Life On The Road

45 minutes had dragged on by when at last, the mohawked bassist arrived in his vocalist's room, his footsteps replicated by best friend to all and roadie, Jason. The pair had spent their evening in a sweaty, overcrowded casino that reeked of booze from the bar and BO from the swarm of people looking to dish out a few hundred dollars on luck. Neither of the two had won much money, but they had earned themselves their shirts clinging to their bodies, glued to their skin by the sweat that had been almost pouring like a waterfall earlier on. Despite the wander back from the casino to the hotel in the fresh outdoor air, they remained as if they'd fallen into a puddle on their way. Definitely not a pleasant feeling for either of them.

As they both proceeded inside, the drummer, who had already made himself quite at home in the comfortable nest of a bed, bolted upright, his mouth curving to form a contagious smile, one the younger male had fallen deeply in love with. Sapphire eyes gleamed with joy and long, tattooed arms shot out, demanding his love's affection. "Johnny-Baby!"

The pint-sized bassist couldn't help but giggle at his boyfriend's call, stripping off his drenched shirt and bounding over the bed into his loving embrace. Jimmy locked his arms around the smaller man's glistening body and found his own skin coated in the substance, causing him to whine.

"Ewwww! You're all sweaty!" He wailed, retracting his arms and wiping them on the sheets.

Johnny snickered and shook his head, "Nah, you don't say? I'm fuckin' drenched!" He glanced around the luxurious room, beady brown eyes scouring for anything to dry himself off with. "We got any towels anywhere?"

"Check the bathroom. Should have plenty in there." Came the helpful reply from vocalist Matt, who was seated beside the lanky drummer. The bassist thanked him and disappeared into the bathroom. Then, all attention turned to Jason.

"So, how'd your lil' casino trip go?" Matt asked curiously, noting Jason's shirt stuck to his torso.

The roadie just laughed and shook his head, stripping off his own shirt. "It was awful, really. Too many people, too hot, too sweaty as you can see, too much booze... Just awful." He explained.

"Sounds awful... You win anything?"

"Eh, probably got about 120 bucks between me and Shortshit. Not much. How's your evening been?"

Matt breathed a deep sigh and looked up at the roadie, "You really wanna know?"

The response wasn't what Jason had expected, and it immediately raised concerns for the smaller man, "Well, now I do. Things don't sound too good all of a sudden."

"You probably won't believe this," Matt began, running his calloused fingers through his dark locks, "but Brian's cheating on me with Zacky right at this very moment, right next door. I decided to just leave them to it, seeing as he's pissed out of his mind on JD and wouldn't understand shit if I said a word to him."

Jason's jaw dropped in shock, his hand clasping over his gaping mouth, "Oh dude... I'm so sorry man..."

"Eh," He shrugged, "You wait until tomorrow. He's gonna fuckin' regret it then, trust me." He warned.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna break up with him, obviously. I'm gonna dump all his stuff on the floor by the bed and write him a nice lil' note explaining that I'm done with his ass."

Jimmy turned to Matt, gently grabbing his arm. "But Matt," He spoke softly, "what about the gift..?"

"You can have it, give it to Johnny when you're ready. I have no use for it anymore.I know it was a bit personalised, with the design and whatever, but Johnny'll understand. Besides, it's pretty cool, so.." Matt replied, glancing over at the bags down by the bedpost. Then, Johnny reappeared with a white towel draped over his shoulders like a cape, his body lacking the shine from the sweat it had previously. He noted that Matt did seem a bit miserable, and his immediate reaction was to inquire of what was troubling him. Matt didn't even need to hear the question though. He read the bassist's facial expressions and shook his head. "No, I'm not alright. Brian's fucking Zacky."

"...Ouch, Shads. That sucks." Johnny frowned, "Is that why we're in here?"

"Yup, don't want to interrupt those two, given that they seem to be having a good time. It's not nice to crash someone's fun."

The bassist nodded and slowly returned back to Jimmy's embrace, the drummer more keen to cuddle up to his darling now that he was dry. As for Jason, he soon bid his farewells to the band members and retreated to his own room across the hall with the other crew-mates.

