High Tide

The three months that the band was home went by much too quickly. In that time, Jona and Kelly had grown extremely close, just like old times, and both were excited to be on the warped tour together again, for the third time. Warped had become a sort-of regular thing, the band earning a slot on the line-up almost every other year, but this was the first time they’d played two consecutive years in a row, and everyone was excited. Well, everyone except Becca and Jamie.

Jamie pouted up at his father, as he curled up into his lap on the couch in front of the TV. Matty sighed and pulled him into a hug. “Jamie, don’t look at me like that,” Matt said. “I’ll be back home before yeh know it!” Jamie continued to stare at his father with his huge hazel eyes, jutting out his bottom lip a little further.

“I’ll miss you,” he whimpered, burying his face into Matt’s chest. The three-year-old started to cry as Matt laughed softly. “Oh, Jamie. I’ll miss yeh more,” he said, rubbing gentle circles on his back.

“I taught him everything he knows.”

Matt turned to look over the back of the couch and saw Becca walking through the door. She put her keys in the glass bowl on the hall table and dumped her bag on the floor beside it before walking over to join her little family on the couch. “Hey baby,” Becca said. “What’s wrong?” Jamie looked up at his mother, his little cheeks reddened and stained with tears. Becca almost broke down at the sight of him, and took him from Matt’s arms to hug him tightly.

“Daddy’s going away again,” Jamie cried, clinging to Becca.

“I know, baby,” Becca said, the first few tears rolling down her cheeks. “But he’ll be back really soon.”

“No!” Jamie screamed. “Why can’t Daddy just stay here with us for always?”

Becca glanced over at her boyfriend to see his eyes were glazed over and he was close to crying himself. He met her gaze and simply shook his head. He put his arm around her and Jamie, holding his little family close and wishing he could stay with them for always, too. Becca left Matt and Jamie together for a while before helping Matt to put him to bed. They’d be going to the airport the next day to say goodbye.

“I’ll still be here in the morning, Jamie,” Matt told his son.

“But not the one after that,” Jamie replied, turning on his side, his back to his father. Becca leant against the doorframe to Jamie’s room, watching her boys sadly. She wished just as much as her son that Matt didn’t have to go the next day, but she knew he had to. Matt sighed and kissed his son on his forehead, whispering that he loved him before joining Becca in the doorway.

“It just gets harder every time,” Matt whispered. Becca just nodded and wrapped her arm around Matt’s torso, leading him back to their bedroom. Matt hardly gave Becca any space in bed, almost suffocating her with how tight he held her to his chest. Becca turned slightly to face him and gently pressed her lips against his. “I love you, Matty” she whispered sleepily, closing her eyes. “I love yeh more,” he replied.

“Impossible,” Becca muttered. Matt smiled and kissed her on the cheek and held her close, imagining that he wasn’t really leaving the next day.

*

“Warped tour, fucking fuck yes! Fuck!” Kelly screamed as she almost knocked Jona’s bedroom door off its hinges. Jona woke with a start and stared wide-eyed at the crazy girl in his doorway.

“Kelly? What the fuck? How the hell did you get in here?” Jona said, looking around on the floor for his jeans. He stumbled out of bed, finally locating his jeans and pulling them on, not bothering to find a shirt.

“You gave me a key to your place, shit-for-brains. And wow, am I going to make you regret it,” Kelly said, a wild sort of happiness dancing in her eyes. Jona laughed and shook his head at his friend. “You’re fucking crazy, you know that?” he said.

“I don’t know why people keep telling me that,” Kelly said. “Australians, especially. What’s wrong with you lot? Haven’t you got any crazy people down under?”

“They don’t hold a candle to you,” Jona smirked, ruffling Kelly’s hair on his way past her into the hallway.

“Hey!” Kelly screeched. “I spent twenty minutes straightening my hair this morning, you dick!”

“Oh shush, T. You know you still look good,” Jona said. He’d invented the new nickname for her during the few months he’d been home, the ‘T’ derived from the fact that he’d been calling her
the Terminator ever since she smashed her ex-boyfriend’s face in. Kelly rolled her eyes and told him to hurry up and get his shit together so they could get to the airport already.

At the airport, everyone was pumped and couldn’t wait to leave, except Matty. He was putting a damper on things, the usual life of the party clinging to his family for a precious few more moments. Jamie didn’t cry, not this time. Instead, he looked up at his father with his arms crossed over his small chest, frowning. “Jamie, I’m glad yeh’re not crying because it breaks my heart, but I couldn’t bear it if you were mad at me,” Matt said, crouching down to look into his son’s eyes. Jamie continued to stare at him angrily, until a small smile formed on his lips as his father grinned stupidly at him.

“I love yeh, kid. You’ll take good care of your Mum while I’m gone, won’t yeh? Yeh’re the man of the house now,” Matt said in a serious tone, placing his hands on his son’s shoulders. Jamie giggled and wrapped his arms around Matt’s neck. “I love you, Daddy,” he whispered in his ear in the adorable Australian accent he’d inherited from his mother.

Matt told Jamie to say goodbye to Aunt Kelly and the others before standing upright again to face his girlfriend, who could hardly even look at him. “Oh, Becca,” he said. “Come here.” Becca fell into his arms easily, like she was made to fit there, and cried quietly into his shirt. Matt took her face in both of his hands and kissed her deeply, wishing that she could come with him, so that he could do this every night. But it was impossible with Jamie – he just wouldn’t be safe on Warped tour and the amount of care and attention he required would be extremely difficult surrounded by the craziness of touring. He was best staying at home, and there was no way Becca was going to leave her son – even if it meant she wouldn’t be seeing Matt for two months.

Matty hugged his girlfriend tightly one last time and told her he loved her before joining the others at the gate. Becca had said her goodbyes with her brother Jona and the others earlier. She called out to Jamie, who was hugging Oli’s thin legs, and he ran back over to his mother, who picked him up and held him to her chest while they both waved at their loved ones as they boarded the plane.

“Mummy, can we stay until the plane takes off?” Jamie asked his mother.

“We can stay as long as you want, Jamie,” Becca replied, setting her son down on the ground again. He ran over to the large glass window and pressed his face up against the glass, looking out at the plane that would take off very soon.

On board the plane, Kelly was already driving Jona crazy, and they hadn’t even left yet. She was fiddling with her seat belt, reading through all the manuals and being uncharacteristically over-cautious. She was jittery and couldn’t stop fidgeting, causing Jona to reach over and hold her hands in his to force her to stop.

“Kelly,” he said. “I swear to God, if you don’t stop twitching I will get sedatives into you somehow. Or I’ll just fucking kill you.” Kelly grinned stupidly at him in reply but ceased her fidgeting, leaning back in her seat and turning her head to look at Jona.

“I’m just a little nervous,” Kelly said. “Usually, Becca sits next to me and calms me down because she knows I get paranoid on long flights, but now she’s not here so I’m just freaking the fuck out a tiny bit.”

Jona brought his hand to his head and sighed. “Kelly, you will be fine, okay? There’s always one Weinhofen around for you, remember? Jesus Christ, you’d fucking fall apart without us.”

He couldn’t have been more right.