Seize The Day.

It was quick; she didn’t even realize that she actually went through with it. It was one of those things that you always plan out in your head but never actually do. She pulled back and looked at him, wanting to see what he would do and what his reaction would be. She expected him to be shocked, or mad even. She didn’t really know. She just hoped that she hadn’t screwed everything up.
He looked down at her for a moment, his face expressionless. Finally, a smile crept across his lips and he pulled her close to him and kissed her again. She smiled as she rested her head back on his chest. Jenny didn’t really know what this meant for the two of them. Did it mean that they were together now? Were they dating? Were they finally the “crew couple” that all the guys wanted them to be? Or did it change nothing at all? She wanted to ask him, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment. She knew she shouldn’t have been thinking about these things. She knew that she should just enjoy the fact that she got what she wanted, and it seemed like that was what he wanted too. She looked up at him again; his big brown eyes so alight with life. She was so happy, and yet, she couldn’t help but to question everything that had just happened.
Little did she know that Arin was doing the same thing in his own mind. But the biggest question that he asked himself was, “Now what?” He didn’t know if she wanted to become an official thing. He didn’t know if he wanted that either. He liked the way things were. There was no pressure to do anything or be anything more than what they wanted. I mean sure the guys made their fair share of jokes, but they never really tried to force them into anything. But now? He didn’t know where he and Jenny stood with anything now. But part of him almost didn’t care. He was with her right now, and that was more than enough. He wrapped his arm tighter around her and smiled as he saw her do the same.
Jenny heard the rest of the guys coming back and looked up at Arin and sighed, she didn’t want to move, but she also didn’t want the onslaught of comments that they were going to receive if she didn’t move. So she sat up straight against the back of the couch and slowly slid her hand out of Arin’s. He kept his arm around her shoulder though; he refused to move it regardless of what the guys might say.
Johnny and Zacky sat down across from them and Jenny smiled, “Well, you guys look better after a good night’s rest.” Johnny laughed, “After a while, you start to recover quicker. Not that I would expect you to know. Miss “oh this is my first beer”. Sheesh, live a little.” Jenny laughed, “I’m touring with you guys, this is about as alive as it gets.” Zacky looked at her, “Yea, and we get to do it all over again tonight!” Brian walked into the room and sat down at the table with Johnny and Zacky, “So Jenn, you singin’ again tonight?” She shrugged, “I dunno. Whatever you guys say goes. So, am I singing tonight?” Brian laughed, “I like the way you think. But I think you should. If you’re up for it I mean. ‘Cause the crowd loves you and quite frankly, it’s nice to hear someone’s voice other than Matt’s haha.” Matt called back to them from the driver’s seat, “I can hear you!” Syn shouted back up, “You were supposed to!”
Jenny laughed at them and once she settled back down, “So what am I singing? Same songs or different ones?” Zacky looked down at his hands, his face had deep thought written all over it. He looked up at her, “I think you should do Victim, and then a song that you haven’t done live before. Maybe even a song that isn’t exactly Avenged.” Arin raised his eyebrows in shock and Jenny was left speechless for a moment before she could respond. “Umm,” she stuttered, “I don’t know what else to sing.” Johnny smiled at her, “Oh come on, I see you listening to your iPod. I know you listen to things other than Avenged. And no, that does not mean you can sing Eminem.” Jenny laughed, “First things first, you don’t sing Eminem, you rap. And secondly, I don’t even know what to sing. I mean, you guys have such an awesome style of music, I don’t want to sing something that’ll mess all that up.” Zacky waved his hand as if she had just said something ridiculous, “Are you kidding me? We can fit pretty much anything into the show. Except country. Anything but country is okay.” She laughed, “Alright, sounds simple enough.”
She sat there and thought about it for a while. She looked up to Brian, “Toss me my iPod?” He threw it over to her and she started looking through her music library. She stopped on a few different artists and went through their songs, but then moved on. When she got to the bottom of the list, Arin stopped her, “You listen to You Me At Six?” Syn looked at him in bewilderment, “You know who the fuck they are?” Arin laughed, “Yea man, I love them.” Jenny smiled, “I was contemplating doing their song Always Attract. Or maybe this song that I have by Sanctus Real.” All the guys gave her a confused look and she couldn’t help but to laugh, “Oh, right, you guys don’t listen to my kind of music.” She started playing the song and right from the cool-sounding guitar intro, she had Brian and Zacky hooked. Once they started listening to the music in the background the all agreed that they could make it work into the setlist. They just needed the actual music to it.
