“Who’s next?” you asked as your last client left through the front door and you had tidied up your area for the next one.

“I am Kales,” a girl said as she stood up from a waiting chair she had been lounging in and walked over.

The girl had shoulder length strawberry blonde hair that had shockingly bright blue tips on the bottom and stood about 5’7”. She had on a pair of regular jeans with a belt similar to yours and a Roxy surf t-shirt that looked like it had seen many days in the sun and wind. She dropped a worn looking canvas shoulder bag onto the ground next to the chair and you saw her dark blue thong flip flops that peeked out from underneath the hem of her jeans that had been rolled slightly. You thought you caught a glimpse of ink on one of her ankles but wasn’t sure. Looking up at her face you noticed her bright blue eyes that seemed the same hue as her hair and you smiled, this girl and you were going to get along just fine

“My name’s Katie,” the girl said as she sat down in your chair and stuck out her hand.

“Nice to meet you Katie, I’m Kales Mae as you obviously already know. So what are we doing today?” you asked, a smile already on your face after being around her for less than a minute.

“I wanted to get the Japanese kanji for family done on my ankle to mirror the one I already have,” Katie said as she lifted up the hem of her pants to show off the ink you had thought you caught a glimpse of.

“All right. Same ankle, or opposite ankle? And color or simple black like this one?” you asked as you began getting your stuff together.

“My other ankle, same spot so it’s mirrored, and simple black like this. I brought my drawing, and it’s already the size I want it,” she said as she dug through her canvas bag and brought out a piece of paper.

“You and I will get along most definitely,” you said as you took the paper and went to make a transfer of it.
-xXx-
“So what made you come here for your tattoo?” you asked as you worked on the small outline work of the kanji.

“Well to tell you the truth it was two sided really. I did really want a tattoo done by you, but I also wanted to meet you. And not in a crazed fan sort of way,” Katie replied as she watched you do your work on her ankle.

“Oh? How so?” you asked as you dipped for more ink.

“Well honestly I’m the new head sound tech for Avenged Sevenfold and I’m going on this tour as my first. The manager said you were going along with us so I thought I’d come down and meet you before hand. To see if I would have someone to talk to while on tour that I wasn’t ordering around and correcting cord coils and proper amp care to. You would be surprised at some of the idiots they having working sound, it’s like they’ve never seen how to properly work any of the equipment,” Katie explained and then flinched a bit when you went over a bit of her ankle bone that stuck out slightly.

“Well my darling that is the oddest reason I’ve ever heard for coming to get a tattoo by me, but one of the greatest. It’s nice to know I’ll be having a face to drag around places that’s not one of the guys. They can be a little much sometimes,” you said as you wiped away the ink and little bit of blood that was on her ankle.

At your last comment Cares choked a bit. When you shot her a fake evil glare she started fake coughing and patting her chest.

“Sorry, tickle in my throat I had to get out,” she said as she grinned back at you.

“Riiight, you might want to have that tickle checked Cares, it could prove problematic,” you warned, stressing the tickle part.

“Something I’m missing? Are you romantically involved with someone in the band?” Katie asked confused.

“Well no, not in that band. With Jeph from The Used also on this tour, yes. But I might as well tell you now, a little forewarning before you witness it first hand while on tour. Zacky and I don’t get a long. At all. And I’m surprised you didn’t hear it already. Everyone who works with those guys knows about us. It’s bad. Real bad. And I’m apologizing for it ahead of time,” you said as you finished the last of the filling in on the piece.

“I heard about some animosity but no one had explained. I’m new new you see, so no one took the time yet really to lay the ground work for me,” she said and then hissed when you sprayed on the alcohol after you had wiped it clean.

“That would be Zacky and I. But we’ll see, we’re suppose to be kept separate for the trip as much as possible. All righty lady you’re all done,” you said as you finished applying a layer of Tattoo Goo to it.

Katie got up from the tattoo chair and limped over to the large floor to ceiling mirror to go look at it as she held her pant leg up. Smiling she turned and hobbled back over to the chair to be bandaged.

“Beautiful work Kales, beautiful work. But that was to be expected,” she said as she watched you place the temporary bandage on it.

Standing up she let her pant leg fall and cover it before picking up her bag and heading over to Zarin to pay for the piece. As she handed over her money you felt your stomach growl and looked up at the clock. You had to meet Jimmy and the boys in five minutes for lunch.

“Hey Katie, you like Chinese?” you asked suddenly.

“Yeah I guess so. Why?” she asked, perplexed at your question.

“Would you care to join me for lunch. You can meet the guys and we can talk some more,” you said as you watched her thank Zarin.

She turned to look at you and you swear you saw her eyes go as large as saucers.

“I’d love to,” she replied as she dumped her wallet into her purse.

“Killer, just give me a second to clean up my shit and I’ll grab my stuff and we can head,” you said as dumped your exposed inks and other used bits for the just finished job.

Katie simply took another seat and waited while you cleaned up your area for the day since you had promised Zarin you would not come back to work after lunch and go home. What he didn’t know was that you were going to go out with Jimmy for the rest of the day and night, but that wasn’t stressful so you didn’t think it would matter. All cleaned up you grabbed your brown leather bag from out back and walked out towards where Katie was sitting.

“Shall we?” you asked as slid your sunglasses down your onto your face and pushed the sleeves of your track jacket up your arms.

