Moving On

That night's show went very smoothly. Johnny stood in the center of the stage and played like always. Staring at Matt and grinning like the Joker, bobbing his head and telling Zack jokes between songs. He felt fine until they played So Far Away and Fiction. Like always he stood in the back by the drums and let tears flow down his face as Matt sang with every emotion in his body. When it was Jimmy's time to sing, the recording took over and Matt looked back at Johnny, smiling softly.

When the set was over they all walked backstage and Matt through his arm around Johnny and kissed his head again. "It'll all be okay, Johnny. I promise." Matt let go of Johnny when he saw Val. She motioned to him that she wanted to talk. He rolled his eyes, kissed Johnny's head again, and walked over to Val.

Johnny watched as Matt and Val went into another room. He figured they were going to argue some more. He looked around the dressing room and went over to his stall. He quickly changed shirts making sure his back was to the guys so they wouldn't see his arms. He slipped out of his stage boots and changed his pants before putting on his warn out converse. He started to get worried about Matt since he hadn't come into the dressing room yet. He decided to go look for him.

Johnny walked to the room where he saw Matt and Val enter. He heard them both arguing and then suddenly stop. Johnny slowly opened the door, hoping they had stopped arguing when he saw Val's arms wrapped around Matt's neck. They were kissing. Johnny gasped loudly, turned, and slammed the door. He ran out of the arena and hailed a taxi. On his way out of the building he heard Matt yelling his name, asking him to stop running. Johnny couldn't see, tears blocking his vision. He couldn't breath.

When the taxi got to the hotel Johnny ran to the elevators, pressed the button, and got in as soon as the doors opened. He slammed the button to the floor his room was on. As soon as the elevator got to his floor he sprinted to his room, dug out his room key, unlocked the door, and closed himself in the bathroom. He looked at his razor again, picked it up, and started taking it apart. He stared at the blade in his hand and then rolled up his sleeve.
‹ Chapter 4

Notes