We Knew That Time Would Kill Us

“I met a boy.”

Immediately after uttering such a statement, I held my phone away from my ear as I waited for Dannii's scream, which did before I could even get a safe distance away from myself. “No!” She yelled, her voice high-pitched with excitement.

Finally admitting it was a huge feat for me, and I didn't really feel up to playing Dannii's games while I hid in the bus's tiny bathroom. Nonetheless, I forced myself to go along with it because this was the first time since tour started that I'd actually talked to her on the phone. “I know. Well, at least I think. It's too early to tell anything yet.”

“You fucking liar,” She began, her voice this time laced with amusement. “I can tell just by the sound of your voice. I wouldn't be surprised if you were in love with him!”

I began wondering then if telling her was such a good idea as I had originally thought. What is all the confusing feelings I felt for Evan just disappeared, or even worse, I made them up? Then I would have spilled all of this to Dannii for absolutely no reason.

On the other end, Dannii continued rambling to herself. “Oh my god, P-Body. You honestly have no idea how happy I am for you! So what's he look like? How'd you meet him?”

“Uh... well, his name’s Evan, and uh, I dunno. He’s got blond hair and hazel eyes,” I paused while I waited for Dannii to finish up another squealing fit. It was odd, trying to describe Evan as the way I was going about it, didn’t feel like I was giving him enough justice. “His band is opening up for A7X, you know, remember I asked about them—”

“Wretched Remorse?!”

To say the least, I was shocked that Dannii knew who Evan was, and what band he was from, just from the short description I’d given her. Especially since just a few days ago, she was clueless as to who exactly they were. “Yeah...” Was all I could reply with, as I was obviously dumbfounded.

“Oh... god, Payton, you are so fucking lucky! I looked into it after you left, ‘cause you know, I was bored and no one phoned me like they said they would,” I felt a pang of remorse as she said this, and I immediately promised myself that I’d phone her every single day from then on. “And it turns out that they’re pretty much the biggest band in southern California right now!”

“Really...” I trailed off, slightly intrigued. Of course I’d already known that Evan’s band had to be at least somewhat popular in order to tour with such an act as Avenged Sevenfold...

But I wanted to know more.

Maybe Dannii knew something, like why the boys of A7X seemed to hate their guts right off the bat, without even uttering a word to them. “Please, tell me more,” I said, attempting to mimic her English accent, and keep my voice down at the same time. I was more than aware of the guys out in the living area, once again playing video games. That was all they seemed to do while we waited for the next show.

Dannii finally paused her squealing to laugh. “Don’t do that again, please, my ear drums are still bleeding. But yes. All I really know about them is they can be pretty insane. One of them got into a lot of trouble this past summer... apparently he beat up a bunch of guys over at Ocean View, which is why he got expelled.”

“Do you know who it was? I mean, which member?”

Several moments passed before Dannii sighed, immediately sending a jolt of disappointment through me. I’d had enough violence over the past few years to last me a lifetime, and I was a little more than slightly hesitant to get myself into more trouble. “Well Christ, Payton! I’ve only had, what? Three days to work on this? Give me some fucking time will you?!” She abruptly snapped, jokingly, into the phone.

“So that means you’re gonna keep working on it? It’s pretty important that I find out, Dannii,” I said my tone sincere and muddled with honesty. It had been too long since we’d had a heart-to-heart conversation.

“Well, P, if it means that much to you... I could probably go to a few shows and ask around—”

“Payton! We’re leaving for the venue now!” Matt hollered through the flimsy bathroom door, making me jump up from the closed toilet and drop my phone in the process. “C’mon or the fans are gonna eat you alive!”

At that I groaned and snatched my phone up from the floor, thankful there hadn’t been any serious damage done to it. I held it to my ear, surprised to hear Dannii still on the other end, laughing hysterically. “Listen, Dannii, I gotta go,” I managed to cut in, chuckling along with her while hoping that Matt hadn’t heard any part of our conversation.

