Zacky’s POV

The sun was slowly making an appearance, even through the tinted glass I could see how the sun rays were creeping through the clouds.

I didn’t know how long it would take for us to arrive, and where we were headed exactly, at some point of tour, I mostly lost the city names we left and couldn’t come up with the new names until we were really there.

Especially on this festival tour, we were making huge distances but only stayed for a few days, playing sometimes more then on just one day. It was fun though, festivals always were, you met amazing people you were introduced to new bands, new fans, it was always a blast.

And the best of it, the parties… well and listening into some of the bands and finding some new favors in that music department.
And the booze… fine… and the ladies… I mean, we were still a band and on the hunt, right?!

Festivals were made for some action like that, right?!

I blinked against the sun that was slowly rising higher into the sky, and that’s when I noticed the sign ‘Nevada’

Fuck yeah, Las Vegas, that’s where we were headed, god I loved me some gambling, I wasn’t as bad as Shads, but I could be nearly as addicted, though I really mean it, we should keep Shads away from the tables and machines, there was no fun in dragging his mad ass out of a casino, believe me.

“You awake already, Zee?” Brian’s voice sounded from behind me and I nodded, sometimes it was hard to sleep in those bunks, especially if you were not drunk or high.

“Yeah, we are headed to Las Vegas” I grinned and when Brian plopped down beside me a grin spread over his face as well “We better have someone on Shads heels. We cannot afford him gambling about all our money” Brian chuckled and that’s when a pillow flew past my head hitting Brian straight in the chest “I heard that asshole!” Matt’s muffled voice was heard from the bunk and I chuckled, god I had kept my thoughts to myself.

“Got something on your mind?” Brian threw the pillow back and turned to me, but I shrugged. “Nah, just sick of the bus right. I’m glad we planned some days to stay in, cause I get fucking cranky while riding the bus all the time” I motion around me and Brian rolled his eyes.

“We have only been on the road for a week and you start to feel cranky, dude, we still have 8 to go” Brian reminded me which made me not feel better, but then again, I always felt this way, the first couple of days it was excited and after a week I got sick of the small cramped bus atmosphere… and maybe, maybe I just needed to get laid, who knew.

“When we are fucking there, we gonna check out the venue, see where we gonna play and then we gonna dress the fuck up and go check some of the casino’s and shows, we have two days before we actual play.” Brian said and I nodded “That sounds like a plan.”

“You making plans without the rest of us? Shame on you, Vee” Matt approached the living room area shirtless and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

“If you rather take your beauty sleep, it’s not our fault you miss out on the fun” I shot back when Matt plopped down beside me on the bank and rolled his eyes “I just fucking know, I need to sleep as long as I fucking can, before we arrive in sin city, so I am awake and awesome for the chicks and gambling, this is my fucking masterplan, asshole” He shoved me to the side and I chuckled, asshat.

After some more back and forth I took what Matt said to heart and went back to my bunk, maybe I could find a few hours more sleep now and I did.

When I woke up again I heard voices and commotion all around me “Someone wake Vee, we need to fucking get going, or you guys wanna sleep in the bus again” Matt Berry’s voice sounded and I rolled myself out of bed, before getting the usual treatment of water or god knows what else thrown into the face for sleeping while the others started to work.

“I’m up, don’t worry. I’m here” I held my hands up in surrender pushing past the crew members who were running outside back and forth between the bus and I frowned, where the hell did the rest of the band go without me?!

I shrugged, grabbed my bag out of the trunk and made my way to the hotel where I saw some of the members run into. Someone pushed a key card into my hand and told me where we would meet again in a couple of hours, I nodded and went up to get myself ready for the first night of sin city.

A loud pounding woke me up the next morning, was it morning? The pounding was not only on my door but doubled up by being in my head as well. My mouth tasted like ashtray and my head felt like I haven’t slept at all and was run over by a car.

I opened my eyes and looked beside me, finding the bed empty, “Thank fuck” I let out, not having to deal with some annoying chick with the way I felt.
“VEE! OPEN UP!” MB’s voice sounded and I cringed “Give me a fucking second!” I yelled back and threw my legs over the side of the bed.

I put my head in my hands rubbing my temples, shit… this was a feeling I should work against as soon as I could, which was probably ending in drinking more to work against it and feel better…

I pulled sweatpants on and made my way to the door, opening it only a little and meet MB’s annoyed expression “I hate waking you guys, that shouldn’t be my part of the fucking job! You should get back a tour manager or another few crew members to do that kind of shit” He rages and I shrug “Is there a point in you waking me this early?”