Jenny looked down at her hands, “Oh, well…I don’t have that.” Zacky laughed, “It’s fine. There’s this beautiful creation called the Internet.” She stuck her tongue out at his him he went to the back of the bus to get his laptop. He came back out and started searching for the music online. He pulled up a page and grabbed his guitar. “Alright,” he said as he got his hands set up to play the first part, “tell me if this sounds right.” He started playing the intro and Jenny couldn’t believe how similar it sounded. He kept playing and Syn went and grabbed his guitar and joined in as well. Johnny and Arin were at a bit of a loss considering there aren’t many sheet music sites for bass and drums. But Johnny took her iPod and listened to the song a few times and finally picked up his bass and joined the guys with their guitars. Johnny looked over to Arin, “You think you can learn this?” Arin shrugged, “Can’t be any harder than the stuff you guys write.” Jenny laughed, “Yea, I’m pretty sure if you can master Jimmy’s drumming, you can handle this just fine.”
They pulled into the parking lot of the venue they were playing that night and Matt walked back, “Having a little pre-concert jam session I see.” Zacky laughed, “Nah man, we’re just practicing a song that Jenny’s gonna sing tonight.” Her head shot up, “Wait, I’m actually gonna be singing this?” Brian shrugged, “I don’t see why not.” She shook her head at them, “But you guys have barely have time to practice! I mean, you just found out that the song existed. There’s no way you’re playing that tonight. Just, no.” Matt laughed, “These guys pick up music faster than anyone I know. And we’ve got a long time till the show. A good, like, I don’t really know how long but it’s a lot haha.” Jenny hung her head, “I feel like this is extremely unrealistic. I mean, are you guys really gonna be able to play this by showtime?” Johnny smiled at her, “First things first, nothing about your current situation is realistic anyway, so that can’t be your reason. And second, Matt’s right, we’ve got plenty of time before we have to play. And if we don’t get it down, we’ll scratch that song from the setlist. Okay?” Jenny sighed, “Alright fine. But I get to decide if you guys are ready. Deal?” They all nodded, “Deal.”
They all got off the bus with their various pieces of equipment. Jenny made a few extra trips with amps and things like that since she didn’t have an actual instrument per say. She bumped into Arin as she stumbled off the bus with a few amps in tow. He caught her and laughed, “Careful, they’ll kill you if you break those.” She stuck her tongue out at him, “I’m fully aware of that thank you very much.” She smiled at him as she walked away. “This could shape up to be a good show,” she thought to herself as she gave a quick backwards glance at Arin, “a really good show.”
She walked out onto the stage with the amps and stared out into the stadium in awe. She had only ever seen one empty performing hall before, and that was back home at SPAC. When she went out to setup at their other venues, the curtains or whatever blocking devices they had were always closed and she couldn’t see the seats or anything until they went out to actually perform.
Syn saw her looking at everything and couldn’t help but to smile. He remembered his first big-time concert. He remembered seeing the empty seats during setup and thinking to himself that not enough people would want to see them to fill all the seats. But sure enough, when they all went out on stage, almost every one of those seats was filled. He smiled at the memories. He remembered wanting to stage dive with the guys, but knowing it would be a stupid move. He remembered talking Jimmy out of it at the end of the show as they walked forward to throw things into the crowd. He remembered picking Johnny up and carrying him off stage because the pure amount of adrenaline made him do so. He remembered people cheering for him and Zacky as they did their dueling guitars in certain songs. He remembered how different Matt’s voice used to be before they focused on singing rather than screaming. It all came flooding back to him just by seeing her reliving one of his moments.
He walked over to her, “Pretty awesome right?” Jenny snapped out of her daze, “Huh? Oh, yea. It’s amazing. I can’t believe that people are actually gonna fill all these seats.” He smiled as he put his arm around her, “I know the feeling.” She leaned back against him, knowing that he could support her weight, “Can I ask you something man?” He looked down at her, “Go for it.” She paused, as if trying to find the right words to say, “Are you glad that the guys decided to keep me for a while?” He laughed, “Are you kidding me? I was one of the ones who wanted you to stay. As a matter of fact, I think everyone wanted you to stay and see how things went.” She looked down at the ground, “I know, but I also know that you haven’t always really been my biggest fan.” He gave a small laugh, “Look, I’ll be honest, it took a while for me to accept the fact that you’d be hanging around. And it took an even longer time for me to actually start liking you on a regular basis. But to be honest, you’re growing on me kid.” She smiled as she stood upright again, “Well, I’m glad.”
Zacky walked out with their guitars and Johnny was in tow with his bass. A few seconds later Arin came stumbling out with his drumsticks in his hand. Zacky tossed a guitar to Brian, “You ready?” He nodded and grabbed the sheet music and started to strum. Johnny looked back to Jenny, “Can you plug your iPod into the amps and play the song?” She shrugged, “I can try haha.” She plugged it into the amp and crossed her fingers that it would work. And it did. She put it on repeat and watched in wonder as the guys slowly started to pick up the beats and chords with each play of the song. Eventually she joined in with the vocals and it was like they’d played the song a million times before. But part of her still didn’t think that they should do it that night. She knew that yes, they sounded great, but she couldn’t help but to be worried.
