There was a time when the sky
Held the answers for the things I couldn’t find
But what happens when you’re blind?

A shooting star once said to me
That nothing’s really what it seems
‘You must make up your own mind’
Well I’ll try this time

So I look to the world outside oh
All of a sudden, I’m eating my insides
The tiny words that break your heart
They’re breaking and entering

So I look but you’re not by my side
Whatever happened to ‘I would rather die’?
The things that make you fall apart
They’re breaking and entering

(song courtesy of Tonight Alive – Breaking & Entering. Great song btw.)



The crowd screamed and surfed around, making a whirlpool of moshpit as Jenna sang her heart out to this song, Breaking and Entering. Her strawberry blond hair angrily swayed, fighting with the rushing wind and her own adrenaline while she was running from side to side on the stage. Her punk rock voice didn’t seem to shake at all despite her full stamina using. From time to time she would throw a glance and smiled at her newly found best friend behind the drums, Erika.

Erika smiled at Jenna back - winking, and quickly immersed in her own drum beats later. She stopped occasionally, to give space for Jenna to sing the slow part of the song and there will only be the sound of her voice and a barged in guitar strike from Drew.

She glanced at Drew who was also jumping on the stage, meeting his own adrenaline rush as this is their first time playing in the famous Warped Tour after two years of rebuilding Fade Out May again.

Erika can still remember the first time she went on a tour with the big boys from Avenged Sevenfold. It was as if it happened just yesterday. She left the bus with a heavy heart, crying as the taxi cab drove her into the route to Santa Ana, and back to her home. The first thing she did when she reached there was, looking for Drew.


Erika rang the bell and waited patiently. A faint sound of footsteps emerged closer until the door finally open with a click from the handle. Drew stood in the doorway, staring at her.

“Erika.”

She looked up to him, eyes burning red.

“Drew, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m three years too late.”

Drew closed his eyes. His heart had been broken for over and over again in the past after he suspected that Erika was turning his girlfriend into a cheating slut but he found out the truth after he overheard Jake’s conversation with Ben the other day.

“Our band…is falling apart.” He simply slurred, but there was no cold tone in his voice.

Erika approached him slowly. “I’m still here. We can build this again. We’re too talented to give up.” She placed her hand on his shoulder bravely. Luckily he didn’t growl or even let out some insulting words to her like he used to. Instead he just smiled weakly at her.

“I’m sorry Erik. For being such an asshole to you.”

Erika chuckled and hugged him tight. “I always knew you were an asshole. It’s just a matter of time you became aware of it.”

Drew laughed softly and hugged her back. They both lost the same person in their life and yet didn’t have the chance to really share their sadness. Both got lost in their own messy ways and tonight they reunited again. It was time to move on.


FOM was active again, despite Erika’s effort to balance between piano and drums. But since she was able to play piano on stage now, their songs have less screaming and more singing. Just like when Avenged Sevenfold decided to make the City of Evil album. They tried out lots of singers around their own underground circle and that was when Jenna came along.

Drew brought in his childhood friend, Chris as the bass player and he clicked with Erika right away because he reminded her of Johnny. A little bit short and underappreciated even though he was talented as hell.

Erika never saw Arin again at the college. He must have been busy being the official drummer of the best band in the world and the last time Erika heard about him was through some rumors that saying he quit college to focus on his new career.

They didn’t officially announce him as the drummer until a month later.

Once in a while she will get a visit from Valary and Michelle, and those twins were the only source of information she had. Brian or even the other members didn’t come with them. She was a bit disappointed, but she figured that they must have been on the road so much to even think about her. Michelle did invite her on their wedding but Erika couldn’t go as she was focusing on her finals at the time. But she made sure to send their wedding gift over.

Valary gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named River. Those twins just gradually stopped visiting her after that. She missed them so much. She missed Arin the most.

And now two years later, they have released a new album entitled Hail to The King. Erika bought it on the first day it was released and she could have never been more proud of Arin. His sound had matured over time and from what she read on the internet, he was quite as famous as the other members.

Erika only became someone that ‘used to be’ with them. Their fans didn’t even remember her anymore. But to her it was okay. She had no time to think about her old publicity anyway since she was so busy rebuilding and writing songs for FOM.

After so many times of being only as the opening acts for other bands like Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens and so on, FOM finally get to play in Warped Tour and there was nothing more that Erika wanted.