I waited while she finished up her laughing spurt, ignoring Matt who was still knocking on the door, quickly saying goodbye to her. Matt and I (or more like just me) hadn’t been on the best terms since last night, but I’d been at least somewhat friendly to him when I awoke that morning. I did not want to go back to the ‘completely ignoring him’ stage of our relationship.

Waiting another few moments, just to further agitate him and his lack of patience, I swung the bathroom door open and raised an eyebrow up at him. “Fans?” I asked, somewhat hesitantly.

“Yeah, they’re waiting outside the bus for us, which is exactly why I don’t want you staying here by yourself.” He said, pulling me out by my hand until we were at the front of the bus.
All of the guys were huddled around the door, which was opened a little so they could talk to the fans. I stiffened once I saw the crowd outside the bus, there were easily twenty or thirty fans there, and the sight made me more than slightly nervous.

Seeing my reaction, Matt wrapped and arm around my shoulder and cracked a smile as we walked down the small steps leading to the bus door. “It won’t be so bad, just make sure you stay with me.”

Even though we weren’t getting along all that well at that moment, I was thankful I had a father as huge and intimidating as Matt. Not only because he’d gotten me out of quite a few pickles before, but with his arm wrapped around me it was hard for the fans to even take notice of me, thanks to my small stature, too.

Nonetheless, as soon as we stepped out of the bus a collective gasp was heard from all around us, and I knew the majority of the fans had spotted me. Before anyone could speak, Matt held up his free hand as we pushed through the crowd. “Sorry guys, but we’re already late so we have to get going. We’ll be out after the show though, so come back then okay?” He said, his voice loud as he tried to get it out over the squealing of certain fans.

I let out a long, relieved sigh once we were safely in the venue. I thought most of A7X’s fans were pretty rad, but seeing so many people lined up just to talk to the guys, had me feeling a little queasy.

Still, I refused to let myself get freaked out over something as small as a couple of fans because I had other, more important things to worry about then. Tonight I was determined to see Wretched Remorse perform, and although I was going to avoid him, I wouldn’t care if Matt saw me watching them.

The evening passed by painfully slowly, with the guys off busy with sound check and getting everything ready with the roadies and techies, and there wasn’t any sign of the boys of Wretched Remorse until they were pushing the limits of being more than ‘fashionably late’.

Thankfully though, they did not see me and neither did the guys of A7X as I snuck over to the side of the stage, where the boys were just starting to play. Although I wished I could, I knew I couldn’t stay for the entire show because Matt would notice my absence if I were gone any long than five minutes.

Silently, I watched them perform, almost struck with how powerful and just different Brett’s voice was from his usual soft tone he normally with. His voice was raw with power and he easily captivated the audience, including me, with his voice and with his rhythm guitar skills. Oliver was the same, he was a completely different person behind his drums as he pounding out his cripplingly fast double bass breakdown. On the other hand, Noah was just as crazy as he usually was, but then he was concentrating on playing the shit out of his bass, he was pretty much in his own little world.

Then, the main person I wanted to see out of this band live. Evan was just so cocky off stage and full of confidence, I knew he had to be pretty good live. And that he was, as soon as I caught sight of him I was instantly drawn in, mesmerized by what he was doing with his guitar.

He was playing so passionately, as if he were letting out all of the emotions his overly-cocky side wouldn’t allow him to.

I didn’t normally fall for bad boys, or any boys for that matter. But this kid, he was different. He sparked odd things inside of me, things that made me both terrified and ecstatic at the same time.

Almost as if he could sense me watching him, he turned slightly and looked directly at me while still playing, sending me one of his infamous winks and making my heart jump into my throat. I didn’t care what Matt said at that moment, Evan made me feel things, the best things I’d felt in months, just by looking at me.

I had to know more about him. What made him so special? Why could he make me feel the strangest of feelings just with a simple look? By then I was determined to find out more about him, regardless of what anyone had to say.