Danger Line

„Good morning,” Smiled the pharmacist, while scanning the codes off my pills.

„Yeah, mornin’...” I mumbled, not completely awoken. I rubbed my eyes, remembering how wonderful had that bed felt until someone had knocked me in the ribs. I mean... son of a bitch did that hurt. Gates had spent the night on our tour bus, since he showed up completely hammered and just passed out. The only night when he decides to crash over, he’s drunk, stinky and passes out as soon as he stumbles over the doorstep. Ain’t I lucky? And I even left that asshole to sleep off his state of mind, while I went to get some drugs like Advil to ease his hangover and some pills for my aching side. Wasn’t I just the best? „Oh and I’ll need these...” I pulled out a prescription from the back pocket of my jeans, before handing it over.

„Vicodin?” He frowned, probably thinking I was just some junkey, faking the prescription to get my daily high. He checked the prescription another time, before his ocular covered eyes turned to look over me. I sighed heavily, knowing I did indeed look like a drug addict and a hobo, but that really was none of his business. „Sorry to ask, but why have you been prescribed Vicodin, mis... Hills?”

Oh for fuck sake... I raised my shirt to show him my bruising side and I’ll be damned if that hideous bruise didn’t convince him to give me those pills. „Look mister, I have a show to play in this many hours and either you give me those pills or I’ll get them somewhere else, but to be sure, my drug dealer usually mixes the drugs with meth.”

„That’s not funny, young lady...” Young... what the hell did he just call me? And who said I was joking? Nevertheless, he added the Vicodin to the list. „That will be $ 41,62...”

As I pulled the sweet, sweet dollars from my wallet just to give them to the pharmacist, with the corner of my eye I saw a pregnancy test land on the counter. As soon as I gave the guy a fifty, I figured to check who’s the unlucky one. My eyes fixed on a smiling Kathy. „Good morning,” She said.

„yeah...” I murmured, looking over the pregnancy test with a frown as I took my pills and the remainders of the cash. A fucking pregnancy test? I pulled out a smoke from my pack as I pushed the glass door open. What would she do with a fucking pregnancy test?

Nevertheless, I brushed it off as I lit up my smoke, moving my way to the buses, because something else caught my attention. I saw Madison chilling. All by herself. At 9 AM, when most of the crew were still sleeping and if not, they were ready to get some sleep. For example Luke, our amazing driver who had been steering for the whole night. I had no idea where we were, probably way north ‘cause it was cold as fuck and pouring cats and dogs the whole night. Out of a pure miracle it stopped as soon as I stepped off the bus. I know it was winter and all, but this weather sucked... I was even forced to zip up my jacket on my way to the pharmacy. I wondered when will we stumble over a layer of snow...

„Good morning,” I greeted Madison, pushing the hood of my black hoodie off my head. In response she jumped a little, I knew I hadn’t washed my hair for days, but come on, I wasn’t that terrifying.

„Oh... yeah... morning,” She stuttered. Oookay... I took a quick couple of drags, before throwing the butt to the ground and opening the bus door, „Hey, Raven?” Madison spoke when I was already one leg in the bus.

„Hmm?” I looked back over my shoulder to see her light greens deeply piercing in my soul. Now that was scary...

„You guys wouldn’t have a spare bunk on the bus for a very silent human being, would you?”

„Uhmm... well...” I quickly put the drugs on the driver’s seat, before returning to the brunette, „We do, but what’s the matter? Did something happen?” Besides the fact that she had to travel around with a bunch of stinky, yet pretty rad dudes.

„It’s just... that Kathy chick—„

„Avenged merch girl?” What she has to do with our roadie bus?

„Man, if there’ll be another night where I have to hear her squeals so help me god,” Oh look at that, she was one of those homicidal chicks. Chris was right – my favorite. But that was not the point, the point was Kathy had moved to fuck my roadies? Was she really the universal slut? Now I didn’t even question her need for pregnancy tests.

„So who’s she fucking now?” I couldn’t help, but grin.

