Hi guys. Starting to get towards the end here but enjoy this latest installment of Free As A Bird.
This chapter focuses on the behind the scenes stuff more than the actual on stage stuff, so a bit of a change from that, but I'm sure you all will love it just the same.
Enjoy.
Madison Square Garden
New York City
May 20th, 2011
The sounds of pyrotechnics on the stage were going off with louds bangs and booms. Matt stood with the pyro technicians to make sure that everything went the way that he wanted it to be. He wore his sunglasses so that they couldn't see what he was thinking (A/N: He looks like Yamaki). He also wore them because he was tired and didn't want to show it. The sound technicians were working out the final kinks on the monitors before they finally could start working on the sound. Then they could make sure that everything was set to go for the gig that night.
Matt was the only one present to watch over everything; TK and Izzy were relaxing in the dressing room and would be called to the stage when they were ready, and Tai still had not shown up yet surprisingly. Matt asked his other two band mates if they knew where he was but they didn't have a clue. He was starting to get frustrated. Over the last few gigs, Tai had been showing up late to sound checks and seemed out of it on stage when they would perform. He just seemed to be going through the motions rather than enjoying it like he always did.
When the pyrotechnics finally ended, the head technician turned to him.
"What do you think of that, Matt?" He asked. "Is that what you wanted?"
Matt didn't show any emotion but simply nodded his head.
"Yes," he replied. "I like what you guys came up with but for that last one, as we go for the final notes of the song let's just keep it simple and have an explosion. It's simple but it's effective. Get somebody on it."
"You've got it."
Matt then turned to the sound technicians.
"Are we set to go now?"
"Yup. All set, Matt." The technicians gave him the thumbs up.
Matt nodded with a smile and walked to the dressing room backstage to tell Izzy and TK that they were all set to go. He also hoped Tai had shown up or else he was going to have to do something about it. He didn't want to but he could only tolerate so much.
Opening the door to the dressing room, he saw Tai had finally arrived while TK and Izzy were talking. He was slacked over a chair with his left leg on the arm of the chair and his arm across his knee. He looked like a zombie with a spaced out look and his eyes flickering like he didn't get any sleep at all.
"Oh hey, Matt," he groaned out, his words a little slurred. "How's it going?"
"Tai, where the hell have you been?" Matt crossed his arms. "This is the fifth time in a row that you have been late for sound check. What's up?"
Tai tried to sit up but wound up falling off of the chair. He let out a small yelp as he hit the ground before laughing wildly, like he saw the fall as more of a joke than something serious.
"Whoa, what a trip." He took a swig of the drink in his hand. Matt took a closer look at it and saw that it was a bottle of Jack Daniels. His eyes went wide as Tai took another sip from the bottle.
"Are you drinking again?" Matt demanded, grabbing the bottle from Tai's hand. "What happened to 'I'm never letting another drink touch my lips'?"
"Plans change, Matty boy." Tai replied, irritated that he had his drink taken out of his hand. Matt grabbed Tai by the shirt, nostrils flared and eyebrows narrowed in utter anger.
"Look, Tai," he said. "I know you have been stressed lately. Ok? We all are. I know it is not easy being away from your family for so long but drinking is not the answer. I would cut my throat before I will let you almost drink yourself to death again."
Matt took a second to let that sink into Tai's brain, hoping that he was seeing what he was trying to tell him. Tai didn't seem to be getting the message, a glazed look was in his eyes and he wasn't paying much attention.
"Don't you get it, Tai?!" Matt's face turned red with rage.
"I heard you. I've just got a bad hangover right now." Tai responded, placing a hand on his head to try and nurse some of the throbbing pain. "We can talk about this later. We've got a sound check to do."
He got off the chair and walked out of the room towards the stage, leaving Matt to wonder what exactly was going on inside of his head. Tai could be an open book at times and then there were times where he was the most complex individual that you have ever met in your life.
"I guess we're all set then," said Izzy as he and TK walked out to join Tai. "Let's go."
Matt stayed behind a few extra moments. He smelled something in the room that did not smell natural, kind of a watery smell. Sniffing around, he followed the source of the smell until he realized that it had been right in front of him this whole time. Looking down on the coffee table, he saw two small white sticks smoking at the other end. He brought one up to his nose to smell it, reacting immediately in disgust when the smell went up his nostrils.
"Weed." He whispered to himself. His eyebrows narrowed in annoyance. Someone was smoking weed in their dressing room and Matt was going to find out who it was.
But that could wait for another time: something more important needed to be done about Tai. Matt took his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number of the person he needed to speak to the most.
"Hello?" The voice at the end of the line answered.
