chapter three | coffee shops and adventures

DAY ONE IN Portland is officially starting. Their first concert was in a few days, and Mila was nervous about it. For now, though, that wasn't going to be something to worry about, she had plans with her friend now. Today was when the two could relax before they had to stress about work.

It was a day of relaxation from the travel.

The sun peeked in through the cracks of the curtains, slowly waking her up. A groan escaped from her lips as her eyes began to open, the sun partially blinding her. She sat up in bed, letting her feet hit the ground, feeling the carpet beneath her feet. As she stretched, she let out a yawn and stood up from the bed, making her way toward her suitcase.

She started digging through her clothes, looking for the most comfortable clothing items she could find. As much as she liked to look somewhat cute for the world, today was just a day that she didn't care as much. She only had plans to hang out and eat some good food.

The two had planned to go to this local shop called Dino Cafe. The owner was a local celebrity named, Annabeth, but everyone called her Annie or Anna. It depends on who you talk to.

She pulled on a clean T-shirt, her favorite Taylor Swift shirt. Once she got her shirt on, she heard a knock on her door, it must be Gracie. "Who is it?!" Mila shouted only to notice that the knocking had stopped. Before going to open the door, she quickly pulled on a pair of ripped jeans and a fresh pair of white socks, then she made her way toward the door. She twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open to see Gracie standing there with a smile on her face. "You're here earlier than we discussed." Mila pointed out with a chuckle, moving toward the bedside table to grab her phone that had been charging all night.

"I am, I just got too excited for the coffee."

"Wow, just the coffee?" Mila jokingly asked, joining Gracie back at the door. "I can feel the love from here." She continued, letting out a chuckle.

Gracie playfully rolled her eyes before making her way down the hall, toward the elevator, Mila following behind her. "Any idea on what you want to get?" Gracie asked curiously, glancing over at her friend. Mila looked at her, noticing the notepad in her hand that she was writing on when she first got to the bus back in LA. She was trying to write more music. "I'm thinking of getting a matcha, I've been loving them a lot recently." She added.

Mila thought about it for a few seconds, unsure of what she wanted. "I'm not sure, to be honest." She admitted.

"Have you not looked at the menu online?"

Mila let out a sigh, shaking her head. "No, as soon as I got to the room I passed out." She responded, letting out a laugh. Gracie then joined in, laughing with her. "I might just get an espresso. I need the pick me up after yesterday."

"There's no way that one all-nighter was enough to tire you out that bad."

Mila just shrugged, letting out a chuckle. With that, the elevator doors opened, and the two stepped in. Gracie hit the button for the lobby and Mila pulled out her phone, checking her social media.

The smell of coffee filled the air once they walked into the coffee shop. Mila was instructed to pick a table while Gracie went to get their coffee.

She sat at the booth farthest away from the door to make sure they would get some time without Gracie being noticed. She ended up speaking too soon for that. Mila looked up from her phone to find that Gracie had been surrounded by fans, taking pictures and signing autographs. This was expected considering who she was with, but she had hoped to chat with her a little bit first, she hoped to get her coffee quickly too.

After what seemed like forever, Mila was finally getting her coffee.

The smell of her hot coffee grew stronger with each step Gracie took. She looked up from her phone to see the superstar walking closer to their booth with a tired smile on her face. "I'm so sorry about that, I didn't expect to be ambushed this early in the morning." Gracie apologized, letting out a chuckle to lighten the mood.

"It's no big deal; I expected it before we even left that hotel," Mila reassured as her coffee was placed in front of her. She took a sip of the hot drink, the heat and caffeine instantly waking her up. "This is exactly what I needed, " She added, now taking another sip.

"I have no idea how you drink that. It just looks so strong."

"It's not the strongest coffee I've had." She admitted, shrugging before she took another sip of her drink. She watched as Gracie took the first sip of her drink, soon letting out a sigh of contentment. It was clear that she needed this day of relaxation more than anyone, she's been working so hard on this tour and the setlist. She picked up her phone to silence it from the constant notifications, but before she did, she noticed texts in her family's group chat that she hadn't seen until now.

As she went to respond, Gracie spoke up again. "I was thinking that we could walk around the town and explore after this, maybe even go shopping?" Gracie suggested, hinting that it was something she wanted to do. It didn't sound like the worst idea to Mila, she just knew what would follow if they did do it. She did want to get to know Gracie better though, this was the best way to do it. "Only if you want to, of course." She continued.

Mila finally silenced her phone, looking at her with a grin. "Yeah, I guess we could do that." She responded, taking another sip of her drink now that it had cooled down a bit. "I need some things for the hotel room anyway." She acknowledged, earning a nod of understanding from Gracie. That would be their last stop, snacks, and drinks for the room.

Gracie excitedly stood up from the booth, picking up her drink to leave. The two friends had a busy day ahead of them and Graci wanted to get started now. Mila realized what she had agreed to and it worried her a little bit, she didn't realize how extreme this would be, and she was excited to find out.

Now, they just had to decide what to do first.

As the two walked along the sidewalk with multiple shopping bags in their hands, they heard the sounds of cars that drove by, a lot of them listening to Gracie's music on full blast. Hearing her songs on full blast in people's cars put a smile on Gracie's face, it made her happy to know that people were enjoying her music.

Mila always wondered what that felt like.

She enjoyed making music and wanted this career more than anything, but she felt like she wouldn't succeed in this field at all. It felt like she was better off at the record shop her whole life. "Did you ever feel like you weren't cut out for a career like this in the beginning?" Mila suddenly asked causing Gracie to look at her with a confused look. "Like, did everything just seem so slow before you got all famous?"

"I mean, yeah. Doesn't it always feel that way to all artists?" Gracie started, taking a second to think about what to say next. She's never had to have this talk type of thing with anyone before, at least not in detail. "There's only a few occasions where this type of thing isn't super slow. A great example is when people would post covers on YouTube and be signed by a record label in the next couple of days." She continued.

"Isn't that like an extremely common way to get signed these days?"

"It's not as often as you think, trust me," Gracie responded, taking a sip of her almost cold drink from earlier. "I've heard your music, and seen you perform. You have so much talent and the world will see that, I promise." She reassured, flashing her a comforting smile.

"You think so?"

"I know so, and your other five hundred thousand monthly listeners on Spotify will agree with me."

That statement confused Mila. Five hundred thousand? It was just at one thousand last month, what changed so quickly?

"Did you have something to do with that by any chance?" Mila questioned curiously, a grin on her face. Has Gracie been promoting her music and she didn't realize it? "I just never thought it was that good, but maybe I was wrong." She added.

"I might have posted on my Instagram story about your music when I discovered it a few times," Gracie admitted, returning the grin. She loved helping people, so knowing that she was able to help Mila made her extremely happy. "Your music is so good and it had to be talked about so I started the conversation, now, the world is continuing it." She happily continued, slightly bumping shoulders with her as a replacement for a hand on her shoulder or a hug. "Give it some time, you'll get there." She reassured.

"I guess that's true."

"Exactly, now, let's go enjoy the rest of our adventure before we have to go back to the hotel."

The two friends continued to walk along the sidewalk, looking for the next place to visit. Gracie was stopped by fans along the way, but again, it was expected. Soon enough, Mila would be going through the same thing.

She couldn't wait for it.

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AUTHORS NOTE!

guys i love this story

so much AND ive started

working on something for

dr millin from greys

anatomy, i'm so excited to

share it with you all!

anyway, i hope you enjoyed

and i hope there's no mistakes!