I spent the entire week preparing myself for that moment. I was finally getting into the studio Avenged Sevenfold recorded their albums and rehearsed frequently and secretly every week. My palms were sweating and my breathing was unstable, that was multiplied by hundred in comparison with last time I met them backstage. I had never been that anxious before, not even when I get into stage to play. Damn, I need to control myself.

“…and don’t take them too serious, they tend to mock. A lot. I’ve already told them you are my girlfriend and that you follow our work so, you don’t need to worry about any further explanations. Certainly you’re gonna like them…Wow, your hands are wet!” Jimmy was blabbering since we got out of my house, I could sense he was as nervous as I was. He was dragging me straight to their rehearsal room, where they would all meet.

“I can’t help it, I’m nervous, Jim!” we’ve stood at the door and before we opened it, he kissed me calmly. Yeah, better now!

“You have nothing to be nervous about. You’ll soon find out that they are a pain the ass and are nothing like you probably imagined.” he chuckled slightly and I patted his shoulder in response. They couldn’t be that bad!

The door suddenly opened in sort of a déjà-vu moment, but it was Zacky that appeared this time.

“Heeeeeey lovebirds!! What are you doing out here? Already thinking of blowing us off to have sex?” Zacky beamed with a Heineken in hands and facing us both.

“Why didn’t we think of that before, Ems?” Jimmy smirked and not before gently pushing Zacky out of our way with the back of his hand, he pulled me to get in. “Oh, I almost forgot, Zacky, this is Emily, my girlfriend. Emily, this is Za…oh, what the fuck am I doing, I think that this sucker needs no introduction, right?” I grinned towards Zacky and showed my hand. I was finally meeting the lefty one, I just couldn’t freaking believe it.

“Nice to meet you, mrs. Rev!” my eyes widened in response to my new nickname. I had already been promoted to Rev’s dynasty? Cool! “Oh, and...nice tats by the way!” he completed while we were heading to the air-conditioned room. Wow, it was damn cold in there!

“Thanks Zacky! Nice to meet you too!” I got a little embarrassed with his comment but I smiled while still being pushed by Jimmy. Then my now giant eyes were admiring every single detail that musical paradise had to show to me and I didn’t even noticed Jimmy was far away now, with one of the tech guys. Music instruments, cables and big amplifiers everywhere. But the guy who really could bring up the magic with that stuff was approaching me right then.

“Hey! I think we met before, but not in the right way, huh?” Syn came closer and extended his hand towards me, with a half-hearted smile. In his other hand, was laying his wonderful black with red stripes Schecter and as I was staring at it, I felt the strong grip of his hand. Now it was time for righty to cause brain damage on me.

“Yeah...so, you remember me...” I didn’t know exactly what to say and couldn’t know for sure where I should leave my eyes, on his gaze or at his marvelous guitar. I kept thinking how much I liked how they sound, so I kept trading glances with them both. What did I just say? Control yourself, would ya? You don’t wanna play the frantic fangirl now, do you?

“Of course I do, how could I forget the only and first girl Rev steals from my sight?” Brian grinned and faced Jimmy that was now by my side, all protective. What was that all about? First girl? Steals? They kept exchanging ironic smiles at each other while I was getting uncomfortable. They really are best friends, right?

“Hey, I haven’t stolen anyone from anybody, she already had me on her sight, okay?! Behave, Haner.” Jimmy ruffled Brian’s spiky hair and got a grip on my hand again, taking me to the other side of the room. “Her name is Emily, by the way!” I was being pushed side to side by him but couldn’t care less, I was totally high breathing in the same air they were.

“Wazzup Shads, this is my Emily!” Jimmy strangely changed his words to present me then, he seemed more thrilled than I was now to show them I was his girl. For how long he had been girl-less? Like, 50 years?

“Welcome to our humble bat-cave, Emily! Well, as I can see the cover of City of Evil nicely tattooed on your arm, I presume you know my name.” Matt grinned showing his famous dimples that could cause some serious catastrophes to relationships. But they weren’t working their magic on me, at least. I mean, he was surely gorgeous but…my brain stayed intact with just previous damage when I shook his hand.

