My Iron Lung

The festival is only 2 weeks away, and this is the first for us to be playing on a "big" stage, so the pressure is quite a bit higher than usual. It's not really a problem for me, but I don't know about Olivia, she can be a bit nervous in front of many people. She has improved a lot in recent years though, she just needs a little bit of help from alcohol. We were against it at first, but she promised to not drink too much and has kept it since.

Today we're rehearsing the new songs in the studio, I also got a surprise for them.

I arrived at Sunny, we're regulars at this place now, and the owner knows us well. I walk inside and Kaede, the owner of which I only know the name of last year, greets me, "Your friends are waiting, and good luck on the festival by the way." Her breath reeks of alcohol.

"Did it get announced already?"

"Yeah, can't believe you guys already grown this big, yet somehow you never went live here."

I look the other way and scratch my head like I know nothing. The only reason we never played in this building is because I don't want to sell the tickets.

I can hear her massive sigh while I was looking away, "I'll find a way." with some sort of pissed-off voice.

That sounds scary, what is she going to do to get us to play here?

"I'll go to the room now, see ya." as I run away from her scared of what she will be plotting against us.

I enter the studio, "Sorry for being late again, let's start."

Akari gives a big thumbs up, Olivia sneers at me because I often mock her for being late, and Hanako just smiles.

I set up my instruments and get everything ready, "Ah, I almost forgot, I have a new song that I want to play on the show." I play the song on my laptop, it's a song about me hating my hopeless self from just two weeks ago, and after they listened to it, all I get from them is a weird look.

"Are you sure you want to play this?" Olivia is still a bit confused with what she just heard.

"Yeah, why?"

"I think it might be just a bit too harsh, right?" Ask Olivia to the others.

"I think it'd be fun," Akari says, I think she's fine with whatever I put out.

"It might turn off a lot of people, but we can put it in the setlist if you want to." Say Hanako.

"If you guys are okay, then let's start!"

The main feature of the song is me screaming my brain out with a vocoder, and then rambling about how my former self is weak and a blithering idiot for falling into that pit again even though there are people around me now.

If I have to describe it, it's a cacophony of electronic chaos that captures all of my hatred towards myself, what's happening in my mind and my heart.

The session is over, my throat is barely alive after practicing the song for an hour straight.

My throat is drier than the desert, and I can barely let out a voice, "Nice work everyone." as I speak like a 90-year-old grandma.

Olivia pat me on the back, "You way overdid it,"

"It's fine, I only have to play it once in the show."

"You should take it easier, we don't want you to ruin your throat." Hanako says to me. "let's go to the usual place, drinking some juice will help your throat."

"I think I need you guys to scream with me, so it sounds fuller and I can lower my screams."

"I can help you scream!" Yells Akari, then she proceeds to screech like a banshee, "How is it?"

"Maybe you could lower it a little bit so it matches with my voice."

"Okay," She pulls a deep breath.

I stop her before she's going to embarrass us, "Don't do it now please."

"Okay."

Later, we go to the cafe where we usually meet, I think everyone who works there knows who we are now because we hang out in this place so much.

I sit with Olivia, and Hanako and Akari are sitting on the opposite side. I order a jumbo omurice that is actually not on the menu and an iced lemon tea, I really need all of the energy back and also the freshness of the drink to recover my throat. Hanako's order is a cake and iced coffee, Akari orders an omurice and iced lemon tea just like me, and Olivia's...

"You're slowly turning into the stereotypical alcoholic," I say to Olivia still with my dying throat, because I'm genuinely flabbergasted. She just ordered two glasses of beer in the middle of a summer day.

Hanako pats Akari's head and says, "Don't be like her okay?"

"It makes me more confident, shut up." Says Olivia, a bit irritated about it.

"We're leaving you here if you get too drunk," I say, being slightly annoyed.

"Sure whatever."

Soon our orders arrive, I think they hired a new waiter, I have never seen her. "Here are your orders, thank you for coming!" She place our orders on the table, and she is a little bit surprised after looking at us, "Oh, are you Natsuzora Cider? I saw the post on socials that you are playing in my college!" She sounds very excited.

"Yup, we're very excited about the show!" Says Hanako, she's just so good at talking.

"Ah, I'm excited too!" Then someone calls her, "Oh, someone is calling me, hopefully I can see you guys, see ya!" After that, she blitzes away from us.

"That'd be embarrassing if someone I met saw us fumbling on stage." I accidentally said my thoughts out loud. Messing up is way more awkward for me if someone that I met but not very close to me saw it, because it just ruins their impression of me, whatever that impression is, unlike when they're strangers that they just don't care or someone close that know how I am usually.

Hanako smiles brighter than car lights at night. "Then I guess we should do our best, right?" Then she raises her glass, "Cheers!"

We raise our glasses, and I realize that Olivia already chugged halfway through her beer, she still looks fine though, but her breath certainly not, it stinks.

We then finish our food and go home. Olivia is a little bit tipsy, she still can walk mostly straight though, so it's fine I guess.

Oh yeah, the lineup is out today, let me see on the socials for a second, oh they tagged us so that's convenient, let me see, I might not know most of the artists here but it'd be cool if I'm on the same stage as someone I know.

So the headliner is Oomori Touko, don't know who that is, then it's mostly just local acts that I know but I may or may not be a fan of, and us.

"Olivia, who is this Oomori Touko person?" I ask the still-tipsy Olivia.

She swings her arm around like she's doing exercise, while her eyes are half open, "Weren't you in the same claaass?" She answers like she just woke up from 19 hours of sleep.

"Which class?" I ask her again.

"College."

"Lisa?"

"Yeaaah." Then she hits an electric pole like an idiot. She passed out beside the pole, I swear to god this dumbass, I'll carry her at my home until she's sober.

Well, I thought it'd be fun, but of course, there is something that just has to ruin the excitement. I need to get away from her as much as possible, she's playing last so the chance of us meeting in the backstage is pretty small. Hopefully, I can finish that show unscathed, but who knows, it's me I'm dealing with.