"Hello, Daigo," said Matt. "We have a bit of a situation here. It's Tai and he's relapsed. How fast can you get to America?"
That Night
Tai and Matt had just finished getting ready for the show, dressed in their stage attire and fixing their hair the right way so that they looked presentable. For now it was just the two of them, Izzy and TK were off somewhere but they weren't sure exactly where they were. They could hear the crowd murmur in anticipation outside of the backstage area. Their first performance in New York City and they sold out Madison Square Garden. Mimi gave them a boost by telling them that she told some of her friends in New York about their performance and they were going to be there. As if they didn't need any more pressure than they already did.
Tai finally got over his hangover and was set to go out on stage and deliver a good performance. They still had four months left on the tour so he could not afford to let one slipup derail everything.
After finally nailing down the look he wanted, Matt turned to his friend.
"You nervous, buddy?" He asked. "New York City. One of the toughest crowds you will ever get in front of."
"A little bit, man," replied Tai. "Then again, I always get anxious when we are about to go on stage."
Matt wrapped an arm around Tai's shoulder, hoping to ease his concerns. "We've put in two months of solid shows. This one is not any different than all the ones we have done already."
Tai smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go find TK and Izzy so we can all go on stage." He said as they walked out of the dressing room to find their other two band mates.
Walking down the hall, they could hear the sounds of hysterical laughter and the smell of marijuana. Looking at each other with knowing looks, they followed the laughter and marijuana smell until they stopped in front of a supply closet.
Silently counting to three with nods, they broke through the door to a shocking sight. Thick vapor blanketed the room in the smell of weed and sure enough, Izzy and TK had joints in their hands.
"The gig is up!" Izzy shrieked as he and TK jumped back from the sudden intrusion, laughing like hyenas.
"We are in huge…trouble." TK bent over with a snicker and collapsed to the floor, feeling high as a kite.
Tai and Matt's face were the true definition of shock: their eyes were wide as saucers, mouths agape, and were completely stunned by what they were seeing in front of them. Tai never suspected Izzy to be the kind who would turn out to be a dope fiend while Matt never expected his brother to get involved in these things. It was TK who convinced him to get clean in the first place and how does he repay him? By smoking dope.
"Well I have never in my life!" Tai was the first one to say anything. He was beyond angry and disappointed at this stage. "What do you two have to say for yourselves?"
With a giggle, Izzy was the first to respond by looking at Tai with a confused look. "What?"
Tai gave Matt a look that confirmed what they already knew. The two of them were beyond stoned.
"What could have possessed the two of you to do this stuff?" Tai demanded. "Weed destroys your brain and turns you into a lunatic."
"Oh I'm sorry," chuckled TK. "Did you guys want some too? There's plenty to go around."
"NO!" Matt answered immediately, his face red with anger that was directed towards his younger brother. "Takeru, I am very disappointed in you. What would Mom say if she were here to see you right now? What would Kari say for that matter? You do remember who Kari is don't you?"
"Of course I do, Matt."
"Who is she?"
After a few giggles, TK finally answered. "She's that girl up in the sky with the diamonds."
That answer made Matt even more furious. "She's your fiancé, stupid! Get your butt out of here." He dragged TK from the floor and out of the room. This left Tai to take care of Izzy.
"How can you exactly get someone's butt out of a room?" Izzy rocked back and forth with a dopey smile on his face. "Does the butt detach itself from the body and then get out? It's a crazy expression, man."
Tai was not amused.
"Who started this whole thing? Was it you, Izzy?" He demanded.
"Yeah," Izzy nodded without hesitation. "I bought a stash of this stuff when we were in Seattle. That stuff is legal there, man."
Tai stood silently for a few seconds before responding. "Here I thought I knew the real you, Izzy, but I guess not. My friend has turned into a dope fiend. You are the Crest of Knowledge for goodness sake! You should know that stuff like this will destroy your brain."
"Oh come off it, Taichi," Izzy retorted back, his incessant giggling never stopping. "My mind is expanding because of this stuff. Already I am feeling more creative than I ever have been in my entire life."
"That's a bunch of crap and you know it, Izzy. Let me give you the facts." Tai paused to make his point. "When the smoke hits the brain, the cells begin to die. Pretty soon you turn into a mindless dope zombie. It will destroy your brain and soon it will be like you don't have one in the first place."
As Izzy went to take a hit from his joint, Tai immediately grabbed it out of his hands and threw it away.
"That'll be enough of that."
He picked him up off the floor and escorted him out of the closet towards the dressing room.
