You And I: On Tour

Troye VIII

I looked up at Connor, waiting for him to say something. The whole venue was silent. When he didn't say anything straight away, my heart started beating faster.

I never expected him to pull his hand from mine and run off stage. 

Jim and Tanya took off straight after him and the others followed behind, leaving me to turn back to the waiting crowd. A whispering had begun to start up and the venue was no longer silent. I decided not to address what had just happened and just wrap up the show.

"I want to thank you guys for coming out here tonight and making this whole thing possible. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't be here tonight. I love you all. Thank you so much!" I waved as I ran offstage, running into Tyler who was hidden behind the curtains.

"Whoa." He stopped me. I covered the microphone that was against my cheek.

"Where is he?"

"He's locked himself in the dressing room. Jim and Tanya are trying to get him to open the door." With a growl, I began to pull at the microphone, wanting it off me. A stage hand rushed over and helped untangle it from me. When I was finally free, I sprinted through the backstage area towards the dressing room, Tyler right behind me. 

Outside the dressing room, our friends were all hanging around, not really knowing what to do. Jim and Tanya were by the door, trying to coax him out.

"I'm here." I said and they stepped back to let me try. I jiggled the door handle a little. "Connor? It's me. Can you open the door?" There was no reply.

"Do you have a key?" Kayla asked.

"Not on me. Emma has one, though. Can you get it?" I asked. She nodded and turned on her heel, heading off to find Emma. I tried the door again.

"Connie Frannie? Come on, tell me what's wrong. I can't help if you don't tell me."

"Connie Frannie?" I heard Alfie whisper behind me.

"Shh. Leave them alone." Zoe scolded him. There was a light thud and the door moved a little as Connor leaned on the inside. I heard him sniffle and tried again.

"Con, please let me in. Did I do something wrong?" On the other side of the door, I heard him stifle a sob and my heart broke. I had no idea what he was thinking.

"Troye!" I turned to find Emma running up to me, key in hand. She tossed it to me when she was a few feet away and I pushed it into the lock.

"Con, I'm coming in, okay?" The door moved again as he stepped away from it and I turned the key.

"Do you want any of us to come in?" Zoe asked but I shook my head.

"No, I think we need to sort this out ourselves. Do you guys mind?"

"Of course not." Tanya replied. "We'll go help pack up stuff or something." Everyone began to move away, some of them whispering 'good luck' every now and then. When they were gone, I turned the door handle, pushing the door open. Connor threw himself at me, wrapping his arms around my neck and burying his face in my shoulder as he cried.

"Troye! Troye, I love you. I love you, Troye. I love you, I love you." He kept repeating himself over and over. All I could do was slowly walk us backwards so that I could shut the door to give us some privacy and hold him tight.

"I love you too, Connor." I said when he finally stopped for a moment, pulling back to press a kiss to my cheek. "But what happened? Are you okay?"

"I..." He suddenly let go of me completely, crossing the room to sit on the sofa.

"What? What is it? You can tell me." I said. He sighed and bit his lip, eyes not meeting mine. The way he was acting was scaring me. I crossed the room to sit beside him, taking his hand in mine and wiping a stay tear from his cheek. "I'm here for you. Whatever you need."

"I'm scared." He said finally, his eyes flicking up to meet mine for a second before he looked back down at his lap.

"Scared? Of what?"

"Making a promise I can't keep."

"What are you talking about?"

"The promise ring. Troye, I love you. I really, really do. I love you more than I'd ever thought it possible to love someone. And I want to be with you." He sighed. "God, I want to be with you forever and then some."

"So what's the problem?" Now I was confused.

"I don't know if I can promise to love you forever. Not yet. I'm still not confident enough in myself to honestly say that you're the one I want for the rest of my life."

"But that's the thing, Connor. It's not saying that you have to love me for the rest of your life. It's saying that I will love you for as long as you want me to."

"But a promise ring is just the first step to an engagement. I don't know if I can honestly give that commitment."

"It doesn't have to be. Connor, this ring can be whatever we want it to be. It can mean whatever we want it to mean."

"I..."

"Connor, all I want is for you to have something that will remind you that I'll always love you, no matter what."

"Really?" He finally looked up and his eyes met mine. I leaned forward and kissed him softly.

"Really. I love you. I know you want to take things slow. I'm not trying to force you to go faster than you want to. Promise." I pulled the little ring box out of my pocket and stood up.

"What are you doing?" He frowned at me.

"Stand up." I demanded, tugging on his hands until he was stood in front of me. Then I sank back down onto one knee.

"Troye..."

"Shh. You're ruining it." I opened the little box to show him the ring again. "Connor Joel Franta, will you wear this ring as a sign of my promise to love you as long as you want me to?"

"Yes." He was crying again and I stood up to pull him into an embrace.

"Yes?"

"A thousand times yes." He replied, laughing through his tears. I was laughing too as I pulled back a little to look at him.

"I love you, Connor. More than you'll ever know." I pressed our lips together in a desperate kiss.

"I love you too, Troye. More than you'll ever know." He whispered when we broke apart. "Can I have it?"

"Have what?" My mind was clouded.

"The ring, silly."

"Oh. Of course." We let go of each other and I took the ring out of the box. "Which finger?"

"Um..." He looked down at his hands, deciding and finally held out his left hand. "This one." He gestured to his middle finger and I slowly slipped the ring on, feeling slightly giddy as I did.

"It's beautiful." I murmured when it was all the way on. 

"Thank you, Troye." He took my face in his hands and kissed me. I could feel the cold metal of the ring pressed against my right cheek and smiled into the kiss, wrapping my arms around him.

"This is the perfect ending to the best tour yet." I whispered when we broke apart, just holding each other close.

"Absolutely perfect."