Edited 10/8/18

A/N: Hey everyone I'm sorry this has taken me way to long to update. I got so stuck writing this chapter, it's a lot of chaos and a lot of set up for the back half of this story. I finally have an outline straight through to the end. I think I have another 9-10 chapters so we still have quite a bit to get through. The next one is about half way done so I should have it up by the end of the month.

Follow on Spotify: FF Playlist

I don't own Digimon or the song, Fake Happy, by Paramore.

"Oh please don't ask me how I've been
Don't make me play pretend
Oh no, oh what's the use
Oh please, I bet everybody here is fake happy too"

"The past several days have been extremely difficult for myself, family, and friends. The photos that were released, while authentic, were released without my permission. It's put me into a position where I'm expected to make statements I'm not yet prepared to make. I can assure anyone reading this that I'm not looking for a monetary settlement, so I'll be refusing any calls of that nature.

I only recently healed from the injuries visible in the photos, I'd started to move on with my life, only to be reminded of one of the worst nights I've had on this earth. I've been touring with some of my closest, and oldest friends, and I'm endlessly grateful for the support they have given me over the past few months. Right now I'm focused on committing my energy to our tour until it's complete."

I sat at the bar reading the statement April had sent out on Kari's behalf, the venue was buzzing with gossip, which was horribly nauseating. I was half listening to the chatter around me, picking up bits and pieces. Generally they were favorable of Kari, the evidence against Michael was too damning, but every few people called her a liar. Ironically, and sadly, most of them were girls around her own age. They'd talk of the money, of a nobody trying to bring down a good man's career. It took everything not to say something but I knew it wasn't worth the scene it would create at the moment.

We got to the bar really early that day, wanting to avoid as much press as possible, so far no one had figured out where we were staying. The place was empty when we arrived, the owner came to let us in around noon, it was just past six now and show would be starting soon. They set up quickly this afternoon and then relaxed for the rest of the day. A small collection of photographers had collected around the venue but the security had done a really good job of keeping them at bay.

The venue was small, the stage set up was just big enough to fit the five of them, there was standing room for just about 100 down by the stage, four booths along the side opposite of the bar and some standing room in the bar area. They loved the small spaces, it made me a little claustrophobic, but they liked being as close to the crowd as possible.

The bartender was finishing up another order for me as the music started, one of the girls who was just trashing her inched closer to me.

"You here with anyone?" She leaned into the bar looking towards me suggestively. Her friend rolled her eyes, looking between the stage and her friend, clearly more interested in getting a good spot.

I slid some cash onto the bar as my drinks were pushed towards me, "Yea, she's on stage," I nodded my head in that direction, walking away.

I didn't turn back to see her face but the way she was sputtering as I left gave me the satisfaction I was looking for. If I couldn't loudly defend her at least I'd do it casually. I headed over to the right side of the stage reserved for the band and met up with Sora, and Mimi.

I saw April wave from the back of the crowd as she made her way over to us, "Did they just start?" She shouted over the music. We nodded, as the bouncer let her under the rope to be with us.

"What number is it in their set?" She yelled over the crowd to me.

I held up nine fingers instead of trying to shout over the music. She gave me a nod and put her phone away for the moment knowing she had some time.

The crowd roared around us, it was incredible how playing in a venue this small could make you feel like a superstar. Everyone was so close to the stage, they all know the words to your music, sing at the top of their lungs, and scream at you like you're old friends. I feel the vibration through the space and my body buzzes with excitement. I realize it's time for my moment, my message, and I feel a little like I might throw up into the crowd. Matt looks my way, and nods encouragingly, as I pull the mic out of it's stand.

"Alright everybody," The crowd screams around me and I have to pause, I smile in spite of everything else going on and am just happy for a moment. Happy because I'm lucky enough to still be on a stage at all, happy as I look towards our friends while they send gestures and shouts of support, and grateful for them, for everything we've been through and that they are all still with me.

"So, I picked this song special for tonight." The people around us suddenly hush, interested, nosey, one yells an expletive about Michael and I have to stop myself from agreeing. Instead I just smirk in their direction, and few people up front laugh.

The music started and some members of the crowd started cheering, recognizing the song. I felt her words sink into my skin and settle there. The moment I first heard it, it hit me right in the gut. Some people had started filming, which we had been expecting, all part of the plan.

I spent the last few months trying to put on the show of a stable and happy person. It was sick, and weird, but a part of me was happy it was all coming out now. I didn't have to hide behind sleeves and fake smiles anymore. The past few years had been a blur of parties, and award shows, where I never felt like myself. Pose for this camera, remember that producers name, laugh at the right time, it was this world of narcissists competing for the best compliment of the night. There were some that were a bit more genuine, but Michael didn't associate with any of them.

