Although things were going great for both of my bands respectively, things weren't so great on the home front. After both my girlfriend and Shayne's girlfriend had went their separate ways things had slowly been falling apart around the house. No one was cleaning or taking charge of any responsibilities with the exception of Noel, the treasurer whom we'd give our money to each month so he could manage the bills and rent.
Speaking of managing, Noel was looking to get into the music business and Wiggaz was now the first official band he managed. Our Malton bredren Dirge were soon added to the roster and Noel had taken his first few baby steps into a new life, one more glorious than working midnight shifts in a factory. Owen had completed the Wiggaz music video and we were all super stoked. It turned out amazing despite the fact all the footage was filmed for the song "Carnivore" and we ended up switching the music to the song "Seed" at the zero hour. Thankfully everything still worked visual wise and nobody was the wiser.
Back on the home front, tensions were ever growing. Our kitchen counter was being over run by dirty dishes and no one was stepping up to the plates, pun intended. I literally made a conscious decision to eat take out for one month straight without so much as soiling a single piece of cutlery. Eventually Shayne confronted me one day claiming it was my turn to wash the dishes. Nobody had done them in months, and I told him I hadn't even used one dish in the past month. This escalated to an angered debate that resulted in the dirty dish pile continuing to grow.
As much love as I had for my BBJ bro Mike C, even he was getting under my skin. Mike had a knack to take the last of whatever you had in the fridge. I was all up for sharing, but Mike seemed to indulge himself at the inconvenience of others. He'd take your last two pieces of bread to make a sandwich, he'd drink your last beer, etc. Needless to say he'd rubbed all of us the wrong way more than once. His drinking was still quite extreme and he seemed to black out more often than ever. One night he passed out cooking burgers in a frying pan which resulted in a grease fire that threatened all of our lives. Thankfully Shayne and his quick yet reckless thinking were there to save the day as the rest of us stood around like deer in headlights.
I too was under scrutiny, my cat had kittens she had abandoned and I was so involved in my own life I didn't realize they were being neglected. I assumed putting water and cat food out for them was good enough, but they were so young they needed to be bottle fed milk, an undertaking that Shayne met graciously while resenting me for my lack of responsibility.
The Slayer House had now become a boiling pot that was ready to blow it's lid off. Everyone of us were rubbing the others the wrong way in one form or another. On top of that stress my good friend Jay Poole had fallen into remission. His leukemia had come back to haunt him once again and I hadn't seen nor heard from him in weeks. Sanjai gave me any updates he could but he was somewhat in the dark too.
As all good things must come to and end, so did our lease. We all went our separate ways, and with the exception of Mike C I barely saw the other guys. Of course I'd still see Noel when Wiggaz played, but I literally didn't see or talk to Shayne for a year. That was tough, here was a guy I considered my best friend and somewhat of a mentor, and now he chose not to be apart of my life.
I ended up moving back to my parents house as they had a basement appartment available. My folks would let me stay there to save money up for my next move. Our whole circle of friends seemed to be divided now. I was spending most of my time with Scott & Pino now as I still needed friends and a social life, and I was highly thankful those guys were there for me during this dark period of my life. We'd generally party at Pino's place and usually head out to the same local bars & hot spots each week.
Inside I was hurting bad, my best friend didn't care to have me in his life, the tension with Mike had carried over a bit into Black Belt Jones, I still needed to find a new place to live, and to top it all off I still hadn't heard from Jay Poole. I feared the worst and for all I knew he could have been dead. It didn't help I was still working midnights for Shayne's mother which just added to my depression. I turned to alcohol as an escape and it seemed I was drinking away the pain every night. I felt it was the only way to escape my dark mind and thoughts, and the only way to get some sleep, which was always short lived at best each night. Alcohol is a depressant though and that led to a lot of mischief and acts of stupidity on my part. Months passed and my drinking and depression deepened.
As Christmas approached I desperately hoped that 1996 would bring a new light and a new hope with it...
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