chapter thirteen | stress relief

THE ROAR OF the crowd could be heard as Gracie made her way to the wings of the stage, a member of the stage crew walking beside her and telling her how Noah had planned to introduce her. However, she seemed a little bit distracted. She could hear the stage crew speaking to her, but couldn't quite process the words.

The closer they got to the stage, Noah had gotten farther into the song, it was almost time for her to be brought out on stage.

Another crew member handed Gracie her guitar and attached her in-ear monitors while the one that followed her double-checked that she was okay to go out. With what felt like a save by the bell, her manager had joined the small group. "Are you ready?" Jordan asked her curiously, placing a comforting hand on Gracie's shoulder.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She replied honestly and looked out at the crowd, her gaze soon shifting to Noah on the stage.

Jordan noticed the look on Gracie's face, knowing exactly what was causing her to be this way. She had some phone calls to make. "You'll do amazing out there. Also, we're not going back to LA immediately, I thought we'd stay here for a little while and consider it a vacation that also has some business stuff included." She replied and then Noah started speaking on the stage.

The instrumental of the song "Everywhere, Everything" continued as Noah started to speak. "I hope we're having a fun time tonight!" He spoke, quickly earning screams of excitement from the crowd. "If it's alright with you guys, I have brought a special guest tonight. Please welcome my dear friend, Gracie Abrams!" He announced, soon hearing the crowd cheer once again.

Gracie let out a breath before she walked out on the stage, playing along with the band on her guitar. She smiled at the crowd, soon picking up the song from the second verse.

While Gracie was on stage, Jordan had walked off to a quieter area to make a call. Once she dialed the number and hit the call number, now holding her phone to her ear. Almost immediately, the person she called answered the phone. "How fast could you get here?" She asked her curiously. "I could send a plane to get you."

"If that's the case, then I could get there in like six hours. Why? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, things are fine. Gracie has just been kinda distracted and having you around would probably help her out a little. Bring your manager with you, by the way."

"Okay, we'll be there as quickly as possible."

Once the call ended, Jordan sent over the address of Gracie's hotel and her room number. She couldn't believe that she was contacting this person to help with Gracie, but it had to be done, for the sake of Gracie's career. She could only hope that she wouldn't regret any of this.

The next day, Gracie woke up in her hotel room alone. Mila was still nowhere in sight. The longer she was away from her, the more she missed her. She always knew that dating with her career would be difficult, but when it came to Mila, it was worth it. It would always be worth it.

Once she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she grabbed her phone to find text messages from her girlfriend and dm requests from fans across all social media apps.

Those were the texts she read first. They were updates from the day before, telling her what she was doing and the things she's eaten. She had even said that she loved and missed her throughout the day. She had sent a quick response back, soon hearing a text alert sound from outside her hotel room.

That made Gracie confused.

She got out of bed, soon walking toward the door and opening it. That's when she saw the person she wanted to see the most. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?!" She asked excitedly as she jumped into her girlfriend's arms, Mila immediately returned the hug as she entered the room and gently kicked the door closed. She then put Gracie back down and smiled at her.

"I was informed that you were distracted yesterday, so Jordan thought that I could help out with that. Plus, Adam is here too for a meeting with her."

"She asked you to be here? I didn't think I had more to do here."

"Maybe not work for you, but something for the managers to talk about," Mila responded with a shrug. Gracie then dragged her toward the bed, soon pushing her down onto it and getting in next to her. She wrapped her arms around her, tightly cuddling her. "You must have missed me a lot." She joked, letting out a giggle from the action, and quickly returned the hug.

"We're not leaving this bed all day." Gracie happily spoke, her grip on her getting tighter.

Mila let out a chuckle and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I will have to get up for the bathroom, you know, "She teased, soon making Gracie laugh. "I know what you mean, though, so it's okay." She continued through laughs.

The two lay in bed, in each other's arms, discussing their days from yesterday. Mila told her about her phone call with Jodan, instantly making her wonder if she was talking about the same Jordan.

Maybe her speech got through to her after all.

Mila sat on the bed, her Nintendo Switch in hand where Stardew Valley music could be heard. It was one of her favorite games. Gracie lay next to her, scrolling through TikTok, laughing at every other video and reposting a few videos from fans, one of her favorite pastimes other than spending time with her girlfriend.

Gracie looked over at Mila's screen, invested in what she was doing.

She watched as Mila moved her character around a cave. "What is this game? What are you doing?" She asked curiously, squinting at the screen and trying to make sense of it all.

"I'm mining," Mila replied without looking away from her screen. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, the little sounds of gentle music, the clink of pickaxes, and the occasional bloop of something being collected played throughout the room. "I'm on level 28 of the mines and I'm this close to level 30."

Gracie tilted her head, even more confused than she was before. "Why are you mining when you're a farmer? Shouldn't you be farming?" She wondered, still not grasping the concept.4

"Because I need gold. I can't upgrade my tools for the second time without it."

"Uh-huh," Gracie said slowly, still staring at the screen like it was a foreign language. "So, let me get this right...you're a farmer and a miner? That feels like a lot of responsibility for one little pixel guy."

"Girl," She quickly corrected, clicking the joysticks with extra emphasis. "My farmer is a girl named Trash, and she's an icon. Thank you very much."

The name of the character caught her off guard. She wondered why she chose that name instead of something else. "Now, why did you name your character Trash?" She asked her curiously.

I hope it's not because you see yourself that way." She added, her tone changing to be kind of stern.

"No, of course not! It was just a random word that popped into my head at the time, so I went with it."

Gracie looked at her with the expression that parents have with kids when they hope they're telling the truth. "You better not be lying to me." She spoke up, soon earning a nod from her girlfriend.

"I wouldn't lie to you," Mila reassured.

"Alright, I trust you, Trash."

Mila let out a chuckle at the name, soon pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head. She turned back to her game to discover that she was being attacked by a slime. She let out an annoyed sigh and went to kill it.

This went on for the remainder of the afternoon.

—————————

AUTHORS NOTE!

my babies are so cute 🥹.

i love gracie and mila so

much guys. i hope you

guys enjoyed the chapter

and i hope there's no

mistakes!