“Here you go. Thank you again, Arin.”
Arin took the Pro-Mark drumsticks from her hands and smiled at her.
“How did it go?”
“Okay, I guess. Well, you’re the last one apparently.”
Arin looked around. Those tattooed men and tough guys were gone. Only him and Erika were left in the studio’s lobby.
"I know who you are now. I thought I recognize you." she started when they both stood in silence for a moment. He raised his eyebrow.
"You're-"
“Mr Ilejay.” Zacky called from the recording room’s doorway, cutting off Erika's sentence and Arin stood up straight.
“Oh well, Vengeance is calling you. Good luck!”
“Thanks, Erika.” He smiled watching her go before he went into the room, feeling his stomach fluttered. He wasn’t sure the nervous in him came because of the audition, or because of the pretty girl that bid him good luck.

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

Synyster Gates aka Brian Haner Jr took a sip from his Heineken beer. He was reading a Revolver magazine which was sent to him this morning over by the patio. Michelle, his fiancée was in the backyard with her twin sister, Valary, cooking barbeque for dinner tonight. The boys will be over, continuing the tradition of taking turns having dinner at each of their home every Friday night.

This magazine was the last issue of them being on the cover with Jimmy. He can still imagine Jimmy acting crazily around the studio during the photoshoot. They all laughed at his actions.
He read the highlight on Jimmy’s quotes.

My life is kinda like a story that if I told you about it you wouldn’t believe. It would seem like a fiction. That’s me.

He closed his eyes for a moment. His heart still heavy, he missed that fucker really bad. At these times, Jimmy would come over and bring his 12 pack beer and they will listen to his crazy story for the day. He opened his eyes.

“Hey dude! I brought you a turkey!”
“Why the fuck a turkey? Today’s not Thanksgiving!”
“I want to eat a fucking turkey! Michelle, cook it for me!”
“Rev, we’re having pasta tonight. End of story.”
“But I want a fucking turkeyy!”
“Alright alright! Stop shouting. I’ll cook your fucking turkey! What else you got?”
“Guess what? I brought you two of them! Haha!”

He laughed softly to himself remembering that scene. Moving images of Jimmy vaporized into thin air like smoke. He felt hot behind his eyes, but he refused to cry. Not again. He didn’t want Jimmy looking down and saw him being sad. He lighted his Marlboro up and put down the magazine on the table. He already heard Matt and Zacky’s voices at the front so he moved towards there.

“S’up guys. Barbecue tonight. S’okay?” Brian hugged them both briefly.
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever man. As long as you’re not the chef.” Zacky replied, handing over his 12 pack beers. Apparently tonight was his turn to buy beers.
“Where’s Johnny?”
“He got stuck in traffic. Might be a bit late. Val’s here?” Matthew took off his aviator and went in casually, because he got so used to Brian’s house a long time ago.
“Yeah, at the back with Chelle. I’m gonna go upstairs and change.”

Brian went off upstairs, leaving Zacky and Matthew to look for the backyard themselves. Zacky too had gotten used to this house ever since Brian bought it. He slept over so many times, running from his little problems, or just hanging out with him.

They both soon found the twins who were fighting with smoke from the grill. They both coughed hard when they entered the backyard.

“There you are wifey. You left without me.” Matthew went ahead for his wife, Valary and kissed her briefly on the lips.
“I wanna help. Sorry baby.”
“That’s okay. What’s on the menu?”
“Well, pretty much barbecue stuff. Meat, chicken, kebabs, some vege.” Michelle replied him while still turning over the steak on the grill.
“You both look tired. Let me and Zacky do that.”

Zacky was about to light his own cigarette but stopped halfway when Matthew mentioned his name.

“What, Syn didn’t help?” Zacky reluctantly putting back his cigarette in the box and got up.
Michelle rolled her eyes. “He’s a fucking diva. He only orders. As if you don’t know him.”
“Ha. But you’re the one marrying him. Sucks to be you.”
Michelle stuck her tongue out to him and went inside, looking for his fiancée.

