Such a Surreal Place

“Sooo.... What do you guys think?” I questioned Avenged Sevenfold as they stepped inside their new tour bus. In the front compartment, the walls were wooden, seats black leather, brown blinds to match the walls and there was a white/grey death bat statue hanging on the wall behind the seats. Across from the seats was the kitchen area which had a black marble bench top and wooden cupboards above and below it, including a small fridge.

There were six bunks, 2 on one side and 4 on the other. The curtains were a deep blue and the bunks were lined with a dark blood red. Down the back (apart from the bathroom which filled in the space from the missing bunk beds, as well as a small storage area), the lounge area had a massive TV, accompanied by a playstation, Xbox, DVD and video player and a small stereo. Here the seats were also black leather and this was the cosiest room in the bus.

“I’m thinking we definitely made the right choice when we picked you for our tour manager,” Johnny commented.

“It’s cool,” Jimmy said and Matt agreed, nodding his head a lot as he took in his new home.

“Totally diggin’ it,” Zacky said.

“Where are you sleeping?” Syn whispered into my ear from behind me. We walked backwards into the sleeping area and I picked the top bunk bed closest to the kitchen on the side that had two sets of the beds. I climbed up into it and before I could turn around Syn had followed me up. He pulled the curtain and I started giggling uncontrollably. I felt like I was a teenager again.

“Aw come on you two!” Matt said as Syn teased me by kissing my neck and rubbing my thigh.

“You’re mean...” I whispered and pushed him gently off me. Even though it was super dark, I could tell he had a massive grin on his face. I pushed the curtain half open and saw Matt taking the bottom bunk across the hallway from me. I spotted Zacky crawling in underneath me and suddenly Syn fell out of my bunk. Everyone laughed as he scrambled to quickly get the bunk above Matt’s. Johnny grabbed the top bunk behind mine, which left Jimmy with the one under him.

“Dude! I barely fit in this!” Jimmy shouted at me.

“Do you have any pins?” Matt asked as he finished testing the length of his new bed.

“No, why?” I replied.

“To hang up pictures,” he answered and then left the sleeping area. He was the one who had officially asked me to join the band on tour, yet he could barely stand the fact that Syn got to take his girlfriend on tour and he didn’t. Even Zacky got to take his girlfriend! That reminded me that Melissa wouldn’t get to stay in the band’s bus like I did. She had to go in the crew’s bus. Poor her.

“So are you all sweet with the bus?” I asked and they all either nodded or said ‘yes’. “Alright. Let’s go then.” I had got them to load their luggage in before entering the bus. I hopped out of my new bed and headed to the front of the bus. I sat down in the driver’s seat and turned the motor on. I drove for a few hours until we reached the stadium where they were to play that night. As soon as the bus stopped, Mel had entered the tour bus and flopped into Zacky’s arms.

“Hello there,” he said, giving her a massive hug. They had gone to the same cabin in the middle of nowhere as me and Syn, and now had a nice strong relationship that wasn’t just sex.

“I missed you soooooooo much...” she said and everyone laughed.

“Dude, it was 3 hours,” Jimmy said, getting out of his seat and getting off the bus.

“Yo, Syn,” Zacky said, taking one arm off Mel to get a packet of smokes out of his pocket. He waved them at Syn and those 3 went out. Mel hates smoking, and doesn’t like Zacky when he does it, but she was obviously desperate for his company at the moment. Johnny sighed and stretched in his seat as Matt walked up to me in the driver’s seat.

“You coming?” he asked, offering me his hand. I took it and he helped me out, even though I didn’t need help getting down the stairs. He casually put his arm around me in a friendly way and we walked over to join the smokers, talking about random stuff. I saw the love in both Zacky and Mel’s eyes. Man, I hope I have that with Syn.

“Hey, beautiful,” Syn said (to me) and he motioned for me to come closer to him. I walked away from Matt and over to Syn. He grabbed me strongly by my waist (with the hand that didn’t have his smoke in it) and pulled me up against his body. I giggled as he put his lips up to one of my ears and begun to whisper... “What are you doing tonight after the show?” I could tell by his mischievous tone what he was implying. I linked my arms around his neck.

“Well that depends on what you’re doing,” I teased, getting him back for earlier. I was whispering in his ear, but he titled his head away to take another breath of smoke. He blew it out away from me, somehow managing to do all that soooooo sexily...

“You have booked hotel rooms, right?” he asked, a bit louder than before. He rubbed my back with his free hand.

“At least once a month,” I replied, playing with the hair at the bottom of his head. He loved it when I did that.

“Thank God for that,” he suddenly said at normal volume and he got a weird look from Zacky.

“I don’t even wanna know...” he said, putting his cigarette to his lips. Mel whispered something in his ear and he smiled. He also was being nice and blowing the smoke away from her, respecting the fact that she didn’t like it. He had changed a bit since being with her. More of a gentleman.

“Well you need to relax for a bit, so I’ll leave you to it,” I said, pushing myself away from him. It was hard to do so, but I had work to do.

“Aw no, don’t leave,” he whined, begging me with his eyes to return.

“I have to go work, baby,” I said, still walking backwards. Why couldn’t I take my eyes off him?

“You know this tour is gonna get hard soon. Why can’t we enjoy us, together, while it’s not trying to pull us apart?” Wow. I had no idea where he got that from. He had obviously been thinking about that for quite a while now...

“Well come with me,” I suggested. “Watch me make a million phone calls, update your website, then attend your sound check, check the bus, then-”

“Okay, okay, you win...” he said sadly and looked down at his shoes. I knew me doing all that stuff bored him to death. I walked back to him and he looked up into my eyes. Aw, I hated seeing those gorgeous brown eyes filled with sadness. I put my hand gently on his chin.

“Just think about tonight,” I said. “I’ll make this up to you, I promise.” I gave him a long kiss on the lips and then walked away.

He was so right, though. This tour was going to get hard after about a month of being on the road. Then everyone’s relationships were going to be put to the ultimate test. I actually started doubting me and Syn. Sure, I loved him and he loved me. But when we were both stressed and tired and on the verge of breaking, could we stay together?

I sat on the edge of a concrete wall, watching him smoke his cigarette and talk to Zacky and Melissa, as I dialled number after number to reserve venues. I had a feeling one of us was going to snap on this tour. How our relationship was going to last, I had no clue.

I just hoped we were going to make it.