On Tour

"Today's radio show features the promised visit of two heavy metal giants," Karma heard the woman across her, who had been introduced to her as Sun Kawatashi, say into the microphone.

The radio studio was small and messy, but she was too tired to care. She didn't get much sleep last night, considering she and Matt, who was right next to her, made a terrible mistake. AGAIN. At least with him sitting next to her, she didn't have to look at him all the time. They hadn't said a word to one another since breakfast.

Even during breakfast, their conversation was limited to:

"Karma, salt."
"Coffee?" - "Yeah please" Matt gulped down his cup and refilled it with the rest of the pot. "Too bad for you, it's empty now."
"You got some sugar?" - "Not for you, asshole", Karma replied, taking the last two packages of sugar and eating them.
"Are you gonna finish that omelette? I could eat a horse." - "You do know there's a difference between an omelette and a horse, Matt?"

"Please welcome Karma Strikes and M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold!" The woman cheered into the microphone, but her facial expression remained the same. Karma suppressed a chuckle as she replied into the microphone. Radio moderators were all the same.
"Good morning Sun, hello fellow listeners of City FM!"
"Hi," Matt said curtly.

Through the headphones they'd given her, she heard his voice even clearer than normally. It gave her chills. He used the exact voice from the day before, when... For a second, Karma felt the blood rush to her core as she thought about last night's events, but shoved away those thoughts for the sake of the radio show.

"Alright," the woman smiled, "your new self-titled album is coming out in a few weeks. Why did you decide to name it 'Avenged Sevenfold'?" Karma cocked her brow at Matt, motioning for him to answer. While he talked, she allowed herself to take him in fully for the first time since their sexual encounter.

He wore a black Guns n' Roses t-shirt and the arms had been ripped out so he could show off his giant biceps. God, those arms and those tattoos... Karma understood exactly why he had that panty-dropping effect on so many fangirls. And then the dimples... Yep, totally hot.

She heard the woman say her name, causing her to snap out of her trance just in time to understand the question she was asked. "What is the album gonna sound like?" Like in all the other radio shows they'd given interviews in during the past weeks of tour, she replied mechanically, concentrating so her voice wouldn't give away how annoyed she was of being posed the same questions all over.

"It's gonna be a lot more progressive than what we've done so far, but also very diverse. We even have a song on it that sounds like a country song." Like he always did, Matt chuckled into the microphone at this point, as if mentioning this fact was as funny and surprising as last time. "So I guess you could say it's pretty experimental," she concluded.


"Alright, thank you. Now, so you don't have to answer the same questions all over again," the woman began, "we've been collecting some questions your fans sent us in, and if you don't mind we'd like to run a little contest. We got all of them here and we'd like to give each one of you one minute to answer as many as you can. Are you two up for that?"

Karma smiled. This seemed interesting even.
"Absolutely," she heard Matt reply into the microphone. "Alright, who wants to start?"
"I'd say Matt, since it's always ladies first," Karma chuckled and Matt showed her the finger, but she could see a suppressed grin at her comeback, too.

"Alright," he stated and took the list of the questions into his hand. "Ready, set, go," Sun yelled as she pressed the button on the stopwatch.

"Alright, number one. What's the record gonna... We had that question. Two. Was that M and Karma kissing on that photo? Yes, promo for a new music video, you'll find out more later."

WAIT, WHAT?

While Matt phoned in some more questions and answers, Karma wondered why she didn't get the message so far, but then it dawned on her: The meeting she missed. They must have simply forgotten to fill her in.

What music video? In what universe would the fans believe that their drunken mistake was PROMO? Whatever. If Larry Jacobsen had come up with something, it always made sense.

That man was just... a God when it came to uncomfortable situations. Karma grinned at the thought of him having to pull them out of the problem with the photo of them kissing. This definitely was a first. And to come up with promo for a music video? Karma knew it was going to work, just because it was Larry's idea. Absolute genius.

In the meanwhile, Matt was still talking. "Eighteen. How long is your horse co- uhm, no comment. Nineteen. Do you think Karma is hot? Hell yeah." Karma was even more shocked now. He couldn't just admit that, could he? He... he thought she was hot? What.


"Aaalright, time's up. Twenty-four questions in sixty seconds, not bad, let's see how Karma is holding up. Well we all know women talk more," Sun commented with a smirk. Karma shoved away all her improper thoughts his two answers about their relation had evoked. She had to focus now. Her fingers fished a paper snippet out of the box and unfolded it. The question made her sick in her stomach.

