Tasting Fame

FF 2 DAYS - BECCA'S P.O.V.

The time back in here in Huntington flew by really fast. Aileen's mom has drawn up her and Barry's divorce papers. Barry wasn't too happy about it. It's a good thing that he didn't know where we were at, but Zacky was with us and he has beaten the shit outta Barry twice before.

"Becca, hurry the fuck up! We gotta be at the airport in an hour!"

"Yeah, yeah. I got it motherfucker!" I yelled back at Zacky.

I was hurriedly trying to take a shower. I woke up late, so Zacky was packing my shit while I took a shower.

About 2 seconds later, I stepped out of the shower and noticed that he had put some of my clothes on the counter for me. Well, a pair of pants, a shirt, some socks, and my shoes were layed out.

"Zacky, I'm not going commando!"

"Well, I wasn't gonna touch your underwear. No offense, but no. Here's your bag though, all your underwear is in the side pocket."

"I thought you weren't gonna touch my underwear?"

"I used the remote to pick them up!"

I just shook my head at Zacky's stupidity as he attempted to hand me my bag back with his back to me.

"I'm not naked, stupid. I have a towel on!"

"Zacky, move the fuck out of my way," Aileen said as she burst through the door.

"What's your problem?" he asked as she took my bag from him and set it on the counter.

Aileen shoved Zacky out of the bathroom without answering him, and shut the door.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just trying to help you clean up your shit because I wanna get my mom out of this city as soon as possible. Now get dressed."

Within the next five minutes, we were all ready to go and were making our way down to the lobby. We checked out, got a cab, and made our way to the airport.

We had less trouble with security this time, cause Becca and Zacky remembered to take their piercings off first. After getting through security, we quickly found the right gate for Aileen's mom's flight. Since our flight left about 20 minutes after hers, then we were able to see her off. She gave me a hug, then moved over to Zacky. She gave him the longest hug of all, and muttered something that sounded a lot like "thanks for saving my life". He returned the hug with equal enthusiasm, and then she moved on to Aileen.

The P.A. system announced the departure of her flight, so we watched as she got on the plane and took off. We had to head immediately over to our gate. Right before we got on the plane, Zacky called Jimmy to tell him that we were leaving, and he'd call him again once we got into New York.

I really hate airplanes. It intensifies my fear if heights by 100 times. I sat down in my seat in the aisle, and I think Aileen could sense that I was nervous, because she grabbed my arm.

"Becca, it'll be alright. We'll be back in New York before you know it. Why don't you watch a movie or something, or even get some more sleep, and I'll wake you or whatever when we get to the airport."

I just nodded my head, and grabbed a pillow and blanket from the overhead compartment. I put the blanket over the three of us (the blanket was fucking huge!), put the pillow on Aileen's shoulder, and drifted off to sleep. Maybe I was more tired than I thought.

JIMMY'S P.O.V.

Today was the last day of our little break, and it was also the day that Zacky, Aileen, and Becca came back on tour with us. I hope Becca and Johnny get back together soon. Johnny's a mess without her. He hardly talks to anyone, and he's hardly ever out of his bunk. He better get his ass in gear, because we got a show to do tomorrow night, and he's gonna fucking play the right notes this time. At the last show we had, the first show we had right after him and Becca broke up, he kept playing the wrong notes to all our songs. Mother fucker pissed me off.

Right now, everyone was crammed in my room for some reason. Even Johnny fucking Christ. He wasn't talking though, and it was starting to get on my nerves. Suddenly, my phone rang, which scared the shit outta me. It was Zacky.

"Hey, Zacky. What's up?"

"Well, we're about to land, so we should be ready to go in about 30 minutes."

"Sounds good, man. I'll be there."

"See ya later, asswipe."

"Later, motherfucker."

I hung up my phone, and made to leave. But not before I took a shit. I had to go really bad.

"Jimmy, you asshole! Why'd you have to go and stink up the fucking bathroom before you left?"

I just flashed Matt one of my goofy smiles as I flipped him the bird.

I grabbed Acey, and we headed off to the airport. We got to the front of the airport just as Becca, Zacky, and Aileen came outside. I could swear that they came back with a shit-ton more luggage than what they left with.

On the way back to the hotel, everyone just played catch-up. Aileen told Acey and me the story of what happened to her mom, and how Zacky beat the shit out of her boyfriend.....again. Zacky was showing off the stitches on his knuckles from Barry's teeth by the time we got back to the hotel.

