Are You Afraid of Musicals?

Chapter 5.2: My Star

Gina's pov:

-EJ calm down babe, everything's going to be fine.- I softly say for the millionth time today, smiling at him and placing my hand on his knee to stop his leg from its unstoppable bouncing.

He looks at me and then returns my smile, but I can see the nervousness taking all over his face. Ricky looks at me too and then he starts talking with EJ to distract him and I mouth him a subtle "Thanks" as I turn my head to where Gabby's sitting.

We're all in class, the third period passing really slowly as we have nothing to do, but as I've been lost in my thoughts practically the whole morning and trying to ease EJ's nervousness the rest of the time, I guess it's not that bad.

Gabby's a few rows in front of me, talking with Hanna and Luke looking almost as nervous as EJ but being able to hide it better than him.

Today's the last day of school before summer break, which means that our grades will drop today. EJ's been checking his phone the whole morning and even if he knows that our grades won't be dropping until at least lunch time, he can't seem to stop himself.

At the end of the day, his spot on the football team and for extension the possibility of a good sports scholarship fully depends on him passing maths, the subject that he's been failing for the whole year and that Gabby offered to help him with. He was happy when he did his final, but I understand his nervousness, on the other hand Gabby's...

She's like the smartest in our class, even in the whole high school, so I know that she's not nervous about her grades, she's nervous about Dani's finals and even if she's been slightly panicking all day, I find cute how much she worries about her.

I can't take it out of my mind actually, what happened on Monday returns to my head every now and then and I still can't bring myself to believe if what happened was real, if my head was playing games on me out of the shock.

Cause I've been there before, I've witnessed Dani's panic attacks before, but the fear and helplessness I feel each time it happens, never goes away. Seeing Dani spiral without being able to reach her, seeing how Dani's body goes limp every single time is so defeating, and this time, we were not alone.

I was trying to calm Dani down, but the moment Gabby entered the bathroom all of Dani's focus was on her. She started apologizing and she didn't care about what was happening, the state she was in.

I didn't know what to say or what to do. For the first time we were not alone and when I saw Gabby trying to reach her, when I saw Gabby trying not to break with tears in her eyes... the scene before my eyes was so beautiful and so heartbreaking at the same time that I couldn't bring myself to try anything, cause I knew how it was going to end.

The thing is that Gabby had no idea. Gabby didn't know that the usual outcome of Dani's panic attacks is her passing out, so when I saw the terrified look in her eyes, when her first reaction was to check Dani's pulse... I felt all the air leave my body.

She thought Dani was gone.

I saw myself in her, I saw my terrified self from the first time I was with Dani during one of her panic attacks, and for a moment I was transported back there, but I was able to at least hug Gabby and show her that I was there for her.

The thing is, Gabby not only cried. She held Dani's body tightly, she never let her go. She was hugging her as if she might disappear if she let her go.

That day I was witness of the connection that Gabby and Dani share. I was scared and Gabby was terrified, but the moment she catch Dani as if it was a second nature and guided them both to the ground, the moment she leaned in to rest her head on Dani's chest and listen to her heartbeat... my heart literally melted in that moment.