We Come out at Night

I woke up when I heard a knock on the door. I saw Lucy sitting at the table on her laptop and Aden still sound asleep. Lucy looked at the door and then to me.

“I’ll get it.” I told her.

I got up and walked over running my fingers through my hair, trying to tame it the best I could. When I opened it I was blinded by a bunch of flashes. I held my hands up trying to block it and figure out what exactly was going on. I finally realized it was a bunch of photographers. I felt Lucy behind me.

“It’s sunny as shit outside and you need to use the fucking flash?!” I screamed at them. They finally stopped and bombarded me with questions.

“Are you and Zacky Vengeance of Avenged Sevenfold done after such a short time?” one asked.

“How long have you been cheating on him with Gabriel of Black Tide?” another asked.

“What?” I asked but no one seemed to hear me.

“Will the break up bring your first international tour to an end?” one other person asked.

“Move! Get out of the way and shut the fuck up.” I heard as I saw people being pushed aside. My breath caught when I saw it was Zacky.

He stood in front of me and faced the photographers. “We are not breaking up. She did not cheat on me. And the tour is nowhere near over. Good bye!” he said as Lucy pulled me in and he slammed the door.

I heard Aden throwing the blankets off of her and rush over. “What’s going on?!” she asked almost demandingly. I couldn’t answer; I was just staring at Zacky.

“Yeah,” Zacky started, rubbing the back of his neck, “That’s what I woke up to this morning too. Brian woke me up because I heard him yelling outside of the bus, I was stupid enough to check on him and I got attacked too.”

“And you came here.” I said still staring at him.

“Yeah.” He replied.

“Okay when I said that, it was more in the form of a question, meaning why are you here?” I corrected.

“I honestly don’t know.” He said looking frustrated. “I just came here. I didn’t even think about it. I just….drove over.”

“Well where is my little shithead?” Aden asked him.

“Still on the bus I think. Want me to call him?” he asked in return.

“Yeah, by the time he gets here I would have woken up and ready to talk to him.” She said heading into the bathroom to take a shower.

I sighed and walked over to the counter to make a pot of coffee. There was no way in hell I was going to function without a cup, or better yet two.

Zacky and Lucy sat at the table and spoke quietly. I stood at the counter just as the coffee finished. I poured myself a cup and set it down on the table next to the bed, after that I grabbed my bag and pulled the clothes I was going to wear and put it on the edge of the bed. I looked over at the table and saw Lucy and Zacky still talking. He looked frustrated and upset. I wasn’t stupid; I knew what they were talking about.
I knocked on the bathroom door to try to get Aden to hurry up so I could take my shower. In response, she just sang louder to the music playing from her iPod dock. I walked back to the bed and laid down on my side, taking one glance at the table to find just Lucy sitting there, typing away on her laptop.

“Where did Zacky go?” I asked, trying to sound as if I didn’t care.

“He walked to the deli down the street. He said he was going to get us breakfast and call Brian.” She replied, resting her elbows on the table.

“Hmm.” I said as I sent a text to Caleb.

“He’s scared you know.” She said, sounding a little concerned.

“Why? Is the boogey man after him?” I replied, giggling to myself.

“No, he feels that you’re going to break up with him. Brian feels the same about Aden.”
I sighed, “You know I’m not going to.”

“Yeah I know, and I told him that, but he won’t take my word for it. You have to talk to him.”

I sighed again as Aden walked out. I took a long drink of my coffee, grabbed my clothes, and went in the shower, blasting and singing to Disturbed as I got clean.

I came out of the bathroom, towel drying my hair. I heard the sounds of Breaking Benjamin as I entered the kitchen area, making myself another cup of coffee. Zacky was standing by the sink. He looked nervous and grew stiff when I walked by. I back stepped and kissed him on the cheek. He seemed to loosen up a tiny bit. So I put my towel and coffee cup down on the counter and wrapped my arms around his neck, resting my head on the crook of his neck. I felt his arms wrap tightly around my waist.

