Hush, be careful of what you say

Matt POV

“I don’t know man!” Zacky snaps as he throws the pen on the desk and stands up from his chair.
“Now what?!” Johnny asks him, sounding all annoyed.
“This is useless. None of the guys are standing out. Sure, they are all great, but there is no 1 guy who truly stands out. None of the guys should be part of our band” Zacky tries to explain, still pissed off.

The truth is that Zacky is right. We want to continue with our band, we want to continue releasing songs and tour the world. But to do that we need an amazing and unique drummer that could take the place of the late Jimmy. He was one in a million type of guy, you’re not going to meet a lot of guys like him. He was weird, funny, serious, an addict, an amazing drummer….and the most important thing, a trustful brother and friend. We are not going to let any guy to simply walk in and take his place. He has to be unique. He has to show us that he truly wants it and deserves taking this spot. The thing is that until now, after all these auditions, none of the guys stand out. Only couple of auditions are left. And if we don’t find that one guy, I truly don’t know what is going to happen with Avenged Sevenfold.

“Can we go to the next one?” Brian quietly asks. He hasn’t said much during these auditions, and I don’t blame him. He took Jimmy’s death the worst, and it must be heartbreaking for him trying to find a guy that is going to take Jimmy’s place in our band.
“I agree with Brian. Let’s fucking finish these” Zacky says as he sits back down on the chair.
I signal the security to let the next person into the hall.

As I take a sip from the beer that I have in front of me, I notice a skinny guy, well, kid, going up the stage.
“You gotta be kidding me” Zacky mumbles under his breath.
“Just shut up for now, will ya?” I snap at him. I look at the kid and at the name that I have in front of me.
“Arin Ilejay?” I ask him.
“Yes, that’s me” he quickly responded. He sounds nervous, if that is a good sign or not, we will figure that out in a few.
“Okay, show us what you got!” I tell him as I lean back in my chair.

He sits down on his stool, looks at the ceiling and signals to start the music. All of a sudden I hear the music blaring out of the speaker, as he turn on the microphones that the drum set has and start jamming on the drums. I have to say I did not expect such energy from such a small, skinny kid. He looks determined and focused, and doesn’t even miss one beat. Quickly I glanced at the other guys and I see them with their jaws dropped. That hasn’t happened today, so this is definitely a good sign. I lean towards the table, admiring him even more until the songs finishes.

“Uhm, that was it. Are you expecting me to play another song or what?” he says after few seconds.
“No, no no one song is enough. Uhm, wow you truly know how to play drums. How long have you been playing drums?” I ask him, all curious to get to know him.
“Since I was like, four years old. So it’s been a while yes” he answers as he gets up from behind the drum set and comes forward.
“You surprised me with the song choice. I mean, System of a Down – Chop Suey!?! That is not an easy song to play! Well done!” Johnny adds to my comment.
“Thank you! Seriously thank you” Arin replies with a huge grin on his face.
“Just one question. Have you heard any of the songs that we play? I mean we have quite different songs that System of a Down…” I point out.
“Yeah, yeah I know. I just decided to play this song since it was the first song that I played on the drum set with my grandpa. So you know…sentimental value and shit”.
“Cool. So, Arin, we will discuss everything as a band and with our band manager over here, and will let you know if you’re in the band” I tell him.
“Sounds fair. See ya guys” he says as he storms off the stage.

“It’s him!” Johnny says excitedly! “It’s him!! He has something in him that reminds me of Jimmy!!”
“He will never be Jimmy”, Brian softly says, making us all turn to look at him.
“Of course Brian. We’re not trying to find Jimmy number 2, he doesn’t exist” Zacky tries to explain.
“So what is the point of all this?!” he angrily tells us.
“Dude, calm down. What is wrong? We are just trying to find….” Johnny starts to explain but is soon interrupted by Gates.
“You know what? I’m out of here. I need to have a smoke” Brian hisses as he gets up and storms out of the room.

“What the fuck is wrong with him?” Johnny says as he is still staring at the door, astonished by what just went down.
“I think he is a bit mad that we have just found a replacement for Jimmy” I softly say.


Arin POV

“So, how did it go?” Toby asks me over the phone.
“Uhm, honestly? I don’t know. I mean I feel like I gave my best and played the song really well. But…” I pause for a second to think.
“But what?”
“Some of the members didn’t seem too eager to get to know about the audition and shit. I mean most of them seemed to be okay with me, but one of them seemed cold. He only looked at me with this one look, and let me tell you, I’m scared for my life” I admit to him.
“That must be Synyster Gates aka Brian” he laughs.
“What is so funny?” I ask him, all confused. “Did I do or say something funny?”
“No it’s just that he is the one with a bad temper. And he was the closest to Jimmy and didn’t take his death that good. I mean you have to put yourself in his shoes, this must be hard for them all, especially for him. But I’m sure he’ll come around, trust me!” he tries to reassure me.
“If you say so” I shrug it off.

Once I got to my place, I tried not to think about the audition and about whether they were going to call me or not. So I grabbed myself a beer, sat down on the sofa and put on a movie for me to watch.
“Hmm, American Sniper, this is a good movie I suppose!” I told myself.
Fuck that. As soon as the movie started, I kept thinking about the audition and I was getting even more agitated that I already was.

To my surprise, after a couple of minutes I heard my phone going off. I storm out of the room, searching for my phone.
“Hello?!” I say, hoping that it is someone from the band.
“Hi, is this Arin?” a male voice said through the phone.
“Yeah that’s me. Who is this?”
“Oh hi Arin. This is Matt, from Avenged Sevenfold. You had an audition earlier on today” he calmly explains.
“Yeah I remember. Hi Matt, how’s it going?” I try to calmly say.
“Good man. Listen, we discussed everything together and we have decided to meet you once more. Man, you’re truly talented! We would like to see more and discuss further things with you!”
“Are you for real or you’re shitting me right now?” I cannot believe this!
“Nah man for real. I’ll text you an address very soon, we’ll meet tomorrow evening. Good for you?”
“Perfect! Wow, thanks I’m speechless right now!”
“Don’t sweat it! Welcome to the family Arin, welcome to Avenged Sevenfold”

Notes

So, the audition went good and the guys are eager to welcome Arin to the band! :D Well, not everyone...Brian is not too pleased about it :/ What will happen next? Will he accept him...and if yes, how?

Next chapter is Brian's POV...it's a good one ;)
Hope you'll liking the story so far! It will get better trust me :)
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