Spring 2003.

“Aw come on man! This is fucking Metallica! Don’t you wanna go?”

RJ hissed and scratched his head. “I know. I wanna go so baad. But I have date. I’ve been asking this girl out for weeks. She finally said yes.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. I wish Joe was around but he wasn’t. He’d gone back to his hometown in Florida to visit his grandparents. Shit, if only I had girl friends. I can’t seem to be friends with anyone other than my brother when I was in high school. Everyone just saw me as a freak anyway. Nobody wanted to be close to me.

I scrolled through my phone, trying to find anybody that could go to this show with me. Suddenly my finger stopped at Johnny’s name. Hmm, this guy’s not bad for a company. The last time we hung out was actually turned out to be quite fun. Other than I had to struggle my gaze away from Matt’s arching eyes, Johnny mingled quite nicely with us. It was just a matter of time that we’d get to know the other members too, especially that weirdo drummer.

Without thinking I just pressed the dial button on his number.

“Hello?” he greeted.

“Hello, Johnny?”

“Lzzy, hey! Thought you would never call. What’s up?”

“I’m good, man. Nothing much. Um, listen I have a favor to ask you.”

“A favor? What is it? Shoot me, but quickly. Going on stage in 5.”

“Oh! Okay I’ll be quick. I have two tickets to see Metallica tomorrow night in Palladium. Do you wanna go?’

He went silent for a bit then suddenly answered; “Me? Are you..sure Lzzy?”

“Yeah, of course. You’re kinda fun to hang out with. I thought that maybe we could just hang and watch the concert together. You know, like friends.”

“Um, wait a second.” He went silent again and I had to wait until I regretted in calling him. Maybe I should just go there alone. Then he spoke again; “Yeah okay I’ll go.”

“You will? Awesome. Well, I guess I’ll see you at the venue? Since we’re quite far from each other.”

“Yeah sure. See you there. What time?”

“The gates will be open at 7 I think. Be there an hour early?”

“Yeah, of course. See ya.”

“Thanks Johnny.”

“No problem.”

Phew! See, I’m not so lonely; at least I have a friend outside my Halestorm circle okay!

~*.*~

I drove over to the Palladium while listening to Avenged Sevenfold’s current album called Waking The Fallen. Well to be honest I’ve been listening to this record countless times until I memorized the lyrics from most of the songs. God, I never thought that these cocky guys could make it this big and their music would sound this beautiful.

I personally think - putting aside my hatred for them as human beings – that their music is amazing. Those dual guitar solos and riffs that they were experimenting, I only heard it once and it was from Eagle’s Hotel California. Now that was classic. And they did it acoustically. But these guys did it plugged in, both shredding at the same time but still can manage to synch up their tempo without a single flaw. If I wasn’t so mad at their frontman, I’d say I’m so fucking jealous of their accomplishment.

Halestorm are heading that way too, of course. We just have to find the right person at the right time to record a full album.

I parked my old cheap Cavalier and killed the engine. Reaching for my phone and purse, I got out of the car and checked myself for the last time in my side mirror. Well, this is not a date actually but what the hell. I felt like dressing up for concert once in a while.



I wore a skirt today. You guys should be proud of me. But notice; this attire is not because I went out with Johnny okay. Well, take it as an impression I gotta make for..Josh.

Yes, I want to see how good he is so that I can steal him away. Insert devilish laugh here.

I stood in line together with the fans of Metallica and I noticed that a few of them stole a glance at my way, then whispering among themselves and giggled. Screw them. I got used to that kind of reaction towards me before. But where the fuck is Johnny? They’re gonna open the gates any time now!

“Hi.”

A voice suddenly rang next to my ears, too near that I jumped and spun around. Holy shit.

“Matt?!”

He smiled and his dimple appeared on both of his cheeks. He was wearing a hoodie covered his baseball cap and an aviator upon his eyes. Clearly he was in disguise so people can’t recognize him. But, I was expecting..Johnny?

“What are you doing here?”

