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

Where'd you go, I miss you so, seems like it's forever that you've been gone, where'd you go, I miss you so, seems like it's been forver that you've been gone, please come back home, you know, the place where you use to live...

Mike Shinoda and Holly Brook's voices poured through the speakers as Austin rode shotgun in Mica's car on the way to work. Unable to stand the song any longer she reached out and shut off the stereo completely. It wasn't that she didn't like the song, it just came way to close to being exactly about her life.

Mica glanced at her before looking back at the road, "what did you do that for?"

"It was depressing," Austin swirled a chunk of her blond and black and pink hair in between her fingers.

"You," Mica checked over her shoulder before switching lanes, "are depressing. How come you're so bummed today?"

Austin leaned back into her seat, slipped off her black heels and placed her barefeet on the dash of Mica's car, "because it's like five in the morning, and I went to bed at about, oh, four-thirty." She hoped Mica wouldn't ask why, because her answer would have been one word. Matt.

"Well that was stupid," Mica stopped at the intersection behind a few vehicles and glanced at her friend, "want a coffee?"

"Coffee would be an improvement to this shitty day, yes."

When the light turned green Mica managed to sneak into the turning lane and they headed to a small coffee shop not too far from their office building.

On their way back to the car, coffee in hand, Mica smiled as the strolled down the sidewalk. "You know, you could have said no to this new account, and we could have stayed in bed for a few more hours."

Austin nodded in agreement as she pulled back the tab on the lid of her coffee cup, "yeah, but a few more hours isn't going to put thousands of dollars in my bank account."

"Fair enough."

They climbed back into the car and made the three minute drive to their office building, parking underground to save them from the California heat that was bound to spring up on them sometime in the middle of the day.

***

Matt rolled over on the couch to discover Johnny and Zacky sitting on the floor in the living room playing video games.

"Ahhh sleeping beauty awakens."

Matt looked up and sure enough there was Syn and Rev seated on the other couch staring at him.

"You were lucky man, I was about to come give you a kiss," Syn smiled.

"Jesus what did you drink last night?" Zacky asked him, getting up from his position on the floor allowing Rev to move in and take over, "it's almost one in the afternoon."

"Nothing," Matt muttered, sitting up and running his fingers through his already messy hair. He must have been far more tired than he realized.

"He didn't have to drink anything," Johnny laughed without taking his eyes off of the televison, "he had a visitor last night."

Zacky's head snapped around and he stared directly at Matt, "no way?"

Matt knew what he was talking about and shook his head, "no...Melanie."

"Dude, you're still tapping that?" Syn sat up straight, looking inruiged by this new information.

"Oh there was no tapping last night so leave him alone," Lacy came into the living room dressed in jeans and simple white tshirt with her dark hair pulled back into a pony tail. "We made you guys lunch so if you wanna eat, go for it."

"We?" Matt mouthed Zacky.

Zacky nodded. "Yeah, Gena, Michelle and Leana are here to. They're just in the kitchen where they should be," Zacky grinned over at Gena as she entered the living room and pointed her finger at him.

"You Vengeance, are going to pay for that little comment."

Zacky's face lit up, "sex?"

Gena shook her head and followed Lacey to the front door, "lack of sex is more like it."

"Shitty deal," Syn laughed.

"You may be next, Gates," Michelle and Leana made their way through the living room to the front door as well.

"Where are you going?" Rev leaned back and braced his hands on the floor, looking over his shoulder at the girls.

Leana basically waddled over to him, crouched down to the best of her abilites and kissed him softly upside down, "we are going to the Spa."

"The spa?" Johnny questioned, setting his controller down on the ground. Leana stood up and went to put her shoes on, "how long are you going to be?"

"Until we get back," Michelle smiled sweetly, "babe, we're taking our car."

Syn stared at her, "how am I suppose to get home."

"I'm sure one of the other guys will give you a ride, later boys," Michelle half waved as she follwed the girls out the door, pulling it shut behind her.

"Well that sucks," Zacky leaned back into the couch, "what are we suppose to do all day?"

"We should do something we haven't done in a long time," Johnny got up off the floor and brushed off his black pants. Everyone stared up at him curiously, "fishing."

Syn nodded his head slightly as he pondered the idea, "if there is beer involved I'm in."

"Beer holds the same importance as the fishing rods," Johnny assured him.

"Then let's go," Rev smiled.

***

"Hey Mica?" Austin stared down at the folder in her hands, holding it open and absent mindedly flipping through pages. She reached for the door handle on the door to their office, and swung it open, "Mica?" she looked up but Mica wasn't there.

Bewildered she closed the folder and the door to their offices and headed down the hallway.

She poked her head into the photocopy room, "hey, Jill have you seen Mica?"

Jill nodded and continued to collect the paper that the copy machine spit out. "Yeah, she was in the lunch room talking to some of the girls. I didn't know that you knew Avenged Sevenfold."

Austin rolled her eyes, "why is that such a big deal?"

"Because they're an amazing band," Jill put her papers together and placed a large paper clip over them in one corner.

Austin couldn't argue with her there, but she didn't want to be the talk of her entire building. She had to find Mica.

"Thanks," she ducked out of the room and headed straight for the lunch room. Sure enough, there was Mica sitting at one of the large tables chatting with a couple other girls from the office.

"Oh hey," she smiled up at Austin when the door clicked shut.

