“So…” Matt drank his wine for the first time. He was checking the three nicely dressed girls sitting in front of him at the best Italian restaurant he knew in town and let out a naughty and discreet smile with one of his eyebrows raised.

He wasn’t feeling threatened anymore by those singular women, he was comfortable actually. He’s always been good when the subject is handling the ladies, and two of them looked so shy and sweet, easy to control. The blond one seemed confident, maybe the only one that could put up a fight with his plan, he analyzed in just a few seconds. This should be fun.

Well, who knew M. Shadows would be having a date with three women at the same time just after getting engaged? Yeah, wonders that only rockstar life brings to you.

“What is this magazine about?” he asked long time after his last word.

“Well, it’s about daily life in general.” Kim answered this one as they had discussed, since she had been previously elected as the silver-tongued one of the trio. She didn’t even need a degree on journalism to be good at that. But Matt didn’t have to know about that particular fact really. “We will definitely send you a copy of it when it’s ready.”

Meike and Rye tried to disguise their surprised faces at Kim. Of course Kim was lying about everything but they were amused by the way she could do it like it was the most truthful things she was saying at Matt.

“Cool.” He drank his wine again to formulate his sentence. “But…I think I’m being too nice here so… Don’t you think I should get something in return from you actually?” he crossed his palms on the table with his thumbs holding his chin with a smirk, making even more noticeable his set of dimples and his sharp green eyes pointing at them wickedly.

Mei thought she would repay him anything he would ask with that teasing face he was showing but Welcome to The Family intro burst out from her cellphone to cut off her dirty thoughts instantly. Her face turned pink as they all had their eyes on her movements now. She looked at the caller ID, her husband. Hesitant, she just pressed the red button to refuse the call, regretting the fact she had forgotten to call Daniel that day as she promised him. Yeah, Matt effect can also have collateral damage on some cases.

“Sorry.” She apologized loud enough for everybody and texted her husband immediately: ‘busy now, we talk later, love u’. He would surely understand.

“So, going back to my question…” Matt restarted, noticing the golden ring shining on Mei’s right hand holding her cellphone. As he already noticed, she was the only one married among them. Hm, interesting.

“You win exposure, my dear Matt.” Kim replied quickly since no one dared to answer.

“Hm, yeah, exposure is good but… I don’t think that’s enough. Let’s just…make a fair deal for everyone here, okay?” he gazed at all of them, deep inside their eyes, one by one. The girls were actually starting to fear his intentions. “I would love to know more about you girls, all I know is that you are fans of our work and friends of Jess and that’s about it. So here’s my game: I answer your questions and I have the right to ask you whatever I want so I can get to know my cute interviewers better. How about that?” he was charming now, looking at them in a sweet way just to win their sympathy.

The girls traded glances between each other to figure out what to say next, cause this was a complete change of plans. But it was a fair trade, they all thought. It’s not that they had something to hide from him. Did they?

“Okay, mr. Shadows, you won this battle. So…shall we?” he nodded and snapped his fingers like warming up to some fight. The girls could only gulp.

Kim looked at her two friends with confidence transpiring her eyes. She would certainly be the one starting this round of questions with a captious and interesting one. There was a reason for Matt to want to play that game, he wanted to put them against the wall. Kim was planning to put him first.

Rye set her iPad to record their conversation on top of the table. At least they would have that whole unique experience kept with them forever. She knew she had to cool off cause it was just a fun time for them, nothing really serious, but her nervousness was completely taking over her actions. It was most likely she would never get to ask him anything, her voice would just crack and nothing would come out of it. She wanted to run away from that table now but she would never abandon her friends in there. That fact by itself was making her stronger. Damn, why did I forget my notes back home…

“Okay, let me start with an easy one.” Kim searched quickly on her tiny notebook. She definitely knew how to pretend. “We all heard a lot of crazy stories about you and the guys on the road, excess of drinking and other stuff. Can you tell us if you ever got hammered before hitting the stage?”