She went into the bedroom and saw Brian’s clothes laid on the floor. Later she heard the sound of water running in the shower. She picked up his clothes and put them into the laundry basket.

“Brian, darling. Come down soon okay? Dinner’s almost ready.”
She waited in front of the shower, but there was no answer. She tried again.
“Honey, you’re okay?”
Then she heard a loud grunt, followed by a sobbing noise. She immediately went in easily because Brian always showered without locking the door.

Michelle found him sitting in the corner of the shower cube, water running down his naked body and he was crying. He cried so hard with both of his hands pulling out his own hair.

“Brian!” she rushed over to him. He quickly looked for her embrace and when he did, he hugged her tightly. He cried into her shoulder. Michelle was getting wet too, so she turned off the shower.

Brian had been this way ever since Jimmy was gone. Michelle was devastated too, but she couldn’t be sad forever. Not for the both of them.

“Hush baby. Please don’t be like this. It breaks my heart.”
“I-I couldn’t Chelle. I kept thinking about him. All those auditions made me think of him even more.”
“Who says you can’t think about him, baby? You will always gonna think about him. You will never forget him. And that’s the most beautiful thing. Your friendship with him.” She comforted, rubbing her hands down his muscular back.
He pulled away, his eyes red but staring into her eyes.
“But you gotta let go of him. He has his own journey from now on. You have yours.”
His pupils moved, looking for truth in her words. She was right to the bullet. Everytime he broke down like this, she will always come to the rescue.
“Don’t leave me Chelle.”
“I’m not. I won’t. I love you so much, asshole.” She took his face and kissed him passionately right there.
“It’s dangerous for you to shower alone. Next time, I’ll shower with you.” She stated casually after pulling away from the kiss. Brian raised his eyebrows at her. He thanked God he was going to marry her.

After they both showered and changed, they went downstairs and the table was ready. Johnny was also there, with a girl beside him.
“Hey Lacey!” Michelle hugged Johnny’s girlfriend right after she parted with Brian.
“Hey, Chelle!”

Michelle always liked Lacey. She wasn’t like any of the girls that Johnny used to bring over. Lacey was more normal, and didn’t care that he is a fucking rock star. She just loves him for who he is.

“So much for a host! What took you so long, Syn? You guys were fucking?” Johnny complained when Brian went over to greet him. Hearing that comment, Brian punched his chest. Johnny flinched on the impact, thought it wasn’t a strong one.

“Faggot.” Brian mouthed to him and cockily walked to his seat, next to Matt and Michelle.
Throughout the dinner, they all shared their crazy story for the day or the week, since they’ve seen each other almost everyday that they ran out of stories. This tradition started from Jimmy. He was the one with the crazy stories. They always loved listening to him talking. Now each and every one of them wished, they would give anything to have that back.


After dinner, the four of them engaged in a discussion about their drummer audition. They sat around the wooden table by the patio with beer bottles and a bowl of fruits in front of them. Valary, Michelle and Lacey were inside, watching a movie, not giving a damn thing to what they were discussing.

“Anyway, so far we have five outstanding candidates. One of them is a girl.” Matthew started, being the chairman of the meeting.
Johnny’s eyes lit up. “Oh, is she cute?”
“She’s as cute as a button. Probably too young for you.”
“Who says it’s for me?” Johnny leaned back and sipped up his beer.
“For who then?” Zacky asked.
“For you, you’re single right?”
“Just recently. Not looking for a new one.”
“Hah. Who knows? She might just be the one for-”

“Guys, guys! We’re discussing here. This is exactly why I don’t want to hire that girl.”
They all went silent after Matt cut them off. Matt looked at each of them before continuing.