“Early? Dude it past noon… Get a shower and meet us downstairs we have a problem coming up and have a meeting in 20, get your ass moving” MB left without another word and I try to make out the numbers on the clock realizing he was indeed right, it was almost 1 pm, shit, I slept all morning…

When I walked down to the lobby I saw the rest of the band looking probably as tired and fucked up then me, making me feel at least a little better.

“Hey man” I nodded at everyone and let myself fall into the next chair available.
“What’s the deal MB?” Matt asked grabbing at his coffee cup and I smelled the aroma from here, damn now I wished I had stopped at the breakfast buffet before coming here, they were apparently cleverer then me, but that wouldn’t happy again next time.

I leaned forward and saw that Matt Berry’s brother had a cup of coffee standing before him, but was turned sideways to listen to his brother so I quickly got a hold of the coffee and sipped before he even noticed “Hey, that was mine!” Jason narrowed his eyes and I waved him off “Don’t be a baby and shut up, your brother is talking” I motioned to MB who gave us a narrowed eye look.

“So, we got a problem. Josh has to go home, his back is killing him and it’s just not working out, we are one man short now on the crew, which sucks, but we can still manage, but it will lead to some more time that we need, as well as some of the preparing work will go back to you guys” MB motioned to me and my band members and I cringe, shit… Not having all our crew members and roadies at full health always sucked, but having one missing was a huge problem, and that after only a week, shit… now we can only hope not more problems will arise.

“Can we help do something?” Matt asked and MB shrugged “We gotta see how the stage set up is going tomorrow, we can start a little earlier with the preparation, I talked already with the other roadies.. I will let you know what’s up though” MB answered and Matt “Alright, if there is something we can do, let us know… maybe we can ask some of the other roadies to give us a hand…if really necessary” Jason speaks up and I nod, we were friends with most bands, I bet they wouldn’t have a problem with landing us a hand, at least that’s what I hoped for.

Lil’s POV

The bus drive was killing me, well not only me, but Jen as well, it was hot as hell in here. I think the A/C had finally giving up on us, the bus was still half full and we didn’t have enough to drink or eat with us.

We were on the road for what 20 hours almost and it hadn’t been fun to start with but now it was pure torture.
Not only did we have to be as quiet and inattentive as possible, we had to try to be invisible.

We couldn’t risk getting any attention, the break out had went down smoothly as far as I could tell, but by now, the whole state of Texas most know there was a break out, and soon it would go all over the country.

I knew we had to do something as soon as we arrived in Nevada, we had to get some clothes to change, we had to get a phone, and had to change something on our appearance.
I was getting paranoid already, thinking everyone would know my face, would look at me and call the police.

When the bus finally stopped Jenn and I headed out into nowhere, we had to think of a plan, she said her so called “friends” were at the festival, but how did we get there? But first things first…

“We need to do something with our look” I tell her while we head through the empty streets, it was late afternoon but it seemed like no one was around.
“I can’t believe you actually think of clothes already.. we are barely out of prison-” She started to say sounding annoyed when I put my finger in front of her lips silencing her “Ssshhh, don’t speak that out aloud, you never know who is hearing us.”

“When someone asks us where we been or we talk about that time in prison, we gonna now refer to as… term aboard, no one can clarify if that’s right or wrong, okay?” Jen rolled her eyes at me, seems like a habit of her.

“Fine” She continued to walk and I fall into step beside her “I meant we need to do something, not only with our clothes, but hair and well everything, so no one will notice it’s us right away… We need to find some place where we can dye our hair or something” She looked at me dumbfounded and I stare at her “What?”

“I can’t fucking dye my hair that easy… Look at it” She points to the dreadlocks and I throw my hands up in frustration “Think of something or I will cut them off when you sleep” I warn her and she looked at me shocked “You will not” I shrug “You never know”

I walked ahead of her until I walk past a second hand shop with clothes, “You got the money right?” I stopped abruptly and Jen almost walked into me.
“Yeah, why?” I pointed at the ‘Open’ sign and Jen nodded “Alright, let’s get our new identity a new outfit, shall we?”

We both walked into the shop and quickly parted ways, I grabbed some tops, shirts, jeans, skirts and everything else I would need meeting back with Jen who had an almost similar amount of clothes over her arm hanging.

“Who knows how soon we will get more clothes” She shrugged and I laughed out loud seeing her like this, she was slowly letting her guard down with me and I liked that, I had to admit I really liked her a lot and I was glad she had become my inmate.

“Big shopping trip?” The older lady behind the counter grinned at us and we both nodded “Yeah, just some reminders and all that… we are sentimental you know” I said quickly and she chuckled “Do you have a backpack or something for us, we kinda forgot at the hotel… that would be awesome, our suitcases are overflowing already” I lied and she nodded, I think there is something in the back, let me go find it for you.

