Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 57

"Castiel?" Gabriel says uncertainly.

"Give him a minute," Sam says quietly.

He spends another few moments looking at it before turning the page. The next one is from his first tour, when he opened for Taylor Swift. The picture on top is Castiel, Taylor, and Charlie out in the empty stadium after everyone had already left. The one in the middle is Charlie on his back, both hands in the air and laughing while he struggles to keep from dropping her. The bottom one is the two of them sharing a hug, both looking over at the camera. There's a small note reading, "Perks of making the book: I can give myself a whole page." He chuckles to himself at that.

The next page is more varied. It's still after the same concert, but this time with different people. There's a selfie with him, Charlie, and Kevin all making funny faces, per usual. There's also a small picture of Castiel and Garth smiling at the camera like civilized people and a small picture of just Castiel and Kevin smiling. The nice thing is, they're genuine smiles, not just faked for the camera. It was a fun night for all of them.

The next page is all the Novaks at the concert. The first one is, from left to right, Chuck, Michael, Lucifer, Castiel, Gabriel, Samandriel, and then Anna, all squished together to fit in one picture. Next is little eighth grade Anna in his arms, both of them laughing. Then, it's Castiel, Lucifer, and Gabriel making silly faces, followed by Castiel and Sabriel being normal people.

Next to that page is another with the same theme, but he pauses on this one for a moment, trying to figure out what's off about it. Finally, he points to a picture of him and Lucifer crossing their eyes.

"Wrong concert."

"What?" Charlie says, confused.

"That was when Luce flew up to meet me at my first ever concert, not the one nearby. Only a couple weeks off, though."

"How did you know that?" Kevin asks, gaping at him.

Castiel just shrugs. "No clue. I'm weird that way."

He actually does know how he figured it out. He remembers that day clearly. It was his first concert ever, and, naturally, he was freaking out. He had been texting Lucifer all day about it, assuming his brother was still at home in Sioux Falls. All day, Lucifer did his best to calm the boy down, but to no avail.

It was about an hour before the doors opened when he got a text from Lucifer. It was a selfie in front of the venue, followed by the words, "You think the up and coming star's brother can get a head start?"

Obviously, Castiel had made sure that he got to see Lucifer before the show, partially because he had gone through the trouble to show up so early but mostly because he was still freaking out and needed a distraction. At that point, Lucifer was the best he could get.

They were sitting together backstage, not in the wings but the halls behind it. Castiel was just staring at the wall muttering, "I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this," over and over and over, not even acknowledging Lucifer as he tried to calm him down.

Finally, Lucifer had given up on trying to talk him out of it and clapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up, which worked more from surprise than inability to continue talking.

"You're going to do fine," Lucifer had assured him, removing his hand. "No, you're going to nail it. You know how I know that?"