Down With Love

When I went back to the bus that evening, Anna was sitting at the table playing poker against Johnny. “You’d better watch out, Christ,” I said, sitting on the bench next to Anna. “I played this girl when she was at warped a few years back, chick got two hundred bucks off me, ain’t that right, Anna?” I nudged Shadows’ cousin, grinning.

“I wouldn’t remember,” Anna replied in a stony tone, ignoring me otherwise. She lifted a card from the pile.

“Hey, actually, Anna, I was hoping I could talk to you alone for a minute…” I started, putting my hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it away, and shook her head. “Please? Just for a few minutes, Anna? I feel really bad about earlier, I wanted to talk to you.” I looked pointedly at Johnny, who got up. Anna sighed, giving up, and turned to face me.

“What do you want?” She was still annoyed, but between her tone and body language I could sense her starting to warm up. At least a little bit.

“It’s about earlier…” I started uneasily. I was unsure of where to begin, where ‘earlier’ began. “I’m sorry for running away… I was going to talk to you about this at the catering tent, but I had to… y’know… run.”

“Love ‘em and leave ‘em type, eh, Jimmy? Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am?” she chuckled. The words were harsh, but teasing, the same as if I were sitting here talking to one of the guys. It was almost as if Anna and I were… getting along.

“We slept together once-”

“On my bunk!” Anna interjected

“On your bunk,” I added “And she already invited me over to ‘chill’ with her and her friends. She seems to think we’re dating.”

“Now, now, Jimmy,” Anna reprimanded. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that sex can lead to things like dating?”*

I laughed, and shoved her playfully, then regained composure. “There was one other thing…” I trailed off.

“Shoot.” Anna answered with a smile.

“Was it my fault that you were crying before?” I let out quickly. I was unsure of why I was asking this. Maybe hoping she’d say no, to relieve myself of guilt… well, I got what I wanted, I guess. Anna’s features turned to stone again.

“Jimmy, there is nobody I care about less in the world than you. ‘were your jokes what made me cry’… don’t flatter yourself, Sullivan.” And with that, she stood and went to the couch. For some reason, her negative reaction didn’t make the lump in my stomach’s pit disappear. In fact, it felt as if it had doubled in size. I went to lie on her bunk, which I had ‘claimed’ with the Millionaires whore earlier today in a fit of stupidity.
“Hey Anna?” I whispered about half an hour later. At first there was no reply, and I was worried that she, like everyone else, had either fallen asleep or gone out. But after a long pause, there was a grunt from the couch that I took to be a reply. “I’m sorry.” I said quietly, and shut my eyes to fall asleep. Tomorrow would be a new day, I thought, my grin hidden in the darkness of the bus.

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The first thing I remembered that morning was the sharp smell of coffee and pastries. I opened my eyes, surprised- the bus had never smelled like anything other than stale sweat, cigarettes, wet dog, and booze. I rolled off the couch and straightened my XXXL seven-eleven shirt (it was a gag gift) that I was wearing as a night down, so that my first action of the day wouldn’t be flashing my panties at five rockstars and their girlfriends. “Coffee?” I muttered dumbly, shuffling towards the microwave/ mini-fridge/ table/ cupboards compound we called “the kitchen”

“And doughnuts!” Jimmy announced proudly, pouring himself another mug of caffeine.

“Jelly filled, Boston cream, or honey glazed?” Zacky offered, holding out an open carton that said something about ‘Horton’ on it. I rubbed my eyes, still tired, and helped myself to a Boston cream doughnut.

“Who are you and what did you do to Avenged Sevenfold?” I finally croaked, already three bites into my breakfast.

Someone chuckled behind me, and I jumped about a foot in the air before spinning around to see Syn there. “We felt bad for being dicks for the past week or so…” he explained “so we decided to make coffee and give you the day off as a kinda sorry… and we’ll be nicer from now on, we promise.”

“YEAH I AND I GOT DOUGHNUTS!” Zacky shouted, stuffing one into his mouth.

“Dude, is that your… eighth?” Johnny asked, sipping a coffee I was sure was laced with booze.

“No, eleventh!” Zacky announced proudly, spraying crumbs across the bus. Syn flinched, and wiped his arm. Zacky took no notice though, and in fact sounded as proud of a three year old who’d just drawn a picture, or eaten a worm.

I couldn’t help but giggle, and after licking the cream from my doughnut off my fingers, I went to make the bed. Or, well, the couch. “Leopard spotted?” I heard Johnny’s voice from behind me. “Very nice.” I was about to stand up, embarrassed, when I felt him spank me. Suddenly furious, I spun around and shoved him with all my force.

“WHAT THE HELL, CHRIST?!” I shouted. “YOUR GIRLFRIEND’S ON THIS TOUR TOO, ISN’T SHE?! JESUS!”

“Not Jesus, Johnny.” Synyster Gates interrupted. And don’t worry, he’ll learn. He’s lowest on the pecking order of the band and crew, y’see. Even the roadies pick on Christ. He figures just ‘cause you have tits, he’s above you. Next time he’s like that, just kick him in the nuts, he’ll learn.” Syn smiled smugly at he look of protest on Johnny’s face.

I laughed, and looked at my watch 11:37. “Shit!” I exclaimed out loud. “I was meant to start an hour and a half ago!” I pulled some jeans on and ran towards the door of the bus, but was blocked by Jimmy’s arm blocking me. Hmm. Stronger than I would’ve thought, looking at him. Must be the whole drumming thing.

“We told you, we gave you the day off,” he informed me. “Val and Michelle are taking turns filling your shift today.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued. “Now, we have two choices. We can go and watch other bands, or we can go to the water park.” I looked around at them, grinning. I could tell from the smiles and smirks I received in return that the vote was unanimous.