Stockholm Syndrome

Chapter 7: Take me Home

**RALEIGH**

We had to push the tour back a week so we could get the album mixed and sent off to the record company.

Unfortunately, I had to deal with Tom almost every day because of the album. Things weren't bad, but they certainly were not the same between us. He could walk again, but he still wasn't the same old Tom. He was still really skinny, and his hair was always in his face, covering his pale sunken in dark brown eyes. I was done trying to help Tom, but I still loved him deeply. I'm sure it wouldn't take me a long time to forgive him because I'm such a sucker for that stuff.

On the day we were mixing the CD, I arrived at the studio early to meet with the producer. Soon David, Anthony, and Travis arrived there. We all sat around the mixing table with all the little knobs and movable switches on it. It was around noon before Tom showed his face in the studio. His hair was messy and he had stubble growing. I hadn't seen him in a week, and he still looked like shit, even after surgery.

"Nice of you to show, Tom," David remarked.

Tom shot David the evil eye, then looked at Travis who shrugged like he had no idea what was going on.

"Man fuck you guys. You have no idea what I've been going through," Tom said sternly, grabbing a chair and sitting next to the producer who was looking at him oddly.

"How's the mixing sound?" Tom asked. He was avoiding me at all costs.

"Good, Mr. DeLonge. We're nearly finished, actually."

We were about done mixing the CD. There were about three songs left to tweak and play around with. We hadn't made eye contact once, and every time I looked over at him it seemed as if he was always sweating or wiping sweat off his face or shaking. Sometimes he'd fidget with his hands a lot. I suddenly became worried instead of focusing on the album. He looked so bad, so scared and so alone.

It was my duty to fetch dinner that night, and the boys agreed on Chinese takeout. I was writing their orders when suddenly Tom stood up and ran to the bathroom.

"Even the thought of Chinese food gives him the shits," Anthony remarked, making the others laugh.

I smiled with a worried look on my face. Maybe Tom just has the flu, I thought to myself quietly as I got into my car. I contemplated the idea of waiting there and then going back in to see if Tom was okay. God, why did I worry about him so much? He made me so angry; he made me feel like I had no other place in his life other than being his fucking assistant. Thinking of what he said to me that day caused me to leave the studio lividly.

The food smelled so good, I could have sat in the parking lot and ate it instead of the guys. Although that sounded like a splendid idea, I couldn't do that to them. I'd never hear the end of it. Anyways, I arrived back at the studio at around 5 that afternoon, roughly an hour after I had left. It's not like there was a scarce number of Chinese places around that area; they wanted me to go to a specific place because of their 'famous' eggrolls. Whatever, I got the eggrolls so they'd shut up.

I took the bags in and put them on a table in the corner. David said, "Food is here!" He messed with my hair which I quickly put back in its place on the top of my head and snickered.

We sat around the table, munching away, and I then suddenly stopped eating.

"What's wrong, Raleigh?" Travis asked, his pretty blue eyes looking into mine.

"Uh, where's Tom?" I asked, putting my fork down.

"Damn Raleigh, he's been in the bathroom since before you left."

"None of you have checked on him?" I said, anger brewing in my tone. Some bandmates they were turning out to be.

"Chill...no we haven't," Anthony said, putting his hands up like he was innocent.