Animosity In The Ranks
Chapter 79
“Your impersonation of a statue is quite impressive but really isn’t helping me any here,” Cherise said with a smile as she handed a kid his change.
You had avoided Jeph most of the day after your night with Katie, doing exactly the opposite of what you had promised. You were so avoiding being an adult. As soon as the buses had halted at the new venue and you had finally woken up, Katie long since gone as soon as the wheels stopped moving, you had been dodging shadows nonstop. You stayed on the bus for as long as possible but had almost run screaming from it when you had heard Zacky’s voice outside a window approaching. From there you had gone to find Katie to thank her for last nights marathon of junk and to see if she needed any help. She had very kindly let you stand around and watch but had refused your help; she said it was because you were going through a rough patch but you knew it was because you next to diddly about sound when standing next to her and you’d only get in her way. So after a little bit of standing around feeling like a blue footed booby you ran off in search of Cherise.
You had found Cherise giving Sergeant General-esque orders from the back of what could only be the merch trailer. Instead of going to talk or bother her order giving in any way you had just rolled up the sleeves of your thin well worn flannel shirt and had stepped into the assembly line. By the time the trailer had been completely unloaded you had sweated enough to warrant tying a bandana around your forehead for something other than fashion. And that hadn’t been the end of it as the assembly line had only done so much, after the trailer was cleared everything had to be set up and made ready for the kids. Long before the time you had set the last item in place under the plexi glass or hung behind the table you had taken off your long sleeved shirt and tied it around your waste. You looked a mess and had smelled close to it so Cherise had thankfully given you the go ahead to run back to the bus for a shower. “No crew of mine will stink of high heaven” had been her words as she had shooed you off and towards hot running water and soap.
You had returned, dodging shadows and slipping into groups of people to try and hide yourself from prying eyes and made it safely to the merch table. You knew it would be impossible to hide your calling card tattoos and outrageous hair but it felt good to try at least. You were back in your old worn flannel shirt, once again rolled to your elbows, a pair of thread bare loose pale denim jeans with a broken brown leather belt doing it’s best to hold your pants on your hips. You had thrown on a pair of your beat up black chucks and had thrown everything into a beat up, well loved brown leather bag before throwing your hair into a somewhat ponytail as you ran to the merch table. You had arrived with a minute to spare, flicking your cigarette butt out before running through the back emergency exit into the venue. And since your arrival right before the kids came streaming down the tiled hallway you had done nothing much other than stand like a statue. Hence Cherise’s comment.
“Why don’t you go watch the show or something hun,” Cherise offered as she dug through a big plastic bin for something.
That snapped you out of your gargoyle impersonation.
“Uh, uh no. Sorry. I didn’t mean to space. I’ll just stay right here. What can I get you?” you said quickly, the last part directed at the kid standing in front of you with a rushed smile and tilt of the head.
-xXx-
“I’ll never get how a twenty became the new small change bill,” you groaned after the last of the stragglers had been kicked out of the merch hall.
You heard Cherise chuckle deeply beside you as everyone around you, including yourself, packed up for the night.
“It’s the prices of things in this day an age. That and ATM’s spit out twenties like they’re candy so what else are kids going to carry on them? Would you rather have it be fifties or hundreds?” one of the Avenged merch kids asked as he stacked labeled containers.
“Probably not. Though they show up with a couple of hundred in twenties, so why not a fifty or two? But it just seems like a twenty is pocket change and they burn right through it. Hell I never even got an allowance for years growing up,” you replied as you finished closing up the giant zip lock bags some of the smaller items were stored in before placed in tubs.
“The prices alone today make me shudder,” came Cherise’s reply as she finished folding the last of the display shirts so two of the merch kids could disassemble the display rack.
You just chuckled along with everyone else at Cherise’s comment and went about packing up. It took about an hour to get everything packed down and ready and waiting by the emergency exit that lead straight to the backstage parking lot where the buses and trailers were. And an hour because you also helped the other tables break down as well. Once everyone was broken down and waiting by the fire doors to go load across the parking lot you opened the doors and locked them open. That done you bent and heaved a stack of tubs and started on your way.
