It's Not a Dream Anymore; It's Worth Fighting For

One shot

The music forced its way into my ears as I stood in front of the band snapping pictures. Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved capturing memories.

My brother, Matt, used to make fun of me for it, while most kids would carry around there skateboards, walk-man’s, or cell phones, I would carry my 35 mm camera, everywhere. Even when I was inside the house, it never left my side, like I said he always made fun of me. Well, until him and his barbaric friends decided to form a band, then that’s when my passion came into play.

I took a bunch of pictures to go along with their demo that they put out.

Some of you might know my brother and his friends, Avenged Sevenfold, as they are better known.

I, however, know them as Matt, Jimmy, Brian, Johnny and Zacky. Their fans obviously know them by their stage names M. Shadows, The Rev, Synyster Gates, Johnny Christ and Zacky vengeance. I think the stage names are stupid, but I would never tell my brother, Matt or M. Shadows, that, well if I wanted to live anyway.

My brother and me are close, always have been, but we have our moments were we need to duke it out. The classic fight that usually happens between us, is when one of us hides something from the other and they find out, shit goes down. Not good.

One of those things I am hiding right now. Its really kind of nerve wrecking, cause I feel like everyone else knows it, but he doesn’t and that makes me sick to my stomach. I have a crush on Zacky, well, honestly I’d say its more of a crush, I feel like I kind of almost love him. It’s weird, it goes way beyond the feeling of getting all giddy and school girly when he looks at me, I can’t really explain it.

“Earth to Kate!” I hear Zacky call through the microphone. I snap out of my gaze as I look around the stage and see that the whole band is staring at me with smirks on their faces. I look behind me to see that the majority of the fans have similar looks on their faces, but other have angry pissed off looks.

“Right sorry” I mumbled but somehow Zacky and his super human hearing heard me.

“It’s all right love,” Zacky said calling me by his pet name for me, earning a glare from Matt, which he rightly ignored. “We just wanted to know why you stopped taking pictures?”

“Yeah! And why are you over there when all of the sexiness is over here” Brian yelled into the microphone. After this Brian did a very ‘risky’ pose, which I just had to take a picture of, I quickly snapped the picture as he glared playfully at me.

“Can we get back to the show?” Jimmy yelled from his position behind his drum set.

The crowed cheered as the statement left Jimmy’s mouth. I smirked as Jimmy counted them in by banging his sticks together.

I went along with my job and took a couple of shots of all of the guys. Out of the corner of my eye I see Zacky looking towards my direction, but as I glance to him, his head quickly shoots down to look at his guitar.

I smiled deeply as I brought the camera up to my face and took a picture. As the flash went off he looked up to me and winked. The simple little gesture sent my heart soaring and my stomach flopping.

Every time I look at him, talk to him, sit next to him, and take photo’s of him, my heart gains a little bit of hope, but lately, when he talks with a groupie and disappears for hours on end, that hope comes crashing down like a fat kid doing a belly flop in the deep end of the pool.

The rest of the night continued on, me taking about 100 photos per song, and finally I walked backstage as the last song was coming to an end.

I walked straight back to the dressing room and sat down on the couch, but not before grabbing a soda from the fridge.

“Hey, Katie llama!”

“Katie Llama? Really Jason?” I said as Jason came walking into the room, grabbing a beer and sitting next to me.

“Yep, and I think I might keep it, cause it looks like you hate it”

“Oh Joy! Aren’t you supposed to be doing your job now?”

“Yeah Jason aren’t you?” Zacky’s voice sounded through the semi large room.

“Always ruining my chances ZV, always ruining my chances,” Jason sighs as Zacky and I laugh. I continue to look through the pictures after Jason leaves; I feel the couch shift as Zacky sits next to me.

“Anything good?” I simply nod my head “That’s good”

“Yeah,” I say as I look at him for a brief second “It was a great show, then again, when don’t you guys have a good show?”

“Yeah that’s true,” he agreed as the rest of the band walked through the door, including Val and Leana.

The party started as everyone wanted to drink, the roadies eventually joined everyone and the party continued

I was talking to Val and Leana the whole night, they were currently trying to convince me that they should go out tomorrow night, to a club, which I don’t do.

“No, Val, I am not going out tomorrow night, I have to get my photo’s into the office, or I’m fired, plus I don’t have anything dressy” I said, getting frustrated.

