**Claire POV**
"I'm gonna post Claire on my Instagram, I'm sick of sneaking around" I hear Reneé tell Adam on the phone. I can't hear what he says back but she continues to talk to him for a while as she paces back and forth in her bedroom. I sit and stare out the window, organizing and re-organizing my carry on bag. Our plane leaves in 2 hours and if we don't leave in the next 10 minutes, we're going to miss it. When she finally hangs up, we carry our things downstairs to bid farewell to her parents.
"I'll see you guys soon" she mumbles into her dad's shoulder while her mom hugs me at the same time.
"It was so nice to finally meet you, Claire" her mom says, giving me a kiss on the cheek as she pulls away from our hug.
"Take care of my girl, okay?" her dad says to me as we step outside.
"Don't worry, I will" I smile at him. I am screaming inside.
"Thanks for having me, you guys are great" I tell them, truly meaning every word. I've honestly never felt more at home in a place that wasn't my home. Reneé walks down the steps, opening the trunk of the car and starting to load our things in.
"I love you guys" she calls out before getting into the passenger seat, I wave at them as we drive off. I feel a weight lift off my shoulders the second we're on the road and I'm not sure why. They were great, but the pressure to make a good impression on them was a lot. I mean, their fucking daughter is Reneé Rapp. I sigh in relief, until I remember what's to come later today.
The ride to the airport is mostly silent, neither of us want to talk about the conversation with Adam or the one with Jane last night. I am equally excited and terrified.
"What are you thinking about?" Reneé asks, looking over at me as I fidget with my phone case and stare out the window.
"The same thing you're thinking about" I tell her simply, not tearing my gaze from the window as we drive.
"Are you nervous?"
"A little bit, yeah"
"Baby, it will be fine"
"What if everyone on Twitter talks shit about me? I don't want people knowing things about me"
"First of all, delete Twitter. I fucking hate that app and I've been telling you to delete it for months. Nothing good ever comes from looking at Twitter. And second of all, just make everything private. You don't have to share anything you don't want to" she explains. I sit for a moment and take in what she said, realizing she's right.
We arrive at the airport and drop off the rental car. We don't talk much as we go through TSA and make our way to the terminal. When we're finally settled in a seat, Reneé pulls out her phone. We swipe through all the photos of us together from this weekend and pick a few to post. Reneé thought it would be funny to also include the paparazzi photo of us in the restaurant parking lot, so we add that one in as well. She captions the group of photos: cause it's real once everyone knows.
"Can I?" she smiles at me, her finger hovering over the share button at the bottom of the screen.
"Do it"
Share
The post was only up for 4 minutes before my phone started blowing up. Coworkers texted me, extended family members I haven't seen in years, friends from high school that I haven't talked to since, well, high school. With each buzz of my phone my heart races a little faster. This is exactly what I didn't want. Reneé looks over at me, noticing that I'm a little overwhelmed.
"Hey" she whispers "you don't have to reply"
She's right, I don't. I shoot a text to my mom, letting her know I am about to board our plane back to New Jersey. After that, I turn my phone on airplane mode.
"Hey" she says again, taking my hand in hers "calm down, don't worry about it right now"
I nod at her, leaning over to rest my head on her shoulder. I close my eyes for a brief moment before I feel Reneé pull the hood of her sweatshirt off. I feel her take off her sunglasses too and I smile to myself. I don't love the attention but I love that she doesn't have to hide anymore.
"Wanna come to the bathroom with me?" she asks after a few moments, just before I feel myself dozing off to sleep on her shoulder.
"Sure" I told her, standing up to collect our things. We're halfway to the bathroom when we are stopped by two girls, probably around 18 or 19 ish.
"Reneé?" they exclaim, noticing it's her.
"Hi baby, how are you guys?" she gushes.
"Oh my god, we LOVE you. We saw you in Chicago! Can we get a picture?" the shorter girl speaks, I can tell she's nervous to ask.
"Absolutely. Claire, will you take it for us?" she asks, smiling at me as one of the girls pulls out her phone. I nod at her and take the phone, snapping a few photos of the girls.
"It was so nice to meet you guys, thanks for saying hi" Reneé tells them as I hand their phone back.
"Thank you!" they say in unison, clearly fangirling over meeting her.
"Remember when I was just a fan?" I joke as we start walking again, remembering the first night we met at her meet and greet in LA. She invited me backstage and made out with me in a hallway, I felt like I was dreaming. Most days I still kind of feel like I'm dreaming, to be honest.
"Yeah, can you believe that was almost a year ago?" she asks as we enter the bathroom.
"No, that's crazy" I say, locking the stall door behind me.
We use the restroom and make our way back to the terminal. We should be boarding here shortly, Reneé holds my hand while we wait. A few people walking by wave at her, not wanting to bother her but still wanting to say hi.
We are seated quickly since Reneé insists on flying first class. Reneé flies a lot and so do I, but this is actually only our second time flying together. And Reneé paid for the tickets, so of course we're in first class. I watch her reach into her carry on, pulling out a pill bottle. She tosses one in her mouth, swallowing it quickly before tucking the bottle back into her bag.
"What was that?" I ask, slightly concerned.
"Xanax. I get really bad anxiety on airplanes" she explains, placing her noise canceling headphones over her ears. She closes her eyes and grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers in her lap. She stays silent and takes deep breaths as we take off.
"Sooooo, guess what" Reneé whispers to me, taking off her headphones once we are finally in the air.
"You love me?" I guess, leaning over to kiss her softly on the cheek.
"Yes I do, but not that"
"What then?"
"I booked us another trip" she says.
"Babe, I'm almost out of PTO" I whine, thinking about how much time I've taken off lately.
"I know but do you know what next week is?"
"Our one year anniversary" I say, did she think I forgot?
"Yeah, so I wanted to take you somewhere special where it's just you and I. With no interruptions" she says, dragging out the "no"
"Okayyyy" I smirk "where are we going?"
"Colorado"
**Author's Note**
One more for today, just a short little filler chapter. The next two chapters (which will be posted tomorrow) are almost exclusively smut. If that's not your thing, go ahead and skip. If it is, then you're welcome in advance :)
I love when people catch my little easter eggs that I throw in. I'm like Taylor fucking Swift or some shit, I don't know.
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
M
