Right Here Waiting

Brian was working on his second drink by 8:15. They’d gotten to the club at 7:45, and he started drinking as soon as he got inside. Amber had driven him completely nuts, making him watch as she tried on dress after dress after dress. She’d changed a total of fifteen times, Brian had counted. Finally, she had settled on a teal blue dress that made her look like a complete slut. He felt almost ashamed walking in with her.

“Has anyone seen shithead?” Matt asked coming up to the bar.

“Nope,” Jimmy said, taking another shot.

“He text me a few minutes ago saying he was almost here,” Zacky said, walking up to the group.

“Who wants to take bets he comes alone?” Jimmy said.

“I think he paid someone,” Matt said.

“I got five he comes alone,” Brian said, laughing.

The girls joined them then, and another round of drinks came for them. They talked for a few minutes before cameras started flashing and people started hollering, signaling Johnny was there. Brian turned around and ordered another drink, therefore missing Johnny’s entrance.

“Oh my God,” Matt said.

“Dude, isn’t that the chick from earlier today?” Zacky said from beside Brian.

Curious, Brian turned around, seeing Eliza on the arm of Johnny. There was no way this was the same girl. She was wearing a micro-mini dress that hung off her shoulders. The sleeves had slits on the arms and gathered at her wrists. Her legs were long, tan, and shiny leading down to wicked high heels that had spikes on the toes of them. Her eyes were played up with dark makeup, making the hazel come out more. Her lips were painted a light black that only accentuated the color of her skin and hair. Speaking of her hair, Brian was please to find it was her whole head that was a beautiful bright pink color with a layer of black underneath. She had it curled intricately, framing her face. Brian looked her up and down, thinking that on anyone else, that dress would illicit the wrong idea, yet on her it looked just right.

“Holy shit,” Brian said.

“Syn, you owe me five bucks,” Jimmy said, coming to stand beside him.

Johnny and Eliza made their way into the club, people hollering his name and cameras flashing. She latched on to Johnny’s hand, nervous.

“Don’t worry, you’re doing great,” Johnny said, smiling towards her. She smiled back and inhaled deeply, moving forward.

She hadn’t asked him anything about his friends or what kind of even this is on the ride her. They only discussed music which was fine with her. They had the same taste in music. Now as she was entering the club, she wondered more and more. Then she saw his friends.

“You’re in Avenged Sevenfold?!” she whispered furiously at Johnny’s ear.

“You didn’t know?”

“No, I absolutely did not know!”

“I thought that’s why you said yes!” Johnny exclaimed whipping his head towards her.

“No, I said yes because you said you needed a favor,” Eliza explained, giving a fake smile to the people around her.

“Oh, well I guess I should’ve mentioned it.”

“Too late now,” Eliza said as they got closer to the group.

The guys clapped hands and hugged Johnny before he turned to introduce his date.

“Guys this is…”

“Eliza Grey,” Matt said, coming forward to hug her. To say she was surprised was an understatement.

“Holy shit!” Val said, coming forward to hug her, too. “I haven’t seen you since high school! How have you been?”

“Good, real good,” Eliza said to her. She remembered being in a lot of classes with Val. They weren’t close, but they spoke almost every day. She never knew she was that involved with the band. “It’s great to see you.”

“How did you and Johnny meet?” Matt asked.

“Shopping cart incident,” Eliza said, shrugging. Jimmy came forward then.

“I’ll be a monkey’s fucking uncle,” he said, hugging her too. “Cheese, what’s up! How was jail?”

Eliza rolled her eyes as she let go of Jimmy. Of course he would bring up the senior prank. She had taken an entire wheel of cheese and wanted to put it in the vents, but didn’t know which one would be best so she asked Jimmy his advice, and he’d immediately wanted in on part of the plans. He called her ‘Cheese’ every day after that. Not only was he bringing up the senior prank, but he was bringing up the time she’d trespassed into a store. She and some friends had intended to rob the place, but the alarm went off and the cop had been a block away and had caught her. “Jimmy, I did not get arrested.”

“You got cuffed and put in the back of a cop car, Liza, that’s totally getting arrested.”

“I didn’t get charged with anything!”

“You got arrested before any of us did, that’s saying something.”