"Hey, are you two gonna be alright crashin' there for tonight?" Matt then asked the couple beside him as he rose to his feet.

"Of course! We'll be fine, don't you worry about us!" Jimmy said, nodding as he settled himself underneath the covers with the younger male.

"Alright then, I'll go sort Brian's stuff out and I'll settle down on the couch." The bigger man informed them, beginning to gather Brian's things, "You let me know if you need anything, yeah?"

"Will do, thanks dude!" The drummer replied. He watched the vocalist as he piled up Syn's clothes on the couch, along with all the other possessions Matt could find. He could only imagine just what would go down the next morning; A hungover Brian desperately pleading for Matt's forgiveness was practically inevitable. Oh, how he wished and hoped and prayed that he and Johnny would never, ever fall down that path.





When Synyster Gates awoke the next morning, he felt like Death had just been hit with a car, to put it simply. He could feel an intense throbbing in his head and his stomach was churning. A wretched, foul odour of booze surrounded him, and the guitarist knew exactly what was coming. A wave of nausea overflowed within him, causing him to heave his heavy bones from the bed he had been comfortably resting in and make a mad dash to the bathroom. Upon arrival, he collapsed down beside the porcelain throne and proceeded to expel the contents of his stomach into it, loud groans, moans and whimpers being emitted in the process.

Once his stomach finally settled and he wiped the remnants from the corners of his mouth, he stumbled his way back to the bed. It was then he noticed several things to which he hadn't taken note of previously. Firstly, he found all his possessions that he'd brought with him into the hotel all piled up by the bed. His suitcase rested against the oak bedpost, and the clothes that wouldn't fit inside were neatly folded up beside it. Well, Syn definitely didn't recall doing that last night. Perhaps there had been a room swap and someone had kindly done it for him?

Next, he noticed the other occupant snoring away under the covers of the bed, a man with raven locks and, as Brian might describe, a gorgeous face. Zacky. And damn, he looked so peaceful and beautiful as he slept... Wait a minute. What? Where did those thoughts come from? What was Zacky doing in his bed? Syn had no recollection of falling asleep with his younger bandmate, and those thoughts... Why was he thinking them? What the hell?! Okay, this is getting weird, he thought to himself, scratching at the back of his head, his mind scrambling for some sort of explanation.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small slip of paper. There was writing scrawled over it in black ink, which had been slightly smudged as the note was written. Syn slowly picked it up and brought it close to his face to read, eyes struggling to make out the tiny writing.

Brian,
I hope you enjoyed your little night of passion with Zacky last night. It sounded to me like you two were quite enjoying yourselves, drunk or not. Hope that one night was worth tossing 6 years down the drain. If it was, Zacky must be really good in bed and clearly an amazing partner. Clearly better than me, huh?

I've returned all your things to you, as I'm sure you've already found out by now. Don't come crawling back to me. You can have Zacky all to yourself now, without my interference. I won't stop you.

Have fun.
-M

Syn's eyes widened in horror. Oh no, what had he done?! He glanced around the room, his gaze falling to the sleeping Zachary. Without a moment of hesitation, he crawled onto the bed and shook the younger male awake with as much force as his aching body would allow.

The guitarist let out a irritated grumble and rubbed his eyes, looking up at the elder man above him with a groggy expression. He shot him an annoyed glare once he got his grip on the situation and slowly propped himself up to a sitting position.

"Brian, what the fuck?" He asked, eyebrows narrowed slightly, "What's your pr-?"

"Zacky, what happened last night?" Syn interrupted desperately, wincing as his head pounded in time with his rhythmic heartbeat. It took Zacky a moment to realise that, due to his intoxicated state the previous night, Brian hadn't got a clue what had taken place.

Zacky glanced down at himself, then he raked his eyes across Brian's wonderful, tattooed body. The only clothing that both men were wearing were a black pair of boxer shorts. "What does it look like, dummy? Surely, us being nearly completely naked means something to you?"

