The Luke Brooks Diaries

Chapter 8: Aftermath

Luke's POV:

It had been a few weeks since the whole hospital incident and things were finally starting to cool down.

Mom had pretty much flipped. She wanted to end the tour early and have all of us boys fly back to Australia, but we couldn't let all of our fans down and she realized that. So instead we'd compromised and she's decided to come on tour with us for a couple weeks. She was flying back today and as I stood outside the airport hugging her goodbye I couldn't decide if I was happy or sad to see her go. 

I mean of course I love having my mom around, but I couldn't deny how much harder it had been getting away with stuff while she was on tour. After the whole ecstasy incident I had tried to convince myself that I would never do drugs ever again. But despite the scare I had put my mom, my brothers and all the fans through, I couldn't deny the fact that I still craved the feeling of being high. I had to admit, it scared me a little that being in hospital hadn't completely turned me off from drugs, but what scared me even more was that fact that getting high was no longer about getting away from the shit that was going on in my life. Since being on tour, life had been great - we were surrounded by hundreds, even thousands, of fans every night, but I still felt the need to get high. Not because I didn't want to feel, but because I did. I wanted nothing more, than to feel high again.

"I love you, Luke," Mum said as she gave me one last hug and kiss.

"I love you, too, Mum," I said, hugging and kissing her back. I watched her walk through the doors of the airport and gave her one last wave before hopping in the car with the Jai and Beau to head to the venue of our show tonight. We were in... well, to be honest, I wasn't really sure where we were. We'd been to so many different cities and countries at this point that they had all started to blend together somewhere along the way. But regardless of the fact that my brothers and I had just sent our mum off, we still had to get ready to entertain the load of fans that were coming to our show tonight.

***A few hours later*** 

Luke's POV:

James and Daniel were onstage getting the crowd pumped up with their DJ session while my brothers and I finished getting ready back stage. Well, actually, I was done getting ready, but Jai and Beau spent ages in front of the mirror before each show making sure to get their hair just right. I didn't see the point anymore though, my hair was always sweaty and messy by the time I got off stage. I sat on a couch in the backstage waiting area, playing with the torn sole of favorite boots. This was always the most boring part of every show - James and Daniel were having fun on stage, Beau and Jai were busy getting ready and I was left to sit around and wait. My mind wandered as I scanned the room, taking in all the the posters that hung on the walls. At least there was stuff to look at, backstage rooms at other venues were just plain white walls - those were always the worst to sit and wait in.

As I scanned the large room, my eyes fell on a small black bag on an end table in the far corner of the room. I hadn't had a reason to go to that side of the room all night which is probably why I hadn't noticed it yet. After staring at the bag for a while, I finally walked toward it to get a better look. I looked around as I headed for the table. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't want anyone to catch me being so nosy. When I got closer to the bag it looked like it was probably holding makeup and I felt the tiniest pang of disappointment. I don't know why, but I was so bored that I was kind of hoping to find something interesting. On the plus side though, if it was a makeup bag, maybe it belonged to the last person who performed here. Maybe they were famous. 

I looked behind me one more time to check that no one was around before, grabbing the bag and pulling the zipper open. The bag was full of orange bottles... orange bottles of medicine. "Prescription drugs... really? It couldn't have been anything cooler then that?" I thought to myself as I rooted through the bottles, hoping to find something that made this worth my wild, but there was nothing. Only bottle after bottle of medications whose names I couldn't even begin to pronounce. The only name I even vaguely recognized was "Ambien" and I'm pretty sure that was some sort of sleeping pill. "Well that was a fucking waste of time," I thought to myself as I went to sit back down on the couch. I was just the slightest bit annoyed at the flop of a find. 

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and got had just got on Twitter when it occured to me to look up what exactly "Ambien" was. I typed it in a clicked on the first link that popped up:

Zolpidem is a drug with powerful hypnotic and sedative effects. It’s prescribed by doctors for treatment of insomnia, and in rarer cases as a muscle relaxant. Due to its GABA antagonist properties, it is similar to alcohol in its ability to relax inhibitions and promote sociability. In especially high doses, the onset of amnesia can be quite potent, resulting in the user having a “night they can’t remember”.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized what kind of potential that little drug held for me. I needed that Ambien. I was just about to get up from the couch to steal the medicine when Beau and Jai walked into the room, making me jump, as if I had been caught red handed.

"A little jumpy there, eh bro?" Jai said with a laugh. 

"Yeah, you lookin at porn or something?" Beau laughed trying to grab my phone out of my hands. 

"Fuck off," I spat back, quickly hitting the lock button on my phone, foiling Beau's attempt.

"Well it's time to go on, you cheeky fucker," Jai laughed heading toward the stages. 

I grabbed my mic and attached it onto me as I head for the stage. 

"Fuck! Now I had to figure out some way to get the drugs without the boys seeing," I thought to myself as put my mic on and stepped out onto the stage.

I was instantly blinded by the lights as the crowd went wild.