Revenge

“This is fucked up,” Matt grumbled as he reluctantly climbed into the passenger seat of the rental car.

“Man, I told you not to do it. He wasn’t gonna lose again,” Zacky replied, a smirk gracing his pierced lips as he slid into the drivers seat.

“That bet was bullshit. He fucking cheated,” Matt growled, folding his arms over his chest and glaring through the windshield.

“He beat you fair and square, man. It’s not his fault that chick turned out to be a guitarist groupie,” Zacky replied, chuckling lightly and shaking his head.

“I bet he fucking knew that,” Matt grunted, as the back doors of the vehicle opened and three more bodies entered the car.

“Dude, haven’t you learnt your lesson about making bets?” Jimmy asked, clapping Matt on the shoulder from the center of the backseat.

“If he hasn’t yet, he will have after tonight,” Brian grinned, rubbing his hands together and wiggling his eyebrows.

“Fuck you, man,” Matt snapped, lifting his arm and raising his middle finger in a salute to the guitarist.

“Suck it up, Shadows. I had to follow through with the terms of our last bet when I lost, now it’s your turn,” Brian replied, reaching his hand up and clapping Matt’s shoulder as he chuckled.

Zacky laughed as he turned the key in the ignition, the cars engine roaring to life as he shifted the gears into reverse and maneuvered the car from the parking space. He pulled out of the parking lot of the hotel and took a left, following the road until it met up with the main street that ran through the town.

“Where’s the place?” Zacky asked, not directing the question to any particular person.

“It’s a couple of blocks away. Big pink flashing sign, you can’t really miss it,” Brian answered, barely able to contain his glee about the events that were soon to unfold.

“Parking looks like it’s gonna be a bitch,” Zacky asked, his eyes scanning the busy street as the traffic slowed due to a red light up ahead.

“There’s a lot around back you can park in,” Johnny replied, speaking his first words since he’d gotten in the car.

“Alright,” Zacky agreed, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and pressing his foot down on the gas gently as the lights changed.

“How do you know there’s a lot around back?” Matt asked, turning his head to look at the younger man.

“We came here earlier today, to make arrangements,” Johnny responded, a cheesy grin on his face as the other guys chuckled.

“Arrangements?! What the hell does that mean?!” Matt grunted, his eyes growing wide as he stared daggers at Johnny.

“You’ll see,” Brian laughed, clapping his hands as the others cheered.

Zacky turned the car off of the main road onto a side street and made a left hand turn into a parking lot and pulled into a vacant space close to the back of the building. He shut the engine off and the three occupants in the back seat got out and slammed the doors behind them as they laughed and joked around.

“Are you gonna get out?” Zacky asked; raising an eyebrow when he noticed Matt hadn’t made any attempt to exit the vehicle.

“This is fucked up,” he muttered, shaking his head and clenching his jaw tightly.

“It’s not gonna be that bad, man. At least you get to throw back a few drinks, Brian had to do it sober,” Zacky pointed out, wrapping his fingers around the door handle and popping it open.

“I’m gonna need more than a few,” he sighed, slipping his seatbelt off and following Zacky’s lead.

They exited the car and closed the doors behind them, Zacky pressing the button on the keys to arm the central locking and alarm and nodding when the car beeped quietly in response. Matt rounded the car slowly and they made their way to the entrance of the building where the others were waiting, all grinning gleefully at Matt.

“Fuck off,” Matt scoffed, a small smile slipping out as he shook his head and rubbed his face.

“Come on, man. Let’s get this show on the road,” Jimmy called, clapping his hands and leading the others into the club.

“Find a table or go to the bar first?” Johnny asked, gesturing to the floor and the bar.

“Bar. I need alcohol. A lot of it,” Matt replied, not waiting for an answer before he was making his way across the room to the bar.

“I should’ve made the same rule for him and said no alcohol,” Brian chuckled, walking along beside Zacky to the bar.

“I think he’s got it worse than you did, man. He needs the alcohol to do this one,” Zacky chuckled, stepping aside to avoid bumping into a group of guys standing near the bar.

“Yeah, true,” Brian laughed, nodding as they reached the bar.

