When Skies Are Grae

I've been in California for almost two months. I believe I'm here to stay; I can't see myself any where else. People like me are accepted here, the outcasts are cool, being different is a good thing. There's all kinds of kinds. Finally, I can be myself. Two weeks ago, I began working at Gun Point Ink. For now, I'm just an apprentice but my boss, Zaylor, says I'll be official in a few months. Hopefully before then, I'll be out of Drake's hair. On another note, Matt and I have become basically best friends. We go out and have fun, enjoy each other's company and talk about everything under the sun. Drake doesn't see it that way but that's it.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. My alarm clock screeches at 6:15am. I get up and begin my daily routine. Piss, smoke, shower, brush my teeth and get ready for work. I curl my long hair and smack on some makeup. As I ponder through my closet, a pair of old washed up, tattered jean shorts catch my eye. Then my fringy Avenged Sevenfold croptop and black Converse shoes. After getting dressed, I tie a red bandana in my hair and put on a studded necklace. I check myself out in the bathroom mirror. Damn, I look pretty fly.

Drake should be getting up anytime. I have to be at work at 9:30. He's usually up around 7 and it's already 7:30. Perhaps I should check on him.
"Bub?" I knock on his bedroom door.
Suddenly, I hear vomiting coming from the bathroom down the hall.
"Drake?! Are you alright?" I ask as I fling open the door.
"Not really." He mutters before heaving another wave. "I think I have food poisoning."
"Well, can I take the Jeep to work?" I bravely ask.
"I'm good. I can take you."
"You need to rest!" I snap.
"Call Matt. I'm sure he'll take you." He groans.
"Alright. I hope you feel better."

I pull out my phone to call him immediately.
"Hello?" Matt answers.
"Hey. Were you in bed?"
"Nah, I've been up for a bit. What's up?" He respondes.
"Well, Bub is sick and I need a way to work. Can you please take me? I can give you gas money."
"Yeah, that's no problem. What time you gotta be there?"
"9:30." I simply answer.
"Let me get dressed. I'll be there in 10 minutes." He hangs up.
10 minutes?! I don't have to be there til 9:30.

The thought of Matt laying in bed shirtless makes me warm inside. Not only is he sexy as hell but he has a heart of gold. He's such a treasured friend. Then my mind trails back to the gutter. I bite my lip and walk out on the porch to wait on him. Not even 5 minutes go by and I hear his truck coming up the drive. He parks it and jumps out. I stand to hug him; the smell of marijuana and mint fill my nostrils. An odd yet perfect elixir. I almost didn't want to let go.
"Good morning." He smiles.
"Mornin'."
"How long does it take you to get to work?" He questions.
"Roughly 20 minutes."
"So we got plenty of time to get breakfast, sound good?" Matt insists.
"Sure." I nod my head.
We walk to his truck and he opens the door for me.
"Hey! I'm diggin' that shirt. Didn't know you were an Avenged fan?"
"Fuck yeah! My favorite band actually. How about you?" I grin.
Matt throws his head back and laughs loudly. "Oh shit Georgia girl, you kill me!"
"What?"
"Yeah. I'm familiar with them." He chuckles, wiping a tear from his eye. "Ever saw them live?"
"I have. I wasn't close to the stage though."
"Just so happens, I have their new CD. We can listen to it on the way."
I hop up in Matt's jacked up truck and he follows suit. Matt immediately turns on the Hail to the King CD.
" Just a little heads up, sometimes I can't resist singing with Shadows. His voice is just, oh my God. Just fucking sexy."
"Oh yeah?" He smiles and starts the truck.
"Hell yes!" I smile back. "Can I see that album real quick?"
Matt hands me the case and I look through its contents. As I scan the lyrics to Heretic Blood, I notice we are moving down the road.
"I think there's a couple pictures of the band in there."
"I'm looking at them now. Shadows looks just as good as he sings!"
Matt laughs loudly as I hand the hand the album back to him. My eyes widen and my mouth drops. Why haven't I noticed this yet?
"Holy shit. Has anyone ever told you that you look like M. Shadows?"
"Yeah, I've heard that a couple of times." Matt chuckles.
"No, seriously. Y'all are identical!"
"Oh my God! Look! We even have the same name!" He sarcastically boasts.
"You're not-no. No, no, no. There's no fucking way."
"Yes I am." Matt simply states.
I Google search M. Shadows. Everything is a match. Tattoos, body, eyes, dimples, literally everything. My best friend is M fucking Shadows.

