The Assistant | Scavi

Tired

After Avi had finished the first song, everyone applauded, but the group surrounding Scott was by far the loudest.

Avi smiled into the crowd almost bashfully and put his hands together as if he was praying. He bowed slowly and cleared his throat. "Thank you. Thank you so much. This next song is called Chains."

Scott was looking forward to hearing this song in which Avi had apparently worked through a lot of personal problems, which he didn't know about. Still, Scott was looking forward to seeing how they would bring this song to the stage with only three musicians.

And they did convey all the emotions Avi must have been feeling while he was writing. The musician's deep and strong voice filled the whole room and went right through Scott's heart and soul. He also noticed how in his element the bearded man was and that there was apparently nothing left of the anxious, stressed out man who he had found in the bathroom only a while ago.

The blonde was mesmerised and shook his head in disbelief once the song was over and everyone was applauding again. Avi thanked everyone again and then continued to play the other two songs he, Caleb and Noah had prepared. And even if the performances were still extraordinary beautiful, Scott noticed that he lost some of his power during the last song. It was just as if he was eager to get done with the performance. Scott didn't understand why, but he noticed that Esther had moved away from them. Maybe she had noticed it as well. Scott wanted to go and see about Avi as well, but he knew that as soon as they weren't alone, Avi wouldn't be comfortable around him, so he stayed behind with Mitch.

"Wow..." he heard Mitch's voice next to him once Avi had left the stage.

"Hmm?" hummed the blonde as he looked over to his best friend.

"This is art. I mean you told me that he was good but this voice? Live? Where does this come from? I mean he looks tall and broad when he's commanding the stage, but I saw him right in front of me and he is not much taller than I am. And he is so slim..."

Scott shrugged his shoulders, he was still worried about Avi.

"Are you okay?" Mitch asked him.

"I think I need some fresh air..." Scott said and went away from the crowd without saying anything else. He knew that his best friend would follow him.

"What's wrong?" Mitch asked as soon as they were outside.

Scott scanned their surroundings just to make sure that there was no one who could hear what they were talking. "Avi isn't okay, Mitch and I am worried" he finally said.

"I noticed" Mitch replied calmly. "During the last song, he was just a little bit off. I don't think anyone else noticed, but you know how I pay attention to details. That's probably why Esther left, too."

Scott nodded. "Do you think that it is the anxiety causing it? I mean he took emergency meds, but..."

"I don't know what he is taking, Scott, but some of them are really strong and mess with your ability to function properly. This is why I always try to not take them unless I really need to. What happened upstairs anyway? I know that you didn't want to say anything inside..."

"He collapsed. I found him in the bathroom, he was pale and his hands were shaking. I had to help him to a meeting room where he sat down, had some juice and water and then his medicine. Then we waited a while until he said that he was ready and I had to leave him again..." Scott explained. He sighed. "I just want to know if he is okay, Mitch, but I didn't want to follow Esther, whatever it was, my presence would have overwhelmed him."

Mitch smiled. "I get that and I think you made the right decision here. You could ask Esther if you see her later or you could text her, whatever feels right for you" he said softly. "Maybe he is just tired, when I was on the really strong ones at first, I had about an hour or two I could just power through before I needed a fat nap, remember?"

Scott chuckled. "I do. I remember wanting to celebrate after your final fashion show in college, but you made me take you home and you spend the afternoon in bed..."

Mitch chucked. "Memories..." he said and shook his head. "Anyway, why don't we head back inside, maybe Avi is out and about and you'll find out that he is just fine?"

Scott nodded. "That's a good idea."

Back inside they looked for any sign of Esther or Darien, but they were both nowhere to be seen. Scott had another drink and talked to a few people he knew while he kept looking around. A while later, he got a message from Esther.

"Hey Scott, just wanted you to know that we're taking Avi home. He's tired, probably a mixture of the medicine he took and his stress. Thank you once again for taking care of him tonight. We're on a short vacation at our parent's place, so I'll only see you on Wednesday, Monday you can work on some tour preparation with Caleb and Noah and Tuesday you may take off, there's not much to do. Have a very nice weekend. Esther."

Scott was a little sad that Avi had left without saying anything, but he also acknowledged that he probably wasn't feeling too good and therefore had left to take care of himself first. Suddenly, Scott was over being at this event, it just didn't make sense for him to be there anymore. So he found Mitch, who had been talking to a few people as well.

The smaller man looked at him. "You want to go home?" He asked with a soft voice.

Scott nodded. "Yes, please. I'm tired. Avi is at home, too. Esther just texted it was the medicine, as you assumed."

Mitch smiled. "Home it is then" he replied and took out his phone to book an uber.

Once they were on their way home, Scott looked at his phone. He smiled when he saw that it was a few minutes past midnight and opened his iTunes app just to see that Avi's EP was there, right in his library. He smiled slightly, because he was so proud of Avi and Kevin, and maybe a little bit of himself.

"You are smiling like a madman? Did he text?" Mitch asked him.

Scott shook his head. "No," he said and showed Mitch his phone.

The smaller man only smiled and showed his screen which showed that he had just added the album to his library as well. "Listening party once we're home?"

Scott grinned. "Definitely."

~

It was Tuesday and Scott was glad about the fact that he had a day off. Preparing for the tour was a lot more work than he thought it would be. They had to check every instrument, pack up a lot of things and check electronics. Then they had to carry everything into a storage room which the crew would completely empty and pack up into the van on the morning they would leave for tour. That way the chance of things getting lost and forgotten would be minimal.

Since Kevin was keen on checking everything three times, they took the whole day to prepare and once Scott was in his bed, he thought he would dream of cables and guitar strings.

So on Tuesday, he took it slow. He had a cup of tea while looking over the rough draft of the report he had to write about his internship.

He and Avi had texted a few times over the past days and they had even scheduled a little date in the evening. Avi had asked him if he wanted to come over to catch up over some curry and of course, Scott had agreed immediately.

After working a little bit for university, he went to the little mall near his home and got a few things he still needed and also stacked up on tea for himself and for Avi. He had just paid for his things when his phone rang. Esther.

"Hello Esther, what can I do for you?"

"Scott..." the young woman sounded stressed. "I have a very big favour to ask you. Kevin, he had an accident, nothing life-threatening, but his ankle is broken... he cannot come on tour and... Avi just wants to cancel the whole thing. I just don't know what to do..."

It took her a moment to get everything out, but to Scott, the only thing that mattered was something was wrong with Avi. Sure, he felt deeply sorry for Kevin as well, but Avi wanting to cancel the tour was a huge thing and probably the result of a panic attack. "Is he at home?"

"We will be there in twenty" Esther replied. "But Scott..."

"Tell him that I will be there in thirty minutes. We'll talk about everything else then." Scott didn't wait for her reply, simply hang up and got on his way to Avi, because he needed to make sure that he was alright. Everything else didn't matter. Just Avi.

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