Walk With Me

“Hello?”
“Thank God you brought your phone with you. Where the fuck are you right now?”
“I’m on my way back.”
“Hurry up asshole. Matt’s fucking furious.”
“Why would he be?”
“Those two kid drummers are missing. They’re not bringing their phone with them. It’s been two fucking hours already. Matt’s getting ready to go search for them.”
“Shit. Tell him they’re with me.”
“What? They’re with you? Like, right now?”
“Yeah, and we’re running. Later Zacky.”

Erika hung up the phone that she had been holding on to Brian’s ears as his hands were busy supporting Arin’s feet. Erika caught a glimpse of Michelle’s selfie as his wallpaper.

“Dude, I can still run. My legs are intact.” Arin said, starting to move his hands away from Brian’s shoulder.

“Save it. I’m not going to have you grow anymore weaker. You need the strength for tonight.”

Erika couldn’t help but smile seeing them bonding like this. It was too adorable. Arin and Brian rarely spoke to each other. Even if they were, they will be talking about chords, or tabs or musical arrangement. Now they looked like brothers, looking out for each other.


When they finally arrived in front of the bus, Brian put Arin down and they walked into it nervously. The first face Erika saw was Terrance as he was having a breakfast and reading his newspaper.

“Matty’s really angry. Watch your back.” He advised. Erika went further and saw all of them were in the game room. Brian walked past her and went into it. Erika stood still anxiously. She glanced at Arin who was now covered in blood in bruises.

“Oh Arin. Poor you.” She went closer to him, her hands involuntarily cupped his cheeks. He smiled at her touch. He wanted to say something, especially about that date, but was cut off when Matthew suddenly barged out of the room. Followed behind him was the rest of the band.

“What in the name – what the fuck happened?” he looked furious, but worried as well.

Erika hesitated. It was all her fault. She agitated Jake, thus made Arin as the victim. But her voice was stuck in her throat.

“We were mugged. And I punched him in the face. He did this as revenge.” Arin explained, but 10% of them, he lied. Erika looked at him and she almost cried watching him so helpless in front of this big and intimidating band leader.

Matthew dropped his jaw, speechless.

“Why would you do that Arin? Didn’t you know that we need you for the show tonight?”

“I’m sorry Matt. But they were rude as hell. I couldn’t-”

“I don’t fucking care if they were rude. They’re criminals. You should watch your own back and not being fucking beaten up like this.”

Arin pursed his lips and didn’t answer.

“Shit. Someone get him a fucking first aid or something.” He said, with his back turned away as he massaged his temple. “I’m sorry Arin, but this is my last warning. If you injure yourself again like this, I’m sorry, I’m gonna have to go with Erika.”

Erika stunned, lost in words. She wasn’t really expecting this. Arin had been thrown a yellow card and if he slipped one more time, he’s out of this band. Johnny handed Arin a box of first aid kit and Arin was fumbling with it. Erika quickly took the box from his hands and smiled at him.

Arin blinked at her, not understanding what she was doing. She pulled him into a tight hug in one swift move. He was taken aback by it.

“Thank you, Arin. For saving me.”

Arin slowly embraced her by her shoulder and smiled into her hair. “Hey, what are friends for.”

She smiled and let go of the embrace. “Let me fix you up.”

The guys apparently had gone off into the game room. Erika took Arin’s hand and led him to her bunk. Arin settled into it without saying anything and Erika started to clean the wound around his lips. He winced at her touch.

“Don’t be such a baby.” She chuckled. Arin’s lips curved up into a perfect smile that Erika felt like kissing it.

Uh….what was that? Kissing him? He’s my friend. We would never kiss! Or would we?

She shook her head briefly to wash away those thoughts and continued to apply some iodine onto his wounds.

Arin watched all of her moves intently. He can see that her face blushed in pink when she caught him looking. Her eyes kept locking into his as she slowly and gently placing a band aid on his nose. Damn it hurt like a bitch. But the pain faded away as soon as her fingers trace onto each of his heroic wounds, with their gazes locked.

His heart pounded on and on. He was definitely asking for more.

“Arin, listen-” Erika began, but was cut off instantly when Arin pulled her hand and placed it behind his neck, with his face leaned in and his wounded lips landed on hers. He kissed her softly, and then lightly brushed his lips onto hers, without asking for entrance. His mouth was just too painful for him to go deeper right now. He pulled away to stare into her eyes.

Erika was stunned, but she didn’t move her hands from behind his neck. That brief and soft kiss made her chest banged so fast, so hard and her stomach fluttered.

“Will you go on a date with me, Eri?”

She ran her eyes all over his face. She was done fighting. Everytime she was with him butterflies emerged in her stomach. It wasn’t like the crush she had for Brian. This was bigger than that. She might have fallen in love with him.

“Okay.”

******************************************************************************************************

Santa Barbara was packed tonight. Playing in a venue like this was something that Erika could never imagine. She’d always limit her audience to 5000 people max but then again, being with the big guys; that would never have happened. Their crowd was massive. Especially after Jimmy died, people just started to pay more attention to them.

