Hey readers! How are ya? This next chapter has been written in honor of my good friend Abby's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY! She's called MissInspiration around these parts. Go wish her a happy birthday! The next song is by her favorite band, so I'm hoping that she really likes it. And I hope you like it too! Read on kids!
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei and all those other people, not to a lowly 14 year old with no life. The song "As You Sleep" belongs to a wonderful band by the name of Something Corporate, not to their fanfic writing fan.
~ Italics ~ indicates thoughts
"Italics" indicates phone conversation
Italics indicates song lyrics
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Sing for Me: As You Sleep
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Head down. Dirty floor. Black sneakers. Dark jeans. Green bass. Fingers resting lightly on the E string.
Head up. Microphone. Huge room. Bright lights. Hundreds of people. Signs with "Playing Favorites" written in bold, black marker.
Eyes to the left. JD, the guitarist. Eyes to the right. Andrew, the keyboardist. Head turned slightly over the shoulder. Darrin, the drummer.
Eyes back to the front. Deep breath in. Slow sigh out. Thoughts race through the mind.
~ Stay calm. Stay focused. Concentrate. You've done this so many times before. Now it's just...bigger. ~
Nod to the left. A major chord plays. Silence. Another plays. More silence. One last chord. Drums start playing. Keyboards kick in. Fingers pluck one string at a time, causing the bass to be heard. Lean in closer to the microphone. One small breath in. Mouth opens...
And a telephone is heard. The dream is broken, and he slips back into reality.
Matt lies in bed, deep blue eyes wide open and fixed on his telephone resting on the nightstand. He lets it ring a few more times and he silently curses whoever is calling for interrupting his dream. He rolls over, swinging his legs across the edge of his bed so that he is now in a sitting position. He reaches for his phone and gives a half-angry, half-tired greeting.
"Hello?"
"Matt! Dude, I still can't believe we're actually going to do it!"
Matt rolls his eyes. The annoying voice on the other line is his friend, Darrin. Maybe Darrin wasn't exactly annoying. Perhaps it was just the fact that he had woken Matt up.
"You call me at-" Matt stops talking to look at his clock. "-8 AM? You ruined a perfectly good dream."
Matt hears a laugh through the phone. He doesn't know whether he should be angry at his friend for laughing at him or whether he should be laughing along with him. He finds it pretty silly to be overreacting over a dream.
"What kind of dream? Something about you and Mimi, hm?"
A smile creeps onto Matt's lips. Just hearing the name of his girlfriend made him happy. "No, nothing about Mimi. It was actually about you and me-"
"Dude! That's sick! I don't want to hear about your gross fantasies!"
Matt makes a disgusted face and rolls his eyes once more. "You didn't let me finish! It was about you, me, JD, and Andrew, but not how you think! I'm talking about Playing Favorites. We were playing a huge crowd - maybe even a sold-out one."
"Did we do good?"
"I don't know! You called me and woke me up before I even started to sing!"
"Oh. Whoops. I guess I should've called JD instead or something. I mean, for all I know, you could be some crazy psychic who can predict the fate of our band. Hey, go back to sleep! Try to have the same dream!"
Matt raises his eyebrow in amusement and confusion. He had to admit that his friends were sometimes extremely strange. "And how am I supposed to have the same dream?"
"I don't know. Just try to go back to sleep and keep thinking about our tour and all that stuff. Then you'll have the same dream again, hopefully. Call me and tell me what happens. I want to know if I'll make a fool of myself on stage or something."
Matt hears a click on the other line and takes it as a sign that Darrin has hung up. He also hangs up the phone. He lies back down on his bed, trying to get back to sleep, but not because Darrin thinks he's a psychic and will have the same dream, but because he was tired and needed more rest.
~~~~~~
Click.
"I hate you! I hate every single thing about you! How could you do that to me? I can't-"
Click.
"Yes, but how does it make you feel? Are you happy? Ecstatic, even? Or perhaps-"
Click.
"Come on everyone! Sing with us! Get up and dance!"
Click.
"With our amazing new product, you'll be able to clean your house in a matter of-"
Matt sighs and turns of the TV. He runs a hand through his messy blonde hair in boredom. He sits in his living room in silence for a while, deep in thought about the upcoming events. His band Playing Favorites would be going on a huge tour soon. This was all because another local band saw their show and decided to take Matt's band with them on their upcoming tour. Perhaps to other bands, the tour seemed small, but it was the biggest tour Playing Favorites had ever been a part of.
This train of thought leads Matt to wonder about how people in his hometown of Odaiba would react. Would they be happy for him? Would they laugh at him and hope he does bad? Would they shake their heads and tell him he's wasting his time? Matt doesn't care what those people think. The person he cares for most is his girlfriend, Mimi. He has told her about this tour before. In fact, she was the first person other than the band to find out. She seemed happy for him, but Matt can't help but think that maybe Mimi doesn't want him to leave.
Knock-knock.
Matt's thoughts break as he hears a knock on the door. Normally, a person would use the doorbell, but it's broken, and Matt had no time to fix it. He gets up from the couch and walks over to his door. He places a hand on the knob and turns it, swinging the door open. He smiles as he sees who is in front of him.
"Hey Matt." He smiles even wider as he hears her voice.
"Hi Mimi. What're you doing here?" He raises an eyebrow as his girlfriend walks in to his house. He shuts the door and locks it, following Mimi into the living room.
"I wanted to talk," she says as she takes a seat on the couch.
Matt stops in his tracks. "Talk? About what?"