As I headed towards the bridge I stared blankly out into the crowd, dead eyed.

"I know I said that I was doing good and that I'm happy now"

I looked from the crowd to T.K. who was now standing alone to the right of us.

"I should've known when things were going good that's when I'd get knocked down"

I walked toward him as the music picked up behind me, he handed me a drink, and I held onto his hand for a moment, meeting his eyes, before heading back on stage. It was a simple gesture, a wink to the crowd, but it sent the message. I saw it filmed by dozens of people in the crowd, some cheered catching the moment while others were trying to figure out why everyone was excited for me to get another drink. It was funny they way people thought they knew your life, that they were invested in the relationships you were in as if you were related. It wasn't the part of this that I loved, but I needed to learn how to play the game, at least for now, at least if I was going to get through all of this.

The song ended and I looked out into the crowd, "How's that for a fucking statement." I finished the drink in a single motion and turned to set my glass down as the crowd erupted. If the world wanted a show, I'd give them one.

"Brilliant! Absolutely amazing. You might be breaking the internet right now. People are all over it trying to dissect what it means. You have websites literally taking apart every red carpet, and show, Michael and you showed up to over the last six months of your relationship." April was scrolling through her phone at light speed while we sat at the bar.

"This is fascinating," Mimi dragged out the last word showing everyone her phone screen. "So this site got a body language expert . Here they zoom in on how tightly he's gripping you, and you're always leaning slightly away from him, they say your smile seems forced."

Kari finished, what I think was her fourth drink that night, as Mimi and April were engrossed in the online gossip world. She looked like she was about to motion the bartender for another but I grabbed her hand into my own. She sent me a concerned glance.

"You ok?" I asked, motioning to her glass. She looked suddenly embarrassed, I'd been carful not to bring up her drinking. She was never out of control, but she could have enough without it being an issue that I could see that it might become one at some point.

"Sorry, it's become a default when I'm feeling stressed," she said quietly, careful not to bring attention to herself. Everyone was so engrossed in their phones that it didn't matter.

I placed my hand on the small of her back, she leaned into it gently, "You feel it too though right? Uneasy? This isn't going to get better right now, it's just a small success on a long road that I can't see the end of."

I did know what she was feeling, it was strange, growing up she was always so in tune to what was happening around us, empathic to her very core. I never felt like that on my own, but I could always pick up on it when I was around her. Maybe I was just grossly in tune with her, and her emotions, but she was right, things felt really heavy, even with everyone around us in minor celebration.

"Do you want to head back? Get to sleep early?"

She looked back at everyone, they were all so at ease at the moment, as she turned back the bartender dropped another drink in front of her. She looked down at it before picking up the glass and standing up.

"Maybe I can have one night, but I'm going to get some air, I'll be right back ok?"

She walked away from me towards the door, something in my stomach told me to follow her, but I knew she wanted some space for the moment so I held back. I looked around the bar as Mimi, Sora, and April were still attached to their phones. Matt, John, and Colin had abandon theirs as some girls had headed over to them.

I looked back at the door Kari had walked out of one more time before heading over to the guys.

The air was muggy, I thought leaving the bar would ease the tension in my chest but it only felt slightly less suffocating. I leaned against the cold brick wall and took a sip of my drink, I was starting to have those fuzzy tingles that come once the buzz has passed and you start leaning into straight up drunk.

I heard a car pull up near me and looked up. I felt my drink slip from my hands, and heard it crash to the ground, as I watched Trevor get into the car with a girl. The same girl I'd watched overdose a few years earlier. Lexi, I remembered the wild curly hair, how skinny she had always been. I'd remember her anywhere.

I pulled out my phone and texted Mimi to ask if Trevor had her keys, she quickly said yes, and asked why. I pocketed my phone. No one else needed to panic. Another car pulled up and some people piled out to head into the bar. I stumbled a bit as I pushed off the wall, suddenly regretting my last two drinks, I ran over and hopped in the back before the car could drive away. I quickly rattled off Mimi's address and watched the bar fade from view as we drove off.

Maybe I was mistaken, maybe that wasn't the same girl, but it wasn't like Trevor to run off with random girls. Colin, yes, but Trevor wasn't the type. He'd been so distant and quiet lately, and with everything going on I hadn't thought to ask if he was doing okay.

I tried to calm down and relax as we drove though the busy Miami streets, we got stuck longer then I would have liked, it felt like we were hitting every stop light, and it took everything I had not to hop out and start running. I knew I'd probably never make it, my head was starting to spin, so I tried to focus on breathing. When we finally reached her complex I paid and, quickly, exited. I took the stairs two at a time, slipping a few times, banging my knees and shins into the edge of the stairs as I went, knowing I'd be bruised up tomorrow. I stopped when I reached her door, realizing that I didn't have a key, I tried knocking but received no response. I tried turning the handle and the door easily opened. I leaned against the wall for a moment feeling nauseous, I crouched down and pressed my fingers into my forehead trying to calm myself.

