Denial

“Well, well, glad you could finally join us” Brian spoke in his mic after the first two songs.
“And in such a sexy outfit” Johnny added, pushing Brian aside.
“It’s not fair… I mean, he is married already and he is still ruining it for us single guys. Go cover him, Christ”
The crowd went wild on Arin’s remark and Matt snapped his head to the back when he heard Arin’s voice. Arin never talked to the audience, seriously, he was making an exception now?
Zack reached in his back pocket and held out the bow tie he had hidden there, he didn’t really get why Izzie told him to take that along, but it fell into place now.
“Here Shadz, maybe you should put this thing on?”

The crowd was screaming and the bras were flying on the stage. That normally took a lot longer. Matt cursed and looked to the side of the stage, seeing Izzie laugh her ass off with the other three girls.
“Ah, fuck me” Matt muttered, his voice loud enough to let it be picked up by the microphone. The crowd roaring even harder. Funny, it seemed like the venue was filled with only women tonight.
“This is not a Chippendales event, Vengeance, I already told you so many times.. I thought you finally got it when you stopped wearing bow ties” Brian again, his smile not able to get any wider.
“I didn’t stop wearing them” Zack shot a look to the side, receiving a wide grin from Mia.
“Oh, we discussing bedrooms secrets now?” Brian put up his best tonight and Matt realized this would get completely out of hand if he didn’t get this show on the road again soon.

“Arin, next song?” He asked, looking back, seeing Arin stand behind his drum, his shirt off too. Well, that wasn’t weird, he barely ever kept his shirt on for even one song. Probably was a drummer thing, since Jimmy was never able to keep his shirt on a for a whole concert either.
“Oh mennnnn! Don’t tell me that was the dresscode tonight? I’m going through one of my fatty periods. I’ve been home, nothing beats home cooking” Zack fake pouted, not able to hide his smirk for very long.
Matt sighed, they were still not over this and it would be a damn long night if they didn’t play some songs soon… Matt shot an angry look at his wife, receiving a sweet and innocent smile back, this was all her doing.

“Come on guys, we are working here, you will put us all out of business. The lovely people of Long Beach paid good money to see us do more than two songs and a comedy show.” Matt looked at his bandmates, who still had shit eating grins on their faces, but were getting back to their instruments.
“Fucking finally. Well, as you can see, we are a pretty messed up little family, but we would love to invite you to it anyway. This is ‘Welcome to the Family’!”

Finally the music hit the speakers again and the audience got back into it. Izzie saw Matt take a breath in relieve, before letting out his significant growls and roars.
“That was fucking hilarious” Tammy high fived Izzie “This is not done, I can’t imagine the guys giving up that easily”
“Maybe it is” Mia mused “They know how fast bets can escalate in this group”
“You won a bet, Izzie?” Nessa asked, completely unaware of everything that had been going on. She had good laughs at the men’s jokes, but never even thought of a deeper meaning “What did you wager on?”

For a second Izzie was lost for words for a second, she couldn’t tell Nessa about the actual bet, that wouldn’t sit well with her friend. She quickly searched her brain for an explanation.
“Well, we had a bet on Harry Potter” she rushed out. Tammy facepalmed herself behind Nessa’s back and shook her head, but it was the best Izzie could come up with. Lucky for Izzie, Nessa got distracted by new shenanigans between the guys and her attention moved back to the stage.

On stage, Zack and Brian started another round of making fun of Matt.
“Zack, do you see all the bras on stage?”
“I sure am, with those numbers they are hard to miss”
“Did you notice there are always twice as many the minute Shadz here takes his shirt off?”
“Yeah, I think it isn’t fair. We never stand a chance with him around… Maybe we should look for another singer?” Zack muttered thoughtfully a smirk breaking through on his face.

