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Matt runs out the door, leaving the band behind. He does this a lot, but never when they’re about to start doing a plan. Not that it matters, since they’ve done plans without him being physically there before. Though, this time is different.
He’s acting like he’s never seen the band before in his life, even though they’ve lived with him for several years now. He seems to think Jay McCarrol is still his best friend, and not someone who hates seeing him. Something is wrong with him, and none of them can figure it out.
“I swear, he’s acting like a completely different person." Ethan says as he watches Michael and Ben put their outfits on.
“He’s probably fine. He wanted to beat us up. That’s the Matt I know.” Ben replies.
“It’s a movie reference. Everything is a movie reference with him.” Michael says.
“I’m not so sure,” Ethan pulls the ski mask over his head. “I just can’t put my finger on what it is.”
“It’s probably some really obscure movie. Like something only he’s seen.” Ben says.
“We’ll figure it out while we get the ticket.” Michael says.
The three of them get on a bus downtown. Ethan thinks about Matt a bit more. Maybe he’s lost his memory. No, he still remembers Jay. Nothing could ever make him forget Jay. He considers Michael and Ben’s theory, and tries to think of the movie Matt could be imitating. The only one he can think of is Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He hopes it’s not that one.
It’s their stop. Time for the plan. It has a chance of working, especially since Matt isn’t here. Plans seem to work less when he’s around. They caught onto that a while ago, so whenever a plan revolves around getting tickets to see Jay, they make sure to not bring Matt.
The plan goes well. Ethan hopes his aunt doesn’t realize that she got scammed. He realizes a bit too late that he could’ve just asked her, but whatever. They buy tickets and backstage passes. Ethan’s surprised they haven’t sold out yet. Matt’s always happy when he gets to meet Jay, even if only briefly. Jay never returns the favor.
They get home before Matt, who looks disappointed when he gets back. He stares at the picture of Jay on the pass. His expression isn’t one of happiness that he gets to see his former friend for a bit again, but one of shock. It’s like he’s surprised that Jay is famous somehow, even though that’s been the truth for the past 17 years of their lives.
Matt just stares blankly while Jay performs. He doesn’t sing along to any other song. Usually he does, even when it’s not Never Come Down. He’s probably the only one that even knows the words to his other songs. Well, besides the cover band. They’ve had every song drilled into their head, and they’ll probably never be able to get them out as long as they live.
Ethan sings along, just because Matt isn’t. Someone’s gotta. Michael and Ben join along.
—
The line is long, which is to be expected for the most famous Canadian pop star of all time. Matt’s still staring blankly. He’s not completely out of it, since still he moves up in line, but it’s a bit concerning. Ethan ignores it, because their turn is up soon.
Jay’s with the backup band, which never happens. Maybe it’s because the fan girls online are more into Luke recently. This is probably one of the only good decisions Reid has ever made. Why can’t he just fire him already?
It’s their turn, and Matt immediately walks up to Jay. He starts rambling about a time machine, and fixing the timeline. He’s talking about Nirvanna the Band. He never talks about that around Jay. What the hell is going on?!
Jay’s acting like he’s never seen Matt in 17 years, even though he had a concert in January. Eh, just probably him being an asshole like always.
He’s calling Jay by his old nickname and screaming about remembering. Not about remembering something specific, just remembering in general. Matt then grabs his shirt, and gets escorted out by security, still screaming about remembering something.
Jay notices them, and invites them to take a picture. He then runs off, ending the meet and greet early. They get the picture. It should have Matt in it. But he couldn’t help but act like a fucking crazy person. The cover band waits for the bus in silence, before Ben breaks it.
“He had a time machine this whole time?!”
“Maybe it’s an old plan of his. Before he created the band.” Michael replies.
Ethan has his own theory.
“What if Matt is from the future? And he time traveled here to warn Jay of something?”
“If that happened, where did current Matt go?” Ben says.
“Probably knocked him out.” Michael replies.
