The Stranger

Chapter Twenty-Six

Last chapter! I've loved writing this series and love all of you for reading.

Please comment your reactions to this chapter. One last time. That would be enough.

Tying some loose threads and writing a future. Xx

+ Rachel +

Boom. Crack.

The sounds of thunder and lightning wake me from my deep sleep. I roll over to look at the clock. It's three a.m. Tomorrow, well later today, rehearsal doesn't start until one so I can sleep in. Meaning I need to find some sort of way to fall back asleep.

I grab my phone and scroll through Instagram, I haven't been on there in the past few days. I look at my tagged photos and see some candids of my accidental meet-up with the Newsies cast at the airport. One is a post from Josh and it is him hugging me from behind.

Even if I only saw her for a minute it was better than waiting another three months

Aw, he's so sweet. I comment the heart emojis on the picture and make a mental note to call him later to tell him all about Joffrey. I scroll through the comments and see lots of loving messages from fansies. Some are saying how they love how good of friends we still are, others are saying we should date again, and others are asking if we are back together.

I don't think I'd ever date Josh again, he's a great guy, don't get me wrong. But I almost lost him after we broke up, and I don't think I would be willing to take that chance again. I want him to always be in my life, whether we are friends or more than that.

I see another comment from none other than Ben Tyler Cook.

I cannot believe I missed her! :((( Rachel come back to meeeee

I just laugh to myself. How can one not love this boy. I make another mental note telling me to make sure to call him later, too.

I keep scrolling through my feed and I see something that catches my eye. It's a post from a fansie's fan page. She's at stagedoor with Sky and... Tyler. What?

I look at the caption.

Sky is such a great dad, it makes my heart happy

Only took him three years.

I think to myself.

I look up Sky's page, since I still haven't followed him back. I look through his page to see quite a few pictures with Tyler. I click on what seems to be the first one.

Time to come clean with something. Three years ago I ran from what I thought was my worst mistake ever. It wasn't until recently someone opened my eyes to see how wrong I was. Too bad I had to be slapped a million times to realize it.

Oh my gosh, he's talking about me.

Anyways, the girl I had been with at the time, we weren't dating because I thought dating was pointless until I met a certain someone you all know,

Me again.

she called me and told me some shocking news. She was pregnant with my child. After that call is when I made the worst mistake of my life. I ran from my mistakes and now I'm finally making it right. For the past few months I have been working to claim partial custody of my son, Tyler, and today marks the first day of it. Thank you to Abigail for given me this second chance to make things right.

"Why do I feel like that was directed towards me?" I ask, out-loud, about the last part.

I'm really glad that Sky is working to fix his mistakes. I didn't know he had it in him to work that hard to make things right.