“Well, get them into the office tomorrow morning, then we can go get you some stuff tomorrow” Leana reasoned

“Yeah, and the hotel has a shopping mall attached to it so we won’t have to go very far” Val tuned in

“Why is this so important to you two? Huh, I said I don’t want to go out! I mean it!” I yelled, truth be told I really don’t know why I am so angry. Maybe it’s because Zacky has been missing for 2 or so hours now, and he was last seen with some bleach blonde bimbo bitch. “Listen, girls, I am just not in the mood okay, really I need to just go to sleep,” I mumbled out as I left the room. I really didn’t mean to blow up at them, he’s not mine, Zacky isn’t mine, I shouldn’t be so jealous, why would he ever want me right? Right.

I finally made it back to the hotel; luckily I had the room to myself, not so lucky that I shared a connecting room with Zacky and Johnny. I was really hoping that was Johnny and a loud bitch in the next room, but I knew it wasn’t.

I went over to my laptop and started to blare Itunes from the speakers. It helped ease the noises from my ears but it didn’t help the images from my mind.

I shook my head and got to work, I uploaded all of the pictures onto my Mac. Selecting, keeping, deleting and cropping multiple images, after a good hour of this, I went back through all of the good pictures and put my logo on them.

When I was done I looked to the clock on the top right of my screen and sighed. It was nearly three in the morning and I sill need to get these sent to the office. I guess if I really needed too I could do it tomorrow.

After shutting down for my laptop, washing up, changing into my pajamas, and shutting off the light, I relaxed into my bed and slipped into dreamland.

*!*!*!*!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Who the hell? I ask myself as I wake up. I stomp over to my door and swing it open, not caring what I look like. “What the fuck Valerie!”

“Good afternoon to you too, lovie” She says and smiles, bouncing on her heels.

“Val, really I am not in the mood, I probably just fell asleep 7 hours ago, I really just need to sleep” I say exhausted out of my mind

“Well, deary, I highly doubt that because then that means that you fell asleep at 6 in the morning and Johnny said he finally heard your music off at 3am” She said matter-of-factly.

“What are you talking about?”

“I am saying that it is one o’clock in the afternoon, “ she said walking past me and into my room.

“What?” I yell out as I run to my computer, quickly turning it on “No, no, no, no, no” I ramble as I wait for my computer to wake up

“What’s wrong girlie?” Val asks

“I’m supposed to get those pictures into the office by 2. God, I am fucking screwed!”

“Love, just relax, you’ll get them in to the office in enough time”

I took a deep breath, and slowly let it out as I stared at my computer screen “Listen, Val, I know I am going to come off as a bitch but could you please just leave me alone for about 3 hours” I quietly asked as I continued to stare at my screen.

“Sure” was all she said and left, quickly.

I rubbed my hands over my tired face and got to work.

Sorting and filing through all 150 pictures, I grouped them by band members and group photos. I nearly screamed as I heard someone bang on the door again

“GO AWAY!” I yelled loud enough so whoever is standing on the other side of the door could hear.

“Come on Kate, let me in, Val said you were pissed” I heard Zacky’s voice break through the door.

“Zacky, I am really not in the mood, please just go away” I sighed

I held still for a couple of seconds, when I didn’t hear him reply I got back to work. Only to be stopped a few minutes later, when Zacky came barging in, holding a bag in one hand and two coffees’ in the other

“Zacky! How did you get in?” Zacky just smiled smugly at me holding up a key card. My jaw nearly hit the floor “How did you get my card?”

“It’s an extra Kate, it was giving to me when we came here because I was the closest to your room, so . . .”

“If anything would happen” I finished for him

“Correct” he said handing me a coffee cup “One gingersnap mocha latte for the lady,” he said “and one sausage egg and cheese on a bagel”

“I can’t believe that you remembered my favorite breakfast sandwich and drink” I mumbled gob smacked.

“I’m your B.B.S.K, I would hope I knew your favorites by now” He said taking a seat on the edge of the bed

“B.B.S.K?”

“Best buds since kindergarten” He said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

“Zacky, we didn’t even know each other then” I laughed

“Fine, fine, but what is with the angriness, Val was talking about?”

“I am just stressed out and now I have thirty minutes to send the rest of these photos to the shop, before I get the Ax” I said turning around to face my computer

“All right I’ll be right back”

“Okay” I mumbled. A few minutes passed before I heard a strumming of guitar. I turned around and saw Zacky sprawled out on the bed when his head hanging over the edge and a guitar resting against his propped up legs. He gave me a goofy smile when he finally noticed I was watching him. I silently shook my head and once again looked back to my computer.

