Seize the Day

As soon as I got back on the ground in Lexington, I called Matt to let him know I’d made it alive. I got a cab and went home, where I promptly crashed for the next twelve hours.

On Wednesday, I went into work, handed in my resignation letter, and answered all of the questions about my vacation, why I was leaving, and just one about what I was doing at a label showcase show, on M. Shadows’ arm. I worked with a girl who was apparently a fan as well, and the kind who kept up with news and photos at that. She ended up showing me a couple of pictures that had been posted online from the showcase, clearly showing Matt and I holding hands and looking very cozy. “You look great there, by the way,” she added. “But, uh, what’s the what?”

I sighed before I launched into the short version of the story, which was still pretty long. “Completely randomly, I met Matt and the guys at a restaurant bar, hung out with them a couple times, and he and I kind of hit it off.” I caught the look in her eye, and almost rolled mine. “Matt and Valary split up about eight months ago.”

“I had no idea!” she interrupted.

“I know, me either. No one did. It hasn’t been announced. Probably will be soon though,” I explained before I continued my story. “Obviously, I went to the Warner Brothers showcase with them,” I said pointing at her computer screen, “and then Matt helped me find a job, so I’m moving to LA, as soon as I finish out my two weeks here. Well, week and a half, actually.” She just stared at me speechless. “Go ahead, say it,” I huffed. “Whoa. That’s all anyone has said when I tell this story.”

“Yeah, but,” she started. “Whoa,” was all she could get out to finish.

“See? I told you.” I crossed my arms and smiled at her.

“You’re serious?” she asked, eyes wide.

“You found the pictures, not me. How much do you trust their source?” I replied. “Which is where, exactly? Should I be expecting more questions, or is it strictly a fansite?” I tried to steer the conversation away from her fan girl reactions. I was really hoping they weren’t in like People magazine or something that lots of people read.

“They were on Deathbat News, but I’m pretty sure they came from a newspaper in California.”

“Good. That means unless it’s a fan who regularly reads DBN, I should be ok.” I was really not ready to deal with any sort of publicity right now, even if I should have known it would happen. I mean, I’d spent a big chunk of two weeks hanging out in very public places with a group of very recognized and very photographed men. I was thanking Matt through every energy I had for not giving my name to any of those reporters right now.

When I got back to my desk, I sent Matt a text message.

-- Girl at work showed me pics of us @ WB showcase on Deathbat News. My first public appearance! Thanks for not giving my name! --

I went on about my daily work, trying to figure out what could be finished up, and what needed to be passed off when I left, until my phone buzzed that I had a new message. It was Matt, of course.

-- Knew you weren’t ready for that. How are things going? I miss you.--

I was torn between laughter and nervous butterflies as I replied. I’ve only been back here less than 24 hours! Hard to tell how things are going, goofball, I giggled to myself. But then there was the “I miss you” part. That’s what brought the butterflies.

-- Things are good so far, only been back 1 day! :) Explaining things a lot today. I miss you too. Really. --

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The rest of the week crawled by in much the same manner. I turned in my resignation letters at both of my part time jobs, and gave them the shortened version of the story behind my move; the version that didn’t involve all but falling head over heels for the lead singer of one of my favorite bands. I didn’t leave my post as a chairperson for Scarefest, but made sure they knew that even though I wasn’t going to be around for any more of the meetings, I was still going to be there, and could do my work from LA. I’d made some calls about apartments in LA, but nothing was coming through so far. Thursday afternoon, I got a text from Matt saying his divorce paperwork had come through, and that there would be a press release from the label dropped.

All total, only three people mentioned the photos. Aside from the girl at work, Alex called me to say she’d seen them as well, and thirdly, the weirdest of all, someone recognized me at the fucking mall while I was shopping in Hot Topic Saturday evening. I guess I should have known that if anyone, anywhere would have seen the pictures, it would be a teenaged girl wearing a worn-in Avenged shirt, buying red eye smudge and purple hair dye at Hot Topic. I heard her whispering and arguing with her friends as they were looking through a couple of new A7X t-shirts. I just kept looking at the other band tees, trying to ignore them. Finally, she came up to me.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry to bother you,” she began politely, “but I swear you look like someone I’ve just seen in some photos on the internet.”

