We're Still So Young Desperate for Attention

"So do you guys what do you want for your birthday?" My dad asked. (A/N: Not her adopted father, but her real father) I looked around the room. It was the room I had seen in my dreams many times, but knew nothing about it existing in real life.

"Um mm...How about a Barbie?" My mom asked.

"No. I want a drum set!" I yelled.

"Oh really?" My dad asked.

"Yeah I want to be like Uncle Lars."

"Ha ha well I'll see what I can do."

"What about you Zacky?" My dad asked my brother.

"I want a guitar!" Zacky yelled.

"Well Alicia I think we have musical children." My dad said with a smile.

"I think so too." She said with a huge smile.

"Dad when is Uncle Lars going to come visit?"

"Well You know that Uncle Lars is touring with Uncle James and the rest of his band."

"I know, but I miss him."

"I know baby."

"Mommy?"

"Yes Baby?"

"Is Uncle Lars your big brother?"

"Yes he is." I curled up in a ball in my dad's lap as Metallica's music video came on. I was about to fall asleep, but I heard breaking glass.

"Alicia take Adri and Zacky into the back room. I'll go see what that was." My mom nodded and picked me and Zacky up and walked into our back room. She set me and him down and waited for my dad to come back.

"Alicia lock the door don't let anyone in!" I heard my dad yell. My mom did as she was told. I heard a gun shot fire.

"It's ok baby." My mom said as she pulled me into a hug.

My heart stopped and I started to cry. I had seen the movies I knew what a gun shot meant. Zacky sat there trying his hardest not to cry and to be strong for me, but I could see the tears slowly tying to break from his eyes. My mom walked over to him and brought his head to her chest and started twisting our hair between her fingers to calm us down. I heard foot steps come closer to the door as my mom backed away.

"Open this door!" I heard yelled through the door as someone started banging on it.

"Baby. I need you guys to stay safe ok?" We nodded. She opened up a trap door we had that hidden in the floor.

"I need you to crawl in there. As soon as I close the door I want you to lock the door with the pad lock and don't open it for anyone." We nodded again and got inside the crawl space. I locked the door and heard the door to the room we were in break into pieces.

"Where are they?" I heard a man say.

"They're not here!" I heard my mom say. I looked over and saw a vent opening. I nudged my brother and he nodded his head. We crawled over there and looked through the vent that was on the floor. I could only see the shoes though. I saw my mom's feet and a pair of black dress shoes that had blood spattered on them.

"The only reason Zachary would yell for you to lock the doors is for if you were unarmed,
which you're not, or the kids were in here with you."

"I was unarmed, but I grabbed my gun from the closet!"

"You always had a bad poker face." The man said. I heard a slap and a few punches being thrown before I heard another gunshot. I feared for the worse, but when I heard the guy talk I knew my mom was still alive.

"You just shot my best man!" The guy yelled before I saw the gun fly and I heard another punch being thrown. I saw my mom fall to the floor. A hand reached down and grabbed her up forcing her on her knees.

"Get rid of her." I heard the man say before yet another gunshot.

I saw blood spatter before the body of my mother fell to the floor. I saw her eyes still open looking lifeless. Tears rolled down my face as I almost screamed, but Zacky covered my mouth.

"Adri!" I heard someone say before I felt my body being shaken.

"Adri!" I heard again. This time I knew it was Matt.

"Dude I'm calling the hospital."

"No wait. Zacky get me a wet wash cloth! Come on Adri. Wake up." I felt a wet wash cloth being put on my forehead and I opened my eyes a little.

"There you go." He said wiping the cloth on my head again. I closed my eyes again feeling
really tired again like all of the energy was drained from my body.

"How did you know a wet cloth would work?" Alexis asked.

"When I have nightmares that's what Jimmy does." Matt said.

"Everyone just go back to bed." Jimmy said as I heard Matt mumble a small thank you for
getting everyone out. He scooped me up in his arms as I heard the door shut.

"Adri?" He said as I opened my eyes a little more.

"Come on." I curled up in his lap and started to cry. That dream felt so real.

"I've been trying to wake you up for the past hour."

"I-I'm so-sorry." I said crying even harder. The vision of the woman's face was haunting me right now. Whether my eyes were open or closed.

"Ssh it was just a dream. You're ok. Nothing is going to hurt you. I'm here." He said rubbing
my back. I had the sudden feeling that I was going to be sick. I got up and ran to the bathroom and threw up all of the contents in my stomach.

"Ssh let it all out." Matt said pulling my hair back and rubbing my back again.

"I'm Sorry." I said once again. He picked me up and set me on the counter and let me brush
my teeth.

"Want to tell me what your dream was about?" I nodded my head. He picked me up and walked into the bedroom with me. He set me under the covers and pulled them up around my body and sat next to me on the bed much like a father does for his daughter on a storm night when she's scared. I told him every detail of the dream. All of the blood. How my mother's face looked.Everything.

