“To save face, how low can you go?
Talk a lot of game and yet you don’t know,
Static on the way, make ‘em all say ‘whoa’,
The people up top push the people down low,
Get down, and obey every word,
Steady, get in line, if you haven’t yet heard,
Wanna take what I got? Don’t be absurd,
Don’t fight the power, nobody gets hurt,
If you haven’t heard yet, then I’m letting’ you know
There ain’t shit; we don’t run when the guns unload,
No one make a move, ‘less my people say so,
Get everything out of control, everybody go –
(Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!)
Steel unload,
Fire blow,
We, the animals, take control,
Here us now,
Clear and true,
Wretches and Kings; we come for you!”

It had been two days since I’d first met some of the guys from Avenged Sevenfold, and tonight, I was going to meet them again. Linkin Park, Wretches and Kings, powered through the entire house (I concluded that Cameron must have been up; we both loved Linkin Park he was just a much bigger fan of this album than I was) It woke me up, as I looked over out of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of my room that showed the tall, granite cliffs of the end of Huntington Beach, I picked up my phone, hoping to check emails, Facebook and Twitter, when I found it was already 1 in the afternoon. I hauled myself off of my bed, lazily pulling my feet downstairs, not caring how I looked.

“Gooood, morning,” Cameron chirped.

“How are you so cheery?” I asked him, my face scrunched up from the large hangover I was nursing.

“Well, I didn’t have all that much to drink last night, unlike you and Jade! Up drinking, singing along to Aerosmith until dawn! And to be fair, Lauren, it’s almost half past 1,” Cameron quite rightly pointed out.

“Yeah, well, just be a good brother and be nice and get me some cereal,” I told him, my head falling to the counter, “wait, hey! Aerosmith are the shit, I don’t even give a fuck what you think!” I shouted at him, lifting my head back up and pointing at him, acting angry.

“Oooooo, alright Miss Pissy,” he said, raising his hands in surrender, “don’t take your hangover-fuelled anger out on me!” Cameron said, acting hurt, as he bent down and got out a bowl and a box of Froot Loops.

I smiled as he came back up with the box, “good choice?” he smiled back, walking over to their classic American, double sided fridge.

“Excellent.. I love you a lot,” I told him, pretending to hold back tears and putting my hand across my heart.”

“Naaw, Lau, I love you to,” he said, pouring the cereal and milk into the bowl and sliding it over to me.

As I began eating, Jade entered the room, “hey, guys, you okay?” she asked, leaning over the end of the island.

“Yeah, great!” I answered her, a mouth full of Froot Loops.

Jade nodded a ‘good’ just as Cam slammed his hands down on the counter, “well, Lau, me and Jade are off to finally pick up little Maxi,” they both smiled wildly, “you’re welcome to do as you please etc etc we’ll be back in a little while; we’re going to take her for a little walk after we pick her up before we got to the Berrys’ so-“

“Aaaaww, yay! Okay, I’m probably just going to eat this, play some games, have a shower and take Hud out anyway so you guys go ahead,” i said, beaming at them.

“Okay, well, Jade, ma lurv, are you ready?”

“Ooh, yes, I am,” she said, picking herself up off the side.

“Okay, well, we’ll see you later, Lauren,” Cam said as he picked up his keys and guided Jade out of the door.

“See ya!” I called before finishing my Froot Loops, putting the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, feeding Hudson and making my way over to the couch to play on Cam’s Xbox.
I ended up playing on Call of Duty until Cam and Jade got in; I didn’t realize how long I’d been sat there.

“Oh, I thought you were going for a shower and taking Hud out, not sitting on your ass playing MY video games,” Cam commented, emphasising the ‘my’ as he said it, as he walked in, dropping his keys on the chest of draws in the hallway.

“Yeah, well, I got distracted,” I told him, still watching the screen intently, playing the game. That was until; I felt something soft wriggling under my foot. I glanced down to see a titchy, white dog with an array of brown patches across it’s back and ears; Maxi.

I immediately squealed, throwing the games console control onto the sofa, leaning down to pick up the small dog, distracting my own dog from his toys. He began to bark, leaping up and running over to us. He slowed as he approached the new, unfamiliar Terrier sat in my lap. The two slowly edged forward, sniffing each other until their noses touched. They pulled back and instantly became friends, playing with each other; as Maxi jumped from my lap.

“Aaaaaaawww, they’re so cute!” Jade squealed from behind me.

“Yes yes yes, they are but Lauren, you can’t sit there and watch; you don’t have time! Get yourself washed and dressed; we’re leaving in an hour or so,” Cam interrupted.

I groaned, “urgh, fine, I’ll go now,” I said, letting my head fall back onto the back of the couch before lifting myself up, making my way to the stairs.

“Why? Don’t you want to go?” Cam asked, slightly concerned... hurt almost.

“No, I do! I was comfy ‘tis all,” I told him, smiling, walking past him and up the stairs, calling back to him asking whether this was a particularly formal gathering , IE, whether I’d have to wear a dress or not. Luckily, he replied no; I really didn’t want to be wearing a dress with Zacky there, if I was perfectly honest and I definitely didn’t seeing as Brian the creep would be there.

I took a quick shower, washing my hair, body and shaving a little before climbing out and wrapping a towel around myself. I then proceeded to wash my face, blow-dry and straighten my hair before putting a fairly minimal amount of make-up on; just enough to enhance the colour of my eyes and to make sure it wasn’t obvious that all I’d done all day was sit on the couch after getting drunk with Jade last night.