“Well…to be honest, back on our early days we had a lot of problems related to substance abuse, especially before concerts. I even punched the venue owner once cause he wanted to kick us out of the stage before we could end our songs. I would never do that without being at least a little plastered. But Gates and Rev were certainly the worst, if you didn’t keep an eye on them, they would tear the place apart even before the concert begins.” he smirked. “That’s why I had to come up with a simple rule: no alcohol or anything that can alter your performance on stage is allowed before our concerts. And this is valid to our crew as well. I’m pretty restrict to that particular rule now, as the leader of the band, I had to put an end to our madness. Not exactly an end, but a limit. Otherwise, Avenged Sevenfold could be history by now…”

The disguised interviewers were ecstatic with that answer. They definitely didn’t read this anywhere before. And they could hear it from his own mouth now.

“But… you didn’t say anything about the after concert…” Meike added, interested.

“Oh, well, I can try to control them before, but they are all grown men, I can’t be responsible for what happens after, you know…” Meike nodded, just trying to imagine what would be like to be at backstage partying with them. Only one word popped out on her head: insane.

“So now it’s my turn. Kimmie…” He stated. They could notice how he liked to play the boss, and how it was suitable for him. “…as your friend Jess told me, you are from Netherlands, and what I know from your country is that you enjoy some…parties in there. How much are you into that kind of stuff?” now it was his time to throw an intimidating gaze at the blonde charming woman in front of him. She chuckled.

“Oh, quid pro quo, right? I get what you mean by that. And no, I’m not that kind of person. My kind of fun is to listen to some good music, meet with nice people and travel around the world when I can. You can’t actually judge a person just by where she lives, you know.” Unlike Rye that forgot her notes, she brought her sharp tongue for tonight. Well, she was always using it, it was impossible to forget it anyway.

“Way to go, girl!” Meike texted secretly under the table.

“Nice answer!” Rye did too, holding her giggles to herself. They just glanced at each other, talking with their eyes.

“Wow, feisty… I like that!” Matt raised one eyebrow and grinned, to steer the girl’s attention back to him. “Next question, please.” He served more wine to him and the girls, who still hadn’t touched their glasses. Rye was next on the line, her hands were acting like jelly so she had to hide it under the table. Matt could clearly see she was way more apprehensive than the other two.

“So…M-Matthew…hmm…did you…” she was stumbling on her words and on her thoughts, she couldn’t remember a single interesting thing she wanted to ask him, it was all blank.

“Oh sweetie, are you okay? You seem kinda nervous. Just drink a sip.” Matt used his soft tone with Rye and pointed to her full glass. Suddenly she noticed how versatile his voice could be, so rough and so smooth when he wants. Yeah, that’s right, focus on his voice, on his music, that’s how should be your question.

“No, thanks, I’m good.” Her voice didn’t crack once. Finally.

“By the way, there’s no Matthew in here, it’s just Matt for you!” he curved his mouth to the right side in a half smile, with only one dimple showing this time. He totally had her guards down now, she was way too cute.

“Rye, just calm down, breathe and go for it. He’s all yours. Make a good one.” Meike tried to encourage her friend with a text message and a nod. Rye did what she was told and restarted, focusing her mind on the sentence from one of their songs: he’s all yours tonight.

“So, Matt.” She smiled a little bit more loosely than before. “A few songs has been leaking lately from your new Live in the LBC and Diamonds in the Rough album, so, can you tell me the story behind the song Girl I Know?”

“Oh, they are leaking already? We are launching that in a few months! Damn internet!” he cursed, signing negatively with his head. “Okay, since you heard it already, here it goes. Girl I Know is about a groupie, obviously, but I didn’t write those lyrics. Jimmy did. So you shouldn’t probably tell this to Emily...”

They all laughed.

“Well, she had been his exclusive road girl for years and they raised hell together since then. That girl affects him so much he had to write that song. I wonder what’s gonna happen now, when he’s a compromised one-girl-man. She waits for him every year on west coast, I can’t wait to see how he’s gonna handle her on our next tour.” He let out a loud cackle and broke it abruptly. “Well, we can keep my last statement off the record, right? He would rip my guts off.”

“Yeah, sure.” Rye answered with her big smile. Another set of nice info from Matt. Jimmy was so lucky they wouldn’t be publishing that. But Emily definitely deserved to know more about it, Rye thought.

“My tu-urn!” he sang. “Well, Rye… Are you really that shy or are you just playing a role here? Cause I can see deep in your eyes you liked that song and that story.” his eyes were poking sharply at hers, trying to steal the answer before she could say anything. She didn’t divert this time. She was sure of her answer.

