Charlie’s POV

This attire felt a little too uncomfortable for me, so after the show I quickly changed into something more…loose. It was Red who suggested that I dress like a whore because of the ‘Whore’ song that I wrote 75 years ago. Jeez! I’m not much for showing skin on stage!

I ran past the boys from Avenged who were leisurely drinking beers and laughing with the roadies back stage. I caught glimpse of Matt doing pushups, shirtless, with only one fist steadying on the floor and the other tucked behind his back. Good God I can’t stop drooling.

“Close your mouth Charlie…or I will put my fist in it!”

I snapped, didn’t realize that I had stopped running towards ADW’s dressing room and just stared at Matt. I turned to my side, Brian was talking to me. In an utmost speed, I shut my mouth tightly.

“You’re droooling…”

“No I’m not! Shut up.”

“I’m gonna tell Matt that you love watching him doing-”

“NO, GATES!” I grabbed the hem of his tshirt, making him halt in his steps towards Matt.

“Please don’t. It’d be embarrassing as hell.”

“Why would it? He’d be flattered.”

“No. He’ll laugh at me. Then he will mock me forever.”

“Pfft, no! What makes you think that?”

“I don’t think. I just know, Brian. Do. Not. Tell.Him.”

Brian raised his eyebrows at me. “Or what?”

Oh, okay. Two can play at this game!

“Or I swear to God I won’t let E go near you again.”

His face changed so drastically that I almost flinched.

“You can’t do that. E will always come to me.”

“Not if I tell her not to.”

He narrowed his eyes to me. “So if I keep your secret you will set me up with her?”

I blinked rapidly, thinking fast of what I could say to E, especially some nice things about Brian.
“I will at least try to divert her attention to you. You know she’s a little hard to catch.”

Brian flicked his tongue and his expression grew curious. Like he was seriously considering this.

“Deal. I’ll keep your dirty little secret that you love watching Matt’s sweaty ass and in return, you will hook me up with E.”

I bit my lip, thinking hard of whether I can really persuade E to like this cocky guy. But nevertheless I agreed. Shit, now he has my biggest secret. That I was crushing hard on Matt. Damn.

“Deal.”

We shook hands and after a few more glances at Matt’s now sweaty back, I ran to our dressing room.

---

Matt’s POV

“Fifty Six! Fifty Seven! Fifty Eight! Fifty Nine! Come on Matt! You can fucking do it! Where’s that stallion horse spirit?”

“Shut the..fuck..up Jason!”

“Come on! SIXTY! Hell yeah!”

Goddamnit this one fist push up had left me breathless like hell. This was all Jason’s idea. He bet I can’t top him off with only 40 pushups on one hand but he made me agree on this silly game.

Why did I agree on it?

Last night on our bus, before we start the first show of our adjoined tour between A7X, PTV and ADW, I played Street Fighter II with Charlie. She came by our bus along with Red – for some reason those two always hang together rather than the twins – and she left Red with Johnny, discussing over their beloved four strings instrument.

Holy hell, the way Charlie beat me in Street Fighter II I can’t even contain my male hormones at the time. I was having a raging boner just by watching her do her victory dance in front of me and sometimes she would lift her tshirt up to reveal her belly without knowing.

“Fuck I’m so full!” she burped and patted her belly. It was so unfeminine of her, and kind of rude but I don’t know why the fuck does it turn me on. She laid her back on the couch with her knees up and controller in her hand, watching the screen intently. While my eyes, kept watching her. That was why I lost to the game.

“Serves you right, Sanders! You can’t beat me! I’m on the top ranking! I’m the fucking king of ranking!”

She started to dance in front of me. It was a silly dance move but the way her hips swayed and how close her body was to me, making my dick arched up in my sweatpants.

“Excuse me.” I got up and left the room, leaving her dancing alone. I rushed to the bathroom and locked myself in there. Fuck you guys must have guessed of what I did in there.

Yes. I jerked off to the thought of her. And reached a violent orgasm for it.

“Oh God, fuck Charlie!” I gasped.

After that I cleaned up and opened the bathroom door, only to find Jason was standing there with his eyes opened as wide as his mouth.

“Fuck, you scared me!”

He gaped, his feet not moving. “Dude…you..jerked off…to that brute tomboy girl..?”