“I’m not breaking up with you Zackary Baker. And I can guarantee Aden is not going to break up with Brian. She just needs to talk to him, she’ll cool down.” I said into his neck.

“And what about you?” he asked.

“What about me?”

“Are you still mad?” he asked, I felt his grip tighten.

“No. I’m okay now. Just, don’t do that ever again. Okay?”

“Promise. By the way, nice Disturbed screaming. You sounded like a female David Draiman.” He said squeezing me and laughing. I giggled softly and squeezed him back. “Your hair smells amazing.” He said, I could hear the smile in his face and I felt him calm down completely.

“Oh why thank you.” I said pulling away and grabbing my towel. I saw Mykal walk in so I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards me, her expression confused. I did a stupid, completely off, model pose with my hands in my hair, “This is the result of using my cherry blossom shampoo and her lavender conditioner.”

“You used my conditioner?” she asked me.

“Uhm….” Was all I got out when she punched me in the arm. She earned a laugh out of Zacky. “Oh come on! It’s just conditioner!” I yelled rubbing my arm.

“It’s my conditioner dear. Next time, ask.” She said smiling, trying not to laugh.

I walked back to the bathroom to brush my hair and deal with it. I ended up drying it and straightening it. I put on some eyeliner and walked out to the kitchen again. Zacky handed me an egg sandwich that he picked up from the deli. I looked around and noticed what everyone was wearing. Aden was wearing a Rydell High Cheerleading t-shirt, blue faded skinny jeans, and Batman Converse. Lucy was wearing a gray Hello Kitty t-shirt, faded blue, ripped skinny jeans, and white and blue converse.

I wore a light blue plaid shirt, blue jeans, and white and blue Etnies. Zacky wore a Famous shirt, blue jeans, black converse with a plaid design and a black and white plaid patterned belt. I noticed Brian was there too. It appeared that Aden and him made up. He was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, black jeans, a belt similar belt to Zacky’s and black and white Nike’s. After making my observations, I devoured my sandwich.

“We gotta go soon, Jake called me. He needs to talk to us before we get back on the road.” Lucy announced.

“Oh, okay. Lemme grab my hoodie and we can go.” I said chewing the last bite.

I walked into the bedroom and went through my bag, but realized I left my hoodie at the bar. I cursed silently at myself and walked back into the kitchen area. I saw Aden with her Blink 182 hoodie on and a Batman hat. Lucy wore a blue Tribeca print hoodie and a Transformers hat. Zacky and Brian had they’re jackets. Zacky also wore an LA Angels hat and Brian had an Iron Man hat on. I saw my Yankee hat on the counter and put it on.

“I want to feel like I’m in the group.” I said smiling.

“Dude, it’s pretty chilly out there. You’ll freeze your balls off.” Aden said to me.

“Yeah well, I think I left my hoodie at the bar last night.” I said crossing my arms.

“Smart.” She replied.

“Fuck you.”

“Wait, I have a hoodie you can wear.” Zacky said to me. He walked by the front door and handed me a Vengeance University sweat jacket.

We made our way to the front door. Lucy peeked out of the window next to the door and shook her head.
“No, we are not going out that way. There is a shitload of photographers and such.”

“Fuck, now what?” Aden said.

“Well, there is the deck out back. There’s a fire escape.” I said, sounding unsure of my idea.

“Let’s go.” Lucy said. My jaw dropped. Of all the people in this room, she was the one that was okay with this. I didn’t question her, I just went along with her. We walked out onto the deck and looked over at the ladder. One by one we climbed down. Lucy was the first one out, but she was the last one down.

“Let’s stick together, the sunglasses you girls have on and our hats should throw them off long enough for us to get by.” Brian said.

We snuck around, walking casually. We had the guys on both sides, Lucy in the middle. We thought about taking one of our cars but both of them were surrounded by patient photographers. We thought better of it and decided to just walk far enough to get a cab.

