A Scent From Heaven

Rye let her body fall on her mattress and sighed in disappointment. No one had ever called the police over her band’s garage concerts before. On the contrary, people on the neighborhood always liked their songs and showed up to greet them. She couldn’t think of someone that didn’t like them. So… why?

She was just a simple 21-year-old Malay girl trying to give life to one of her biggest passion; her music. She did everything right in her life, always following the rules without questioning. She was at college now, studying what she really likes in spite of her parents dislike at first. And now that she had finally formed an all-girl band with a few college friends, she couldn’t have fun just once in her life?

Well, Rye (as she likes to be called) was used to this already. Everything she wanted was always too far from her reach, nothing would come easily for her. The mirror and her way of looking at herself wasn’t her best friend, for starters. She didn’t feel like the other girls, she didn’t act like them and she was happy like that. She didn’t have the need to get attention from the guys all the time, she preferred to be friends with them. But when she opened her mouth to sing, or use her hands to play, draw or write, well, that was where she scored points with everyone, especially the boys. But little did she know.

“Do you think it was that guy?”

“It can only be him! My friend said he looked very angry and held his cellphone on hands. The rest of our audience was the regular one, with the exception of him.”

Rye’s friends and band mates kept talking while she was immersed into her own thoughts.

“Do you think it was him, Rye?”

“Who?”

“The tall foreign guy that appeared to watch us today. Where are you, girl? Dreaming about M. Shadows again?” the guitarist of her band poked her belly and she rose from her bed in a jolt.

“No, not really. I was just… trying to imagine who. I didn’t see that tall guy you girls are talking about.”

“How could you not see him? He was the only one with tattoos and aviators and… well, he looked a lot like Shadows in fact.”

“Now you’re the one dreaming, baby.”

“The girl from the hotel reception on the other side of the street is my friend, she said the mysterious guy’s staying there. Should we go there threaten him?” it was time for their drummer to speak. She was a bit rougher than the others, like drummers usually are.

“What? Are you crazy? What can we, four college girls scared of everything, ever do to a six foot tall occidental man? Maybe scratch his back.”

“Hey, I’m not really scared of him. If it was really that guy that called the police on us, I wish I could have a good talk with him, face to face.” Rye answered, really sure of her sentence. “I wanna know why.”

“So go ahead… she said he’s American and is staying at room 12.”

“Nice… I’m gonna go there in the morning practice my offensive english with him. Now get out of here before your parents start calling mine. Go. We had enough trouble for today already.”

The girls said goodbye and went away. Rye went to sleep just imagining how would it be her talking with that guy. Stupid guy.

Next morning, at 8 am, Rye had breakfast quickly, got dressed and went out with just one thought: going across the street to have a chat with the bad boy that thinks he rules the world just because he’s an US citizen.

“Hello, I need to visit the guy staying at room 12, please.” Rye stopped at the reception desk from the hotel and asked at the nice bespectacled girl behind it.

“Ohh… aren’t you that singer from the band that always plays across the street?” she asked with a smile. Rye looked at her clock, she would be late for her internship if she kept making small talk there.

“Yeah, I am, so you know why I gotta talk to him. Can you… help me out here?”

“Hmm, I usually don’t break rules but… for that reason I’ll cut you some slack. But be careful, he seemed like a really tough and angry man. He’s American. I think it’s better if you…”

“Okay, thank you mrs. I appreciate it!” Rye left her talking and paced through the corridors, all the bravery in the world accumulated in her guts.

She stopped at the door, breathed a few times and felt her heart rushing when she finally knocked on the door.
The waiting seemed like an eternity as no one answered. Maybe he wasn’t there?
She knocked again, three times this time. And if he’s not answering now, she would come back after her shift.

“What did I… it’s fucking 9 am man! I didn’t ask for any room service. Why are you…”

The door finally opened to Rye’s sight. And she felt like her eyes were popping out of her head, as it almost did her heart.



