Every Time You Fall Apart You Can Hide Here In My Arms

"God dammit."

Twenty three year old Austin Barker slowed her car down as she neared the backed up traffic. With one foot on the brake, and her right knee holding the steering wheel she pulled a pony tail off her gear shift and ran her fingers through her hair; hair that she was slowly getting use to. A colleague had urged her to try something different, so she had. She was now a platinum blonde, with her underlayer of hair being black with pink tips. She tied it up into a half upside down pony tail and by the time she was done, traffic was moving again. When she finally entered the building's parking structure she glanced at the clock on her dash.

1:30pm. Just fuckin' great.

Grabbing her coffee and keys in one hand, and her shoulder bag in the other, she hurried into the building and did a quick glance at her appearane in the crystal clear windows. She was wearing high heels, ripped jeans, a belt that didn't go through the loops but hung nicely on her hips, a Gn' R T-shirt and a black pinstripe blazer. Her large sunglasses covered her eyes, but went nicely with her appearance.

Satisfied and unable to really fix anything anyway, she swiped her card and slipped through the front check and into the elevator. When it opened up again near the top floor she jogged the best she could through the office halls. She was late for her afternoon meeting...again. They'd only re-scheduled the damn thing three times now, and the one time the band actually shows up, she's late. Though the only thing she had on her side right now was the fact that she was the best advertising executive in the building, and the band had requested her.

Mica (Mee-ka) jumped out of her chair when Austin threw the door open. It seemed only right to have a very good friend as her secretary. After all, you didn't wanna be sharing every little secret with someone you hardly knew.

"Damn, you look good for being late."

Austin rolled her eyes and tossed her bag onto Mica's desk. "Are they in there?"

Mica nodded, "you want me to take your coffee?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm gonna need it," she gestured towards her bag, "there is something in there for you."

Mica grinned and opened up Austin's bag, "hey, Austin?"

Austin opened the door slightly and stopped, "what?"

"Your sunglasses," she grinned.

Austin took them off, placing them in the same hand as her coffee. "Thanks," she sighed.

She opened the door that lead into her office space and smiled before closing it behind her.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," she appoligized immediately only to notice none of the guys were even paying attention to her anyway. A couple were all oogling over the large pictures of them set up around her office on easels, while one admired her two guitars near the window.

"You play?" he asked her as he poined to the light pink one.

She shook her head, "no, I'm just thinking of starting a collection. Those ones there belonged to my father."

"Barker?" one finally sat down, "so are you related to Travis Barker?"

Austin smiled, "he's my uncle, though I don't think I've ever really met him."

"That's crazy," the others muttered before finally sitting down in their chairs and it wasn't until they were all settled that Austin realized their representative was there to.

"Well, I don't believe we've formally met," the one in the middle, the one who'd been eyeying the guitars stood up and extended his hand. "I'm James, James Hart lead singer of Eighteen Visions."

Austin shook his hand, "nice to meet you."

"And this is Keith Barney, Mick Morris, and Ken Floyd, Trevor Friedrich, and this is our legal rep Mike McKoy."

Austin shook hands with every one of them before sitting on the edge of her desk.

"Well, as you can see I got in touch with my photographer, which you guys met with two weeks ago, and these are the results," she gestured around the room at all the examples. "I've made a few changes, and of course, for posters, and things like that, we'll really deck them out."

"These two over here," she went around her desk and picked up two examples off the top of the pile Mica had arranged for her, before passing one to Mick and one to Ken, "would work good for album covers, or something like that. Of course ultimately, it's up to you guys."

The boys looked them over and the rest of the meeting went relatively quickly. By the end she felt comfortable around them and joking around came naturally. However James' next question caught her off guard.

"Hey listen, what are you doing tonight?"

She was now sitting on her desk, her legs dangling over the edge, her shoes laying on the floor. "Nothing that I know of, why?"

He grinned. "Well, some friends of ours are going to a party and they invited us. So if you can stand being around a bunch of drunk wanna be rockstars, I'd love for you to come with us," he glanced back and forth between the guys, "well, with me especially."

She wasn't entirely sure what to say. If she said yeah sure, it'd be like 'hey can't wait to get into your pants' but if she no, it would be like saying, 'no, I don't wanna be seen at a party with you'. The problem with this whole situation, was that she was unsure of most rockstars motives, and well, needless to say, James Hart was damn hot which was often deceiving.

"You can't say no," he pleaded like he could read her mind, "please, it's just a house party, it's nothing major."

Austin smiled before nodding slightly, "alright, sounds good."

James stood up and the rest of the guys followed suit, "so, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live?"

Austin thought about it for a moment, not that she couldn't remember her address, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go there with him. "Would it be easier for me to just drive?"

He glanced between the guys, "you can drive if you want, I think we were just gonna get a taxi so it would be no biggy to pick you up."

"Oh," she smiled. "Well then here," she turned slightly and grabbed a pad of paper off her desk and a pen. She jotted down her address and cell number and passed it to him. "What time do you want me ready?"

He took it and tucked it into the back pocket of his pants, "probably around nine thirty, ten...if that's alright."

She nodded before jumping off her desk in her bare feet and letting them out of her office, "I'll see you then."

The boys filed out one at a time thanking her as they went. Mica waited patiently by her desk until the guys were out of earshot.

"You're going to meet them again?" she squealed.

Austin laughed and headed back into her office to pick up her shoes, "yeah, a party tonight, it's nothing major," she used James' exact words hoping it'd be true.

"Nothing major?" Mica was hovering around behind her, "you're going to a party with Eighteen Visions."

Austin slipped on her shoes and turned around to face her friend. "Okay, so it's kind of exciting," she began gathering up the pictures. "Did you like what I got you?" she tried changing the subject.

It worked, because Mica beamed, hell she was practically glowing. "Yes, thank you so much! If I could I'd put it on right now."

Austin laughed, "there isn't a dress code here Mica, put it on if you like."

"I just might," Mica laughed and left the room, Austin was right behind her ready to take the pictures back to the layout room. The Vengeance University T-Shirt she'd bought Mica was displayed on her desk proudly, smoothed out and wrinkle free.

"Wouldn't it be something if they came in for your help?" Mica ran her fingers over the top of the shirt. Austin knew that she was refering to Avenged Sevenfold.

"Yeah, wouldn't that be something," she said dully. She'd never told anyone that she actually knew Avenged Sevenfold, especially not Mica. The woman would go nuts.

"Hey, I'm gonna get to work on these," Austin headed for the door leaving both of their offices, "I'll see you before you leave tonight," she promised before setting off to work.