Burn It Down

I kept my distance from Matt for the rest of the day, staying mainly in the back room, writing in my journal. He scared me deeply, when I saw him...fall to his knees…covered in what I thought was his own blood. It scared me so bad that I really haven’t talked to anyone since. I understand it was a prank, I understand that it was to get all of us back, but my heart stopped when I saw him.

I instantly wiped at my tears. I sat in the corner of the small sliding door closet, curled up in a ball on the bean bag chair that was hidden in there. To anyone that would glance in the room, they wouldn’t be able to find me, to anyone that knew I was there. They could check on me. Luckily no one knew where I was. We were at the venue, I had another hour before I needed to be at the booth with Simone.

I clicked the pen on the paper, unable to write. I felt like I was numb. Numb to the emotions that were swirling inside of me, numb to the point where I couldn’t figure out what to do. There was a small knock on the closet door and I saw Simone poke her head around the corner, “Hey you alright?” I shrugged in response. She squeezed inside and sat next to me on a pile of clothes.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled sighing.

She nodded, “I’m pretty upset with him too…I think we all are.”

I nodded as tears flooded my vision again, “It just….when I saw him…” I broke down sobbing, “He’s my brother. I thought he was dying before my eyes. I thought I was losing him.”

Simone gently leaned over me and hugged me to her and I pulled her down beside me as we hugged. “I know Em,” she whispered, that was when I heard the tears evident in her voice too. I looked up into her blue eyes and only then realized that she had been crying too. I hugged her tighter. This time she buried her head in my shoulder releasing more tears.

We held each other crying for a few more moments then there was another knock on the door, “FOUND THEM!” Jason stood there and looked concerned. “Aww girls, come here,” He offered Simone a hand up, which she took then offered me a hand up which I took and held us both in his arms as we continued to cry into his chest.

Jason looked down at us his eyes filled with despair and confusion as he kissed both of us on the top of our heads, “What’s going on chicks?”

“Ma-att” was all I could get out as I slowly calmed down. Simone doing the same.

“Aww girls, he’s okay,” Jason tried to hide a small chuckle as he kissed both of our foreheads again right as Brian appeared in the door way.

“Babe? You okay?” He asked as he came over to us and pulled me to him, his fingers instantly entangling in my hair, pulling me into a warm embrace.

“They’re still shaken up by what Matt pulled,” Jason explained as he held Simone in a bear hug, similar to how Brian was holding me.

“I’m gonna kick his ass for making you two cry like this,” Brian said looking down at me, cupping my face and wiping my tears away. “Are you okay?”

I nodded sniffling, my breath catching a little, “Just scared me.”

Brian nodded and kissed me gently before pulling me close to let me know I was safe in his embrace again. “How about you Simone?”

She nodded as Jason gently wiped away her tears and kissed her temple, “I’ll be okay.”

“You girls gonna be able to work the booth? If not we can have someone else do it, maybe we should make Shads do it,” Brian mused towards Jason.

Jason nodded, “We should, but we can’t. However, the venue does have some staff available to step up in case we need them to.”

I looked at Simone who looked back at me and we both nodded, “That would probably be good.”

“Do you girls want to come watch the show?” Brian asked looking at me.

Simone bit her lip and I looked over at her, “Whatcha think chick?”

“I want to, but If I do, I want to be in the pit where I can get some aggression out,” Simone said looking up at us.

I nodded, “Same here.”

Brian nodded and looked at Jason, “Well, make sure you have your security passes on you, so you can get backstage if you need to.”

We nodded and I looked up at Brian and kissed him gently, “Thank-you.”

He smiled and kissed me back, “Anything for my girl. You girls relax, we got about 3 hours before the show starts, but the start up bands will be on in about an hour. Make sure you’re where I can find you.” Brian winked at me.

I nodded at him as he gently slapped my ass then looked at Simone, “Take care of my girl eh?”

“We’ll take care of each other, Brian,” I scolded him knowing full well it wasn’t solely Simone’s job to take care of me.

The guys nodded and left the room leaving us to our own devices. We smiled at each other and started running around getting dressed, doing our make-up and getting ready for the show.

***MATT’S POV***

I sat on the couch in the dressing room, humming to myself, everyone was still a little ticked off at me. Jason had come in here and stole Brian away for a few moments for something. When Brian got back he looked pissed and walked right over to me and pulled me up outta my seat.

“What the fuck?” I looked up at Brian whose face was close to mine.

“You know what I just had to do?” Brian growled at me.

“Jerk yourself off in the bathroom and gave yourself an Indian rug burn?” I guessed, he was not amused.

I just had to go find our two merch girls because they didn’t show up to work. You know where I found them?” Brian’s eyes narrowed as the guys stepped forward in a circle, ready to pull us off each other if any fists were thrown.

“What do you mean they didn’t show up?” I asked worried.

“Yeah, now you’re worried mother fucker,” He spat. “Jason just found them huddled in a corner in the back of the fucking closet in the bus, crying on each other’s shoulders. Still fucked up over what you did this morning. Do you realize how fucked up that was? You fucking HURT them.”

I froze in my tracks, I felt the air knock out of me as if I had just been hit by a bus, “What?”

“They were still crying over the fact that you played a prank pretending to be shot this morning,” Brian recapped. He let go of me and shook his head backing off, “You don’t realize what that did to them, to us. It fucked us up man.” He motioned to all of the other guys who nodded.

“I’m sorry guys, I figured everyone would laugh when they figured out it was a joke, I didn’t mean to upset anyone,” I said and scratched my head then reached for my phone.

“I wouldn’t message them right now. They’re getting ready for their night off,” Brian warned.

“Night off?” Zacky asked finally speaking up.

Brian got a sick little smirk, “Get ready for a show boys, because those hot little mamas are gonna be in the crowd tonight, moshing away to our songs.”

“Can I join them?!” Jimmy asked jumping up.

“For the opening bands yes,” Brian and I said, but only if you take someone with you so you don’t get mugged.

“Come on Short shit!” He grabbed Johnny who was just finishing his beer.

“Arrgh, alright!”

Notes