Radiant Eclipse

“Ugh, yeah I think I need to get some food in me before I’m too far gone.”

Ash commented, as they all downed the fourth shot of the night.

“I think there’s still some pizza from last night in the oven.”

Corinne replied, as she tried to turn around and open the oven. She pulled out almost two full pizzas, and everyone dug in before Shads finally spoke up.

“Before, we all get too far gone, we should probably talk about why we’re here. I just realized, I don’t think we have. Obviously, you all know that the Toronto date of Uproar is tomorrow, and the lucky contest winners haven’t been announced yet. And that’s because we wanted to tell them in person.”

All the guys covered their ears, and laughed, as the five girls first tackle hugged Shads, then all the other members of Avenged Sevenfold.

“I wanted to guess that’s why you guys were at the show tonight, but at the same time, I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up if we weren’t the chosen ones.”

Jess replied, from where she stood, in between Zacky and Jimmy.

“We have to do something to celebrate. Too bad we finished all the champagne from Tay’s birthday.”

“Now, now, we can’t get too crazy. We, all, still have a pretty big show to play tomorrow. What do you girls normally do when you want to celebrate?”

“Go to the drive bar just around the corner for cheap pitchers of beer and the greasy, goodness of poutine. Nothing fancy, but it works for us.”

Not before grabbing another box of Ritz Bitz, Ash led the way out of the house and over to the bar. They were about halfway down the street when she asked,

“So Amber, tell us about yourself. We know you’re from Seattle but what are you doing here in Toronto?”

“Well, I came here for my boyfriend. He came up here for school, and wanted me to come up here so we could be together, blah, blah, blah. And then one night, after I went out with some friends I had made, I came home to him fucking some slut. And I want to go home, my parents want me home, but they don’t want to send me the money to get home because they didn’t want me coming out here in the first place. I’m probably going to take the bus home. It’s two days and five bus changes, but I can’t really do much else. I just have to find a way to come up with the last two hundred dollars for the trip.”

Before she could say anything else, Amber had a random assortment of paper money shoved into her hands.

“Aww, you guys ..”
“I’d like to think I am speaking for all of us, when I say don’t try giving the money back, because we’re not going to take it. You’re going home to Seattle and that’s the bottom line. Well, after tomorrow’s show of course.”

Ash smiled, as she opened the door to the bar. And the second she did that, it became quite apparent to the guys that the girls went there quite often. The patrons and staff working there greeted them, as if they were family. Ash led the way to the back, past all the tables and up the stairs. They got to the outside, open air patio, which thankfully was empty. Everyone grabbed a seat on the bench, and kicked back, waiting for the Berry’s, Dan, Amber and Nat, who stayed behind to grab the drinks. Finally they came upstairs, accompanied by one of the bartenders, pitchers of beer for everyone.

“I have something to say.”

Ash stated, as she stood up on the bench.

“First off, I think I speak for all my bandmates when I say thank you, for choosing us. Thank you for giving us the chance to show not only ourselves, but everybody else what we can do. And I think that calls for a toast.”

Everybody raised their pitchers, and drank while Ash maneuvered herself back into a sitting position. A few pitchers and poutines later, the ladies of Radiant Eclipse, the boys of Avenged Sevenfold, and friends, were sufficiently buzzed. Knowing they all had a show to play in a couple of hours, they wanted to have their fun, but not to the point where they would be too far gone to play. They listened to the music that filtered out of the nearby salsa club, as Dan, the Berry’s, Natalie and Amber got up and started dancing. Well, at least they tried to, until Dan tripped and nearly face planted onto a chair. Once he got himself into a sitting position, Ash & Jess, who had stood up, not so discreetly pushed Natalie into Dan’s lap. And as if on cue, all the guys started chanting “lap dance, lap dance”, and a new song started playing at the club.

Natalie stood up, drained the rest of her beer, and pushed Dan back down into the chair. And much to his delight, she started dancing.