Matt looked at the crowd with raised brows and received their support. They got the singer’s back and booed the others. Matt chuckled in the microphone
“Maybe I should go look for other bandmates, or rather friends… who needs enemies when you got friends like this?” The smirk on his face made the crowd go crazy and he looked to both his sides, seeing his two guitarists laugh their ass off. Johnny stood next to Matt and leaned to the side of his body looking up at him.
“You wouldn’t trade me, would you?” Johnny asked playfully, making Matt smile even wider.
“I’m thinking about keeping Johnny, what do you guys think?” Matt asked the crowd who all shouted different confirmations to the question. Matt put his arm around the bass player “Johnny makes me look good, high and mighty. I think we should sing a song for Johnny. This is ‘Hail to the King’”

The show continued and everyone was having a good time. The guys on stage and the girls on the side at the backstage. The show was slowly coming to an end. The men just played the last song before their first encore and they all came to the side where the women were standing. Matt didn’t waste any time in finding his wife
“What is the time?” He asked her innocently as he drank down most of his full bottle of water.
“10.45” Izzie stated after a quick glance on her watch. She let her hands wander over Matt’s body and stood close to him. This manly scent of his made her want to take him away from all of this to have him get his way with her. He put his arms around her slim body and looked down on her
“We should have been done half an hour ago… this is all your fault, you know that right?”
Izzie giggled, she knew she had been the instigator to all of this, but she’d had the best night, she wasn’t going to let Matt ruin it. Lucky for her it wasn’t Matt’s intention to take down her fun.
“This might have been my fault, but you know how many girls have thanked me already” She stuck out her tongue and send Matt back on stage with a smack on his ass.

After Unholy Confessions and Bat Country, the band joined the women backstage for the last time before they would do it permanently for tonight. They would play one last song and then the show was over. When they went back to the stage, Mia was jumping in excitement.
“Oh! I totally love this song. It’s so funny!”
They all listened to Matt announce the song “This song is about sex. And dead people. And sex with dead people” Everyone was laughing and screaming and the girls were dancing like there was no tomorrow. Even the ones that said they never danced. When the final notes sounded Izzie gathered all of them and directed them off the stage into the large dressing room.

The women were waiting backstage for the guys to come back from their after show obligations, the room was filled with liquor and snacks, waiting to be used by people wanting to have a good night.
“Let’s prepare shots of Jack, we can definitely start the night off with that” Mia suggested, getting out the bottle of Jack Daniels standing on the table, filling 9 shot glasses.

A lot of racket filled the room and the next second the girls were attacking their men.
“Did you like the show?” Arin asked Nessa shyly as he took a seat next to her on the couch. Nessa noticed he had a hard time sitting still, probably still pumped by the adrenaline that had gotten into him playing the show.
“Yeah, what did you think?” Johnny plopped on her other side. He looked a little embarrassed and blushed, or was it just the heat of this room and the show?
“I liked it! It had been a while since I had seen you play live, but it was amazing. You had big shoes to fill kid, but you did really well” Nessa looked at Arin, she had known Jimmy for a little bit, but got to know him a lot better by listening to the Avenged music. She had huge respect for the late drummer, but maybe even more for the young man replacing him. She realized it was probably hard to make your way in a band that had been around for so long, a band that had been friends first. She knew everything about not completely fitting in. Nessa noticed Arin wave away the compliment and added “I really enjoyed myself” looking from Arin to Johnny. Both guys nodded as reply to my answer.
“Good, good” both Arin and Johnny muttered.

“SHOTS!” Mia yelled, handing us all one of the little glasses. Nessa took it from her and put her glass against Arin’s as she looked him right into his sweet face.
“Cheers!” she acclaimed and took the shot in one swig.
Then she felt a light tap on her shoulder and looked to her other side, seeing Johnny holding out his glass to her too “What about me?” Mia quickly filled Nessa’s glass again. She had been watching the three of them closely. Trying to figure out if she should go with Izzie’s plan, or just try to stop it. Mia had noticed Johnny’s glances and decided the girl would make him happy.

Nessa put her new filled glass against Johnny’s and looked into his eyes “Cheers!”.
Johnny kept staring into her eyes, and she didn’t really know why she couldn’t look away. They just sat there, shots in hand, staring at each other. Nessa was unaware of what was happening around them, and it seemed to her like all noises faded.
“Yo Johnny, are you going to take that shot or what?!” Nessa heard Arin ask impatiently.
“Uh.. Yeah... Bottom’s up!” Johnny scraped his throat and took the shot. Nessa shook her head and did the same. She was wondering what the hell just happened. She looked around her, dazed, and found Izzie and Matt looking at her with big grins on their faces. Nessa raised her brows at them in confusion. The couple just shook their heads, smiled widely and got back to providing everyone with drinks. Nessa shrugged. They were acting weird, but she felt a nice glow inside of her and that had been a long time ago.