“It’s not her,” one of her friends said from behind her, not at all trying to be quiet. “Why the hell would she be here in Kentucky if it was the girl M. Shadows dumped his wife for?”

I tried really very hard not to snap and just start screaming at these kids for even assuming that. I ignored the kid behind her, and addressed the girl speaking to me directly. “I’m V,” I said, holding out my hand to her. I’d decided that I still wasn’t giving out my actual full name to anyone. She shook my hand. “I’m not sure which pictures you’re talking about, could you elaborate?”

“Well, um, I’m a big fan of Avenged Sevenfold,” she stammered. Yes, honey, I can see your shirt, I wanted to say. “I was looking at some pics on Deathbat News this morning, and you look just like the girl that M. Shadows had with him at a label show a week or so ago.”

“Idiot,” the boy behind her hissed.

“Well, two things,” I said, now addressing the boy behind her as well. “Firstly, I actually am that girl who attended the Warner Brothers label showcase with Avenged Sevenfold the Friday before last.”

“I told you!” she squealed at the kids behind her, while the stupid boy just stared at me.

“Secondly, do any of you know how long it takes to file for and finalize divorce proceedings?” Of course, none of them answered. They just stared some more. I was fully speaking at this point to the boy who made the comment about me destroying Matt’s marriage. “A really long time, in most cases, and two months at the very, very least. Now, a little math. The label showcase that you’re referring to was just two weeks ago, correct?” He nodded. “Two weeks ago, is less than two months, at the very least, correct?” He nodded again. “Could you please explain to me, then, how my appearing at a showcase two weeks ago has anything to do with M. Shadows and his wife Valary deciding to file for a divorce nearly eight months prior to that? A divorce that was announced as finalized just two days ago?”

“Uh, I don’t, um...”

“Exactly. They had split up long before I even met the band, and so, I had absolutely nothing to do with it, let alone the reason he ‘dumped her’, as you so eloquently put it.” I turned back to the first girl, who was staring at me, mouth agape. I smiled at her. “Sorry about that. But yes, I am the girl in the pictures you’re referring to. I’m from here in Lexington, but I’m moving to Southern California after next week.”

“I’m sorry about my friend,” she squeaked. “He’s kind of a dick. So you’re moving to SoCal, huh?”

“Yep, finishing out next week at work, then packing up and moving West.” I was really trying to be cordial. She was actually a very nice girl. “It was very nice to meet you.”

“You too!” she called as I walked to the cash register. I had picked up a new Jason Voorhees hoodie, and suddenly really wanted to get out of the tiny store. I saw the look on the cashier’s face as I approached the register. “You heard all that, didn’t you?” He nodded. “Sorry about almost flipping out on your customers,” I said.

“Nah, you handled it well, I’d say.” He smiled as he rang up my sweatshirt and removed the anti-theft tag. Just then, a few chimes over the store’s music system signaled the beginning of a song I knew too well.

“Oh my god, you’re kidding me!” I wailed, slapping my hands over my face.

The cashier just laughed, knowing full well that it was “Nightmare” that had just come on the satellite radio station piped into the store. “I can skip it if you’d like,” he offered, grinning.

“No, it’s ok, I’ll be out of here in a second.” I had to laugh with him. “Thanks, man. Have a good night,” I said as I took the bag from his hand. “Sorry again for the almost freak-out. Guess I’ll have to learn to control that.”

I nearly ran out of the store and out of the mall, before I seriously lost it. I’d managed to keep my cool on the outside, but inside I was a basket case. As soon as I got in my car, I did the first thing I could think to do -- I called Matt.

“Hey, sweets,” he answered his phone.

“Hey,” I returned, willing myself with all I was worth to keep calm and not break down into tears. “So, I just had a run-in.”

“Oh, shit! What happened?”

