I'll Take You There And Back Again

Summer. Oh how that one word could make me grin like a three year old again. There were only three weeks left until summer. Three weeks left until tour. Three weeks left until all my privacy would be invaded by nine guys. Three weeks until I would be embarrassed more times than all the times so far in my life put together. Just three more weeks. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by the front door to the house slamming open and then shut once more. As I looked up I saw Mattie strolling through the living room over to where I was laying on the couch.

"And how pray tell did you get in?" I narrowed my eyes at the youngest Baker child as he stood there.

"Well I knocked… but no one answered. So I tried the door and found it was unlocked. Now get up. We're going out to lunch."

"Ugh Mattie, today was supposed to be my guy-free day. Hence why the house is empty except for me." I gestured to the empty house with my arms.

"Yeah well today is an exception. You're coming with me, Zacky, and Brian out for lunch." Mattie grabbed hold of my arms and lifted me up into a standing position and proceeded to drag me to the front door.

"Just us four?" I questioned as I slipped on my flip flops and slung my mini messenger bag over my shoulder. Guess there was no hope fighting it, I would be going whether I wanted to or not.

"Yeah just us four. It was supposed to be just the two of us but Brian and Zack begged to come along too." I hadn't seen much of the Avenged guys since we first met them. We had made phone calls and met up maybe three times to schedule dates for us to meet with merch companies and such. But most of the time it had been business stuff, nothing fun or laid back. Thanks to the guys though, we had some cool tee's and other clothing items being made by Zacky and Syn. They came up with some amazing designs and told us that their clothing lines would take care of everything for us. Matt had arranged for us to use a friend's studio to record our songs so that we would have a cd to sell at the shows. That went over really well and actually didn't take us very long, which surprised Mitch, Matt's friend. He gave several copies of the cd to Matt for the guys to listen to and they all loved it, which made us all very happy and excited. I have to say, the guys sure were taking us under their wing.

"Oh ok that's cool. Are they outside?" I snagged my keys off the table next to the door and looked at Mattie.

"Yeah. Syn's driving." We exited the house and I locked the door before turning to see a very nice black Hummer sitting my driveway with Syn in the driver's seat. Mattie opened the passenger door and motioned for me to take a seat. He apparently was sitting in back with Zacky.

"Hey guys." I smiled at Brian before turning around to wave enthusiastically at Zack who waved back.

"Hey there miss Kacie. Up for some lunch?" Zacky poked his head up between the front seats.

"Sure am, although I am being deprived of my guy-less day. Where are we going?" Syn looked at me with furrowed eyebrows before turning back to the road. I noticed we were heading south of Long Beach, presumably to somewhere in Huntington.

"Guy-less day? What's that supposed to mean?" he asked as he turned to glance at me once more.

"It's one of the few days where it's supposed to be just me, no annoying guy bandmates. Just a day of all the estrogen I can muster." I laughed as realization dawned on their faces. "Yeah, you need one of the day's every now and then when you have to live with the guys too."

"Well too bad you don't get one today. We're taking you to Duke's on the beach in Huntington." Zacky piped in.

"Duke's is expensive though." Duke's, incase you didn't know, is a nice bar type restaurant that is usually found on the beach. It's got a barefoot bar and all. Very nice but casual restaurant, yet also pricey.

"That's why we're paying for you. It's our treat since we dragged you out of the house. Literally." I looked back to find both Baker boys sitting with innocent smiles on their faces. Good thing I knew they were anything but innocent.

"Are you sure?" I felt bad having them pay for me.

"Of course we're sure. Trust me, lunch at Duke's won't put a hole in any of our wallets." Syn smiled at me as I rolled my eyes.

"Perks of having tons of money. I know. I know." I shook my head before continuing, this time under my breath though. "Spoiled rich people… I tell ya." Although it was under my breath, it was still loud enough for them to hear me.

"Hey be nice you." Brian poked my leg as I laughed.

"Hey it's true! Look at this set of wheels you've got yourself. If you saw my crummy car you'd laugh."

"It's true." Mattie laughed from behind me. I looked behind me and glared.

"You don't have to agree with me Baker."

"Just stating the fact's my dear."

~xXx~

"So you know what you want yet?" Brian asked from his spot beside me in our booth at Duke's.

"Yeah I think I'm going to get the barbecue chicken salad."

"Please don't tell me you're an 'I only eat salads' type of girl." Brian looked at me suspiciously. Wow he had a lot to learn about me.

