Olivia

I’ll never forget the day I met Brian Haner Jr. The memory still plagues my mind to this day and I know it always will. I will never forget seeing him walk through that garage door, hips swinging gracefully as he laughed at what his friends were saying. I won’t forget how that smile made me melt, how that laugh gave me butterflies, and I didn’t even know who he was.

That fateful day I was honestly just planning on sitting in on my brother’s band practice, like I did all of the time. But this time when they walked in from the driveway I was taken aback. Instead of just the four boys I was used to, there was a fifth, beautiful young man in their graces. A new member. They had been talking about adding a new guitarist for quite sometime and I knew it had to be him.

“Hey, Liv,” my brother said to me, giving me a look. My mouth was hanging open a bit and I laughed awkwardly as the guys walked into the garage. “I see you noticed our new guitarist, Brian.”

“Synyster Gates,” he quickly correctly, reaching his hand out to me. I took it, feeling his rough hands against mine.

“H-hey,” I barely managed to say. “I’m Olivia, Matt’s sister.”

“I noticed,” he coolly said to me with a smirk, causing me to blush. He let my hand go and turned away from me, starting to set up to practice while I awkwardly stared after him before I finally came to my senses and walked toward the couch I always watched the band from.

Many of the moments of that particular evening have become a blur, but the image of him walking through the garage door, grabbing my hand and smirking at me have never left my mind. The way he strummed the guitar and fit right into the band stunned me. Watching him play never ceases to amaze me and to this day I love to see him perform.

No matter what I did, though, he never seemed to notice me in return. For years I would flirt, laugh at his stupid jokes even when they weren’t funny, and do basically whatever he asked of me as long as it wasn’t too crazy. He and I were friends, of course, because that is the simple nature of your relationship with your brother’s best friend, but I wanted more. So much more. And though I thought I was making it clear to him, he was either not interested at all or totally dense.

And of course there was the issue of my brother in the first place- what would he think? Part of me believes he would love it, but part of me knows he would hate it. He can be protective of his baby sister, after all, and dating his best friend would at the very least be a bit awkward for him. I had convinced myself that this is why Brian ignored my advances, but as time has passed, I was becoming less confident in that thought.

I know I’m attractive, at least to some guys. I’m thin, have long brown hair, blue eyes, and nice enough skin. Maybe I’m a bit plain, but I don’t particularly try to be any other way. Maybe he’s not attracted to me, maybe I’m too much like a sister at this point. But I’m sick of waiting to find out.

-0-

Zacky

I’ll never forget the day I met Olivia Sanders. I was hanging out with Matt and Jimmy, smoking cigarettes and shooting shit, talking about our new band. We were just kids at the time dreaming of our big future outside of our world in Huntington Beach. Before that day all I wanted to do was escape and get away from the people in my hometown, but that was before she walked through the door.

I think her intentions at the time were just to get on Matt’s nerves, not to change me forever. She swung open the door that led to the house and started talking to Matt, telling him that smoking was bad and that he was a loser for hanging out with people who do it. I put out my cigarette the moment she said it. Though I didn’t stop smoking after that, she made me quit for a second. Matt yelled at her to leave, but Jimmy, thank God, convinced her to come outside and hang out with us.

I’ll never forget the way she gracefully stepped into the garage in her blue sundress, long brown hair swaying behind her and she approached us. Her blue eyes caught my green ones and she smiled at me, waving hello.

“I haven’t met you,” she simply stated.

“Zack,” I told her, awkwardly waving. I remembered debating whether or not I should leave my seat on the couch to shake her hand, but she was already onto pestering her brother again.

“So I hear you’re starting a band with these guys?” she asked him, pointing to Jimmy and I.

“Mind your fucking business,” he grumbled to her, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, now! I think that’s cool. You should totally do it!” she said, smiling at me. The smile that melted me. For a few moments she went on about what type of music we should play, what our band name should be, and that we should probably add a bassist at some point. We hadn’t gotten that far ourselves, but it was cute watching her plan everything out.

As time passed, Olivia was always part of planning things when it came to the band. She was extremely smart and creative, always coming up with ideas for us when it came to getting gigs and marketing ourselves. She and Val, Matt’s girlfriend, always went out of their way to help us at performances with selling our merch, and she was always on the lookout for ways to get us more gigs. Her dedication to our band made me like her even more.

I would occasionally try and flirt with Liv, but was never really sure how Matt would take it. But, I’m not even sure Matt would notice. I’m a little bit of a flirt with all girls anyways, so who knows if he would even see the difference. But, that was part of the problem. I wasn’t sure if Liv noticed either. Though I would try to go out of my way to be nice to her, laugh at her jokes even when they were funny, and do things for her, she didn’t really get the hint.

Maybe she saw me more as a brother type, or just a friend, I don’t know. But I was sick of waiting to find out.

-0-

Brian

I’ve met a lot of people in my life. None of these meetings have been particularly memorable, like from a book or a movie. Maybe I’m just not that kind of guy, I don’t know.

I remember certain moments in my life of course; everyone has moments in their life that defines who they are, how they think, and how they act. I remember getting my first guitar, playing a song through all of the way, the first song I wrote. I remember high school, moments with my friends, and certain nights with different girls. Sometimes these memories bled together, sometimes these memories stood apart. But I couldn’t say I had one particular moment in my life that defined me, or a moment that changed me forever. To me, my life has become this way after a series of moments, and collection of memories.

There are many people in my life that are really important to me, and of course there are a lot of people in my life that just aren’t. That’s normal. I remember meeting some of these people, but not in much detail honestly; most of these meetings were normal, run of the mill introductions with little significance. It was what happened with these people after the fact that mattered.

For example, I don’t remember meeting Jimmy, it just happened. And we became best friends as a series of moments built up over time. This was true for most of my friends, especially the guys of Avenged. And the girls that hung around with us all of the time, like Val, Michelle, and Olivia, and the guys that we wouldn’t be able to have our band without, like the Berry Brothers.

Maybe I’m a pessimist for looking at the world this way. I’m not a believer in love at first sight or these magical moments that change a person forever. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen- I just need proved wrong.

Notes

So this is an introduction to the story. I'll post the first chapter soon. This is my first a7x fanfiction, so I hope you all like it!!