We make it to IHOP and I'm 100% positive that I've stared at him the whole way. For some reason, I couldn't get reality to register in my head.
"You ready to eat?" Matt asks as he shuts the truck off.
"Ummm..." I stare. "Yeah, sure."
"Grae, if I didn't tell you I would've felt like I was hiding something from you. I don't want that. I'm still Matt. I don't expect to be treated differently by everyone because of my success in the music industry. Can you please do that for me?" Matt preaches.
"I'm glad you threw hints out. I don't want you to have to hide anything from me. You're my best friend. Honestly, I'm just shocked. You're M. Shadows of fucking Avenged Sevenfold. That's pretty hard to get through my head right now."
"I understand. Just please don't change. You treat me like I'm human and not some God."
"OK. C'mon let's eat." I jump out.
"Just like that. Promise me you'll never change." Matt lectures as he holds open the door for me.
"I promise."
"One thing about all this really excites me." He giggles.
"What's that?"
"You think I'm as sexy as my voice." He taunts.

We ate breakfast and talked about whatever popped into our minds. Before we knew it, I had to be at work in 10 minutes. Thankfully, he got me there just in time. Matt gave me a big hug before I departed from him to get on my workflow.
"Hey Grae! Hold up." Matt chases me.
"What is it?"
"What time do I need to pick you up?"
"6:30, as far as I know. I'll call you if anything changes."
"I'll be here. See ya then, Georgia girl." He winks at me before heading toward the door.
I give him a big smile and wink back. Thank God for people like him. I make my way to the back of the shop to tell Zaylor I've arrived. As I was walking back, my co-workers Brenten stops me.
"That wasn't Drake that dropped you off?" He noses.
"My friend Matt brought me. Bub is sick."
"He didn't hug you like he's just a friend." He smirks.
"Yeah well, we are. What's it to ya?"
"Nothing." Brenten snaps.
"Look. I do like him, but he doesn't need to know that yet."
"Grae has a crush! Grae has a crush!" He childishly cheers.
"Really dude?! Ain't you got something better to do?" I excuse myself.
Since I've began working here, Brenten is the only one I've had a conflict with. He's a cocky 30 year old child who assumes he's the world's greatest thing. Which I absolutely hate. He's taught me a couple of things but seriously bitched the whole time. Like how he shouldn't have to teach the new girl, he was too talented to do such stuff. When Zaylor threatened to fire his ass, he straightened right up but still has had an attitude toward me since. Serves the asshole right.

It's 6 o'clock, Zaylor suggested we close a bit early to sterilize the workplace. We've had 50 customers today, 38 for tattoos and 12 for piercings. I yell at Zaylor to notify him I was going out for a smoke break and to call Matt.
"Georgia girl!" He answers.
"Hey." I respond. "We're closing 30 minutes early. Can you still pick me up?"
"Yeah, I'll be there to get you. Quick question. What are you doing later?"
"Just relaxing, probably. Why?"
"Wanna go out with me tonight?" I can hear the excitement in his voice as he asks.
"Let me call to check on Bub real quick and I'll let you know when you get here. Is that fine?"
"Fuck yeah. I'll see you in a few." Matt hangs up.
Now to call Drake to check up on him.
"Hello?" He answers after 2 rings.
"You feeling any better?"
"Oh yeah, so much better. Are you off tomorrow?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna go out with Matt tonight since you're feeling better. Do you need anything from town?" I ask.
"No I'm fine. Where y'all going?"
"I don't know yet. Probably Captain's." I inform him.
"Alright. Call me if you need anything." He sharply says. " Anything at all."
"OK. Love ya, Bub."
"Love ya." He hangs up.
I ash out my cigarette and walk back in. Zaylor calls for me to come back to his office. I walk down the long hall and peak my head in.
"Yes sir?" I ask.
"Don't you want your paycheck?"
"Oh. Yeah, I better get that!" I laugh.
"I also want to give you something else." He boasts as he reaches in his desk.
He hands me an envelope and smiles.
"What's this sir?"
"A token of my appreciation. You're the only one that stays after and helps me clean up the shop, I think you deserve this. Go ahead, open it up."
I open the envelope and reveal a wad of $100 dollar bills.
"There's $2,000 there. Go get yourself something nice. I appreciate what you do around here. It's yours." He brags.
"Sir, I can't take this. I appreciate it, I really do." I say as I attempt to reach it back to Zaylor.
"Take it, I want you to have it."
"Thank you, Zaylor. I really needed this to get a place of my own. I'll even pay you back, if you'd like." I offer.
"Nonsense. Use it for whatever your heart desires."
"Thank you, sir."
I walk out of his office and stuff the envelope in my purse. I immediately begin cleaning again. Matt walks in the door and waves. I hold up one finger to indicate I wasn't finished just yet. He takes a seat and looks at a magazine.
"Grae, you can go now if you'd like." Zaylor motions towards Matt.
"Alright. I'll see y'all on Monday. Thank you again, Zaylor."

