CAITLIN'S POV

"So how did you guys meet? Were you a groupie?" Excited eyes were staring in my direction. I sighed. My first day at my second college was certainly a lot more annoying than my first day at Huntington Beach High School. I remembered it clear as day.

No-one had approached or even noticed me until lunch break. It was the first day at high school for all the Freshmen, and most kids just hung out with the people they knew from middle school. After all, everything was so new to them. And of course, I didn't expect any older students to actually care about the Freshmen. But as I was sitting all by myself in the cafeteria, I felt sad. I watched all the other kids excitedly sharing stories about their first couple of classes at high school.

What the hell was wrong with me? I wondered. In Vancouver, I had been a pretty popular girl. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice this tall, gawky guy approaching me. When he suddenly sat across me, I almost panicked. I eyed him suspiciously.

The first thing I saw was orange. Orange orange orange. Orange because the most outstanding feature was definitely his orange onesie, that appeared to be some kind of... Japanese kimono? But then again, his face, too, was a story of his own. His hair was dyed blond, almost orange, and it stood in every direction possible, giving him a crazy scientist appearance. He had a goatie, too, and even though we were inside, he was wearing shades.

The sassy girl I was, I said, "Hey there, paint brush head, 'sup?" and he lifted his small sunglasses, revealing a beautiful pair of blue eyes. "I'm Jimmy, and YOU, my pretty little sassafrass, are gonna be my new best friend."

I smiled at the memory and simply replied, "through a friend." I didn't necessarily want to reveal that I knew the whole band. The girls seemed to be satisfied with that answer - for now I guessed - and as Lauren started recounting every gross detail of her night with the unknown Sugarcrush (was it Sugarcrush? Alzheimers striking...) I started to lose myself in my own memories.

It took me five minutes to determine I liked Jimmy, too, and it took Jimmy seven school days and for me to complete the most ridiculous dare in the history of mankind (and, in that, to almost be expelled on my seventh day at high school) to decide I was worthy of meeting his crew.

The dare? One day he just approached me in front of my locker like he always did, waving his long, skinny arms as if he wanted to take off like a bird as he ran toward me. "Caitlin, Caitlin, CAITLIN!!!" he screamed. Silence definitely wasn't a Jimmy-thing. Or a drummer-thing at all, I've been told.

"I got it!" He just growled. "Nietzsche," he continued with his eyes sparkling with excitement, as if he expected me to know who that was. I didn't say anything. If there was anything that I knew about Jimmy Sullivan at this point, it was that you didn't need to understand everything he said, and that you just needed to let him talk for a while to get the gist.

"This guy I stumbled across in my philosophy class. Crazy German or something. Wrote stuff like 'God is dead.' YOU," he faced me, and his blue eyes gleamed with mischief, "are going to dress up as the Grim Reaper and read from his stuff."

And so I did. Needless to say, I wasn't very popular with the teachers.

It took Jimmy's friends two hours and one of my perfectly rolled joints to like me. And it took me about a minute, one dimpled smile and one deep look into Matt's hazel eyes to realize I had a huge crush on him.


MATT'S POV

Fuck, I cursed to myself as I heard Val stalling the engine of my beloved cherry red Chevelle Convertible in our driveway. I hated it when she did that. More importantly, I hated it when she turned up when I was mad at her. And in the past half an hour I had flown into a mad frenzy of bittersweet thoughts.

"I'm home, in case you care," her disappointed voice shrilled from downstairs. I debated whether or not to answer at all. I mean, I didn't want to argue with her again, and we would if I said anything. But if I didn't, we would, too. It was inevitable. I sighed.

"Hi Val," I replied simply, calmly. "The fuck was that about?" she screamed while she hadn't even come upstairs yet. I closed my eyes and pictured her face painted with anger. Whenever she was angry her nostrils fluttered and her dark brown eyes appeared even a shade darker.

"I'm sorry Val. I..." I stopped, not knowing what to say. "There's no way I'm changing my last name. After all, that's why I got an artist name, you know, to distinguish between M Shadows the singer and simply Matt," I said evasively, not ready for the final confrontation. "Are you schizophrenic? M Shadows and Matt Sanders are the same person, you," she scoffed.

I let out an angry howl. She just didn't understand. I had a stage personality, the person my fans knew me as, but that wasn't really me, never had been. To a point, all of us did. Except for the Rev, of course. Jimmy equals the Rev equals crazy, that we all knew.

"Val, I have neither the time nor the patience to argue with you right now," I admitted. "That's okay baby, I know couples fight before their big day," she smiled as she approached me. She planted a short kiss on my lips before dropping on her knees and unzipping my pants. "Val, I'm not in the..." I began, but she cut me off. "You will be," she stated as my pants and boxers dropped to the floor and she took my still soft manhood into her mouth. "Val...," I tried to protest but eventually gave in. I'm just a man, right?


