Denial

“Is Nessa meeting us here or will she come to the venue?” Mia asked, looking at her friends.
Tammy, Mia and Izzie were sitting at the breakfast bar in Izzie and Matt’s home. It was the day of the concert and the three women were ready to go. The men had left 2 hours prior to set the last things up and do a soundcheck.
“I told her she was more than welcome to drive with us, but she’d rather drive herself, so she will meet us there.”

At that moment the doorbell sounded. When Izzie opened the door she was greeted by Jason Berry. He said hello, kissed her cheek and walked past her to do the same with the other two women.
“You ready to go? Your carriage awaits myladies” he did a little curtsy and smiled at them, receiving loud laughs.
“Act normal, goofball” Mia giggled, hopping off her stool
“The guys told me to treat you like queens, so that’s what I’m doing” Jason smirked.
“Brian never said that” Tammy shot back
“Neither did Matt”
Mia was about to open her mouth when the other two held up their hands to stop her.
“Don’t even start that sentence, Zack could totally have said that”
Mia got a grossed out look on her face “Yeah, you are right, still trying to get him off of that. He knows how I hate when he says things like that.“
“Of course he does, that’s why he keeps doing it. Now get your cute asses in the car, I have more to do!” Jason hushed them towards the car, holding the door open to them.

It wasn’t long before they reached the venue. Nessa texted Izzie that she was running a little late, so the women decided to follow Jason into the venue to watch the guys soundcheck.
“Wait, I’ll tell that guy at the door he should let Nessa in” Tammy stopped, giving the guy instructions before quickly following the others inside.
They all stopped as they entered the room and the first notes of ‘So far away’ entered their ears.
“Oh, I love this song” Mia sighed.
“Me too, but also hate it” Tammy added.
They all nodded as they listened to the song, each of their men playing with so much dedication they didn’t even notice their wives standing there. The women knew how it hurt the guys to play this song. What started as a song for Brian’s grandfather had gotten a different meaning when Jimmy died. It wasn’t as painful anymore as at first, but you could still see the hurt in their eyes. This song always brought out the memories.
“Still giving me goose bumps every single time I hear it” Mia whispered as the last notes of the song sounded. The other two hummed in agreement.

“Hey, sorry I’m late! What did I miss?” Nessa’s bright voice sounded behind them, making all three women turn around.
“You made it!” Izzie went over to hug her friend. The other two were quick to follow. Even though they had only seen Nessa a few times, there was no weirdness between them. Any friend of Izzie’s must be special enough to hang out with. The woman started chatting right away and were quickly laughing together.

At the stage Johnny looked over at where the laughter and chatter came from. At first he couldn’t make out what was going on, because of the bright lights, but then he made out the forms of the first avenged wives. He gave them a smile and a wave as they walked towards the stage. After he plucked all the air kisses they send him out of the air, Johnny noticed another woman walking behind them.

When she came into his clear sight, he stopped what he was doing and he had only one possibility. To stop and stare, his heart skipping a beat… or two.
Johnny wondered who she was. He thought he she looked familiar, he must have seen her somewhere, but couldn’t place her. She must be one of the girls’ friends, and he must have seen her before at one of their parties or something, but how could he have missed someone like that? His head was making overtime, trying to figure out who the woman was. He was so absentminded, he didn’t even notice Matt moving in right beside him.

“Nice, huh?” he heard Matt’s voice.
“Not too bad” Johnny acted nonchalant, even though he wasn’t feeling the words he said. His insides were making little jumps and he quickly focused back on his bass.
“Who is she?” He asked, still looking down at his bass, acting like he didn’t care.
“Friend of Izzie’s, broke up with her asshole boyfriend a couple of weeks ago. You might have seen her on one of our parties?”
“Ahah”

Matt looked at his friend, plucking the strings, adjusting a little and then adjusting some more. Johnny sure looked nervous in his eyes, would his wife be right after all? He really didn’t want to perform shirtless tonight, but for sure he wasn’t going to stand in the way of his friend’s happiness.

“Didn’t you just fix that bass to all the right settings?” Matt asked Johnny with an amused voice, trying to figure out what was going on with the smaller man.
Matt looked at the bass player with wide eyes, not remembering when he had seen his friend act like this.

The girls had made their way to the stage and were entering on the opposite side of where Matt and Johnny just had their small conversation. Johnny eyed the to him unknown girl. She was wearing the most sexy dress he had ever seen and he could feel the heat covering his neck. He wasn’t ready for this.

“I need to check a few things” he excused himself to Matt quickly and hurried off the stage, his heart racing and the drops of sweat dripping down his back. He let out some quick, high breaths, not knowing what came over him. He didn’t even speak one single word with the woman and she made him feel this way. He carefully watched her from the side of the stage, staying out of her sight, hoping he could just observe her for a bit, trying to figure out what it was that got him so confused.