Mimi bites her lip and looks up at him with her brown eyes. "About your tour. Matt, you know I'm happy for you. I'm so glad that you're getting this opportunity, but I don't want you to leave..."
He sits next to Mimi and lightly touches her arm. "I don't want to leave you either."
"Then don't." She looks at him with hopeful eyes.
"I can't just do that," he says after letting out a sigh. "Mimi, the band has waited for a moment like this for so long. You know I don't want to leave you, but I really want to do this. It's just...I don't know...you'd understand if you were in my position."
He pushes a strand of chestnut hair from her face and he notices that she is beginning to cry. Tears start to fall, words begin to get lost. The two sit in silence for several minutes, each afraid to speak up.
The taste of salt begins to enter her mouth, and she lifts a hand to wipe her tears away. She looks into her boyfriends azure eyes and puts a faint smile on her face. "Matt, I'm sorry."
He raises an eyebrow, not sure what she was sorry for. "Sorry? For what?"
"For putting you through this. For making you believe that I don't want you to go on this tour." She paused a moment to take a breath. "You know I trust you. I want you to be happy, and if this tour will make you happy, you can go on it. Just don't hook up with the groupies, okay?," she says with a light laugh.
"Groupies? You think we'll have groupies?"
"Oh of course. They're all going to drool over you. Who wouldn't?"
He laughs a bit and places his hand on her cheek. "Well, it'll be disappointing when I tell them I have the most beautiful girlfriend waiting for me in Odaiba."
She smiles and gives him a quick kiss before getting up. "I have to go. I just wanted to talk to you about your tour and everything."
He nods and also gets up from the couch and leads his girlfriend to the door. He gives her another kiss and waves good-bye as she walks out. As he watches her leave, he thinks to himself and wonders if he made the right decision in choosing to continue with the tour. Perhaps he should have stayed home to make his girlfriend happy.
~~~~~~
"Bye Mimi. I'll miss you."
Mimi smiles and nods. "I'll miss you too, Matt," she says before kissing him.
JD shoves his guitar in the back of the van and rolls his eyes at the couple. "Matt, can we please stop this lovey-dovey stuff and get going?" He hops inside the van and Andrew follows, playfully giving him a punch on the arm.
"You're just jealous because he actually has a girlfriend." JD rolls his eyes at his bandmate's remark.
By this time, Matt and Mimi have parted. Matt waves at Mimi and turns around, heading toward the van. A thought crosses his mind and he realizes that he forgot something. He turns around and reaches into the large pocket of his jacket. He pulls out a silver CD enclosed in a transparent red case and hands it to Mimi.
"Play it before you go to sleep tonight, okay?" He smiles intently as Mimi nods. He heads into the van and waves one last time.
~~~~~~
Mimi's fingers trace the red case of the CD lightly. She glances at the clock and it is 11 PM. She normally goes to sleep around this time, if not an hour later. Carefully opening the CD case, she takes out the CD and holds it in her hand. She reaches over to her stereo and pushes a button with the image of a silver arrow on it. An empty slot pops out and she places the CD inside, then pushes the slot closed. Her stereo has an automatic play, so she lies on her bed and waits for any type of sound. The first thing she hears is Matt's voice.
"Hey Mimi, it's Matt. Once you get this CD, I should be on tour. I know how much you didn't really want me to go since you said you'll miss me and all, so I wrote this song for you..."
She wonders why Matt would go through such trouble, but she continues to listen.
~~~~~~
Close your eyes
And I will be swimming
Lullabies fill your room
And I will be singing
Singing to only you
Don't forget I'll hold your head
Watch the night sky fading red
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A small smile appears on her face as she listens to the song. The melody is peaceful and she loves the song already. She notes that there is a piano playing in the background and she wonders if it's Matt or Andrew playing, knowing that both have the talent. She makes it a note to ask once they get back from the tour.
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But as you sleep
And no one is listening
I will lift you off your feet
And keep you from sinking
Don't you wake up yet
Cause soon I'll be leaving you
But you won't be leaving me
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Her smile grows wider as she listens to the lyrics. They fit perfectly to how she feels about Matt leaving. That was her favorite thing about his song writing; his lyrics were easy to relate to. She stares at the ceiling and keeps listening, enjoying the music that fills her room.
~~~~~~
In the car
The radio leaves me searching for your star
A constellation of frustration
Driving Hard
Singing my thoughts back to me
Like watching heartache on TV
~~~~~~
She closes her honey brown eyes slowly and lies in her bed. She thinks about what Matt is doing right now, or what he would be doing tomorrow. Her voice inside her head and the music coming from her stereo fill her sense of hearing.
~~~~~~
But as you sleep
And no one is listening
I will lift you off your feet
And keep you from sinking
Don't you wake up yet
Cause soon I'll be leaving you
But you won't be leaving me
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She feels herself drifting to sleep. She flutters her eyes open, wanting to finish the song, but she can't. Playing Favorites' ballads had such a serene and placid sense to them. Her eyes slowly close again, though thoughts of Matt are still in her head.
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Don't forget I'll hold your head
Watch the night sky fading red
But as you sleep
And no one is listening
I will lift you off your feet
And keep you from sinking
Don't you wake up yet
Cause soon I'll be leaving you
Soon I'll be leaving you
But you won't be leaving me
~~~~~~
"Good night Mimi. Remember that I'm always with you, even as you sleep."
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Annnd that's it for this installment! Whoo hoo! Once again, Happy birthday Abby!! Send me comments, flames, and birthday wishes for Abby at another_loser_rocker@yahoo.com See ya next time!