“No, I’m not playing a role here, Matt. That’s just who I am. But that doesn’t change the fact that I liked the song and the story very much.” Woaaah, where does that answer come from?? Rye couldn’t believe her own words, her tone was provocative, she wasn’t stumbling over words anymore and she was feeling comfortable with him now. Just Matt-effect taking its toll again.

“Hm, okay, I’m gonna pretend I believe you. Next!” his naughty look went from Rye to Meike.

“Matt, are you planning to play on Germany this year?” Meike went straight to the point cause she really desired that information. If they would go to Germany, she would have backstage access now that she has her ‘contacts’ inside the band.

“Yeah, I hope so, but we are still waiting for the invitation from Rock Am Ring organization. If they don’t call us, I guess we won’t have schedule to play in Germany. So, let’s hope they do…” he crossed his arms. “Meike… I wanna know how you met Jess.”

“We met at one of the parties of Arts Institute from our college back in Germany. I was taking writing classes and she was majoring on classical piano, but from time to time she would watch a few classes of my course and we finally spoke to each other one day, on that party, because we were in fact, interested on the same guy. A guitar player, of course…” she smiled at the thought, and so did the girls. “Today I’m happily married with him, I won.” She showed the ring with pride. She just loved to remember that victory over Jess.

“Yeah, that should be the first advice a dad gives to his son. Get a guitar and the ladies will start falling at your feet.” Matt commented and the girls agreed with him with giggles. “Kim.”

“We heard you got engaged recently. But I don’t see a ring now…”

“Is that a question?” Matt felt provoked.

“Yeah, it is. In fact, let me reformulate that one. I heard you are sleeping on your band mate’s place. Can you explain me why?”

“Don’t you think this is too personal information?” he thought that question was too unfair, they had previous info.

“Well, no, our public wants to know about every detail. If you think your personal life is not part of…”

“Okay, okay, I got it. Well, my fiancée and I are having some turmoil on our relationship for now. Are you happy?” he sounded annoyed. Kim loved to be the attacker.

“So that means your engagement is on hold for a while, is that correct?” Kim licked her lips slowly. She thought that was the perfect motive to start flirting with him after being so harsh.

“Can I…skip this one, please?”

“No, you can’t. If you skip it, you can’t ask me anything. That’s your rule.” Kim was determined.

“No, our engagement is not on hold. It’s just some stupid fight I can’t even remember why, okay?” he had an outburst. Kim raised her eyebrows at him.

Kim looked at her two friends trying to control her amusement and laughter. They were too. How can he not remember?

“Yeah Kim, that’s right, we are winning this. Girl power!” Rye texted feeling on fire to make her next question. She was confident now.

“How did you meet Jess?” Matt was feeling low on creativity after being up against the wall. But he had revenge coming, he was certain that they wouldn’t beat him on that game he invented himself.

“Hm, easy one. We met at Pinkpop, we were both using the same Avenged Sevenfold shirt. We were standing in the line for your concert when we started talking out of the blue. We hit it off right away and figured out we had a lot in common, we both write fanfictions and that kind of stuff…”

“Really? Fanfiction? All of you?” they all nodded a bit shyly then threw a sharp gaze at Kim. She shouldn’t have said that. “Don’t you guys have anything better to do?” he used a mocking tone.

“NO!” they replied loud and clear, together in unison, seriously staring at him.

“Oh, okay.” He raised his palms up with a smile. The girls’ guards fell down immediately.

The four of them had a sip of the wine at the same time. Tension was rising.
Rye wasn’t used to drink so that one sip made her lips simply burst with her next question.

“What is your sex song?” Matt smirked. Meike and Kim only gave her their knee under the table, shocked.

“Wow, Rye is finally being her virtual self? I didn’t know wine had that kind of power.” Kim wrote and Meike couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Nice question. Hm, let me think. I love to hear some jazz or blues songs while making out with a girl but… there’s this particular one. Do you know that movie 9 ½ Weeks? The striptease scene? Tananã, nanã, nanananã, nanã… Oh c’mon, you know that song!” he got too excited and the girls were blushing. Of course they knew that song. It’s that they were just too busy imagining him only leaving his hat on while stripping to them on their heads. Heavenly sight.

“Yeah, we know it.” Rye took a few seconds to reply after looking at her friends. They all had perverted grins written on their faces.

“And what is your sex song, sweetheart?” Rye’s heart melted right there after his charming sweetheart. But she kept her composure, trying to formulate her answer.