*!*!*!*!*!*

“Finally! I’m done, with time to spare” I exclaimed as I turned around. Zacky had stayed the whole way through, well, it was only . . . 20 minutes but still.

“That’s good” he mumbled focused on his guitar.

“Yeah, how is your guitar playing going?”

“Good, good, it’s relaxing”

“Well, I guess I better go apologize to Val” I mumble standing up; this was going to be a hard pill to swallow.

“Good luck!” Zacky yelled as I walked down the hall.

As I got to her door I knocked, hoping she was in, my prayers were answered when she opened the door

“Hey” I mumbled

“Hi”

“I’m sorry about . . . me. I just really needed to finish that email, and I had a lot on my mind”

‘Mhm” I looked up and she held that all too familiar ‘I really don’t give a shit’ look on her face

“Well, I was thinking, if you wanna go to the mall, I do still need to get something for clubbing tonight” I said with a shrug of my shoulders, hoping she will get the message, and looked up. A huge smile broke out on her face and she nodded fast.

“Let me get my things and I will meet you at your room”

“Okay” I smiled

It wasn’t before long that I was sitting on the edge of my bed when there was a knock at the door. I opened it up and saw Val and Leana standing on the other side with big wide grins, bouncing up and down all child-like.

I just shook my head and walked out of the room, making sure I have my keycard.

Once we got to the lobby, we got in the rental car and found the nearest shopping Mall. As we walked in the Mall, we kept up our conversation, which was currently about the plans tonight.

“I am just telling you girls this now, I am NOT going to a damn strip club” I forced my opinion quickly.

“Now, Kate you know us, would we ever force you to go to a Strip club?” Leana stated innocently.

“Yes! Especially when its amateur night!” I laughed shaking my head. “Which that little fact is never allowed leaving our mouths again”

“ Oops” Leana mumbled

“What? What is oops? Who did you tell?” I gasped out

“It wasn’t my fault, Jimmy forced it out of me”

“Lea!” I screamed gob smacked

“Sorry Kate, but he swore after that he would never tell anyone, especially after I told him that he would never get anything again for a while” She grinned evilly.

“You better hope not,” I mumbled as we walked into a dress shop.

We shopped for hours on end, well; it felt like it anyway, they were continuously throwing clothes in my direction, for me to try on. The thing that made me a little suspicious was that neither of them was getting anything for them, but I brushed it off and soon we were leaving. Each of us held at least three bags filled with clothes. Four of them were mine, but not by my choice those two psychos made me purchase all these clothes that I will probably never ever wear.

Nearly three hours later we made it back to the hotel, carrying numerous bags, we even ran into Jimmy on the way up and forced him to carry most of the bags.

“Thanks, baby” Leana said as she kissed his cheek as we waited for the elevator to reach our level.

Finally after another 30 minutes of doing this, we were all in our own hotel rooms.

*!*!*!*!

“Are you ready?” Val said as she walked in with Matt, Leana and Jimmy. Matt looked like he had a little bit of a sour look on his face as he noticed what I was wearing. It was a Black V-neck Dress, which came down to about mid thighs; I also had a blood red flower clipped into my pulled back hair, and red shoes to match, with a black clutch. The low back of the dress showed off the top half of my musical notes tattoo cascading down my back. I also had music note behind my ear and on my wrist.

I just smiled and gave him a much-needed hug “So were are Brian, Johnny and Zacky?”

“They are gonna meet us there. They are just setting up a few things,” Matt answered, but in result Val threw a swift elbow into his ribs.

“What-” I began to say

“So, lets get going before people change their minds” Val quickly interrupted and walked out.

I quickly knew that this night was going to be a mistake. This whole night was going to be filled with couples, Val and Matt, Leana and Jimmy, Brian and Zacky will probably find some whore for the night, maybe it will end up being me and Johnny tonight, he has Lacey at least, but she is home in Huntington Beach.

We soon arrived at a club and Matt parked the car. We all jumped out of the van and began to walk to the front doors, but as we got closer Val turned around and stopped me. “Can you go to the car and get my cell phone I think I left it in the side pocket” She said with a glint in her eyes.

“Babe, I can get it for you”

“No, it’s okay Matt, I’ll go get it” Any chance to get away from this couple shit, sounds good to me.

I walked away without talking anymore, I quickly made my way to the van and just open the door when I felt someone grab me and turn me around.

“Shit, Zacky! What the hell is wrong with you?” I exclaimed when I realized it was him.

