It's been 3 weeks, almost a month. Still nothing yet. Maybe they really did reject her. But then what was she supposed to do now? Go back to that hell pit of a band? Continued to be treated like shit?

Erika felt a bit furious towards her favorite band right now. Especially that Matthew Sanders, or M. Shadows. Why couldn’t he just say it to her face that she’s not good enough instead of making up lame excuses like he was worried about her getting raped by all of them? Right, they were all animals. They can’t control themselves. They were predators. Always hunt for females to fuck.

“What a fucking douche. Always see me as a fuck machine. Everytime!”

She actually wasn’t cursing at Matthew, she was cursing at her own band. They always see her as a sexual object. They haven’t been on tour yet, but if they are, then she is totally done for.
She always refused to be treated like that. She fought. She stayed sober. But she can’t forget that one night she lost it all to Jake Riley. She ended up crying in the corner of her walls, regretting everything.

That night she learned how to say no to alcohol.

Jake is the vocal of the band. He was actually good at singing when he was sober. But 90% of the time when they were on stage, he was drunk as fuck. Erika hated him so much that she wanted to just stab him in the heart with a blunt knife.

That motherfucker took her virginity the night her best friend died. She was drunk that night, trying to wash away all the memories she had of her. Jake, being the most asshole ever, brought her home and took advantage.

He didn’t know that she was still a virgin at the time, but after that he blackmailed her. If she told anyone about it, he will reveal that she was still a virgin when he took it. Erika couldn’t bear the humiliation of having to lose her virginity to that asshole, so she shut up.

Why didn’t she quit the band already, you ask?

Well, Fade Out May was the only place she could be herself. Where she could play drum, and pour her heart into it. She didn’t care that now Jake treated her like his slave, no matter how hard she fought. And Drew wasn’t of any help. He was already cold when Erika met him, and after his girlfriend who was also Erika’s best friend died, he became icier. More vulgar in his speaking, more anger towards her.

Erika always had been the victim in the band. She longed for nothing more than to find a new band, to be in a team and play drums until eternity.

“Fuck!” she cursed again, while driving to her class, when her phone rang suddenly.
“Yep?”
“Erika, where the fuck are you?”
She sighed. It was Jake. Her murderous intention was piling up high day by day.
“None of your fucking business. Hanging up.”
She hung up, but one minute later it rang again.
“Yep?”
“I just ask you a question, baby. Where the hell are you?”
Oh and Jake actually assumed that she’s his girlfriend now. Only because of that one night.
“Don’t you dare call me that! Hanging up!”
She hung up again, and by seconds later, her phone rang again.
“What the fuck do you want, Jake?”
“Woah…slow down there Miss Wesley.”

She accidentally pressed her brake when she heard that warm milk voice through her phone.
“Syn??”
“Yes, Gates here. I’m calling to tell you that-”
“I got the job?”
"Uhm, not exactly. Well, we still haven't decided yet. So I'm calling to tell you that you and one other candidate have been chosen to session with us during our upcoming Nightmare tour. We'll choose from there."
"What?! I get follow you guys on a tour?"
"Yep. But it won't be long. Just a couple of weeks throughout California."
"A fucking tour?!"
"Jeez, you killed my eardrums!"
Erika laughed, in surprised. She couldn't care less about angry honking cars that told her to get off from the streets.
"Sorry, Syn. I'm too excited."
"No shit Sherlock. Anyway, before we took off to the tour, we need to meet you guys first. Practice a couple of songs that you guys will play on the tour. Is that cool?”
“Yeah, totally!”
“So, when’s your free time?”
“I’m free tomorrow. I don’t have class.”
“Shit, you’re still in school?”
“No, in college. But I can skip off classes for a while.”
“Suit yourself. See you tomorrow.”
“But Syn, what time-”

After that he just hung up. No goodbyes, no thank yous. What a typical Synyster Gates, she thought to herself.

"I get to play in their fucking tour?! THIS IS AWESOMEE!!!" she yelled out from her window. Several cars were still honking at her and some even cussed, but she was too happy, she didn't care at all.

