Matt
I stood in the bathroom of my hotel room, studying my own face. I had just gotten out of the shower, a cold shower I might add...I couldn't stop thinking about Lil. I was glad her friend decided to give in to Jimmy's whining and agree to go to the after-party.

I planned on getting a few drinks in Lil, and see where we could go from there. Maybe she'd let loose and we could have some real fun. I had my fun fantasizing in the shower, I'll leave the rest up to her.

I threw on some dark blue jeans and a black button-up, rolling up the sleeves and leaving a few buttons undone. Once I was satisfied with my appearance, I walked out of my room and headed towards Zacky's.

His door was cracked open so I invited myself in. "Hey, Zee." I shouted, letting him know I was here. He emerged from the closet and threw his arms up.

"First Jimmy, now you?" He whined and I laughed. "Don't leave your door open then."

He groaned and walked away to look for a shirt and I plopped down onto his bed next to Jimmy.

"Matty!" Jimmy cooed and rolled over to hug me. "I love you so much, man."

"Shit, you fucking reek!" I griped and pushed him off, looking into his bloodshot eyes. "Dude, are you high?"

Jimmy snorted and sat up. "I wish! I just haven't slept in over 48 hours.." I looked at him and frowned. "Seriously?"

"I don't mind, that won't stop me from partying till' I see the sun." Jimmy grinned and I couldn't help but smile.

"You're a nut job." I laughed at him and Zacky walked out of the bathroom chuckling. "You're figuring this out now?"

"Matty's always been a little slow.."

I shook my head and Zacky spoke up. "Speaking of slow, that chick roadie was really lagging today."

"You forced her to carry all your shit alone, you dick! No wonder she hates you." Jimmy retorted and I looked at them both.

"You mean Jen? She seems alright to me.." I started but Zacky shook his head.

"And that damn attitude, such a turn-off." Zacky grumbled and Jimmy gave him a bad look. "Well, it's a good thing she doesn't want to fuck you."

We both laughed and Zacky and he flipped us off. "Fuck you guys, let's just go."

We headed towards the elevator and checked the time on my phone. The girls had insisted on going with the Berry's to the party, and I was a little disappointed. Lil would rather show up on the arm of Jason fucking Berry than on the arm of a rockstar! I made a mental note to watch out for Jason.

Jimmy was leaning up against the wall and whining while Zacky was in his own head. He was probably thinking of shit for the new album, or something. I didn't care, Lil was the only thing on my mind.

It was like the second I saw her, a flip switched in my head. She was so crazy hot, I wanted her so bad, and now I was on a mission. I almost roped her in at lunch, but she broke the moment. Did that mean she wasn't interested? I had no clue, but hopefully tonight I could win her over.

The door opened and we walked out, meeting Brian and Johnny in the lobby. "The crew is there already. They totally ditched us!" Johnny bitched and Brian looked at him funny. "It's cuz' they didn't wanna see your ugly mug until they got drunk."

"What are you talking about? Johnny is the sexiest motherfucker out there!" Jimmy said sarcastically and I joined in. "We all hail Johnny Christ!"

"Exactly!" Johnny chuckled and we continued walking down the road.

When we got to the party, it was pretty crowded. We had trouble finding everyone at first, but eventually met up with them.

I stared Lil up and down and felt myself getting excited. She had on black skinny jeans that made her legs look like they went on for miles, and a flowy top that showed just a little cleavage. My gaze lingered on her chest for a moment, then I ripped my eyes away and smiled at her.

I hugged her and whispered in her ear. "I'm glad you could make it." I felt her put both palms on my chest and slowly push me away, she smiled at me and laughed a little. "Thanks."

Damn, she's gonna play hard to get, isn't she? Two can play at this game... "Why don't we go get some drinks for everyone?"

She shrugged and started to ask everyone what they wanted and I couldn't help but grin. Her niceness and want to make everyone happy will definitely make this easy for me. Hopefully, we could get this night rolling quickly and have some fun.

Jen
I was a little pissed off. Not only did I absolutely hate parties, drinking and pretty much any overly-crowded place, but Lil just walked off with Matt leaving me here alone. I stood there with my arms crossed and sighed.

I didn't like this at all, this was definitely not my idea of laying low nor was it my idea of fun. I just wanted to go to bed and forget today, and maybe find a way to convince Lil that we should quit. But damn, she was hard-headed. When she wanted something, you better believe she's gonna get it.

"Hi Jenny!" Jimmy shouted over the noisiness of the club and hugged me tightly. I patted his back lightly and tried to wiggle out his grip.

In any normal circumstance, I'd shove him off of me and yell at him. But he was my boss, and if I didn't keep him happy, me and Lil are basically fucked. He finally let go and was smiling at me.

"I'm so happy you decided to come, we're gonna have so much fun!" He grinned like a little kid and I couldn't help but smile. How is a man like this able to act so childish, and not get annoying? His attitude was definitely infectious. "I guess."

"There's a pool table, Jim." Johnny butted in and Jimmy gasped. "Let's go play!"

He grabbed my wrist and led me through the crowd over to his precious pool table. When we got there he flagged down one of the girls working here and asked for some beer to be brought over. "Wait, Jimmy, I don't drink." I informed him and he frowned.

"What do you mean you don't drink? Are you crazy!" I shrugged at him and he smiled again.

