I Can't Forget What You've Forgotten

"Zacky." I sighed loudly, annoyed. "Why do you have to make things so difficult?" I yelled, turning around to face him. I held a few clothes in my hands. When he looked down guiltily, I turned around and continued on forcing clothes into my suitcase forcefully.

"But can't you stay?" He asked weakly, "You don't have to go --"

"Yes, I do," I angrily interrupted him.

"But why?" he asked a little more sternly and I sighed once again, wearily putting the articles of clothing in my arms, down. I faced him once again, this time, a softer look on my face.

"Why?" I asked him softly, laughing to myself. "Zacky - I can't live here by myself; I can't get anyone else to magically adopt me when I still have family members left that I'm willing to live with." I shook my head painfully, and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "It's the only way that I can get away from here - from all the memories and all the pain you've caused me."

I made a move to walk out of the room but --

I jolted up a bit slightly with a wake start and tiredly looked over at my alarm clock, squinting as my eyes struggled to read the neon green letters that flashed in the dark room before me.

4 : 59 A.M.

I groaned and fell back against my pillows, laying my head deep inside of them as possibly could. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, resting up a bit more before the long day ahead of me. Today is the first day of the Avenged Sevenfold tour and that means that I have to get up early, get ready, go and pick up the bus with Cassie, and then pick up the band.

The dream (more like a real-life experience) replayed over in my head as I tried to block it out. It wasn't much of a horrible dream but I have just always hated the meaning behind that dreams - what happened to cause that event. I don't think I could even call that a dream; it was more like a flashback that I couldn't stop from coming - that I couldn't wake up from to forget it. I felt weak for letting something that happened nearly a decade ago bother me so much now as it did back then.

Times flew by quickly and the next thing you know, it's already 5 : 30. I lazily got up and took a shower, coming out ten minutes later dressed in a pair of blue jeans with fringes from holes that were beginning to form near my thighs and knees, a white tank top and a black fishnet top over that. I applied some eyeliner with black eye shadow, some lip gloss, and fixed my hair.

I dragged my luggage down the stairs and into the trunk of my car; I headed back upstairs to my apartment complex and got a few more things that I can carry by hand. Making sure that the place was all locked up and secure for a few months time period, I got down to my car and was off to pick up Cassie.

She was sitting on the curb outside of her parent's house when I pulled up. Her luggage was sitting on the patch of grass area next to her. She placed them in the backseat and hopped in. She reached over and hugged me tightly around the shoulders.

"I can't believe this!" she squealed. "I'm going on tour with Avenged Sevenfold - and I get to meet Jimmy!" She sat back in her seat, buckling her seatbelt.

I chuckled, putting the car back into driving gear. "Calm down before we pick them up or else you'll scare them away."

I saw her pout out of the corner of my eyes. "I won't scare them away."

"Good."

"Where are we going?"

"To pick up the bus."

"Oh yeahh. . ."

I soon turned into a parking lot, parking my car and walking into the building. Walking in, I went up to the front desk with Cassie behind me. I told the counter guy who I was and he told us to follow him out back. He handed me a set of keys and led me over to a fairly large bus - spray painted black and white with the A7x logo skull in the side (of course the band name was on the side also). Now, how much fun will we have with people starting to stalk and follow our bus - since it's so easy to spot it out?

"Feel free to have a look inside the bus and take it out for a test drive. If you find any problem, please, let me know," the worker guy kindly informed us but I felt a bit of insincerity in the last part. I nodded and Cassie thanked him politely; he nodded and walked away.

I scoffed a bit and unlocked the door, Cassie already bolting in to claim which bunk was hers and walk around on there a bit. I followed what she was doing and wasn't surprised at the enormous interior. It was almost like what I had expected - but I was satisfied; Cassie on the other hand, was in absolute awe.

"I get to spend months in this bus - wow, this sure beats home." She gazed up at the mirror that was placed on the ceiling of the back lounge.

"Hah." I laughed. "You'll get tired of it and wish you were back at home."

"I doubt so." She sounded sure of herself.

I shrugged. "Alright, if you say so." I went up front to the driver's wheel and inserted the key into the ignition. The bus came to life as I moved it to the front where my car was - smoothly may I add. "Hey, get your stuff on here!" I exclaimed to the back and received an 'okay' in return.

♥ - ♥ - ♥

"About time you got here," Jimmy exclaimed, throwing the front door open as I was about to knock on it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said with a fake New York accent. "Was it my fault that Cassie was so slow at transferring things?" I asked him as I walked into the living room where the rest of Avenged sevenfold sat, watching the morning football game on TV. At the sound of Cassie's name, they all turned their heads towards me with a raised eyebrow in question.