“Oh, you presumed well! It’s Johnny, right?” I tried an infamous joke and they both laugh.
“I think you missed a few meters!” Matt kept smiling and pointed Johnny’s height on his own waist. We laughed even more while Johnny was coming towards us, all cheerful and jumpy, with his bass already placed on his shoulder.

“What did I miss?” he threw me a silly face and didn’t stop staring at me, being that sort of medieval court clown I’ve always thought he was.

“The joke’s on you, as always, shorty!” M chuckled, tidied his mic up on his mouth height and began to make final repairs for their start.

“Which of the fuckers this time?” I tried to hide behind Jimmy as an irritated Johnny was staring at him.

“Answering your question, Christ, this is my girlfriend, Emily. And don’t ever call her a fucker again or I’ll smash your tiny brains into the ground!”

“Oh, so you barely here and is already making fun of me?” Johnny offered his hand together with a poker face as I instantly felt my cheeks redden. Oh, damn these first impressions, he didn’t like me at all. “This one is a keeper, huh, Rev!?” suddenly he burst his serious traits with a wide laugh letting me finally breathe properly in relief. What the hell?

“Yeah, she fits right in.” Jimmy glanced at me and brought me a little peck to my mouth and a bottle of Heineken he had taken from the freezer. “Ems, I gotta go straight up my drum stuff, you can stay anywhere you want. There’s a couch behind the recording table on that other room but you can stay inside with us. Just prepare your ears, it’s fucking loud!” he kissed me quickly and started to run to his almost set drum kit. “As soon as we finish a few songs, we are out of here to do whatever you want!” he winked and started to set his hi-hat cymbals.

“Okay, James, you can be sure it’s not a torture for me to listen to my favorite band play live on this amazing recording room. I’m just gonna stay outside, okay, it’s fucking freezing here!” I headed my way out as I noticed Gates quite annoyed by the excessive noise around him. He was all alone, tuning his guitar and sitting close to his amp trying to hear the sound despite the turbulent surroundings. Although he had a bottle of Heineken by his side on the floor, he didn’t seem loose at all. Something was definitely bothering him.

My eyes decided to left him and began to pace around the entire room through the sound proof glass window: Matt testing his mic with ‘shh, shh, sound’ and being helped by his tech guy, Johnny and Zacky talking about something and stretching out their hands on their respective fretboards and Jim warming up with his typical 360º superfast drumsticks rotations, bumping them into the air afterwards. As I watched that perfect landscape, I couldn’t help but smile. How I wished my band was that united and comfortable to be with…

“Is everybody ready? Syn, how’s it going in there?” Matt asked still testing his mic, allowing the sound of his powerful voice to come out on the speakers. Brian, clearly stressed out with his Schecter, made an ‘ok’ sign with his hand followed by a dissonant and distorted chord with a real sharp pinch harmonic to finish his show-off time. I hadn’t drooled like that since kindergarten.

I stared at him to show a little of my amazement and he arched one of his eyebrows with disregard. Ohh, guitar players, don’t try to understand them, don’t try to deal with them!

“So, all set up, let’s go! One, two, three, four…” Jimmy counted with his sticks and they finally exploded with Burn it Down. Brian didn’t even got up from his chair, just played there like he was bored as hell despite that inhuman speed Jimmy was putting out. He was so intriguing and fascinating at the same time and, as I usually do when I’m face to face with an excellent guitar player, I would disconnect my ears from everything else that wasn’t guitar like. I wasn’t even listening to Jimmy’s incredible passages on it, my ears were all just for that guy with languid eyes and no makeup on. Now I could see traces of sadness and frustration on his sober eyes. Too much sadness, maybe?

After leaving Brian and his temper, my eyes just fell over that enormous recording table, I had never seen anything like it my entire life as a musician. Full of channels, Pro Tools opened in a giant screen. The ‘garage like’ studio me and my band always rehearsed was shit compared to this one. Our mixer was rented and it was just half size of that one, some of the channels sometimes just failed.
Our recordings used to have lame quality, nothing compared to those pure and crystalline notes I was hearing there.
My dreams coming true, who knew that it would happen like this, so sudden? How I wish Jess was here to witness this soul-lifting moment. She was busy with her own rehearsal stuff anyway.