“I was just shopping and someone recognized me from those pictures I told you about the other day. She was nice enough about it, but one of the kids she was with made some shitty comment about me being the reason you left Valary, and I very nearly smashed his face in.” I managed to get the full story out in one breath, and was still able to keep all but one tear from falling.

“Vivienne, you know you had absolutely nothing to do with me and Val’s breakup. It had already happened when I met you.” I heard his voice tensing, as if he was as upset over the situation as I was.

“Of course I know that. I know that, you know that, and Valary knows that,” I said. “And the three of us knowing is all that really matters. However, that doesn’t keep the entire world from thinking it.” I sighed lightly, and before he had a chance to say anything else, I continued. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you with this. It just really caught me off guard, being recognized as ‘that girl from those pictures’ while I was trying to shop in my own town, you know?”

“Of course I know.” He laughed as if it was an obvious statement.

“Of course you know. Sorry,” I said sheepishly.

“Baby, it’s fine. Don’t sweat it.” I think he may have continued talking, but honestly, he’d lost me at “baby.”

Oh my god. My thoughts were suddenly twirling beyond my control again. Did he just call me “baby”?

“You still there?” he said from his end of the phone, snapping me back to reality.

“Yeah, I’m here, sorry,” I sighed.

“I’m really sorry that all of the craziness followed you to Kentucky.”

“There’s no reason for you to be sorry,” I said. “Like I said, I’m ok now. I just needed to talk it out. It really just freaked me out.”

“Hey, just think,” he said, and I could hear him smiling, “another week and you’ll be be back here with me.”

Ah, a subject change. Thank god for small miracles. “You’re right, and I can’t wait!” I exclaimed, unable to control the emotional reaction in my voice.

He chuckled softly. “Just don’t let anyone else get you all riled up, and hurry back here, ok?”

“Ok, I’m working on it. By the way, I haven’t been able to get any leads on apartments. Any way I could talk you into doing a little more research for me? I’m going to have to get something squared away in less than a week.”

“Of course I can,” he said. “Although, I still think you could just stay with me.”

I sighed, and the butterflies started stirring again. “I know. But I already told you how I feel about,” I started, but he interrupted me.

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to suggest it again.”

“Thank you,” I said genuinely. “But remember, just because I may not be living with you, doesn’t mean I’m not planning on spending a lot of time there.” I let a little bit of flirtiness creep into my tone.

“Is that so?” he asked, a little sarcastically.

“Yep, that’s so,” I said indifferently. “But yeah, do you mind to check around and see if you can get any more info on apartments?”

“Sure thing,” he said.

My god, I think I can hear his dimples, I thought. “You’d be my hero forever.”

“Well, I guess that’s all that matters, right?”

“Damn straight!” I laughed. “Ok, I’ll let you go. Thanks for letting me rant for a minute.”

“Anytime, babe. But I do have something I wanted to ask you. We were just talking about you, actually.”

Uh-oh, I thought. That could be good or bad. “What about?” I tried to sound nonchalant.

“Your convention, what was it called again?”

“Scarefest!” If he’s even offering what I couldn’t bring myself to ask, I’ll fall over, right here, right now.

“Right, Scarefest. I was just talking about it with the guys. You think we could come?”

And there it is, I thought. “Uh, of course. Like as fans or as celebrities?”

“That’s almost exactly what Brian asked me! But I don’t know. We could do a signing for sure, if you want.”

“Um, that would be fantabulous, actually.” He laughed. “What? You’ve never heard anyone make up words before?” I said, laughing too. “It’s better than fantastic or fabulous.”

“You and your made up words,” he said. “But yeah, we’d like to be there. Partially as fans ourselves, and partially as celebrities. Or specimens, as Brian put it. I mean Johnny’s got all those movie monster tattoos, and we have several songs about zombies and the like. We even thought about maybe a show, sort of a small set like the label showcase.”

“Oh my god, are you serious?” I couldn’t help but be crazy excited at that idea. Avenged Sevenfold, in my town, at my request? Hell motherfuckin’ yeah!

