New Love Is Tasteless, We're Going Down

The next morning when Hannah woke up, she hopped out of her bunk, and changed into jogging gear.

Quickly grabbing her iPod and a bottle of water, she stepped out of bus into the brightly lit morning.

When she arrived at the gate, she checked to see that she had her ID to gain entrance back into the venue.

As she checked herself out on the list, she turned left and started her morning routine. Halfway down the block, she spotted something familiar.

As she got closer to this person, she saw it was Alex. Hannah decided not to bother him, and kept on jogging. She passed him as Taking Back Sunday's, "What It Feels like to Be a Ghost" played in her ears.

She saw a park that was nearing on the right and crossed the deserted road, into the even more deserted park, where the swings moved in the steady breeze. Spotting the water fountain behind the somewhat rusty slide, she made her way over to it and began to re-fill her water bottle.

As it filled, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder causing a scream to burst from her lips, and she quickly turned, pulling her headphones out of her ears; coming face-to-face with Alex.

"Oh, Wow!" Hannah cried, as she got a good look at his face, "That looks bad. Did you ice it at all?"

She moved her hand up to his face, but he quickly stepped back, as if he was afraid she would attack him.

"It's okay. I've had worse." he said nonchalantly.

"I don't see how you could have had worse. I mean look at you. You have a black eye, a swollen lip, and a busted eyebrow. There is no way you've had worse!"

He shrugged slightly and took a drink from the fountain, as she stepped aside, "It's honestly not that bad."

Hannah shrugged and started to walk back towards the street.

"I better get going; I'll talk to you later." She said, jogging back towards the venue.

When she returned to the venue, she checked back in and walked to the Avenged Sevenfold bus. Hannah punched in the key combination, and the door slowly slid open. Climbing up the steps, she saw Zacky and Brian sitting on the couch, playing Halo 2.

"Hey guys." Hannah said, trying not to disturb them.

"Hey babe, how was your jog?"

You shrugged and said, "Jogful. But I need a shower."

Hannah stepped out of the shower, she threw on her "Don't Trust Me" Tee, with a pink skull, her comfortable AE jeans, and her black and white checkered Slip-on Vans.

Hannah made her way back to the front of the bus and sat down next to Zacky, waiting to head to the stage.

Finally, they stepped off the bus.

Hannah arm-in-arm with Zacky, the two of them walked to sound check.

When they neared the Atreyu bus, out of the corner of her eye, Hannah saw Alex smiled at her. Cautiously, she moved her free hand slightly and waved to him. He nodded and quickly ducked onto his bus, to avoid more confrontation with Zacky.

Arriving backstage, Zacky grabbed his left handed guitar, and picked a few strings and quickly played a rift from "Unholy Confessions."

He looked up through his hair and smiled at her. Hannah giggled and shyly smiled back.

He leaned over, and lightly kissed her on the lips, and she gladly returned the kiss.

"You know you shouldn't be playing." Hannah told him, before he went back to tuning his guitar.

He smiled and replied, "Does it look like I really care?"
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About thirty minutes later, Avenged Sevenfold took the stage, and Hannah watched Zacky jump around like a monkey. After they were finished, and sweaty, Zacky walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Ewww! Zacky get a shower before you do that to me!" Hannah screeched as he threw his head back in laughter.

"I'll go get a shower." He remarked as the two of them walked back to the bus, where Hannah decided to lay out in the sun.

She quickly changed into her bathing suit, and lay out on the chair. A few minutes later, Zacky walked off the bus in his swim trunks, and his designer sunglasses.

"Hun, what are you doing?" Hannah asked him over her sunglasses.

"I'm taking a shower. Just, with the hose, while Mark cleans the bus." He said a little unsure if that last part made sense, "Come on Mark, and bring on the damn water!"

She chuckled as Mark; the Bus Technician, brought the hose around the bus, and hooked it up to the water spigot.

"Yes!" Zacky cried as the water ran through the nozzle. "Get me wet baby!!" He threw his hands in the air and squealed. Hannah shook her head, and watched as he pulled out a bar of soap from somewhere in his swim trunks. He lathered up, and began to clean himself of the dirt, and sweat.

"Hey Brian!" Zacky yelled, as Brian stuck his head out the door.

"Yeah?" he called.

"Can you get me some Shampoo?" Brian nodded and disappeared into the bus, only to return a few minutes later with the bottle of shampoo.

"Want to help me wash?" Zacky asked while he shook the shampoo bottle towards Hannah. She shook her head, as you she returned her sunglasses back in their rightful spot on her face.

Quickly he ran over to Hannah and dripped water onto her abdomen. She squealed and quickly sat up.

