Somehow Saving You

I sat in the car nervously playing with a loose string on my jeans. For once we all just decided to ride in one car. We picked Zacky’s black, Cadillac Escalade since it would have the most room. Zacky drove with Matt in the passenger seat. Behind Zack sat Johnny, me, then Brian. The only sound in the vehicle was music softly playing from the radio and Matt, Johnny, and Zacky talking. I stayed silent and I guess Brian didn’t have much to say. Brian suddenly captured my hand, making it stop moving.

“Calm down baby girl. There is no reason for you to be worried,” Brian told me confidently.

“There is plenty of reason to be worried! What if they don’t like me? What if they don’t want to give me a chance? I look horrible!” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. It fell straight back to it’s original spot and I groaned. I should have put it up. It looks plain Jane just down as usual.

“Of course they’ll give you a chance. If we are, they will. And you look amazing,” Brian stated. I gave him a doubtful look which made him chuckle. He kissed my forehead before I rested my head on his shoulder. It seems like just as I did we pulled to a stop.

“We’re here guys.” As everyone began to climb out I let out another shaky breath. Brian held out his hand which I gladly took. I looked up at the looming building that read “Fuse” at the very top. They were finally setting up interviews and this would be the first time the world knows that they had a new drummer. Hence my nerves.

“Come on Cat.” I looked to Brian who had called me. He still held my hand as he pulled me with the rest of them to the door. As soon as we stepped a chipper, young male greeted us.

“Hello. You are Avenged Sevenfold, yes?” After a nod he smiled knowingly. Fan I assume. “Please come this way.”

“Someone’s happy,” I muttered. Brian and Johnny, who was on my other side still, chuckled. We walked into an elevator and waited as the assistant pressed the ‘4’ button. It light up an off yellow before the doors began to slide shut. The man was humming to himself quietly, but it drove me insane.

“Here we are!” It opened straight into a room that was spaced out. On the left side sat a small studio audience which began to cheer. On the right side was a comfortable looking set up. A coffee table sat in the very middle. One side sat a single chair, to the right of that was a three person couch, and next to that sat a loveseat.

“Hello guys,” a guy I remember seeing on Fuse a lot, Steven, greeted. He began to go down the line, shaking everyone’s hands as they stepped off the elevator. I stayed hidden behind Brian as long as possible, but I couldn’t forever. When Steven reached me his eyes grew wide. The audience fell into quiet talking. I studied my feet as Brian wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“Well let’s sit down and begin, shall we?” Johnny chirped. Steven tore his eyes back to him and smiled.

“Yes, of course!” Steven sat on the single chair and Matt, Johnny, and Zacky sat on the couch. Brian sat on the right side of the loveseat making me sit on the left, on the end and closest to the audience. The assistant counted back from three before pointing at Steven.

“Hello everyone! I am Steven Smith and I am here with Avenged Sevenfold!” The audience began to cheer and clap again. The guys all waved or nodded while I just smiled. “Now everyone knows M. Shadows, Johnny Christ, Zacky Vengeance, and Synyster Gates. Who is this?”

“This is Cat. She doesn’t have a name, just Cat. She is our drummer,” Matt replied.

“Hello,” I spoke with a small wave. It fell silent for a moment with some of the crowd glaring at me before Steven quickly picked it up.

“How did you all meet Cat? Cat, would you like to tell?” I looked at the guys out of the corner of my eyes and they smiled encouragingly.

“Actually Steven, I’ve know all the guys practically since I was a toddler. Jimmy was my brother,” I replied, trying to keep the sound of sadnesss out of my voice. I actually heard quite a few people in the crowd gasp at this.

“I’m am so sorry for your loss. All of you actually,” Steven said, sympathy in his eyes.

“Well we are still mourning for Jimmy, but we all know he will want us to move on. Truly, having Cat here is helping a lot. She is taking over and helping her brother’s music get out to the fans,” Matt answered.

“Is it difficult to take Jimmy’s spot?” Was it difficult? Is this guy fucking stupid?! Of course it’s difficult! I have to live up to Jimmy’s standards.

“Not as hard as I thought it would be. We haven’t started recording the album yet so I can’t truly answer that one hundred percent. I know there is a lot of hard work to come, making sure I can play as good as Jimmy or at least close enough. If I’m lucky the lessons Jimmy gave me since I was eight will help. Hopefully I just won’t disappoint the fans.” Steven nodded at this.

“When do you actually hope to start working on the album?”

“We want to start in about two weeks if everyone thinks they’re ready. Right now we’re just trying to keep our thoughts together and make sure the music is letting Jimmy through,” Zacky replied. All the guys and I nodded in agreement. For the next twenty minutes Steven continued to ask us questions. When we finally finished the crowd was able to talk with the band and get autographs. I sat on the loveseat while all the guys began to talk to kids. I was snapped back from my daydreaming minutes later by a voice.

“What are you even doing here?” I looked at the girl standing in front of me. She had short, black layered hair with piercing grey eyes. A lip ring jutted out the middle of her bottom lip and her body was clad in black. A deathbat logo stretched across her chest where her arms were crossed.

“Excuse me?” I squeaked. This girl only looked sixteen and she was charging me up? What the hell?

“What are you doing here? Being Jimmy’s sister you should realize he doesn’t want any to just ‘fill his spot’. That’s a bitch move,” she stated. I grinded my teeth together, my patience running thin.

“You’re right, I am his sister. I know more about him then you ever will. You’d rather just let all his hard work just sit there, useless?” I demanded.

“If it would stop you from messing it up,” she scoffed. My eyes exploded with flames.

“You are one stupid child. Jimmy would want his fans to hear this! He would be happy to know I’m doing this instead of some random stranger. He had confidence in me. I’m sorry I’m not him, but I’m doing the best if fucking can! You think this is easy for me to do? Why do you even care? If you hate me so much you don’t have to listen to the album. Because whether you like it or not I am doing this no matter how many people like you despise it!” I yelled.

I felt someone take my hand and pull me to the elevator. I looked up with tears in my eyes to see Brian looking down at me with a smile. I glanced around to see the rest of the guys in the elevator. The door slid shut to cut off all the fans’ yelling. As soon as the door was completely shut, the guys brought me into a group hug.

“Cat, you definitely belong here. Jimmy would be proud,” Matt spoke up. I looked to see Jimmy standing in the corner, just smiling.

“Yeah, he would.”