Silence You Lost Me

We woke up early, thankfully. I made us some waffles and my parents still hadn’t arrived home.

I haven’t seen someone eat so many waffles.

“These are amazing.” Brian called with a full mouth.

I giggled, “thanks.”

After breakfast, I got dressed for the day while Brian pulled on his clothes from yesterday and soon, there was a loud knock at the door. My heart’s pound was louder than it had ever been.

“Trinity, is that him?” Brian whispered. I nodded slowly, fear pulsing. My bruises began hurting again and I feared more…

Frank’s voice shot out, “I know you’re home, don’t make me break down this damn door!”

“I’ll get it.” Brian decided, walking up to the door and opening it, “can I help you?” he was pushed to the ground as Frank stormed over to me, “you stay the fuck away from her!” Brian was back on his feet.

“You have no say, this is my property.”

“What!?” Brian shouted.

“She’s mine. She’s always been mine. She doesn’t defend that she’s not mine, so therefore, she’s mine.” Frank turned his back on me and now focused on Brian.

“No.”

“What!?”

“No. I’m not yours.” My gaze went up to his face.

“Yes, you are. You have no choice but to be mine.”

Brian cut in, “She does have a fucking choice!”

“Fuck off!”

“Don’t talk to him like that!” I shouted as Frank went to slap Brian, “and keep your filthy hands off of him.” He turned to me, shocked. Brian’s expression met Frank’s.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me, motherfucker.” My heart’s pound hurt me. I’d never spoke up to Frank, I was always too scared. Now, I’m done. Brian and Matt have showed me that it’s not my fault, “now get out of my house.”

Without a blink, I was slammed to the nearest wall. His large hand was around my neck and I couldn’t breathe. I thrashed, cutting his arms with my long nails but I was getting lightheaded and blackness concealed the corners of my eyes. I tried blinking it away but it was futile. He punched me multiple times, cutting me with that damn ring that he always wore…

Soon, Frank’s hand left my throat and I fell to the floor, coughing while watching the fist fight between Brian and him go on.

I stood up; about to get involved, “Stay back, Trin.” Brian called.

I stopped completely, tears filling my eyes from the blood on Brian’s face. Frank was an angry bastard and he always made someone bleed…

Brian surprisingly fell to the floor, getting pummeled by Frank until I began beating on Frank’s back. If Brian was there for me, I’d be there for him.

“Get the fuck away from him, you asshole!” that didn’t work, “I’m the one you’re angry at, remember!?”

He stopped all movement and I stopped breathing. He stood, turning to me.

“You’re damn right.” He began, “you’re the one who fucked someone on the God damned job. Where is that bitch anyway? This isn’t fucking him. This is one of his cunt, loser friends. Are you fucking him to?”

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” I knew damn well that Frank’s mother died a few months ago. It was still a sore subject for him and if it were anyone else, I’d have cared and given sympathy. In the back room by the bar, there’s a picture frame with his mom and him. Cute, right? Nope, not for this asshole. And I knew damn well this would fire him up even more.

“Fuck you!” he screamed and I could swear I saw tears in his eyes. He swung to punch me but I dodge, having him punch the metal doorframe. Brian was now in front of me, arms out in a protective stance as he braced himself. “I’m fucking done,” Frank spoke, turning to me, “You’re fucking fired!”

That hit me, hard. “What!?”

“Yeah, I don’t want your kind working here.” He snapped.

“Fine.” I growled, now holding onto the back of Brian’s shirt.

“I brought your last paycheck. Take it and never come back.” He threw it at me then slammed my door. He left my life…or, at least I hope so.

I fell to the floor on my knees. “Fuck.” I cried. Brian knelt down by me, rubbing my bleeding cheek.

“What’s wrong? He’s gone.” He cooed.

“I know.” I breathed, “I know. But…now I have no job.”

“You can find something, I’m sure.”

“No, Brian. You don’t understand how it works here. They only want a certain kind of person out there. No tattoos and no piercings.”

“I’m sure there’s someplace-”

“No. When I told my parents I put in for every place here, I wasn’t lying. It’s a small town. They don’t want me or they’re not hiring.”

“Well, you live here; they’ll be okay with you waiting for a job, right?”

“Nope. They’ll kick me out if I don’t have one.”

He was silent, defeated. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“You can live with one of your friends, right?”

“No one has room. They all have one bedroom apartments or don’t want to take me in. I won’t be able to help pay for rent. Brian, I’ve gone through all the options. The strip club was my only option. You wonder why I didn’t quit when Frank was being abusive? Because I had no where else to go. My parents would see the bruises and ask, I’d tell them it was because of the dancing; I was being clumsy or something. It worked but now I have nothing.”

He pulled me into him and I rest my head on his chest, “and you were such a good dancer…”

“Thanks.” I couldn’t help but giggle.

It was silent for a few minutes and I felt my heartbeats getting regular again.

“I’ve got an idea! Go wash up and I’ll make a call.” So I did. I rinsed the blood off my face and took care of the wounds. Turning my back to the mirror, I lifted my shirt to see the bruises. Looks like I won’t be in a bikini for a little…

As I walked downstairs, Brian was smiling at me, “what?”

“Well, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I called Matt.” My heart stopped again from just his name.

