Work Experience

Rhian Lewis was first and for most professional. Whether you were the CEO of a large conglomerate, the head teacher of an inner city high school or manager to a rock band; she believed you should always be professional. She was a firm believer in dressing to impress.

It also was always fun when the lead singer of said rock band was staring at you like he wanted to rip the clothes. Rhian bit her lip, smirking at Matt before turning to talk to one of the roadies. He was explaining something about one of the boxes that was not going to make it to the next place, it was looking like it was ready to break and a replacement was desperately needed. Rhian nodded noting it all down and adding to the list of things she had to discuss with her management at the meeting.

“Hey Matt you alright?” The roadie paused in his explanation and starred over Rhian’s shoulder.

“Just checking some stuff with Rhian,” Matt said simply standing behind her still as the roadie smirked at the pair. He was easily older than them, but his experience on the road was invaluable in Rhian’s opinion. “Five seconds?” The roadie nodded wondering off to deal with the box as Rhian turned to Matt.

“Can I help?”

“Depends,” Matt smirked his arm sneaking to her waist and trailing along the top of her skin tight black jeans. “How easily is it to get these off?” Rhian couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face and Matt laughed, his deep voice melting her insides. “You look amazing today,”

“I don’t I-“

“Shh and accept it,” Matt whispered leaning down and pressing a chaste kiss against her lips.

“We can’t in front of people,” Rhian moved back a little, a disappointed look crossing her face. “However, much I want to,”

“Oh you want too?” Matt smirked his fingertips skating under her top and skating across her stomach.
“Cause I have many ideas of what we could do in only a few-“

“Rhian?” Matt groaned his head falling against Rhian’s forehead as she laughed and pushed him away. “Sorry to break up the fucking,” JB smirked winking at Matt as Rhian rolled her eyes. “But I can’t find Niki,”

“Can’t find?” Rhian questioned breaking away from Matt to turn to the other huge man. “Jason I swear if this is some silly trick,”

“No Rhi I’m deadly serious, she said she’d come help me and Matty load merch, Thor hasn’t seen her all morning either, he’s tearing the other bands a new one to find her,” JB looked quite apologetic; though Rhian wasn’t sure if it was because he’d cock blocked Matt or because Niki was missing. “I’ll go back and search the hotel,”

“Good she’s meant to be accompanying me to this afternoon meeting,”

“Meeting?” Matt questioned as JB nodded wondering off back into the hotel as Brian, Jimmy and Johnny walked out.

“Management, most of the afternoon in an air-conditioned office, while you guys have interviews,” Matt nodded sliding his sunglasses off his head and covering his eyes. “It’s standard, nothing unexpected,” She reassured him, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss against his lips. “I’ll catch you later, I need to find the devils child!”

“Sure thing,” Matt smirked back as his band walked towards him and Rhian went towards the buses. His eyes fixed on her ass as she sauntered off, he noticed Sarah running towards her and he changed his attention to his band.

“Matt and Rhi, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes-“

“Jimmy I swear to god you finish that song,” He growled turning to the drummer who had a huge grin on his face. “She looks good,”

“Is she good in-“ Johnny started but got a sharp clip around the ear from Brian who was still smirking.

“So you and the boss lady huh?” Brian questioned his best mate watching Rhian and Sarah get onto one of the buses. “That serious?”

“I don’t know, but it’s fun, and she’s fun,” He shrugged. “You’ve not seen the other crazy woman in my life have you?” He questioned Brian who shot him a raised eyebrow.

“Who?”

“The devil chid?” Zacky chuckled. “The one you fucked, but didn’t fuck,”

“I never fucked her! God she fell asleep in my room, we were off our faces nothing-“

“Have you seen her today?” Matt raised his voice above Gate’s, before he got angry.

“No!”

“Good, let’s get on the bus then,” Matt muttered walking ahead with Brian next to him, the rest flanking each side. The reports they looked like a gang was so true sometimes.

“She missing?” Brian questioned a little calmer.

“Yeah Berry’s haven’t seen her all morning, Thor’s looking through the other bands, JB in the hotel, and Rhian is about to probably ransack each bus, you know she has a management meeting this afternoon,”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, you think it’s about that article Tay wrote?” Brian just shrugged at Matt’s question as the five of them climbed on to the bus.

“You think it could be?”

“It seems like a bit of a coincidence,” Matt suggested as the boys made themselves comfortable in the bus, Johnny grabbing cans from the fridge and chucking them round. “Don’t get too drunk,” Matt spoke up earning raised eyebrows for everyone. “We have interviews,” He added with a smirk. The boys spent the rest of the morning kicking back on the bus, Sarah joined them just as it was ready to leave, announcing that Niki had been found and was with Rhian receiving the bollocking of her life. Much to Matt’s disappointment Rhian didn’t join the boys on the bus, she left in a car with Niki, on their way to offices for the bands management.

So Matt decided to do something unheard of and quite unnatural for him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and text Rhian.