I tried to refocus on the apartment but it was dark, and quiet, inside her condo. I let out a startled yelp as my phone buzzed in my back pocket, it was T.K. I saw a few missed texts, I was so focused on getting here I didn't even feel the others. I answered the phone, he asked what was going on, and where I went. I rambled off what happened, that I needed to follow them to make sure it was okay. When he asked if it was, in fact, okay I realized I still didn't have an answer. I got up and closed the door quietly behind me, "Trevor?" My voice was shaky, and I received no response but thought maybe I had been too quiet. I made my way up the stairs and tried calling again, this time louder, but still no response. I got to their door, it was ajar, so I pushed it opened.

I said his name again, shaking, with tears brimming my eyes, knowing the response would be silence. They were sprawled on the bed unconscious, and on the floor there was a discarded needle, and tourniquet. The noise that came out of my mouth next wasn't distinguishable, somewhere between his name and a screech. I was so dizzy, I fell to my hands and knees, and my stomach lurched, I was sure anything I drank that night was now horribly stained into Mimi's floor. I heard T.K. faintly from my discarded phone, but let it go. His far away voice seemed to be yelling to the others, I heard 911 come out.

I pushed myself up, uneasy on my feet, and made my way to Trevor. I tried to shake him a bit, shouted his name, but he wouldn't respond. I grabbed my phone and clicked it to speaker, "Call 911," I shouted.

"They are coming, What's happening?"

"I need help!" I shouted, more desperate, choking out a sob as I did. His voice came through as calmly as possible, soothing words of reassurance that help was coming, that they were coming, to hold on. I could hear the panic through his calm though, the hitch in his voice, the chaos happening in the background. I tried to shake it away because I needed to focus on here.

I tried to shake Trevor again but there was nothing, and Lexi looked even worse than him. I backed away from the bed, ignoring T.K. trying to ask me questions from the phone, and I started to rummage around the room desperately looking for what I needed.

I felt outside of my body, like my brain, and physical being were disconnected. I was watching myself scramble around the room, sobbing, screaming, looking for what I knew was laying at the bottom of one of Trevor's suitcases. As I searched, I tried to remember the way Michael's friend had used it at that party so long ago. My vision was blurry as I tore through his bag, when it wasn't there I screamed again, something in between a screech and the word help. As I searched through the second bag I hoped someone would come find us, or one of them would wake up, even the dead couldn't sleep with the noise I was making.

Suddenly there it was in my hands, they were shaking and it fell from them onto the floor. I carefully picked it back up and climbed into the bed. I straddled his half naked body, wiped my eyes so I could see clearly, and put the bottle to his nose and administered the spray. I immediately moved to the girl, I was frozen for a moment when I saw her face, the same girl from the party all those years ago, the same girl I watched get wheeled away. I was right. I shook myself away from the past and was about to use the spray on her, but men were suddenly walking into the room.

"EMS, we were notified of an emergency.

I backed away immediately and wordlessly pointed to the bed.

Two of men came further into the room and followed my signal towards the bed, another pulled me into a chair across the room and started questioning me.

"What happened?"

"I found them unconscious. Overdose."

"Do you know what they took?"

"There's a needle on the floor."

"My name is Allen, what's your name?

"Kari."

"Are you high right now?" He shined a light in my eyes as he questioned me.

"No. I've been drinking though."

"Used bottle of Narcan over here," one of the people near the bed shouted.

"Did you administer that?"

I nodded back to him.

"Who did you use it on?"

"Trevor."

"The male?"

I nodded again.

He started to pull me out of the room, I tried to fight him but he told me they needed space to work. He kept asking me questions that I was half answering. What was his full name? Her full name? How did I know him? Had I ever seen her before? When? What was my name? Where was I? Did I know today's date?

They rushed them out of the room, on separate stretchers, shouting vitals back and forth. I followed them into the elevator and out into the night. They loaded them into separate ambulances. I tried to get into his but they stopped me, I started fighting, screaming, that I needed to go. I had to be there. Allen, the one who had been asking me the questions got out and pushed me back a bit, trying to calm me. He said something about them needing to concentrate in the ambulance, that he could take me in separately but everything got foggy. I heard someone call my name but the dark sky had gone white before my eyes, I felt warm arms around me, before I felt nothing at all.

Alright everyone, the next three chapters will connect everything together and answer some questions that are probably coming up. Have theories? Share in the comments, I'd love to hear what you think. Until next time!