"Go!"

"One: Does Matt have a horse cock?" Alright, this was it. She was not going to beat him. That thing... was just enormous. And why did they have to bring that up now, of all times?

"Why didn't you sort out all those? Those girls are crazy," she heard herself chuckle. Pulling herself together, she managed to continue. "Two. What size are you? A two. Three. Why do you not wear metal clothes in your spare time? I'm a bright girl, I like colors every once in a while," she laughed while looking down on her white denim shorts and light blue t-shirt.

"Four. Does Matt have a hor-? GOD you're really trying my patience girls," she huffed. "Alright, five. Will you have my child? NO, thank you very much."


In the end, she was just one question short of Matt, but he won. Asshole. "Additional question," Sun asked, "what's up with that horse...?" Matt and Karma chuckled at the same time.

"Syn Gates said that once on a video we posted to our Myspace," Matt said, then Karma took over while laughing hysterically, "Yeah, 'cause a security guard at the Dusseldorf airport once mistaked his... thing... for a gun and he had to strip down to his underwear. Hell, we missed our flight because of that stupid piece of meat!"

They all laughed. After some more questions, they were finally done and left the studio for some lunch with the guys.


"Karma! Kar-Kar-Karma!" Brian screamed as he ran in her direction like a lunatic as their car pulled up in Taco Bell's parking lot. "How was it? TELL ME TELL ME TELL MEEEEE!" He jumped up and down on the concrete, cocking his eyebrows.

"Dude, you're acting more Jimmy than Jimmy today," Karma remarked, letting her eyes travel over her best friend. He was pale and had his black metal eye paint on his face. She already looked forward to the day in the future when she would rub it under his nose that his emo punk phase lasted way too long. "FUCK YOUUUU!" Brian screamed.

"What the fuck Brian," she heard Matt scoff behind her. "CAN YOU TELL THAT I TOOK TWENTY ENERGY SHOTS TODAY?" Syn laughed hysterically and then ran off. "No, I mean HOW would we have noticed?" Karma said sarcastically, more to herself than to Matt. She was surprised when she heard him smirk at her remark.

A few minutes later, they were sitting at a table together. Jimmy sat between Karma and Matt, and somehow he seemed to be the only one not noticing the obvious: They got along. During lunch, everyone but Jimmy threw them questioning looks as they talked normally. Finally, Jason Berry couldn't stand the waiting anymore. "Are you guys good now?" Were they?

Of course, Karma nodded and did her best to seem busy with her enchilada. "Yeah," she mushed with a full mouth, "It was a little awkward considering... You know, but... It's okay now."

"One question remains," stated Zacky, who was already finished with with his food and almost two liters of coke. Damn you Zack, I know you'll beg for a bathroom stop in twenty minutes.
"Yeah?" They all stared at Karma. None of them wanted to say it. Finally, Johnny blurted out what everyone was thinking.

"So did you or did you not fuck that night?"


Why... WHY do my bandmates have to know everything about my sex life. WE DONT HAVE TO BE SO CLOSE. Ugh, questions like that should be forbidden.

"I don't think so, no," she said. You dirty little liar, she scolded herself. "Me neither," Matt remarked with a full mouth, "and honestly I was so drunk, I don't think I could have." Liar.

After another six and a half hours bus ride that could have been much shorter if it hadn't been for Zacky's hourly bathroom breaks, they finally arrived at their next destination. Unlike the previous nights they had driven through, this night they were taking a hotel for the night and did not have a show.
Except for a signing at a media store, they would be free the next day.

After the check in, Karma couldn't wait to catch up on some sleep. Tired as she could be, she fell into the bed and drifted easily into a deep sleep. When she woke up, it was almost time for dinner, so she dressed up with a skirt and heels since she felt like it and waited for the guys in the lobby, nursing a glass of champagne.

After a really good dinner and some drinks with the bandmates, she was ready to call it a night and returned to her room. She took off her make-up and put on her pajama shirt. For some minutes, she browsed through twitter and read an interesting critic's review on their last concert.

Pleased that he liked it, she wanted to finally switch off the phone. Her finger already hovering over the power button, she felt the phone vibrate. It signaled the arrival of a new text message.

MATT (new no.):

1204 at 12.30 am. You been good today if you know what I mean ;)


Oh shit. What the fucking fuck am I getting myself into?

Notes

Hope y'all liked the update :)