Fixing Us || l.h

Chapter Twenty-One**

I scan my phone with my plane ticket, following the boys down the ramp to the plane. "Yes, Luke, I have everything I need," I promise to him, adjusting the headphone in my left ear. I step onto the plane, trying to keep my head down, staying close to Brandon so people can't fully see my face. "Good, call me when you have time," Luke replies, making me smile. "Of course, I will, but I am on the plane now so I do have to go, I love you, Luke," I promise him, sliding into the row with Brandon and Leila, putting my bag below the seat in front of me. "Love you too, let me know when you land?" "Will do, bye Luke," I assure him, hanging up. I let out a sigh, Brandon looking over at me, an eyebrow raised.

"Everything good?" He asks, buckling his seatbelt. "Just tired and nervous, being on a plane for the next 7 hours won't be fun. I'm just ready to get this week over with so I can take the next week off with Luke and relax finally." 

"What's the plan for your week off?" "Luke wants to go home so I'm going with him, we meet in LA and fly from there so I'm having him stop at the house and get my lyric books so I can figure out if any of my old stuff is something I want on my next album so I have a starting point since they want to discuss album two once we are all back. So even when I'm off, I am still working." I sigh again, slumping in my seat. "Don't get me wrong, I love this job but it can be so much sometimes." I lay my head on his shoulder, feeling it shake with laughter. 

"But enough about me, what's your plan for opening while we are gone?" I ask, changing topics. "We were going to cover a few of your songs, some of 5 Seconds of Summer's songs, and probably do a cover each night like how we are for Taylor this week, we know some people are going to be sad they missed you guys so we thought to give them a little of what they miss by covering you both." "Aw, that sounds like it'll be fun! You'll have to have someone record it so we can see it!" I gush, Leila laughing. "Don't you worry, I've already been assigned that duty." She assures me making me smile.

We start backing out from the gate and I put my headphones back in, wanting to get some sleep before we get to Hawaii. 

--

I shake out my hands, taking deep breaths. I can do this, I've been doing this. I'm fine, everything is fine. A knock at the door startles me, the door creaking open. I spin and Damian peeks in, his eyebrows knit together. "Everything okay?" I nod, taking another deep breath. "Just nerves," I mutter, walking to the door. We walk to side stage, waiting for the signal, my heart racing. 

I'm told I can go on the platform and I can hear my band start to play, letting me focus on the music. I slowly move up, Levitating as my opening song. I dance and jump around the stage, having fun with the song then move into Live Young Die Free, the crowd screaming along. The song finishes and I smile, waving into the crowd. "Well hello Honolulu, what a welcome that was!" I get screams in return, laughing. "How are we doing tonight?" Screams again, and I glance back at my band. "Do you think they're ready for Taylor yet?" They all shake their heads, making me laugh. "Guess I'll have to keep pumping them up! This is Ruin my Life!" 

I dance to two more songs, grinning out at the crowd. "Thank you all so much for letting me perform, I've got one more song then you'll get the queen herself, Taylor Swift!"

I finish with Never Forget You, lowering on the platform at the end of the song. I hang around and watch Taylor perform for a bit before heading back to the hotel to get some sleep, everything catching up with me from the past few weeks.

---

I yawn walking through the airport, looking for my tall blond boyfriend. He should be easy to find with his height yet somehow never is. I turn around almost running into a large body, the arms wrapping around me. "Hi," Luke laughs, rocking us back and forth. I smack his chest, trying to get my heart to slow down. "That wasn't funny, I thought I was getting kidnapped." I frown up at him, his arms still around me. "Sorry," He grins, kissing my forehead. "I have a surprise for you though." He says, pulling apart from me. I frown, my eyebrows knitting together. "Your brother is letting us use his jet to fly to Australia." My eyes widen and I grin. "No way, private?" Luke nods, leading me away from what I thought was our gate.

"Yeah, we're both getting to a point where we might cause some issues at airports so I talked to him and he's letting us use it since he isn't!" "Oh my god, I love him for that." I do a little skip, Luke smiling down at me. 

I hear a small scream and I turn around, Luke also turning, and the people around us stop and look around. A group of people run over to us and I glance up at Luke, irony in the situation. "Hi guys, we do need to keep this quick since we have a flight and we don't want to cause any issues for the airport, how are we doing?" Luke asks, the small group chattering around us. "Can you sign my shirt?" One girl asks Luke, and another asks me for a picture. I take pictures and sign whatever they can find, Luke doing the same, and a timid girl walks up to me, close to tears. 

"Hey! It's okay!" I promise her and she smiles, nodding. "What's your name?" I ask, giving her a hug. "Rachel, I can't believe I'm meeting you." She says, wiping her eyes. "Well, it is so nice to meet you, Rachel," I tell her, smiling down. "Can I have a picture?" She asks. "Of course!" I wipe away a few more tears from her face and give her a big hug, one of the other people in the group taking the picture. 

"You saved my life, without you I probably wouldn't be here." She whispers as we take the picture. I freeze for a moment, then hug her tighter, taking a deep breath. I turn to her and look her in the eye, smiling. "Stay strong for me, okay? I know exactly how hard life can get but I promise you, it will get better. I know it doesn't always look like it now but it really does. Do you have a Twitter?" She nods, crying again. I wipe her tears, then pull my phone out. "It's Dylan8r with an 8." "Followed," I tell her when I find her account. I give her another big hug before Luke tells me we need to go. "Message me if you ever need anything," I tell her, giving her hand a squeeze before walking off with Luke and heading to the cart to go to the private entrance. 

Luke wraps his arm around my shoulders, looking down at me. "You good?" I nod. I didn't even realize how much of an impact I actually had. Being in her spot twice in my life, not feeling like I had anything to turn to and she had my music to turn to is astounding to me. I've actually made an impact.

"I saved someone's life," I tell him softly, looking up at him. His eyebrows raise, a soft smile forming. "Your music is making an impact in the world. You should be proud of yourself for that." I smile, looking down. I've never felt I had a reason to be proud of myself for something until now.

Once we're on the plane, I relax in the chair, my feet in Luke's lap. "Oh, you found my notebook, right?" "Yeah, it was not where you said it was, I think the cleaning lady had put it in the drawer." Luke nods, grabbing his bag. My heart drops, knowing what else was in the drawer where my songbook was. "There were two, I didn't know which one was the songbook so I grabbed them both," Luke says, pulling two notebooks out. He hands them to me and I smile, shoving them in my bag quickly. He frowns for a moment then shakes his head, the flight attendant letting us know we will be taking off in the next few minutes.