I was in the verge of turning my fangirl mode on when I heard that killing sequence with Afterlife, Almost Easy and Scream. At the end of each song, Jimmy would show his sharp blue eyes to me accompanied by his thumbs up, asking me if it was good. They were pro, for god’s sake, how could I ever say it wasn’t at least incredible?

But something was annoying me a while ago and then it started to disturb my senses even more in the middle of Scream. If my perfect pitch ear wasn’t at its worst days – something hard to happen –, I believed Syn’s D string was getting progressively out of tune. Every inch of my body was begging me to tell them, it was like a physiological need to say it. But how could I do this without offending the huge ego of wonderful and unique Synyster Gates? In fact, he knew damn well how to tune his own guitars, certainly he didn’t need me, a mere honky-tonk guitar player. He would think I’m just an intruder and maybe this wouldn’t be healthy for our possible friendship in the future. And of course I was planning to be his friend, eventually anyway, the guy was my goddamn idol! I was totally between rock and a hard place inside of me by the time the song ended.

I could hear some discreet yammering between their mics then, followed by frowned faces.
They had noticed it too, that wrong sound, mainly Zacky. But Syn kept his mouth shut the entire time and just stayed there, listening to every complaint without even accounting for anything. I could read in his face he was embarrassed. But why, exactly? All he needed to do was tuning it again, simple like that.

“Let’s try Scream again…let’s get it right this time! Syn, cheer up, dude!” Matt stated loud and clear and they restarted. The first two chords had sounded bad again and everybody just stopped playing, not knowing what was really happening. As Jimmy was caught up in my sight, I was brave enough to finally signalize ‘can I speak?’ to him. He nodded and showed me with signs the big button on the table and I pushed it, without thinking twice. If I wasn’t spitting it out now, I would never sleep peacefully again.

“Hey, guys, sorry for interrupt, can you hear me?” I stated a bit shyly and they nodded in agreement. Brian looked deeply at me, curious about what I was going to say. “So…Syn, don’t take this the wrong way but…I think your D string is sort of…out of tune?”
Syn frowned in disagreement and I could read his lips forming ‘What?. God, that guy was definitely going to hate me forever for this!

The guys went from me to Gates in matter of seconds with their eyes. Brian, in the other hand, just pretended he didn’t have a clue about what I was talking about. For sure, he knew.
When that moment was starting to get even more awkward, everything just vanished. I could still see them, of course, but couldn’t hear a thing inside that room.

Oh no, I blew it!

---

Inside the room, Syn discreetly pressed a button on the wall, close to him, turning off all the microphones connected to the watching room. After a red light warned everybody, he started:

“Rev, you need to tell your little nosy girl to stop saying stupid things she doesn’t even have a fucking clue about it, okay? That’s exactly why I always say not to bring girls around here when we are fucking working…” Syn finally said something, showing his bad temper even more now, but just on his tone, not on his features. He took a sip of his beer and kept staring at nowhere while everybody was looking at him and wondering about his defensive behavior.

“She plays guitar for living too, man… Don’t you think you should stop being such a stubborn and stuck-up child and start listening to what she has to say?” Jimmy answered him promptly, feeling offended by his friend. Jimmy didn’t want to show Emily they were fighting so he kept his composure too. Why the hell were they acting like this with each other for weeks now?
Matt, Zacky and Johnny traded surprised glances with each other. Brian simply arched his eyebrows to Jimmy again like he just didn’t care about that information. But deep inside, he was surprised.

“And you never said to not bring girls here...” Johnny added, turning Brian’s gaze into a killing eye laser towards him.

“Okay, okay, suckers, you won! My fucking guitar tuner isn’t working, I only found out about this before we started, and I’m tuning it on ears today, are you guys happy now? Give me a break…”

“That’s why you need a tech right away... Why did you fire the last guy anyway?” Matt stated and Syn shrugged. Brian couldn’t even remember why he didn’t like the previous guy.

