Walk With Me

Erika came in as a guest tonight. Fade Out May didn’t have any gig so she just came here to watch and listen. Plus, Arin invited her earlier before they parted at the bus stop. A few of regulars there recognize her face and kept asking where the hot guys were. She rolled her eyes everytime, understood that by ‘hot guys’ they meant Jake and Drew. And probably their temporary bassist too, Ben.

Maybe she didn’t put enough dark eyeliner, or the missing snakebites piercing on her lips, or no spreading tattoos on her arms that people wouldn’t take her seriously in this punk/metal music industry. She likes the way she is now. Besides, her mom would flip the shit out of her once she starts inking her body and having snakebites on her lips.

“How are you doing ladies and gents? You guys having fun tonight?” the MC came out to the front stage and the crowd just screamed. Erika knew the MC. She always had been fond of him. He was the one that got their band to play in here.

“Tonight we will witness the last performance of a band. They will break up after this. Nothing I could do. Nothing WE could do. But tonight they promised to give you guys a great performance. So what do you guys say?”

The crowds yelled out in agree and disagreement mumbles. But the MC continued on anyway.

“So, give it up for, CONFIDE!!”

They started with a cover song from Pantera called Walk. A song that Avenged Sevenfold used to cover all the time. Erika enjoyed every bit of it. She saw passion in Arin as he played, she couldn’t help but attracted to it. She even headbanged a little beside the stage, and when she looked up she saw Arin was smiling at her, his grin was so wide it could touch his ears. She blushed a little but continued to headbang anyway.


“That was so awesome Arin! I wish I could play Walk! I’ve been practicing that song a lot but never get to play it full band!”

Again, they walked home together side by side after the gig ended. She didn’t drive this time because she felt like taking a bus. They took the same bus together since they have the same route back home.

Arin smiled watching her talk animatedly as they settled for the backseat in the bus. He hadn’t actually talked to The Rev, but he had seen him talking to the band before. He swore the way Erika talked was almost as the same as The Rev. It was like she was the female version of him.

“And you should have seen my mom’s face when she found out I’ve been playing drums secretly in our garage! She went ballistic, she smashed my drumkits with a fucking hammer! I said, goddammit mom! That drumset cost me 300 dollar!”

He got lost watching her eyes glinting with passion as she talked about her drumming experience. Her wavy hair swung gracefully when he shook her head, her fedora hat sometimes fell off and she would effortlessly caught it. His heart knocked through his ribcage hard, by watching her smile and still continued talking.

“Arin? Are you there? Hello?” she waved in front of his face.
“Huh?”
“Oh God, I’ve been talking a lot am I?” She cupped her own mouth, preventing herself from talking again.
“No, no. I was just…I-I like listening to you talking.”

Erika blinked at him. Those sentences sounded as though a confession to her. She blushed into a pink shade and quickly turned her gaze away from him.

“Um,” Arin muttered, after two stops of silence between them. Erika glanced sideways at him.
“This is my stop.” Only then she realized that the bus had stopped.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Erika.” Arin got up from his seat, straightened up his backpack and ready to leave.
“Okay. See you tomorrow Arin.” She smiled nervously at him.

Arin looked at her one last time, smiled before getting off the bus.

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Erika came home to an empty house. Her mom and dad were always out every Friday night. Sometimes she wondered where exactly they went. The good thing was, she had the house to herself.

She went to the garage first and foremost, picking up her heavy and unassembled drumkits and brought them over to the store room in the backyard. She’d always played there, but the room hadn’t enough space to store her drums.

She was at her last pieces of cymbals when she saw a pair of headlights came in through her driveway. Her watch showed that it’s almost 10 pm. It couldn’t be her parents, because they won’t be back until midnight.

The car parked and she immediately knew who that was. She grunted, and rolled her eyes at the figure who was now out of the car.


“What do you want, Jake?”
“Baby don’t you go all fierce on me now.”
“Call me that one more time and I’ll cut your pretty face.”
Jake smirked, putting his hands across his chest. He landed his gorgeous ass on the car hood. He was surprisingly sober tonight.
“Heard you went to an audition.”
Erika rolled her eyes again, continued to walk towards the store room with cymbals in her hand. Jake followed her from behind.
“Why didn’t you tell me you went to some audition?”
“Why? What would you be doing if I told you anyway?” she stopped walking, and turned to face him.
Jake snaked his hand inside his back pocket and shrugged.
“I would- I don’t know, support you.”

