Later that night:
Matt and Ashley sat quietly in the emergency department waiting room, whilst Jeff and Brittany spoke to the doctor. Ashley was flicking through the new edition of her "Us" magazine and Matt was scanning through the mountains of text messages on his phone.
He smiled to himself as a familiar name appeared. He clicked on the message to open it and couldn't help but chuckle when he opened the attached photo. It was Zoe grinning and pointing to her "Mattitude" t-shirt, whilst holding the phone out with the other. The caption read "Sexiest Mattitude bitch eva!"
"What's funny babe?"Ash asked smiling.
Matt clicked out and shook his head. "Nothing, just something one of the boys sent me."
Ash smiled and returned to her reading. "I really do love that girl." She said turning the page to the 3 page spread on Zoe.
"Hmm…?
"Zoe Lancaster, she's beautiful." Ash smiled.
Matt looked over and couldn't help as his smile grew. Zoe was laying down on a day lounge dressed in a vintage black full length dress with red slashes throughout the skirt. Her dark brown hair curled loosely and swept up in true old glam. Her dark eye make- up made her already exotic eyes stand out even more and the deep crimson lipstick only added to her already luscious lips.
"Beautiful."Matt marveled.
"Stop you're going to make me jealous."Ash pouted, covering the photo with her hand.
"I only have eyes for you babe." Matt grinned, placing a kiss on her cheek.
Ash giggled and moved her hands away to read the article. "Did you know that they started off just playing at their friends parties and then somehow a tape was sent from one of the parties to the record company and they were signed right away?"
Matt smiled remembering all the times he would listen to them play and just watch in awe as he listened to Zoe's voice. "She had it even back then." He said mostly to himself.
"Sorry babe?"
"I said I think I remember hearing about that or reading it somewhere." He covered. He wasn't ready to tell her about Zoe or just how intricately their roads were entwined.
"It's amazing, to come from basically nowhere and then suddenly going straight to the top. Kind of like you babe." She beamed proudly. "Unnoticed one day, superstar the next."
"Passion and determination baby, it will get you anywhere." Matt replied. "And it also helps that I'm good with the ladies."
"Okay, whatever."Ash laughed.
Meanwhile:
Zoe had just arrived home and was excitedly telling her brother about her night. "It was fantastic; I can't remember when I've had so much fun."
"Yeah sis I'm sure you fit in real well with her Chanel purse and $10,000 diamond earrings, yep just a regular ol'wrasslin fan." James laughed.
"Say what you want moron, but I did fit in and you know damn well it's Prada, thank you very much." Zoe replied throwing her bag down.
"Oh well that makes all the difference!"
Zoe shook her head, "You're such an asshole you know that?"
"How could I forget, between you and the ex, I hear it every day." James quipped.
"And here I was thinking that we had nothing in common. I really should call her sometime and do lunch." Zoe teased. Saying that she and her brother's ex fiancé never got along would be an understatement… an EXTREME understatement.
James laughed, "Now I would definitely pay to see that."
"Just full of the jokes tonight aren't we?"
"What can I say sis, I'm a funny good looking guy." James said with a smirk.
"And delusional, and pathetic and the list goes on and on." Zoe laughed, sitting down on the sofa.
"We should go on tour, this is pure gold."
"Sure, I'll run it by management and let you know." Zoe replied as they both laughed.
They continued with the usual brother sister barbing until the conversation returned to the reason that she had called about in the first place. "So you had a good time?" James asked.
"I really did Jams, the crowd were incredible and just seeing them performing, it was like I was a kid again seeing them working out their moves in the school gym." Zoe smiled remembering all the times at lunch and after-school admiring and totally freaking out over all the moves they were trying to perfect.
James couldn't help but smile as his sister described the night in perfect detail. Hearing the joy in his little sisters voice again was enough to squash the nerves that arose when Zoe had first told him about what Matt had organised. "Did you go backstage or anything?" He asked hesitantly.
"No, I just wanted to see him, them again." Zoe answered.
"Zo are you alright?" James asked picking on the slight sadness that crept in.
Zo wiped her eyes, "Yeah, yeah I'm good." She said a little too quickly. "Really I'm fine, I had a great night, nobody recognized me and I got to see a really good show with half naked men. What more could a girl ask for?"
"I'm glad you had a good time." He replied choosing to forget her last remark, which made Zoe laugh. "Have you spoken to Matt at all?"