"Zachary Baker! That's freezing!" She said, while standing up; her hands on her hip, glaring at him.

Zacky was doubled over with laughter.

The door opened and Matt stuck his head out, “You better go get ready; we go sign in ten minutes."

Zacky widened his eyes, and grabbed the towel that covered her chair. Shaking out his hair, he grabbed Hannah’s hand and pulled her onto the bus with him.

As Hannah moved to the back of the bus, and watched Zacky dress, he hummed the tune of "Whistle While You Work". She threw on an A7X tee and a pair of khaki pedal-pushers, with her checkered slip-ons.

Though she changed quickly, Zacky on the other hand couldn't decided what to wear.

"Hannah! Help me please!" He cried out as she left the bunk area.

She passed Brian on the way and said, "Could you please go help him? I'm not in the mood to be his mother today."

He smiled and headed to the back, to help Zacky.

Hannah stepped off the bus and turned to Matt, "Where are we signing at?"

"Um, the AP tent." He replied.

Hannah nodded and sat in a lawn chair next to Jimmy.

She wasn't paying attention, when she saw Jimmy turn towards her.

She turned towards him and noticed that he was staring at her.

"Can I help you Mr. Sullivan?" Hannah asked, as she lifted the glasses off his face, "Whoa! Jimmy, you need to lay off the Coke." She remarked at his extremely bloodshot eyes.

His face contorted into a mocking grin, and he said, "Bite me. Besides, what I do, on my own time, with my coke, is none of your business."

Hannah shrugged and stood, just as Zacky stepped off the bus. "Come on babe." He took her arm, and the two started the long trek to the tent.

Halfway there, they passed Atreyu's tent, and as the crowd parted, Hannah caught a glimpse of Alex.

Smiling, she waved to him, and he returned the favor.

Unfortunately, Zacky saw, and immediately dropped her arm and yelled, "Are you serious! You're fraternizing with the enemy."

The crowd around them stopped, and stared. "Zacky, he's not an enemy, and let's not start anything in the open." Hannah said, trying to lose the gaze of, well, everyone.

"No! We'll talk about this right now! Jesus, I can't believe you'd do that to me. Oh and when I asked you for help I didn't mean Brian!" He shouted, just inches from your face.

"HEY!" someone yelled from behind you.

Turning around Hannah saw Alex standing there in his Lurch cut-off tee, with shorts and a pair of flip-flops, "Leave her alone. It was my fault, I was saying ‘hi’ to her.”

Zacky stared at him in shock that Alex Varkatzas just yelled at him.

"Did you just yell at me?" he asked, still in shock.

Alex rolled his eyes, and replied, "Whatever dude."

Knowing what he was up to, Hannah grabbed Zacky’s arm, and Brian, who thankfully showed up at the correct time, his other.

"Get him out of here," She said as Matt took his left arm from her, "I'll catch up later."

Looking back at Alex, she was met with a cold glare. Everything around you went back to normal, and the two of them stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, Hannah with her hand on her neck, and Alex looking at the ground.

"I know you want a reward for your service, but that wasn't called for," she said, earning herself a confused look from him, "I appreciate it though."

He smiled and replied, "Yeah, I'm sorry. Can I get you anything?"

"Haha, you want to get me something after I pretty much bitched you out?"

He laughed and replied, "Yeah, but it has to be reasonable."

She thought for a moment and said, "Then how about we go get something to drink?"

He smiled, and replied, "Sure, just let me tell the guys." He walked back to the booth and told the group that he was going to get a drink.

They nodded, and he walked back over to her. They walked to the closest vendor and Hannah ordered a Dr. Pepper, and a Coke for himself.

"So why Zacky? I mean if he bitches at you..." He said taking a sip of his soda.
Hannah shrugged and replied, "He's fun. But just recently he's been acting weird. Something's definitely up."

He nodded, and said, "Well personally, I think he's treating you like shit, I mean it's none of my business but-"

"You're right. It's not." She replied, glaring at him.

He put his hand up in defense and replied, "But you could do so much better."

She looked at him, and quickly dropped her eyes, while saying, "Who would want someone like me? For all you know I could be his fuck buddy."

He put his hand under her chin, and made her look at him and replied, "Hannah, you're too good for that."

She quickly looked down at the drink in her hand, and immediately grabbed his wrist.

Startled, he let her and became less frightened when he noticed she was looking at his watch.

"Shit! I have to go." Hannah said as she quickly kissed him on the cheek, and headed to the AP tent. "Thanks for the soda."

He stood there a few minutes later, until Brandon came and found him.

"Dude, what happened?" He asked, giving Alex a questioning look.

"She kissed me."