“You got arrested?” Brian asked, coming forward. Eliza smiled at him, but it quickly faded with another voice.

“You know her?” Amber asked, pushing guys aside to stand beside Brian.

“No, I did not,” Eliza said at the same time Jimmy said “Fuck yeah, she did.”

“You know this slut?” Amber repeated, this time using a term she knew would get attention.

The group fell silent, looking between Eliza and Amber. Eliza stood a good four inches taller than Amber and had at least twenty pounds on her, too. Eliza just arched an eyebrow at the girl. Amber realized she’d overstepped a bit and took a step back, realizing this girl was bigger than she was. Jimmy was eagerly watching, and Brian sincerely hoped it was not going to be a repeat of high school.

“Amber, I would suggest you back off,” he said trying to intervene.

“Considering the first time I laid eyes on you was exactly four minutes ago, I suggest you refrain from name calling. You have no idea who I am or what I do sexually, so until you actually know personally I did something slutty, I would shut the fuck up if I was you,” Eliza said to Amber and promptly turned around heading to the bar. Johnny followed her.

“That was brilliant,” he said coming beside her. She motioned with her fingers for three shots.

Johnny watched as she downed all three shots back to back to back. The only other person he’d seen drink like that was Jimmy. He was impressed.

“So you know the guys?”

“Yeah, went to school with them,” she said before she took another shot. Good Lord, she needed alcohol to get through this night.

“That’s cool. My brother was a friend of theirs, that’s how I met them.”

She smiled at Johnny before Zacky interrupted them.

“Holy shit,” he said coming to Eliza’s other side. “Way to cause a ruckus.”

Eliza started at that, and brought her gaze to him. “I really didn’t mean to start anything. That was just really rude of her to—”

“No, trust me, it’s okay,” Zacky said, smiling. “We all hate her. She’s just bitching at Brian now because he didn’t say anything or try and stand up for her.”

“Brian is dating her?” Eliza asked, astonished. It was bad enough she had feelings for him this afternoon, not really knowing him, but now he had a girlfriend and he seemed to really be into her. “I need another drink.”

“Yeah, much to our misfortune, he is. She seemed great at first, but she’s turning into a real bitch and Brian can’t see it,” Johnny said, shaking his head.

“Oh, boy,” Eliza said, turning back around to face the bar, ordering two more shots. She downed both of them as soon as they were placed in front of her.

“Fuck, I love this song!” Zacky said, nodding his head along with the music. “Johnny, do you care if I borrow your date?”

“Yes, I do mind. I was about to—”

“Great! C’mon, Liza, let’s boogie.”



Brian couldn’t help but roll his eyes at what Amber was saying. She was rattling off every detail she could about Eliza and he was sick of it. Ever since she’d called Eliza a slut and Eliza hadn’t backed down, Amber had gone off and started naming her flaws and calling her every name in the book.

He let her blather on as his eyes wandered around the club. His eyes fell on the dance floor where Zacky was dancing with Eliza. A fast-paced song was playing and they were both smiling, Eliza grinding up against Zacky. She didn’t strike Brian as the type who liked to dance like that, but damn if she wasn’t good at it.

She was throwing her hair back and forth in time with the song, looking back at Zacky every once in a while, biting her lip. She smiled as she moved in time with Zacky. His hands grazed her hips and she pressed back into him. Her eyes rose up and she caught sight of Brian. That girl, Amber was talking fast, moving her hands even faster. Brian didn’t seem to be listening as he lifted the shot glass and drained it. His eyes came back to her and she realized he’d been watching her. Throwing her head back the other way, she threw herself into the dance more. She realized Zack was having a hard time keeping up, so she whirled around and faced him, her hands on his shoulders and his hands on her waist. She pushed her pelvis forward, grinding against his hips. Her calf muscles screamed their protest, but with a flick of her head, she saw Brian was still watching her and she ignored the pain.

Once the song was over, they made their way back to where Johnny was standing. After ordering drinks, they were joined by Jimmy, Matt, and Val. The only ones that were missing were Amber and Brian. Of course, Brian wanted to join them, but Amber really had an opinion of Eliza, and he didn’t want to put anyone in that situation. He stayed on the other side of the club with Amber, watching all the other couples having fun. Eliza was fitting in with everything, it seemed like. The guys had instantly taken to her; the girls were talking to her, laughing with her. Amber only had that after Val had accepted her. Everyone was accepting Eliza equally at the same time.