Well, except to meet Arin again. She heard that Avenged Sevenfold will also be performing in here but she didn’t want to get her hopes up since they were already a big name. They must have been travelling around the world by now and have no time to perform in such festival like this.

“Thank you Atlanta!!”

Jenna yelled after they had done playing their last song called Fun and Mental. Erika ran to the front stage and flung her arms to Jenna’s shoulder as she threw her drumsticks in the air. The fans caught it and screamed for them. Erika recalled the good times when she was having fun throwing drumsticks with Arin. She missed him so much. They haven’t been on a date yet, but she already missed his touch.


“Wow, did you see those moshpits? They were crazy!”

Erika grinned widely at Jenna. Somehow she reminded him of Zacky. Zacky was always being the first one to comment about the show right after they went to the backstage.

“I’m starving. Can we have burgers tonight? Please? Pretty please?” Chris said as he took off his bass guitar and pleaded to Drew.

“Whatever dude. I’m tired as fuck. I’m going to take a nap. Bring one back to me, will you?” he ordered, looking at Erika.

“Sure Drew.”

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

The three of them walked to the nearest burger joint from the pretty cheap hotel that they were staying at. Jenna and Erika swung their arms over each other and sang their heart out to Pierce The Veil’s King For A Day. They have memorized that song from watching them play on stage so much because FOM was their opening act for their 3 months tour that ended just last month.

“Hah, Erik. You have to tell us more stories of your tour with the Sevenfold guys!”

Erika and Jenna stopped singing and glanced at Chris. He had a mohawk hairstyle too, but a bit different from Johnny.

“What do you wanna know? I think I’ve finished telling you all the stories.”

“Bullshit. You only gave us stage details.”

“Yeah, Erik. We want to hear the band details. The story from inside the bus, if you know what I mean.” Jenna nudged her rib and made her flinched.

“Ow, Jen!”

She was about to slap her on the shoulder but then she suddenly froze and stopped walking. She stared ahead – there was a familiar black tinted bus in front of them now, parking just beside the street, under a flyover bridge and quite discreet from anybody’s view. She knew who this bus belonged to, since Terrance liked to park in such place like this.

Her heart pounded so hard that she couldn’t even breathe properly.

“Erik, what’s wrong?”

She snapped and blinked fast. Shortly after, she raised her index finger to the bus with Jenna and Chris turned their gaze towards her direction.

“Uh…what’s with that bus?”

“It’s – Avenged fucking Sevenfold’s.” she replied in half whisper. Both Chris and Jenna gasped and covered their mouths.

“For real?”

Erika nodded. She had never thought about finding them would be this easy. After two years, she was dying to know how are they doing. Of course they were all alive and kicking, she watched every of their concert footages online since she didn’t have time to attend them by herself. But she missed them so much that she felt like running towards the bus.

Well, she did run hysterically towards it. Jenna and Chris looked at each other before running behind her, catching up like crazy as Erika was a fast runner. The three of them stood in front of the closed bus, panting.

“Damn, Erik! You ran like a – a – ah fuck it.” Chris said, crouching down and trying to catch his breath.

“Guys, this is Avenged Sevenfold’s bus!” Erika excitedly claimed as she brushed her fingers on the shiny wall.

“You said that already.” Jenna snapped as she too was catching her breath. Damn Erik and her stamina!

“The bus looks empty.” Chris jumped, trying to peek on the window.

“It’s a tinted window. You’re not supposed to see anything inside.”

Chris gave up peeking and shrugged. “At least I tried.”

“Knock on it! Come on!” Jenna urged her, she even pushed her against the door.

“I was going to, jeez!”

Erika cleared her throat and started knocking. She gleamed at Jenna and Chris while waiting for someone to answer. But nothing happened.

She knocked again.

Nothing.

“Maybe they went out or something.”

“Oh for God’s sake, let me try!” Chris banged hard on the door with his fist. “Yo, M. Shadows! Open up!”

“Chris!!” both Jenna and Erika yelled in whisper.

“What?”

“That’s fucking rude!”

“Well, they’re not answering. And I’m hungry as hell.”
Jenna blinked at him. “What does you being hungry has to do with-”

Suddenly there was a loud groan and incoming footsteps drew closer to the door.

“I told you to call me first!” a voice shouted from inside the bus. Erika, Jenna and Chris waited anxiously.

With a loud sound of swooshing, the door finally opened automatically.

Notes

A/N: i am actually busy as fuck..but i stole a little bit of time to update this...this is for you @Leyla.lp <3