Moments after calling Matt, Mike and I arrived at the studio together. To our surprise, Josh was nowhere to be found.

"That's weird," I told Mike as I turned on the lights in the recording room. "Where else would he be?"

"I dunno," Mike shrugged, "he's probably out being Josh."

I tried to chuckle at Mike's attempt to lighten the mood, but it just wasn't the same. Josh had been acting quite unusual lately, even for Josh. I couldn't help but wonder why, but I was far too afraid to ask.

"So what's the big emergency?" asked Matt as he entered through the front door. I hadn't seen him in what felt like forever, and it looked as though he hadn't slept in days.

I looked at Mike anxiously. "Should we wait for Josh?"

Mike pondered the thought for a couple seconds before turning towards his band mate. "Take a seat, Matt."

The three of us made our way to the couch in the recording room. I noticed the same plastic bag I saw earlier that day, sitting on the same table. The rest of the guys followed where I was looking and a look of terror sprung on Matt's face.

"You okay, man?" asked Mike.

Matt shook his head vigorously. "Yeah sorry, I'm fine. So what's going on?"

"We—we haven't been completely honest with you," I started.

"What do you mean?"

Without hesitation, I dove into my story, not missing a single detail. The one thing I loved about Matt was that he was an amazing listener.

"…and then Josh just took off without even saying a word," I finished.

"Is that all?" Matt inquired, sounding a little hurt.

"Not quite…" Mike jumped in.

Surprisingly, Matt's face stayed completely neutral throughout Mike's entire story. Then again, it's Matt; I can't remember the last time he showed any emotion.

As Mike finished, Matt let out a huge sigh. "Well—that's quite a lot of news for one guy to handle." It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"We're really sorry we didn't tell you," Mike replied, "it's just—"

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE ALL OF YOU DOING IN HERE?" I heard a raspy voice scream. The three of us turned around to see Josh standing in the doorway. I looked over to see Matt's jaw almost drop when he saw him, which made me slightly confused. Sure Josh looked tired, pale, and as though he dropped about fifteen pounds, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I began to wonder whether Matt knew something we didn't.

The entire band fell silent. "THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA HAVE A BAND MEETING WITHOUT ME, EH?" Josh continued.

"I tried to get a hold of you," Matt said as he sprung out of his seat.

"Sorry man," Josh chuckled sarcastically, "I was too busy saving this fucker from getting shot in the face." He pointed directly at me.

"Well, where's your phone?" Matt asked.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Josh changed the subject and looked at Mike.

"Tristan's in the hospital," Mike sighed.

"Well that doesn't really answer my question, does it?" Josh chuckled while looking slightly off-balance. Mike looked away and I gave Josh a disgusted look. How could he be so fucking insensitive?

Reading my mind, Matt turned back to Josh, "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Josh began eying the plastic bag on the table. "Well let's fucking see," he said, his words oozing sarcasm, "Amanda dumped me, my entire band is having meetings without me…" Josh's voice trailed off. He began walking towards the plastic bag.

"Amanda dumped you?" I asked. How did I not know this?

"Oh you didn't hear?" Josh said while putting the plastic bag in his pocket. Matt eyed him suspiciously. "I would've thought that fucking whiny ass cunt told you already."

I looked over to Matt only to see him completely fuming with anger. "Say that again, asshole," he said as he slowly began walking over to Josh.

"Whoa, slow down there pretty boy," Josh giggled, "I said she's a whiny ass cunt. Bitch thinks she can control my life or something."

"DON'T FUCKING TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!" Matt shouted. Mike and I froze and looked at each other with wide eyes. I'd seen Matt get mad before, but never like this. What the fuck was going on?

"What's it to you?" Josh jeered.

"She doesn't deserve you, Josh," Matt said, his voice low with anger.

"Oh, and what? She deserves you?" Josh chuckled, "Got a little crush on my ex, Matty?"

Matt took a few steps forward and looked at Josh straight in the eyes. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Josh pushed Matt to the side and began walking out the door.

"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE!" Matt yelled as he followed Josh into the parking lot. Mike and I looked at each other and hurried towards the front door.

"Watch me." Josh continued walking towards his car as he raised his middle finger high up in the air.

"JOSHUA RAMSAY, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" screamed Matt. Mike and I took a few steps back. Matt was beginning to scare the shit out of me.

Surprisingly, Josh turned around and began to briskly walk towards the front door where Matt was standing. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME? YOU THINK I'M GONNA STICK AROUND WHEN MY BANDMATES ARE HAVING A MEETING WITHOUT ME? WHEN MY BEST FRIEND CHOOSES MY EX OVER ME? JUST FUCK OFF!"

"What the hell is going on here?" I heard a female voice call out. I peeked out the door and saw a beautiful girl with long red hair that reached practically down to her hips.

"Get outta here, Alexa," Josh responded, sounding surprisingly calm.

"Alexa?" Mike muttered under his breath as he looked at me. I shrugged.

"Who's she?" Matt asked, looking more and more infuriated and confused.

"Don't worry about it," Josh responded while eying the gorgeous redhead.

"I just dropped by to see how you're doing," she said cautiously.

"I'm fine," Josh responded with a sarcastic smile, "can't you tell?"

"Are you sure?" she responded with a worried tone in her voice, "You look pale. I thought I told you to quit."

Sheer panic drew upon Josh's face. "And I thought I told you to never fucking talk to me anymore."

Alexa suddenly looked as though she were about to cry. "I'm sorry, what?"

Unexpectedly, the entire parking lot fell completely silent. Mike was looking at his shoes, Matt was looking at Josh with immense concern, Josh was looking at Alexa as if he were going to strangle the poor girl, and Alexa looked back at him with absolute confusion.

"What's she talking about?" Matt finally broke the silence.

It looked as though Alexa finally clued in on something and began backing away slowly. "I should go."

"Yeah, you should," Josh continued to stare at her with piercing eyes.

"See ya, Ramsay…" her voice trailed off as she began walking towards her car.

As the sound of her Volkswagen speeding off into the distance grew smaller, the three of us stood there staring at Josh with utter fear and confusion. Maybe I was completely stupid, but I still couldn't piece together what was going on with him. I knew I had to step in and try to fix this, but I couldn't even come up with the right words.

"Fuck this," Josh finally said, walking away.

"Josh, wait!" I called out weakly, but Josh continued walking.

Matt stepped back inside and closed the door before letting out a huge sigh and leaning against the wall.

"So do you have any idea what's up with him?" I asked Matt. I knew that if anything was wrong with Josh, Matt would be able to piece it together faster than we could. They had known each other since high school, after all.

"I have a hunch, but you're not gonna like it…" Matt replied.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"I dunno, he's just acting a lot like he did when we were sixteen." Matt looked away.

"You don't think—" I stopped before I made a stupid assumption. If I wasn't mistaken, sixteen was the age Josh began his heroin addiction. But then again, I could be wrong. If there was one thing I did know, it was Josh. I was sure he wouldn't allow himself to go down that path again. He was smarter than that.

Matt looked up and noticed my confusion. "No," he read my mind, "he's smarter than that. He's probably just really tired. His insomnia was really bad when we were that age and he got pretty cranky."

Matt was a pretty good liar, so it was hard to tell if he was telling the truth or not. Nonetheless, we all agreed not to get too worried about it. After all, we still had our own issues to resolve. Mike was obviously worried sick about his son, and I still needed to come up with $15K. To worry about Josh was useless and would get us nowhere. We were sure Josh would snap out of it; he always did.