The Nothing of the Everything

When Johnny told her Avenged Sevenfold were playing in the same country she was performing in for three weeks, Elaine couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t seen her brother in over a year and a half. She came home for a few weeks last year, but right when she got back to Huntington Beach, he left for tour. What a busy life they had. Johnny was in a band touring all over the world while Elaine, after graduating from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, was now a ballerina at the Royal Opera House, performing all over the world. Their parents were proud, but everybody could see in their eyes how much they loved the little girl of the house.

Don’t come back late. We gotta wake up at 6 AM tomorrow!!!

Elaine was heading towards the venue of the concert when she received a text from her best friend, Olivia. The blonde smiled, loving how her friend cared about her. Without sending a reply, she walked into the venue and waited for the concert to start. She had never seen her brother perform on a stage before, so she was pretty excited. Sure, she saw him play his bass at home and saw a few videos online, but it wasn’t the same thing and when they started playing, she was even more convinced that it wasn’t the same thing.

Hell. They were good! All of them.

She usually didn’t have time to go to concerts or shows that weren’t ballet related, so it was nice to break the routine and do something different like watching his brother and his band perform live, especially since she really loved that kind of music. She got into rock and metal music when she was a kid, due to her older brother making her listen to whatever band they liked, and she ended up loving this kind of music, which usually surprised people whenever she brought this up. A ballerina was supposed to love classical music and that’s it. Instead, outside of the theatre, Elaine was a complete different person and she showed it that night, with her ripped jeans and her Metallica t-shirt (the same shirt that was given to her by Johnny about three years before). Her perfectly done chignon bun was the only thing that she kept from that day’s training, and despite all the shaking, dancing and headbanging, it was still up and perfect.

Singing along to the songs she knew so well with so many people felt great. She read enough articles and heard enough stories from Johnny to know that Avenged Sevenfold had a big fan base and loyal fans, but she didn’t think it was this big.

Matt’s voice was simply amazing, and so were Zacky and Synyster’s guitar skills, Johnny was a great bassist but she already knew that. Who really surprised her, though, was Jimmy who played the drums as if he was an octopus. It was insane.

Ø

“I can’t let you in, ma’am.”

The muscular bodyguard held Elaine back, not letting her access the backstage. What a stupid idea she had. Why didn’t she think of this? Of course they wouldn’t let her in. She should’ve called Johnny and tell him her plan rather than just show up at their concert and then try to get in the backstage.

“Fine, but let me go.” Elaine said as she tried to pull away from the man. She sighed heavily and was about to turn around when a few girls next to her, who were trying to get in as well, started to scream. She turned her head to see what was going on and that was when she noticed Jimmy. That’s it. He was her pass to the backstage.

“You! Jimmy!” She tried to get his attention, but the girls were screaming so loud that she wondered how the hell they still had their voices, considering that they probably sang all the songs. Obviously, he didn’t really pay attention to her, but he waved at everybody and left.

“Fuck.” She muttered and tried to think of something to do. In that moment the bodyguard was busy trying to hold back a crazy girl who desperately wanted to meet the guys, so Elaine took advantage of that and ran through the door, following Jimmy.

“Hey, you!” She heard the bodyguard yell and she ran even faster, trying to figure something out as quickly as possible.

Elaine noticed Jimmy in the distance and wondered how he could walk so fast, but she pushed her thought aside as she kept following him into a smaller room. It smelled of smoke, beer, sweat and other things she didn’t want to think about.

“Jesus Christ, he was right. You’re a dick.” Elaine commented, almost running out of breath. Jimmy turned around and frowned at the girl. “And who the fuck are you?”

Elaine took a deep breath and looked around, completely ignoring the guy’s words. She was looking for her brother and she immediately saw him. He was smoking with a beer in his hand. Nothing unusual. She laughed and Johnny turned around, his eyes widening. He squealed so loudly to get the attention of all the other members of the band and a few other people Elaine didn’t know. He left the bottle of the beer on the small, messy table and ran towards her.

“The fuck?” Matt asked, giving his bandmates a questioning look but they were as confused as him.

“How come Christ got a smoking hot girl and I got–” Zacky said, looking around himself but the only person sitting next to him was Brian. “You, so no one? Shit’s not fair.”

Elaine smiled at his brother and hugged him back.

“It’s been so fucking long.” He whispered as he embraced the moment he’d been waiting for a long time. She smiled against his neck then pulled away to ran her hand through his messy hair.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on? Can someone explain?” Jimmy asked, crossing his arms over his chest, but before anyone could try to give an answer, the bodyguard entered the room. He grabbed Elaine by the arm, but Johnny quickly tried to pulled him away.

“She can’t stay here; she doesn’t have a backstage pass.” The man said, but Johnny shook his head and wrapped an arm around his sister’s shoulders. “She’s my sister, she can stay here now fucking leave, you dickhead!”

The man left, mumbling something they didn’t catch, but it didn’t matter.

Jimmy raised his eyebrows, surprised. He was, however, not as surprised as the others.

They heard stories, even saw some photos of Elaine when she was a kid, but they thought she was some kind of myth and not an actual person.

“Elaine, is it?” Brian asked, remembering to have met her a couple of times at the Sewards.
Elaine nodded and smiled at the guys. “It’s me. Sorry for… Well, the confusion. I wanted to surprise my brother and apparently I did.”

“Hell, yeah! Fuck, this is the best surprise ever!” Johnny exclaimed and hugged his sister once again, “What are you doing here?” He asked, but before she could answer, the guys got up and were already around them.

“Yeah, what are you doing here?”

“So you’re real…”

“Now I understand why Johnny’s so ugly. You got all the good genes.” Zacky said and made everyone laugh, even Elaine.

“Don’t look at me like that, Johnny.” She said and then looked at the guys, trying to answer to all their questions. “I’m here with the Royal Opera House for–”

“The Nutcracker.” A female voice finished Elaine’s sentence and when she looked up to see who spoke, she met Valary’s eyes for the first time. She smiled and nodded, “Yes, The Nutcracker. Do you like ballet?”

Suddenly, everybody seemed to be interested in the answer Val was going to give. “Kind of. My sister and I did ballet when we were kids but I wasn’t that good at it. It’s just that I saw some posters of your show hanging around and I thought we could go see it since we’re free tomorrow, but the tickets of the show are already sold out.” She sighed and shrugged, “I’m Val, by the way.”

“Yeah, the show is sold out but if you’re interested, I can find some tickets for you. We got connection.” Elaine winked before shaking Valary’s hand, “It’s nice to meet you and it’s definitely nice to see another girl around.”

“This is very sweet, but can we go get drunk now? I didn’t change my clothes to listen to you girls talking about this fucking Nutcracker.” Jimmy spoke for the second time that night and Elaine finally understood why he always gave her a bad vibe.

“Jesus, Jimmy. You always gotta be so annoying?” Elaine asked and everybody laughed; Jimmy, on the other hand, was amused and a smirk appeared on his lips. “You have no idea.” He winked and headed towards the door, leaving the girl watch him leave until his brother caught her attention again. Apparently the drummer hadn't changed much since the last time she saw him.

Notes

Here's the first chapter of the story! It's not much, I know, but I thought I'd post it anyway just so you can get an idea of how Elaine got to see Johnny again and got to meet the guys (and Val). Hope you enjoy :)