"Hey, Tai," Izzy blurted out. "Do you think God ever made a boob so big that even he can't lift it? It's like he said: 'Let there be boobs' and then there were boobs."
He then burst out laughing as Tai just rolled his eyes in annoyance. Izzy was fried so bad that it was going to take a while for him to come down from it.
JFK Airport
New York City
11:43 pm
Getting onto the plane that would take them to Boston, Matt and Tai were still angry with TK and Izzy for smoking marijuana. They also felt angry at themselves for not realizing it sooner. If they had known about it before then they surely would have stopped it. The two older members sat closer to the front of the charter plane while the two younger ones opted to sit closer to the back. They knew Matt and Tai were still cross with them so they decided to stay away from them. Kari sat near them.
Tai breathed out a sigh as he plopped himself down in his seat. He was beyond exhausted after delivering a tremendous performance once again and was looking forward to some sleep on the plane before they arrived in Boston a short time later. The wear and tear of the tour was starting to show: he had stubble all over his face due to the fact that he hadn't had the chance to shave in a week, dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep, and a more pale complexion than his usual tan one.
"Tired?" Matt asked, looking every bit of exhausted as Tai. His blonde hair was disheveled and growing longer by the day.
"A little bit," Tai replied. "I'm gonna catch some z's on the way to Boston."
"Me too." Matt nodded in agreement. "I'm really tired. You may complain about it but I have to make sure that everything goes right so I don't get much sleep."
"That's commitment."
"Tell me about it."
Exchanging chuckles, the two of them fell silent for a few seconds. Tai broke it.
"Hey Matt, do you miss Christine?" He asked.
Matt raised in eyebrow in curiosity at Tai's question.
"Of course I do, Tai," he replied. "I miss her every day that we are out on the road. I'm thinking of seeing her again before the tour is over. Why do you ask?"
"I'm just wanting to know because I miss my family a lot," Tai slumped further in his chair. "You should have seen Sora's face when I told her that we would be going to America for six months: it was the worst feeling ever. I feel like I'm leaving her behind to raise our son by herself, never to come back home. I don't want Tatsuke to feel like he never had a father in his life."
"That's bullshit, Tai," Matt shook his head. "She knows that you'll be coming home. It's just another few months."
Tai scoffed. "Yeah that's what you said last month too."
"Tai, I know that you miss your family, especially with the earthquake two months ago and all of the recovery efforts going on in that department, but you need to stop feeling like you are abandoning them. You are not doing that at all. It's your job and Sora understands. When Tatsuke grows up, he will understand why you do what you do." Matt tried reasoning with his friend. "How do you think I felt when my parents divorced and I went to live with my dad? Just like you, I felt like I was abandoning TK. He was only four when they separated and I had promised I would protect him but I couldn't do that."
Tears started to streak down Matt's face as he recalled the entire experience, how sad he had been to see his mother and little brother walk away from him and his father as they went their separate ways. It was the worst time of his life and it had a deep psychological effect on him.
"Then we all met at camp and nothing was the same again." A smile began to creep on his face. "When I'm with you guys, I feel like I don't have to be the strong one and put on a brave face to hide that I was hurting inside for years. I love all of you. During our time in the Digital World, you became my family. We still are one to this very day."
Matt wiped his eyes free of tears as they threatened to cascade down his face in a full sob. He sniffled a few times to get himself back under control.
"So no matter where we go or how far, know that even when you are apart from your family, you still have us."
He offered his hand out for a shake. Tai looked at it for a few seconds before shaking his head and wrapping Matt in a tight hug. Matt returned the gesture, feeling Tai's tears soak the crook of his neck. Tai soon pulled away and they looked deep into each other's eyes.
"Whenever people ask about my family, I always say that I have three brothers, not just one." Matt smiled.
Tai nodded with a confident look on his face. "Same here, Matt. You're right. We are all a family, not just the best of friends."
Oh damn, I think I have something in my eye. Knowing that they have each other's backs, will Digivolution finish out the rest of the tour strongly? Find out on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters.
I've been hammering Tai's struggles a little bit more in this story so I decided to let he and Matt pour their hearts out to each other at the end there so we can see how Matt has been struggling as well.
TK and Izzy: naughty, naughty. They should have known better than to get mixed up in marijuana usage. I wouldn't do it myself but I don't care if you do it. I won't judge.
So two chapters to go and I'm sure you guys will enjoy them as much as all of the others. In terms of word length, this is by far my longest story. That is absolutely incredible.
Kindly leave a review as you read, if you please. They motivate me to continue writing for you guys. Whether it's a long review or just a simple 'Good job,' I enjoy them just the same. See you all next time.