The entire time we were riding back to the hotel, I was trying to think of something to get my best friend back together with his girlfriend. I was so spaced out that I didn't even notice that we were in front of the room already.

"Hello, Earth To Jimmy!" Becca said as she waved her hand in front of my face.

"Oh, sorry. What do you want?"

"You're the one with the key to the room."

"Oh, yeah." I smiled as I unlocked the door and let everyone else in. Becca would've been the last to go in before me, but I needed to talk to her before she goes into the room. I grabbed her arm to turn her around and face me.

"Jimmy, what the fuck?"

"Becca, I need to talk to you."

I quietly closed the door, and she just stood outside it with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"I need to talk to you about Johnny."

She just crossed her arms across her chest, and rolled her eyes at me.

"I know that you're finding it hard to forgive him. And normally, I wouldn't care how his girlfriend treated him for cheating on her. But you haven't seen him over the past couple days. I was with him when he left you that voice message the other night. I've never seen a man cry so hard in my life. In any other situation, I probably would've laughed my ass off, and called him a giant pussy. But that's not the point. The point is, you have no idea how much you affect him. Being apart from you is even affecting his playing ability. In all the years I've known him, I've never known a girl to affect his ability to play a bass like you have. Think about it."

I pushed her through the door to my room where everyone was now congregated. I went over to join Brain and Zacky on the floor in front of the TV where they were now playing some game. I think it was one of those Halo games. All I know is that it was a game where you got to kill people and blow shit up.

I looked over to notice that Becca was still standing in the doorway. I gave her a 'do-it-or-I'll-fucking-do-it-for-you' look. She just slightly nodded at me, then slowly walked over in the direction of Johnny.

She stood in front of him, and pulled him off the couch. They just stared at each other for a few moments, and then Becca pulled Johnny into a hug. It took Johnny a few seconds to realize what was going on, but he quickly recovered and began to hug her back. I nudged the guys, and we were all now staring at the two of them. Johnny was the first to speak, although he didn't realize that he was being stared at.

"Becca, I'm so sorry. I can't make an excuse for what I did to you, but I truly am sorry."

"I know, Johnny. I know."

"It's about fucking time!" the rest of us shouted in unison.

Becca and Johnny whipped around to face everyone.

"So, Becca. Just out of curiosity. What made you decide to forgive Johnny?" Brian asked, earning him a slap from Kaitlyn.

"Well, there were a few things, actually. But what did it for me was something that someone said to me today. And I'll just leave it at that."

She gave me a slight wink, which I returned. Then she continued to speak.

"But what perplexes the hell out of me is why Matt didn't tear Johnny in half for cheating on me."

"Well, I feel kinda responsible for everything that happened. So I'll let this one slide."

Matt walked over to where Becca and Johnny were standing. He gave his sister a small hug, then he and Johnny shared one of those manly-hug things. Becca and Johnny were quickly wrapped around each other again - Becca with her arms wrapped around Johnny's waist, and Johnny had his arm around her shoulder.

"You two are so cute sometimes, it makes me wanna fucking puke," I said, and started making gagging noises. I got smacked in the face by Acey, and I quickly stopped.

"So does this mean we're back together?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah. I guess it does," she said. Then they kissed, and all that mushy shit.

"No offense, but I don't want my friend's jizz all over the room I have to stay in. So would you two mind putting a stop your little lovefest before you have make-up sex on the floor in front of all of us?" I asked. I was shocked to find that Acey laughed instead of smacking me like she normally does.

"Well, fuckers, it's late. I'm going to bed, and you guys should too, cause we got another sold-out show at the Hammerstein tomorrow night. And you know how fucking crazy the last show at the place was," Matt said.

We all just grunted in agreement, then everyone went to their seperate rooms to get ready for tomorrow's show.

After stripping down to nothing but my boxers, I climbed into bed with my already half-asleep girlfriend.

I would be too afraid to cheat on my girlfriend. She'd beat the shit outta me.

RIGHT BEFORE CONCERT - JIMMY'S P.O.V.

"You guys ready?" the stage tech asked.

"Yeah," we all said.

Moments later, the lights went out and the crowd went nuts. That was my cue to head out to the stage. As soon as I stepped onto the stage, the lights came back on. The crowd cheered as I took my seat behind my drums. Then Syn and Zacky came out, followed by a now beaming Johnny, then Mr. Fucking Shadows.

