Her fingernails grew short because of her habit of chewing them each time she was feeling anxious. Along the way from Oxnard airport to Ventura she had been biting them uncontrollably. A lot was going through her mind right now.

Her most trusted friend – turned his back from her and became something else entirely. She swore that she thought he was gay. Well, come to think of it, he never really said that he was gay. Never really showed an interest towards a guy. But he never made a move on her either. So she presumed that he was – oh God. This is tiring.

Kimberly let out a deep sigh and leaned her head back against the backseat of this taxi cab. Three years ago, when her family decided to move here in Ventura, she hated their decision. She was loving New York and suddenly her mother took up the offer to own a heritage house from her late grandma. She hated every minute of packing and unpacking her New York things. But when she met Arin in such fateful way on the day her family stopped by to see the house, she couldn’t wait to move here.

She smiled to herself. Not realizing that the car has stopped.

“Miss, we’ve arrived.”

She jolted her head up and scanned the view from the window. Her grandma’s house still looked the same. A few flowerbeds have grown, and only the wooden fences changed. Other than that, not much. She started to think that two years was just like a blink of an eye.

“Here you go, thank you.” She handed over 20 dollars and told the driver to keep the change. She pulled her only luggage from the trunk and watched the cab moved away from her sight. Her boxes of things hadn’t arrived yet so she dragged the wheeled luggage calmly onto her front porch.

“Kim?” her mom, Susannah Andrade popped out from the flower bed, wearing her gardening clothes and studied at her direction.

“Yes, mom.”

“KIMMY!!!” the elderly woman threw a breathtaking hug towards her daughter and Kimberly can’t control her tears. She missed this, all of this. Her mom is also her best friend. Her only best friend – that would never turn back on her.

“How are you?! Oh my God, why didn’t you tell me you are coming back?! I missed you so much, you have no idea. We haven’t spoken in two weeks I thought you weren’t coming back, like ever!”

Kimberly shrugged and hugged her tightly back. “Well, I’m here now. I missed you too, mom.”
She kissed on top of her mom’s head, because that lady was a bit short compared to Kimberly’s high pumps and naturally long legs.

“How’s everyone?” She asked while dragging her suitcase along with her mom walking by her side, wrapping an arm around her waist. Her question aimed only to one thing and she hoped that her mom can fill her in on that.

“Evan’s good. But you know teenagers, always cranky. Always with the loud music. Sometimes I regret buying him those gadgets and instruments.”

Kimberly laughed, remembering her little brother who always loved metal music. He and Arin shared that interest and became buddies not long after they started dating. She sighed heavily, wondering how her mind could easily crossed a thought of Arin in just mere seconds while talking to her mother.

“Your dad, is still in grave as you know.”

“Mom! That’s not funny!”

Susannah laughed and pulled her daughter to the couch as soon as they stepped into the house. She always joked about his late husband, making sure that whenever she talked about him, it won’t be a sad and painful matter.

“So, tell me about you. How are you doing? Why are you back? What happen to your job?”

Kimberly raised her eyebrows. “I’m doing great. I’m back because I missed you. My job is…well let’s say I’m taking myself off for a while.”

“For how long?”

She leaned back and shut her eyes. “Forever.”

“What? So you’re finally considering my suggestion to find a job here?”

Kimberly nodded weakly. “I’m not going back there. It’s freaking cold, mom.”

“What do you expect? It’s almost December.”

“I like spending Christmas here. Warm and I have you around!” She hugged her mom tightly, but secretly in denial. She loved cold weather, actually. Despite cursing over her thick layers of clothes every damn time, she actually loved it. But now she was running from it. Not because of the weather, but because of Doug.

“Aww, I love Christmas when you’re around too, cupcake!”

They hugged long and in silent, until Susannah broke the one information that she had been waiting for.

“Arin hadn’t come here and celebrate Christmas at all. Did you guys break up?”

Kimberly pulled away from the hug. Her mother still didn’t know about their separation two years ago. She kept a lot of secrets from her mom eventhough she is her best friend. She just couldn’t stand seeing her worry herself over some petty news like she and Arin had broken up, or she had lost her job in Birmingham not long ago.

“It’s only two Christmas mom. Give him a break. He’s a rock star now.”

“Oh yeah! I’ve seen his picture on some posters in town. He really made it huh? I thought he wasn’t serious.”

“He’s serious, alright. Do you remember how he hurt his arm from drumming too much?”

“I remember. You were taking care of him here. It was like he didn’t have any parents to look after him.”

Kimberly laughed, picturing those memories in the back of her mind. Arin practically made her house as his second home. While she never step foot in his house although he invited her so many times before.

“I’m going to cook for you. What do you wanna eat? Meatloaf? Spaghetti? Chilli?”

She smiled at her mom who was on her feet already.

“Anything mom. As long as it’s from you.”

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




Arin threw himself on the couch in his living room, loneliness instantly roamed through the space. He woke up next to a naked brunette groupie yesterday and he ditched her in the hotel room after, not even leaving a thank you note. He didn’t mean to be a jerk; it was just a one night stand rule kind of thing. Though the girl already knew who he is.

Coming back from a long Europe tour made him exhausted as hell. He wanted to come home to someone and tell stories about his silly band mates. About how Zacky and Linda finally made up and then fought again over breakfast. About how he had to take care of River for a while when they were touring Rome because Matt and Val wanted to have a date. About how Johnny taught him some lame magic stuff that he would jeer on endlessly. And about his empty heart missing his one true love, Kimberly.