"Oh well! More for me!" He reached down and grabbed the stupid triangle thing you use for the stupid balls.

What? I don't play pool either. I watched Jimmy set the game up and he handed me the big stick thing you use to hit the balls. I looked at it funny and back up at Jimmy. He chuckled and ran his hand through his hair, "Just watch us."

I watched Jimmy and Johnny play for a little bit before jumping into the game, which I lost horribly. I had no clue what I was doing, and kept hitting Jimmy's balls into the hole, whatever the hell that means. Eventually, we all got bored and ventured back to everyone else.

I saw Lil sitting in between Brian and Matt, she loved all the attention they were giving her and I groaned. Did she already forget about me? Jimmy and I sat down at this huge glowing table with everyone else. The seats were arranged in a crescent shape, so we all faced each other.

I noticed Zacky staring at me, and I shot him a nasty glare so he knew to back off. I saw him stand up and offer to get everyone more drinks. Everyone told him what they wanted and he looked at me.

"How about you, Dreadlocks?" I stared at him with a cold expression and he smirked. "Water's fine." I spat and he walked away.

I looked over at Lil and she was silently telling me stop being a bitch. I just scoffed and sunk back in my chair. Jimmy put his hand on my knee and smiled at me. "I can kick his ass for you."

I laughed a little and looked up at him. "I'm okay, thanks."

I sat back and listened to the story Johnny was telling me about their teenage years, something about him and Brian getting arrested and Jimmy going missing for two whole days. Jimmy apparently got wasted and ended up in the Inland Empire. It was kinda cool that we were from almost the same place. Santa Ana and Huntington Beach were pretty close to each other.

Zacky came back holding a tray of drinks and started handing them out. Jimmy reached over and grabbed mine and his glass and set mine down in front of me. For some reason, Zacky had his eyes glued on me.

I tried to ignore it and listen to Jimmy talk but I could feel him watching me. I reached over for my water and put the straw to my lips, taking a sip. I started to gag and cough uncontrollably and accidentally dropped the glass, I snapped my head up at Zacky.

"What the fuck! This is straight up fucking vodka!" I hissed at him and he laughed. "Oops, my bad." He said with a stupid fucking smirk on his face.

"You're such an asshole!" I snapped and stormed off, leaving everyone shocked. I stormed out of the party and towards the hotel, where the buses were parked.

This was a huge mistake, all of it was. We should've got the money and just left the festival. I should've forced Lil to forget about the merch booth guy. She told me we'd just have fun for one day, that's it, then we go into hiding.

This is not what I fucking signed up for. I was not here for some douchebag rockstar's entertainment, that's for damn sure. Everything Lil promised in prison, she has yet to uphold. Why did I even trust her in the first place?! I bet Lil is just sitting there having a fucking fantastic time with the guys, I bet she didn't even notice I left.

I suddenly felt extremely betrayed. I felt a pit in my chest, a wave of emotions swallowed me whole. I also just realized I have no clue where I'm going. I just wanted to go home. Not to Jonah's or Rachel's, but my real home. I want my parents. I want to rewind, I want everything to be okay again.

But now, if I go back, I'll be sent back to prison. If my parents didn't even bother to show up to my hearing, why on earth would they take me in now? When they kicked me out I was a dropout, now I'm a fugitive. I'm a wanted criminal. Nobody would want to risk their lives and help me.

I looked around and found myself in some deserted part of town. At least I wasn't on the strip, I'd hate to be bombarded by drunk assholes. Or security. They would probably think I'm drunk and try to arrest me.

Suddenly, my blood ran cold. I'm alone in Vegas, this place was crawling with cops. I frantically racked my brain, trying to figure out how long it's been since we broke out, but I was too worked up to do the math. What the fuck am I going to do?

"Damnit." I mumbled under my breath. I was starting to freak out, bad. I noticed an alleyway to my left, so I ran in and looked around. I was behind some building, and after looking very thoroughly, I saw there were no surveillance cameras so I sat down with my back against the dirty brick wall.

I reached down and realized I left my phone in the bus, fuck. At this point, all my mixed emotions came crashing down on me. I tucked my knees into my chest and inhaled sharply, trying to hide my head and muffle the noises I was making.

My eyes started to burn and hot tears spilled down my face. I've never felt so helpless, I've never felt so puny and pathetic. I feel like trash. No better than the trash in the gutter I was sitting in. My body quaked with every breath I took. I needed to get a grip, sitting here and crying isn't going to help me.

I wiped my face and stood up slowly. As soon as I regained my composure, I walked out of the alleyway and tried to make a sense of where I was going. I looked at all the signs on each building hoping they'd look somewhat familiar to me, sadly they didn't.

"Fuck!" I shouted and kicked a trashcan on the side of the road. Did I even know the name of the hotel the buses were at?

Eventually, I gave up. I sat down on some dirty old bench and groaned. Every now and then I would curse myself for being so stubborn. This is one of those moments.

I sat back and tried to relax, unless if somebody found me, I'm sure this is where I'm spending the night.

Notes

Uh oh! Looks like Zacky pushed Jen little too far! :P
And Mr. Shadows has the hots for Lil!
Will he get her to "loosen up" like he plans? ;)
Will Jen find her way back to the buses before anyone notices she's missing?
How will Lil react?
Comment, subscribe, rate, all that good stuff!
Stay tuned and enjoy, loves!

-a7x_deathbats6661 <3