As the Darkness Approaches the Light

Chapter 11

After that weekend, the band flew out to tour in Europe and the UK for a bit. Caroline and Noah again each buried themselves in their work, keeping up with their boyfriends whenever they could, taking time zones into account. Caroline began teaching her summer school class, which was difficult sometimes because she had to fit a semester's worth of material in a shorter amount of time, but it ended up going fairly smoothly. The class only went for the first half of summer break, and for the second half, Caroline didn't have to teach any classes and could focus solely on her research project, which she was almost done with.

Caroline had also apparently done very well with teaching her first semester and summer class; she'd gotten great reviews and evaluations from her students, so the psychology department offered to let her teach another class. Now, along with her introductory course that she already taught, she would also be teaching a more advanced Developmental Psychology course for students at the Junior or Senior level. This meant that Caroline also spent a lot of the summer coming up with lesson plans, lecture slides and assignments.

Motionless in White were very busy with pre-release preparations for their new album. They shot a music video in June for a song that they planned to release along with the video in August, then the album would be put out in the beginning of October. The fans seemed to be very excited for the new releases and what was to come, and the band just hoped that this album cycle would go as well as the one for "Disguise" had.

In mid-July, the band came back to the states to play a handful of festivals. They'd then come home for a few days, then head about again for another U.S. and Canada tour. What this meant though was that there would be a few shows that Caroline and Noah would be able to go to to watch the band perform, which was always exciting and fun.

One of the festivals they played in July was in New York, so Caroline and Noah were invited to come spend the day with the band. Caroline had missed Chris terribly, so she couldn't wait to go to the festival and spend the day with him. Noah, however, seemed on edge.

"Can you help me pick out an outfit?" Caroline asks, "I mean, it's gonna be a million degrees, so I guess I'll probably just wear a T-shirt and shorts. What were you thinking of wearing?"

"Umm...Probably a T-shirt and shorts too?"

Caroline raises her eyebrows, "You're actually gonna wear shorts in public?"

Noah sighs, "Well, why shouldn't I be able to wear shorts in hot weather? Lots of other people with fake legs do, and they do it with pride. I wanna be like that. Ricky and I have talked about it a lot; he doesn't think there's anything wrong with me. And I wanna stop thinking that there's anything wrong with me. It's not like I chose this."

Caroline smiles, "I think it'd be good for you. Sure, there's the people that are gonna say mean things, but that's not everyone. A lot of people think that embracing these things is inspirational. Don't focus on the people that might have a problem with it, focus on the ones that don't see a problem with it. You'll feel so much better in the end."

Caroline knew that going to this festival was going to be interesting, because it was going to be the first time she'd be witnessing Chris perform in a very public setting. Standing backstage in an indoor venue was a lot more private; no one in the audience could see that she was there or knew that she was dating Chris. Now though, their relationship had gone a little bit more public, and she imagined that she and Chris would be walking about the festival to explore and watch other bands perform as well. Sure, she'd been out and about with Chris Cerulli a bunch of times, but walking around a festival with Chris Motionless was a bit of a different story.

Noah parks where instructed, then texts Ricky that she and Caroline had arrived.

"Are you ready?" Caroline asks.