She came back with a blue and black backpack and handed both of us one, so after purchasing those along with all the clothes, we still had some good money left and had were able to have a change of clothes.

We headed down the street when Jen stopped me with a hand to my arm, “You want to get that shit with the hair done? There” She pointed to the other side of a street where a hair dresser was and I nodded “Let’s do it” I liked my hair color, but it was safer that way.

We walked in and the three women looked at us with smiles “Oh look someone found their way to us, with all the festival going on, not many people are around here, how can we help you?”

“Yeah, we are headed that way as well, but wanted to get a little prettied up… Do you have time for both of us… with all that’s necessary, hair, make up and all” I feel an elbow in my side from Jen but ignore her.

“Sure thing, take a seat, Angela will take care of your friend” She motioned me to sit down and they start right away.

I don’t even know what Jen told them to do, but she has to sit equally long than me. My hair is being dyed in black, she makes my make- up fit to it and shortens my hair quite a bit but still flowing over my shoulders, when I look back into the mirror I have to look twice to really recognize me.

When I look at Jen, she looks so different to, they put extensions in and made the blonde with some highlights so you if she wanted to she could hide some of the dreadlocks and looks completely different, her make- up was making her look more feminine and beautiful.

“Wow” We both say at the same time looking at each other “You look so different” I say at the same time she said and we both laugh loudly.
“Are you girls happy with it? I think you look gorgeous, now the festival isn’t save from you anymore” The woman behind the counter, Angela or whatever he name was giggled and I nod.

We paid out debt and move on, we take a bus towards the area where the festival should be and where Jen was thinking her friends were located. I felt a lot better now with the different appearance and change of clothes, I couldn’t wait till we got a hold of a cell phone so I could call my dad, and find out what happened to Darryl.

“So where do we find them?” I asked Jen when we are at the entrance of the festival area, Jen paid the tickets and our money is going back to being critical, those damn festival costs a fucking fortune, but we didn’t see any way of getting in without being caught and then we had a big ass problem, with no ID or anything, they would send us right back to prison.

“I know where they hang out, just follow me” She headed straight through the crowd, I almost lost her twice, till I grab a hold of her hand and she nods at me.

“JEN!” A loud yell sounds and Jen turns to me “Wait here, I’ll talk to them, the less they know the better… I’ll try to get some stuff and be right back, okay? Some still owe me…” With that she is gone and I’m left alone near merch booth and look around.

I don’t have anything to do so I just look at the shirts and stuff when someone from behind leans into me. “Hey there.. looking for something in particular” I turn around and take a small step back, he grinned at me, has longish hair hidden by a base cap.

“Maybe.. why could you help me with something?” I asked and he chuckled “I have the best band merch known to man, why don’t you come looking over here” He grabbed my wrist and pulled me along. He didn’t have a firm grip, so if I wanted I could easily break free.

But I kind of liked him so I let him get away with it. “See” He motioned to apparently his band merch, A skull with wings all over shirts and hoodies with a name ‘Avenged Sevenfold’ sounded kind of cool, had to give him that.

“Nice” I let my fingers glide over the fabric and noticed he still hadn’t let go of my arm. “So can I help you with some new tops…?” He trailed off like he wanted me to fill in my name and I grinned “Lil” I would give him nothing more, that was way more then I should already.

“So, Lil… can I? Or is there something else I could rather help you with?” He took a step closer and I look up into his eyes “I don’t know, can you…?” I grinned, letting my sentence trail of like he did to get his name and didn’t back down when his hand lets go of my wrist and lands on my waist, pulling me forward a little.

“Jason” He answered just when he moved in a little more behind him and me our names arecalled “Lil, where the fuck are you?”
“JB?! You are supposed to fucking be behind the booth not fucking-” The voice trailed off and I turn away, I couldn’t spend my time flirting now, I had to find Jen and we had to find a place to stay…

“Hey! Wait, are you staying here? Why don’t you come by again later? You can bring your friend along, okay?” Jason or JB called and I turned a final time around and grinned at him “We will see” Damn that felt good… after such a long time having a normal flirt and a normal talk with a guy, well as normal as you could say this was.

“What the hell? I turn my back on you and you go away so I have to search for you while you go fucking some dude?” Jen snapped at me and this time I rolled my eyes at her “I wasn’t fucking, that would made quiet more of a scene, he was flirting and maybe we should come back later, he seemed to work here, maybe that could help us.” I suggest but Jen doesn’t look to thrilled about the idea, didn’t matter, I would get her in the right direction.

Notes

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