I immediately felt hot on my face. What the fuck, he heard me?! I quickly clasped his mouth and brought him forward to the kitchenette, away from the game room.

“Shhh! Keep your fucking voice down!”

“Mhmm hmm hmm hhmhhmm!”

“What? Oh sorry.” I removed my hand from his mouth and he can speak properly again.
“I didn’t think you like that type of girl, Matt. You seem more of a sexy and drop dead gorgeous babe kind of person. Like your ex, Val.”

I sighed at that comment. I don’t even know myself. I used to love women with feminine features. Those who loved to spend time looking pretty, having makeup on and wearing sexy dresses to impress us guys. But with Charlie, I never see her in those situations, not even for one bit.

The farthest I’ve seen was she’s always dressing up like a bad groupie, with hotpants and spaghetti straps – trying to look hot. But trust me, right now, even if she wear her usual basketball shorts and just a band tee, it will turn me on like fire.

“I don’t fucking know and you have to shut the fuck up about this.”

“Ha! Not that easy, Shads. I bet you can’t top me off, 40 pumps, one handed.”

Damn you Jason motherfucking Berry.

But I never thought that for the sake of keeping this dirty little secret on, I worked my ass off to reach 20 points higher than him.

“Yo, have you seen Vic?”

Both Jason and I spun around to find PTV’s roadies scattered about, panicking. We shook our heads and off he went to find Vic somewhere else. There had been a random ruckus of the missing PTV’s vocalist but I was too busy to even notice where he had gone to.

“I think I saw him with Hannah earlier. Check at the back.”

I heard a voice answered faintly and my smile immediately appeared. Charlie was dressed in her usual ADW hoodie and Lakers jersey shorts. She ruffled her blonde hair to a mess and smiled at me.

“Dude, you didn’t see us play?”

I smiled back, I can’t help it. “I did! Until encore. Then Red was babbling something about your new merch and album so I bailed. But it was a great show.”

She laughed a thanks, tilting her head back. I could use for a kiss on her neck right now but damn it I gotta control myself.

“What’s with the shirt off? Trying to make me jealous or something?”

I was completely off guard when she asked that. “Jealous? Why?”

“Because you have a big boss of a Deathbat tattoo on your abs and I don’t. I only have ADW logo on my back and I’m fucking jealous of your ink work.”

She lifted the hem of her hoodie up, revealing her spine and I noticed she didn’t wear a bra. Fuck. My mind started to imagine things that I shouldn’t but I tried to concentrate on the ADW’s thorned skull with guns on each side of its temple logo, which splayed beautifully across her back.



“That’s nice too.”

“Don’t lie, Sanders. You have to buy me an ink later after this show ends. Before we head to the next venue.”

I raised my eyebrows, staring at her. For some reason her cheeks looked weirdly pink. Was it from the hot weather?

“Yeah, Kings. Whatever. I gotta take a shower. I’m sweating a pool here.”

“Yeah you better. You stink too.”

“Am not! You’re stinkier!”

“Am not!! You’re the Stinky Sanders!”

I laughed, pulling her head and locking her under my arms. Her face was buried on my ribs and I could easily hold her from struggling. Boy, she struggled so hard I thought we were in a wrestling match, and being watched by our roadies and the rest of the guys.

“Matt! Umpppff!! Get off me! You’re sweaty!!”

“HAHA! Who’s the Stinky Sanders now?!”

Suddenly out of nowhere, she stopped struggling. Her warm breath drizzled softly on my chest as I hugged her tightly from the side. Her slender fingers gently brushed on my skin, roaming all over my hard belly and stopped on my chest. My God, I felt goosebumps all over me. She looked up to me, and I looked down.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a while. For a long-long while. I swore I was moving closer to her face, and reached for her lips but then I suddenly felt pain.

“Ooowww!!! What the fuckk?!!!”

Charlie pinched both my nipples hard and pulled them, laughing hysterically.

“Hahahah!!! Take that Stinky Sanders! Ohh your nipples are all red…ohh poor nippie…you got bitten by The Claw didn’t you??”

Fuck…that was…such a turn off…and hurtful.

---

Charlie’s POV

Damn it Matt! Why do you have to be such a sexy manwhore and an adorable friend at the same time? Fuck, after the almost wrestling match incident, I can’t forget his scent anymore. It had been stuck inside my nose forever and weirdly, I’m glad. I could just bite the smooth skin on his ribs but something told me not to.