"Yeah he said he had to cancel our plans, something came up he said we'd re-schedule. I sent him a text of me in the crowd with the shirt he sent thought."
"That's a shame."
"No it's okay, I was going to call him actually I'm dead tired and didn't feel like going out anyway." Zoe replied, stifling a yawn.
James smiled, "Well on that note I will let you get some sleep, I'm really happy you enjoyed yourself."
"Same here, night Jams talk later."
"Night little one."
After hanging up, Zoe decided to have a relaxing bath with a bottle of her favourite wine in one hand and her IPod and phone in the other. She headed off towards her bedroom looking forward to a relaxing soak surrounded by a mountain of heavenly scented bubbles.
Back at the hospital, the doctor had finally finished his examination and decided that Jeff was well enough to be released. He made sure that both Jeff and Brittany understood that if anything else should occur within the next 24-48 hours that Jeff should go straight to his local doctor or the hospital for further tests.
Jeff thanked the doctor and they made their way out to Matt and Ashley. "You okay little brother?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, I just want to get some sleep." Jeff replied with a nod.
"Well it's a good drive to the next show; you should be able to get a decent amount of rest." Matt said as they walked out towards the car.
Matt and Ashley grabbed the bags as Brittany helped Jeff settle in his seat.
"Everybody in?" Ash asked climbing in behind the wheel. She decided to drive since Jeff was in no shape and Matt looked like he would fall asleep at any moment.
"All good babe let's go." Matt smiled.
Within 20 minutes of leaving the hospital everyone had fallen asleep, so Ash turned the radio/cd player on low for a little company and settled in for the three plus hour journey ahead.
I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child
Slowly those feelings
Were clouded by what I know now
Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all
I still remember the sun
Always warm on my back
Somehow it seems colder now
Jeff slowly began to wake as the song was finishing. He remembered when Zoe had first written the song. A smile briefly graced his face. He couldn't help but think she was speaking to him, like it was a continuation from their encounter earlier. He closed his eyes as the music swept through him.
Where has my heart gone
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything
[Latin hymn:]
Iesu, Rex admirabilis
Et triumphator nobilis,
Dulcedo ineffabilis,
Totus desiderabilis.
Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything
Oh, Where
Where has my heart gone
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything
I still remember.
He shook his head. "It wasn't her. You weren't there." He said to himself. "Doc was right it's just all in my head."
A little while later Matt was jolted from his sleep as the car came to a screeching holt.
"What happened?" Matt asked.
"Sorry babe thought I could make it." Ash said as she had to brake heavily when the traffic signal suddenly turned red. "Are you okay?" She asked concerned.
"Yeah I'm fine, how long to go?" Matt asked rubbing his eyes.
"About an hour and half. You should try and get some more sleep." Ash said gently stroking his head.
"That's okay I've got too much on my mind to get any real sleep." Matt replied yawning.
"What's up?" Ash asked.
"Just can't switch off, too many things in my head." Matt smiled as the lights turned green.
"Babe if this is about your match, you shouldn't worry it was awesome." Ash smiled. "Didn't he Jeff?"
"Jeffy?" Ashley said playfully noticing that he was awake.
"Huh?" Jeff replied.
"Your brother's match, he did really well tonight right?"
"Oh yeah bro it was a great match." Jeff smiled.
"Thanks." Matt replied.
"Everything okay?" Ash asked looking in her rear vision mirror.
"Yeah everything's fine." Jeff replied, turning his attention towards the lonely and starless sky out the window again. He had remained relatively quiet all trip and when spoken too had only given short little answers or pretended to be a sleep. He had a million things floating around inside his head and wasn't particularly in a very talkative mood.
Matt shook his head slightly when Ashley gave him a small look. She said nothing and focused back on the road. He closed his eyes for a few minutes but it seemed sleep for now was out of the picture, so he pulled out his phone and decided to answer a couple of his messages.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Brittany asked leaning against her boyfriends side.
"I'm sure Brit, just go back to sleep, I'll wake you when we get there."
"Okay, love you." Brittany said snuggling in close and falling right back to sleep.
Jeff smiled a little and kissed the top of her head. "Stay present man, stay present."
It seemed the more he said those small innocent words the more they came back to haunt him.
He had spent so long talking himself into thinking that everything would be okay. They all had. But little did he and his childhood friends know; the Worlds they had built and so vigilantly tried to protect, would soon begin to crumble before their very eyes and there wasn't a single thing they could to stop it.