Shattered By Broken Dreams

“Bekah? I thought you looked kinda familiar. What are you doing in Houston?” He smiled an absolutely adorable dimpled smile and hugged me.

“I should as you the same thing!” I smiled as I pulled back. “Houston is home for me. I’ve lived here all my life. Plus I got to see Mark before I started working.”

“I thought you lived in Cali?” Matt asked, confused.

“I kind of live in California. My dad just relocated himself and my younger brothers there at the start of Christmas break, just a little after my mom died. I was only there for about a month before I went back to school.” I answered Matt. “So you never answered me. Why are you in Houston?”

“Wow. You really don’t know your favorite bands, huh?” Brian laughed.

“You’re in Avenged Sevenfold, aren’t you?” I asked, slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah. I’m just the front man slash lead singer. No biggie.” Matt laughed.

“I feel dumb now.” I laughed.

“I’m confused. How did you two meet and where the hell was I?” Brian asked.

“We met at a party Mark threw in California over my Christmas break. I was playing chaperone and either Matt’s a really good faker, or he really did get sick and I took care of him.” I laughed as Matt went red with embarrassment. “Now, ya’ll have fans to mingle with and I have a job to do. I get my break in an hour and if you haven’t found anyone more interesting to talk to, feel free to find me then. But, until then, Deb needs my help and both of you are fine.” I said sweetly, my Southern accent making itself known.

“You do know that we’re going to Dallas tonight, right? I want to keep talking, catch up a little. I never got to say thank you that night. Or get your number.”Matt tried to reason with me.

“And I want to flirt more.” Brian stated boldly.

“Yes, I know we’re going to Dallas tonight. I’m glad you know the tour schedule too.” I smiled.

“We?” Brian asked.

“Too?” Matt questioned simultaneously.

“Did I forget to mention that I’m a traveling nurse? I’m here until California.” I laughed. “Now, really. Both of you are fine and I have patients to take care of. It was good to meet you, Brian, and Matt; it was good to see you again.”

An hour later, I went on my break, as promised. I got to go see a show or two and just hang out like a normal 20 year old. But all I wanted to do was sit and think. I thought about my life thus far and how it’d turned out, how my younger brothers were adjusting to California summers on the beach, how my now 4 month old son was with the people who adopted him, and then something hit me. “How the hell does Mark know Matt???” When this thought smacked me in the face, I pulled out my cell to call my brother and ask him, but as soon as I had found the number in my contacts list, Matt, Brian and 3 other vaguely familiar guys walked up.

“And guys, this is the hot nurse who doesn’t know who we are, but loves our music. Also, she saved my life!” Brian embellished as he scooped me into a semi-awkward side hug.

“That is an absolute exaggeration, hun.” I said as I hugged him back.

“PSH! No. I was about to pass out and die and you brought me back!” Brian said as if he were trying to make me believe it.

“You are such a drama queen!” I scoffed in laughter.

“That would be drama KING to you, missy!” Brian smiled before poking his tongue out at me, dangerously close to my face.

I leaned away as far as Brian’s arm would let me. “Careful Brian. If you stick that too much closer to me, I might be tempted to bite it.” I smirked.

Instantly, all five pairs of eyes were on my smirking face.

“I like you already!” The super tall one exclaimed as he snatched me from Brian’s grasp. “I’m Jimmy, also known as The Rev. But you can call me BESTIE!!!” He laughed.

I laughed along with him, feeling more at ease with these 5 strangers than I ever have in my life. “But if I call you bestie, there are going to be awkward conversations with my other besties. They’re gonna get all jealous.” I smiled.

“Well then, it can be our little secret.” He winked at me.

“Sounds good, Jimmy.” I giggled a little.

“So now that we know you’re a biter, is there anything else we should know?” The guy with snakebites asked with a wink and a smirk. He looked devilishly gorgeous.

“Well, I’d say ‘yes’ but that’s all privileged information. I just met you guys. None of ya’ll are that lucky… Yet…” I said as I eyed all of them up flirtatiously. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a horrible flirt. It’s just a part of my nature. It’s gotten me in trouble once or twice, but it’s gotten me out of several tickets. Just then, Matt decided that he’d steal me from my new best friend, Jimmy. “What is this? Are we playing hot potato???” I laughed.

“Not a bad idea. But no, not right at this moment. We just wanted to get to know you a little better. Any friend of Mark’s is a friend of ours.” Matt said as we all went to the lunch tent to find a place to sit.

I was introduced to Jonny and Zacky and we got to talking. Soon enough, Jimmy had a beer pong story involving my brother and Michael versus Matt and Brian. Once I had my laugh over how the two grown men were beaten by teenagers, I asked a question that had been burning in my mind for about 45 minutes now.

“That reminds me: How do ya’ll know Mark? I was about to call him and ask when you guys showed up.”

“That guy’s one hell of a party animal. We had a show around here a few years ago and Mark and Michael had come out to see their friend’s band play. They were opening for us that night and they were pretty good. When we were done, we decided to go and ask them if they wanted to go celebrate a good show with us. By the time we got backstage, Mark, Michael and a few of those guy’s friends were all hanging out. When we asked them, everyone but Mark and Michael said no. We found a party to crash, there was beer pong.” Matt started to explain.

“Oh dang. I know how this story ends. Who did they beat?” I laughed.

“Jimmy and Jonny first, then me and Brian.” Matt hung his head in shame. I laughed harder.

“After that night, we called rematch whenever we were in the area, so we exchanged numbers so that we could call them up when we were here. They’ve ended up being pretty great friends to us.”

“So how do you know Mark?” Zacky asked once Matt was done with his explanation.
I had stopped laughing, but I had a grin as if saying I-know-something-you-don’t-know. “I’m going to ignore that for 2 minutes. Answer me this first. Do ya’ll know how old Mark is?”

“Not for sure. He’s like 25 or 26, right?” Brian guessed

I bit my lip to keep my laughter at bay and shook my head. “Ya’ll are gonna die when you hear this. You played the show at the Warehouse Live when you met Mark and Michael 4 years ago, right?”

“Holy shit! Are you psychic?” Jimmy asked, excited.

“No, but that was the only concert he went to when he was a senior in high school.” I smiled.

“HIGH SCHOOL??? We got our asses handed to us by high schoolers???” Brian gasped. “What is it with you and hurting my ego?” He laughed.