You're Just A Diamond In The Rough.

The next morning I woke up and was momentarily happy until all of last night events came flooding back to me. I groaned, ran a hand through my now knotted hair and half fell out of bed. I looked to the bed next to mine and saw Mark, fast asleep, spread right across his bed with his mouth hung wide open and I just had to smile. I looked down and remembered I slept in yesterday’s clothes. After quickly rummaging through my suitcase, finding an oversized grey hoody and navy blue skinny jeans I took a deep breath and left the room, praying to god that Jimmy and Leana were up too.

It wasn’tmy lucky day.

Zack sat cross legged on the couch, blood free, in a plain white t-shirt and boxers eating a bowl of what I guessed to be Lucky Charms whilst watching cartoons. And in that second, I couldn’t see how I was ever scared of him. He looked so harmless and well lets face it, adorable, sat there with milk dribbling down his chin, giggling over the childish jokes in whatever cartoon he was watching. That was over though as soon as his eyes fell on me and the eyes that just seconds before held laughter were replaced by the eyes I was starting to get used to. The hate was familiar now to be honest and I ignored it and walked into the kitchen to get my own cereal, cursing as I accidentally spilt half of the milk on the floor. Deciding I’d clean it after I ate I finished making my cereal. I sat with my back to Zack whilst I ate; I wasn’t in the mood for his aggression today. I vaguely felt him coming closer until he came into view and put his now empty bowl on the side.

I stood up also to put my bowl on the side but instead slipped on the milk I still hadn’t cleaned up. Zack automatically grabbed my wrist to keep me from hitting the ground.

My bruised wrist.

I yelped out in pain and I swear in that split second I saw so many emotions run through his eyes, Fear, Hurt, Sorrow, Guilt. As soon as I saw them, they were gone and he let go of me. I stood up shakily, rubbing my now throbbing wrist.

“Sorry.” He muttered, his eyes not meeting mine as once again, he stormed back into his room. I ran my wrist under the cold tap hoping to ease some of the pain. I heard a door open and saw Jimmy and Leana, both rubbing their eyes sleepily, I smiled weakly at them.

“Morning.” Jimmy waved slightly, as did Leana. I giggled at them as they both fell onto the couch, looking like they were ready to sleep again.

“What’s the plan for today Jimmy?” I asked whilst switching off the tap and gently drying my wrist off. He stretched slightly before answering.

“We’re leaving for the venue at half 3 for sound checking. Its not too far from here, you’re on at 8 until 8:50 then we go on at 9:20 until 11.. Or something like that, Matt knows the schedule anyway.” He yawned and I nodded.

“All I need to know is to be ready by half 3.” I laughed and looked at my watch, it was now half 12 so I had a good 3 hours to make myself presentable.

After showering, doing my hair and make up and putting my stage outfit in my backpack to change into later I was finally ready. It was 3 now and everyone was just getting their stuff together to load back onto the bus. I again was currently dragging my heavy ass bag back to the Idols bus, this time Jack helped me lug it up onto the bus, which I was eternally grateful for. I sat in the living room area of the bus waiting for everyone else to be ready. I decided to call my mom since I had a few minutes to spare. I went and sat on my bunk and dialed the oh so familiar number, she answered within a few rings.

“Hello?”

“Mom? It’s Charlotte, just had a few minutes spare and thought I’d call let you know how the tours doing!” I replied with a smile, I loved my mom to bits.

“Oh Charlotte darling! It’s so nice to hear from you, I’m guessing it’s all going well for you then? You sound happy.”

“Yeah it’s really good Mom, we have our first show tonight, I’m starting to get major nervous.” I replied, “but everyone is really nice and I’m having a lot of fun.” I decided to leave the Zack dilemma out of things, she’d only worry. “How are things at home?”

“Oh, well they’re just like ever if I’m honest. You’re brothers got a new girlfriend, they’re practically joined at the hip, I met her last night, she’s hardly what I would want for him but I guess I have no say in it. Maybe you could give him a call? Persuade him he’s better off without her?” She asked hopefully and I had to laugh. She always refused to believe that me and my brother Ben just will never get along. We never have and I have no intention to ever try and forge a relationship with him.

