She Will Be Loved

I was currently bored out of my mind. Thor, the guys’ manager who I finally met when we arrived twenty minutes ago, had made the guys come in since they all still owned him some tracks for a song they were working on called Strength Of The World. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but after so long you just end up going insane. I was currently texting with Jay while spinning my swirly chair in circles.

“Guys, if you’re going to keep fucking around we’ll be here all night,” Andrew Murdock warned as he pressed the button to connect into the room behind the glass all the guys were in. Thor was right next to him nodding in agreement. The guys had claimed that Andrew was a chill dude and had helped them on their last CD. So far he seemed the opposite; Andrew was being a real hard ass.

‘We’ve been owing him this track for a few days. It’s kind of our fault.’ Matt had told me. I’m really starting to wish that they would have just left me at the house alone for a few hours so they could just finish this and I wouldn’t be trapped here and so bored I was at the point of dying.

“Well if Johnny would stop fucking around maybe we could actually get somewhere,” Brian remarked, glaring lightly at the bassist who was currently playing the bass line to the SAW theme song, as he had announced a minute ago when he started to play it with a laugh.

“Well you guys are damn boring today. Besides Rev keeps playing with me,” Johnny remarked, jabbing a finger behind him where Jimmy was playing on his drums. They probably couldn’t hear each other if they weren’t all wearing the matching headphones.

“Can we just finish this track?” Andrew sighed.

“What he said! I’m dying here guys,” I whined, hoping that would help them jolt into actually doing something. It was the exact opposite.

“Well now I saw we take forever if just to bug Kota,” Matt pitched. The rest nodded in agreement. I let out a groan, throwing my hands over my head and letting them drop back into my crossed legs. Just then I got a reply from Jay and picked up my phone that rested in my lap.

“I’m going to make their lives hell,” Thor muttered as Andrew leaned back in his chair with a sigh, finger releasing his contact with the group. On the other side of the glass they all began to messily play some song I didn’t recognize but, with the laughing the guys were doing, I could only assume it was not one of theirs.

“This is only the third song we've recorded for the album and they’re acting like we’ve done this for months,” Andrew murmured, leaning back and propping his head up with one of his hands. I let my eyes trail the studio once I placed down my phone again. I paused when I saw a baseball bat leaning by the exit door.

“Why is there a bat here?” I heard myself ask. Andrew and Thor peeked over to where my head was turned before leaning back in their seats again.

“Zacky brought it with him once since he had been at the batting cages. He forgot it,” Thor explained, studying his employees with annoyance. I couldn’t hear Brian and Johnny over the sound of the rest of the guys messing around, but I could tell they were bickering over something as usual.

“I see.” I stood to my feet and pocketed my cell phone. I walked over to the bat and picked it up, testing it out a little by swinging my arms. Thor and Andrew watched me intently. I smiled at them before resting the bat on my right shoulder and walking towards the door that connected the two large rooms that made up the studio. The second I opened the door everyone froze. My face had hardened into a cold, hatred filled glare.

“What are you - ”

“Shut up Haner,” I hissed, cutting off Brian. He fell silent and his eyes instantly widened along with everyone else’s. “I am getting tired of sitting out there while you five have a ball. Either get your shit done or I will personally torture you one by one until your faces are unrecognizable by the police. Shockingly, I don’t think your fans would appreciate Avenged Sevenfold missing from the face of the Earth.” Everyone swallowed hard at my threat. With the blank tone of voice I could only assume they knew I meant business. I suddenly smiled cruelly at them. “Now, have we come to an understanding?”

“Yes ma’am,” they all spoke in unison. I nodded and left the room again. Thor and Andrew stared at me wide eyed as I shut the door and placed the bat near it in case I had to deal with them again.

“How did you do that?” Thor asked in wonder.

“Simple. They know when to not fuck with me. Striking fear in people when I need it was the one thing my father taught me to do right,” I replied simply and pulled out the phone that was going off again.

“She needs to come with from now on.” I smiled as Andrew said this to Thor as I walked off. I soon heard the five guys begin to actually cooperate with their manager and producer. I looked at Brian’s pack of Marlboro Reds that were conveniently sitting on a table. I bit my lip in indecision. Finally I shrugged to myself, picked up the pack, and headed outside.