It wasn’t until your third or fourth trip that you remembered that you were actually trying to avoid Jeph. And then you used the hauling trips to and from the venue and merch trailer to work things over in your head. Your relationship really had been picture perfect up until the first fight. Like so sweet it almost made you wanna gag a little thinking about it from this perspective, and you weren’t the only one who saw it that way either. Both Jimmy and Bert had given similar sentiments and you figured some of the other guys harbingered them as well, not that you minded. But it wasn’t just the fight that had done this, things had been going slowly down hill for a while. Just like you had told Jimmy, it was nothing but sex now between the two of you; rough, hard fast sex. Which was good in and of itself but there needed to be something else in it for a relationship to work. It seemed that you resolved everything with a tumble through the sheets nowadays instead of talking, but you didn’t see that happening this time.
For the life of you you couldn’t see what was going wrong, you couldn’t see a damn thing. It’s not like he was cheating on you with anyone, you would have known that the minute it had happened. And Jeph wasn’t like that as a person anyway. And neither were you, so you knew it wasn’t anything like cheating. But the idea of someone other than you taking him from you made your insides shut down. Because for better or for worse you were in love with Jeph. What type of love that was you were still undecided on, but love him you did. And that was the worst part. That was always the worst part.
And it was in your muddling thoughts that you forgot where you were walking and nearly skewered someone standing directly in front of you. You looked up and out to where the end of the wrapped bundle of poles over your shoulder was coming in contact with a human chest. It was like in the movies and the person was back lit so much that you couldn’t see who it was, only an outline. But you knew that outline intimately, you knew all the curves, the ins and outs of that outline. You knew the feel of that outline against your own. There was no amount of lighting tricks that would be able to hide that outline from you.
“Kales hun, I think it’s time we talked,” the silhouette spoke.
You nodded your head in silent agreement and passed off your long shoulder bundle to the person who magically appeared beside you just for that purpose. Your burden passed to someone else you did the only thing you could do, follow behind the still badly lit silhouette.
You had avoided Jeph most of the day after your night with Katie, doing exactly the opposite of what you had promised. You were so avoiding being an adult. As soon as the buses had halted at the new venue and you had finally woken up, Katie long since gone as soon as the wheels stopped moving, you had been dodging shadows nonstop. You stayed on the bus for as long as possible but had almost run screaming from it when you had heard Zacky’s voice outside a window approaching. From there you had gone to find Katie to thank her for last nights marathon of junk and to see if she needed any help. She had very kindly let you stand around and watch but had refused your help; she said it was because you were going through a rough patch but you knew it was because you next to diddly about sound when standing next to her and you’d only get in her way. So after a little bit of standing around feeling like a blue footed booby you ran off in search of Cherise.
You had found Cherise giving Sergeant General-esque orders from the back of what could only be the merch trailer. Instead of going to talk or bother her order giving in any way you had just rolled up the sleeves of your thin well worn flannel shirt and had stepped into the assembly line. By the time the trailer had been completely unloaded you had sweated enough to warrant tying a bandana around your forehead for something other than fashion. And that hadn’t been the end of it as the assembly line had only done so much, after the trailer was cleared everything had to be set up and made ready for the kids. Long before the time you had set the last item in place under the plexi glass or hung behind the table you had taken off your long sleeved shirt and tied it around your waste. You looked a mess and had smelled close to it so Cherise had thankfully given you the go ahead to run back to the bus for a shower. “No crew of mine will stink of high heaven” had been her words as she had shooed you off and towards hot running water and soap.
You had returned, dodging shadows and slipping into groups of people to try and hide yourself from prying eyes and made it safely to the merch table. You knew it would be impossible to hide your calling card tattoos and outrageous hair but it felt good to try at least. You were back in your old worn flannel shirt, once again rolled to your elbows, a pair of thread bare loose pale denim jeans with a broken brown leather belt doing it’s best to hold your pants on your hips. You had thrown on a pair of your beat up black chucks and had thrown everything into a beat up, well loved brown leather bag before throwing your hair into a somewhat ponytail as you ran to the merch table. You had arrived with a minute to spare, flicking your cigarette butt out before running through the back emergency exit into the venue. And since your arrival right before the kids came streaming down the tiled hallway you had done nothing much other than stand like a statue. Hence Cherise’s comment.