“But if you tuned it right, why the hell is it out of tune now?” now Zacky asked what everybody wanted to know and they waited for an answer. Syn looked at concerned Emily through the glass and thought about how easily that ordinary girl made him get so embarrassed in front of his band mates.

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!!” Syn finally yelled at Zacky and started to re-tune his guitar again. That damn D string had always been his weakness, since he was a kid. Actually, he never had good skills with pitch, his ear wasn’t as good as his agility, he didn’t need a cocky unknown girl to tell him that. And he was always able to deliver it. But there was something wrong that day, that piece of wood with metal strings just decided to mess up with his temper now. He would tune it at the end of each song and it would go out of tune minutes later, for unknown reasons. He had no idea what was happening even though he knew his guitar like the palm of his hands. It was definitely pissing him off.

And how the fuck did she know that it was precisely the D string? Lucky guess, maybe? Or meticulous veteran knowledge? He had no certainty at that point. All he knew was that Emily couldn’t take her watchful eyes out of him the entire rehearse. Although she wasn’t just watching HIM, the Synyster Wonderful Gates, as any fangirl would do. She was watching every move his fingers made sliding through that fretboard, his sharpness, his notes, the range of intensities he used to press the strings in certain parts of the songs, his sensibility. Emily seemed bewitched by his hands, not by him! This fact alone proved she wasn’t just a beginner. She knew what she was talking about and Brian was both annoyed and surprised at the same time.

He finished his tuning one more time and finally pushed the button to release the audio to the other room again. With that cue, Jimmy recounted and they were ready to blow the speakers again with Scream. But again, it was all ruined by the end of the song. Brian had enough, he was in the verge of screaming himself when Emily got into the room. He swore he would throw her out of there if she said anything. “Who the fuck she think she is?”

---

”Sorry to interrupt again, guys... I know you were probably talking bad about me and how I’m intrusive and shit like that but I don’t care… I think I know why your guitar is not holding it.” I couldn’t just stand there watching them losing their time, money and temper with that simple problem, I felt like I needed to help someway. I knew they were good. But there are some things you learn from your own experiences. Their curious eyes were all ears now. Even Brian’s.

“One of these days me and my band played in a pub called ‘Frozen Cube’. And yep, they had the tradition of always letting the air conditioner programed to work at 5ºC in the middle of Long Beach. Then I noticed I had to tune my guitar over and over again at the end of each song.” as I was talking, I grabbed the air conditioner remote and increased the temperature at 20ºC. “So I had to ask them to raise the temperature at least a little and it worked. Today is like, 30ºC outside, is abnormal for our city, we are at the sea level, high humidity. With conditions like that, sudden changes in temperature can cause wood shrinking and your strings won’t hold all the tension, getting easily out of tune. Sorry but I guess you’ll have to sweat this time, guys…” I showed my best wise smirk and after my long speech I winked at Jimmy, who revealed a proud smile for me. “So…now I’m gonna shut my mouth and I promise I won’t bother you again, sorry…Gone!” I went out immediately and observed them through the glass again.

They were all staring at me still. I could even see Johnny’s jaw quite dropped. Matt just revealed that dimpled smile he could never hide, nodding his head and Zacky giggled at Brian’s direction. On the other hand, Brian kept showing that dead fish look, as if he just couldn’t give a tiny rats ass about me or my statements. At that moment, I knew that it was going to be the hardest job to win a place at his heart. I would’ve never thought I would start with the wrong foot with my acclaimed guitar god. But wait a minute…I was there for Jimmy, right? And Brian would have to deal with my presence, like it or not.

Brian tuned his guitar for the last time and they resumed their pace, with no more mistakes or delay. Tight tunes, beautiful due solos, everything was pitch perfect now. I was right and back to my own paradise, finally!
After a few more songs, they decided to have a break. They all went out to smoke but Jimmy, who came running to me and Matt, who had quit smoking recently. They were very sweaty and hot, seeing them like this, with their shirt tight to their bodies and revealing their muscles to my eyes flooding with female hormones. Oh God, that was too much for one day!
I tried to control my dirty thoughts as soon as Jimmy approached me.