"Guys!!!" Jimmy screamed as he jumped out of Zack's car. The guy always made me smile, no matter if the world was going down around me. Of course he was the one I asked to be my Best Man, and of course all my guys understood. "I NEED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS GUY I SAW TODAY," he announced in his usual loud voice and a couple of people turned their heads, but no-one really cared.

Johnny and I had been waiting in front of our bar Johnny's for approximately five minutes now, as we were approached by Zacky, Brian and, of course, Jimmy. We headed into the bar and sat down in the dark back room with the pool table as Jimmy wildly gestured and told us about some guy he spotted with a self-made A7X fanshirt.

A few minutes later, we were all holding our first beer, and I gulped down a lot of it. "Matty, don't look so stressed out," Brian tried to cheer me up, "you're getting married to the hottest chick with the hottest twin sister in a week!"

"Oh, yessssss," Johnny cheered and eyed Brian, "this is how we start the Game today! Everyone who ever slept with one of the DiBenedetto sisters, CHUUUG!" Brian and I exchanged a quick glance. I had been meaning to ask the old ladykiller if he'd sealed the deal with Michelle, Val's twin sister.

"Daaaaamn Brian," the guys patted his back and whistled while him and I chugged down the rest of our beers. But ... When I placed my empty glass on the table again, I noticed Jimmy's glass was empty, too. "Jimmy?" I asked, suddenly growing anxious.

Just right then, Pat, the new owner of Johnny's, came with three fresh beers. "Thanks, Krabby-Patty," the Rev exclaimed in his Spongebob Squarepants voice. But as soon as he was gone I killed him with my glance. "Jimmy!" "Fine, fine, me and Val hooked up a few times."

And in that moment, my world collapsed.

I jumped up, chugged down my second beer and approached Jimmy. "Dude, you fucked Cat! And you're still friends, too!" he screamed in defendance, holding his hands in front of his face to avert my revenge. Ha, that motherfucker. As if that was an excuse. "NOT WHEN YOU WERE DATING," I growled and shoved him. He had to hold on to the small table so he didn't fall off. Yeah Jimmy, sorry dude, but I'm physically superior.

He couldn't stop himself from remarking, "I don't see how that would even be possible, considering that Cat and I never dated." But that only made me angrier. My jaw clenched. "Guys, you should take this outside, no fights at Johnny's," Pat mushed, not really wanting us to go.

"When?" I managed to bark. "Shads, it... kinda started in high school. You just started seeing Cat, and Val and I hooked up." Oh God, it was before we got serious. Good. Then I won't have to kill Jimmy and find a way to get rid of his corpse. Maybe I'll just have to break his ... Well damn, what can I break without losing him for my band? His DICK! Oh yeah baby, I'd break his fucking dick. Val's always been mine. Since middle school or something. Seriously, everyone knew.

"Good for you, so it wasn't when we were dating," I growled. "Yeah dude, about that," Jimmy began, "It happened again, at WARPED. One night when you guys had a fight and I was just so fucked up from, like, too many drugs, and well she came and said 'Oh Jimmy I have carte blanche and I been thinking about you' or some shit like that."

Jimmy's blue eyes threw me an apologizing look. Strangely, I wasn't even mad at him anymore, it was Val. Carte blanche, really? JIMMY? My Best Man? How could I not have known this? I wasn't too angry, but still motioned Jimmy to come outside with me, and he didn't hesitate. He knew he deserved it. I punched him once, and as he went down to the ground he moaned, "Even, fucker." And then when I helped him up and he pulled me into a hug, I noticed that it did make me feel better.


My head was spinning like crazy. I shouldn't have taken another shot challenge, I thought as Pat dropped me off in front of my house at precisely four am. Since our drivers got pretty drunk, too, the good man decided to give us a ride home, and we tipped him a hundred bucks. Geniuses, I know.

I felt the nausea overwhelming my body and tossed my cookies into the narrow bed in front of our house Val has been planning to plant for almost two years now. Damn, get it together, I mentally cursed myself. I hadn't gone overboard for years now, yet today, I was just way over the limit. I have no memory of how I made it into the bathroom, but when I stared at my reflection in the mirror - red faced with glassy eyes - I decided that it was for the best to just sleep in the guest bedroom.

I was tired of arguing, and that's what we'd do if she saw me that way. And in this state, I knew I couldn't find any reasonable arguments. I'd only say stuff she'd make me regret later. Finally, I put myself into bed and immediately drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Notes

So, some memories / flashbacks about how Caitlin got to know the guys and vice versa and some trouble in paradise.

Comments please :)