“Yeah, I’m serious.” He was laughing again. “If you have a place and the time.”

“Honey, if you want to play, I will find you a place and a time slot!” I didn’t think about calling him “honey” until it’d already come out of my mouth. “It might be a bar, smaller than the venue for that showcase, but I will find you a place if you want.”

“That would be cool, if you want us to.” He was really leaving this up to me?

“Of course I want you to play, are you kidding? Especially in my town, where people know me. I can be all like ‘Yeah, that’s Avenged Sevenfold. Yeah, I know them, I talked them into coming here. Yeah, I’m hanging out with them after the show.’” I was mocking every cocky, douchebaggy frat boy I’d ever known with that statement. I’d have popped my collar, if I’d been wearing a shirt with one.

“And then you can tell them that you’re kinda dating the lead singer,” he said.

The butterflies came back, full-force. “Yeah, I guess I could tell them that, but I wouldn’t want to brag,” I said, trying to sound confident, not jittery like I felt.

“You’re right, better to just parade me around and let them guess,” he said.

“Pretty much, yeah,” I said, still trying to sound more assertive than I was feeling. Seriously, what fucking Twlilight Zone vortex did I step into? There’s no way this is real life. I switched to my business brain. “I’ll talk with my coordinator, and see what we can work out. Will you guys want to be compensated for your appearance?” That’ll be the kicker. You’re gonna want way more money than we can manage to give you.

“Nope. Just get us in and we’ll do the rest.”

“Really? Nothing? Everyone’s got an appearance fee.”

“But not everyone is friends with you,” he said, as if I was someone special to be friends with.

“If you’re sure, I’ll talk to my guys and get something worked out for a show, and get you booth set up for signing. What days will you want to be there? It’s Friday through Sunday.” The three personalities inside me were warring. The business person was trying to stay calm and collected and work out details, while the fangirl was jumping up and down screaming because A7X was going to be at Scarefest. Plain ol’ V was trying not to hyperventilate, still, at the idea of dating M. Shadows (his words, not mine) and getting to show him off in her own town. I had pretty much forgotten about the encounter inside the mall at this point.

“We can be there the whole weekend, as long as you give us a break and don’t make us sign all day all three days,” he said, chuckling.

“Of course, you can break that up however you want. It’s up to you. I’m not the celebrity signing nazi,” I said, also laughing. “But I’ll run everything past my organizers and see what we can come up with, cool?"

“Very cool,” he said. “Sounds awesome.”

“I’ll call you later, ok?”

“Ok. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

Over the next two hours, I’d talked with everyone necessary to get things finalized to bring Avenged Sevenfold to Scarefest. From a convention standpoint, they’d be a huge draw, so we were scheduling their signing days on Friday and Sunday, the two slower days of the con. We’d also changed around the already planned concert schedule to accommodate their show on Saturday. I texted Matt to have him send me their band rider and anything they’d need at their booth, and met with both convention organizers, as well as the managers of the club they’d be playing to finalize everything. By that night, everything was set, and I emailed Matt the details and a contract, so that they could run over them to verify before we could make the announcement. Everyone was stoked about the turn of events, and I made out to be some kind of hero, bringing such a big name at the last minute, especially for no charge, other than lodging and local transportation! Sunday, Matt emailed me back the signed copy of the contract, approved by The Collective. The announcement was made, and the club immediately started selling tickets to the show.

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Matt’s POV

Vivienne had only been gone for barely four days, and already I missed her like crazy. How is that even possible? I kept thinking to myself. You only knew her for a total of two weeks anyway. The internal arguing was getting to the point that I could barely handle it.

“Dude, where the fuck do you keep going?” I heard Brian ask. “Is he gonna be ok?” His voice had changed directions; the last question was directed at someone else, not at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. It was Saturday afternoon, and the guys had come over, like every Saturday afternoon. The girls always went shopping, or something on Saturdays, so us guys always got together to drink, play video games, and bullshit. We were sitting on the pool deck, having a couple of beers.

