Welcome to Gaia! ::

Leaning back against the wall, my mind drifted to the last time I was in Kimi's dorm. It was a late Monday night, about three in the morning when we both came stumbling in, laughing to the point of tears. The minimal memory brought a smile to my face as I glanced over at her. Man had I been stupid... Who'd a thought I'd leave the girl I once fell so deeply for. I didn't know exactly what happened to that passion, that sense of caring I had towards her; I assumed it just faded over time. Perhaps, I just lost sight of it. As my eyes scanned over her dark hair and eyes, I could almost remember that feeling. Yet, it vanished in seconds.

Okay, so there was no way in hell I was gonna go to sleep. Sure, I loved Kimi to death and knew she was right a good 99.9% of the time, but I needed to get out. I pulled the covers off and slid open the window. A cold chill ran down my back as the nippy air pushed into my room. While holding onto the fire escape railing to keep my balance, I made my way down safely. With each step towards the main gates, my chance of tripping over my own feet grew. It wasn't until I had climbed up and hopped the gate that I fell. "Ow!" I yelped, gripping onto the ankle I had just twisted. After much limping, I was finally out of the sight of the school grounds and a few blocks to the club we had our gig at. With my ankle now numb from the intensity of alcohol, i began to spin as I walked, my arms accidentally hitting the people around me. A few grunts and insults could be made out, but were ignored. At the moment, I could care less about what people thought.
I pushed through the crowd of people who were waiting to get let in by Tom, the bouncer. "Hey, sweet lips," his voice was as raspy as ever and the scent of Marlboro ultra lights reeked as he talked. "I thought you guys canceled tonight. Tony, wasn't happy about that one bit." Tom placed his large hand on my waist and slipped me inside, and past the crowd and into the area backstage. "You stay here, sweets. Don't go gettin' yourself in any trouble." I nodded.


I waited until Gab had left the room to talk. "Aww, I have to sleep on the couch? Why don't I get the bed with you?" I smirked, kidding around with Kimi a bit, in hopes it would break some tension.

Kimi rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Because, I'm afraid that If I take my eyes off of Gab he'll run off to spend the night with one of his lady friends." The young woman shrugged and crossed her legs sighing. She was a little disappointed that they couldn't play tonight, but family mattered more than any Gig, Denny had been in trouble so they just couldn't do it. It was simply a fact of life.

Gab walked back into the room a towel wrapped around his waist, his body still dripping from his shower. "Night Kimi." He yawned and closed the door to her bedroom behind him. He pulled on a pair of her pajama pants and curled up under her covers, falling asleep instantly. The child had been very sleepy.

I turned my head to look at the man who appeared to be talking to me. "I don't know..." Where had I seen him before? I couldn't begin to remember. "But the show much go on!" Pushing myself off of the wall, I stumbled forward towards the vacant stage. A quick glance at the time showed that our act was next and I couldn't find my acoustic guitar. I looked back at the guy and beckoned for him to follow. As I tripped up the small set of stairs that led to the stage, I heard Tom's voice call for me; I ignored it.
"Hello! How is everyone tonight?" I took a seat on the stool in front of the mic stand. "It seems that the rest of my band is no where to be found, so tonight it'll be a duet." I never knew why exactly I felt like I needed to shout to the audience, but they seemed to like it so what the hell. "Our first song tonight will "Face Down" originally performed by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus." I turned around to face the new member, covering the mic. "I hope you know the song."
I smiled in thanks as Tom brought me over my acoustic. "I'm gonna give Kim a ring to let her know that only two of you are hear, in case she doesn't know," he whispered before he got off the stage. I gave the guy a few minutes to set up his keyboards before I began to strum the first set of tabs. Quickly, I cleared my throat and let the words flow into the crowd below us.

[ Face Down Cover-Acoustic Version ]

"That's understandable," sitting on the couch across from Kimi. I wasn't sure what to say so I began with the most common topic among us. "How's the guitar working out for you?" I looked over at the case in the corner. It's been awhile since I had played myself and I was dying to play again. "Stuck on anything?"

Once Marcus heard her speak, he realized the situation. She was wasted. They probably didn't have a performance tonight and he had been forgotten. Nonetheless, Marcus followed her, and performed with her on the songs he needed to. When they stopped, Marcus went to the girl's side, and began whispering to her, making sure no one else heard.
"So, let me guess, the show got canceled, didn't it? We weren't technically supposed to play, were we?"

Kimi didn’t answer, she was in the zone, Trace was no longer her problem, he was outside of the realm of her responsibility. She glanced at him and shrugged. Soon they arrived at the club, and Kim hopped out, grabbing her bass. She sighed once getting ready for the worst and looked at Trace and Gab. “Come on guys.” She said and turned walking into the building, she was let in straight away, the bouncer knew her better then you might imagine and no words where exchanged, just a single glance. Gab tagged after her grinning sheepishly at the tall man as he passed.

When they got into the club, Tess and what’s his name where standing on the stage talking, it looked like they had taken a small break or something. Kimi and Gab made their way up and around into the backstage area. Gab wheeled out the drum set and Kimi plugged in her bass before walking out to join her band on stage. “Tess, we will talk about this when you get home…” She said coolly and glanced at keyboardist. “Sorry I couldn’t call you, there is a family emergency…” She said and checked her strings tuning before taking her place on the stage.

I really couldn't stand when Kimi got like this; I sighed, grabbing her guitar. By the time I closed the door and looked up the two were already inside. Great. She knew the bouncer and I didn't have a connection with him. I approached the man, "I'm with them."
"With who? Kimi and the boy?"
"Yeah," trying to squeeze past him.
"Don't think so. Get in line." Tom shoved me back. This wasn't going to end well.

Looking back at Kimi, I wondered what she meant by family emergency but figured I could just ask her later. I took off the strap that held the acoustic guitar and set it aside. Once the two finished setting up I sat back down on the stool, picking up the mic from its stand. "Sorry for the wait," I paused and glanced back at them. "Pick a song."

So, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to get into a brawl with a two hundred and something pound, six foot five guy. I stumbled backwards as his fist made contact with my cheekbone yet again, but regained my balance just as fast. A few drops of blood spattered from his now broken nose and a crowd formed around us by those who didn't take advantage of the now open entrance. Shouts of encouragement could be made out over the pounding of the adrenaline that rushed through me. I guess I was lucky tonight, since there was only one bouncer; another would have gotten here by now. Punch after punch went by and more bruises formed on both of us, soon enough the scene around me began to darken and I could feel myself sway. The bouncer, Tom, brushed himself off and turned to walk way, expecting me to fall right then. But what he didn't know would hurt him more than I had planned to. I pounced onto him, taking him down so that he landed face first into the crimson dyed pavement. Crack. The circle around us went silent for a moment but quickly resided with shouts louder than before. I winced as I pushed myself up and made my way inside the club and onto the stage, with not a single scratch or drop of blood on the guitar. Instead, I had the evidence on my torn jeans and wherever my shirt may have went.