“Shh” He laughed out “Come on” He said grabbing my hand and walking away from the club.

“Wait, Zacky were are we going?”

“It’s a surprise,” He grinned

“Ugh, you out of all people should know that I hate surprises”

“Come on, love, don’t you know you can trust me?” He said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kept it there “I’d never let anything happen to you” He said looking down at me.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” I said smiling back. “So, you’re kidnapping me?”

He let out one single loud laugh “Yeah, if I wanna get my ass kicked, I will remember to do that” I nudged him in the side, knowing that he is ticklish “So, I’m um, I’m taking you on a date, just me and you” he mumbled lightly and stopped outside an Mexican restaurant. “Is, is that alright? ‘Cause if its not then, we can just go back to the club” His shyness is adorable.

“Zacky, I’d love to go on a date with you” I smiled brightly as he took a deep breath.

“Awesome, okay, I figured this would be a good place since you love Mexican, but there is also some other restaurants around here”

“Mexican is fine babe,” I said and he smiled

“Good, cause I was going to make you go here anyway” He said and gave me a snooty look

“Something is wrong with you” I said and shook my head.

As we continued to argue we walked into the restaurant, we held our ‘play fights’ for a second when we were being lead to the table, we both sat on the same side of the table, I sat closest to the window and Zacky to my left.

“So, in reality, this is a kidnapping date,” I said as I looked over the menu

“Hey, you agreed” Zacky shot back making me giggle.

We talked the rest of the time during dinner, when we got our meals, I got chicken fajitas and Zacky got steak quesadillas, Zacky insisted on me trying his food.

“I don’t know Zacky, it looks spicy,” I said as he held out the fork full of food.

“Quick being a baby and try it,” he said shoving it closer to my face

“Fine” I went to grab the fork but he moved it away from my hand. “What?” He just shook his head and smirked at me. “You are unbelievable” I smiled but let him feed me nonetheless. From when I ate the food off the fork, to the moment I swallowed the food our eyes were intensely connected. “Awe, Zacky they are spicy” I gasped as I went to grab my drink.

“They are not!” He laughed out

“They so are, weirdo”

“What did you say?”

“You heard me,” I fake glared back to him, but in a split second he was leaning over and snuggling his head in my neck. It wasn’t a forceful, sexual act, I knew exactly what he was doing, and he had a little stubble on his face that itches like crazy. “Zacky, quit it, people are looking at us,” I said as I noticed a persnickety old couple glaring at us.

“Let them look,” he said as he broke away

“I have a better idea,” I said as I looked towards him, before he could answer I captured his lips with mine with my right hand resting on his left cheek. At first, it was simply meant to be a simple kiss, no tongues, but that was shot to hell when his hand ran up my arm and his tongue begged for entrance by gliding across my lips. I gave him access and I let him explore my mouth. “Uhmh” I grumbled out as we broke away

“Tell me about it” He said as he brushed a piece of hair behind my ears.

Before we could say anything else our waiter had returned and gave us our check. Soon, we were on our way out and walking back to the club. “Thanks for paying tonight”

“It’s no big deal, I’m a man I have to pay for it”

“Shut up” I said and gently pushed him away. He found his way back towards me and wrapped his arms around me from behind. I rested my arms on top of his as we continued to walk awkwardly towards the club. When we made it to the front of the club, Zacky shook the hand of the bodyguard standing out front, and walked right inside, which caused a bunch of screaming and yelling from the long line of people, waiting for their turn to walk inside.

“Wait, what bout those people, Zacky, they have been waiting longer than us”

“Don’t worry about them, come on lets find the group,” He said pulling me inside the massive sea of people. At first he was leading me through the sea of people, but we lost each other a couple of times, well until he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and pushed me forward. “Sorry about that, they are more people than I expected”

“Well, it is-”

“Hey, guys how was dinner?” Matt said jogging up to us with a weird look in his eyes.
“Hey, it was delicious, Zach here knows how to pick the best restaurants” I said smiling back at him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah, that’s great, let’s go over here” Matt said grabbing my arm and ripping me out of Zacky’s arms. I groaned outwardly as I realized why Matt had that look in his eyes, I looked back to see Zacky a few steps behind us, I held out my hand to let him know that I still wanted him around. He smiled gratefully as he grabbed my hand.

We finally made it to the table everyone was sitting at and having a grand old time. Matt sat down pulling me down with him, but strategically placed him and myself so that there was no room left for Zacky. “Um, Matt aren’t you forgetting someone?”