The bus comes, and Ben and Michael talk amongst themselves. Ethan wonders how bad the future is if Matt has to warn Jay about it. What does he have to remember?
—
Matt got home before them. He’s just sitting on the couch, and crying. It’s very rare to hear him crying over Jay these days. That mostly happened in the first few years, and became more and more of a rarity after he created the band all those years ago.
Jared and Nikolay are comforting Matt. Or at least Jared is, and Nikolay has given up and decided to watch Labyrinth. Jared’s telling Matt that it’ll be alright, that they can just buy Orbitz from somewhere. Matt isn’t listening at all. He’s inconsolable.
“Jay’s gone. He’s fucking gone.” he says through sobs.
“Dude, you just saw him. What the fuck are you talking about?!” Ethan says.
Matt finally notices them, and then goes back to crying, until no more tears come out. He opts to just pout instead. For a while, the only sound is from the tv playing the movie.
“Matt, what’s wrong? You can tell us.” Ben says.
“I’m not your Matt. I don’t know what happened to your Matt. I think I replaced him. He’s dead.”
“You killed him?!” Ethan says.
“I didn’t mean to! I think I just replaced him! I didn’t get his memories though.”
“Explain from the beginning, man.” Michael says.
“I accidentally invented time travel, me and Jay accidentally went back to 2008, I wrote ‘Don’t Play The Rivoli’ on the whiteboard because I was angry at Jay for wanting to leave me, and now the whole timeline is fucked up and Jay’s memories are gone.”
“Oh, ok.” Ethan says.
“Oh yeah, and also Orbitz is the key to time travel. I just need to figure out why.”
“Maybe that can wait for tomorrow?” Ben says.
“I was just thinking that! Where’s my bed in this timeline?”
“Upstairs.” Ethan says.
Matt heads upstairs, and the cover band don’t know what to do anymore. Their lives weren’t supposed to be this way. They weren’t meant to know Matt. They weren’t supposed to be friends with him or live with him or make plans with him. They weren’t meant to obsess over Jay with him. Are they even friends in the original timeline?
They then turn to Jared. He’s not the Jared they know, but he’s still Jared. The keeper of hundreds of hours of footage in both timelines. He’d know, and he does. He shows them footage of Matt and Jay passing them by one night. The night that Jay decided that he’d leave. They’re still a band, and they’re still friends.
That’s good enough for him, Ethan thinks as he goes to sleep. Ethan wonders how successful they are without Matt. The cover band is moderately popular, and they’ve had several shows at multiple venues. Including the Rivoli. To normal Matt, the Rivoli is unattainable, but to theirs, it’s just another venue for him.
Ethan’s not sure how to feel about this life of his anymore.
—
Terrible news! Luke Lalonde got shot in the face! They’re still looking for the culprit!
Matt doesn’t really care about that right now. All he cares about is decoding the mysteries of Orbitz, and what part of it could’ve caused the time travel. So far, he’s had no luck. The cover band thinks it’s because it’s expired.
They listen to Matt ramble, before they hear a knock at the door. It’s Jay. How does he know where Matt lives? Why’s he even here? Did Reid find it for him? They watch as he and Matt bounce off of each other as the two plan, which leads to them singing a shitty little song.
Then they realize it. A bolt of lightning in every bottle. A new plan is created, and Matt runs off to get the supplies. Jay stays behind, and looks around the house. He looks at the pictures of Matt and the band, and notices a pic of them at the Rivoli.
“Did I ever get a show at the Rivoli?” he asks.
“A few times early on. Why are you asking? You know this.” Ethan says.
“I forgot.”
“You’re not really our Jay, are you?”
“Maybe. Yes. I think Matt’s figured it out by now. He’s not that dumb.”
“Are you gonna help him fix everything?” Michael asks.
“Yeah. I totally am.”
Jay’s probably not telling the truth, but there’s no time to think. Matt’s back with supplies and road worker costumes for the cover band. They’re a minor part of the plan, but still a part of the plan nonetheless. They all head out, followed by the three cameramen. Two from the original timeline, and one new one.