Matt had already been served and was downing a shot of what looked to be straight bourbon, followed by two more before he chased it up with a beer and held his hand out for service again.

“Dude, don’t want to get too hammered and lose control up there, do you?” Zacky teased, clapping his friend on the back and receiving a glare in response.

“I think I’ll be just fine,” Matt responded, turning back to the bar tender and ordering two more shots.

As soon as the shots were placed in front of Matt, he threw them back in succession and slammed the glasses back down on the bar, letting out a grunt of displeasure as he did so. He was already feeling a slight buzz from consuming so many drinks in such a short period, but he wanted it to last the night and throughout his entire performance, so he wasn’t ready to quit just yet.

“Should we get a table or just stand here while Sanders drinks himself unconscious?” Brian questioned, gesturing to his fellow band mate with a thumb and smirking.

“If I’m unconscious, I won’t have to go through with it,” Matt pointed out, giving Brian a smug look as he swallowed yet another shot.

“Not tonight, but when you wake up we’ll just take you to another club like this and set it up all over again until you do it,” Brian responded, taking a sip of his own whiskey and coke.

“So best to just get it over and done with now,” Jimmy piped up, clapping Matt on the shoulder and giving it an encouraging squeeze.

Matt didn’t respond, just slammed down a further two more shots, his level of inebriation growing with tiny every glass full. He knew he should slow down, so as not to risk ending up puking on the stage during his performance, but he needed the liquid courage more than he ever needed it in his life.

“It’s time, Sanders,” Brian called, gently knocking Matt’s arm to prevent him from trying to order another drink.

Matt looked up and saw Jimmy and Johnny walking across the room towards him with a blonde woman in a pink sparkly dress. He cringed and let out an audible groan, his shoulders slumping as Brian and Zacky pushed him forward and away from the bar.

“Come on, darl, let’s get you backstage,” the lady said, taking Matt’s hand and leading him away from the group.



“Did you pick the song?” Jimmy asked, as the group of friends sat down at a table that was front and centre in front of the stage.

“Yes, I did. He picked mine,” Brian nodded, a smug smile stretched across his face as he sipped his drink.

“I gotta say, I think I preferred when you lost the bet. At least at the strip club, the tits were real,” Johnny stated, watching as waitress in a short blue cocktail dress wandered past with a tray of drinks.

“You call silicone, real?” Zacky smirked, sipping from his Jack Daniels and Coke.

“More real than the foam shoved down her top,” Johnny replied, pointing at another waitress in a pink wig and white hot pants.

“So basically what you’re saying is that you’d rather hang out at a strip club than a drag club?” Jimmy asked, leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs out in front of him.

“Hell yeah,” Johnny nodded, swallowing a mouthful of his beer.

“You’ve got a lot better chance of getting lucky here than you would at a strip club,” Zacky smirked, earning a round of hearty laughs at the bass player’s expense.

Johnny was about to respond to Zacky’s quip, but before he could say a word, the lights of the club dimmed and a spotlight lit up the red curtains shielding the stage. A slow electric beat filled the club and everyone’s attention turned to the stage as the curtains slowly began to part.



Matt stood centre stage, a microphone in his right hand and a look of sheer distress contorting his handsome features. The music was loud and there were two drag queens on stage with him, both of them dressed in all leather—including their miniskirts, thigh-high boots and even their little hats—and their purpose was to be Matt’s back up dancers and singers.



Loud cheers and applause erupted from the audience when the spotlight fell on Matt, the light so bright it was blinding he couldn’t see anything ahead of him, but he didn’t need to see to know the calls were coming from his band mates. Who else would be so happy to see him standing on a stage about to humiliate himself?

Before he knew it, his cue to begin singing had come around and he found himself at a crossroads, not sure whether he should just suck it up and perform the song or turn and sprint off the stage. As if it wasn’t bad enough he was standing on the stage in a pair of leather pants, a leather vest—that barely did up across his chest—and leather studded collar around his neck, but did he really have to sing this ridiculous song?

“Feels so good being bad. There's no way I'm turning back. Now the pain is my pleasure 'cause nothing could measure,” he sung, his eyes flickering between the karaoke screen in front of him and the back-up singers as they danced around the stage.

