“Where are the guys?” you asked Katie.

“They're out at the meet and greet I believe. Why?” Katie’s voice came through your cell phone.

“Just had a question is all,” you replied as you held your cell phone between your ear and shoulder so you could tie your combat boots.

“Well if you're up to playing famous person you can find them there or you can wait. I think the meet and greet was scheduled to last two hours but that hasn’t stopped them from going longer,” Katie stated, sounding as if she was reading a piece of paper.

“Reading the daily staff update to me are you? And here I thought you knew where my brother was every minute of the day,” you teased as you dropped your last heavily clad foot to the floor of the bus.

“Funny,” Katie replied, sounding as if she was rolling her eyes at you.

You let yourself chuckle a bit at her response as you stood to gather the rest of your stuff.

“Well if I’m going to go play famous I may as well finish getting ready in all my splendor,” you said as you rifled through your makeup for your electric red eye shadow.

“I’ll see you some time later today Kales Mae,” Katie said happily on her end.

“You too Katie,” you said before hanging up the phone, makeup item in hand.

“Time to bring out Kales Mae the famous tattoo artist and younger sister of the boob of Avenged Sevenfold,” you said to no one as you went about applying your makeup.
-xXx-
Once you found yourself appropriately put together enough to wow the masses you grabbed your neon green eighties sunglasses and your Bert bag and called yourself done. You slipped your cellphone into the back pocket of your tighter than tight pants that looked painted on and ran out of the bus. You had spent the night in your own bus, the A7X bus, which turned in your favor as it was closer to where the meet and greet was suppose to be happening.

As you made your way there, cigarette hanging dangerously between your ruby red painted shiny lips you nodded at the various cat calls whistled your way. You waved to the techies and tour staff that made the calls and continued your I-own-the-world strut to your destination. Your pin up girl heels gave you no trouble on the broken ground as you moved your hips to the song in your head.

You smiled at the security guard and hiked a leg over the low fence instead of going through the gate a few feet down. You were in complete media whore mode and decided to make it just over the top for those watching. Which included all of the guys at the table. All of the guys except for Zacky that is. You made your way over to the table and stopped a moment as you saw why Zacky hadn’t seen your dramatic entrance. He was hunched and leaning over the table top and taking a photo with two little kids, one boy and one girl, who looked like identical twins. They had to be no more than nine at the most and both were sporting as much A7X memorabilia that their little bodies could hold. Each of the twins had an arm around Zacky’s neck as the woman you guessed to be their mother snapped the shot while Zacky’s were draped around theirs.

You stood in momentary shock as you watch the scene unfolding in front of your eyes. You watched as he ruffled the hair of each of them after the picture was taken before he took what they had brought for him to sign. And it looked as if they had brought their entire bedroom for him to grace with his signature. You watched his face and not once as he was animatedly talking to the two of them did his smile falter or he look like he wished he was anywhere other then right where he was.

“Did you see a ghost?” Jimmy’s voice broke through your daze.

“Actually Jimmy love, I think I did,” you replied as you went to sit down next to him in the folding chair that had been placed for you.

“Oh my god, Kales Mae!” an excited female voice squealed.

You turned from what you were staring at as you sat down in your chair and smiled at the girl. Let the fun begin.
-xXx-
“I’m beat,” you yawned as the last person finished with the meet and greet line.

“I believe it,” Jimmy teased as he stretched beside you.

“I don’t know how you guys do it all the time,” you said as you twisted your back, trying to pop it back into normal elasticity.

“You get use to it after you’ve been doing it as long as we have. It still tires you out, but in that good way. You should know, you get it at work,” Jimmy said as he stood and held your chair for you as you stood.

“Yeah but not like this,” you said, eyes turning to where Zacky was giving his partially empty water bottle to the last fan who took it and looked like they had died and gone to heaven with it clutched in their hands.

“Are your fans always like this?” you asked, silently motioning to the last one with your head.

Jimmy turned his head and smiled at the end of the display from Zacky.

“For the most part yeah. But yours hold their own, I swear the line doubled when it got around that you were here. I think even a few came just in hopes to see you,” Jimmy chuckled as he put his large drummers hands on your shoulders and began to get rid of the last of your muscle tension.

“Mmmm,” you groaned in response as you hung your head and let Jimmy work his magic.

“Welcome to the life of touring and fans sis,” Matt said from beside you.

“Muh huh,” you said and then gritted your teeth as Jimmy hit a bad knot in your shoulders.

