2 minutes, everybody! Final checks," Mr. Moon got all things arranged by the time the sun was setting, though he wasn't sure that anyone would bother seeing the show, he's confident enough that whoever sits as an audience will have a blast hearing them perform.

Johnny pushed the piano on the spot near the backstage entrance for his performance later on, still on a daze ever since yesterday. He's knew he'd do fine with the performance, but nothing can get his mind off of the misery he felt within himself. He lost everything and for what? At what cost did this took from him?

He looks around, feeling like the theater was closing in on him. His world was shrinking until it was only him that stood around them, it was suffocating. Johnny snaps out of trance when a finger gently tapped him from behind. It was Meena, Crystal's best friend.

"Y-You okay there?" she asks.

It took a moment for him to release his breath, looking anywhere else than her concerned gaze. It was the first he'd heard anyone ever ask him that, it made tears brim in the corners of his eyes, "Yeah. I'm-I'm fine." Meena wasn't sure what to do, especially since he's a total stranger to her. She'd try to comfort him, but the elephant doesn't know what's troubling him. She was about to go check the spotlight levers, but he quickly turns his head back to her, "Wait—No. I'm not... fine." She stops, slowly facing him. "I know it's ridiculous—asking this a minute before the show—, but as Crystal's friend, do you know anything about why she just... left?"

She had her suspicions, but it wasn't that long since they've met. It's actually cute, him looking as if he had a crush on Crystal. Little does she know about the past that the two had before all of the issue. "I think it's most likely because of her mom. A-At least that's what she texted me."

"Did she say anything about when she'll come back?"

"Coming back?" Meena wanted to double check on it, but it's more likely that Crystal didn't send any, no matter how many times she try to remember their messages, "... I-I don't think she'll be back." The truth hurts more than it did beforehand, now that she realized it. And this guy in front of her looked more worse than she was, "If you don't mind me asking... what were you and Crystal before? You seemed... close?" Though that fact doesn't justify that her best friend was already engaged to Aeon.

Johnny sighed, his hand brushing off a few dust off the top of the piano, "Just an old friend of hers, for a few years back."

The clock at the end of the huge waiting area was what kept her preoccupied, other than the constant announcements from each flight that the passengers needed to board into. Crystal had felt the time tick away in such a slow manner, mimicking her own nerves that seemed to make her heart hammer in her chest until it completely shuts down. She was minutes away from escaping her mother's eyes, just an hour and a half until their flight. Whilst she's at the end of her toes, Aeon was doing quite well on his chair,—doing the task that she herself should've been doing— sharing the live feed while it's still on preview. He couldn't believe himself for ever saying this without Crystal in the show, but he's really looking forward to how things is going to end up in their part. He hadn't known much about the others, but to have her rooting for them means that they may have some good tricks up their sleeves after all.

"It's starting," he muttered, audible enough for her to hear. At first, she wasn't batting an eyelash about it, but after hearing the cheers and the new tv channel set up in the waiting area, it broke her out of her own little world. The pigs had just finished performance, earning a few more crowd on the scene. "That would've been you," Aeon nudged her, "Still not changing your mind?"

The words echoed in her already shrouded thoughts, giving her a hope to choose, "... What's there to change?" she pulled the jacket closer to warm herself more, "I've already told them I'm leaving. If I go back there, there's no room for me to take."

That didn't mean she denies it. He was all in for making her feel happy about her life, and he had enough of all this fooling around. Aeon grabs her hand and the suitcases on the other, "Come on." The hype made the gorilla forgot that he only had a leg to spare, he ended up falling on the floor with the first step he took, earning a few glances from the others.

Crystal panics in his stead, helping him back on the seat, "Come where?! You can't just up and go without your support, where'd your brain fly all of a sudden?"

He groans, taking his crutch from her, "You still got time, you can make it back there." Her mouth gaped as he fumbles within one of the backpacks, pulling out a seemingly convenient map of the town, "If you go from this street, then past the alleyway here, it can take you to the highway with less traffic around this hour. Take a detour to the left, the back of this building had a narrow escape route. I tend to go here before when things got rough, hopefully no one has closed that off yet—"

"We already paid the tickets, are you really suggesting to throw it all away right now? Weren't you the one who wanted everything to be as it is in the first place?!"

His fingers pinched the map, it was an idea that he had despised of himself for hours on end. Aeon already knew that. "What's the point if being with me... won't make you smile like you should? It's not my job to do that, I don't have the ability beyond just a partner in crime." He places the map in her hands, then pushes her luggage towards her, "Don't worry about the tickets, I know how to take care of myself even if I only got a foot to spare," Aeon chuckles, but his laugh dies down a little faster than intended. "Just... do me a favor, as maybe one of your closest friend—and since you do owe me one— even if you end up not singing in the show... at least give Johnny a chance back in your life." Her eyes widens, the air thickening around her, the sounds and speakers felt muffled to her ears. The only one who looked clear to her was the one she's focusing on, and that's the childish gorilla she had pushed over since the day he started bothering her. He took her hands in his firmly, sighing through his nose, "Just as you gave me a chance to be with you."

Right on cue, the voice she had longed for in the back of her head had echoed near her, a flight passenger who just got off the plane had his phone on high volume whilst looking for an earphone, and Johnny's voice seeping into it as his performance started in a jolly tune.

Aeon, the guy who's always been pushing the idea of them being together, is allowing her to make her choice with him out of the equation. 'He really outdone himself with the mental breakthrough,' she thought. Crystal's mind was still in a haze, but with a new goal set spiraling in her mind, she wasn't so full of glum no more. Her mother is miles away... what was she so afraid of? It could take a day or two before that woman comes here, she still has time, for all they know, her mother might've just been on a little tour beyond town's reach. The last chance she'd ever have, the last risk she's willing to take, to go back and make amends for herself and for everyone around her. Her arms wrapped around the gorilla who's love was unrequited, allowing a few more seconds before looking at him at an arms length. Crystal never thought she'd say this to herself, but she got a great friend by her side after all. "Okay. I did owe you one after all. Just... be careful, okay?"

He nodded, staring as she finally bolted out of the waiting area. Aeon was startled as a lot of men around him applaud, watching their interaction as some sort of live drama. They were words of encouragement and compliment for his bravery. Needless to say that his sadness from a break off of his infatuation with the woman he loved most was immediately washed away with the support he had around him.