"Who's Cassie?" Jimmy asked and I looked around.

"Crap," I muttered to myself when I finally realized that she didn't follow me out of the bus. "I'll be right back." I ran back outside and onto the bus. Cassie was in the doorway when I opened the door, a nervous expression clearly visible on her face. "Hey; why aren't you coming in?"

She shrugged and I smirked to myself. "Are you nervous about showing yourself to Jimmy?" I asked her in a teasing tone and she nodded a bit. I knew that that meant there was more to that than meeting Jimmy. "C'mon, everything will be okay." I sighed and took a hold of her elbow, pulling her off the bus and towards the front door with me. She groaned and reluctantly followed behind, still somewhat trying to stay back.

♥ - ♥ - ♥

It was late at night - maybe near from midnight to one o'clock in the morning - and we were all still up; me sitting in the front alone, driving them through the night of their first "day" on tour. Their first show isn't until tomorrow night.

I had my trusty cup of coffee right beside me, my iPod playing in one ear and the other ear listening in on their conversation, voicing in my opinion every once in a while. We've been on the road for about maybe six or seven hours now; a few of those hours were wasted by fooling around at rest stops or getting distracted off the road.

I felt a presence sit in the passenger seat next to me and it grew quiet upfront, the loud voices of the others playing in the background. I stole a glance at the person that had just joined me and saw a purple-black headed boy wrapped in a heavy black sweatshirt and baggy jeans. He sat sideways; his back against the window and his legs dangling over the edge of the armrest, facing me.

"Hello," I formally greeted him. "What are you doing here? You should be back there with your friends."

"You're my friend too and you seemed a bit lonely up here so I thought I'd join you and give you some company."

I smiled to myself. "Why, thank you but really, go back there with them," I told him and he shook his head stubbornly. I shrugged. "Fine but don't complain to me once it gets boring or if I don't say anything that seems to entertain you."

He shrugged too. "I don't think that'll happen."

"We'll see." I sat up a straighter and peered onto the road as I made a sharp turn.

"You'll flip the bus over one day." He laughed and I stuck out my tongue mockingly at him. "Now that's not nice. Anyways-" He pulled himself to sit up straight but then hunched over and hugged his knees, his head resting on them and looking up at me. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

"In the cafe?"

"Before that." He rolled his eyes at my 'smart' question. "Haven't I known you from somewhere before?"

"I'm not sure." I hesitated, thinking whether or not I should tell him. "Have we?"

He shrugged. "I was wondering maybe you would know."

"Well, why do you ask?"

"I don't know. It just feels as though I've known you forever." I laughed nervously.

"You can feel that way with a lot of people you've never seen before in your life --"

"But this is different."

I stayed quiet and focused on the road. I listened in once again on what the others were talking about and I noticed that for a while, I didn't hear Cassie's voice. Knowing her so well - I just knew that she was listening to what Zacky and I have been talking about; sitting there, pretending to laugh along with the other guys when really, what she wants to do is shake her head disapprovingly at me and possibly come up and smack me upside the head.

I saw him stare at me skeptically through the corner of my eyes and decided that it was best to ignore it - pretend that I didn't get the sense of him staring at me.

"So how are you?" I quickly changed the subject. "Got a girlfriend or wife back at home."

"Um, yeah." He faced forward again.

"Who?"

"My mom."

I laughed. "How is she?"

"Why --"

"Kristy!" a female voice called, interrupting us and laying a hand on my shoulder. "I need to talk to you."

"But I'm driving," I stated obviously.

"I know, that's why Zacky needs to move his lazy butt up and move it to the back," she answered smartly, all the while, hitting him slightly on the shoulder to get him to move. He laughed.

"Someone PMS-ing much?" he joked and I laughed along.

"Yeah, so demanding Cassie."

"You two shut up; besides, you gotta go to sleep. You have a show tomorrow."

"I can stay up as late as I want." He stuck his tongue out at her immaturely and she pretending to go and grab at his ears. He immediately shot up out of his seat and briskly walked out, sitting down next to Brian.

"What was that all about?" Cassie got down on her knees and crossed her arm over my armrest, laying her head on top of her folded arms and looked up at me. See, I just knew that she eavesdropped on our - slightly - private conversation.

"It was nothing," I said simply, hoping that she would fall for the awful lie.

"Yeah right," she scoffed. "Don't think that I wasn't listening in --"

"Because you always do." I rolled my eyes and she nodded proudly.

She began to whisper harshly in fear of the band hearing her and about our little 'situation'. "Why didn't you just tell him?"