Destined to Explode (Adopted by All Time Low)

Chapter 5

I wake up after surgery and Alex is in the bed next to me, still asleep. "Hey honey, are you in any pain?" I shake my head. "Okay, your dad should be up soon. Once he is, I'll bring you guys both some crackers and water." I nod and she leaves.

The nurse comes in as he begins waking up. "Hey Alex, are you in any pain?" He shakes his head. "Okay, I'm going to bring both you and your daughter some crackers and water." She leaves.

When she returns, I eat some of the crackers. I'm lucky the anesthesia doesn't make me nauseous. I see Lisa come in. "Hey guys, how are you feeling?" I yawn. Something they haven't seemed to recognize yet is I don't talk when I'm tired.

"I'm good." The nurse comes back in. We get discharged and she wheels me while Lisa wheels Alex to the door. We get in the car and Jack is in the driver's seat. Being tired has put me in a cuddly mood so as soon as Alex sits down, I cuddle into him.

We get back to the house and I'm more awake. I'm aware now that Alex is wearing a sling as well. "Are you up for a few pictures? I want to introduce you to the public." I nod. He has Lisa and Zack take a few pictures.

I watch him go onto Instagram. He writes out the caption. Meet my daughter, Rachel. She is an amazing addition to have to our family. We get to be injury buddies now as well! I giggle as he posts it. He tagged me in it.

I see a few comments. Alex, what happened this time? I respond, knowing he won't. He dislocated his thumb and I dislocated my kneecap. It's been an eventful week. I watch Alex pin that thread so people can find the answer easily.

We go inside and I immediately go back to mixing the songs. I'm almost completely done. I finish it and look at the time. It is about midnight. I email it to the mastering engineer, as Alex suggested.

I take my meds and go to sleep quickly. I wake up the next morning and my knee hurts. I take some meds and go downstairs. I see Alex. "Hey, how are you feeling?" "My knee hurts. I took the meds but they haven't gone into effect yet." He nods.

"You have your first physical therapy appointment later." I nod. I go into my email and see the fully mastered file. Kyra, Reggie, and Kenny all come down at the same time. "Guys, I have something to show you." I point upstairs and they go. "We'll be back in about forty-five minutes."

I go upstairs and I click the file, downloading the mastered music back onto my computer. I play it back and they all smile when it finishes. "We completed the cover artwork." They hand it to me.

I smile and begin working on making the CD case cover. I print it out as well as burn the CD. I place it in the case. "We have our first official music." They all smile. "Want to show everyone?" They all nod.

I bring it downstairs. "We have something to show everyone!" They all come into the living room and I put the CD in our CD player. They all listen. Eventually, it finishes. "Wow, that was amazing." They all nod.

"Can I see the cover?" I take the CD out of the player and hand it to him. They pass it around. "This artwork is amazing. Who did it?" "We all kind of did. I did the basic sketching of the background work, Kenny did the more detailed work, Kyra did the color and shading, and Reggie did all the digital formatting of it."

They smile. "You are clever kids. If you weren't going to be in a band, what would you do?" "Journalism or music recording." "Journalism or art." "Journalism or art as well." "Animation or music management of some sort."

"Journalism?" Alex looks curious. "The three of us took journalism sophomore year." He nods. I look at Kenny and whisper in his ear. "Wait, how were you planning to be a journalist with misophonia?"

"Headphones." I nod. "Also, you don't have to hide that. I'm fine with all of them knowing." He looks towards everyone else. "I have misophonia which basically in my case makes me really anxious and I feel like I need to run when I hear my trigger sounds. One of them happens to be the clicking of keyboards so she was asking about how I would plan on being a journalist with that."

They all nod. "What mental illnesses, or I guess any conditions you have been diagnosed with, do you guys have, if any?" Kyra goes first. "I don't have any besides a cat allergy." Reggie follows. "Depression and PTSD." Kenny looks at me before speaking. "Um, misophonia, anxiety, depression, and ADHD. I also have a dairy allergy."

I bite my lip. "Depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, IBS, and although it hasn't been diagnosed, it's became obvious I have at least a couple environmental allergies. I was diagnosed with anorexia, but I'm mostly recovered; although, I'm still pretty skinny." "Are any of you guys on medications?" "Nope." "Antidepressants." "Nope." "Anxiety meds, nothing regular, besides the meds after surgery."

They share a look. "All four of us go to therapy. Zack and I are the only ones that still go regularly in an interval of more than once a month, but you don't need to be actively struggling with a mental illness to go to therapy. We want you each to try ten sessions of therapy. If you don't like it, you could stop going, but we want you all to try."

They all nod while I pout. Alex gives me a curious look. "I hate therapy." "So do I, if you remember my song, Therapy, but it can help if you let it." I begin humming the tune to Therapy and he smiles.

I watch Lisa put an ice pack on my knee and hand one to Alex. "Wait, I'll be back in a minute." I begin the process of burning some CDs. I go back downstairs and put the ice pack on my knee.

I tap Jack's shoulder. "Jack. Jack. Jack. Jack. Will you take us into town tomorrow to hand out CDs?" He smiles and nods. I hear Alex. "I know it just ended, but we need to talk about school." I make sure he sees my disgust.

"Alex, I'm not in high school anymore. None of us are. In fact, I already have a bachelors." His eyes widen. "Dammit, we found the smart kids. I'm not the smart one anymore." "Don't worry Alex, I'm not that smart." I hear Reggie scoff.

"Rachel, what is a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy?" "It's a surgical procedure to remove both fallopian tubes and ovaries." I realized he tricked me. "Wait, no. That was unfair."

"Cancer.gov says: Surgery to remove both ovaries and both fallopian tubes." I blush, immediately hiding in my sweatshirt. "Rachel, are you going to tell them when you learned that?" I shake my head.

"10th grade she took medical terminology." I stay hidden in my hoodie for a while. "Hey honey, are you okay? He didn't embarrass you too much did he?" I nod. "It's just me and you." I slowly come out from my sweatshirt.

"They all went out riding." I nod. I get up and go upstairs. I continue to burn more CDs until there are over 200 copies. I put them all into CD cases and stack them. I really am embarrassed, I don't really know why. I begin sending out the work registration to try and get our music on online platforms.

I go on Instagram and our band's account. I take a picture of the CD. In two weeks we are officially releasing our first EP, Advantage. We'll be handing out 190 free CD copies tomorrow in Baltimore (around the city) or you can preorder your copies on our website, link in bio. See you all soon!

I post it as soon as I have the pre-order links up on the website. "Rachel, we need to go to physical therapy." I wrinkle my nose but follow Alex out of the house regardless.