„Everyone!”

„Yeah... sounds like her... Okay, listen you can hop aboard, just be extremely quiet through the day and well... whenever we’ve stopped somewhere, ‘cause Luke’s probably sleeping,” I explained while walking up the stairs. „Oh, and don’t startle that creature,” I pointed to the shirtless Chris, who was playing one of them video games, „He’s very sensitive towards all kinds of sounds and the light... be extremely careful with the light...” I heard Madison chuckle. Good, so I was right, she does like Chris.

„Hey,” He gave us a second of his frown, before turning back to the tv.

„So yeah, that’s basically it... The layout of the bus is exactly the same, so just pick a bunk and make yourself at home,”

„Hills?” I heard Chris pause his game, before moving towards the counters in an attempt to make himself a good cup of coffee. I moved to look away from Madison and watch over Chris’s broad shoulders, „Pat came to ask if you and Gates are up for charity today...”

„Well I don’t know if Gates is up for anything knowing how big of a mess he was yesterday,”

„I’m feeling fantastic, thanks for asking,” Brian left the bunk area, a cheeky smirk on his lips. I couldn’t believe my eyes, after what went down yesterday, he could just wake up and carry on with his day? „So what kinda charity are we doing?” He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.

„A master class in the local school...”

„Yeah... cool... Hey, Madison, can you please run to the guitar center and fetch me some strings and straps?”

„Uhmm... sure... What kind do you need?”

„I prefer Ernie Ball regular slinkys... gauge ten, was it Chris?” I looked over to him just to see him nod in approval, „But you can pick whatever really... D’Addarios, Ernie Balls, Dean Markley, but don’t take the GHS... They tend to break really fast...”

„Uhmm...” She looked genuinely confused and lost. I guessed she didn’t play the instrument.

„Chillax, Fresno,” Chris spoke a peanut-butter sandwich hanging from his mouth, before he took a good chunk out of it, „I’ll go with you.”

„Fresno?” Wait, don’t tell me I’ve been addressing her wrong the whole time...

„Yeah, that’s where we picked her up,” Chris replied like it was oh so obvious. How the hell did he manage to remember where we picked up the girl? I still had these strong beliefs that Chris was gay, since I hadn’t seen him hooking up with none of the girls. „Oh, in the last place we were I saw these awesome guitar straps with bullets and doves... Should I take that if they have ‘em?”

„yeah, sure,” I shrugged, feeling Brian rest his chin against the top of my head.

________

„How to do a dive bomb...” I smiled looking over the kids. Well, this was slightly different. Never once had I seen that kind of admiration in the eyes of my students as I saw here. They really wanted to know things not just have to know them because of the grade. „Okay, here’s how it’s done... To do it, you’ll need to have preferably a floyd rose tremolo with locking trems so the gun doesn’t get out of tune. Gates, mind passing your gun?”

„Mine?”

„Yeah, yours, my strings aren’t ready for dive bombs,” I didn’t believe they were ready anything, knowing they had been re-stringed in a moving vehicle, but oh well. „Okay so... here we can see Syn Gates custom with floyd rose tremolo and duncan pickups... But to be honest, anything with a wammy bar will do... So... oh and an amp with loads of distortion also helps... So basically you just grab the bar, and whatcha gonna do is flip the note... Any note at all... I’ll show really slow,” Maybe they couldn’t see what I was doing too well, that’s why I figured to comment on the whole thing.

„So you just flip the note, pull the bar and go over to the harmonics?” I had no idea who had just asked that, but I figured it to be a guy.

„Yeah, that’s exactly what I do. Just flip the note... catch it and do the harmonic. This is super easy to do once you get it and makes you look like you know what you’re doing. I, for instance, love dive bombs, makes me look like I’m a pro at this...”

„What are you doing with your thumb?” My thumb? Oh...

„I just use it to block strings...” I looked over to Gates. What was he smiling about? It was weird to see him without his infamous smirk. „And that’s how you do dive bombs... It’s great to know them to put before a solo and just blow up in some uber melodic scales as Gates here would say.”

