#gabric

Eric stepped away from Tara and went on to Gabriel next who was standing by the rehearsal room’s baby grand piano.  His crowd of admirers had finally started to dissipate.  Impetuously grabbing him for a hug, Eric declared, “You were amazing!” Gabriel laughed because he was caught off guard by the close contact.  “Do you really think so?” “Oh, my god, yes!  I felt like I had a stiffie the entire time you played.  It was that good,” Eric said without a hint of embarrassment. Gabriel widened his eyes because he didn’t know what to say to that, and he sat down at the piano bench.  He reached out his left hand to touch the bass keys but not to play. “Thank you for bringing me back to the hotel last night.” “No problem,” Eric answered as he sat beside him on the bench.  “You look like you feel better.” “I do, yeah,” Gabriel said as he stared at Eric, the same Eric who had been kissing his dad but who was currently looking at him as if he really was the most special person in the room. “I never did try the electric piano with you,” Eric said as he put his fingers out to stroke the treble keys on his end of the piano. “Well, no, but you made an electrified pianist yesterday,” Gabriel said about their fight in the lunchroom. From his high end of the piano, Eric plunked out one of the melodies that people in North America knew, even if they didn’t actually play piano. “Want to play with me?” he invited Gabriel with a wicked grin. Gabriel gave him a look that could be interpreted as “Are you kidding?” and followed it up with, “I’m a fucking Grammy-nominated concert pianist.  I don’t play ‘Heart and Soul.’” “You will for me,” Eric said as he stood up and positioned his body in a ballet-style position of readiness.  He winked at Gabriel as his cue to begin. Dubious but curious of what Eric would do, Gabriel began playing the song.  In response, Eric danced, at first cheekily, but then with more flare.  So Gabriel took his leave to add variations and invite more music into the mix to make it a medley.  Whatever changes he made, Eric was right there with him as if they were a symbiotic pair.  The black-haired dancer easily worked the floor in front of the piano, showing his skill for movement as Gabriel moved the music along to a finale. Eric did a thing that nearly shocked Gabriel off the bench, though.  He leapt up to make a handstand on the end of the baby grand.  The lid was open, but he clutched the flat top near the trebled end on the piece where the music stand was built in.  With his legs above him in the air, he did a one-armed handstand while he touched his outstretched foot with his other hand.  Then he switched the hand holding his body up, and used the newly free hand to tap Gabriel on the cheek. The pianist gaped, but then Eric did some snaky move where he slid his foot inside the open lid of the piano to touch the steel reinforcement inside the sound box.  He looked like he was barely holding on to balance like a man on a tightrope, but he touched both Gabriel and the piano with soft electricity as Gabriel played the final cadence. Laughing with glee, Eric tumbled off the piano with the grace of a cat.  Gabriel stared back at him in wonder. “Fuck me!” he older boy said, impressed. “Only if you say please,” Eric sparred back, feeling rather proud of himself.