We Knew That Time Would Kill Us

“You see this, this is a backstage pass. They only give these to special people!”

I snorted as I glanced over at Dannii, who was enthusiastically shoving her backstage pass into Brian's face while it was still attached to her neck. She, along with all the guys, were standing off to the side of the stage, and were doing the same thing as I was doing. Watching all of the roadies and techies run around in their haste to get everything ready for A7X's first show in months was surprisingly entertaining.

However, not only was I choosing to be lazy by not helping out, I was comfortable as I was sitting on an old sofa across from them. Up until then, Dannii had been accompanying me, but I guess the ten minutes we'd been sitting there had exceeded her attention span (I don't know how I expected her to sit there any longer, anyway—she had once again consumed multiple energy drinks prior to coming backstage).

“Oh, they sure do!” Jimmy squealed along with her, jumping up and down. “I've got lots of 'em!”

My chuckling turned into a full-blown laugh then, as it did with the rest of the guys, and Matt grinned at me from where he was leaning against the wall, happy that I seemed to be enjoying myself.

This was the night everyone had been waiting for, the fans, the guys, and the rest of the A7X family. A home show in Long Beach was acting as the kick-start of the two month tour. Yes, I was excited for the tour in general, but I was sort of dreading the evident goodbye I was going to share with Dannii and the girls. I just hoped there wouldn't be any tears.

They weren't due on stage for another forty-five minutes, though, so everyone (inside the band, at least) was just killing time until they got the go-ahead.

Before I could witness anything else, anything disturbing, I scanned the rest of the room for anything that was vaguely interesting. On the other side of the stage, opposite to the guys, each of them with an instrument in hand. A large, bulky guy with a crew cut was trying to calm down a kid who was much smaller than him. He was jumping around just as Jimmy and Dannii were, except he continually came close to hitting everyone with the headstock of his bass guitar, and the bulky guy was struggling with the kid while trying to juggle his own guitar, too.

Just a few feet away from them, two other guys stood leaning against the wall, simply watching the two guys in amusement. Like the first two guys, they were pretty much opposites of each other when it came to looks. One guy—about 5'9—looked kind of awkward, like he wanted to be somewhere else as he twirled his drumsticks and messed with his short dark brown hair, and the other, was a little harder to describe.

His strawberry blond hair was in a... different cut, it was short on the sides but long on the top, almost in a faux hawk, but... not. From about twenty feet away, I could only make out that he had a nose ring, with no clue as to whether or not he had any other piercings. He was almost as tall as the muscular guy who was still trying to calm down the scrawny kid, standing at around 6' or so.

They all looked to be around the same age—seventeen, give or take a few months. And what such young kids were doing backstage at an A7X concert with a bunch of instruments, I had no idea. But they were definitely the interesting thing I had been looking for, at least until the one with the odd blonde hawk noticed me staring and turned his own attention onto me, giving me a cocky wink and a smirk as he did so.

Obviously, that made my stomach roll in disgust, so I looked away before any further embarrassment could take place. Who the hell did he think he was? I knew it was just a wink, but... ugh. Guys could really manage to gross me out sometimes. And what was even more disturbing, is that I got that feeling when he caught my gaze. The all too cheesy, butterflies-in-stomach feeling. I was literally too scared to look back at him in fear of what else I might feel.

A roar of the crowd and some cheering from the four guys was heard, and I stole a heated glance back at them only to see that they were leaving—through the side of the stage, which could only mean they were performing.

“They're one of the opening bands,” Zacky said from beside me, nearly scaring me out of my own skin. He was grinning when I turned to glare at him, but I was intrigued with what he was saying.

When he didn't elaborate any further, I gave everyone a frustrated look, finding that everyone had taken up residence on the sofa I was sitting on and the one across from me. How long had I been spacing out? “What's their name?” When all I got were a couple of shrugs, even from Dannii, I sighed. “You don't even know the name of your own opening band?”

“They're not really well known outside of Orange County...” Johnny trailed off, shrugging his shoulders once more to show he was almost just as clueless as everyone else. “A spot was open, one of the roadies convinced us to give them a chance.”

Matt seemed overly tense when he heard me talking about this, and he leaned forward in his seat slightly as he and the guys shared 'looks'. “I recognize one of 'em. He causes a lot shit at shows. And if the rest are like him, they're nothing but trouble,” He scoffed.

Nodding in agreement, Brian stretched and seemed tired of the topic already. “I'll be surprised if they make it through the first leg of the tour.”