“Yeah maybe Mom.” I replied, having no intention of ever actually doing that. The rest of the guys piled onto the bus and I glanced at my watch, it was time to set off. “Mom, I have to go but I’ll speak to you soon okay?”

“Okay honey, good luck tonight. Love you, bye.”

“Thanks mom, love you too, bye.” I hung up and put my phone back in my pocket before joining the rest of the group.

“Are you guys ready for the best gig of our lives?” I asked with a smile, there was a lot of eager cheers as the bus set off and I settled down on the couch ready for whatever was to come of tonight.

A few hours and a lot of sound checking and technical stuff later and we were nearly ready to go on stage. It was half 7, thirty minutes before our set started and I had never been so nervous in my life. We were all sat backstage, the roar of the crowd could be heard clearly from here and it wasn’t helping with my nerves. Everyone was talking excitedly but I stayed silent, this was my way of preparing for gigs.

“You’re gonna do fine Charlotte.” Johnny said, patting my arm lightly, I smiled in appreciation.

“I know, I just always get so nervous anyway, plus this is by far the biggest crowd we’ve ever played for.” I ranted nervously.

“Trust me, once you get over the initial nerves at the start, you’ll get so into it you forget everything else, you always do.” Jay said supportively, Idiotic Idols all knew of my massive stage fright. I was about to answer but the door swung open and in walked a roadie, dressed in black with a headset attached firmly on his head.

“Idols are on in five guys, get ready.” He stated and I took a huge breath in and we all stood up to stand by the side of the stage. I didn’t expect that the Avenged crew were going to watch our set from the side lines but apparently they were. I received hugs from all the Avenged guys except Zack (who wasn’t anywhere to be seen) and their girlfriends, all wishing us good luck. Then the moment arrived, Jack, Jay, Mark and Frankie all ran onto stage, the roar from the crowd was deafening. I took another deep breath.

Well it’s now or never isn’t it.

I ran on stage, taking in the thousands of people all excited and screaming and cheering. And as the guys started up the opening of the first track I shouted into the mic.

“Are you guys fucking ready for the night that will make your life?!” Again everyone screamed and I wondered why I’d ever felt scared. I felt at home on stage and as I started singing the lyrics that I knew by heart every ounce of fear washed away and was replaced by pure excitement and adrenaline. It was like I was in a trance, I barely knew who I was anymore, all I knew was there was thousands of people counting on my every word and I was trying the give them the best show of their lives.

I vaguely recall halfway through our set looking over to the left side of the stage and laughing as I sawthe Avenged guys my friends, some old and some new, going crazy and smiling like mad men, obviously proud of our performance. I also recall actually feeling disappointed to see Zack still wasn’t with them. That was until I looked over to the right side of the stage and saw him stood there on his own, aviators covered his eyes so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but it was nice to know he was showing us support either way.

“You guys have been amazing, I swear, I hope the rest of your night fucking rocks, We love you!” I screamed into the mic at the end of our set before blowing them kisses and retreating off stage.

“Oh my god, seriously guys you are amazing!” Matt smiled proudly, like a dad when their kid just learnt how to ride a bike. There were murmurs of agreement and everyone was hugging and congratulating us. Even Zack had come back and told Jay that we ‘fucking rocked the stage’.

I had never felt so proud of us in my life.

We stayed on the side lines also when A7x played their set. I always loved going to their gigs and to now be a part of it was really amazing. They played amazing and the crowd were really going crazy. I loved seeing how proud all the guys were while they rocked their little hearts out on stage. This is what they were born to do, that was obvious. They thanked the crowd and said their goodbyes before leaving the stage and coming over to us, covered from head to toe in sweat. They attacked us in a group hug covering us all in it too, I just giggled, happy to be a part of this.

Just ten minutes later and we all had shots in our hands.

“To the best fucking bands on this planet.” Brian said, raising his shot, we all copied and cheered before taking the shots, ready to party the rest of the night away.