'Breathe in, hold for five…'
*INHALE*
'Breathe out, hold for five…'
*EXHALE*
'Breathe in, hold for five…'
*INHALE*
'Breathe out, hold for-'
"OK, does that even work?"
Jack jumped at the sudden question and quickly turned around. He saw Judy and Josie standing behind him, giving him an inquisitive look.
"What?" he asked.
"That breathing exercise," Josie clarified, shifting on her feet. "I see you do it every time, but you still look nervous afterwards. Does it even work?"
Jack sighed. "More than you'd think, less than I want. Why?"
"'Cause I think Skye needs it," Josie answered, pointing her thumb over her shoulder.
Judy nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, I think she's getting overwhelmed by the whole thing."
"Gotcha." Jack set down his guitar. "I'll see what I can do to help."
As he walked past them, he heard Josie say, "We have about five minutes before we go on."
'Plenty of time,' Jack thought to himself as he walked backstage to find the vixen. Though, calling it 'backstage' was being kind, as it was just the outside of the barn. Bonnie and Stu had been gracious enough to allow the kits to host the show in the barn, as well as renting out some equipment needed for the performance, with the promise that Jack would pay them back through various means: doing chores, working in the fields, stuff like that. All in all, Jack thought it was more than fair.
As the buck left to find Skye, he got a glimpse of the crowd forming and understood why the vixen was getting overwhelmed. It was easily the biggest audience he had seen so far, looking like almost a hundred mammals. Jack pushed down his own anxiety.
'OK, so it's a little bigger than the Carrots Day festival; so what? You've played big crowds before,' he thought to himself.
'But Skye hasn't.'
At that rather unhelpful thought, Jack quickly looked around for the vixen in question. He eventually saw her, with Nick talking to her. As the buck made his way over, he could hear the todd saying, "Skye, it's OK. You know the songs like the pack of your paw; you've got this-"
"Nick, you're not the one about to go onstage in front of dozens and dozens of mammals!" Skye interrupted, clearly nervous. "I don't know if-"
The vixen was cut off as she felt arms wrap around from behind her. She then heard Jack say, "Breathe in, hold for five."
A beat later, she did.
"Breathe out, hold for five."
The two continued the little exercise for a while before Jack let go of her. Skye turned around as the buck asked, "Better?"
Skye nodded. "A little, yeah."
"Hey, you're going to do great," Nick reassured, placing a paw on her shoulder.
"But what if I mess up?"
"You won't," Jack said. "And if you somehow do," he shrugged, "who cares? If you keep going, they won't know."
Skye took a deep breath and let it out as she quickly nodded her head. "OK. Yeah, I can do this."
"Fuck yeah, you can," Nick encouraged, making her smile.
"Great, 'cause, uh," Jack looked at his watch, "we need to go on in about two minutes."
"What?!" Skye exclaimed, grabbing her drumsticks from her back pocket. "Shit, let's go!"
The three kits raced back to the barn, Nick to the audience at the front entrance as Jack and Skye to the side, where Judy and Josie were standing next to the amps and drum set. As the girls were getting caught up and talking with each other, Jack looked out to the audience, hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain raccoon. All he could see, however, was a small sea of mammals, all conversing with each other. The buck sighed, rubbing his thumb over the necklace pendant; he hadn't taken it off after it was given to him a month ago. He then felt Skye come up next to him.
"Hey," she said softly. "He'll be here. OK?"
Jack nodded to himself. "Yeah." He took a breath and added, "I think we've kept them all waiting for long enough. You ready?"
The vixen nodded. "Let's do it."
