I woke up to find it was raining again and I sighed deeply. Scranton, Pennsylvania. I took a deep breath tying to steady my nerves. Even though I was two hours from Philadelphia, the anxiety was still there. Trying to pretend this show was in a different part of the country, I got out of bed. It was my last day performing with Of Mice. The least I could do was give it my all. But the rain and the memories were invading my brain instead. Tomorrow when we were near Boston would be worse. I knew that for sure.

The show went off without a hitch. I threw myself into the performance and the crowd was going insane despite the rainy weather. I kept catching Austin staring hungrily at me out of the corner of my eye while I sang. I used his gaze as motivation to get me through the set.

As we walked off the stage, each of the guys gave me a big hug thanking me for filling in the last few weeks and keeping them on tour. Austin’s hug came last and he kept his arm wrapped around my shoulder as we walked towards the buses.

“You feeling okay?” He asked casually taking a sip of his tour water.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m just a little out of it. I think I’m going to tell Alex I can’t play today.”

“What? Why?” Austin stopped so he was standing in front of me, looking right through me searching my eyes for how I was feeling.

I shrugged turning my gaze towards my feet. “I’m just not feeling it today.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Can we just watch a movie?” I asked changing the subject.

“Of course.” He said with a small sigh. “But if there was something wrong you’d tell me, right?”

I nodded my head and forced a grin. He placed a kiss on my lips, took my hand in his, and led me towards the buses again.

He handed me a t-shirt and a pair of his underwear to change into. I went into the bathroom and changed out of my wet clothes and into the dry ones. Being with Austin was calming me down and making me feel worse at the same time, if that was even possible. I was so worried he was going to keep pressuring me with questions about why I was acting this way that it was making me feel anxious. But his smile and the warmth of his arms was taking the worries away at the same time.

I stepped out of the bathroom and found him already in the back lounge curled up under a blanket waiting for me. He had a happy smile on his face when he laid eyes on me swimming in his clothes.
He scouched backwards and lifted up the blanket patting the spot on the couch he had just made for me. I slid in next to him and snuggled in against his chest trying to relax myself. His arm wrapped around my waist holding me tight and his breath was hot against the back of my neck.

“When’s your birthday?” He asked casually taking my mind off of everything for a moment.

“What?” I asked with a laugh.

“When’s your birthday?” He responded. “I just realized I didn’t know it and I don’t want to miss it.”

“The 30th…” I responded feeling him tense slightly.

“It’s that soon?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I just didn’t know! We’re going to have to get party planning. And I’m going to have to get you
something good.”

“Austin, you don’t have to do that.”

“Raegan, shut up and let me.”