“Excuse me, there are some people I want to talk to” Arin excused himself and got up from the couch.
“So... Uhm... You liked the show huh?” Johnny asked the girl next to him. He was trying to start a conversation. His mind told him to run away as hard has he could, but his heart was telling him to stay and talk to the girl that had never left his mind since the first time he laid eyes on her.
Nessa giggled a little and then looked at him “I just told you, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yeah… Yes.. Well… You said you liked Harry Potter?” Johnny sighed unnoticeable about his own stupidity. Did he really sank this low that he had to talk about Harry Potter to break the ice with a girl? Normally girls liked him, he never had any problems in making contact, but right now, he seemed to have forgotten everything he ever knew about women.

Johnny was beating himself up about being so stupid, but then he looked at the girl again. She’d sat up straight and her eyes were twinkling.
“I LOVE Harry Potter!” Nessa let out excitedly
“Books or Movies?” Johnny asked with a smile, amused by how the woman changed on this subject.
“Books, always the books first, but even though in the movie they left out some characters or they don't look like how I imagined in the book, it was represented so well that it could be the only series I watch for the rest of my life and I will be okay with it.” She was beaming now, and Johnny could barely control his hand from stroking her cheek. He really wanted to touch her now, the face of the girl that got so excited about this.
“What is your favorite teacher?” Johnny quickly leaned back into the couch, his hands entwined on his lap.
Nessa smiled in reply “Funny, most people ask who my favorite character is first, or my choice of house, but you…”
“I don’t need to ask that question. You look like a Gryffindor kinda girl, and I bet you look amazing in your Hermione outfit every year on Halloween” Johnny put his hand in front of his mouth, not believing he just said that out loud. He was beating himself up over it. He was ruining this, he was taking it to far and he hadn’t even been in her presence that long!

Nessa noticed the turmoil going on in Johnny and decided to give him a way out by answering his question “My favorite professor is Professor McGonagall. Do you know she is called Professor Anderling in the Netherlands? I think that name is really pretty, the Dutch names are almost better! Don’t you think?”
Johnny realized Izzie must have told Nessa about the Dutch names, seeing her parents were Dutch and she had lived there until they had moved to Huntington.
“What is yours?” Nessa broke his train of thoughts with that question.
“Professor Snape. I always thought he was a good guy, I never believed him to be who they said he was. You know… That is the last word Snape said to Harry? “Always”?
The woman was totally mesmerized by the answer. She herself always thought Snape was one of the bad guys, but with Johnny putting it this way… She believed him and was almost willing to throw her own believes overboard.

She got scared by her own thoughts. That was exactly the reason she didn’t want a relationship anymore. She tend to lose herself when she was dating someone. She went all in and never got the same in return. Going all in only made her lose everything, her mind, her heart. And she wasn’t going to let it happen ever again. She was happy she got the wake up call. It was time for her to leave.

Nessa suddenly got up and quickly glanced at the clock. Then she turned to Johnny again.
“I need to get home, I have some appointments in the morning, nice talking to you”
She went around the room, saying goodbye to the others, hugging Izzie and Matt, before she went through the door to leave. She needed to leave soon, before she would change her mind and go back to the man that entertained her so much this evening, the man that secretly had already made his way into her head. That was definitely her cue to get the hell out of here.

The confused girl quickly made her way to the door and turned around to wave at everyone a last time. Her look staying on Johnny a little longer before she finally decided to leave. Definitely this time.

Johnny himself was confused too, not getting what just happened. One minute they were talking so nicely, the next minute she was already halfway out of the door… He wanted to talk to her again. He needed to talk to her again. He then made a decision with his heart, knowing his head would tell him ‘I told you so’ later on.

He decided to go after her.

Notes

Because you guys had to wait so long for another update, I wrote you a long chapter to make it up.

Hope you like it! Please comment and tell me what you think :-)

Oh ps. Special thanks to my girl Nessa for telling me everything about her Harry Potter! <3