“Love is great, love is fine. Out the box, outta line. The affliction of the feeling leaves me wanting more…” he continued, slowly walking towards the front of the stage.

“Coz I might be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it. Sex in the air, I don’t care I love the smell of it. Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me!” he belted out.

It wasn’t clear whether it was the upbeat atmosphere, the encouraging crowd or the large consumption of the alcohol, but Matt found himself slowly loosening up and he put more into the performance, slowly moving around the stage and shaking off the stiffness brought on by his discomfort.

“Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it. Sex in the air, I don’t care; I love the smell of it. Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me,” he continued, side-stepping out of the way as one of the queens spun past him on the stage.

Down on the floor, the Matt’s band mates were practically falling out of their chairs with laughter as they watched on of their best friends move around on stage, singing along with Rihanna song and accompanied by two drag queens doing back up for him.

“Oh my god, this is the best thing ever!” Johnny howled, clapping his hands above his head and stomping his feet on the ground.

“Please tell me you haven’t missed any of it, Gates, we need to be able to watch this again whenever we want,” Zacky snorted, clapping Brian on the shoulder.

“Haven’t missed a thing,” Brian responded, laughing heartily and trying to keep the video camera in his hand as steady as possible.

“We could make so much money off that video… do you know how many people would pay to see Matt dressed in leather singing about S&M?!” Jimmy cackled, slamming his hand down on the table and wiping away a tear from his eye.

“Nah, this video is just for friends and family… and maybe for the wedding reception whenever he gets married, just to give the in-laws an insight into what they’re letting into their family,” Brian smirked, his delight at watching Matt having to go through a similar humiliation that he himself had to impossible to contain.



By the end of the song, Matt was strutting around the stage and working the crowd like he was in front of his regular audience with the rest of Avenged Sevenfold behind him. The effects of the alcohol were definitely setting in and his inhibitions had flown out the window, so it was a lot easier for him to really partake in the performance and even dance with the back-up singers.

“Oh, I love the feeling you bring to me, oh, you turn me on. It's exactly what I've been yearning for, give it to me strong. And meet me in my boudoir; make my body say ah ah ah I like it-like it,” he sung, the words coming from his mouth earning loud cackles from his friends.

Matt continued on, ignoring the catcalls of his friends and focusing instead on the rest of the audience who seemed to be appreciating his performance on a whole other level. Of course most of the clientele were probably of the homosexual nature and were more than likely checking him out, but Matt wasn’t homophobic so regardless he was proud that his performance was appreciated.

He continued to sing, even joining in with the back-up singers parts, his hips rocking from side to side as he strutted from one side of the stage to the other. As he strutted towards the back of the stage, one of the back-up dancers manipulated him into bending over, while the other dancer produced a leather riding crop and whipped him across the butt, much to Matt’s surprise.

Letting out a small yelp, he shot straight up and spun around, finding his friends collapsed on the table they were seated at in fits of laughter. Johnny, however, wasn’t even in his seat anymore, he was lying on the ground holding his stomach and howling with laughter.

Matt flipped them off and stood awkwardly in the middle of the stage as the back-up singers finished off the song and then draped themselves around him as the music came to an end and the audience erupted into applause. The curtains quickly dropped and Matt let out a sigh of relief, glad that the whole thing was finally over and he could get out of this leather outfit.

There were definitely some chaffing issues happening right now.

“Great job, sugar, you should consider a career change,” one of the dancers praised, her voice a lot deeper than Matt had expected.

“I don’t think my liver could take it,” Matt joked, pulling the waistband of his pants up after they slipped down.

“That’s too bad, you put on quite a show,” the other dancers smiled, sending a wink Matt’s way before they both sauntered off the stage.

Matt looked around chuckled softly to himself, not quite sure that he could believe that he’d just done karaoke to a provocative song in a fully leather outfit in a drag club. It certainly wasn’t as bad as he had assumed it would be, but it definitely wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat any time soon.

The next time he made a bet with Brian, it would have to be one he was guaranteed to win.

Losing again just wasn’t an option.