After she was done peeking through the wall from the backstage she turned to the band who was now gathered around Arin in the dressing room.

“Might take weeks for this bruise to come off.” Matthew said as he examined Arin’s black eye. It was a half an hour away until they will go on stage.

“Damn Arin, how big was this guy? Or is he skinnier than you?”

Arin didn’t answer Johnny’s question, but his eyes caught Erika’s glimpse from behind them. His mouth curved up into a smile without knowing. He recalled their first kiss in her bunk earlier. Boy he had been bucking up his courage to do that for a while and now that he did, he felt free.

“Uh, I take that as a yes.” Johnny said, making him turned his gaze away from her.

Brian on the other hand, saw the way Arin and Erika looked at each other. There was definitely something going on between these two. He too, felt something weird inside his heart. But he just couldn’t pinpoint as to what that feeling was.

“Do you think you can play tonight?”

Arin nodded to Matthew. “Yea. Not a problem man. It’s just my face.”

“Dude, your knuckles are bleeding.” Zacky added, pointing to his hands. There were red dry marks on it covered in yellowish iodine that Erika rubbed on earlier.

“Yeah but they’re not hurting right now. I nailed my sound check right?”

Matthew licked his lips and sighed heavily. “Arin, please take care of yourself. I don’t want your parents to be worried. Hell, I would personally fight with you if I was there but I’m getting too old for that shit.”

Arin chuckled. Matthew wasn’t really scary, he was too kind. He gave him so many chances and even told him to wear his aviator on stage tonight. In fact they were all being awesome around him. As if he was already in their family circle.



Erika walked out of the dressing room after watching them bickered at Arin in there. She smiled to herself from time to time, blushing constantly remembering how she and Arin shared a brief kiss earlier. She bit her lip without knowing. Settling herself on the couch backstage, she wondered what kind of date will they have.

“I know that look.”

She winced a little and snapped back to earth. Brian stood tall in front of her, wearing a frown on his forehead. She got up from her seat to meet him.

“What look?”

“That look on your face right now. Michelle has that when she watched some movies with hot guys in it.”

Erika blurted out a laugh. That was pretty random.

“You like him don’t you?” he added, making her laugh stopped abruptly. She was blushing in full pink and tried to avoid his eye contact as she swallowed the lump in her throat.

But Brian was serious. He wasn’t kidding. He didn’t feel good seeing her reaction towards that question. Yet he was confused of his own fucked up feelings. If only Jimmy was around, then he would tell him what to do and how to deal with this.

“He – saved me, Syn.” Erika whispered suddenly. Their conversation was totally away from the other guys so they couldn’t hear them.

“Saved you? From whom? Those muggers? From what I recall, you were about to be raped when I kicked that motherfucker off the street.” He replied in a low voice, with hands across his chest.

Erika was truly surprised at his words. He’s being jealous with Arin. But why? Oh my God, this is so messed up.

“Syn – you…what exactly-” she couldn’t find the right question to ask because there were so many in her head right now. Her eyebrows scrunched, almost united as she frowned hard and gawking at him.



Brian rubbed his face and rested both of his palms on top of his head afterwards. He sighed in frustration. His lazy brown eyes shot straight into hers, moving wildly as he stared at them. Erika was confused, and dumbfounded. True, she had the biggest crush on Brian since she became their fan but she also realized that Brian was in a committed relationship with the most amazing woman she’d ever known.

“Erika, I saved you. It was me who-”
“Syn, don’t do this.” She cut him off quickly before he could even finish his sentence. He stared at her, startled.
“Don’t do what?”
“This. Whatever this is. You have Michelle. I don’t wanna hurt her.”

Brian took a deep breath. “Me too.”

He replied briefly. But his mind ravaged, it was so hay wired that he couldn’t think straight. To him, Erika was the only one that can understand his feeling of having lost a best friend. He was empty before he met her. Jimmy was everything, even more than Michelle herself. He’d lost him at the time he needed him the most. That awful nightmare of reaching out to Jimmy but he couldn’t, started to haunt him even now.

Once again - like when he was at the cemetery - without knowing he took both sides of her jaw with his hands and pulled her closer. Their lips met gently but Brian took control over her closed mouth. He wasn’t even close to beg for her access when she pushed him away suddenly. He was drawn back, only to find her face really red and her eyes bulged in horror.

“What’s going on here?”

Both Brian and Erika glanced quickly at the voice. Matthew and the rest were there, frowning at them. Brian was as speechless as Erika, he didn’t know what came over his mind. Erika saw Arin stared at her in utter shock and disappointment.

“Brian, explain yourself right now.” Matthew shot again. But before Brian could say anything, Matt Berry announced that they will go on stage in just 5 minutes. They had to disperse and get their equipments ready. Erika gazed at Arin, her eyes searching for forgiveness.

But to Arin, he knew something like this would happen. He shouldn’t push his luck to ask her out even if she said yes. Erika had the biggest crush on Brian for God’s sake. He would never stand a chance.


They did not exchange their drumsticks that night.

Notes

A/N: guys~ where are youu i kinda need your feedbacks!! i'd die without it!!