Erika narrowed her eyes at him. He usually wasn’t this nice to her. He’d always ordered around, asked her to pick this up, pick that up, throw this out, push that off, basically anything that he seemed too lazy to do.

“Go home Jake.” She turned her back, started walking again.
“I’m not drunk.”
“Congrats! Well, here’s a gold medal!” She replied sarcastically while finally went inside the store room. The room was big enough for the drum set to assemble, but probably not enough for two people to fit in there. Jake, being stubborn, went inside too.

Erika started to assemble her drums, screwing her cymbals on the stands, preparing her pedals and so on. Jake just stood there hands across his chest, watching her.

“Why are you still here Jake?”
“Just enjoying the view.” He commented, watching her bend as she was screwing the floor tom onto its stand. She stood up straight quickly when she realized that her ass was sticking out.
“You son of a bitch. Why are you here fucking exactly?” She curled up her fist around her drumsticks.

Jake laughed watching her raged before him. To him, this girl is just the cutest thing that her angry face couldn’t scare anyone.

“Drew sent me. He said he found out about you going to some audition without telling us. You’re trying to ditch us?”
“That would be a dream come true.”
Jake raised his eyebrows at her. “You know we’re the only one that wants you, right?”
Erika closed her eyes. That was quite true. There wasn’t any other band looking for a girl drummer right now. Not even motherfucking Avenged Sevenfold.
“Hell, I want you. I want you right now.” Jake moved closer to her. Erika’s eyes bolted open.
“I swear to God, Jake. If you come any closer I will murder you.”
Jake stopped halfway. He flashed off a smirk and put both of his hands up in the air.
“You’re so tight. Like the first time I had you.”

Her mouth dropped in disbelief. How dare he mention about that? How dare he easily let his big mouth talk about things like that?

“You raped me you motherfucker.”
“Wasn’t my fault you were a virgin.”
“I was fucking unconscious!”
Jake shrugged. This fight between them had been going on for 2 years already.
“Would you rather do it again, with both of us sober?” he asked, while seductively made his way towards her. Erika raised her hands, holding her drumsticks like a knife. It wasn’t that terrifying but Jake backed off anyway.

“Get out of my fucking house, Jake!”
He laughed cynically knowing that he will never get bored of teasing this girl.
“Well baby, I’d love to stay and fuck your cute ass right here, but I gotta go. See ya later.”
“Fuck you Jake!” She threw her drumsticks at him and screamed, but he managed to dodge it. She watched in fury as he faded in the dark.

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He played Unholy Confessions not by himself tonight. He was accompanied by his own Avenged Sevenfold’s Waking the Fallen CD blasted into his ears. He’d always knew that the riff from the left part of his headphones belonged to Zacky, and the right part belonged to Syn. Both riffs merged together in a harmonic synch later and his thumping on the toms became gradually faster after that.

He tried to follow Rev’s style, but his hands kept adding his own notes. He wasn’t sure if that messed up the song or made it sound even better.

“RICHARD ARIN ILEJAY!! STOP SMASHING YOUR DRUMS AND GO TO BED!!”

Arin groaned at his mom’s yelling from downstairs. He purposely smashed a couple of cymbals and toms just to annoy her before he finally stopped playing and crawled on his bed with drumsticks in his grip.

Through the moonlight he studied the Pro-Mark sticks in his hands. The same sticks that The Rev used in their Seize The Day tour concert, also the same sticks he let Erika borrowed the other day.

His thoughts flew over to her mindlessly. He liked watching her eyes sparkled as she blinked, her pink lips that broke into an adorable grin everytime there was something funny came up in her story.

He smiled silly to himself remembering her blushing in the bus earlier. But then he suddenly sat up straight.

“Oh shit. Did I just say that…I like her?”

Notes

A/N: guys, heads up~ i was busy with my other story so the update for this story is going to be a little bit slow~ in the meantime, tell me what you think! XD