Arin shook his head, trying to wash away those thoughts, and got up from the couch. He opened the back door and a view of Huntington west coast greeted his eyes. The waves crashed loudly, seagulls crying in the sky, murmurs of surfer crowds yelling and shouting on the pipeline – it was his favorite view. He slipped on a pair of flip flop and started walking on the warm sand.

They walked hand in hand, along the beach of Santa Barbara and he couldn’t take his eyes off her, even for one second. She wore a baby blue bikini top tied to her neck and her bottom pair’s strings tied to the sides of her hips. His fingers mindlessly played with the string whenever his clasped hand reached to her side.

“Why are we staring at each other?” she whispered, but Arin can hear her crystal clear. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her properly.

“You look so beautiful.”

She let out a soft chuckle. “Why, thank you Richard Arin Ilejay. You’re not so bad yourself.”

He grinned widely as she traveled her eyes up and down to his shirtless body and only with a pair of black khaki shorts on. The coast wind blew roughly, making her long brunette hair swayed angrily across her face. He ran his hand through it, wanting to see her face a bit more.

“Kimberly Ann, I love you so much, I could die.”

“Oh, is this the part where we get married and say our vows? Shoot, I don’t have my vows with me! Give me five seconds and I’ll be done with it.”

Kimberly let go of his hand and playfully trying to get away but Arin was quick. He grabbed her waist from behind and they rolled on the sand, laughing their asses off.

“Only five seconds?! That’s how short our relationship to you? Huh?” Arin pinned her arms beneath him and bent his body over hers. She laughed hard, squirming at the same time.

“Alright, alright! Give me 5000 years and I’ll make it up to you.”

Arin smiled, before leaning in to kiss her cheek softly. He can feel her blushing under his touch.

“I can’t wait that long, baby.”

She settled her laughter finally and they gazed into each other’s eyes. The sun was setting, the tides were crashing and they were left alone.

“I love you so much, Richard Arin, I could fly.”

He smiled down at her. His dog tags hung by his neck, the tip of it touched lightly on her collarbone. Snaking his palm behind her neck, he pulled the string of her top slowly while his lips landed on her mouth. She opened access immediately and wrapped her arms around his back. Her fingers spread on his skin when he finally pulled the strings off.

In slow agonizing speed he slid the thin fabric down until her breasts revealed from under it. He pulled away from the kiss to drink in the view. His lips grew into a satisfied smile, as his eyes gazed up watching her blush.

“Are you sure you wanna do this here?” She spoke in a low voice while running her hand through his messy hair.

“There’s nobody around.” He licked his lips, eyes still gazing at her breasts.

“Arin, I’m up here.” She chuckled and pulled his chin up to meet her eyes.

Slow and gently Arin took her nipple in his mouth, while his eyes piercing sharp into hers. He concentrated on one breast at a time, feeling his groin grew when she moaned softly and arching her back too. His arms wrapped around her whole body, bringing her up so that they both were straddling each other. Still ravishing her jugs, his hands found ways to the strings beside her hipbones.

“Arin…not here..” she moaned in his ears. She was high from Arin’s playful tongue on her nipple.

“Where do you want?”

“Anywhere but here.”


Arin smirked all by himself. He did it there anyway. He couldn’t control himself. Both of them were young, and didn’t really care about doing it in public. Or, was it that he alone didn’t care about it? Anyways, beaches reminded him of that evening. He would always smile to himself, remembering that moment.

From far off, he saw a few surfers made it to the big pipeline of waves and he clapped without realizing. Suddenly his phone rang, a tune from This Means War from their latest album blared from his pocket.

“Hello?”

“Dude, I’m in front of your house. Fucking open your door.”

“How did you know I was back?”

“I’m your band’s biggest fan remember? I also know that tomorrow you guys are gonna play in Palladium, right? So open this fucking door already!”

Arin sighed heavy. “Jeez, calm down will you? I’m coming.”

“I’ve been ringing your bell for 10 minutes and -”

Arin didn’t hear anything. He just hung up and ran back to his beach house. Opening the front door, Evan was standing there. A seventeen year old teenager, wearing an ACDC shirt, a turned baseball cap on his head and a set of growing sleeve tattoos on his right arm. Arin widened his eyes at it.

“Wow, did your mom know you have tattoos?”

Evan gave him a friendship handshake or whatever, and pulled him into a hug.

“Of course. How am I gonna hide it?”

Arin landed his hands on his hips. He hadn’t seen this kid for nearly 6 months already because he’d been touring non-stop since June. He didn’t have the heart to ditch this kid behind, because they were close friends ever since he started dating his sister, Kimberly. But now that they have broken up, he’d hoped to never see Evan again. Instead, Evan became an Avenged Sevenfold’s biggest fan and kept coming to him still.

“Not gonna invite me in?”

Arin blinked at him. “Uh, sure. Come in. Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks.”

The teenager walked in, eyes wandering all over the decorations of this house. It was practically a man cave - with leather couches, XBOX and Playstation hay wired on the floor in front of the giant flat screen television, snares and cymbals randomly hung on the wall, with a pair of drumsticks making an X mark beside it and the color choices were basically either polished oak wood, or black.

“Nice cave, dude.” Evan complimented. This was his first time entering Arin’s house. They used to only meet at his own house with the company of his sister and mother, and also at the backstage of Arin’s every show.

“You wanna drink anything?”

“Yeah, a beer would be – no! I’m here to tell you something.”

Arin walked to his kitchen casually. He poured himself a glass of orange juice before turning back to Evan.

“What?”

“My sister’s back.”

Notes

A/N: huge thanks to my two lovely best friends @MeRi and @Leyla.lp who constantly supporting me through my every story. i love you guys <3 <3