Third Person

Hannah’s morning couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start; her phone charger hadn’t been connected correctly so her phone died halfway through the night and therefore her alarms didn’t go off, so she woke up an hour later than she had planned to which meant that she either had to skip showering or eating breakfast, but since today was such a huge day at work for her and Erin she really couldn’t afford to turn up smelling like the night before so she’d be going hungry until lunch time. When he had left the house, things were looking up because for once her heap-of-shit car started up on the first try, but halfway to the studio she wound up stuck in traffic backed up due to an accident coming off of the highway. To say that she arrived at the studio rather flustered would have been an understatement, but as soon as she saw the look that her best friend was wearing on her gorgeous face, she relaxed knowing that something worse had already happened to Erin.

“What did you do?” I asked, cracking a smile as we walked towards the studio where the band members were waiting.

“Well, I had a run in with Zack… and he snapped, so I did, too… kinda told him he has a stick up his ass.” Erin answered her friend, giggling slightly.

Hannah laughed and wrapped her arm around Erin’s shoulders.

“Oh, E! You’re the craziest lass I know, my goodness. C’mon, where is the professional woman who is discreet?” Hannah asked. “He may have things to say, but you know you have your position down-packed.”
She said sincerely, making Erin smile as they walked into the room they’d be working in. Laughter from the guys of the band filled the room along with a buzz of conversation, but they quietened down when they noticed the two newcomers in the room.

“Hey,” Hannah spoke first to their small audience. “I’m Hannah, and this is my best friend and co-worker, Erin. I just wanted to say that it is an honour to be working with you guys, but despite being huge fans we are professionals first and we take out job very seriously, so it would be great if you guys would show us the same respect that we will be showing you.” She introduced, keeping her tone light and a smile on her face.

With that, everybody got to work.

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Hannah

As I had said before, it really was an honour to be working with Avenged Sevenfold. I’d been a huge fan of theirs since I’d first discovered their music back when I was just a whiny little teenager – it’s one of the things that Erin and I had officially bonded over and now here we were working with them. It was like a dream come true, and I felt like I was about to wake up at any moment and find out that it really was all a dream.

Erin was working with Brian, and I was talking with Matt about the score for the song they wanted to work on first, helping him figure out when he should sing softer and when he should let the rougher level of his voice come into play, but we were also getting to know each other and that really helped me relax around him instead of just freaking out that I was working with someone so famous. While we were sitting together on the comfortable studio sofa I couldn’t help but notice how exhausted and run-down he looked – definitely not something I was expecting to see on our first day of working on the band’s new album, surely he should have been well rested and ready to work hard but he honestly looked like he was ready to curl up into a ball and fall asleep. Instead of doing that, though, he handed me his worn and torn notepad that had doodles and scribbles all over the front of it.

“You want to take a look at some of the other songs we’re going to be working on?” He asked casually.
Inside, of course, I was freaking out that I was actually being offered the chance to look through my absolute hero’s original, first drafts of songs for the album, but on the outside I kept it professional with a soft smile and took the notebook, starting to read through what he’d written.

The pages were filled with chicken scratch handwriting, drawings, notes in different coloured inks and there were plenty of areas completely scribbled out to be forgotten about. After a few minutes when I started to decipher what had been written, I started to fall in love with the rawness of the lyrics.

“These are amazing, Matt.” I complimented, my voice nothing more than a whisper. “You must have been working on these for months just to get started.”

“As soon as my marriage officially started to fall apart,” he blurted, nodding.

Now, I’d had no idea that Matt’s marriage was even on the rocks, never mind actually completely falling apart as he was claiming.

“You and your wife, you’re separated?” I asked softly, gently, not trying to upset him or overstep any boundaries that our working relationship would have.

“Yeah, Val moved out about six months ago.” He confided in me. “Pretty suddenly, actually. So, it’s just me taking care of my boys now.”

As a fan, I knew that Matt and Val had two sons – River and Cash, but they were a private family and tended to keep out of the limelight unless it was something to do with the band. I didn’t want to seem like some crazed fan or anything so I just nodded along at what he was telling me.

“I’m really sorry to hear that, Matt.” I told him, reaching out to pat his arm. “That must be rough, but I’m sure you’re doing fine without her.”

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Matt

Hannah was sweet, really, but she had no idea how badly I was actually coping at home with two boys and less parenting experience than I probably should have by this point in their lives. In fact, nobody knew that I wasn’t doing well – not my best friends, not even my siblings or my parents. I could get the boys to sleep, dressed in the morning and make them look presentable for the day but I couldn’t cook them a nutritious and healthy meal, I couldn’t keep the house clean, I couldn’t function as a normal parent by myself but there was no way in hell that I would ask Val to come back to us. She didn’t deserve our amazing boys.

I was just going to have to learn how to take care of them by myself, and I had vowed months ago that I would do it if it killed me.

Notes

Hey everybody! This is super short but I've been desperate to get my first chapter for this new work up for ages now, so I hope you all enjoy it enough to stick with us until this story really takes off. Here's a little insight into Matt for now!

~ LMV2