"Oh My God Adri. I'm sorry you had such a bad dream, but it was a dream. It's nothing real.
Even if it was no one is going to get you. You have us. Nothing is going to hurt you in any
way."

"Thank you Matt." I said smiling slightly, "What time is it?"

"3:30 am. Ok. Well I guess I should be getting back to sleep. I have to sign Johnny up for
school and get the papers filed for him." Matt said chuckling slightly. I laughed.

"Night Adri."

"Night Matt." I said as he walked back over to my door.

"Hey Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you stay in here tonight?"

"Yeah." He got under the covers and I snuggled up to him.

I woke up hours later to an empty bed. I sighed and got up grabbing a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom and took a shower before changing into my clothes. I walked out and into the living room to find Zacky and Brian watching movies, Jimmy staring off into space and Trent drawing a tattoo up.

"Who's that for?" I asked my voice was a little raspy.

"Zacky."

"Do you think you can do one on my arm later?" I asked.

"Do you have an idea?"

"Yeah I just need to draw it up."

"Ok then yeah."

I grabbed one of his books and sat by Brian. I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder while I started to draw. I drew the chain of the dog tag and started working on the dog tags themselves.

"What's that?" Zacky asked looking over my shoulder as he and Brian looked at the paper.

"It's a tattoo that Trent's going to do on my arm later."

"Why dog tags?" Brian asked.

"My dad was in the Army." I said smiling.

"Doesn't he have to finish the tattoo on your back?"

"Yeah...but he said he would do that later. All he has to do is write the words." I said as I
wrote the last words in cursive.

"The best revenge is bettering yourself?" Brian asked.

"Yeah when I was younger and picked on for being an orphan my dad told me it. I want to
have it tattooed so I will always remember it."

"I think it's a great saying."

"Hey I got my order." Alexis said walking into the room and sitting on Jimmy's lap.

"What do you have to do?" I asked.

"I have to tag my mom's house." She said with tears running down her face. She buried her head into Jimmy's neck.

"When?" He asked.

"Midnight." She said as she closed her eyes.

"Ok then. Um...Trent you can do my tattoo another time."

"Yeah." Trent said not taking his eyes off of the paper.

"Alexis do you want to make cake with me or something?" I asked. She nodded and got up off of the couch and walked into the kitchen. Jimmy mouthed thank you to me and I nodded. We went into the kitchen and she sat counter as I grabbed everything out.

"What's wrong?" I asked as a few more tears fell from her eyes.

"I don't want to do it, but I saw what happened when you didn't do your order so I have to."

"I know it's hard to destroy something you love, but you'll get through it. I promise and me
and the rest of the guys and Lillian and Trent will help you. Were all in this together. Whether
we want to be or not. Its just sad that it took us this to stop our fighting and to get to know
each other more."

"Hey Adri?" I gave her a hug and started to make the batter.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you have those cuts on your stomach?"

"Car accident." I said emotionless.

"Or does your step-dad hit you? Adri I won't tell anyone."

"Yeah he does. That's why I was so happy when I talked about Matt caring for me so much."
I said as a few tears dropped from my eyes. She came over and kissed my cheek and hugged me. I smiled and hugged her back.

"Nothings going to happen here. You have all of us and your secret is safe with me."

"Thank You Lexi." I said as I smiled.

"Who all knows?" She asked.

"Jimmy, Trent and Lillian. Matt knows, but thinks that he could be wrong and I never told him
if he was right or wrong, but he keeps asking Jimmy."

"He's smart."

"I know. That's what worries me."

"Oh the cake is done!" She said laughing.

_____________________

"I need to take a shower." Matt said standing up and walking out of the room.

The rest of the guys walked into the basement to play their instruments or something like
that. Johnny just went to his room. He was kind of depressed that his mom gave up custody without a fight. He looked pretty heartbroken. I don't blame him I would be too, but I still don't know how bad his mom is. I sighed and looked at the girls.

"I want to go talk to Matt." I said getting up and making my way out of the room.

"He just said he was going to shower." Alexis said looking at me weird.

"I know, but it's the one time I get to talk to him without everyone."

"I bet you sixty dollars that you'll kiss him before Christmas." Lillian said laughing.

"Sorry guys he doesn't see me like that."

"She's blind." I heard Lillian say as I walked out of the room. I'm not blind it's true. He doesn't like me like that. I don't think. I walked down the hall stopping in front of Johnny's door. I wanted to make sure he was ok. When I opened the door he was asleep with tear stained cheeks. I feel so bad for the little guy. I walked out of the room and knocked on the bathroom door.

"Come in!" I heard him yell through the door.

"Hey Matt." I said as I sat on the counter.

"Hey Adri." He said laughing slightly.

"I just checked on Johnny. He's asleep, but with tears running down his face still."

