Chapter 22 of Fracture Heart now up on Patreon!
Chapter 22 of my gay romance webnovel "Fractured Heart: the Tale of the Pop Star and the Pauper" is now up on Patreon! You can find the links, as well as a free first-page-of-chapter preview, here: www.fracturedheart.net/chapters/ch22/
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https://www.fracturedheart.net/chapters/ch1-8-preview/
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[First Page of Chapter Preview]
Three days later, he was getting ready for his first DJ gig since getting his mixer fixed, and he still hadn’t told Lysander about it.
After asking Juniper, then Ryan, to let him know if any gigs were coming up soon, Theo had had to field through their responses in comparison to his own work schedule. He did his best to leave at least a few hours between shifts and gigs since working back to back meant he’d be dead tired at one or both. As for hiding the gig from Lysander, well. He’d just claim he was working that night and trust that that would be it—Lysander wasn’t about to call the warehouse and make sure Theo was really working at that time.
He couldn’t precisely put his finger on why he was hesitant to let Lysander know about the gig. Part of it was not wanting to bother him, yes…even if he’d had a prior engagement, Theo could imagine Lysander canceling that engagement just to come to the show and support his boyfriend, and Theo didn’t want to interfere with Lysander’s career even more than he already had.
But there was something else about it, too…they’d been lucky so far that tabloid reports about them hadn’t leaked yet, at least so far. Though Lysander typically wore his disguise whenever they were in public, they’d gone on that not-a-date near LACMA, and a truly eagle-eyed zealous fan could have used the zoom on their camera phone to see them through the restaurant window on the pier. And it wasn’t as if Lysander’s disguise was that thorough, either. Given his unusual height, he stuck out anyway, even when he was covering his head and face.
If Lysander came to a gig of his…with all those bodies pressed close…the chances of his identity getting revealed were too high. Then people would wonder why such a major celebrity would be at a tiny underground rave, and if they saw Lysander interacting with Theo after the show, well then…it was all over.
He was using the same “cheap” sound mixer he always used, of course—not only was he unwilling to touch the enormous $10k+ mixer Lysander had bought lest he accidentally break it, it simply would have been beyond impractical to try to bring to the venues by bus. He liked his mixer, anyway—maybe it wasn’t as fancy, maybe it didn’t have brand-name prestige, but it had served him well in the four years since he’d bought it. He hadn’t been able to do DJ gigs before getting it, and his music had bloomed after he was able to associate tactile sensations with the intermixing sounds, not just clicked digital buttons on his laptop screen.
Given that he hadn’t dressed up much in a while, he decided to put more effort into it this time. Though it wasn’t the most comfortable, he fit himself into the same tight pleather pants he’d worn to his karaoke birthday party, as well as a torn-sleeve vest adorned with studs and buckles, paired with fingerless gloves that covered him from palm to upper forearm.
He’d gotten new, better quality makeup, too. He’d used the money that Lysander had paid him since technically they’d completed the final clause of their contract: producing a finished track ready to be sold. He’d needed the funds to supplement what he made from the warehouse to pay for his half of that month’s rent anyway, given that it was now his only regular job.
Siti’s parents were considerably less unwilling to help her pay for expenses—of course, she was going to school to be a biochemist, a far more respectable job than “EDM DJ”—and she worked at Halo mostly for extra spending money. Though she’d said since Theo quit that she was thinking of quitting, too, since it was too boring now that he wasn’t around to bitch about Jim with.
He felt a little bad about that—like it was his fault the job had become unappealing. But at the same time he was glad for it, even if it had been an unwise decision from a financial standpoint. The job had been crushing his spirit as well as destroying his chances for sleep…now, with just the job at the warehouse, he had more hours available to produce music and to do the occasional DJ gig.
Although now that he had a boyfriend to entertain visits with amid all that, his schedule was in some ways even more tight than it had been before he quit.
The rave he was getting ready for now was at a new venue he’d never played at yet, one that had opened only six months ago named Underbar; aptly named since it was literally built underground in the basement story beneath an alt-clothing store. Given their newness, they were rotating through DJs frequently, trying to find ones that best fit their “vibe.”
If the sales on the track he’d done with Lysander didn’t pan out, then maybe he could become a regular DJ at Underbar. It wouldn’t pay nearly as much, and playing in front of people would always be stressful to him, but at least it’d be doing something that still involved music instead of having to get a job at a café or some crap.
The bus ride to the venue went by uneventfully—he received a few odd stares for his mix of buckles and black, but no one said anything overtly rude to him or tried to mess with his gear. In fact, a pair of girls had spent half the ride casting glances towards him and giggling before they finally got off on their stop, and he even thought he caught one of them stealthily snapping a picture of him, which he wasn’t sure how he felt about.
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