Matt and I decide to go to Captain's; it's became the usual for us. We sit in the booth and discuss my day at work. He told me he would take me to look at apartments tomorrow.
"Your white russian, miss. A scotch on rocks for you, sir." A tall man named AJ serves us. He's been our waiter the last 4 times we've been here and is such a sweet heart. Also pretty cute but my attention is on Matt. We thank him as he leaves.
"Everytime we're here, he serves us. I think he likes you." Matt jokes.
"He's a cutie." I giggle.
"Ask him out."
That caught my attention. I thought Matt liked me. He acts like he does. He winks at me, hugs me a bit longer than normal, we talk about everything. He knows I think he's sexy. We go out all the time. Can he not take a hint? His little remark kind of pissed me off.
"I just might." I say a bit on the defense.
"Damn Grae. I was just joking."
I quickly down the rest of my drink and motion for AJ to come over.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Matt fumes.
"Why are your panties in a bunch? Can't I order another drink?" I smirk.
If he didn't like me, it seems he wouldn't get so upset.
"Yeah, go ahead. I thought you were gonna ask that punk out."
"You're the one that suggested it!" I laugh.
"I know, but I didn't think you would. I thought-"
"I do." I simply say as I stare into his beautiful eyes.
Matt smiles, revealing his sexy dimples.
"Let's get outta here. I wanna show you something." He chimes as he takes my hand and leads me to the door.

An hour later, we were sitting in his truck on top of a huge mountain. We could see for miles across the ocean and Huntington Beach. The night sky was full of stars and the full moon sat in the middle, it's reflection gleaming off the ocean. Suddenly, I realize that I would rather be right here in this moment than anywhere on Earth. Just staring at the stars and counting the shooting ones. I turn to look at Matt, only to see his gaze meet mine. The dashboard lights sparkling in his eyes, lighting up every inch of his face.
"It's beautiful up here, isn't it?" He finally speaks.
"Gorgeous."
"Just like you." Matt softly mouths as he brushes a curl from my face and tucks it behind my ear.
"Thank you." I blush.
He motions for me to scoot over next to him. I do so. I lay my head on his muscular arm and enjoy the view.
"Grae, I really like you. I enjoy spending my time with you."
"I really like you too, Matt. Thank you for today, all of it. Taking me to work, breakfast, picking me up and now this lovely night. Today has seriously been perfect." I could go on forever about today, it seems.
"Anytime. I'm glad you've enjoyed yourself. I have. I could do this everyday, if you'd let me."
"Of course I would." I smile.
"Would you let me do this everyday?" Matt whispers as he leans in and plants a soft kiss on my red lips.
"All day, every day." I giggle.
Matt lets out a laugh and crashes his lips into mine again. This is the best night of my life. He pulls away, just an inch between us and gazes into my eyes. He puts his arm around me and kisses me over and over and over.

Notes

I'm sorry my dear readers that I've not updated in a bit. And for that, I hope this chapter makes up for that. Personally, I like to write a chapter down on paper before typing it, so that's a pretty long process, especially when you have children. So please, forgive me. Thank you for staying loyal.