"But wait, one other candidate? Who could that be?"

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



Arin looked at his own phone in disbelief. He just got a call from M. Shadows saying that he’ll be touring with them soon. He would jump in excitement but he was riding a bus right now, on his way to his class. So he just stretched his hand in air, his face was scrunched up, he bit his lower lip, trying to control himself from yelling out “FUCK YEAHH”. He yelled it in his heart.

Soon the bus stopped and he got down. As soon as his feet touched ground he jumped high. His skinny and light body flew him higher than he expected.

“WOOOOHH!! WOOHOOO!!!!”

People around him looked and stared at him. He couldn’t care less. Today was the happiest day of his life.

Arin took drum major at UCLA, and he joined his current band, Confide from the people that went to school with him. In fact they will be having their last gig tonight at the usual place, seeing that the band was about to break up soon because their leader and guitarist had to move to another country.

Arin went into the big lecture hall, taking a seat at the back. He’d always sit there, and he hated this class. It was a sight reading lesson. Every major was compulsory to take this lesson so the class would be crammed as hell.

He was about to put his headphones on when he saw a familiar petite figure, wearing a black fedora hat, a blue loose shirt and a denim shorts with leather boots. Her long brunette wavy hair effortlessly fell to her chest making her the attention of the class.

Arin reached his hand up to call her, but then he thought. Will she remember him?

He’d never seen her around the campus before, not even in this motherfucking crammed sight reading lesson. Why today? Was she skipping classes a lot?

Throughout the boring lesson, Arin kept thinking about her. His ears were playing System of A Down’s music but his eyes mainly focused on her.

If she was good at drums, she must be majoring in drums then. But I haven’t seen her in any of my drum classes. Is she my senior?

“Mr Ilejay!”
Arin didn’t hear anything. His face was still frowning, he didn’t realize the professor was calling for him.
“Mr Ilejay, back there!”
All eyes were on him right now. His eyes widened. He quickly took off his headphones and stood up. He actually didn’t have to, but unknowingly he did.
“Yes, sir?”
“Come out front, and show them your drum notes. Since you’re the only drum major in here.”

Arin looked around. Not one of his classmates was there. He reached for his notations in his bag, and then threw a glance at her. She was frowning, but smiling. She remembered!


“Your notes are awesome.”
They walked out of class side by side after the lesson ended. Arin rubbed his neck shyly.
“Thanks. It’s the note for Beast and The Harlot actually.”
“Oh, no wonder it looked familiar.”
They laughed to themselves but then went silent for a while. Thinking of what to say next.
“Um, I haven’t seen you in any of my classes. Are you a drum major?” Arin finally let out his curiosity and asked her this.
“No. I’m actually a piano major. I wanna take drum major but my mom wouldn’t allow me. She said that drumming will get me nowhere.”
“Ha. Funny my mom said the same thing.”
“Moms, right? Always knew what’s best for their daughter. Or son.”
He chuckled. “Then how come you’re so good at drums?”
She looked up, watching his round eyes staring at her.

“Thank you, Arin. I’m not as good as you are I’m sure. But I learned from the best. I grew up watching Rev played, get myself a mediocre drumset and learned all by myself. My best friend also taught me a bit. Especially when FOM started to use double pedal. We experimented with it.”
“Wow, cool. Self taught is always the best.”
She smiled sweetly at him. And then she remembered something.
“Hey, I’ve got a call from Syn earlier today. Saying that I’ll be-”
“-touring with them?”
“How do you know?”
“Because I got the same call, only M. Shadows was calling me.”
“You’re the other candidate?”
“Yeah, and M said I had to come to Big Bear to jam with them first. When will you be going?”
“Tomorrow!”
“Me too!”
They were both excited that they almost hug each other. But then they just awkwardly drew apart and laughed nervously.
“This is going to be fun, Arin.”
“Yeah. Yeah it is.”
They smiled at each other.

Notes

A/N:tehehe i'm starting to like Arin :)