“Yeah I’m impressed,” you heard Syn say from somewhere near you.

You looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just sayin you handled it like a champ. Didn’t think you’d pull off the entire greet,” Syn said with a smirk.

“How hard can it be right?” you questioned at him.

“Hard enough that you’re getting a shoulder rub,” Johnny teased as he poked your shoulders.

You swung at him and punched him playfully in the ribs.

“Ooph,” Johnny said as he held where you had punched him, acting like you had broken ribs.

You grinned at him.

“Well it may be a lot of work when you first start out but it’s definitely worth it’s weight in gold,” Zacky added as he joined the group.

You looked at him and took in his appearance. He looked a tad tired, a bit sweaty, but there was a glow about him. A glow that resonated in his eyes as he smiled. He looked to be on cloud nine and totally at ease with who he was. You logged it away for future reference, you were beginning to see that there might be more to him than you had originally thought and you weren’t sure on how to take it.

“Group hug!” Johnny yelled all of a sudden.

“Oh no,” you groaned as bodies mashed in around you and arms wrapped around your body.

Jimmy still had his hands on your shoulders, absent mindedly releasing the last of your tension knots, as everyone crowded around. You felt like the pimento inside an olive as all the guys squished you.

“Kales where the hell have you been?” an angry voice barked from a few feet away.

You snapped your head up at the angry question and Jimmy took his hands off your shoulders as the rest of the guys took quick steps back.

“I’ve been here,” you said like it should be obvious to your boyfriend.

“I’ve been calling your cell all morning. You were suppose to meet me for breakfast. What the hell were you doing?” Jeph asked, sounding annoyed.

“Uh, I came to the meet and greet to participate,” you explained, getting a little miffed at Jeph’s tone.

“You were suppose to be with me this morning, not hanging out with them,” Jeph fired back.

Oh hell no. You stepped away from the guys, getting closer to Jeph.

“Excuse me? Am I not allowed to be with my family? With my best friends?” you asked, anger finding its way into your words.

“That includes only Matt and Jimmy, not the whole fucking band. Besides, since when did Zacky fall under either heading of family or best friend? You can’t fucking stand the sight of him,” Jeph said angrily.

“Excuse me? The entire band falls under the category of both family and best friends. They’re my life Jeph, always have been. And what does Zacky singularly have to do with any of this?” you yelled, your blood boiling already.

You knew the guys were behind you staring on in shock and more than likely any of the tour crew nearby enough to hear your and Jeph’s raised voices. Which at this point probably included the entire venue.

“No offense guys but, Kales, he has everything to do with it,” Jeph snapped, the first part being directed at the guys behind you still.

“Zacky has nothing to do with my life, and nothing to do with our relationship. Including whether or not I spend time with them instead of you,” you said heatedly, at least not full out yelling this time but still loud enough to be heard by others close enough by.

“Exactly. He has nothing to do with your life or our relationship and yet here you are spending time with him. There you were the other day playing in the rain with him. For someone you despise he sure the hell is around a whole hell of a lot,” Jeph said just as heated as you had.

“Hey dude,” your heard Zacky start to open his mouth to reply.

“Zacky zip it,” you snapped with out looking back at him but throwing up a hand to stop him talking.

“Jeph have you gone retarded? What drugs did Bert put into your system? Zacky is a part of the fucking band. He’s going to be anywhere the rest of them are. For christ’s sake, he’s one of your closest friends. Just because I haven’t been able to stomach his presence in god knows how many years doesn’t mean people can’t change, doesn’t mean I can’t be a decent human being and be around him without causing a scene. Which brings us back to you. What’s with the fucking scene?” you snapped, beyond the point of making nice at the moment.

“I. Uh. Fuck. Kales can we not do this?” Jeph asked, all heat gone from his anger, all wind gone from his sails.

“Oh this is so not done,” you snapped.

You were beyond pissed. Jeph had ruined your day. Jeph had been the one to come up and start the fight. You had never fought before, this was the first one in the time you had been together, publicly or behind closed doors. And the fact that your first fight was loosely based around your brother and the guys got to you. He had no right. No fucking right at all what so ever.

“Kales,” Jeph said softly as he took a small step closer to you, his hands out like he wanted to touch you.

“Fuck off Jeph,” you snapped and stormed off.

“Kales!” you heard Jeph call out from behind you.

“Let her cool off man,” you heard Jimmy utter, sounding soft and far away.

Notes

Wa waa waaaaaa. . .
Trouble in paradise or what?