Mad Seasons [Abandoned Story]

66. Dream, Dream, Dream [Part 1]

"It's 7:00 am."

After the alarm on the automatic alarm went off, the early hour was announced by a somewhat robotic voice coming from a talking alarm clock. Can be very useful to wake you up, but in Chris's case, getting up to go to class had become very annoying in the long run. The 17-year-old teenager was still lying in bed, used to sleeping shirtless wearing only black pyjama bottoms. With his face buried in the pillow, he found it hard to get up for a change. Night still prevailed outside, and the only light filtering through the shutters was that from the streetlamps in the neighborhood where the young man lived with his mother, who suffered from regular bouts of emotional instability. The climate at home was often hardly serene with such a restless parent. However, she was very sympathetic to her son's close friends, whom she held in high esteem, having known them for six years, ever since this little band of friends had met in junior high, when they started sixth grade.

"It's 7:03 am. It's 7:03 ..."

The young man turned his head to the automatic alarm clock, frowning, and tapped it.

"Shut up, please." he said wearily, his mind numb.

He buried his face in the hollow of the pillow again before his mother shouted his name from the bottom of the stairs, repeating that he had to get up before informing him that his friend Cydel was there.

"Chris, for God's sake, will you get up!"

He sighed, lifted his head from the pillow, answering in a low voice.

"Yes, I'm getting up, Mom. ... Shit."

Reluctantly, he sat down on the bed, got up and headed for the bathroom that adjoined his bedroom. The only good part of the morning was taking a nice hot shower.

"Every time, it's the same thing. You have to fight every morning to get him to deign to go to school." said his mother, in a still annoyed tone, addressing her son's friend who was used to all this. When Chris offered to drive him to school in the morning, Cydel let out a small sigh before replying that it was always the same circus to get him out of bed, where Chris would have preferred to stay and sleep for a few more long hours.

"I know, it's a pain in the ass for you. I don't like getting up early."

She looked at him, smirked and laughed. He didn't always go with her every morning, and he didn't always take her home every afternoon either. It was up to them to decide. Cydel and Chris lived five blocks apart and considered themselves practically neighbors. They had met after the 16-year-old's brother, Jeff, had become friends with Chris when they were 11. The two boys hit it off immediately, discovering they had a lot in common, especially music. Mike, Stone and Andy joined the group of friends that same year, at the same school.

Jeff, Stone and Andy had known each other since the third grade. It wasn't until their last year of high school, in ninth grade, that the boys decided to form a rock band, covering well-known songs and composing their own, as well as the music to accompany them.

1991 was their last year at high school, remembering a year earlier how impatient they'd all been to devote themselves solely to music, and why not make a professional living out of it. Their goal was to sign a contract with a record company and make an album. Their talent was promising... Unfortunately, that same year, Andy had become mired in hard drug addiction after trying a few lines of cocaine at a rave party in a place that had been dubbed the summit of Mount Everest. What could be more telling!

Due to a mixture of heroin and Ecstasy, the overdose was rapid and he died more than two minutes later, the paramedics arriving too late, having been called by someone who had been present that evening. Having a cell phone could come in handy. The summit of Mount Everest was subsequently condemned by the authorities following this tragedy, as was the drug trafficking that had taken place there, which was an old disused factory that had been built further up the hills in 1956. The group of friends was terribly shaken by this, Chris most of all. Their project had been abandoned, considering that their childhood friend was irreplaceable.