—
The outside of the CN Tower is busy. It’s funny, Ethan thinks. This is the first time the cover band has been here today, but it’s the second time Matt and Jay have been here today, in a way. Matt talks to a girl he’s talked to before, but also hasn’t. They’ve seen all these people before, but also haven’t.
The cover band waits while Matt does his thing. From the top of the tower, a rope falls down. Jay connects it to the longest extension cord ever and they wait a bit longer. Waiting is a large part of this plan, but luckily it’s not for long.
They follow Matt and Jay from a distance while they trek towards the power box. The cord looks like it’ll come undone, but Matt says that it’s fine. Do they even have a backup plan if this all goes wrong? Maybe they can just go find some Orbitz elsewhere.
The power box is on Queen and Spadina. Relatively close to the Rivoli. Maybe Matt chose this on purpose to remind Jay of their friendship, or maybe it was a coincidence. Matt asks a random guy to watch over the cord. Like that guy won’t leave after 3 minutes.
—
Matt giving a thumbs up means it’s time for them to block off the road. Everything is going surprisingly well. Too well. So it’s no surprise when the cord gets disconnected from the top of the tower. Matt runs off to who knows where.
Breaking news! It turns out that Jay killed Luke! Was it on purpose or on accident? None of them know! But considering how Jay’s acting right now, they’re leaning towards it being an accident. More breaking news! There’s a man on top of the CN Tower!
They look towards it, and Matt is indeed up there. He’s risking everything just so they can go home. Everything’s going well! But then the cord on the street gets disconnected, and Jay angrily yells at Matt. Matt then falls off the tower. Luckily, he’s got a parachute. When did he get that?
A police officer walks up to them.
“Have you seen Jay McCarrol?”
“No.” Michael says.
Ethan looks towards Jay. He’s stupidly taken off his hat to wave it around. Idiot. Moron. Stupid. He gets in the RV, and drives off, even though Matt hasn’t fixed the extension cord. Will he even have gotten it fixed by the time Jay gets there?
“Maybe we should go help him.” Ethan says.
They run towards the power box. They watch as cop cars drive as quickly as they can to catch wanted criminal Jay McCarrol. Matt better figure out how to fix it before the police ram him off the street. Or before he crashes into a building and kills himself.
They run and run, and then they stop. Matt’s fixed the problem in the worst way possible. Extension cord in one hand, and pliers in the other. He doesn’t appear to notice them, he’s more busy looking at his best friend quickly arriving. Ethan pities Jay, as he won’t be able to look elsewhere. He doesn’t even think he can look away.
The lightning strikes.
The RV disappears and only leaves flames, and Matt falls over. They push through the crowd to get to his body. He’s smiling. It makes him look oddly peaceful, contrasting with how horrible his death was. They prop his body up against the power box, and Ben places his hat back on his head.
They don’t want to leave him, even though they’ll forget him if Jay keeps his word. They’ll forget that they ever knew him as a friend, and they’ll forget that they were ever in a band with him. They’ll forget that they met each other because they were obsessed with Jay’s music, and they’ll forget how happy Matt was to have some new friends after years of being alone.
But that’s the way time is supposed to go, so they accept it. Maybe they can make it to the Rivoli before Jay erases the whiteboard. Michael holds his body, and they walk. They never get to place his body at the Rivoli.
—
Matt and Jay walk down the street. Despite leaving early, the Seventh Inning Skydive utterly failed. They were lucky to get off with only a ban from the SkyDome.
A band playing at the Rivoli that night walks past them. Matt notices them while looking at the Rivoli.
“You guys playing a show at the Rivoli tonight?”
“Yeah.” They say.
“Lucky!”
“Have a great show guys.” Jay says as lightning strikes the CN Tower. He smiles at them. The two men leave as it begins to rain. The band quickly heads inside to set up for their show. They quickly forget about the two when the show begins, and vice versa for Matt, who’s too focused on the rain.
Jay won’t forget.