“Hey, Ems, how was the tuning this time? Do you wanna check out my toms? Maybe they were a little loose at this final song, I dunno, did you hear it?” he was mocking me and kissing me all at the same time. Of course he would say something… I giggled at him and rolled my eyes.

“I’ll check whatever you want, silly boy!” I pecked back and he pushed his body away quickly after.

“Don’t touch me, I’m soaked! I need a shower right away! We were all melting inside that room after your ‘little modifications’ on the air. But it’s okay, it’s for the band’s sake, I know…” he said while drying himself with a towel. “And for yours too, right?”

“What you mean?” I asked without a clue about that naughty look he was sending me.

“I can imagine how fun it was for you to see five tattooed and muscular guys like us giving our hearts out on our instruments, sweating like crazy in front of you. But hey! No, I’m not jealous at all, okay?!” my hand slapped his shoulder instantaneously in response. My face blushed and I crossed my arms, trying to hold up my laugh.

“Ohh, muscular guys… So you’re not including yourself at this, right?” I teased him back while I pretended to check out Matt’s body on the other room. He showed his tongue to me with a grimace and just threw the now wet towel in my direction. Oh, it’s time for revenge now! “Don’t you think I’m washing it for you! Maybe I can wash Matt’s though...” I threw it back on him and winked. He let out his most adorable grin and nodded in disagreement.

When Jimmy was coming closer to hug me, we were surprised by the guys coming back from outside, laughing about something. I nodded at him and shrugged before saying:

“What can I say!? One day at the gym for some girls it’s a day at the studio with Avenged Sevenfold to me.” I smirked before being dragged by Jimmy’s hand inside their room again. He pulled me a chair and we all sat in an almost circular form. The guys were taking more bottles of beer and passing through.

“Hey, fellas, Emily confessed secretly to me that seeing us playing is like going to a gym full of sweaty and strong men and watching them training. So I think we still got it, huh!?” Jimmy said in a funny voice, exposing me like never before and everybody laughed. I felt my face blush even more, it was on fire now. I hit his arm again but a little harder. “Ouchh!!”

“Hey, who says to slander me in front of them!! I didn’t say that...exactly!”

“You didn’t say it but I bet you thought about it…” Matt enjoyed the gap and they nodded in his agreement. Oh, now I was their little joke! “You were so damn concentrated on our songs that Jimmy won’t even need to work as hard on the bedroom as he did here…” I definitely had never felt that embarrassed in my whole life with Matt’s comment and their giggles. But then…I had never felt more like home.

“Oh damn, I’m just a big fan of good music and I’ve always been madly in love with it. Believe me, in spite of your beauties bringing that much attention to the girls, some people can actually enjoy your songs just for the high it arouses on our hearts. It’s something quite powerful, you know, that energy you guys create for our bodies and souls…” they all just stared at me quietly and paralyzed, reflecting.

“Wow, that was deep, Ems!” Johnny finally broke the awkward silence, making my nickname sound sweet on his voice. “Thank you!”

“No, thank YOU!” I answered with a gratitude smile. Brian’s dark brown eyes were indecipherable to me.

“Besides…we need to thank you for that big catch with the cold air thing. After all those years of rehearsal, we rarely exaggerate on temperature like this, in fact, it’s not really good for my voice either.” Matt said looking at Syn, almost begging him to say something nice there. He just continued to stare at his beer. Yeah, I was more than convinced already that indifference and hostility is all I would be receiving from him. It’s impossible to please everyone…

“Oh that was nothing, Matt… What so many years on the road can bring but bad experiences, right?”

“God, don’t even start!” Zacky added, half-hearted smile. “What is the name of your band again?” my heart raced with his interest. At least Zacky wasn’t like that cocky one.

“It’s called The Darkest Hour. Allusion to the time when we most want to hear the good old blues and drown your sorrows on a shot of JD. But we play classic rock too, a few covers of Led Zep and Deep Purple, but most of the songs are from our own.” they all seemed more interested now. I was enjoying the most to be the center of attention to my favorite band for a few minutes, except for one of them.

“She’s awesome, isn’t she? She’s one of us…” Jimmy said while placing his arm around my shoulders and pushing my body against him. I grinned back.

