Runaway

Brian Haner Jr. yawned loudly as he walked into his house. He had just gotten back from his summer tour with his band Avenged Sevenfold. He hated being alone in this big house. Before he left for the tour he and his fiance Michelle got into a huge fight. She just didn't do it for him anymore. People change. She used to be the biggest sweetheart he knew; now all she cared about was money and being the worlds biggest bitch. Brian would do anything for her and she knew that, but if she acted like a bitch to him it made things a hundred times worse.

What did it for him was the simple fact that she cheated on him. He went to go jam with the guys at Matt's studio. While there his guitar string broke so he quickly rushed back home to get his other guitar until he had time to fix the strings on the other one. Brian heard weird noises coming from the bedroom. Upon further investigation he realized that they were sexual noises. He knew Michelle's moans so he in fact realized they were hers. Anger began boiling up inside of him. She better be using a dildo to please herself and not be cheating on him.

He headed into the room to find a guy that he had never seen before fucking his girl. Brian jumped on the guy which caused them both to land on the floor. Michelle began screaming at Brian to stop, but he didn't listen. Brian punched this guy numerous times until the man got free from him. He quickly grabbed his clothes and darted out of the house before Brian had a chance to kill him. He stood up to his feet and looked over at Michelle. All he could see was red.

"Get your shit and get the fuck out of my house." he yelled at her.

"Brian, I'm sorry--"

"I don't want your damn apologies. Get OUT!"

That was the last time he saw or talked to Michelle. He didn't want questions as to why she cheated on him. Frankly, he didn't care. He had fallen out of love with her a long time ago. Now, he had an excuse to get rid of her. That had been nearly three months ago. Sure, on tour he had a few good times with some groupies, but he never had sex with them. Something about it just didn't seem right. He wanted to save himself for a girl that meant the world to him. He just hoped one day that he would find her.

Tonight, he planned on calling in some chinese food, doing laundry, and getting wasted. It seemed like a very good idea. He was drinking a lot lately; more than he usually does. Tomorrow, he wanted to go see his dad and little sister McKenna then maybe head to the guitar shop that he owned. He wanted to make sure that Chaz hadn't fucked everything up.

~*~

Maci woke up at seven the next morning. She really didn't know what to wear for Chaz didn't say anything about a dress code. She slipped into a pair of jeans and a blue button up shirt and sneakers. She put on makeup, brushed her teeth, put on deoderant, and pulled her long blond hair into a high ponytail. She grabbed her wallet then darted out of the room.

Thankfully, breakfast at the hotel would be free since she was a guest. She headed into the breakfast room which was filled with a few people. She piled her plate full with eggs, bacon, sausage, a bagel, grapes, and a banana. She also made herself a cub of coffee. It had been a while since she had a good meal like this; and she didn't eat anything yesterday so she was starved. After eating everything on her plate she glanced at her phone for the time. It was already eight thirty in the morning. She decided to go ahead and walk across the street for her first day at work.

She patiently waited for Chaz to get there. He didn't show up until two minutes til nine. He gave Maci a soft smile as he cut off the engine and got out.

"Sorry, I hope you haven't been waiting too long" he apologized. "I guess your friend dropped you off?"

"Yeah, she's my ride.

Maci felt bad about lying, but she didn't think she would get the job if she told Chaz she didn't have a home but instead was living in a hotel room across the street.

"I see. Well, come on in. I'll get you started on polishing the guitars."

Chaz unlocked the door allowing her to enter.

"So, do you own the shop?" Maci asked.

"No, I'm the store manager. Gates Guitar Shop is owned by Brian Haner Jr." Chaz pointed to the cardboard cutout of Brian that was placed in front of his guitars. He noticed that Maci didn't seem to know who he really was. "Synyster Gates as some may call him. Those are the guitars he plays."

Maci nodded slightly. She really didn't know who this Brian guy was. The only music she really listened to was the rap shit that Kris would play at the club he owned. Maci felt a little happy about herself. She didn't think that Chaz would hire an outsider to work at a place that a celebrity owned.

"What band does he play for again?" she asked, after work she planned on finding a music store and buying the cds.

"Avenged Sevenfold. All the guys in the band live here."

"That's cool. So, they grew up here in Huntington Beach?"

"Indeed." Chaz replied.

"Awesome," Maci glanced around then met Chaz's blue eyes. "So, how do I clock in?"

Chaz showed her how to clock in on the cash register. He also explained that she would get a thirty minute break and get paid every friday. This week of course she wouldn't get paid but next friday she would The store was closed on Sundays so that would mainly be her only day off. Since school was starting back most of the summer help was already gone so it was just her and Chaz.

After clocking in, she began to use the polish and a rag to clean the guitars. It took her a good four hours to clean them all. A handful of customers came in while she was polishing. One needed a few chord books, two of them bought guitars with Maci's help, and the others were just browsing. Maci was sad that she didn't get a chance to bring her guitar along. She had only packed things that would be easy to runaway with. Her eyes landed on a beautiful cherry wood acoustic guitar. She grabbed it from the rack then settled herself down in a chair. She softly began strumming along to a song that she had stuck in her head. She never really had time to put her words onto paper, but now she really wanted to try and write some songs. She opened up her mouth and began to sing along to her tune. Chaz was outside smoking so she felt brave to sing in the shop since she was alone.

"Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in so shame on me now flew me to places I'd never been 'til you put me down, oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in so shame on me now flew me to places I'd never been now I"m lying on the cold hard ground. Oh, oh trouble trouble trouble."

Maci heard the clearing of someone's throat. She glanced up to see Chaz smiling from ear to ear with a very attractive guy standing next to him. Her heart began to beat faster as her baby blue's connected with his chocolate brown eyes. She nervously dropped the guitar which made her blush like crazy.

"Sorry, I'm buying this later anyway." she quickly picked it up off the floor and looking at it to make sure she didn't do any damage to the beautiful guitar.

Chaz chuckled. "Maci this is Brian Haner Jr. He's the owner. Brian this is your new employee Maci."

Brian nodded. "You're a really good singer."

"Thanks. Uh, I'll get back to work. Sorry again."

Maci quickly put the guitar back on its stand. She didn't want Brian to think that she was a slacker on the job. She headed over to a rack that had chord books on it. She began to go through a box and place the new books in their right order. Brian and Chaz headed into the back office. Brian gave Maci a look over before closing the door behind him. Maci had never been attracted to a man like this before. Kris was the only man she had been with and he really wasn't very attractive. His love making was more about him getting off rather than pleasing her. It's not like looks mattered to her it's just that she had never really been nervous around a guy before. Maci couldn't believe that she just embarrassed herself like that in front of him. She just hoped Brian didn't think she was some dumb blonde because she wasn't. There was far more to her than that.