Something inside my head that told me; I’m not good enough for him. I don’t dress like any other girls. I don’t act feminine like my other bandmates with makeups and long eyelashes and high heels. I talk in vulgar language, I treat him wrong. If I make any move on him, I will lose him as a friend and I don’t want that to ever happen. He was the only one who can put up with my rough shit, with my punches and kicks. PTV boys can’t even handle me. I can’t risk losing him for a stupid feeling called lust. Or love.

Fuck I have to neutralize this feeling.

“I know a great tattoo place that we can go. They open 24 hours a day.”

Matt and I strolled along the streets of Santa Monica and he looked like he already knows this place like the back of his palm.

“Yeah okay. Whatever, just show me.”

He smiled greatly and I can’t stop blushing. Fuck..why??

“Relax, Charles. Why are you so uptight? We’re going to get that Deathbat ink on your precious little body, don’t you worry.”

“I hate when you call me that.”

“Why? Because it’s my middle name?”

“No. Because it’s my dad’s name.”

We both strung in silence, watching our own steps conveying the concrete pathway, ignoring the cars passing by. Normally I wouldn’t just blurt out a story about my dad to anybody. Only Red knew about him and we never mentioned it to the twins. They have enough on their hands already so they didn’t need to know about my sucky family.

Do you guys want to know?

Right. I bet you don’t. But unfortunately, Matt does want to know. Damn it.

“Is it…wrong that I used your dad’s name to call you?”

I stopped walking and turned to him. He stopped too, staring at me intently with his honey eyes heavy in concern.

“Let’s just say that I hate it. Don’t ever call me that again.”

Matt reached for both of my shoulders and hunched a little, eyeing straight into my gaze.

“Charlie, you know you can tell me everything right? We’re not just game buddies, tour buddies or band buddies. I’m your friend.”

I looked deeply into his eyes, trying to find a trust. Yeah, he is my friend. In fact, I wanted him to be more than that but I know I couldn’t.

“Drop it Matt. We’re here to get my ink. Once I get it, we will go back to the bus and have a nice sleep because tomorrow we’re gonna head to Ventura.”

“Charlie..” he called softly. How can I win with that? I closed my eyes and tried to push his hands away but he gripped my shoulders tighter and brought me closer to his body. Oh shit. What is he doing? Why does my heart can’t stop pounding like my own drums?

“Just stop pretending to be strong and lean into me.”

I looked up and our eyes locked, his hazel stare shot straight into mine and glinting softly in the midst of the evening ray.

“Do you really wanna get involved in my life, Matt?”

“Yes I do.” He answered a little too quickly. As if he didn’t even have a second thought about it.

“Fine.” I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair. “Charles Frederick Kings, my dad, a drummer in a god forsaken jazz band, came home from his tour one night.”

I stared at my feet. I can feel his gaze shooting sharply on my head as his big hands rubbing up and down my shoulders.

“My brothers were asleep. My mom died when I was seven. He came home feeling..how should I put this…horny.”

“Oh God no.” he muttered. Yeah I bet he can freaking guess what happened to me next.
“I was 14 when it happened.”

“Oh fuck, no. Charlie..”

Suddenly he pulled me into a tight hug, so tight that I can sense his concern in sincerity. He wrapped his huge arms around me without a fight and I can’t hold back my tears any longer.

Yeah so now you know why am I so broken. I kept wondering why my dad did what he did. Was it because I looked too damn girly? Was my pyjama that night looked too revealing for him? That was when I decided I don’t want to be a girl.

“Charlie..I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” He murmured on my hair and I pulled away, looking up to his jaw.

“If you were there, what would you do?”

“I would beat the shit out of him.”

“Yeah, my brothers already did that. He ended up in jail not long after that and my brothers; in juvie.”

Matt raised his eyebrows and blinked hard. “And..you?”

“I had to take care of myself. I didn’t know what does friends means until I met Little Red.”
He smiled bitterly and hugged me again. This time, he planted a kiss on my forehead. I was blushing like hell but thank God he can’t see me.

“I’m glad you found Red.”

“Yeah me too.”

“And…I’m glad I found you, Charlie.”

Wait, what did he mean by that?

Notes

A/N: haha well, now there you go! That’s how Charlie became so defensive towards guys. And Matt knows it. What will he do from now on?

Next up, E! :D