Secrets

Part Two: DBS -- Into You

Notes:

Ok. I'm fudging a bit on the real life event in this chapter. There was a DBS performance on May 10, 2008, but it did not include Into You as that was completed later. You're reading fiction anyway, so I figured you wouldn't mind.

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[May 10, 2008]

Brad wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up agreeing to go to Vegas with Mike. He wasn't the least bit interested in Chester's side project, despite the lip service he'd given the subject. 'Oh, it's great you've got that, Chester; the songs are great, Chester; so proud of you, Chester.' Despite all of the nodding along he'd done as Mike gushed over and encouraged their lead vocalist.

Chester. Chester. Chester. Brad wasn't jealous, not at all.

With bitter thoughts swirling in his head, Brad scowled in Mike's direction as he stood looking at pictures of intricate tattoos that had been completed over the thirteen year history of Club Tattoo. He glanced briefly over the photographs and the furrow between his eyes deepened, if that were possible. If he were being perfectly honest with himself, Brad didn't care what Chester was doing in his free time. Chester being away meant Mike had more free time, time with his family and with other people he cared about. People like Brad. Unless he was dragging him off to Dead By Sunrise concerts, which Brad grudgingly supposed was still classified as time they were spending together.

It wasn't even a real concert, Brad thought acidly. Six songs wasn't a concert. It was barely an opener.

"I don't get it. Why anyone feels the need to deface their body with this stuff, that is." He pointed to a particularly graphic depiction of something that looked like a bloody serpent as he spoke.

From under the bill of his hat, Mike glanced at the look of disdain on Brad's face while they stood there, raising his eyebrows in silent question. "It's not for everyone," he agreed diplomatically. "Even if it is a form of art, I don't think I'd ever have one. I can't see being happy with the same thing for the rest of my life. I'd be wanting to change it all the time. A new canvas, so to speak. To have something permanent... it would have to be extremely meaningful."

They stood there a few more minutes before Brad mused, "never being satisfied with what you've got... maybe that's why Chester's always going under the gun."

Despite Brad's negative words about Chester, Mike chose not to respond. He simply continued to look over the artwork in front of him as they waited for the doors to open.

"He could have at least gotten us VIP passes so we didn't have to wait out here," Brad grumbled.

Mike sighed. "I don't mind waiting. I wish you were in a better mood, though. You could have said no if you didn't want to come, Brad. I could have done this on my own." He adjusted his hat down lower, trying to be inconspicuous, not bothering to glance the guitarist's way as he admonished him.

Even though he wouldn't admit it to him, Brad knew that he would have gone out of the country on a whim just to spend the time with Mike. He missed Mike, the time they used to spend together. It wasn't just the addition of children to their lives that had cut down on their time together, but the one great obstacle in his relationship with Mike— Chester.

Linkin Park was important to him, and Brad was grateful daily for the opportunity to be creative and make music with his friends. The band scratched the itch he had that wasn't part of his logical, right-brained mind, full of details and legalese, and he couldn't imagine his life without it now; but ever since Chester had come along so many years ago, Brad had been relegated to second place in Mike's life, and he was still bitter about being replaced. He had never dreamed back in high school that they would be thirty and still friends.