*Chapter 8: Our Final Note*
The winter showcase was a week away, but River didn't care about the stage anymore.
He cared about *them*—the music, the boy beside him, the way they made the world quieter when they were together.
When the list went up and their names appeared in bold—*River Holloway & Skyler Quinn: Final Performance Slot*—Skyler whooped with joy.
River just smiled.
Not because of the spotlight.
But because he finally understood something: *music had never been the pressure.* It was the escape.
The real weight had been *fear*—of failure, of love, of being known.
And now… he was free.
***
The night of the showcase came like a dream.
Backstage, Skyler straightened River's collar and whispered, "Let's tear the roof off."
River smirked. "I thought you were the poetic one."
"I'm saving the poetry for after."
They stepped out together, under soft white lights. The audience was full—students, faculty, critics, River's father. Elliot sat beside him, watching.
But River didn't see them.
He only saw the boy at his side—the boy who turned noise into melody, chaos into rhythm, and fear into something softer.
They began.
This time, the music didn't just speak.
It *sang*.Of everything they'd fought through—expectations, silence, heartbreak, hope. Of the way love makes a home in broken places.
River played like he was writing his soul across the keys.
Skyler sang like he was bleeding honesty.
And when the final note faded… the room stood.
Roaring. Clapping. Crying.
***
Later, under the stars behind the building, Skyler pulled River close.
"Do you think this is it?" River asked. "The end of our story?"
Skyler shook his head. "No."
"This was just our final *note*… of the first song."
River smiled. "So what comes next?"
Skyler leaned in, brushing their foreheads together.
"A lifetime of verses."
And with the city lights behind them, and the sound of applause still echoing somewhere in the distance, they kissed—again and again—until the night folded around them like the last page of a songbook.
But their story?
Was just beginning.
*— End of Book 1: "Beneath the Chords" —*