“Go ahead, SWEETHEART, answer him!!!” Meike teased on the message.

“Don’t back out now! We all know your sex song, just tell him. He deserves to know.” Kim tried, hands under the table.

“Do it! Do it! Do it!” Meike completed, mouthing this words discreetly at Rye.

Rye closed her eyes, breathed heavily and just spat it out from the tip of her tongue.

“My sex song is Dear God.” She said it glaring deep inside his eyes, with all the bravery she had available inside. Matt let his jaw open a bit with his brows raised, that couldn’t be more surprising or…sweet.

“I didn’t see that coming. That’s a first!! Thanks… I guess?” his cheeks were turning into a soft pink color now. Her face was all red, she could tell, but she didn’t care. She felt relieved and proud.

They made a pause to drink the wine just to release the pressure. Again.

“So… let me start this time.” Matt looked back at Meike, he knew she was next in line, and that’s where he would take his revenge. “Hypothetically, let’s say you have the man of your dreams standing in front of you. Would you gave up that ring on your hand just to have one night with him?” Kim and Rye moved astonished to Meike. Matt had no idea that sentence couldn’t be less hypothetical now.

“Wow, wait a minute, this is not a question, this is a trap! We work with true facts here, Matt! We are professional journalists for god’s sake! We are not joking!” Meike sounded pissed now.

“Would you? Just answer yes or no, it’s almost easy.” He smirked, ignoring her sayings completely. It was almost like he knew what was going on through her mind.

“No, I’m not a cheater.” her straight answer made him relax back on his seat.

“Did it hurt?” he teased. Meike just wanted to flip him off now but she held her horses.

“Let’s see if this can hurt you. There’s been a rumor around the web that when you want to have fun with the girls on the road, you take off your ring. Is. That. True. Mr. Sanders? That’s the reason why you’re not wearing it tonight?” Meike had lasers instead of eyes now and the table had just turned into a ring battle. Literally.

“Thaaaat’s right, Mei, kill him, kill him!!! Nice catch with the ring, by the way.” Rye was too excited, texting non-stop. It was question of honor for them now.

“Headshot!” Kim added.

“Okay, girls, you got me, I surrender, I’m done with this interview. Let’s just…order, I’m starving!” he called the waiter to bring their meals with a scared face. He diverted from the polemic question but they couldn’t just oblige him to answer it, unfortunately.
Meike showed her hand to the girls under the table and they all high-fived her secretly. Rye was upset.

“Shouldn’t we just ask that question now? I need to ask one more.” Rye wrote.

“What? That question?” Rye nodded with her head. “Shit, Rye wants to ask THE question?” Mei was startled to the bone. Kim was confused but she figured out after a few hints.

“Go for it girl, you show him what you are made for!” Kim encouraged. Rye was definitely a changed person after that night.

“Matt, I have another…” when she was about to say it finally, the deliciously smelling Italian food was brought to the table.

“Enough of questions for tonight, please. Let’s eat!” he stated, practically demanding.

She was more than upset now.

“But…but…but but but… =/ ” Rye texted for the last time that night. Their friends could only try to comfort her with their pity eyes. At least they had their victory to celebrate.

---

“I can’t believe you asked him about the ring!!!” Jess had her mouth open while chatting on the guest room with her friends. She was dying to hear all about the interview.

“Of course I did, but he asked for it.” Mei answered with a huge proud grin.

“No, in fact, who started it was Kim, who provoked him with the question about the fight with his wife.” Rye remembered.

“Oh, come ooon, I needed to know more about that fight. Maybe he wasn’t engaged anymore and he and I could finally work out…” Kim showed her tongue to her friends while they laughed and threw pillows at her direction.

“Oh, no, my dear Kim, if there was something to work out in there it would be with me. Did you notice how he kept calling me sweetheart? He was so sweeeett!!!” Rye grabbed the pillow close to her and just embraced it imagining Matt in there. The room was filled with girly squeals and then a few silence warnings was given by them, cause Matt’s bedroom was just beside theirs.

“Yeah…keep dreaming you two while I go call my husband. If I don’t, I’ll probably be single like you by tomorrow morning.” Meike walked to the balcony.

“Tell him Matt says hello.” Kim teased again. Mei threw another pillow at her before going outside.