“Nope, we are all here” well, minus Johnny

“Oh, Matt quit being your sisters babysitter and get over here” Val yelled throwing a rolled up napkin at his head.

“It’s okay Val” Zacky spoke up “If Kate will stand up for just one second, I can fix this predicament” So, I stood up and Zacky sat down and when he was settled he grabbed my hips and sat me down on his lap. I blushed as I looked down at him and wrapped my arm around his neck. I could see Matt glaring at the table out of the corner of my eye.

“He might just kick you out of the band for that” I whispered in Zacky’s ear.

“He wouldn’t, I’m too good” Zacky said confidently

“Whatever you say Mr. Rock-star,” I said rolling my eyes. Soon after Zacky had securely wrapped his arms around my waist, again, a waitress came over asking for our drink orders. “I’ll just have an apple martini” Zacky was talking to Synyster from across the table “Zacky did you want anything to drink?” I asked over the music

“Oh, yeah, um, a Guinness will do”

“I’ll be right back” she smiled and left. Zacky went back to his conversation with Synyster as I picked up a conversation with Leana. Just like with Val I apologized to Leana about me being a bitch the other night. She forgave me, which I was thankful for and we went back to talking about normal girl things.

The waitress came back over handing Zacky and I our drinks. The rest of the night carried on, multiple conversations starting and ending, I looked over at Zach “Baby, dance with me?”

“No”

“Please, you know you want too”

“No, I don’t” He smiled

“Fine, I’ll go dance with some other tattooed punk” I stood up and started making my way over to the bar. I figured he would stop me before I even got there, but when I was ¾ of the way there and he hadn’t stopped me yet, I knew he was calling my bluff, we will just see about that.

I scanned the multiple guys standing, or sitting, at the bar and found the perfect one that would make Zacky jealous. “Hi” I said once I sat down next to him

“Hey” the mystery man said

“I’m Kate”

“Jake” He said shaking my hand “Can I buy you a drink?”

“Actually I was hoping, you would share a dance with me” I nodded my head to the dance floor.

“Sure” He said and finished his beer and held out his hand to me. It was at this point that I was wondering what exactly it would take to get Zacky out here to cut in, and what kind of dancer this guy really was.

We made it about half way out onto the dance floor when a shadowed figure stepped out in front of us. “Hey man, do you mind if I cut in?” Zacky’s voice floated through the air

“Well, actually we didn’t even get in a dance, so I think I’ll just hang on to her for a little bit” Oh boy here we go. What do I say?!

“You see though this is my girlfriend and I haven’t gotten to dance with her yet,” Zacky said to Jake.

“Well, why didn’t you dance with her earlier, if that’s the case”

“Because we just got here, ass-”

“Actually, He’s right Jake, I am sorry” I said quickly stepping in between the two.

“If he doesn’t fulfill you needs babe, you know where I’ll be” he said grabbing my chin. Zacky wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. Jake got the hint and walked off.

“Ugh, Zacky I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would get out of hand like that” I said turning around and resting my head on his shoulders.

“Why did you actually ask him to dance?”

“I thought you would have stopped me before I even got to the bar, then I wanted you to feel like shit, because you’re an ass” I said looking up at him with a shy smile.

“Mission accomplished,” he grinned at me “way before you even got to the bar, he was just an ass”

“Come on babe, we can go back to the table now” I said but he stopped me

“No, you want to dance, so lets dance” He said smiling and wrapping his arms around my waist as I trailed my hands up his arms and rested them around his neck.

For the longest while we just stared into each other’s eyes, but what felt like hours later, the already dim lights, seemed to have gotten darker and a video showed up on the big screen on the stage.

Everyone started to scream and holler, “What time is it?” I tried to yell over them

“11:59” He yelled back, we both looked back to see the New york ball, dropping down the pole and a timer, which was currently at 30 seconds, and soon everyone in the room was counting down from 10.

10

9

8

7

6

5

‘Here is goes’ I thought to myself as he smiled deeply and our lips got closer

4

3

2

“One!” everyone in the place screamed, but Zacky and I were way to busy kissing. Our kiss even continued way past anyone else’s in the bar. I could feel Zacky’s arms tighten around waist, bringing our already close bodies even closer.

Too soon later, in my opinion we broke apart and starred at each other for a little while longer.

“Happy New Year love”

“Happy New Year to you too babe” I said and smiled as we continued dancing the rest of the night.