You looked beautiful today. Knock um’dead at this interview. Xx

He even added kisses to the end before sending, feeling like the world’s biggest puff when he watched and waited for a reply. In front of him Johnny was kicking Zacky’s ass at some game while Brian and Jimmy were chilling with a beer chatting about shit; the involved Matt in the conversation though he was clearly distracted.

Rhian was sat in the company car flicking through the latest press and reviews Niki had found on the band; most were good, nearly all complemented the boys excellent stage presence, and only a few press releases mentioned the undereage/fucking manager debauchery. Her phone beeped, signalling a text and she automatically checked it.

A smile broke when she was Matt’s name pop up. The conversation had barely any message in it, and those that were in there were about work and meetings. This was the first real social text she’d received from Matt, ever. As she read it she couldn’t help but let her smile grow; he was cute.

She shot a quick text back, thanking him and mentioned how she’d rather she was still hanging out with him and the boys instead.

“I can’t believe they found a photo of me, my fucking high school snap shot! I bet that bitch on the year book gave it to them!” Niki broke Rhian’s concentration; she threw the phone back in her bag and turned to the younger girl.

“What?” Was her simple reply, starring at Niki with a rather saddened look; Niki had actually tried to dress for the occasion. Though the dress was more because Sarah had warned her to dress smartly, not because she cared. Then again Rhian did half wondered if she would care, since in theory she was meeting people who one day might give her the chance they gave Rhian.

“This gossip article about me and Brian,” Niki muttered chucking Rhian the article. “Not that I mind, he’s fucking hot, but way to up his own ass,” Rhian chuckled scanning over the article, thankfully no mention of her and Matt; considering that was her main concern at the moment, she knew this meeting had something to do with the heightened press around the band.

“You look much better than I did in any of my high school photos!”

“I doubt it!”

“I looked like a whale!” Niki just laughed and shock her head.

“No way, you’ve just gone and bagged M.Shadows, you hot!”

“Not back then,” Rhian replied with a small smile. “But that was a long time ago!”

“How long ago?” Rhian raised her eyebrows. “I mean how old are you, how long is it gonna take me to get your job?” Niki smirked, Rhian was warning to Niki’s blunt and forward attitude; something she never thought she’d do.

“26,” Rhian replied. “And I got really lucky, worked my ass off and got landed with a young band that just got signed, Avenged were tiny when I met them, no one knew them but they had this really hard core fan following! The management knew they were going to be something big!”

“That’s pretty cool,” Rhian nodded in agreement. “So what abut this Taylor girl, she’s got it in for you right?”

“No,” Rhian shock her head, a little sigh escaping her lips. “Taylor’s smart, really smart! She should be writing for the New York times, but she loves music it’s her life, and so she went into reviewing bands, CDs, and gigs! She deserves to be where she is, she interviewed the boys on their last big tour! Spent a month following the bands on warped tour,” Rhian explained remembering vividly the warped tour years. “She’s my cousin,” Niki nodded, she picked that information up along the way. “So we hung out a lot, and I got her a lot of good shit with Avenged, but we clashed on things,” Rhian explained fiddling with her necklace. “She and Matt got really close,”

“So?”

“She had it in her head that I really liked him, and she wanted to see if I’d react, she never realised Matt was going to fall for her!” Niki laughed, shaking her head and realising that actually Taylor was probably right at the time. She’d watched Rhian and Matt, there was something about them that clicked.

“How could she not? That girl is proper rock chick! She’s totally Matt’s type, no offence,” Rhian shock her head and just smiled. “So what happened?”

“Taylor realised I wasn’t going to do anything except tell her to back off because I was the manager, not because I liked him,”

“But you liked him right?” Niki looked straight into her eyes, and saw the tiny smile and glint of passion. “Oh you so fucking did! Why didn’t you do anything?”

“Because I was his manager and Taylor was right for him! I was boring and stuck up, I shouted at the boys 24/7, constantly kicked their arses and was a bitch! He was never interested in me!”

“Yeah he was,” Niki smiled knowingly. “So how come him and Taylor didn’t work?”

“No,” Rhian closed up, and was saved by her phone going off. Niki left it there was clearly something about Taylor, Rhian and Matt, that needed to be shared; though she wasn’t going to hear about it right now. Niki leant back in the comfortable town car, gazing out the blacked out windows and watching the other cars flash by. They were apparently, only 10 minutes away from the offices now, and in those 10 minutes Rhian seemed to change from relaxed and chatty to professional and business minded.

When they reached the office block Niki felt the tension build to breaking point. It was a huge state of the art modern building, high and shinny with glass elevators travelling up and down, people dressed in office attire running around with their brief cases and huge folders. Niki was out of her depth, this was meant to be a two week work experience on a tour bus, not in a huge office where she felt suitably under-dressed. As a tiny blonde receptionist signed them in, Niki noticed how perfect the blonde was. She wore a white shirt tucked into a tight black pencil skirt, and sky high black stilettos. Her hair fell to her shoulders with a perfect bounce, and her finger tips displayed perfectly manicured nails.

