Back to the Start

"Rachael!", I yell, trying to wake her up. She'd been staying nights with me for the past week. It felt good to wake up with her by my side. 

Yawning, she squints at me. "Why are you up? You're never up this early. Come sleep.", trying to pull me back to bed with her. "I don't want to be awake yet."

But I'm too excited to go back to sleep. For the past week, even though she hadn't said anything, she was very worried. Chances are it's about what to do to support herself as an adult out of school. "Rachael!", I try again. 

She buries her head in a pillow, but then sits up. "What? This better be good."

"You know how we have tour in a week?", I start. 

She throws her face back into he pillow to muffle a frustrated scream. "Please don't remind me."

"No! You need to be excited, because I just got off the phone with Tim, and guess what?!", I say excitedly. Not waiting for her answer, "You're coming with us!"

She looks at me, her eyes shining. "Wait. I get to come with you this time?"

"What?", I tease. "You've got something better planned?"

She shakes her head vigorously. "Nothing more important." After a pause, she adds, "Nothing at all actually."

"Well good. Because even if you did, I would steal you away.", I grin mischievously at her, lifting her from the bed, causing her to shriek. "I wasn't done giving you all the exciting news yet."

"There's more?"

"Of course! I can't bring my girlfriend on tour without her best friend, can I?", I ask grinning. 

"You're taking Sam with you on tour too?!"

"Yes. She's officially there as Kenny's girlfriend, but I know you girls will have fun when we're performing. Staring at your man candies."

Laughing, "Please don't ever say that again Gary. But you're the best! You know that right? Just don't tell Pat, he might get jealous."

"Of course he's jealous. I have the most perfect and gorgeous girlfriend. And he doesn't."

"Don't be mean Gary! But thank you. I love you.", she says placing a kiss on my nose, followed by a quick peck on the lips. "But I can still throw my goodbye party for you and the boys right?"

"Whatever you want darling. As long as we can leave earlier for...our own party."

"Wasn't that the plan anyways?", sending me her own smug smile. 

"So what do you want to do today?"

"We need to go to the Kirchs and thank my favorite brother for letting me come!"

"Ouch.", I chuckle. "Now that you might not want to repeat in front of Pat."

"Of course not. So let me get ready.", she says happily. 

"Alright. Hurry up though. Tim needs to go back to Phoenix before the tour, and he's leaving today."

In less than half an hour, we were at Pat's. Walking through their front door, I shout for him. "Yo Pat. Is Tim still here or did he leave already?"

"No need to yell baby Nicko.", comes a voice from upstairs. "I'm right here."

Tim. The only one left who'd call me baby Nicko regularly. Trey's fault for ever coming up with it to begin with. Rachael cuts in before we could start bickering. "Tim! I just wanted to say thank you and hii! For letting me and my best friend go on the tour with the boys."

"Anything to keep Garrett from moping around the bus the whole tour!"

"Hey!", I protest. "I don't mope around!"

"Alright Gare.", he says rolling his eyes. "You kids run along now. I need to finish packing for Phoenix."

"Have fun Tim! See you in a week.", Rach says while tugging on my hands. "Can we get ice cream now? I really want ice cream."

Laughing, I let her lead me out. 

--

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Visit us Trey!", I say to my parents when the bus pulls up outside my house. Rachael had more or less moved into my house for the past few weeks. Her parents were too busy to realize that she wasn't there often, just as usual. 

"Bye Mrs. Nickelsen, Mr. Nickelsen! Thanks for everything.", says Rachael. I grab her bags for her and bring it to the bus, getting a grateful smile from her. 

"What? No goodbye for me?", whines Trey. Ruffling his hair, she gives him a quick hug and says goodbye to him as well. 

My mom pulls Rach in for a hug. "Take care of my boy now. And the others. Make sure they eat and don't have too much fun. They need to behave and be gentlemen."

I see her laugh and give her a nod. One hug later, Rachael heads back down towards me. 

"Hurry up!", calls John impatiently. He's been this way since after wherever he went. But mostly towards me and Rachael. I guess he still didn't like the idea of us being together. And still no one knows where he went, not even Jenny. And he's always been a mama's boy. I ignore him and take a moment longer to be alone with Rachael. 

"Excited for tour with me?", I ask into her ear. 

"Excited for tour with Sam.", she teases back. 

"Hey.", I say, pulling her chin up. "I thought you love me!"

"That I do.", she smiles, giving me a kiss. 

Pulling her closer, I deepen it, until she reluctantly pulls away. "C'mon. We need to pick Sam and Kenny still."

"Let's go!", I say, grabbing one more quick kiss. "Here's to the best tour ever." And we head hand in hand to the bus.