“Whatcha doing little one?” Johnny jumped in surprise at hearing the unexpected voice behind him.
“IZZIE! Stop sneaking up on me!”
“You like what you see?” Izzie followed the man’s gaze over to the girl.
“Her name is Vanessa, you know, but her friends call her Nessa. She is the sweetest girl in my circle of friends, and she had a terrible break up a few weeks ago. Actually.... just like you” Izzie made it sound as if she just thought of the fact that her two friends had that break up in common, but Johnny knew her better than that.

“Do you think I’m stupid, Izzie? I helped you with your little schemes one too many times to not realize what you are playing at”
“What?” Izzie replied, her voice fake innocent, her batting her lashes to try and distract the man.

He knew exactly what she was trying to do, even though she was denying. Izzie had always been the one he had so much fun with, had the good talks with. He also knew she was a hopeless romantic and she had been the first to push him towards Kat. She was sorry on things had worked out between him and Kat. And not completely unimportant. She felt guilty. Not that he was blaming her anything.

But he wasn’t ready for something new. He was just enjoying his newfound single life, there were enough girls that wanted the bass player, even if Brian and Zack kept telling him he was a few strings short.
“So, what do you think Christ, want me to introduce you to her?” Izzie’s voice startled him out of his thinking again and he tried to play it cool.
“Nah, I’m good”
“Suit yourself” Izzie kissed his cheek and ran back on stage, right into Matt’s arms.

Johnny only had eye for the mysterious girl… Nessa…
He saw her talking to Arin and a ping of jealousy shot through his body. This was ridiculous! He let out a silent groan, not knowing what to do. The need to talk to her was so big, but the fear of being rejected even larger.

Nessa shortly looked over to his side of the stage and he saw her shaking it off as nothing special. See, nothing special. How could a girl like her even be interested in him. Being even remotely interested in her would only cause him heartache, he knew it would. But one glance over to his friends gave him enough ammo to want things for himself. When he saw Zack and Mia share sweet short kisses, her hands in his hair, putting strands of it in the right place.
Tammy and Brian barely even able to keep their hands of each other, his guitar still on his body, both not taking any notice of the obstacle that wasn’t an obstacle to keep kissing. And then he wasn’t even talking about Matt and Izzie, who had been together for so long, but were still just, or maybe even more in love than they have been in the beginning.

If he knew he could have that, he would sign for it right away, but you never knew beforehand. In his case it would probably only be more and more heartache. Johnny knew he was too trustworthy of people and that only made him an easier target, but he just wished… for once…

“Mia! Tammy! Nessa! We’re leaving” Izzie and Matt shared one last passionate kiss and then he smacked her ass as she walked away, following Zack’s example.
“Have fun girls! We will see you after the concert, right?” Brian called after Tammy.
“Yeah! Of cohourrsssee!!!” the girls screamed back and then left the stage.

“Damn they looked good!” Arin let out on a groan.
The married ones laughed “They are taken Kid, we will kick you out if you force one of them into an affair”
Zack clapped Arin’s shoulder as he stared after the women. Arin was the only one not staring after them, the men all were and so yes, the ones that did, included Johnny too.

“They weren’t all taken. That Nessa girl was pretty nice”
“She sure is, but way out of your league” Matt said to Arin with a smile as he walked back to his mic again, followed by Brian and Zack who were already trying out solo’s as they headed over to their spots on the stage again, leaving only Johnny and Arin.

“That girl was really friendly and funny, and have you seen her? Really a shame you had to fix something” Arin said, without any double meaning whatsoever. Johnny wanted to confirm, but realized that would be stupid since he hadn’t talked to her. He only knew her name because Izzie told him.
He could punch himself in the face for not talking to her, because he was already unable to get her of his mind. He hadn’t been within 2 feet of her, but he was completely mesmerized.
“She named her car! Don’t you think that is cool?” Arin kept babbling about Nessa and Johnny walked away from him. He didn’t need to hear about everything he could have asked her himself.

She would be here after the show and he would get his chance at talking with her. He would get his chance to say hello and be in her presence. Normally a concert could take all night for what he was worth, but now… he only wanted to get the concert over with so he could the idea that was forming in his head into action. He couldn’t wait to see her again after the show, maybe he would even find the nerve to talk to her. No, he would talk to her, no backing out, no running away.

He needed to know if he was right, he needed to know if she was worth getting his heart broken over.

Notes

Ha! You never thought I would be this fast huh? :P
I'm not making any promises for further chapters, so you better enjoy the fact you're already getting this one ;-)

Comments, pretty please? <3