“Johnny can’t come. He told me to replace him.” He leaned over to my ear and replied. That was a bit unnecessary. I narrowed my eyes at him. Now do I have to endure a 2 hour concert with this douchebag?

“Aww man!”

“Why? If you don’t want me here, I can go.”

I stared at him. Wow. Since when did he become so sensitive? “Uh, not that I desperately want you here, but I need a bassist opinion. That’s why I invited Johnny in the first place.”

“Really? Damn it. Well, I’m all you’ve got. I can give opinions too.”

“You? About bassist? I saw you bullied Johnny, like all the time.”

He snorted and stuffed both of his hand in his hoodie pocket. “That’s because he’s too short.”
“And you’ve never been short all your life?”

He frowned at me, probably too thick to understand my sarcasm. “Yeah you were born tall, Shadows. Congrats.”

“I am. I mean, I was the tallest kid at school.”

I bit my lip, trying to find ways to win this. “What about that tall lanky drummer dude in your band?”

“Jimmy? What about him?”

“Well, comparing you to him, you’re shorter right?”

He shrugged and chuckled at the same time. “Well yeah.”

“So there you go. You’re pretty short compared to him. So you don’t get to call other people as short too!”

He raised his eyebrows at me. I can feel that I’m winning this stupid argument. Why did we even talk about this?

“Pshh okay, whatever you say. Not that it matters.”

“It fucking matters! That’s my friend you bullied! Well, not really my best friend, but he’s the one who was friendly to-”

Swiftly he cupped my mouth with his palm from behind and his other arm wrapped around my shoulder while his whole body moves, walking me to the gates.

“Okay okay, enough talking. They’re opening the gates now.”

I widened my eyes as he pushed my body with his hips and carried me forward until we entered the concert grounds. I bit his fingers and he withdrew quickly.

“Ouch! Why did you do that for?”

I glared at him and quickly find for a front row spot, but I couldn’t get to it because there were so many people already swarmed behind the barrier near the stage. But then I felt a hand clasped in mine and brought me forward. I saw Matt’s muscular body from the back as he wiggled across the crowd until we stood directly behind the barrier and in front of the stage.

Oh my fucking God, I was so close to the stage I could touch the front speaker. I glanced behind, Matt was standing with his arm protectively on my waist whilst holding himself from toppling over by the people that pushed around to get to the front row too.

“Thanks, Matt.” I mumbled, hoping that he couldn’t hear me.

“You’re welcome, Lzzy.” He whispered so close to my ear. Shit. He heard me.

The stage was full of orchestral seating and I expected that much because Metallica’s gonna perform their songs from S&M and I really loved that record. But what I wanna see the most is Josh’s band.

The stage went dark, the crowd screaming and chanting Metallica’s name. So did we. Matt and I. Somehow we clicked right there. Both of us loved this band and probably that was the only thing that I won’t argue with him.

~*.*~

Josh was great, but I can’t believe how sloppy his drummer and vocalist were. I can tell that he looked unhappy being in that band. I gotta get to the backstage to talk to him. But how do I get there..?

“Hey, you’re M.Shadows right?” I spun around behind me and saw a couple of fans were approaching Matt. His hands instantly withdrew from my waist.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Hey man! Nice to see you in the crowd pit! I love your band dude.”

They hugged briefly and I was amazed by how Matt handled them. He looked too different from what I know. Totally changed to a soft spoken and friendly person with warm jokes and always smiling to them. Wow. Did he only act like an asshole with me alone? Son of a…

I ignored whatever happened behind me and just concentrated on Metallica on stage. They were performing Enter Sandman and I sang along to the lyrics.



“I actually like your voice Lzzy.”

I froze. The hair on my neck stood up as Matt's voice slowly whispered next to my ear. His huge arms started to circle around my waist until they were entirely wrapped me in a warm and safe embrace. I could smell his aftershave and bodywash that I don't ever wanna wake up from this dream.

"I think your scream is beautiful. Do you think you can scream for me?"

Holy hell. Why does that turn me on so fucking much?

Notes

A/N: muahahaha im out of chapterss!! will work on it on weekend and post on monday mmkay! comments XD