Until We Fall (A Before You Exit Fanfic)

CHAPTER 11

CONNOR'S POINT OF VIEW

I'm glad we're finally back home. We arrived in Orlando just last night but I haven't slept that much since then. We have to go to Miami later to meet up with Rick, the director of the Heart Like California music video we shot last month. He said he already has the video finished for us. He has a prior commitment in Miami though so we volunteered we'll just go to him instead.

"Connor! Wake up!" Riley knocked forcefully on my door.

I grunted as I stand up, rubbing my eyes in the process. "WHAT?" I asked, annoyed.

He sensed that I probably woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so he just tried to give me a smile. "Get ready, we'll leave in about an hour." He said, looking at his watch.

"It's 6 in the morning, Riley. We can leave later." I said, about to close my door but he pushed it back.

"It's a 3 hour drive, Connor." He said, sighing. "I can tell you haven't slept that much. I'll be the one to drive." He offered, smiling at me before walking away.

I shut my door and sat back on my bed. I grabbed my phone from my bed side table and decided to send Alex a text.

I hope I don't wake you up with this text. But if you do, I'm sorry :( Good morning, Alex. We'll leave in an hour. Rick will show us the Heart Like California video later today. We hope you could see it with us, but seeing that as something impossible to happen, I'll just make sure I'll send you a copy. Have a great day today. Good luck with your hospital work. Hope I can talk to you again soon.

It's been a week since I last had a real talk with Alex via FaceTime. The night she had me meet her co interns that are currently at her place that time. At some point she'll reach out by sending me short messages like Doing hospital rounds today, sorry! or I'm sorry we're busy doing paper work for Dr. Richardson. And the like. So basically, in a week, we haven't really talked that much. She sent me a text 2 nights ago though, apologizing that she haven't had time to talk to anyone of us. Lately she has been so busy that even though Bianca tries to call her as well, she doesn't pick up or she declines the call. She even told me once they had to go to the hospital at 4 in the morning because of an emergency.

She has been so busy lately and I can honestly say I miss her so much. Not being able to see her regularly is already hard for me and seeing that she can't even talk to me anymore lately, it's even harder.

As I was about to go in the shower, my phone beeped. 1 new text message from Alex Garcia

That's great! I'm so stoked to see how it turned out. Send a copy to my e-mail please! Or wherever. I hope I don't look bad :( or awkward... or a mess... Anyway. Have a great day as well! I'm on my way to the hospital. Sean just picked me up and we're on our way to Sabrina's. There's an emergency again so we have to report at 4:15 in the morning. Ugh. Talk to you soon, I hope!

As much as I hate to admit it to myself, I can feel she's starting to become distant already. I know that maybe I'm just a little bit paranoid because she doesn't talk to me that much anymore and we haven't had a real conversation for the past week and she has these doctors and co interns she get to be with everyday- not that I'm jealous, but maybe I am- and I can feel that this is stressing her too much already and it's getting the best of her.

I took a deep breath and went inside my bathroom. I know if I sent her a text, she won't even reply anymore since she's already busy with work. It has always been like that anyway.

**

"What are we supposed to do now?" Toby asked as we arrive in the location that Rick sent us. We are in front of a commercial building.

I looked out and examined the area. "Maybe we should go inside and ask for Rick there." I said, opening the car door.

Riley and Toby followed me inside and we head together to the lobby. Braiden and Thomas weren't able to join us because they have to go to an event with their girlfriends.

"Hi, excuse me. Where can we find Rick Adams?" Riley asked as both Toby and I look around.

"He's in a meeting at the 4th floor. You can find him there." I heard the lady said. We all thanked her and went towards the elevator immediately.

We stopped by the 4th floor, hopped out of the elevator and went down the hall. We found a conference room with glass windows and saw Rick in there, talking to a guy. He saw us outside and motioned us to come in.

"I'll just go there later. Thank you." Rick said, shaking the man's right hand.

"Please, sit." Rick said, pointing to the chairs around the big table.

He got his laptop from his bag and opened it immediately, connecting it to a projector in the process.

I can tell all of us are nervous but excited at the same time. "How was it?" Riley asked, looking up after playing with his phone.

Rick smiled at all of us. "Pretty great." He said. We saw his laptop screen flash in the white screen in front. "I'm very happy with the finished product."

He opened a folder and clicked on a file: Before You Exit - Heart Like California.

"Ready?" He asked before clicking on the play button.

We all nodded. He clicked play and our song filled the room with our figures together with Alex flash on the screen in front of us.

The video turned out way better than what I was expecting. It was so good - from the acting, the editing, etc. I can pretty much say that we all did good and we all looked amazing.

"Wow!" Toby said, applauding. "I'm so excited for everyone to see this." He added, bringing out is hard drive to copy the file from Rick's laptop.

I can't help but smile as I think of Alex and how seeing her made my day so much better, especially knowing that she did amazing in it.

"Why isn't Alex with you?" Rick said, breaking me from my thoughts. I shook my head and noticed all of them are looking at me. I guess Riley and Toby wants me to answer that for him.

I looked up. "She's in LA. Working." I said, letting out a weak smile.

Rick nodded and handed a flash drive to me. "Here. Make sure she gets a copy."

"Thank you, Rick. For this and for doing such a great job on the video." I said, standing up to give him a hug.

He hugged me back and I felt Riley and Toby get into the hug as well. "Group hug!" Both of them shouted.

We eventually let go, said our goodbyes and went back to the car, driving away. It's now 11:30 in the morning and we just decided to get take outs and eat on the way home.

Video's with me! It's so amazing, I can say. We all did a great job! Can't wait for you to see it. We might upload it next week. Hoping we could talk and you could see the video by then. I miss you.

I sent Alex a text before closing my phone, dozing off.