“I’m sorry for what I said,” Amber said, drawing his attention back to her. She was looking at the group as well.

“It’s not me you need to say it to,” Brian said. He finished off his drink and moved towards the group, leaving Amber behind.

She watched him go, not saying anything. She watched the new girl’s face light up as Brian got closer and how he moved directly to her, not anyone else. Amber’s eyes narrowed.

Brian moved towards the group, seeing Eliza smile at something Jimmy said. He wondered why she had never hung out with them in high school. She fit in well enough with band, now. She’d always had her group of friends she hung out with. He remembered her being really popular, but not stuck up. Before her mom had died, he’d seen her at almost every party he’d been at. He smiled as he remembered the one party he went to where she was wearing a pink polo. She’d looked so out of place, but she was the center of attention during the drinking game.

Val and Eliza excused themselves to go to the bathroom, giving the guys a chance to talk.

“That’s so crazy you’d bring Cheese, shithead,” Jimmy said to Johnny.

“Where the hell did ‘cheese’ come from?” Johnny asked.

“Our senior year, she had this beyond crazy idea to stick a huge wheel of cheese in the vents of the school. She figured that if the smell got so bad, they’d have to shut down the school,” Matt explained.

“She didn’t know which vents would be right, so she enlisted Jimmy,” Brian finished.

“It was classic; she shimmied into the vents and left it there. The next day, we realized that it was summer and they had the air conditioning on, so we had to think of something else. That’s when she came up with the brilliant idea to break the air conditioner,” Jimmy said, laughing.

“She broke the air conditioner in the school?” Johnny asked, stunned.

“Hell no,” Jimmy said and tucked his thumbs into his shirt, as if to show himself off. “That’s where yours truly came into play.”

“She had the idea and Jimmy was dumb enough to do it,” Matt clarified. They all laughed.

“She’s killer on the guitar, too,” Zacky said.

“Hell yeah, she is. We heard her today on our walk,” Brian said, taking a sip of his drink. “She was killing the solo on ‘One’. That’s where I disappeared to today. I went back to her house and not only can she play guitar, she’s a beautiful singer.

“That’s why we didn’t get anything done today,” Matt said, rolling his eyes at Brian.

“Did you just say ‘beautiful’?” Jimmy asked.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Brian said, holding his hands up in defense. “What I think, though…is that we should have a jam session with her. Maybe she can help us out of this funk that we’ve been in. That’s all I’m saying. You guys should hear her play.”

“She nailed that song and I still have trouble with it,” Zack admitted.

“No, for real. Did you really just say ‘beautiful’? You’re gay, right?” Jimmy said again. The guys laughed as Brian jumped on Jimmy, fake hitting him.

Eliza and Val were on their way back when Val saw all the guys staring at them.

“Uh oh,” Val said, stopping.

Eliza looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong. “What?”

“Something happened.”

“What do you mean?” Eliza said, confused.

Val nodded towards the guys and Eliza noticed they were all staring at them, or rather they were all staring at her.

“Did I do something?” she asked as she and Val got closer to the group.

“We need you,” Johnny said.

“Sexually,” Jimmy said. Brian elbowed him in the ribs.

“We do not need you sexually,” Matt said, rolling his eyes.

“What we’re trying to say is that we need your help,” Brian said.

“With what?”

“Music,” Matt said.

“You guys are a band with two CDs out. It doesn’t sound like you have a problem with music to me,” Eliza said, confused.

“Will you just come over tomorrow and sit in a session with us?” Brian asked.

“I’m not sure if that’s—”

“It would be nice to have another girl there,” Val said.

Eliza turned from Val to the guys and saw all five of them were making pouting faces, lacing their hands together.

“I guess I can’t say no,” Eliza said, shrugging.

“Cheese in the house!” Jimmy shouted, pumping his fists.

Johnny hugged her, and although she couldn’t help but feel like it was a bad idea, she was excited to actually hang out with them.