We started up To End The Rapture, then went into Beast and the Harlot. Next was Unholy Confessions. Without thinking, I started to play the song. I guess that's how things go when you've played the song so many times. For some reason, I was more excited about this show than I was about the last one. Maybe it was because Johnny was actually playing the right notes tonight. I started going crazy. I was flailing my arms all over the place, twirling my drumsticks and showing of my skills. I was getting so into things that I didn't realize how far I was making my seat tilt back. Before I knew it, my ass was deposited backwards onto the floor of the stage, and everything had stopped.

"Rev, what the fuck are you doing?" Shads asked me.

"Ummm, I kinda fell off my bench."

"What the fuck for?" he asked. Yeah, like I had this planned.

"It's not like I did it on purpose, asshole."

The audience started laughing. I was just happy that they weren't pissed off that we had stopped in the middle of one of our songs. And it was one of our more popular songs.

"Alright, we're gonna try this again," Matt said.

And with that, Zacky and I started the song. This time, I managed not to fall off my bench.

Maybe our band was finally getting back to normal.

AFTER CONCERT - BECCA'S P.O.V.

"So, Matt. When are we leaving?" I asked. I kinda liked this town, but some of the people here are complete assholes.

"Not till tomorrow morning. We're gonna let the driver get a few extra Z's tonight," he said.

He then walked towards the back of the bus, leaving me, Aileen, Zacky, and Johnny up front by ourselves. I was getting a little bored, and I didn't really want to spend the whole fucking night on this damn bus.

"Let's go do something," Zacky said randomly.

"Well, what do you suggest we do then, oh wonderous guitar God?" I said. I think Zacky detected the slightest hint of sarcasm in my voice, and he smirked at me.

"Let's just go to Wal*Mart. There's lots of fun stuff to do there," Aileen said.

Zacky ran to the back to tell everyone else that the four of us were leaving. When we got off the bus, Zacky and Aileen laced their fingers together and walked a little ahead of us.

I could feel Johnny's hand brush mine, almost like he was trying to hold my hand, but he quickly pulled it back. It was kinda awkward. Maybe it was because we just got back together, and neither one of us wanted to ruin anything again.

I reached over to grab his hand. For the first time since we first had sex, butterflies sprang up in my stomach when I laced my fingers with his. We looked at each other with huge smiles on our faces and shared a quick kiss, then we continued to walk in silence.

Once we got to the Wal*Mart, Zacky ran right over to the boxers section. He picked out a pair that was about 80 sizes too big for himself, and put them on over his pants. Johnny spotted a rack of really big bras, and dragged us over to them. He picked out a black one, held it over my chest, nodded in approval at his choice, then tied it around his head so the cups were on top. I couldn't contain myself. It was just so fucking funny!

We were just aimlessly walking around and being idiots when we came to the toy aisle.

"Ooooh! We gotta play on these!" Aileen went over to those really fucking big bouncy-ball things that you actually sit on and began bouncing in place on it. The rest of us just gave each other weird looks, then went to join her.

We each grabbed our own bouncy-thing, and began to bounce around Wal*Mart. We eventually made our way over to the toiletries section. Zacky and Johnny looked at each other as mischievous grins spread across their faces. They suddenly started grabbing a shit-ton of toilet paper. Pun intended.

"Now we just need some eggs, and we'll be set," Zacky said, more to himself than anyone else. "You guys stay here. Aileen, hold this toilet paper while I go grab some eggs."

She just looked at him in bewilderment and he handed her the stuff in his arms, and ran off in a different direction. The three of us sat in silence, and Zacky returned with 8 cartons of large eggs.

"We're gonna go vandalize someone's house aren't we?" I asked as a smile played its way across my face.

"Wow, took you long enough, Captain Obvious," Zacky said.

I took an egg out of the carton that he had handed me and threw it at his face. It busted on the spot where his septum piercing was at, and sent raw egg white at yolk down his chin.

"You're a bitch," he said as he attempted to wipe it off.

"And you're an arrogant bastard."

We bounced our way back to the toy aisle, with much difficulty, and put back our bouncy-balls. We carried our toilet paper and eggs up to the counter and Zacky paid for it all. The cashier gave us weird looks as we were paying.

We walked around until we came to a random neighborhood. It was quite secluded, so it was less likely that we would get caught.

We picked a house that was fairly far away from other houses.

"You guys get started with the eggs, while Aileen and I get started with the toilet paper," I said.

Johnny and Zacky just looked at me like I had suddenly sprouted an arm from my ass.

"What?"

"It sounds like you've done this before, Becca," Johnny said.

"I've been known to cause a little bit of havoc in my day."

"It's kinda turning me on," Johnny said as he slowly started walking towards me.

