~It had been a solid week since Jake's incident where he was in the hospital after his suicide attempt in the park, and he was now home with the boys at Andy's home in California rather than on a tour bus for the next several weeks when they didn't need to be. Jake felt like something was out of place.. like something was very wrong in the world, in the home they were in, yet everything was perfect ever since he'd arrived home about five days ago.
~Everything was just a bit repetitive – the same routine, all day every day. He no longer knew what to do with himself or his time, as he always found himself going through everything as he normally would – sound check, concert, meet and greet, sleep. Wash rinse and repeat, same story different day, and Jake was getting tired of it – he couldn't handle it anymore. He was finally getting worn down from the tiring routine every day, and little did he or the other guys know that it was about to finally take its toll on him during their show that night, starting in just a few moments time.
~After about ten minutes, they all started to enter the stage and bow in to the audience, a bunch of scattered “boo”'s being yelled at Jake as he entered, which only led CC to get up from his drum set and walk over to Jake, hugging him and smiling out at the audience to give them more of a reason to smile than poke snide, rude remarks at Jake.
~About five songs in, they began to play Wretched and Divine, and Jake stood at his mic singing, his fingers scaling up and down the neck of his guitar with every note he played, making it look “easy as pie” as most would say.. and indeed he did make it look easy. He didn't look like it was a challenge at all – in fact, his facial expression was pretty.. tired, if anything, but nobody really noticed as they went on throughout the song.
~They got to the last chorus of the song, and out of nowhere, Jake's singing began to sound slurred and sloppy, his guitar playing no longer up to par as he looked.. sick almost. This caused Andy to look over at him, but he saw that Jake seemed fine and looked away, looking out at the audience – but within another moment's notice, Jake collapsed onto the stage, his guitar crushing his stomach as he lay passed out on the stage floor.
~CC dropped everything he was doing in the song and got up from his drum set, jumping over it in a very risky way before running over to Jake. He grabbed one of the mics and yelled out to the audience as Andy pulled out his cell phone. “Everybody remain calm, alright? We're gonna make sure he's alright.”. Most of the audience pulled out their phones and began to tweet that Jake had passed out on stage, and that they had stopped playing temporarily while others were recording video, which was a pretty low thing to do while they were trying to make sure he's okay, given how he was passed out on stage at the moment.. Most of the fans were watching him, some of them crying lightly, as they were feeling bad about having hated on him so much during the past month and a half now, but there was nothing they could do until he was better – they were just fans of the band. They didn't have any ability to fix any of this – at least not yet.
~Andy dialed up the number of his childhood doctor, and gave him the address of their venue, going over what had happened with him before hanging up, looking out at the audience and grabbing his own mic from the stand. “Alright, my doctor is going to be here shortly to take a look at Jake and make sure he's alright. I want you all to make a line down the middle of the stage,” he started, then pointing to the two members of the audience standing at stage right. “and I want you two to take that moving set of stairs and put them in the middle of the stage.”, he finished, looking at the security guards behind them that were standing backstage, ordering them to go unlock the doors to the venue.
~The doctor arrived and performed an on-the-spot examination, but the results he came up with produced nothing severe wrong with him.. - at least, not severe at the moment, but could get worse over time. “Your friend will be fine, he just needs a good night's sleep. He looks to have been skipping out on his meals and rests, you should watch over him better. He seems to have passed out due to fatigue and lack of food energy. If anything else happens, be sure to call me immediately – here's my personal number in case of any further emergencies. I used to be Andy's childhood doctor, so I don't mind taking house calls for his band-mates from time to time. Anything for this sweet young man he's become.” he mused, smiling at Andy before nodding his head as a goodbye to them, making his way back to wherever it was he came from.