We were just stepping out of the parking lot when we heard someone yell. We turned and saw someone pointing at us. “There they are!” she screamed. Then the chase was on. We ran for blocks, laughing in the process. We had no idea where we were going, but we kept running, linked together by holding each other’s hand.

We made a right onto Leaman Street and kept running. I looked behind me and saw them running around the corner. “Oh shit!” I yelled.

We cut another right and we ran into the first building we could. We hit the floor as soon as the door was shut and watched them run past the window. We all broke out into a fit of laughter as we tried to get up.

“Oh my god, this can’t be happening.” We heard from behind us. We looked around and I noticed we were in a tattoo and piercing parlor. There was a teenage boy standing on the other side of the counter, and he was awe-struck.

“Oh hi there.” Aden said, putting on a smile.

“Are there really member of both, Avenged Sevenfold and Shattered Halo in front of me?” he said, probably thinking out loud.

“Come here.” Aden said. The kid ran around the counter without a second thought and presented himself in front of her. “Give me your arm.” She demanded. He did as she asked, and pinched it.

“Ouch!” he said. Aden just smiled at him.

“It must really be happening then!” she said laughing. We all joined in with her and sure enough, the kid did too.

“Oh hi, can we help you?” an older man asked, walking out from a back room.

“Uhm. You’re actually helping us out quite a bit right now.” Lucy said to him. He just raised and eyebrow.

“Yeah, we finally got those naggy photographers off our tail.” I added.

The man seemed confused. “Dad, these are member of those bands that I constantly listen to.” The kid said, defending us.

We all just smiled and waved. “I thought you all looked familiar. You’re all over his walls.” He said with a chuckle.

“That’s flattering.” Brian said with a smile.

“Well, just so we’re not here wasting your time, I’ll get some new lip rings. You could never have too many pairs.” Zacky said with a smile. The man showed him to the shelf of lip rings. Zacky grabbed my hand and pulled me along. I looked at all the lip rings this man had to offer. Zacky settled for a pair of lip rings, one red and one black.

I walked over to Lucy and Aden, “Hey, what do you guys think about getting our lips pierced?”

They both looked at me, Aden was quick to answer. “Hell yeah dude! You know I’ve been wanting to pierce my lip since I was 16.”

Lucy thought about it for a second, “Do you think it would look good on me?”

I stood there and studied her for a moment. “I think it would look amazing on you. We should do it.” I replied with a wide smile.

We all picked out our lip rings and waited for the man to set up his station to pierce us. I settled for a silver hoop with silver and black striped points. Aden settled for a black hoop and Lucy settled for a red one.
Aden and I thought it would be hilarious for Lucy to go first. She took it a lot better than we expected. Neither Aden nor Lucy had as many piercings as me, and after the man pierced me, I still thought that my nose piercing was the most painful. The man then told us how to care for our piercings and as we paid him, and tipped him generously.

We walked out freely. No photographers were around. We were halfway down the street when I remembered something.

“SHIT! We never went to Jake!” I exclaimed.

“Fuck! Shit! Penis!” Aden yelled.

“Let’s go!” Lucy yelled.

We ran down the street laughing. When we reached the hotel, we ran up to the desk in the lobby. We saw Lexi and Katie there waiting.

"You guys got a text too?" Aden ask them.

"Yeah, seems pretty important." Lexi replied sarcastically.

We were just about to give his name when we heard him yell our names.

“God damn it girls! Where have you been?!” he yelled.

“Uhm, we uh, we ran into an obstacle.” I said.

“An obstacle?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Yeah, paparazzi and such.” Lucy replied.

“Uh, okay. Come with me.” He said before looking at us for a split second before getting in our face. “What is that?” he said pointing to my lip.

“Well, that would be a new hole in our faces with a piece of titanium in it.” I said trying not to smile.

“Great.” He said.

“Sorry mom. Next time we will get your permission first.” Aden said snickering. He flipped us off as we walked with him to the elevator, laughing on the way.