"Are we gonna do this, or stand here shooting-the-shit all day?" I asked, holding up a hand to stop him.

"Do you have any idea how much you sounded like Brian just now?" Zacky asked with a small laugh.

"Yeah, well..... fuck both of you. Now let's get down to business."

Zacky and Johnny took all the eggs and walked towards the front porch of the house while Aileen and I started throwing toilet paper in all their trees. And we didn't pussyfoot around. We got them good. Let's just say, that I hope it doesn't rain, because that would suck for them. And their trees.

It seemed to be about 100 times darker than it was before when we finished. Zacky had to pee, so he decided to pee on one of the nearby trees. After he was done, we all made to leave. But Johnny wasn't paying attention to where he was going and ended up running into the mailbox, knocking it over.

That did it. All of a sudden, dogs started barking, and someone ran out of the house and spotted us before we could get away.

"Way to fucking go, Johnny," Zacky whispered under his breath.

"What the fuck are you kids doing?" the man, who I'm assuming owned the house, said.

None of us knew what to say, so we just toed at the gravel that was in the driveway.

"You guys throw toilet paper in my trees, cover my house with raw eggs, and piss on my yard? What the hell did I ever do to you?"

Again, none of us said anything. The man just called the police department, and they were there within 10 minutes. Why couldn't the cops respond that fast back home?

The man told him everything that he had seen, and then we were hauled away in two squad cars.

When we got to the station, the cops got us into a room and we explained everything. Well, Zacky and Johnny explained everything. Aileen and I were terrified of jail. I think it's one of the scariest places on earth. I was brought out of my thoughts when one of the cops spoke.

"Alright, you had 36 rolls of toilet paper, and 8 cartons of eggs at 24 eggs per carton..... that's 192 eggs. It's $35 per egg, and $50 per roll of toilet paper. So that makes the total for the eggs and toilet paper ..... $8,590."

"Are you kidding me?" Zacky said as he shot up.

"I'm afraid not, sir. Plus another $1500 for the mailbox vandalism, and another $410 for indecent public exposure. So that makes your bail a grand total of $11,000. You either have to pay the bail, or stay in jail until you can."

"What indecent public exposure?" Zacky asked, his anger clearly rising.

"The owner of the house that you vandalized recalled seeing you urinate on his trees. That counts as indecent public exposure."

"Fuck," Zacky said as he sat back down.

I just looked from Zacky to the police officer.

"Umm, sir. Can I have my phone call now?"

"Yes you may. You all get one phone call, and you may go first."

The officer escorted us back to our cell which we were sharing with 5 other guys. I was scared shitless.

"I'll go first. Matt won't be as pissed off at me as he will be at you guys. I'll be back."

I hadn't realized that I was holding hands with Johnny, but as I went to walk away, he wouldn't let go of my hand.

"Johnny, I'll be right back."

He just gave me a pleading look, then gave me a long kiss. The security guard that we were with had to pry him off of me, and I finally got to make my phone call about 10 minutes later. I knew who I was going to call. Of course, I was gonna call my brother.

After 3 rings, Matt answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, bro. It's me."

"Holy shit, Becca. I didn't recognize the number. Where are you calling me from?"

"Ummm, I'm actually.....ummm..... calling you from the county jail."

I had to hold my phone a few inches away from my ear, for Matt had started to scream insanely loud. A couple seconds later, his tantrum ended, and I cautiously placed the receiver back to my ear.

"Did you hear a fucking word I just said?" he asked.

"No, Matt, I didn't. If I had been listening to you, I would've busted an eardrum."

I looked over as I heard the security officer that was escorting me snicker. I shot him a dirty look, then returned to my phone call.

"Well, shit. I guess I gotta come and get you guys then?" Matt asked, the annoyance in his voice becoming clearer.

"Yeah, considering we need someone to pay our bail."

"You guys gotta pay bail? Mother fuck. How much is it?"

I was afraid of what he was gonna do when he found out, so I barely whispered the amount.

"Sorry, Becca. I didn't hear that."

"Matt, our bail is $11,000."

He sighed heavily, and then I heard something break, which was followed by a girlish scream that could only come from Jimmy.

"Alright. I'll be there in an hour. Try not to get raped until then."

"Hey Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. And I love you."

He chuckled. "I love you too, Bec. Now just sit tight, and tell everyone else that I'll be there soon with the bail money."

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye, Bec."

I hung up the phone, and motioned for the security guard to take me back to the cell.

