All This Time [COMPLETED]

34 - Crash

FEBRUARY 2019

Ziggy fiddled with his ukulele mindlessly.

"That's a very beautiful ukulele" Emily said. She was standing in Ziggy's doorway.

"Claire gave it to me" Ziggy smiled as he admired it.

Emily approached him and looked at the instrument closely. "I used to play this back when I was in high school."

"Can you still play?" Ziggy asked.

"Maybe" Emily chuckled. "Don't let me play that though. I don't want to ruin it."

Ziggy chuckled and went back to plucking some notes.

"You haven't went out lately" Emily commented.

"Uh, Claire is busy you know, with the show" Ziggy answered.

"And also you are avoiding her" Emily said.

"Huh?" Ziggy asked puzzled.

"Oh, you can't hide anything from me, Ziggy" Emily chuckled. "I know" she wiggled her eyebrows at him.

Ziggy sighed. "It's hard. Everything is very complicated."

"You let her slip away from you one time, son" Emily said. "Don't let her slip away again."

She patted is cheek and left. He sighed.

He set aside the ukulele and texted Claire.

"Good luck on the show tomorrow" he typed. "Not that you need it."

"You know, cause you're the greatest" Ziggy scratched his head. He wasn't meant to send that. He was gonna change it to something more subtle.

"Thank you, Z" Claire replied.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Deadass tired but very happy" Claire replied. "I love how the show shaped up. We were able to pull off the show I envisioned."

"That's good news" Ziggy said. "Happy for you."

"You guys will be at the opening night tomorrow, right?" she asked.

"Of course we'll be there" Ziggy assured her. "Uh, how about Keifer? Will he see your comeback show?"

"I don't know. I haven't talked to him in a week" Claire revealed. "His grandma got really sick and he's busy tending to her. He is her favorite grandson."

"Things are really not looking great between us, tbh."

"That's good" Ziggy accidentally hit send.

"I'm so fucking stupid!" he exclaimed.

"I mean *not good" Ziggy sent. "Sorry, autocorrect haha."

"Hahahahaha" Claire replied.

Ziggy thought for a moment. Forget waiting for Claire to break up with Keifer. He cannot keep his feelings to himself anymore. He needs to tell Claire. He cannot let her slip away again.

"Claire, I was wondering, are you free to talk tomorrow?" he asked. "After your show? I want to tell you something."

"Sounds serious hahaha but yeah, sure thing" Claire replied.

"See you tomorrow!"

"See you" Ziggy replied with a smile.

This is it. He'll finally tell her how he feels. Even if Claire doesn't feel the same anymore, he still wanted her to know. He wanted to tell her that she's the only one for him. She'll always be the only one.