With that, Jack, Judy, and Josie grabbed their instruments while Skye went behind the drum set. The audience members up front noticed and a cheer went up, followed by more from behind them. Jack put on his guitar, and after a quick check with everyone else, turned to the audience. He saw Nick standing up front, who gave him a thumbs up. The striped bunny smiled, and he started the opening notes of their first song before jumping into the verse:
(Modern Baseball – Holy Ghost/Wedding Singer [ watch?v=xwsQkvdbbWc])
He's been haunting my dreams at night
I've been bleeding from tripping in the dark
Trying to turn on the light
Trying to turn on the light
He's been haunting my dreams, all right
I've been hollering at him in the dark
Trying to find the right switch
Yeah, my third wish
Has always been three more
But this time, my holy ghost is hovering over me
And I am passed out on the floor
After a brief build up, Skye counted them off, and they blasted into the next song, 'Wedding Singer':
Find it hard to believe tonight
In a curiously well-kept house built before I was born
This year, we're gonna stamp out the sorry feeling
Rain on summer vacation
Five blocks from Tasker-Morris Station
Screwed for the ride home if I can't find two bills
To rub together before
Midnight rolls around
I thought you heard me sing your spirit's sound
But you turned in early
Left the TV flickering its staged romance across your face
The kits continued the rest of the song, with the audience moving to the rhythm. Eventually, they hit the last chord of the song, and soon all they heard was applause and cheers coming from the mass of mammals in front of them. Jack turned around to Skye to check in on her, only to see a smile that threatened to split her face in half. The buck grinned back, and he and Judy started retuning their instruments. Meanwhile, as this was happening, Josie spoke to the audience:
"How're you all doing tonight?" A cheer came from the crowd, making her smile. "Good. Thank you all for coming out; we've got a few more songs for y'all."
With that, Jack began the beginning riff to 'Ocean Avenue' by Yellowcat, and then started the verse:
(Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue [ watch?v=LvyHVgocP_0])
There's a place off Ocean Avenue
Where I used to sit and talk with you
We were both sixteen and it felt so right
Sleepin' all day, stayin' up all night
Stayin' up all night
They played through the second verse, and by the time they hit the chorus, Jack could tell that Josie was smiling. Not that he could blame her; after all, it's not every day that she got to play a rock that had an actual violin part in it. A few minutes later, the song finished, eliciting another cheer from the audience, this one bigger than the last.
The rest of the set went along smoothly, with the band playing some more emo and pop punk classics: 'The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows' by Brand Gnu, 'Screaming Infidelities' by Dashboar Confessional, 'Sweetness' by Jimmy Meat World, 'Misery Business' by Paramole (with Josie on vocals), 'Helena' by My Chameleon Romance, among others. Eventually, though, the kits reached the end of their set, ringing out the final chords to 'All the Small Things' by mink-182.
"Thank you all! Have a good night!" Jack yelled out to the audience. With that, he, Judy, Josie, and Skye left the stage area. As they were leaving, though, Jack heard the crowd chanting:
"ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!"
After a beat, he turned around and went back onstage, missing the intrigued looks from the does and vixen. Jack grabbed his guitar and went to the mic, strumming some chords.
"OK, OK, you can have one more song," the buck said, and he smiled as he added, "Though after this, you all really need to go away."
That brought a laugh from the crowd, and Jack looked around the sea of mammals one last time, trying to find his boyfriend. Once again, nothing. He held back a sigh as he started the song, playing the chords before the verse came in:
(Alkaline Trio – Smokestack [ watch?v=8wOKcvFwctw])
Filled myself with soot from top to bottom
I'm a smokestack
Turning blood into booze
Now my liver's on fumes
Little alcoholic
I'm always beating myself up
Why did I have to play so rough?
I tried to get the heck out
And I'm standing in my own way
No, we can't skip school anymore
Do you miss those days at all?
I miss starting up fires
Throwing bottles at trains
Pissing on convenience store walls
Well it was time for me to go home
Let's go and make some flyers for our third floor show
Mom and Dad can wait
This is the path that we chose
Jack could feel everyone's eyes on him as he played, but he ignored it. He then reached the chorus:
Do you really believe that didn't mean anything?
Now do you really believe those days didn't mean a thing?
'Cause I'm still believing that means everything
Do you really believe those days didn't mean a thing?
'Cause I sure don't
You made my life
You changed my life
You changed my life
The second verse came, and Jack looked up to the audience:
Well, I was scared as heck as I was standing
At that open bar
I saw a life go past that I guess I could've had
But I didn't try very hard
You see, I knew you two would last
Why did you have to jump so fast?
Now put the baby to bed
'Cause it's time for me to go home
That was when he saw him.
The buck couldn't hold back his smile as he finished up the song:
Do you really believe that didn't mean anything?
Now do you really believe those days didn't mean a thing?
'Cause I'm still believing that means everything
Do you really believe those days didn't mean a thing?
'Cause I sure don't
You made my life
You changed my life
You changed my life
You changed my life
Jack strummed the last chord and received a round of applause from the audience, which now included Judy, Josie, and Skye. He didn't focus on any of it, however, as he shot a smile out to the crowd, and to one mammal in particular.
Corey smiled back.
The End
Thank you all for reading! Hope to catch you all next time!