This was all obviously news to me, and I didn't want to dwell on any of it for too long. If what Matt was saying was true, I didn't want to be around any of them, which included the cute guy with the messed up mo-hawk and nose ring. I'd had more than enough trouble in the past year to make up for a lifetime, and I seriously didn't like the thought of being involved in more.
That didn't stop me from wondering just who from that band Matt was talking about, though.

My first thought was that it was the huge, burly dude with the buzz cut, but then immediately crossed that possibility out. As intimidating as he looked, I knew that he was more than likely like Matt, with the tough exterior and whatnot but in reality he was just a big teddy bear.

I honestly could not see the little guy being the trouble maker, either, unless Matt meant it in a 'partying' type of way, which I highly doubted. So that only left the dark haired guy and the one that winked at me. I was somewhat leaning toward the former, just from his kind of shitty attitude about being there. Or maybe I just didn't want to admit that it could have very well been the cute blond.

An hour later, the guys had been on stage for about ten minutes, having just finished their first song of the set. Dannii and I were off just to the side, watching everything. I'd successfully blocked out the way that guy made me feel just by looking at me for the past half an hour, and I hadn't even noticed them coming off stage. I promised myself I would focus on my family.

The crowd was going absolutely wild after the guys finished the first song, and I was momentarily thankful that they'd given me the ear plugs in case something like that happened. From the center of the stage, Matt smirked at me as he picked up a bottle of water, chugging it before he returned to the mic. I tensed, and Dannii's already huge grin intensified.

This was not good. I could not handle anything they could easily throw at me.”Since this is the very first show of the tour, and the first time touring the new album, we figured we'd do something special for you guys.”

Swallowing loudly, I cowered away from the stage slightly, sensing that something I wouldn't like was about to go down. “Now, I know this hasn't exactly been a secret, but this kid is really important to me, so if Rev and Syn will be so kind to go fish her out from back stage I'll introduce her to everyone!”

With that, I continued to back away from the stage, this time much more panicked because Jimmy was up from his throne and Brian had already set aside his guitar aside. Dannii was laughing uncontrollably, as I had been expecting, so I didn't ask her for help.

Jimmy and his freakishly long legs were already half-way across the stage, and I knew then that any attempts of escape were fruitless. In just a few short seconds, Jimmy had me cornered and Brian threw me over his shoulder, stalking back onto the stage as if he hadn't just kidnapped a kid with the express purpose of embarrassing them in front of thousands of people. “A bit of stage fright, s'all, kiddies!” Jimmy laughed into his microphone when Brian set me on my feet. I stood behind Matt, unwilling to completely show myself at the front of the stage while I held my head in my heads.

I should have known. Why was it always so easy to surprise me? Especially since I hated surprises, I knew I should have been more on the look out for them. The fans cheered even louder, this time with a shocked and excited tone. Matt let out a throaty laugh when he finally caught hold of me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

Finally, I removed my hands from my face to stare out into the sea of kids that were still cheering and looked up at the stage wide-eyed. “This, this is my insanely fuckin' talented daughter, Payton!” He held his free hand up in the air when he said my name, turning to glance at me, still grinning. At hearing that, all the kids were obviously going freaking insane. Like Matt had said, we hadn't exactly kept it a secret, but we knew it was a shock to everyone that M. Shadows himself had announced it himself.

It's not as bad as you think it is. There aren't tens of thousands of kids staring at you in shock. They're not. Somehow, I managed to keep my breathing even and smiled shyly at the crowd, waving awkwardly. “If you want, P, you can sing on this next track with me? Or do a guitar solo?”

My blood ran cold and my breathing hitched at his suggestion. I had a hard time just standing on stage and doing nothing, so what the hell made him think I could do a solo, or, of all things, sing? “—Uh, maybe next time, dad,” I said somewhat sourly, struggling to keep the smile on my face as a few boo's were heard from the crowd.

Nodding, Matt grinned as if he were expecting it, not put out at all, and after a few more enthusiastic words to the crowd about me, he let me exit the stage. I had to keep myself from springing back to the safety of backstage.

With my adrenaline still pumping from merely being on the stage for those few briefest seconds, I had several things on my mind as Dannii screamed about how awesome everything was. I kept telling myself not to think about the handsome kid with the nose ring. I was going to bitch the guys out once they got off stage (and showered). And not only was I going to have to say goodbye to half of my family, I was going to have to say goodbye to Dannii. She'd been my best friend for months, and I distinctly remembered what happened the last time I left someone close to me alone.

The hardest part of the night was yet to come.