She stopped playing the song in the background to see how they would do. And, it still sounded good, but nothing compared to how they sounded when they played their own songs. She stopped singing and turned back to them, “I don’t know guys. I mean, it sounds good, but in comparison to your other songs, I think we should just save it for another show or something. I’ll just do Victim tonight. It’s fine, really. It’s more than enough.”
Zacky shrugged, “Alright, your call I guess. But we might as well practice it while we have the time, ya know?” Jenny nodded, “Yea, okay. But I’m gonna go backstage and practice Victim some more. I feel like I’m getting a little weird sounding.” The guys laughed and shook their heads at her as she walked away.
She walked into the back room and flopped down on the couch. What was going on around her was so surreal. Just being around the guys in general was a shock but being on tour with them, performing with them, and actually having somewhat of a relationship with one was almost too much to handle She was happy about it, no doubt, but at the same time, she couldn’t figure out why it all happened to her. There was nothing realistic about the situation she was in; Johnny was right about that much. But now it had her wondering why she was so lucky. She sighed as she opened a soda.
Matt came up behind her, “You okay?” She jumped a little, she didn’t hear him coming up behind her. She shrugged, “Yea I’m fine.” He raised a questioning eyebrow, “Something tells me that that’s a bit of a lie.” She gave a small laugh, “I’m just tired and well…confused I guess.” He sat down next to her, “Confused about what?” She hoisted herself upright, “Why the hell did you guys keep me? I mean, out of all the fans you guys have met, what made me so fucking special? I’m not mad about it or anything, but I just don’t get it.” He chuckled a little bit as he looked at her in slight shock, “I think you’re the only person on the face of the planet who would ever question being on tour with their favorite band.” She laughed and gave a sigh, “Well, it confuses me.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “Let me explain why I wanted you to stay. When we first met you, I thought it was going to be just like every other fan that we’ve met. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’ve met some amazing fans. But to an extent, they’re all the same you know? But you seemed pretty chill and everything so I invited you onto the bus. I didn’t expect it to turn into anything like it has, but I figured, why not just let you chill with us for a while since it was your first concert. Then I heard you tell your story and it was the best thing I’d ever heard. I mean, it wasn’t a happy story, and I’m sorry that you had to go through any of that, but I thought it was pretty awesome that you could come out of that so strongly. And then I saw how Johnny was so attached to you. And sure, I was a little pissed when he gave you the necklace,” he paused as he watched Jenny touch the little piece of the drum set around her neck self-consciously, “but I knew that you must’ve really meant something to him. So I figured I’d let Johnny do what he wanted. And when I realized how like, real and chill you were, I figured why not let you stick around for a while.” She looked at him and smiled, “Are you telling me the truth? Or just bullshitting me to make me feel better? Haha.” He laughed and gave her a playful shove, “I’m being dead serious. You are an awesome person you know. And a great singer too. Don’t question any of this alright? We wouldn’t do it for no reason.” She sighed and leaned back onto his shoulder, “I know. I guess I just never thought that you guys would ever like me that much…if at all haha.” He laughed as he gave her a hug and kissed her on the top of the head, “Well, trust me, I don’t think any of the guys wanna give you up. Especially Arin.” She laughed as she slapped him on the stomach playfully, “Oh shut up.”
Meanwhile, the guys were all out on stage practicing the one song. All of a sudden Johnny stopped playing. All the guys stopped playing as well and turned to him in confusion. Arin called down from his drum platform, “What’s going on man?” He looked down at his bass as if it had the answer for him, and then back up at the guys, “Does she seem kinda off to you?” Zacky patted him on the back, “Yea man. But she’s probably just tired. You do realize that she’s never done anything like this before right? I mean hell, her first concert was like what, a week ago? I think she’s just getting used to all of this. Don’t sweat it.” Brian came up behind them, “Yea, I’m sure she’ll be fine bro. And besides, even if she’s not, I’m sure that loverboy up there will take care of her.” Arin rolled his eyes, “Oh, you’re so funny man.” They were all laughing when Jenny came back out with a microphone in her hand, “Wanna give it another run through with some vocals?” Johnny smiled as she put the mic back on its stand, “Sure thing.”
Zacky and Syn started the guitar intro and then everyone else joined in. Jenny smiled back at them before turning forward again and starting singing, “If weakness is a wound, that no one wants to speak of, than “cool” is just how far we have to fall…” She sang through the whole song and then turned around to see all the guys, including Matt, staring at her in bewilderment. Her eyes widened a little, “What?” Arin called down from the platform, “That was fucking amazing, that’s what!” She smiled and blushed as she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down at her shoes.