“I think we shall,” she said as she stood up.

“All righty then, off we go to lands un-ventured,” you said in a grand like manner.

You felt better. Katie was like Jimmy, something about her rubbed you the right way and seemed to make you want smile. This tour was looking better and better by the moment.
-xXx-
“I’m just giving you fair warning, these guys are exactly like everything you’ve heard passed around the music world and in gossip. If not twice as bad. But they’re really the greatest guys ever. Except for Zacky, he’s the scum of the earth. But everyone else seems to think he’s a nice guy when I’m not around. I think they’re all lying to make themselves feel better. But hope that warning is enough because here we are,” you said as you approached the outside seating area of your favorite Chinese restaurant.

“It should be interesting to say the least,” Katie said as she moved in behind you so you could make the approach and introductions.

Before you got to the table where the guys were sitting, outside so you all could smoke, you grabbed a spare chair and brought it over with you. You saw that there was an empty seat for you between Jimmy and Syn. Dropping the spare chair between you and Syn you saw that Johnny sat on the other side of Jimmy then your brother next to him, so that left Zacky between Syn and your brother. Or he should have been sitting there but his seat was empty but before you got your hopes up you saw his fedora sitting on his place setting.

“Hello all,” you said as you sat down next to Jimmy and motioned for Katie to take the chair you had brought.

You signaled the waiter and showed that you needed an extra place setting. Thankfully they knew you here so you didn’t mind dropping another person into your party unexpectedly like this.

“Hey Kales. Who’s this?” Syn asked as Katie placed her bag on her lap.

“This is my new friend and all will be explained just hold your horses,” you said as you passed over each of the guys sitting there, trying to judge their initial reactions to Katie before you explained everything.

You wanted to know how you were going to have to go about your explanation so you watched their reactions. As you quickly scanned over the guys you had to stop at your brothers. And it took all the power and control you had, and you even had to summon some more, to not laugh at his reaction. He looked dumbstruck. Well, awe struck would be more like it. He was staring. No. He was gawking. You were pretty sure his jaw was going to fall open at any moment. And if his eyes got any more calf like it was going to make you puke from the sickeningly sweetness of it all. You decide you’d best get the intros over and done with before Matt got froze in that position forever and Katie began to think your brother was mentally challenged or something.

“So everyone as I said this is my new friend. Her name is Katie and I have the best news in the entire world for you all,” you said and then paused for dramatic effect.

“She will be joining us for the tour. She’s your guys new head of sound tech. She came by today to get a tattoo and to meet me before the tour started. So I figured I’d bring her down to lunch to meet you all before hand as well. She seemed brave enough to deal with you all for half an hour,” you finished.

All the guys gave nods of approval, smiles on all their faces. That is except for your brother who was still staring, and you were hoping it wasn’t making Katie uncomfortable. Oh and Zacky too, he was still pleasantly absent. Pleasantly absent till you heard approaching feet that dragged across the floor as only his could.

“Oh great. Look Kales brought along another freak to join us for lunch,” Zacky sneered as he took his seat.

You were about to say something nasty back at him, in Katie’s defense but you were beaten to it.

“Well at least I don’t have the STD’s to prove I’m a freak in the sheets,” Katie said quite calmly.

Everyone’s mouth dropped open at her comment, except for your brother once again. You weren’t even sure if he was even on this planet any more. Zacky on the other hand just sent her a little glare, not like one he would have given you, but one none the less. The other guys looked fairly impressed with her ability to handle Zacky right off the bat.

“Guess you were right, all the rumors about them are true,” Katie added to you as one last snipe at Zacky, but all in good fun.

Giving him a taste of his own medicine from a complete stranger.

“Well glorious first impressions done with, I think I shall do the introductions even though I’m pretty sure you know who the guys are already. First off to your left we have the ever so broody Brian, a.k.a. Synyster Gates and lovingly called Syn by us. Warning never use his first name or you’re liable to wind up dead,” you said as you pointed to Syn.

“She’s not lying either,” Syn said as he smiled and tipped his fedora at Katie, but you could tell he was passing it off as a joke.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Katie said as she bowed her own head a bit.

“Then there’s Zacky. And moving on we have the youngin, the baby shall we say, of the group, Johnny Christ,” you announced, choosing to pick on Johnny playfully.

“At least I’m not the shortest,” Johnny responded as he stuck his tongue out at you.

“Johnny sweetie, we’re the same height. Moving on. This here to my right is my favorite person in the entire world, Mr. Jimmy Sullivan, fondly refereed to as The Rev,” you introduced, deciding to save your brother till last since he still looked brain dead.

“Nice to meet you before the tour hectic-ness starts,” Jimmy said as he reached his hand over to shake Katie’s.

“Ditto,” Katie said, a smile spreading across her face.

“And last but not least, for the most part that is. We have this moon calf eyed dolt that I sadly claim as an older brother Matt,” you said as you pointed over to Matt.

Who was in fact still staring the same way he had been before, all moon calf eyed.

“Nice to meet you,” Katie said when Matt didn’t say anything at first.

“Your nose is pretty,” Matt said all at once.

At Matt’s remark everyone burst out laughing, even Katie was laughing. Though you did catch the tell tale signs of a pale blush creep across her cheeks.

Notes

And so I introduce to you one of my best friends. . . Ms. Katie.
I write her into almost everything I do.
It's just how I roll.