"Please... Don't tell me that we-"

"Sorry dude, but you were too fuckin' wasted and you forgot Matt even existed. Tell you what though," Zacky explained, rubbing his head as he spoke, "You're fuckin' amazin' even when you're plastered."

Syn's fists clenched slightly, infuriated by the fact that Zacky allowed this to happen. He wanted this! "You fuckin' asshole! You didn't push me off?! For fuck's sake, I've just lost Matt because of you!" He snarled, swinging both feet over and onto the floor to stand. He quickly swiped up some sweatpants and a T-shirt and proceeded to change, before hurrying into Matt's room to plead his innocence.



As he stepped into the room, he first thing he spotted was Jimmy and Johnny happily snuggled up together in what was supposed to be his and Matt's bed. Johnny had his head resting on Jimmy's bare, tattooed chest, placing gentle kisses to the skin here and there as a sign of affection. In return, The Rev delicately played with Johnny's hair, twirling a few strands around his slender fingers before releasing them. Syn approached the bed, and the drummer looked up from his lover, eyebrows arching as he saw the guitarist.

"Jimmy... Where's Matt?" Syn asked, holding himself up on the bedpost.

The drummer removed his hand from Johnny's hair and pointed to the couch, which had been turned so its back faced them. "He's asleep on the couch, he didn't go to bed until really late last night, and he was really pissed off." He explained, "I guess you know why?"

"Because I slept with Zacky..."

"Bingo. You can try talkin' him round, but I highly doubt you'll get anywhere. He was insisting he was very much done last night."

Synyster sighed and nodded, thanking the drummer for his help as he slowly and cautiously made his way over to the couch. He peered over the back to find Matt wrapped up snugly in a blanket, his head resting on a single pillow he'd snatched from the bed. He had a somewhat irritated expression as he slept, and Syn as hesitant to awaken the beast of a vocalist that laid before him. Reluctantly, he walked round to the front of the couch and crouched down in front of the man, took a deep breath and looked at him.

"Matty..?"

The vocalist let out a soft groan at the disturbance, shifting his position slightly, trying to keep himself comfortable. Syn frowned a little and gently tapped his shoulder.

"Matty? I need to talk to you.."

Matt's eyes slowly flickered open, like a light struggling to turn on, and he tilted his head to face the source of the noise. He rubbed at his eyes to rid himself of the blurry vision and eventually rolled onto his side, looking at Brian. He scowled upon identifying the man in front and sighed. "What do you want, Haner?"

"Baby, I'm so, so sorry about last night-" Syn spoke softly, leaning on the edge of the couch.

"Oh yeah? Is that so?"

"I had no idea what I was doin', Matty. Please, you know I'd never do that to you!"

Matt huffed and sat upright, glaring down at the older man, "Synyster, don't you dare think that you can get away with this just because you were drunk off your ass! That changes nothing! Being drunk changes your behaviour, not your morals. It means that you've been thinking it's okay to cheat for quite some time, that you've had a certain thing with Zacky!"

Syn stared up at him with heartbreak, hurt and devastation in his dark chocolate pools. He gently gripped Matt's hand and pleaded with him, but it was no use.

"Synyster, stop!" He suddenly roared, yanking his hand away. "You cheated on me with one of my best fucking friends! How the hell am I meant to forgive that?!"

"But baby-"

"Get out of my sight! I'm fucking done! I don't want to see you until we have to get ready for tonight's show. Go!"

Horrified, Syn immediately backed away, one hand gripping his hair from the intense pounding inside of his skull. Rising to his feet, he retreated back to Zacky's room and flopped on the couch with a saddened sigh. His hand loosely rested on his forehead, and he shut his eyes tight, regretting ever opening a bottle of alcohol the night previously. Zacky watched from the bed, deciding that it was just best to keep his distance. He knew damn well that Syn was pissed at him, and there was no way he was willing to get into a fight this early in the morning.



And everyone could only wonder just how tonight's show would go.

Notes

Hey guys! Hope you liked this chapter!
What do you think of Syn and Matt's breakup? Do you think Matt was right to lash out at Brian, or is he having a go at the wrong person? Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading and for all your support! It really means a lot to me!