"Yeah. I figured he would be. His mom was pretty harsh today. Telling him that he was
worthless. That he wouldn't amount to anything. Then gave him up just like that. She was about to hit him too, but I stepped in the way."

"So that's why he always looks disappointed when his mom comes into a conversation"

"Yeah. She's really into drugs and will steal money from our gigs to get her high. When he
got into the fight last week it was partly because he had so much rage built up." His voice
was cut out slightly from the water but I still understood what he said.

"Can I ask you something?"

He stuck his head out of the shower and nodded. Wow he looks really cute with the water dripping down his face. I thought in my head.

I shook my self out of my thoughts and asked him, "When you said that you had nightmares how bad were they?"

"Really bad. I've been to clinics and they said that the only thing to do is to wake me up, but
there in lies the problem. Jimmy's the only one who can wake me up from them. That's why
he lives with me."

"Can you tell me about one?" I asked.

"The one I had last week. Was one of the worst I had.," I heard him stop moving around in
the shower and I saw the faint out line of him standing there with his head down.

"You don't have to tell me Matt I just know it helps to talk about your dreams. Sometimes it
can help get them off of your mind."

"No I will. My dreams are filled with my worst fears. Losing the ones I love, Darkness, losing Jimmy and Johnny, Car accidents. Just my worst fears. By the time I wake up I forget most of the details about them, but I remember who died in them and things like that. My dream last week was about zombies and how you, Trent and Lillian were here. When one of them forced its way into the house it went after Jimmy and I had pushed the you, Lillian, Alexis, Johnny and Zacky into the basement because it's the safest place in the house. When I walked back into the living room I saw the zombies eating Jimmy and ripping his flesh."

"They sound horrible." I said in all honesty as a tear rolled down my face.

"They are. They can get pretty bad. Jimmy's had to call the hospital a few times."

I heard him turn off the water and I got up and handed him his towel.

"Thank you." I smiled and nodded as I sat on the counter again.

"Hey guys we have to go it's almost time." Jimmy said pounding on the door.

"We'll be out in a second." He said as he got dressed. Before we walked out I walked over to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry that your dreams are that bad, but as you always tell me I'm here and nothing is
going to hurt you in anyway. I'll protect you. I know I probably can't do much, but I'll be here for
you. You have me and the guys."

"Thank You Adri." He said burying his head into my hair. He kissed the top of my head and
walked out of the bathroom.

"Do I get my sixty bucks yet!" Alexis and Lillian yelled as me and Matt walked into the living
room.

"No!" I yelled back.

The guys looked at us confused and we laughed before I shook my head.

"I'll go wake up Johnny." I said walking out of the room. I walked into his room and knelled in front of his bed.

"Johnny? Johnny wake up. Alexis needs to do her order." I said as he stirred.

He opened his eyes and starred at me before getting up and walking out of his room leaving me there. I sighed and walked out to find the guys and everyone outside. I walked out and smiled slightly at Matt who pulled me over to his car and opened the door for me. I got in and he did the same. Once we were in Alexis' neighborhood I could tell she was getting nervous. I pulled out my cell phone and called her.

"Hello?" she answered with a weak voice that sounded like she was crying. Matt looked at me and I pointed to Jimmy's car which was behind us and he nodded seeing that Alexis was on her phone.

"Lexi you'll be fine."

"I know, but I can't believe I'm doing this to my house."

"I know it's hard, but you saw what happened when I didn't do my order. You have to."

"Adri I don't think I can." She said fully in tears now. She was sobbing and I was trying to calm her down and I could heard Jimmy trying to do the same.

"Lexi breath come on. Calm down if you can get through this me, you and Lillian will go to
the mall go shopping and then rent movies because I know Matt doesn't have the new
horror ones and then we can pig out on Ben & Jerry's Ok?" She laughed and mumbled an ok before hanging up.

"Well don't you know how to cheer a girl up." Matt said as he smirked and pulled over to the
curb right outside of Alexis' house. I laughed and got out and walked over to her.

"You'll be ok." I whispered in her ear. She nodded and walked up to her garage. She picked up a note that was laid on the door and read it.

"I'm sorry Adri." She said with her head down.

"Why?" I asked really confused. She handed me the paper and as soon as I read it hate and rage boiled in my blood.

Alexis I see you had enough common sense to come and do your order.

Now on your garage I want you to write:

Adrienne Angelis is a whore and has slept with Brian Haner Jr, James Sullivan, Matthew
Sanders, and Trent Razor.

"It's ok Alexis. Go ahead we all know it's not true." I said as I turned around and walked back
to the car.

The only reason I was being cool with this is the fact that if she didn't do it he would destroy something of her's. I couldn't be the cause of that. When she was finished she walked over to the car and gave me a hug and said she was sorry. I told her not to worry about it before we headed to the house. Once we got there I went to bed immediately. The guys stayed up for a while, but I couldn't. I was tired and drained. I fell into a deep dreamless sleep as the night ended.