"Hey," Austin went to the fridge and retreived one of her bottles of water, "you busy?"

Mica got up from the table, "nope what do you need?"

"Help with this new account."

The other girls at the table got up and began dispersing. Austin knew it was because of her. She wasn't the most friendly, and the entire building knew that. She was strictly there to do her job, and to do it well.

Mica watched them leave then turned back to her friend. "You know. If you started hanging out with new people, and going out, meeting people from work after hours, your time here would go alot smoother."

"It's going just fine for me," Austin smiled fakely, "now are you going to help me?"

"Sure," Mica followed her out of the lunch room and back down the hallway to their offices, "but I can't possibly imagine what I can do to help you."

"I want you right in there with me on this one," Austin closed the door behind them.

Mica looked at her awkwardly.

"I'll give you hald of the commission."

Mica's face went from one of confusion to one of astonishment. "That's like...more money than I make in a year."

Austin gasped and mockingly covered her mouth. Mica playfully smacked her on the arm before taking a seat behind her desk. Austin made herself at home sitting on the edge of the desk. "alright, this is what we'll start with."

***

"Oooooh Syn!" Zacky ran after Syn in the parking lot of their favorite restaurant. Zacky's hands smelled like fish due to the fact that they'd managed to actually catch some, and no one else would touch them.

"Don't fuckin' touch me," Syn looked ahead and jumped to the side to avoid running into a fixed garbage can.

"They're like a bunch of fuckin' little kids," Rev shook his head in shame as he held the front door open, waiting with Matt and Johnny, for the other two to settle down before heading inside.

There they met found the girls who'd had a few tables pushed together for them which was pretty much routine at this restaurant. Only, there was an addition to the girl group. Val was seated near her sister.

Matt immediately went to the other side of the table and managed to snag a seat beside Johnny, letting Lacey sit beside Val.

"Hey," Val smiled across the table at him and he nodded his head in recognition.

"Hey, where's Maddison?"

"With mom," Val replied flatly.

Matt nodded, she didn't look like she really wanted to talk to him. Which, was alright with him. She'd probably heard in a round about way about him still seeing Melanie. The girl that'd he'd originally left her for.

"So who are we waiting for?" Lacy asked curiously, interrupting everyone's conversations because the waitress was now standing at her side.

Gena squealed, "Zacky that's fucking disgusting!"

Zacky laughed and put his hands down underneath the table again, "well, Gena you shouldn't have offered to smell them."

The group quieted down again, "so?" Lacy prompted.

Leana looked at Matt, their eyes locking for a moment, "an old friend."

***

"I don't want to do this," Austin protested as she pulled into the restaurant parking lot and parked as close to the font door as she could get.

Mica crawled out of the passenger seat and waited for Austin to get out. "Come on, it's just supper, we all went out for ice cream last night, why is this night different?"

"Because Leana said everyone is going to be here," Austin stared at her friend over the top of her car, "you do realize that probably includes Val right?"

"Oh come on," Mica rolled her eyes, "she use to be your best friend."

"Yeah," Austin nodded, "key words, use to be."

Mica and Austin were both silent as they simply stared at each other. Mica finally let out a sigh of frustration.

"Fine, if you don't want to go in we won't."

Austin stood up straight, "are you serious?"

Mica was silent for a moment before shaking her head. "No. So she fucked your boyfriend. How many years ago was that? How young were you? Yeah, so it was a moment of betrayal between friends, but let me tell you something. Everyone, everyone experiences that in some form or another through out the course of their life. Look at it this way. You got yours out of the way early."

She stared at her friend in shock. That little lecture hit home. Sure it hurt. But even back then she didn't really think that her and Matt were in it to last.

"You mad at me now?"

Austin laughed softly, "no, you're right."

Mica grinned, "I'm right? News flash hon, I'm always right, now let's go eat."

She gave in and began walking with Mica to the front door. They headed inside and were soon ushered towards the rest of the group. Austin's fears were confirmed. Val was there. At least she wasn't sitting next to Matt. That would have been hard to stomach.

"Hey," Leana greeted them enthousiastically, and almost everyone followed suit. They met Gena and Austin endured Syn's powerful hug and appology for being a 'little' rude the other night.

Once she was able to sit down, she hated her options. Matt. Or Val. Unsure of Val's response, and out of spite, she opted to sit down next to Matt, allowing Mica to sit by Val.

"Hi," Matt smiled.

"Hey," Austin placed her small purse on her lap and crossed one leg over the other. The table errupted into chatter amongst themselves but Matt and Austin kept fairly quiet.

"So this is...,"

"Awkward," Austin finished his sentence.

"You ain't kiddin'," he laughed softly.

Austin placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand, "so how was your day?" She was there. He was there. Might as well attempt to talk to him.

"Good," he took a drink of his beer before replacing it on the table, "went fishing."

Austin actually laughed, "you went fishing?"

"Well, the guys and I went."

"Did you catch anything?" she was totally enamored with this. She could not picture the guys fishing.

"Yeah, Zacky, Rev and I did," he grinned that wicked smile and Austin's heart jumped into her throat.

"Awesome," Austin smiled and sat up as the waitress approached.

"Is everyone ready to order?"

Austin sat up straight and read the menu, choosing what she wanted while the others ordered. Maybe tonight wouldn't be such a bad night after all.