After Everything (A Starkid Fan Fiction)

Chapter 22-Things Are Changing

~I had always wanted to love Eve as Denny loved her, but I never had because I was afraid. She was my rain. She was my unpredictable element. She was my fear. But a racer should not be afraid of the rain; a racer should embrace the rain. I, alone, could manifest a change around me. By changing my mood, my energy, I allowed Eve to regard me differently. And while I cannot say that I am a master of my own destiny, I can say that I have experienced a glimpse of mastery, and I know what I have to work toward.  -The Art of Racing in the Rain~  

Chapter 22

You know that movie cliche "Days turned into weeks"? Yeah, that's what has been happening here. 

Since my first kiss with Rachael, it's been nothing but bliss as we've moved forward in our relationship, as I've moved forward in my life. My life has consisted of shows, meeting fans and being with Rachael. Three things that I've enjoyed so much.

We've been doing so much recently that Nick had everyone get together at this bar near our apartment, all the actors of Ani and TTO, all of us drinking and laughing and talking.

"I want to propose a toast," Nick says to us, holding up his beer bottle. "Things haven't been quite normal around here for a while, but I'm happy to say that things are finally changing around here, and getting back to normal. I'm happy at all the work everyone has put in here this summer and I couldn't be happier with everything. Thank you guys, really. To the Summer Season of Starkid!"

"To the Summer Season!" Everyone calls back, saluting Nick's beer. 

I drink my beer and wrap my arm around Rachael's waist, giving her the smile that I only give my girlfriend. 

Girlfriend. This word that rolls off my tongue so naturally when I tell people that we are dating. The fans have figured it out, too, asking to get pictures with the both of us. No one has asked us to kiss yet. That sounds weird, but Meredith told me that people have asked her and Holden to kiss before for a picture, and she usually uses the excuse she's sick. I don't blame her. Although I love the fans, that part of our relationship isn't for everyone to watch. 

Rachael and I haven't kissed in front of anyone yet anyways. We just hold hands and I'll kiss the top of her head or smile at each other, but that's it. We never do anything more than that.

As more days pass with more shows continuing to go on, I find myself writing less in my phone. I find myself not needing to take my anti-depressants all too often or needing to see Dr. Jackie at a moments notice. Our meetings still happen once a week, making time for them is always a struggle because of the shows. We have three or four shows a week then three on weekends, and I try to show up to all the Ani shows too, being supportive of course. 

But everything is going well. Better than I thought it would be. 

The only problem I'm having is how tired I've been lately. I've been exhausted nearly every night for a month, as well as suffering numerous headaches. Dr. Jackie said that it's stress, that I've been doing so much that I'm just getting headaches from the stress. 

"It's common," she says to me at our next session. "When I was high school I had stress headaches nearly every single day for over a year. Ugh, they were horrible. I don't even know exactly why I had them, because I wasn't even stressed every day. Hell I had a lot of good days! But sometimes your brain can't handle all you're doing, not to mention your brain has had a lot happen with it for a few years. Give it time, Jeff. The best you do is take some pain medicine, but you really just have to let it pass.

The next day I get a call from Nicki.

"Hey Nicki, what's up?" I ask, slightly confused as to why she's calling me out of the blue.