Part of Your World:A Chris Evans FanFiction

35.

  I found Chris being away this time a lot easier to cope with than the first time. To begin with, Gaby basically moved in with me. She was around all the time. Because of what had happened I'd been a little too selfish to realise how hard she'd been dealing with her break up. She had ended up putting a restraining order on Richard. He still kept texting her repeatedly, and occasionally he'd show up at her house. Her room mates would chase him off, but they were getting really sick of it.

There was also a part of her wanted to go back to him. I guess that's how it is when people have been manipulating you. You kind of feel guilty when you stop letting them. So our mutually beneficial arrangement grew.

It started with her just coming over to keep me company, we'd have some drinks, play cards or video games. Watch Dexter. Maybe smoke a joint. Then it would be late, so she'd sleep in the guest room. Then she started bringing clothes with her just in case. Eventually she was basically living with me. She'd still go home to her place from time to time, particularly if I had to be out camping, otherwise she was with me. I loved having her here. I'd never really had a room mate before. I'd lived with my parents, then by myself, and then with Chris. Never with just a friend.

I was getting heaps of work done. By the end of June I was well on the way to having a paper submitted based on a little experiment I'd been running on some of the coyote's prey species. It wasn't massive ground breaking work, but it was a cute little observation I'd made that could definitely be expanded on given more time.

I also got quite into taking photos while I was in Joshua Tree. I mean, it is beautiful out there. I started blogging about what I was doing, and uploading photos I'd taken. I'd also take lots of photos of East out camping with me. Chris hated being reminded about what he was missing out on.

July came and brought with it Comic Con. Because Chris was coming back in town but not for the whole event we actually ended up having this funny hotel hopping going on. On Wednesday and Thursday Gaby and I stayed at the Marriott, which was right next to the convention centre. On the Thursday Gaby and I cosplayed as gender swapped Spider-Man and Deadpool. Playing it quite safe given the costumes don't actually change at all, except that I had let my hair fall out from the back of the mask. We weren't stopped a lot because those two characters are everywhere, but the few times we were we'd pose playing up the Deadpool being in love with Spidey aspect.

I was taking so many photos. Kind of funny really as I was the Spidey. I was also slightly overwhelmed with everything. Gaby being a San Diego native had actually been to comic con several times in the past, and I just followed her around, trusting she knew what she was doing. There was a life sized Optimus Prime outside the Marriott, which I was obsessed with taking photos of. I also enjoyed photographing the people protesting the religious protesters protesting Comic Con. Mostly we just stuck to the exhibition hall, and cosplay spotting. Hasbro also had a life sized My Little Pony at their booth that I loved, and don't get me started on the epic Walking Dead structures in the hall. We did go to two different panels, one by Charlaine Harris the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, and the other a Harry Potter fan panel that had some of the people from Starkid on the panel.

Friday, we went costume free, and made a serious concerted effort to get into the Joss Wheedon panel. We just managed to squeeze in up the back.

Chris arrived in town that night. He texted us on the way to the hotel, and we met him out the front of the Omni with our luggage. There were people everywhere outside. The Omni being the main hotel where the celebrities stay during the con, people were crowded around hoping to meet or photograph someone. Chris was actually talking to some people and posing for a photo when we saw him. I suppose if there was anywhere that people would recognise him it would be here. He looked completely exhausted. I wondered how his anxiety was doing. I didn't want to touch him when we greeted, I was worried about photos getting out of us, so we just nodded hello and I followed him into the hotel. It wasn't until we were in the elevator that we embraced, kissing deeply. Gaby made a big show of clearing her voice. Chris let me go.