“Did you tell him what happened!?” I was nervous.

“No. Just told him that you were fired. The rest is up to you.”

“How is this helping my job situation?”

He pats the cousin on the couch and we sat. I noticed that he’d washed the blood off his face too. “well, have you ever watched out Live in the LBC disk?”

“This is not the time to ask how obsessed I am with your band, Brian.” I slapped his arm.

He sighed, “I already know you are, that’s not the point. Now answer, yes or no?”

“Yes, I practically memorized it.”

“Wow, you…” he was shocked, “alright, anyway, you’ve seen how during Scream, we have girls come out and dance for us?” I nodded, remembering being super jealous of them. I’d always wondered what they’d do with the girls after the shows, but I’ll ask Brian that later… “Well, we pick them up sometimes if we want them. We get them from wherever we’re performing.”

“Okay?”

“Well, since you’re a dancer, I called Matt and asked him if we could hire a full-time dancer.”

“Oh my God!” I gasped, my hand covering my mouth.

“Would you like that?”

I embraced him tightly, “Oh, Brian, I’d love that!”

He chuckled, “Sweet! We would too. The guys are all excited about it now. I just need to wait for the text.”

“What?”

“Matt had to call our producer first, just to make sure it was alright.” Just as he spoke, his cell went off and he opened it, eyes scanning over something, “Well, it’s a go!”

“Really!?”

“Yep, he texted me and said, and I quote: ‘permanent dancers? Sounds fucking sweet’.”

“Yes!” I nearly jumped up.

“Hm, he said dancers, plural. Well, we only have one so far.”

I giggled, “wait, are the girlsfriends going to be okay with this?”

“Are you kidding me? Leana’s gonna want to learn some stuff from you.” I, again, giggled.

“What about Lacey?”

“As long as you stay off her man, she’ll be fine.”

“Sweet, I respect her for that!” I smiled widely, “Oh, Brian, I owe you!”

He laughed, “free dances sounds pretty good.” He joked. Or…was he really joking? I didn’t know, I was just too excited about this to even bother thinking about this. “But you could owe me…other things…” he trailed off.

I blushed, smiling, “whatever, Gates.”

“Hey,” he held his hands up, “just a suggestion.”

I was silent for a minute, “fuck. Adalyn! I got her the job at the strip club! She didn’t want to be a dancer but she needed a job! So she’s the bartender there. Frank may take his anger out on her!”

“Well, get her out of there then. She didn’t have any visible tattoos; she could get a job around here.” Brian shrugged.

“Right.” I picked up my cell, “or she could come with!”

“You just said she didn’t want to dance.”

“Yeah, but you lost your merch girl, Val. Remember? She could do that!”

“Ohhh, never thought of that. You’re just full of good ideas. I’ll text Matt now.”

I made a call to Adalyn’s cell, “hello?”

“Hey sweetie.”

“You’re alright! Thank God.”

“Yeah, but he fired me.”

“What?” she sounded nervous.

“Yeah, so I won’t be able to protect you.” I sighed. There were so many times Frank wanted to take his anger out on her but I stepped up and pissed him off more so he’d take it out on me. None of the other girls would do that.

“Oh, no.”

“So, we have a solution. Since no one will hire me, Avenged asked me to come on tour with them to dance.” I knew that she’d known damn well what I was talking about. We’d watched Live in the LBC more times that we could count.

“That’s amazing, sweetie!” my cheek was beginning to throb from the cuts Frank gave me.

“Yeah, but they want you to be a merch girl for them. We’d be able to be together.”

“Oh my gosh! That sounds amazing!” she was excited and I could tell.

“So, quit now and get home. They leave at noon and we need to be ready.”

“Hey, un problemo, senorita!” Brian came in the room. I looked at him nervously, “it’s a two-package deal. We need two merch girls, not just one.”

I sighed, wondering who we could get, “Mila!”

“Who?”

“You know, the one Zacky had his eye on at the beach.”

“Ah! Sounds about right. Cool, call her next. We need to leave in a few hours.” He went back in the living room, likely texting Matt.

“Alright, are you cool with this?”

“It’s better than working here!” Adalyn laughed softly.

“Okay, so go get ready. Love you!”

“Love you too.” We hung up and I made my next call to Mila.

“Sup, girly?”

“Do you want to come on tour with Avenged Sevenfold?” I asked her.

“Who wouldn’t!?” she laughed.

“You think I’m joking, don’t you?”

“Well, aren’t you?” she sighed, “why would they want me?”

“Well, merch girl, you tell me.” I smirked as she squealed.

“You’re not kidding are you!?”

“Nope. I just got fired and they offered me a job as a dancer. Adalyn and you are gonna work merch. Cool?”

“Hell yes!” she was likely jumping around her kitchen.

“Okay, be ready by noon. We’ll pick you up.”

After a few minutes of screaming, we hung up.

“Gates!!! Meester Gates!” I called. He peeked his head in the kitchen and I ran to him, jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs around his torso.

“I quite like this position.”

“Of course you do. But, I need to pack.”

He gave me that infamous Synyster Gates smirk, and he walked up the stairs, carrying me.

This was the most excited I’ve been in my entire life; touring with Avenged Sevenfold!? I never though this would happen!

Now, to text my parents about the new info. Here goes nothing…