I plopped myself down on one of the black, metal chairs that sat outside around a matching black table. It was kind of small and circular, but luckily, for people who might worry about the size, it was only used for smoke breaks. I placed my feet in the chair across from me and placed a cigarette between my lips. Soon the end of it burned red and I let out a content sigh, smoke trailing out of my mouth.

A sudden barking tore my eyes from the sky. I slowly looked down to see a small dog sitting down and staring at me intently. I let my eyes wonder the street we were on to see if I could spot anyone who might be it’s owner. I saw no one but a business man speed walking by on his phone. I looked down again when it barked impatiently. It was a pretty short thing with a long-ish body and stub of legs. I couldn’t really say I’ve seen a dog quite like it.

“Hey there. Do you have an owner?” I asked sweetly. It just cocked its head to the side. I had to mentally smack myself. Did I really think it’d answer? I extended a hand towards it. It sniffed my hand before licking me. Well, at least it isn’t going to try to eat me. I placed my smoke between my lips so I could pick the dog up. As I did I decided to check, and it was a girl. She curled up in my lap instantly, her head raised to look at me.

I looked around her neck to see no collar whatsoever. I smiled to myself and began to pet her. She had extremely soft white, brown, and black fur. Soon she was fast asleep as I continued my assault on my cigarette. After I put it out in the ash tray I must have dozed off because the next thing I know I’m getting jolted awake by Brian’s voice.

“So this is where my cigarettes went!” I slowly peeled open my eyes to see Brian and everyone else in the band walking out of the studio. Johnny stood next to him with his arms crossed.

“Sounds like you owe me an apology.” Brian snorted.

“Over my dead body.”

“What’s that Koty?” Zacky asked, his bat resting on his shoulder. It was then everyone noticed the ball of fur in my lap. I was still too brain dead from sleep to remember where it had come from.

“Hey, isn’t that a corgi?” Matt butted in.

“I think so. I forgot small dog breeds,” Jimmy trailed over, scratching the back of his head.

“It just showed up here,” I finally remembered. “I looked for a tag and didn’t find anything. She just walked up to me and there was no one around.”

“Are you sure it’s a girl?” Zacky asked. I gave him an unamused stare. “Right, you checked.”

“Duh, you fucking idiot.” I muttered the second half under my breath, but Zacky didn’t seem to hear me anyway. “Hey Matt?”

“We are not taking it in.” My face fell at his simple sentence. He kept up a tough front though, his arms crossed over his chest and stared above my head. I pouted and brought on the fake tears.

“Bu - but Mattiekins,” I sniffled. He kept his face blank but I could see in his eyes he was slowly breaking. The dog, feeling the desperation in me, whimpered while also looking at Matt with her big, brown eyes. He finally sighed, pressing the heel of his palm to the middle of his forehead.

“Fine! But you’re taking care of her. That includes walking her, feeding her, and giving her baths. And taking her to the vet to get shots since we don’t know how old she is or if she’s had any,” Matt said.

“Thank-you Matt!” I exclaimed and hugged him as he sat in a chair next to me. Soon everyone took a chair, including Johnny who yanked out the chair that my feet had rested on. The dog growled at the fact that my legs had fallen, almost causing her to fall, and barked towards him. Everyone laughed.

“She already hates Johnny. I think she’ll fit in nicely,” Brian mused as all the guys lit up their own cigarettes.

“So what are you going to name her?!” Jimmy asked excitedly. I stared down at the dog who was curled in my lap again, making herself as comfortable as she could. I stared in wonder at my new dog. What was I going to name her?

“Cuddles!” Johnny randomly shouted as he removed the cigarette from between his lips.

We all stared at him before simultaneously saying, “Shut up Johnny.”

He huffed and sunk down in his seat. “Meanies.”

“Pixie?” I tested the name on my tongue. I cringed a little, but all the guys paused from their excited exchanging of names. Even the dog raised her head and tilted it to the side.

“I like it,” Zacky piped in.

“We can call her Pix for short!” Jimmy exclaimed. Everyone could tell he was excited by the name. Soon everyone was nodding in agreement. I smiled down at the dog and scratched her behind the ears.

“Alright, your name’s Pixie,” I informed. She barked and her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she seemed to smile up at me.

“Let’s go dog shopping! We’re already done with the track,” Brian pointed out. Soon everyone agreed and stood to their feet to head to the Tahoe. I picked up Pixie and cradled her in my arms as we headed to the vehicle, the guys more exited to go shopping than me. They were like five year olds, I swear.