The only reflex she had was to open her eyes widely and blush all her face skin, standing froze still. No! It can’t be really him! I’m having a really nice vivid dream right now.

The man just yawned and placed his hands on his hips, completely shirtless. Why wasn’t she closing her eyes to that sight she was forbidden to look at?

“I’m good for now and don’t wanna be bothered for the next… 12 hours, okay? Thank you.” He was about to close the door, his eyes never opening entirely, when Rye swiftly made a move to hold the door.

Wow, where did I find the strength to do that?

“Wait… sir… I… excuse me… do you…” she could only stutter while peeking up and down that perfect tattooed torso so close. He had all Matt’s tattoos, it really was him.

Rye didn’t know if she was more shocked by the fact that she was in front of her acclaimed idol or by how warm it felt to be so close to a shirtless and tattooed man for the first time in her life.

“Can you please… spit it? Cause I really gotta get back to bed now.” She closed her mouth and brushed her mental drooling to at least try to do what she came here for. To ask him why.

“Wait! I… I’m just gonna go to the point, alright.” She tried to focus on something that wasn’t his perfectly shaped biceps and when her gaze ran down, she faced the outstanding prominence only his boxers were covering. C’mon Rye, not a good time to have a hormonal crisis! “First of all, I know you. I’m one of your loyal fans around the world even though you guys never came to play here.”

“Oh shit… fangirling in the morning? Really? I definitely came to the wrong country… I’m getting out of here.” He was about to close the door again and she put her foot in the middle. He was getting angry, she could tell. But she wasn’t about to back off now.

“Just… listen, okay? I’m not here to ask for an autograph. In fact, I’m here for totally opposite of that, I’m here cause I was playing with my band mates yesterday when a certain someone…” she pointed at him, audaciously. Then he remembered from where he knew her. “…called the police on us as if we were committing a crime or something!”

He rolled his eyes and snorted a laugh.

“Is that all?”

“No, it’s not. I wanna know why you did that. You didn’t like our sound or…”

“I had a headache, okay? That is following me since… well, for a lot of days now. And those drums were really loud. So I had to…”

“You could’ve just talked to us, you know? Not simply calling the authorities as if you owned my country.” She didn’t know where all those words were coming from, she was never a confronter like that. But something about that situation made her act different. She loved the feeling of talking face to face to a huge and intimidating man like he was, she felt confident like never before.

“Okay, okay, lady, before you accuse me of terrorism, I’m gonna make something clear here. I liked the way you sounded, especially your voice, but I’m going through a really hard time right now and… Look, if you really are a fan, you must know what happened. I’m truly sorry for what I did, I confess it was uncalled for. Happy now?” he sounded defeated and… in pain.

She had no idea of what he was talking about, she wasn’t really following their lives every day like crazy stalkers did. She had college tests to study for.

“Yeah, I guess…” she had a big misunderstood frown.

“Can I get back to my sweet sleep now, dear?” Rye felt shivers when he called her dear. No man had ever called her like that, even if on that pejorative tone, she liked more than she should.

“Of course. Sorry to…” he didn’t wait for her to answer, just slammed the door when she pulled her foot back from the door. “…bother you. I love your music, by the way.” She finished the sentence to herself and walked away, experiencing a mixture of surprise to the fact Matt Shadows said he had liked her voice, with defeat for ending that conversation the way it did.

It might be the last time she would ever talk to him. And he didn’t even know how much she cared about him and his music. But he deserved to hear everything she said, indeed. She didn’t regret a single word.

Rye went to her internship and the first thing she did there was to read about the latest Avenged Sevenfold news. That was when her eyes began to water and her world fell.

'Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer found dead on December 28th.'

The regret she never felt when she was talking to Matt was now back at its toll to crush her heart.

Oh my God, I need to talk to him again!!!

Notes

ooh here she iiss, our main character Ryeee <3