“Why don’t you go watch the show or something hun,” Cherise offered as she dug through a big plastic bin for something.
That snapped you out of your gargoyle impersonation.
“Uh, uh no. Sorry. I didn’t mean to space. I’ll just stay right here. What can I get you?” you said quickly, the last part directed at the kid standing in front of you with a rushed smile and tilt of the head.
-xXx-
“I’ll never get how a twenty became the new small change bill,” you groaned after the last of the stragglers had been kicked out of the merch hall.
You heard Cherise chuckle deeply beside you as everyone around you, including yourself, packed up for the night.
“It’s the prices of things in this day an age. That and ATM’s spit out twenties like they’re candy so what else are kids going to carry on them? Would you rather have it be fifties or hundreds?” one of the Avenged merch kids asked as he stacked labeled containers.
“Probably not. Though they show up with a couple of hundred in twenties, so why not a fifty or two? But it just seems like a twenty is pocket change and they burn right through it. Hell I never even got an allowance for years growing up,” you replied as you finished closing up the giant zip lock bags some of the smaller items were stored in before placed in tubs.
“The prices alone today make me shudder,” came Cherise’s reply as she finished folding the last of the display shirts so two of the merch kids could disassemble the display rack.
You just chuckled along with everyone else at Cherise’s comment and went about packing up. It took about an hour to get everything packed down and ready and waiting by the emergency exit that lead straight to the backstage parking lot where the buses and trailers were. And an hour because you also helped the other tables break down as well. Once everyone was broken down and waiting by the fire doors to go load across the parking lot you opened the doors and locked them open. That done you bent and heaved a stack of tubs and started on your way.
It wasn’t until your third or fourth trip that you remembered that you were actually trying to avoid Jeph. And then you used the hauling trips to and from the venue and merch trailer to work things over in your head. Your relationship really had been picture perfect up until the first fight. Like so sweet it almost made you wanna gag a little thinking about it from this perspective, and you weren’t the only one who saw it that way either. Both Jimmy and Bert had given similar sentiments and you figured some of the other guys harbingered them as well, not that you minded. But it wasn’t just the fight that had done this, things had been going slowly down hill for a while. Just like you had told Jimmy, it was nothing but sex now between the two of you; rough, hard fast sex. Which was good in and of itself but there needed to be something else in it for a relationship to work. It seemed that you resolved everything with a tumble through the sheets nowadays instead of talking, but you didn’t see that happening this time.
For the life of you you couldn’t see what was going wrong, you couldn’t see a damn thing. It’s not like he was cheating on you with anyone, you would have known that the minute it had happened. And Jeph wasn’t like that as a person anyway. And neither were you, so you knew it wasn’t anything like cheating. But the idea of someone other than you taking him from you made your insides shut down. Because for better or for worse you were in love with Jeph. What type of love that was you were still undecided on, but love him you did. And that was the worst part. That was always the worst part.
And it was in your muddling thoughts that you forgot where you were walking and nearly skewered someone standing directly in front of you. You looked up and out to where the end of the wrapped bundle of poles over your shoulder was coming in contact with a human chest. It was like in the movies and the person was back lit so much that you couldn’t see who it was, only an outline. But you knew that outline intimately, you knew all the curves, the ins and outs of that outline. You knew the feel of that outline against your own. There was no amount of lighting tricks that would be able to hide that outline from you.
“Kales hun, I think it’s time we talked,” the silhouette spoke.
You nodded your head in silent agreement and passed off your long shoulder bundle to the person who magically appeared beside you just for that purpose. Your burden passed to someone else you did the only thing you could do, follow behind the still badly lit silhouette.
Out of all the fanfics this is the one I've read through 3 times through all 108 chapters. This is one of the best Zacky fics I've read and I still hope it'll be continued one day ; v; a very good read for any Zacky fan.
5/3/18