She led them through the office block, passing big glass rooms with desks and more well-manicured girls in. The further they went in, the more people Niki noticed, men in business suits, even a few bands walked past. Some smiling at her and Rhian, a few saying hi to Rhian. No one stopped the blonde who led them to the final office.

“You can go straight in,” Rhian just nodded as the blonde held the door open for them, giving Niki a quizzical gaze.

“Miss Jones, it’s so great to see you,” Niki watched the three people behind a huge metal table, long and relatively thin. Tall glasses with glass bottles of water sat in the middle. Rhian greeted the three people, one woman and two men, all middle aged at least late 40s early 50s. The man in the middle offered Rhian coffee or tea and exchanged pleasantries.

“This is Nicole Chapova, a family friend of Matt’s, she’s shadowing me, you may be aware,”

“We heard rumours,” The oldest man, who sat in the middle, flashed Niki a friendly smile. “And how are you finding it?”

“Insightful, really great fun, it’s confirmed to me what industry I want to go into,” Niki admitted noticing the smile grow on Rhian’s lips for the first time that morning. “Rhi- umm Miss Jones,” That felt weird. “Has been a real inspiration,”

“Well that is excellent, Miss Jones is a great mentor, she’s done so much in her time with Avenged Sevenfold, a very talented band as well,” The man spoke shifting through the papers as everyone took their seats after the initial welcome. The conversations went on and Niki zoned in and out, some of it was interesting though the economic side bored her slightly.

Taylor’s articles came up, and the look of disgust on the woman’s face, when Rhian explained everything, was one of shock and distaste.

“Nothing happened between Nicole and Brian, it was a completely fabricated rumour, boosted by the fact he was walking home with her,”

“There is not truth in it,”

“God no,” Niki muttered earning a soft smile from the older man and a glare from the woman.

“I hope not, we can’t have rumours like this about the boys,” Rhian nodded.

“It’s already been dealt with,”

“Yes well,” The woman started. “We in PR and marketing feel maybe more needs to be done,” She fingered the articles, flicking through them and then gazing up at Rhian with an evaluating look. “We can’t have this,”

“So what exactly are you saying?” Rhian questioned her eyes scanning between the three bosses. The woman was pissing Niki off the most; she was smarmy and seemed to have it in for Rhian and Niki for no real reason. “I mean you’ve said a lot about the past, a lot about these articles,” Rhian’s fingers brushed across the papers spread across the desk. “And a lot about my future,” Niki bit her lip, for the first time throughout the whole tour she didn’t ever want Rhian’s job.

“Miss Jones you have done a wonderful job with Avenged,” Rhian felt her chest tightening, everything slowed down and she gripped her own leg tightly just to keep her concentrating and focus on another kind of pain. “It is time you moved on, we have other bands that are in need of your expertise’s, and Avenged need someone without a personal agenda, after the issues with Miss Lawrence, and Mr Sanders, I think it’s better that we move you away,” Niki gazed from the woman to Rhian who was turning pale, Niki noticed Rhian’s grip tightening her knuckles turning white.

“I understand,”

“You either cut your personal ties or we will move you to another band,” Rhian nodded. “Thank you for coming Miss Jones, I’m sure you understand, the recent press could be more damaging,”

“Thank you,” Rhian pushed her chair back, and took the papers from the desk. “How long do I have?”

“A week,” Rhian just nodded and pushed the chair back in.

“Thank you, Niki,”

“This is bullshit,” Niki muttered pushing her chair out and shoving it quickly back in. “You know she’s the best you’ve got and Avenged should have her!”

“Niki stop it,” Rhian muttered putting her hand to the younger girls back and trying to get her to turn towards the door.

“You’re making a mistake and you know it, her relationship with Matt won’t ruin anything!”

“Niki I’m serious!” Rhian hissed gripping the girls hand this time.

“Miss Chapova is it?” The elderly man questioned, Niki nodded. “You are loyal to your seniors, and I am sure Miss Jones is grateful for that, but you must see we look out for our top interests, as does Miss Jones,” Rhian sighed. “She knew this would happen, it happened to Miss Lawrence,”

“Enough!” Rhian spoke up. “Enough of this, I know what happens, I’m aware, now can we please leave it at that,”

“Maybe Miss Chapova you will learn from Miss Jones to keep your emotions out of business,” Rhian’s eyes blazed and she grabbed Niki’s shoulder pulling towards the door, Niki didn’t resist this time because she actually felt sorry for Rhian. She was pretty much being kicked out, she was great at her job, and yet she had no choice.

That was quite the work experience, Niki had sat through a meeting where Avenged Sevenfold’s manager was all but kicked out. Niki gazed towards the British woman she had so much respect for, and saw the tears she was holding back. Rhian had to pick between work and her personal life; never dip your pen in the company ink.