I then went back into my room where I found Hud, rather naughtily, stretched right out on my bed; on top off my outfit I’d picked out for tonight. The shorts were saveable but the nice shirt I’d picked had stupid dog fluff all over it. I ended up having to fish around in my bag for some old Motörhead shirt, cursing myself for bringing basically nothing other than old band shirts, which wasn’t always an issue but there were times, times like these, where it may be nice to have something that wasn’t an oversized, mans black shirt with a band logo and some monster on it.
Despite this, I put my outfit on; eventually being a pair of short purple shorts, my new black vans, the black and grey Motörhead shirt and a grey beanie, topped off with an old pair of radiators.

I made my way downstairs, finding that Cam and Jade had cleaned themselves up and had sorted Maxi and Hudson out, feeding them and putting their collars and leads on; they were coming too apparently. We all gathered and made out excites, Maxi and Hudson in tow until we put them in the boot of Cam’s SUV. I climbed into the back and let Jade sit in the front with Cam.
The drive was fairly quiet despite the low hum of the engine and radio, the shuffling of the dogs in the back. It was then that I noticed Jade groaning every now and again. I looked forward to find Cam’s hand placed in between Jade’s thighs. I really needed to find myself a car, even better, an apartment of my own and make my own way to parties so I didn’t have to sit and experience my brothers sex life.

I managed to make it to the Berrys’ without hurling; during the 20 minute drive, Cam and Jade had managed to get pretty intense and I was more uncomfortable than I had ever been and had made the conscious decision to get, pretty much, as drunk as possible tonight; I may not have wanted that to be the guys’ first (or second) impression of me but I needed to get what I’d seen out of my head. Alternatively, I just needed to get drunk enough that as and when I got home tonight, if they were at it, I’d pass out before I noticed.

Me crossed the threshold and was met by Jason Berry, as I later found out after Cam had introduced us both. He told me that Cam had already told them a lot about me and I blushed, mainly out of nervousness that they knew anything about me without me knowing.

“Okay, well, the rest of the guys are all out the back cooking up some steaks and sausages so just come on through,” Jason said, leading us through his pretty big, open house out into the spacious garden.

“Well, hey! Look who’s here!” I heard a familiar voice call, Zacky’ he was stood at the barbeque until he but down the spatula and walked over to us to (re) introduce himself, “hey, I’m Zacky V and you are the girl from the beach; Lauren, right? I didn’t know you were Cam’s sister! Although, looking at you now, you’re both startlingly similar,” he said, holding his arm out and admiring my face. I gave him my hand, only for him to kiss it again, as I blushed fairly heavily.

“Oh, you guys have met? You didn’t say anything, Lau,” Cam called from behind.

“Oh, yeah, I must’ve forgotten to tell you,” I added, trying to be discrete.

“So, Lau, you want a drink?” I heard Matt call from behind me, coming out from the kitchen.

“Oh, yeah, please,” I said, tucking my hands into my pockets, nervously.

“What do you want, beer or something a little more...feminine?”

“What are you on, Matt; we don’t have anything ‘feminine’ here! Only real maaans drinks!” I heard an already drunk Johnny slur from a sun lounger at the side of Jason’s pool.

“And that is Johnny Christ,” Zacky whispered to me, subtly holding my butt as he squeezed past me through the French doors and into the kitchen.

“Aaaah,” I said, my gaze still on Johnny, “sorry, Matt, yeah, a beer would be great,” I told him, smiling.

Suddenly, I was left on my own; Cam and Jade were stood at the corner of the patio, talking to Matt and Jason, Johnny was near enough passed out in the sun, Matt and Zack were in the kitchen and, as my eyes scanned the garden, my eyes feel upon and Jimmy and Syn leaning against the wall, talking. Except Brian didn’t seem too interested in the conversation as he was staring at me...again. He was being a real creep and I really didn’t like it. It then got worse as Jimmy stopped his flamboyant movements as he talked as Brian nodded towards me. Jimmy turned round, looking at me and my face burnt hotter than a sauna, I quickly shuffled away, going off to find Zack and Matt.

A few hours past and we’d eaten, I found myself staring aimlessly at Hudson and Matt’s dog, Bella, playing on the lawn. I was torn from my thoughts when I felt someone grab my ass. I whipped around, ready to fend off whoever had touched me like that but I was met by Zacky; oddly Zacky was really growing on me; I really liked him; he was funny, handsome and obviously was interested by the never-ending amount of flirting.

“Was that really necessary, Mr Vengeance?” I asked him, staring into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help it,” he told me, winking.

“Oh, well, that’s okay then,” I turned away from him, returning to watching the dogs play.
“So, um, Lauren, there’s been something I’d really like to ask you,” Zack nudged forwards, burying his hands in his pockets much like I had earlier.

“Oh, yeah? What might that be?” I said, facing him again, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you wanna go out for a drink sometime? Next weekend maybe?” he actually looked nervous about asking me which made me like him that little bit more, if possible.

“Yeah, Zack that’d be really nice,” I told him smiling.

“Great, well, if I just get your number then I’ll text you and we can sort something out,” he beamed.

“Yeah, sure,” I told him, giving him my phone from my back pocket and handing it to him to let him key in his number. It was then someone called us inside for drinking games so we called the dogs in and locked the patio doors.

By the end of the night most of the guys were passed out and/or naked, Cam and Jade had been dared to heavily make out so ended up going home early. I was so drunk I could barely walk straight but as I was the only one that hadn’t seemed to have passed out, I crawled up the stairs of Jason’s house with my beer, giggling ridiculously, until I found one door open. I pushed my way in, finished my beer and collapsed on the bed, only to find someone else had already occupied it, I figured it must’ve been Matt, Jason’s brother, and he and I had grown fairly close over the night so I didn’t mind much and soon enough I drifted to sleep.

Notes