Page 171 of Goodbye Note

I dreaded this one more than the rest. After listening to his interview, I had a feeling it would be the heaviest since the one right after our breakup.

Others hinted at love and loss, but they were vague enough to be about any of the dozens of people he dated. Even if parts specifically related to our experience, only the die-hard Varik shippers noticed, and since they were on the fringes of the internet after seventeen years with barely any content, it wasn’t paid attention to.

The album seemed to be the answer to the question: What did seventeen years of heartbreak sound like?

I’d cleared my afternoon to listen since the release party was tomorrow, and then I’d have to hear this thing live.

My alarm beeped, letting me know someone had opened my front door. I tossed my laptop on the bed and forced myself to get up.

“Hello?” I called as I walked out of the master. Only a few people had keys.

I walked into my foyer to find the guys with a black ballon arch. Each one of them was carrying a bottle of booze and a fucking tombstone.

"What the fuck? We having a living funeral so I can jump off a cliff instead of going to the kickoff party tomorrow?"

"Damn, that’s a good idea. Sad I didn’t think of it," Fox said, putting his stuff down to come over and put a black unicorn horn hat on my head like this was a fucking children's party.

"Nova isn’t here. What are you doing?"

"Throwing you a Requiem party," Val said, handing me a bunch of black flowers.

"You fucking told them?" I asked.

"’Course he did. This one seems like a big one. He didn’t want you to be alone. It’s literally called Requiem."

"He’s not inviting me to kill myself while writing the death mass for it." I rolled my eyes, wanting to mourn alone.

"Have you listened to it? You don’t know that," Fox said, walking toward my kitchen.

"Not funny," Vallen said. "But honestly, maybe we should have prescreened the album."

I flipped him off. "I haven’t had a mental break in over six years."

"What I’m hearing is you’re due for a new one." Bronx pulled a tombstone cake out of his bag.

"If this is a Requiem party…" I set the flowers on the counter to deal with later. "Why the fuck am I a unicorn?"

"Stag. We made you a black stag to pump up your confidence." Fox nodded, seemingly proud of himself.

"I don’t get it." I turned to Val for an answer.

"If he’s going to make you the devil in his life, you might as well embody it." Val grinned, always one to poke the bear.

"This is great. Thanks, guys, but I am just going to have a quiet afternoon by myself. I want to listen to the album and drink heavily before I have to gear up to face him at this fucking dual release party. I’m not going to kill myself. You can all go home."

"This sounds like he’s trying to get rid of us," Bronx whispered to Fox way too loudly.

"I’m seriously fine!"

Val patted my back. "We aren’t leaving. We’ll be escorting you to the release party, because otherwise, you won’t show."

"So let’s rip the Band-Aid off before we go hear it being played all night." Bronx turned on my home stereo system with his phone.

"Remind me to remove all of you from all my smart electronics." I poured myself a double and sat down to get this public humiliation over with.

I used to think you were my saving grace,

Not a nightmare dressed as a fantasy.

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