Work Text:
Brian and Mat were just finished jamming as Brian opened his phone, a notification popped up from one of his friends, it was a link to a news article the headline read; “Montgomery Apartment Complex To Be Demolished.” Along with the link was a message “you used to live there, no?” Brian couldn’t believe it, the first place Brian ever knew true freedom was set to be demolished in just a few days.
Mat must’ve seen the look on Brian’s face before he spoke. “See a ghost?”
“Worse…” Brian handed Mat the phone.
“Oh damn… really? I’m glad it’s now and not like… how long has it been?”
“Almost 7 years…”
“SEVEN!? Really!? It doesn’t feel like that at all.”
Brian nodded. “Crazy, right?” Mat handed back Brian’s phone.
Mat nodded. “Can you send that to me?” Brian nodded.
-
Brian didn’t think too much about the article after that, he at least tried to but when the day came up it was suddenly all he could think about, that there would never be a day that as the two drove through Montgomery they could point at the building and say “we used to live there!” But now, they were blowing it up, now they could never say that again, now it would just be an empty plot of land until another McDonald’s, or something takes its place. As he looked through photos from 2011 he thought about that apartment, they didn’t live there very long, hardly over a year, but it meant something, the beginning. It was the first time they truly felt free, they had each other, and no one to tell them what to do, nothing holding them back, no one telling them to be quiet during the day, and what felt like all the time in the world. He felt on the verge of tears before seeing Mat’s contact pop up calling him. He quickly pulled himself together as he answered.
“Hi Matty!”
“Bri, you busy today?”
“Nope! What’s up?”
“I just remembered, they’re demolishing the apartment complex today, did you wanna go?”
“It’s nothing special…” Brian sighed.
“Nothing special!? We used to live there! Don’t you think It’d be weird seeing it just vanish, you don’t wanna witness it?”
“Hmm…” Brian thought. He didn’t want to see it get destroyed, but the only thing worse than watching it happen would be never seeing it again. “Fine!” Brian agreed.
As the two found parking they saw the building, they saw a crane set up with a wrecking ball ready, the two stood a distance away, it took a while for anything to happen and while they waited they reminisced about their memories walking down the same sidewalk they were standing on, about how they got so stoned during an awesome set at the bar across the street, how they made an entire albums worth of songs and more in their apartment, how those same songs become hits years later, how neither of them knew they’d actually make a living off of it, and how exactly lucky Brian felt that they were.
They heard the crane move, it was slow but they assumed something was happening, their eyes watched as the large crane moved backwards making the wrecking ball start to swing before moving closer to the building and causing a loud CRASH!
Brian stood there watching as large pieces of the building fell to the ground, the place so many people including themselves used to call “home” now being obscured in a cloud of dust. Brian didn’t even realize he was crying until he felt Mat bring him into a hug, he felt Mat touch his hair and his heart was racing. He couldn’t look away even though his vision blurred with tears in his eyes as the building practically vanished in front of him with the loud crashing. It wasn’t until the building was nothing but debris that Brian looked away and allowed himself to sob into Mat’s arms. He felt Mat rub his hand over his arm.
“I can’t believe it’s gone…”
“Mhm…” Mat sighed. His hand still rubbing Brian’s shoulder as he felt wetness seep through his shirt from Brian’s eyes. Mat tried not to cry too, and maybe he woudln’t’ve if he didn’t hear the words from Brian’s mouth.
“It feels like yesterday…” Mat bit his lip as his hand brushed over Brian’s shoulder again feeling as his eyes started watering at the realization that a time that had felt so recent was truthfully so far gone. That apartment was the first place they officially moved into, on their own, dating, together, but now things were so different, but if Mat never had the faith they could do it they may still be barely be making it by working jobs on the side, still living together, still struggling to find an audience to hear them.
“I used to think we had all the time in the world.” Brian spoke through his choppy voice, his watery eyes looked down at Mat’s, his greying hair still messy from the morning. Mat couldn’t hold himself together as he continued crying, he tried wiping his face, it felt awkward standing in the middle of Montgomery sobbing along with Brian, but it was all he could do as the dust settled and seeing nothing in the spot the two considered their beginning.
“We should’ve brought tissues.” Mat laughed as he wiped his face again.
Brian sniffled before laughing “I didn’t think we’d be like this” Mat smiled as he wiped Brian’s tears, Brian giggled as Mat pulled him close again before Mat began speaking.
“Remember the night after we moved out, we got super drunk, and went into our old unit thinking we still lived there?”
“Yeah,” Brian laughed, “They forgot to lock the door, they weren’t even mad!”
Mat laughed, “We got lucky.”
“Mhm… we did, didn’t we?” The two spent the rest of the day walking around in Montgomery going through random memories from living there, Brian pointed out a shirt someone was wearing that said "Montgomery Forever” he chose to write it down before they continued walking.