When I got back, I noticed that Zacky and Aileen were hugging tightly in a corner, and Johnny was sitting next to them with his knees pulled up to his chest. His head snapped up when he heard the cell doors open, and he almost fell on his face as he attempted to get to me. He dragged me over to the others, and we sat down as he tightly wrapped his arms around me.

I told the others that Matt was on his way, then we just sat in silence as the other men in the cell stared at us, either waiting for us to move and acknowledge that we weren't dead, or waiting for us to expose out backsides.

After what seemed like forever, Matt finally showed up at the cell with a security guard, and we were let go.

"You guys are fucking idiots," Matt said, trying to suppress a giggle.

"Yeah, well, fuck you, Shads. We were bored and wanted something to do," Johnny said with his arms still wrapped securely around me.

"So you decided to toilet paper and egg a house in a ritzy neighborhood?" Matt asked.

"Don't forget that Zacky pissed on his tree, and Johnny knocked over the mailbox," Aileen said.

We all just laughed as we finally reached the outside of the station. Matt had brought the bus instead of catching a cab. How he managed to get here, I'll never know. We don't know New York that well, and I really don't want to know how the bus driver knew how to get here.

Just as we were climbing up the steps, Zacky decided to moon the police station.

"Zacky, you fucking moron. You wanna go back in jail? I really don't feel like spending any more of my money tonight," Matt said as he literally kicked Zacky's ass, causing him to fall on his face, earning extreme laughter from all of us.

"I just wanted to show them some love," he said with a goofy grin as he stood up and pulled his pants back up, zipping them.

"Ah, the joys of having famous people for family," I said.

We walked onto the bus, and everyone decided to play Texas Hold 'Em. That's when I remembered when Jimmy screamed while I was on the phone with Matt at the police station.

"So, Jimmy. When I was on the phone with Matt, why were you screaming?" I asked as I picked up my two cards.

"When you were on the phone with Matt.....oh yeah! He was sitting in the back with the rest of us, and he threw a full, unopened beer bottle at my head, and it hit me. Quite hard. It broke, and it really fucking hurt."

He shuddered as he rubbed the back of his skull.

"So, Shadows told us why you guys were at the county jail. What the fuck spurred that little mischievous act?" he asked as Acey dealt the flop cards.

"We were bored. And it was scary as hell. I think Johnny almost shit himself."

Johnny just flipped me off. I pretended to catch it and put it in my pocket. After another round of betting, Acey dealt the turn card, and Jimmy continued our conversation.

"I know. County jails are scary. I was at a county jail over in Europe when we took that European tour a couple years ago."

"And why the fuck were you in a county jail over in Europe?" I asked with a bewildered look on my face as Acey dealt the river card, and everyone placed more bets.

"Well, we were walking out of a bar, and this European guy started talking shit about Americans. We all got pissed, and started this fight outside of the bar. The cops came and broke up the fight. Right as the cops were leaving, the guy that started shit the first time started talking shit about Americans again, so I punch him in the face."

"Right in front of a cop?" I asked, amusement clearly showing on my face.

"Yeah. I had to spend the night there, and it wasn't pleasant. Haha, motherfuckers! I win!"

Jimmy triumphantly threw his full-house down on the table, and did a little victory dance. I looked over at Acey, who was hiding her head in her hands and shaking it. Poor Acey. Her boyfriend can be a huge fucking moron sometimes.

Several hours later, at about 4:30 in the morning, the driver decided to head out to the next destination, which was in Asbury Park, New Jersey. We didn't come through here on the first leg of the tour, and I had always wanted to go there.

"Guys, I'm done playing cards. I'm gonna go to bed," I stated as I got up from the table and made my way back to the bunk.

"Yeah, I think it's time everyone else went to bed, too. I think we've all had a little bit too much to drink," Matt said.

We all cleaned up the mess, and everyone climbed into their respective bunks.

I got into my bunk with Johnny after we stripped down into our underclothes. I climbed in first, and he climbed in after me. I faced the outside of the bunk, and Johnny layed down to face me after he zipped the curtain shut. He stroked my face and gently kissed me before closing his eyes. I found it a lot easier to get comfortable this time. Maybe it was because Johnny and I were back on good terms. Or maybe it was a mixture of everything that had happened today. I get back together with the love of my life, Jimmy falls off of his bench in the middle of a song, I end up directing a TPing job, and I get thrown in jail with my boyfriend, and his best friend who is also dating my best friend.

I opened my eyes and noticed that Johnny was already fast asleep. I smiled to myself, and tried once again to go back to sleep.

I'll say this much. Around my brother and his band, my life is never dull.