He cracked a smile.

„So you guys, can you do something together? A song of sort?”

„Well, yeah, I guess so... Whatcha wanna do, Gates?”

„I’m good with whatever,”

„You guys want something from our bands, or...

„Bat country!” A girl yelled.

„Shit, Meg, that’s an old song...” He looked at me. Bat country... Bat country... Which one was it? The tam... tadadam... Oh yeah, I remember, as long as he plays the lead, I’m good with whatever, that song was easy.

„Not as old as you, Gates,” I laughed handing his guitar back to him. I walked to my guitar case to take out that freshly re-stringed Schecter and attach it to the amp.

The song went better than I’d expected, I didn’t break any strings, they were partly in tune and I even did my little solo thing before Gates exploded in his solo. We ended the whole master class with signing gear, taking photo’s and I couldn’t even believe it, but a girl came up to me and showed me the same Frankenbride holding a leash on Frankenstein tattoo as I had on my thigh only she had it on her back. „Shit, that’s so sick... When did you get it?” I questioned as someone held me my face to sign.

„Two weeks ago. Hurt like a mothereffer... But was worth the pain,” She smiled, before moving over to Brian so he’d sign her shirt. „Thank you...”

„Okay, guys, was that everything or you need to sign something else?” Gates looked over the kids, putting the cap back on the sharpie. I took the silence as there was nothing possibly left to sign, ‘cause we had signed everything. Yes, even foreheads and sneakers. „Okay, cool, so I guess we could make one last picture with all of us and then we’ll be heading... Who’s the photographer around here?”

„I am,” A young girl held up her hand.

„Nice, so let’s do this,” Gates embraced me as the kids took their places around us, „and I’ll better be seeing you all at the show tonight, unless they’re translating MMA...”

„yeah, the big fight,” One of the most talkative kids twisted to look at Brian.

„Then it’s your duty as an Avenged Sevenfold fan to stay home and tweet Zacky V about the results, just do that hashtag thing where you add Syn Gates at the end, so I know it’s you guys...” He joked.

„Okay guys, smile,” The photographer shouted, before making a few flashes fly over. I couldn’t bare, but smile on how good Brian was with his fans and it specially kids. We did a couple of funny pictures, before saying goodbyes and packing up our gear.

„How’s your ribs?” Brian asked as soon as the kids had been escorted out of the room.

„I’m on Vicodin, so I really don’t feel anything,”

„Yeah I figured you’re too silent and calm around those kids.”

„The funny thing about the drugs, the guy in the pharmacy didn’t want to give them to me even when I flashed him my perscription. Do I really look like a junkey?” For a moment he stopped gathering the cords and glanced at me. It seemed like he had slight doubt.

„Oh come on, man...”

„I’m just thinking how beautiful you are,” A cheeky smile grew on his lips.

„You know, it’s not nice to make fun of cripples. That’s racist, Haner.”

„Seriously? I just told you, you’re beautiful and you call me a racist...”

„That’s because you were scoffing,”

„I was not...”

„You’re such a liar, Haner.” I replied, closing my case and leaving the amps for the roadies to fetch later.

„I’ve never lied to you...” He said a little too serious.

„Oh yeah? Where were you yesterday?”

„With you.”

„Before that.”

„At a bar.”

„With whom?”

„What is this, an interrogation?” He laughed, „I was with Kathy.”

„Ughh, don’t mention her, that’s disgusting...” I grimaced, picking up the case, before he rushed over and took it from me.

„Careful, babe,”

„I could’ve handled it,” I pouted seeing him take both of the guitar cases. Right now I really felt like the cripple, I wasn’t allowed to do anything.

„Then what am I here for?” He kissed my temple, before pushing me forward with his hips. He was too sweet today, something was off with him. And why the hell was he even with Kathy at a bar yesterday? Man, if I’ll find out he’s boning the chick, I swear to god this won’t take a good end.

Notes