“Man, I knew she got to you, but I didn’t realize it was this,” Zack started but trailed off. “Well, there’s nothing bad about it, so I don’t want to say that. At the risk of sounding stupidly gay, I didn’t realize it went that deep.”

I laughed. “Yeah, me either, dude.” As long as I’d known these fuckers, there was no way I could hide anything from them. Any of us knew immediately if something was up with another. It was weird, really. “Who the hell would have thought that someone I’d known for like 18 hours total could have all but overturned the last fifteen or twenty years?”

“Just goes to show you, you never know,” Johnny mused.

Zack, Brian, and I all looked at him like he had suddenly sprouted six extra heads.

“What?” he shot. “You douchebags can get all sentimental, but I can’t?”

“Well, we didn’t know you could, actually,” Brian said, laughing. “Anyway, V will be back here next weekend, and hopefully then we can keep Loverboy over here on this planet for more than five minutes.”

“Fuck you!” I chucked a bottle cap at his head. “She’ll be staying here this weekend, until her shit gets trucked out Monday or Tuesday.”

“So what are you saying?” Zack asked impishly. “That you don’t want us around?”

“No, idiot.” These jackasses sure know how to push buttons, don’t they? I asked myself. “I’m just letting you know. Is there anything going on this weekend we could get into?”

“Not that I know of,” Brian replied. “We could always make something to get into.” His grin was infectious.

“Now you’re talking,” I grinned. “Although, she won’t want a big fuckin’ party or anything. Just go out somewhere?”

“Dude, do you even remember who we are?” Johnny asked. “Everything is a big fuckin’ party when we’re involved, even if it’s just going out for drinks.”

“Christ is right,” Zack added. “But I know what you mean. Let’s just find someplace as low-key as we can get and chill.”

“Right.” I was glad that the guys understood what this meant to me, having her here, and what it’d mean to her not to make a big deal over it. “Oh, by the way, we don’t have anything on the agenda the weekend after Halloween, do we?”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Brian said. “Why?”

Zack was already checking the calendar on his phone. He was the responsible one, with all the schedules and shit. “Nope, that that I know of, what’s up?” he said.

“Well, did you guys hear V talking about her convention thing?” I asked them.

“I think I vaguely remember it being mentioned, maybe,” Zack said, but the other two shook their heads.

“I think we should go,” I suggested. “It’s horror movies and ghost hunters. Sort of right up our alley.”

“That sounds kinda cool, actually.” Zack looked genuinely interested.

“Well, if it’s got anything to do with horror movies, you know I’m in,” Johnny said, motioning at the movie monster tattoos on both his arms. We all laughed.

“I’m down. We going as spectators or specimens?” Brian asked.

“Don’t know. Like Christ said earlier, anything we do ends up being a big deal,” I said. “When did you get so fuckin’ smart anyway, Short Shit?” He just shrugged as I continued. “Maybe a signing, if they want? She said the dudes who played both Freddy Kruegers are gonna be there, and a bunch of other actors.”

“Sweet, let’s do it,” Johnny said.

“Yup, we’re in.” Brian was making rock & roll horns with both hands.

“Ok, I’ll ask her about details next time I talk to her.”

“We could even do a show, if they have time or space,” Brian offered.

“That’s not a half bad idea, I suppose,” I said, thinking. “Depends on their schedule, I guess.”

We decided to retreat into the house for some Nazi zombies. Not long after that, Vivienne called me, freaking out over some piss-ass kid in fucking Hot Topic who had the balls to make a comment about me dumping Valary for her. It took all I could to keep myself from getting pissed off, but I could tell that she was really upset over the situation, so I let my own emotions go and let her vent. She was trying to play it off as just irritating, but I knew that she was more affected than she was letting on. After she had a chance to rant about the bitches at the mall, I asked her about the convention stuff. She seemed really excited that we were willing to make an appearance. She was also very professional, letting me know that I wouldn’t be disappointed in recommending her for the job at the management company.

God, I can’t wait until she’s back here. I wish I knew why I missed her so much already, I couldn’t help but think as we hung up.