“This is serious guys. We can’t fall apart. The fans are counting on us. We just released Nightmare and we’re booked until the end of the year. Can you believe that?”
They sipped their own beer, still in silent. Letting Matthew took over completely.
“We need to find a new drummer. We can’t count on Portnoy all the time. He has his own fucking band, and they’re booked too.”
“Okay, okay Mr Grumpy Leader. What do we got?” Johnny took the paper containing list of names in front of Matthew.
“There’s Warner Thomas, he’s…okay I guess. He can play Beast and The Harlot, but totally out of textbook.”
“Yeah, I can tell he memorized the beats like he was taking a fucking exam or something.” Brian said, while lighting up his Marlboro.
“Then there’s Ruben Graham. Big guy with tattoos. Hell, one look at him you will think he’s one of us.”
“Yeah? A biker?”
“Probably. By the looks of it.”
“How did he sound?”

Mainly because Johnny wasn’t there at the audition so they had to describe the candidate to him.

“He can play alright. But more of a darker stuff, like Slipknot or Korn or something.”
“Yeah, a bit out of beats if you ask me.” Brian cockily gave his opinion, again.

“After that we met Daryl Humming. Oh Daryl Daryl.” Matthew chuckled to himself, so did Zacky.
“What? Why? Why are you smiling? Was he good?”
Brian snorted. He exhlaled the smoke from his nose accidentally.
“He’s good alright. Need a little bit polished and he’s there.”
Matthew and Zacky couldn’t control their laughter.
“What? What happened? You’re fucking killing me here!”
“He’s fucking gay. He has the hots for Syn.” Zacky told Johnny then he and Matthew burst out laughing. Brian mocked their laughter and gave off his middle finger to them.

Johnny’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. Actually Brian wasn’t a bad looker. He was the hottest member in the band. There’s no wonder gay guys always go for him.
“What did he do to you, Syn?”
Matthew settled in his laugh and explained. “Well, we would hug everyone that went into the room, regardless guys or gals,”
“-or gay guys.” Zacky cut him off and snorted out a laugh after. Brian hooked his arms around Zacky’s head and rubbed his perfect hair to a mess.
“Not the hair, not the hair!!”
“Cut the crap guys, what happen?!” Johnny stood up halfway, eager to know what really happened next.
“Anyways, I hugged him. And smiled, like I did to everybody. Then he kissed me. On my fucking mouth.” Brian explained for himself casually while his arms still hooked on to Zacky’s struggling head.

Johnny burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that he got up from his seat and continued to roll on the floor, pressing his stomach.
“Come on, not that funny.” Brian finally let go of Zacky, and sipped his beer. Zacky fixed his hair back watching Matthew and Johnny laughing hard.
“It’s pretty funny. You gotta admit.”
“Looks like the wedding cancelled eh, Syn?”
The three of them laughed again. Especially Johnny. Boy he was so happy he found something to get back at Brian. He’d always been bullied by him. He used to get bullied by both Brian and Jimmy. Those two were like the devils towards him.

“Ok guys, enough. Let’s continue.”
Johnny finally settled down and found his seat back.
“Next we have the girl. Her name is Erika Wesley. She’s so perfect that I am scared to even hire her.”
“Why not?” Johnny asked, still catching his breath.
“She synched with Brian perfectly on Second Heartbeat. I feel like I’m watching them live.”
“Well, we were playing live.”
“I mean on stage. She’s on fire dude. You should’ve seen her.” Zacky looked up, imagining the petite girl got lost in her drums so easily. He was amazed by it.

“Then why the hell not her?”
Johnny asked and Matthew rolled his eyes.
“Because she is a motherfucking girl. A female. The one with vagina. Get it?”
Johnny looked down for a while and shrugged. “So?”
“See, Matt? Johnny didn’t mind. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a problem.” Zacky threw in his opinion.
“But then there’s another. Arin Ilejay.” Brian cut off suddenly.
All three of them glanced at him. Matthew and Zacky nodded in agreement.
“Arin is as amazing as Erika. Both of them are.”
“I saw Jimmy in Arin.” Brian was spacing out, but he stated this softly. Almost close to whisper but they all can hear him.
“You saw- Jimmy?”
Brian looked up. “What? Uh, forget what I said. So who are we gonna choose?”
Matthew narrowed his eyes at him, but continued on.
“Looks like we need to have a battle.”

Notes

A/N: well there you go. i plucked up my courage and update this for you guys!! tell me what you think guys! <3