Emotionless

After the show, the girls and I were hanging around outside. It had been a pretty good experience to be fair. Avenged Sevenfold weren’t too bad if I were honest, the lead guitarist seemed a little stuck up but apart from that, they were good. Especially that rhythm guitarist, phwoar! Pippa had informed me that his name was Zacky Vengeance. Well, I wouldn’t kick him outta bed if I were lucky enough to get that far.

His eyes were like bright emeralds sewn into his light complexion. Tattoos laced up and down his arms, only visible because he was wearing a tank top with a mop of pitch black hair dangling on his forehead and being stuck to his skin by sweat and a cap that I wanted to steal. Snake bites were bitten into his plump, lower lips and shone in the bright lights of the stage and there was a septum piercing in his nose.

Taking another drag of Pippa’s cigarette, I leant my head back, handing her the cancer stick again and blowing the smoke from between my lips. The grey mist was calming against my lungs, causing me to smile lazily as I nudged Molly in the side. She was the youngest out of the three of us, so she was cautious when Pippa offered her the fag. Shaking her head a no, Molly frowned at the two of us for setting bad examples.

Shrugging, I smiled innocently and fixed my bunny ears again as Pippa stubbed out her cigarette on the floor. Molly sighed boredly. And I thought I was the immature one! There was movement form the doors we were leaning next to, the green metal swinging open with five guys I recognised as being the band stepped out into the Californian air with grins on their faces. M. Shadows turned towards us, winking at Molly who blushed. Shads called something over to the band, striding over here with a confident swagger.

“Hello, ladies,” Shads greeted with a smirk, his lip ring glittering in the fading sunshine as I quirked an eyebrow. Molly was trying to stammer a reply, causing me and Pippa to roll our eyes at our little friend before answering for her. Pippa introduced us, smiling brightly at the bulky guy with kind hazel eyes who kinda reminded me of my older brother in a weird way. “How would you three like to come back to the bus with us? Play some cards and get to know each other?”

“Nah, maybe some other time, I’ve got Matt Tuck waiting in the car for me,” I grinned cheekily, pulling my hair over one shoulder Pippa came up with a similar excuse about Max Green. Looping arms with Molly, Pippa and I began to walk in the opposite direction of the tour bus when Shads yelled out for us to stop a second. The three of us spun around, a cautious expression on mine and Pippa’s faces as Molly shot him a goofy smile. I never have trusted guys that I don’t know, well, people I don’t know.

“Can I at least get your number, sweet cheeks?” The stupid-ass lead singer was looking towards Molly who blushed bashfully and caused Pippa to gag. I shot Shads a glower, not prepared to let my friend have her heart crushed by a guy. They were all the same. Even my father was the same. He walked out on me and my family when I was nine, just took his bags and left. He used to send me letters from all directions of the country, but they faded after one I sent back asking him why he left us.

“No, now I suggest you get the fuck away out of my face before I mess up yours.” I scowled at him, taking my arm from Molly’s and crossing both my arms over my chest as I stood up to Shads. He was a good foot taller than me, but that didn’t throw me off. Growing up with two brothers taught me to fight or be beaten. Shads didn’t move, he just chuckled and flicked my bunny ear. Pippa suggested he didn’t do that, noticing that I was getting a little touchy. “Men, you’re all the fucking same!” I screamed, punching him full on in the nose before storming away to the car.

There was movement behind me, but I ignored it and carried on walking towards the car. Pippa and Molly were yelling after me. Pippa knew why I hated men, but Molly’s knowledge was a little sketchy seeing as she was a little younger and hadn’t joined our little group until about four years ago at my twentieth birthday when she got with Joel and he messed her about so I beat him up for her. Meh, say what you want about me beating up guys, it’s how I fuckin’ roll.

“Keeley, hold up!” Pippa screamed, earning my middle finger as I carried on walking whilst texting River. I needed to get outta here. There was a sharp pain in my shoulders as Pippa slammed her hands down on them, halting my actions and spinning me around to face her. I’d pulled my bunny ears off by now, clutching them in a fisted up hand as I glared daggers at her. “Look, we’re staying here in Long Beach for the night. Do you want me to take you back to the hotel?”

I nodded slowly, climbing into the car once she’d unlocked it and curling my legs up to my chest. Pippa sighed, gunning the engine as she ran a hand through her blonde and brown hair quietly. The drive was silent, only the sound of the engine between us as I stared out at the roads that flew passed us until we arrived at a smart looking hotel. Pippa pulled up in a parking spot before handing me a key to a room as I hopped out and grabbed my bag from the boot.

When I got in the room, I dumped my bag down on the bed and switched on as many lights as I could whilst trying to find a stereo. There was no luck and I was forced to listen to the echo of silence that swamped me like heavy summer air in Tennessee. Yeah, my Grandmother had a farm down there which I used to visit when I was little. I used to have a horse called Echo, too. She was as black as black could possibly be and the sweetest natured creature I’d ever known.

Sucking in my bottom lip to stop me from crying, I laid out my pyjamas on the bed closest to the French windows and sat my book down on the bedside table. I was currently reading Hannibal Rising, the first of the Hannibal Lecter novels. I just couldn’t resist fictional stories like that. Picking up my PJs again, I slipped into the huge bathroom.

White tiles surrounded me, reflecting back an image of a broken girl with scraggly black hair tied up from her face and eyeliner streaks slicing down her cheeks. Her eyes were sore looking, scarlet blood-shots bordering around the bright blue irises. Remembering that I still had my contact lenses in, I shuffled through to the bedroom again and picked out my little pot of disinfectant and my glasses before setting to work and pinching, retrieving and putting away my contact lenses.

By the time I was done in the bath, it was around midnight and neither Molly nor Pippa had gotten to the hotel yet. Shrugging, I muttered under my breath about them being old enough to handle themselves without me for now. Settling into the bed sheets, I reached over and flicked to the marked page in my book, snuggling into the warmth of the pillow and mattress as I scanned over the letters.

That was when I began to think. What if my father hadn’t have left my mother? Would I still be going to the church down the road from our old home with Pippa in our best white dresses, the two of us dancing around the graveyard playing hide and seek whilst waiting for our parents before we went to lunch at Pippa’s? Or would it have been the same anyway, me refusing to go eventually and sitting at home with beer or going to another party and getting wasted?

So many thoughts were washing through my brain until one caused me to look up from my book and stare blankly towards the wall in front of me, shocked that I’d even thought such a thing. Zacky Vengeance.