Note: Thanks for your continued patience, guys! Between work and wedding stuff, my life has been pure chaos, so, to piggy-back off my previous author’s note, I can pretty much confirm that my “chapter-every-five-days” thing is pretty much toast for the time being. 😦 I’ll get them out whenever I can, up til my hiatus (which I’m anticipating will start the first or second week of June)

I know you guys are always so great and understanding, and I appreciate it so much! I just like to give everyone a heads-up because I know as a reader, I love consistency in story updates, when possible, so it makes me feel bad that I’m yet again unable to give you guys that. 😦

Now on with the lame, 1000-word chapter I made you guys wait over a week for… LOL forgive me. I’ll try to make it up with the next one! ❤

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It’s funny how quickly things can turn around. Sometimes life is going amazing. Everything’s perfect. Then BAM — one way plane ticket to Sucksville, totally out of nowhere.

But sometimes things go the other way too. You’re totally stranded with no chance of escape, when the rescue helicopters swoop in and save the day.

And I dunno if it was karma or luck or what, but I guess I finally earned my rescue from Sucksville (good thing too… I was seriously gonna go crazy if things didn’t start getting better soon!)

Last night was our opening night down at the theater — REAL opening night. Previews were just for a couple weeks, to feel things out. Charlotte says they’re planning on keeping this production around for a few months, and I think they wanted to make sure it didn’t totally crash and burn before they decided to keep it around. Makes sense, right?

Anyway, I was kinda-sorta freaking out about it, and not just about having my costumes out there for everybody to see. Helping with the setup and the costume changes… It’s a lot of work. And the pressure felt like, fifty-million times higher than it did during previews (at least I was on time though… Charlotte would have had ZERO mercy this time if I was late again!)

As usual, it totally wasn’t worth worrying about though. Everything was perfect. I couldn’t believe it! Everyone looked amazing, I changed everybody fast enough so they didn’t miss their cues, we didn’t lose any props or wigs or anything backstage, and Charlotte was actually SMILING when it was all over.

And she wasn’t the only one smiling either. My whole family came — all three sets of grandparents, my Onkels, Zelda, Tristan… And my parents too, obviously. And that was probably the best part. Last night was the happiest I’ve seen them in months.

I remember after the show, after I said goodbye to Oma Rubi and Opa Erik, and I saw Papa put his arm over Mama’s shoulders and say ‘that’s our girl’. They looked all proud of themselves (and me, obviously) and the way they were smiling at each other… It was so damn cheesy, but after having to see them so miserable for so long, I couldn’t help it. It got me all emotional, or whatever.

Obviously I know it’s not gonna last, but for now? I’ll take what I can get.

So yeah… Last night pretty much put me on cloud nine, and it was the first leg of my journey to freedom from Sucksville. I didn’t even feel awkward or weird seeing Zelda and Jace together. It’s been a couple months now, but I’m still getting used to it, I guess… Kind of like a weird spinoff version of the whole Mason thing.

It’s just strange seeing your best friend hook up with your old fuck buddy, no matter how long they’ve known each other. And the fact that they’re practically attached at the hip now doesn’t help much either. Do you know how sucky it is being the third wheel all the time? Ugh. This is why me and Zelda don’t really hang out as much anymore. It’s just… different now.

It was pretty much the same with Mason. Once he and Caroline got together, we didn’t talk nearly as much as we used to. It’s not like he totally cut me out or anything, it just changed things. He didn’t have as much time for me as he used to. Which makes total sense, obviously. But it doesn’t make it suck any less either.

I guess I’m lucky me and Xander managed to stay such good friends for so long. Even when he’s had girlfriends, we’ve been able to stay so close over the years (which is ironic since, y’know, he lives like six thousand kilometers away). But I think that’s part of what helped us — a six-hour time difference makes keeping in touch pretty damn hard. But for us, being out of sync actually made us experts at making time for each other. We’ve always had to find a way to make it work. And we did.

And now that we’re in the SAME timezone… It’s pretty fucking awesome. He doesn’t have to log on at the crack of dawn to talk to me anymore, and I don’t have to stay up til like three in the morning either. He’s only been in Europe for like a week and a half, so I’m sure the novelty’s gonna wear off after a while. But for now, it’s pretty much the coolest thing ever. We even Skyped with each other like two days after he got to Paris, and we both sat outside so we could marvel at the fact that we were both in daylight at the same time! (I know, I know, we’re total nerds)

So anyway, last night was just the beginning. Right now I’m counting down to phase two of my escape from Sucksville — Xander coming to visit! Just 18 more days! That’s gonna go by super fast, right? Or at least, that’s what I keep trying to tell myself.

I know I sound like some kind of stupid fangirl or something, but I just can’t believe we’re finally gonna see each other in person after all these years. He’s not gonna be a bunch of pixels on a screen or a voice through a speaker anymore… He’s going to be a real, flesh-and-blood human being! That’s crazy, right?!

I’m trying not to go overboard planning out all the stuff we’re gonna do while he’s here (it’s kinda fun to try and imagine Windenburg through the eyes of a tourist though!). And I keep reminding myself that I’ve gotta save some stuff for the next time he comes to visit too…

God, I can’t believe I actually get to write that! See what I mean about things turning around? Up til like, a month ago, I never thought me and Xander would get the chance to meet in person at all, let alone multiple times.

But then, I guess sixteen-year-old me never thought I’d ever be on first-name terms with GeekWithAGuitar, huh?

And just look where we are now…

And where we will be…

In eighteen days!

(Okay, I’m done gushing now, I swear)