Laravel 5.4 sometimes uses different database credentials

Laravel 5.4 randomly (sometimes not always, or even frequently) tries to connect to a database using the default forge credentials...

I've changed the .env variables to my local MySQL Server already... and as I said it ONLY happens SOMETIMES (rarely)...

I'm able to force the issue to happen by spamming an ajax request that I created.

I did NOT tell Laravel to use a secondary database connection anywhere (unless there's an alternate connection by default when you first install).

Here's the error.

QueryException in Connection.php line 647: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'forge'@'localhost' (using password: NO) (SQL: select * from users where users.id = 2 limit 1)

via Chebli Mohamed