Shattered By Broken Dreams

Savannah sucked in a breath of shock as her eyes met Zacky’s before she hastily looked away and turned around, looking at Erica with wide eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him take a half step forward, before he hesitated and stood still, looking up at her with an expression that she couldn’t read on his face.

He was still a little on the plump side compared to the other guys in the band, and he had traded his purple hair for tousled black hair. He still had the snake bites but he had removed the septum piercing. She took another furtive sideways glance and noticed that he now had both sleeves of his arms tattooed and she could see the top of a green tattoo on his chest in the V of his plaid shirt.
“Get me out of here”, she hissed at Erica. Both girls hurriedly stepped off the stage and handed their guitars to their techs. Moving to the curtained off area behind the stage, Savannah felt herself start to shake and she took a moment to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. She had felt her heart skip a beat when she had looked at Zacky’s face, and despite everything that had happened ten years ago, she realized that she had never completely gotten over him.
“Oh fucking hell”, she sighed. “This is gonna be a nightmare.”
“He’s coming this way”, Erica whispered to her. Savannah didn’t turn around. Her hands clenched into fists as she tried to school her expression into one of indifference. She hoped that the beating of her heart wasn’t as audible as it seemed to be in her own ears.
“Savannah”, she heard his husky voice say behind her. She took a moment to calm herself down, and with a glance at Erica, who was watching her with concern, she slipped a little back into her stage persona. She turned slowly and eyed Zacky with an impersonal impression her face. Zacky seemed taken aback a little as Savannah watched him with little change to her expression.
“Baker”, she said after a moment in a calm voice, without a trace of the inner turmoil she was feeling. Zacky’s eyes widened in shock, and for a moment a trace of hurt was visible on his face.
“Is that all you have to say to me after ten years?”, he asked.
“What do you want me to say?”, she replied with an arch of her eyebrow.
“Hello Zacky would be a nice start”, he replied. She shrugged momentarily.
“Hello Zacky”, she repeated in a monotone voice. Zacky’s eyes narrowed for a moment.
“I heard that you’d changed into a real bitch”, he said with a snarky tone, his eyes travelling over her. He couldn’t quite disguise the lust in his eyes as he took in her appearance, which Erica noticed, however Savannah was too angered at his words to notice.
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you think”, she snapped. “I wasn’t put on this earth to be nice to fuckwads like you.”
“You really are a fucking piece of work, aren’t you?”, Zacky snapped back at her. “Some things never fucking change.”
“Shut your mouth, you vile little prick”, Savannah snapped, her eyes blazing angrily. Erica was watching the exchange with an alarmed expression on her face. She looked toward the stage, where Tommy and Kyle were walking toward them. Both of them had noticed the exchange between Savannah and Zacky and were trying to nonchalantly power walk across the stage without drawing too much attention to themselves.
“I bet you got all kinds of guys just panting after you, and you throw them all away like the cold-hearted bitch that you’ve always been”, Zacky muttered angrily.
“What’s the matter, Baker? You pissed off cause your Dad gets more pussy than you?” Tommy couldn’t quite hide his snicker, and Zacky whirled on him angrily. Realizing that he was outnumbered by Savannah’s band-mates he walked back out onto the stage and re-entered the room where the party was being held.

“Oh holy fuck”, Savannah said, staggering back a little as if in shock. Tommy grabbed her shoulders gently and turned her around. He wrapped his arms around her whilst she shook in his arms.
“Hey, I’m proud of you”, he whispered into her hair. “You held your own and stook up to him.”
“What did he mean that I’ve always been a cold hearted bitch?”, Savannah sniffed, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes.
“Hell if I know”, Kyle replied. “I think he was just trying to score points by that stage.”
“Come on, we need to get out there and mingle a bit”, Erica said, grabbing Savannah’s hand.
“I don’t want t go out there”, Savannah baulked.
“We’ll keep him away from you”, Tommy reassured her as the foursome walked out into the main room. “The Avenged boys will keep an eye-out for you as well.”

As they made their way further into the room, the DJ hired by Warner Bros had just started up and was playing a mix of hard rock songs interspersed with disco classics. It was the oddest assortment of songs that Savannah had ever heard. She was standing next to Erica on the side of the dance floor when Staying Alive by the Bee Gees came blaring through the speakers. Even over the din of the disco music, she heard a loud voice shriek “Whooooooo”. Before she had a chance to blink, she was grabbed by a tall lanky figure with messy black hair and catapulted onto the dance floor.
“Dance with me, my little sugarplum!”, Jimmy yelled, as he pulled off a Travolta-esque disco move in front of her. He grabbed her and pulled her close before dipping her over his arm then whisking her off to the other side of the dance floor.
“Jesus, Jim Jam”, she laughed. “I never took you for a Bee Gees fan!”
“Shhh, it’s our little secret”, he hissed.
“It’s not a quite secret now”, she giggled as she noticed the stunned faces of his band mates standing on the side of the dance floor. He pulled Savannah closer and gyrated against her.
“Damn, did Travolta do a mind swap with you or something?’, Savannah laughed as Jimmy grinded up against her.
“You wish baby”, he murmured into her ear. “I haves me a plan.”
“And what plan would that be”, Savannah asked, laughing as Jimmy dipped her then bit her on the neck.
“Well, if you look over my shoulder I’m sure you’ll see a pudgy little Italian man who looks like he wants to kill me.” Savannah took a moment to peek over Jimmy’s shoulder and took note of Zacky standing on the side of the dance floor with a sour expression on his face. Next to him stood a young blonde woman wearing a red dress which clashed horribly with her overdone spray tan.
“Jesus, who’s the Oompa Loompa?”, she laughed into Jimmy’s ear.
“That’s Zacky’s girlfriend Gena. She’s permanently orange. I think her Dad fucked a cheesy puff or something.”

At the mention that Zacky had a girlfriend, Savannah felt her heart miss a beat, and her steps faltered momentarily. Oh hell, she didn’t still feel something for that waste of space, did she?