“Hey girls, I gotta get back to mr. Z’s bedroom but I definitely want a copy of that recording, ok? Sweet dreams for you, you tell me more juicy details tomorrow!” Jess got up from the bed, kissed her friends goodnight and went away.

Mei got back from the balcony with a big smile and joined her friends getting ready for sleep. They turned off the lights and each one of them lay on their beds with their eyes open wide for several minutes.

“Mei…Kim… are you awake?”

“Yeah.” They both answered.

“Can’t sleep either?”

“Nope.” They replied in double again.

“I can’t stop thinking about him. About all of them. I just…can’t believe we met them.”

“Yeah, and the fact that there’s just a wall separating him from us… It’s taking my sleep away.” Kim followed with a sigh.

Silence was built as they were all waiting for Meike sayings. She stood quiet, though.

“And you Mei, what is preventing you from sleep?” Kim asked, turning to her side to face Mei in the dark.

“Oh, I’m…thinking about Daniel. How I miss him and…” a pillow came out of nowhere to reach her belly.
“Bullshit! You are thinking about Matt either! You don’t get to fool us, girl!” Kim almost yelled and Rye started to laugh uncontrollably. Meike flung the pillow back at Kim’s head and they were about to start a fight.

“Hey, hey, hey girls, stop it, it’s late, they are all sleeping, we are gonna wake them up with our noises.” Rye said it in a whisper. They stopped the giggles right away.

“I doubt that the happy couple is having a bit of sleep now but…yeah, you’re right. What should we do now, counting sheep or telling scary stories?” Kim sat on her bed now. She could run a marathon with that adrenaline rush.

“Let’s… get some hot milk. It always helps me to sleep when I’m writing until late night.” Rye suggested.

“Hm, on those cases I rather take some bourbon but…okay, let’s see what we can find on Vengeance's kitchen.” They rose from the bed, put on their flip flops and Rye opened the door slowly, trying to make less noise possible.

When they all came out, they simply bumped into what should be their mental screensaver until the end of their lives: not-so-dressed Matt standing right there in the hall, really surprised with the fact that they were still awake and watching his naked form from top to bottom.

As their jaws fell progressively into the ground level, he tried to hide his private parts with an embarrassing smile. But it was too late, they had already seen the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They had seen it enough to remind them why they weren’t exaggerating when using those words to describe him on their fanfictions.

“I… forgot my towel… and…” his hands couldn’t even cover it all to the girls delight. Rye tried to divert her gaze but she couldn’t move her eyes from him.

“Okay, we…were just…going to…” Mei tried to formulate a sentence but not really possible now. Her thoughts were frozen.

“…to the kitchen…” Kim couldn’t help but lick her lips with a tiny smile beginning to form.

He scratched his head a bit and quickly remembered he still had a towel to get. He went inside his bedroom and arranged it around his waist before going back to find those girls standing still at the same place, with the same startled faces as they were before.

He didn’t see but Kim mouthed 'nice ass' before he could get back. They all wanted to have that view since Seize The Day video. And they even had extra now.

“So…yeah, girls, the show is over, you can…continue with your lives now that you…know EVERYTHING about me.”

Their lower heads stopped thinking as the main brain came back to work properly on them. Yeah, for those who didn’t know, girls also have lower heads. Especially for Matt.

“Let’s…go…” Kim embraced her two friends, forcing them to turn their backs and head to the stairs. It was just too hard to leave that masterpiece behind them.

“Hey ladies… can you keep this between us? I mean, can you not use it on your article, please?” Kim didn’t let them turn back to him, she held Mei and Rye tight, making her as the only one who could turn her head to give another peek at that sculptural body of his.

“We’ll see, Matt. We’ll see.” The evilest smile was written on her face as they begin to climb down the stairs. “I guess your big question has just been answered, my dear Rye!”

The three girls laughed loud and looked back just one more time before finally disappearing on Matt’s worried sight.

Sleep was definitely out of question for those girls now. They had a lot to talk about.

Notes

hahahah soooo!!!! Please tell me u liked this! It was soo fun and so hard to write it but I guess that last scene is worth it all, right girls? :3 :3 hahahah

Girls, I really gotta thank you all for that interview, cause every single thing you asked is extremely important to the story and will be eventually used. So pay attention to the next chapters! =p

And as Kim would say, enjoy the ride cause...storm is coming up... ;D

love uuuu!!! <3