We return to Huntington Beach two days later; Gus and I still aren’t on speaking terms, but I have Brian and Michelle – my mother – to keep me company. Of course they both made it clear that hitting my brother wasn’t a good way to channel my anger, but they made a deal with Gus and me to let it go, and so far neither of us had brought up the incident again.

The main thing that I was definitely not looking forward to, but I knew had to be taken care of, was talking to Matt about Michelle. I had told both her and Brian that I could handle him on my own, but as I sit across from him at the dining room table, not two hours after we arrived home, I regret ever telling them that.

For one, the look on his face told me that he was just about ready to break something in half. The only things that were within reach of him was a chair, and me. That, and I was still intimidated by the whole ‘M. Shadows’ thing.

“Look,” he begins, before I can say anything. “I know things between us haven’t been the greatest… But I’ll be willing to start over, if you are.”

This… was certainly not what I was expecting to hear. I was more or less expecting him to yell at me for figuring out the truth about Michelle, but either he didn’t know that I knew yet, or he was just trying to brush that matter aside.

Either way, I was not about to leave that table without knowing how I truly felt about the whole situation.

“I’m willing to,” I say, “if you’re willing to explain to me why you found it necessary to not tell me about Michelle.” His face pales, and he inhales sharply – so I guess he didn’t know.

“Did they tell you?” he asks, clenching his fists so his knuckles turn white. I shake my head frantically.

“No,” I reply slowly. “I found our birth certificates on Brian’s computer up in San Francisco. He copied them or scanned them onto there somehow, and he left the folder for it open.” Yeah; it wasn’t the full truth, but I was afraid of how Matt would react if he found out I was “snooping” around on Brian’s computer.

However, my statement seems to make him even angrier. He closes his eyes for a moment, which causes my heart to pound.

Finally, he exhales, and opens his eyes to look at me calmly.

“Alright, so you know the truth,” he says; his tone is so calm and pleasant that it scares me even more. I begin to bounce my leg nervously.

“Why was it such a big deal that I didn’t know?” I ask quietly, my voice cracking. He just shakes his head.

“It doesn’t matter now,” he tells me. “The point is that, now you know – and I don’t want you saying anything about it to anyone, understand?” His tone is threatening and dangerous and I feel myself shake in fear.

I nod.

“Good.” He leans back in his chair a little more. “So. We really haven’t talked much since the incident at the restaurant.” I shake my head, silently agreeing with him. Though I couldn’t quite remember what I had said for it to be this way. “Listen,” he says, lowering his voice slightly and leaning forwards again. His angry demeanor is gone, and instead appears to be replaced by the Matt that I actually liked – the one who took me to the museum and treated me to lunch after; the Matt that was there before we argued about our mother.

“Listen. Autumn, I know there’s a lot of stuff you don’t quite understand – like the agreement I had with your… parents when you two were adopted.” The word “parents” comes out strained, as if he hated that term used for Jim and Rhonda. “I’ve actually been in contact with them for a long time – so when I said I already knew a lot about you, I wasn’t really lying.” I frown. I was under the impression that Jim had only just heard from Matt for the first time in years when he announced to us that we would be spending the summer with him.

But I suppose that would explain how easily he was able to get his hand on concert tickets. Every time I brought up going to see one of the many bands I had grown to love over the years, Jim would have bought tickets for me the next day – no questions asked. Now, it seemed to make sense as so how he got them so fast; with someone like Matt – M. Shadows – getting them for him.

“You also probably don’t understand how much I love you and your brother,” he continues. This statement causes me to perk up a little. “Sure, sleeping with Michelle was a mistake. But you two are part of the reason I do what I do – why I sing. I want you to have someone to look up to; someone you’d be proud of calling your dad one day.”

He smiles at me, and I can’t help but smile back. I mean, let’s face it; how cool would it be to be able to go around announcing to the world that your dad was the front man of one of the biggest metal bands of the century?

“That being said.” My face falls, as I realize that there’s more to it. “We need to discuss some privacy issues.” He flexes his hand. “As you may have noticed, no one knows you two exist – no one knows that I had kids when I was your age. And I would like it to stay that way for as long as possible.

“People tend to leave us alone here, which was why no one really bothered us at the mall a couple weeks ago. But you know how nosey fans can get; I don’t want this blowing up in either of our faces. In other words, you aren’t allowed to go around saying that ‘M. Shadows is your father’ or whatever. Understood?”

I nod. I can’t say I didn’t expect this – the band was actually pretty good at keeping their private-lives… private.

Smiling, he pats my arm gently. “Good. I’m glad things are alright between us.”

Well, they weren’t necessarily alright, but they were certainly a hell of a lot better than before.

Suddenly, he gets an excited look in his eyes, as if he’s just come up with a good idea.

“You should come up to the studio with me,” he suggests, smiling widely. “I bring Gus up there all the time – he seems to love it there.” Good for him.

“Yeah, maybe,” I manage to say. I was still pretty pissed at Gus for the shit he had said while up in San Francisco, and hearing about how much fun he’s had while spending time with my favorite band…

It really was pointless to hold a grudge, I know that; but sometimes, it was hard. Especially when someone you’re supposed to trust decides to stab you in the back – and then laugh about it. If anything, he deserved to have me punch him.

“What happened to your hand, by the way?” Matt asks suddenly, and I freeze up. I hadn’t realized until earlier that day how hard I had really hit Gus; though it didn’t show as much on his cheek, it certainly showed on my hand. They were black and blue, and one was even split; Brian had to bandage it up before we left.

“Um… I hit a wall…” I lie. He doesn’t buy it.

“Right. So what happened to your brother’s face then? Did he run into the same wall?” He seems pretty amused by this. I just roll my eyes.

“Yeah. Sure. That’s what happened.” He rolls his eyes, realizing he’s not going to get much of an honest response from me.

“Don’t hit your brother,” he tells me before getting to his feet.

Once he’s gone, I can’t help but smile to myself.

Notes

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter... =)

Have a good weekend, guys

~WOLFY~