"Nowhere near it. I promise. I'm just hungry for a good salad. At home I have to depend on whatever the guys make since they have salad duty, which let me tell you isn't much. Usually lettuce and a tomato." I let out a chuckle at the though of my guys making a simple salad.

"Hey what's wrong with that?" Zacky looked smug.

"Oh so you're one of those kind of guys… can't put any effort into making anything." This made Brian and Mattie laugh as well.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Zacky just mock glared at me.

Once we ordered, and the guys received their beers while I got my coke, the talk shifted over to the tour.

"So, are you excited to play in front of thousands of people? Brian nudged me. They had all figured out I was somewhat of a shy person.

"I won't lie. I'm freaking nervous. Especially when most of the people will have never heard us before. But I'll manage, like I always do."

Zacky looked at me like I was insane. "You're nervous? You're the 'frontman' well, woman but still. You'll be fine. I have no doubt that the fans will love you guys."

"Oh hey, speaking of you singing, we were wondering, on a few of our songs, we'd like you to help us out on stage." I looked at Syn like he was crazy. Me help them on stage?

"On Unholy Confessions, Matt thought it would be cool to have you help out with some of the screaming parts, and then on A Little Piece Of Heaven, we need you to do the girl vocals, since well you're the only girl on tour." Hmm helping out one of my favorite bands on stage, I have to say it would be amazing, yet it would be odd. Me, a little nobody on the scene, singing with one of the biggest bands out there at the moment.

"So?" Zacky and Mattie both gave me puppy dog eyes.

"Hell, why not. Count me in."

"You won't regret it." Brian said as he slung an arm over my shoulders and pulled me closer to him.

Unbeknownst to me, across the table Zacky and Mattie were giving eachother questioning looks at the sight of Syn's gesture toward me and Syn in return was glaring at them.

~xXx~

"Hey guys Mattie and I are gonna run across the street to see John. You wanna come?" We had just finished lunch and I had no clue who this John was that Zacky was talking about.

"Who's John?"

"He's a family friend that owns a bar across the street. We're just going to pop in and say hi for a few minutes. You're welcome to come along or hang out on the beach if you want." I looked from the ocean to the strip of shops that ran perpendicular to the ocean and thought the sand was calling my name more.

"I think I'm going to hang out here if you don't mind."

"Not at all. Syn you coming or staying?"

"I think I'll stay here with Kacie. Call me when you're on your way back over." Syn looked at me. "Care to go for a walk?" He shoved his hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts as he gave me a small smile.

"Sure."

"So how did you meet all the guys?" Brian and I had remained silent for the first few minutes. It was obvious neither one of us knew what to say.

"Well that's actually a funny story. We go back to high school. I met Drew and Will in my video class. They thought it would be fun to pick on me since I was the younger girl of the class. We eventually became friends when the three of us got paired up for a project. That was my nightmare of a class. They made it hell for me. Then there was one day at lunch that I saw Garret sitting by himself and invited him to eat with us and he joined the group, then he introduced us to Adam. And here we stand today. One big happy family, well happy for the most part. There's still the annoyance factor every now and then." Brian looked over at me. His grin had now become wider.

"You guys sound like us. That's pretty much how we came to know eachother. We picked on eachother a lot and then eventually became friends. Odd how those things work out." Brian stopped walking for a second and turned to face the ocean.

"So you like the beach?" he asked as he now took a seat on the sand. I looked down to him and sat down too.

"Yeah. I've always grown up going to it. Drew and Adam aren't such big fans of it, but the rest of us are." My toes were getting deeper and deeper as I dug down into the sand, my flip flops laying abandoned next to me.

"You seem like the kind of girl who loves the beach. You also seem like the kind of girl who should have a boyfriend, so why are you still single?" Hmm so Mr. Gates was digging to find out more about me. I guess a little more info for the time being wouldn't hurt. Why he chose to ask that though had me baffled.

"I just haven’t found the right guy I guess. I've dated a few guys in my past, all of which didn't have the 'approval' of the guys, and I ended up finding out they were jerks. Things just never seem to work out for me. But I'm sure I'll find another guy to date eventually." Brian was listening very intently to what I had to say and it peaked my curiosity.

"Well you never know, you may find him on tour."

Say what? "Are you suggesting something Mr. Haner?" He in return just winked.

"Who me? Never." So Brian was a flirt. I liked that.