“And for how long you’ve been on the road?” Brian finally spoke up, showing slight sympathy.

“Enough time to know that we won’t be going anywhere, roughly about six years. Apparently, rock’n roll is not mainstream anymore…”

“Whoever said that is completely wrong!” Syn replied speaking directly to me for the first time since our disagreement. Maybe he was finally accepting my apologies?

“Yeah, I agree with Gates, baby. We play metal music but it has never been easy for us too. Some sunny day we were suddenly embraced by this opportunity and we took it right away, after years of hard work and time spent on our dream. It can happen to you too…” Jimmy hold me tight and kissed me on the cheek. “When is your next gig? You had too much of us anyway, it’s my turn to see you in action now!” he said in a perverted smirk.

“Oh, I have a pamphlet here with me, if you guys want to, I don’t know, hang out one of these days you’re not playing… We play every Wednesday and Friday at this bar. The house is usually almost empty so, you guys don’t need to worry about harassment, I guess.” I started to give the papers out for them and felt so shameless to promote my mediocre band to them. But I would never let that chance slip out of my hands…
Brian was the last one to receive it, his face still unreadable but almost smiling. I’d still felt like he thought I was a threat to him, like some kind of competitor. C’mon, give me a break!
Syn took long to take the paper from my hand, without ever stopping to look me in the eye. I was almost hypnotized by his gaze when his soft voice brought me back.

“How’d you know it was the D?” he asked quickly, frowning at me and smiling sarcastically. Was he still thinking about that? Syn could be the better guitar player there but I had the best ear. The rare perfect pitch one.
I smiled back, ready to show him my hidden trick. I believed the sparks coming out of us were visible now.

“I have perfect pitch ears.” Brian changed his frown to arched eyebrows then as the others did too. Not even Jimmy was aware of that yet. I mean, it’s not something to be very proud of, you just end up knowing every note you hear without making an effort for it. It’s kinda useful sometimes…

“Oh dear God, Jimmy, marry this girl already!” Zacky said with a surprised grin, rising from his chair and placing his guitars on their cases. They all giggled over that comment and decided to do the same as him, they wouldn’t be playing more now.

My smile widened as I felt incredible inside, like I wasn’t able to feel in years. I was just a woman finally taken seriously by a bunch of talented musicians from my favorite band ever. What else could I possibly want?
Brian was the last surprised one to get up and start to packing up his stuff as I went to help Jimmy dismantle a few parts of his drums he rather take home. When I was almost carrying the snare and the toms, Jimmy grabbed my waist and pulled me within.

“Careful, James!”

“Nop, you’re not carrying all those heavy and noisy things, no way! We have strong men here for that job!” he showed his contracted and tattooed biceps to my face and kissed my neck, still holding me from behind. I burst out laughing as I tried to handle all those stuff in my hands.

“Sorry, dude, but this pair of drumsticks you call arms are not doing the trick!” I answered and let go of his embrace, running away from him. Soon after, Jimmy dropped his drums on the floor and ran after me, filling my body with tickles.

“Gonna show you the drumsticks now, sassy girl!” we were almost falling on the floor while I tried to disentangle from his arms, not being able to control my loud laughs. God, he was skinny but excessively strong, something I wasn’t expecting. Certainly we needed to schedule a rematch now!

“James, stop it, JAAAAMESS!!” his drums were now fallen on the floor.

---

Brian had just finished packing when he saw the newest happy couple having fun on the other side of the room. He was a bit drunk now but could still feel something bothering him. He drank up the last sip of his bottle and looked one more time to them, grasping each other and laughing loudly. He wished he could have something like this someday, like Jimmy and Emily had. In fact, he wished someone like her. To talk about music all day and fuck all night. She had the whole package, beauty and brains.
But as he knew that it was inconceivable then, Brian rapidly repressed his feelings and finally moved out of that chair he had laid his body all night. He said goodbye to his friends and left before them, thinking that maybe Emily was too good to be with any of them. Too good…

Notes

studio action!! =D What do you guys think?? Hit mee pleaasee!! xD