Like Lightening, I Strike Twice

- - Brian's pov - -

"I win!!" Adela yelled while jumping out of the car, Amber's car arriving soon after.

We all had gotten out of the cars to stretch our legs, we were somewhere outside Santa Barbara.

Adela and Amber were laughing and goofing off while pouring the gas, Zacky and I were watching them while the rest went in to buy food and such.

How you are holding up?" Zacky asked me.

"Its weird ya know? One minute we're moping because the love of our lives left and the next minute they're back."

"Ya, and you wanna be mad at them for leaving. . "

"But you still have so many feelings from them." I finish.

"Exactly"

Matt and Val join us soon after that. "What is she doing?" Matt asks point to Amber.

I shrugged while Val and Zacky mirror my actions.

Kristina also looked at Amber and noticed Amber staring at a car. Kristina went to talk to the driver while Amber comes up behind her, fingering her gun. They both gasp and turn, with their backs to us, talking in hushed tones. They then look up and pretend nothing is wrong and call to us, telling us they're about to leave.

"What happened back there?" I asked once we were in the car.

"Nothing, we just got some gas." She was covering something I could tell.

I nodded and turned up her CD, surprising Rise Against came out instead of Atreyu.

**"All because of you,
I haven’t slept in so long.
When I do I dream of drowning in the ocean,
Longing for the shore where I can lay my head down,
I’ll follow your voice,
All you have to do is shout it out."

I look back at silent Matt and Val to find them both asleep by then end of the second or third song.

I turned down the music and turned to Kristina, "Okay what really happened?"

Kristina grinned at me "What are you talking about?"

"Whoever you talked to back there has you freaked."

Kristina's face fell "You know me way to well." She said while shaking my head.

"No, anyone could tell."

"What?"

"The way you're acting, as if you're on the edge, and then you keep going faster on purpose and Amber is no where in sight."

Kristina looked down at her speed for the first time this trip. "Amber took another way."

"Racing?" I asked hoping to get some information from here.

"No, the guy that I talked to. . ."

"Ya?"

"He was sent to kill us, he's been following us thats why Amber took another route."

"You okay?" I asked concerned.

"Duh! I love for this kind of stuff!" She said while laughing. "Seriously? I'm fine, Amber and I called in back up since I can barley walk."

"Who?"

"Our friend Chloe."

"You have a lot of friends in the mob?"

Kristina started laughing, "Chloe's not in the mob! Shes a hit man!"

I raise my eyebrows "And thats better?"

"If you think my aim is good, hers is crazy good. Trust me with Chloe we'll be fine."

Someone thing about her voice made me think she was trying to convince herself, more than convincing me.

<3 </3 <3

"Brian!" I heard someone say while poking me.

I opened my eye a little to see her staring back at me, I saw her and smiled which she returned with a smile of her own.

I grabbed her bag, and my bag with the few pieces of clothing we had brought at the mall and followed her into the house.

"Chloe!!" I heard her and Amber yell and hugged a girl.

Chloe was a tall like the other two with straight black hair with green tips and a blue underside. Se was wearing a shirt that rode up and showed a small butterfly on one hip and a star on the other. When she turned around you could see the heart tattoo on her back that had bullets going through it and was bleeding.

The girls were laughing about something when Chloe looked up and noticed us.

Amber stepped up and introduced us "Brian, Zacky, Matt and Val, Johnny, and Jimmy and Leanna." She said pointing to us in turn.

"And this is Chloe." Kristina said

Chloe waved before looking over me and Zacky a little more closely, and smirking. No one else seemed to notice.

"Hey why don't we show everyone to their rooms." Chloe said to Kristina and Amber who nodded.

Amber lead the two couples downstairs to the guest rooms down there, while Kristina took Johnny to the guest room somewhere on this floor, and Chloe would show us stairs.

This made me slightly uncomfortable, but whatever.

Chloe grabbed her two bags and threw them in to the first room, and then turned back to us and her smirk got bigger.

"I take it your the exes right?" She asked still smirking.

Zacky gulped "What?"

If possible her smirk got bigger and lead us down the hallway and stopped in front of two doors.

"You still have feelings for them, correct?"

"No-"
"Of course you do, you still look at them that way and I've seen the smiles. Don't try to deny it, or not to me." Chloe pointed out.

Both Zacky and I sighed "Ya we do."

"Good" she stated simply "Now heres the answer to your questions about their feelings about you."

Upon finishing she threw opened the doors. Suddenly she pushed Zacky towards the now open door on the left and I was pushed threw the now open door on the right.

And what I saw surprised me.

But I couldn't help but smile.

Kristina's room was. . .was. . .beatiful.

Chloe was right it showed me exactly how Kristina felt towards leaving, the band, and most importantly me.

Everything was black with hearts, the walls, bedspread, curtains everything. But the hearts weren't normal hearts, all some how were incomplete or bleeding. And there were 4 gigantic hearts, on each wall, with writing on them.

I walked up to the first and noticed it was cracked down the middle with time written down the middle. On the top it said My family with pictures of her family on the two sides of the heart, and at the bottom of the heart it said "Family believes the heart will heal with time, so let it heal on its own."

The next heart was also broken but was sorta closed together with glue dipping down the middle and bottom. On the top it read "Friends" with pictures on either side. There was 2 of Chloe, 3 of Amber and few more of people, I didn't recognize. On the bottom of the heart it read "Friends heal the heart with the glue of society. They push you back into the world, and without them you would become a hermit."

The third heart, again was broken but bandages down the middle holding it together. The top read "My Avenged Family of Friends", there was pictures of the guys but none of me. There were some taken at concerts and others of when she knew me. Every guy was in at least 3 pictures, but still conveniently I was in none of them. At the bottom of the heart is read "Avenged family of friends puts your heart back together with laughter and bandages it by always being there for you. Without them you would become undone."

The fourth heart had to be my favorite.

The last heart, like the rest, was broken but was stitched up with black thicks string. The top of the heart read "Soul Mates", and on both sides of the heart were pictures of all the good times I had with Kristina. There had to be at least a dozen pictures and all of them we looked happy. At the bottom of the heart it had the words: "Soul mates are the only ones that can stitch up your torn heart and love it just the same as if it wasn't broken. Without them, your heart would be torn into pieces for the rest of time." There was writing below it, it was smaller and you could tell it was added later, it read Glad I found mine.

Guess Kristina still feels the same way I do

Her hearts made me have a flashback of when I asked Kristina to prom.

Flashback

I was walking around the park, I wanted to smoke but had to find a secluded area so no one would tell my mom. I would be dead if she found I smoked and wasn't 18 yet.

I found my favorite bench overlooking the rest of the park and went to it, but when I got closer I noticed someone siting on it.

Then I heard the crying, I went over to look at the person. What I saw broken my heart, literally I could hear and feel it being torn into two pieces.

Kristina was crying.

Kristina was one of Val's, Matt's girlfriend, best friends. The minute I meant her I instantly feel in love, but the more and more I got to know her I fell more and more in love with her. It grew from being just a physical attraction, to me loving everything about Kristina's. Her flaws, her imperfections, there was nothing she could do or I could be told that would make me stop liking her. But I was too scared to ever do anything about it.

"Kris?" I asked quietly.

She looked up, and I could she her make-up running. Even with two thick black lines going down her face she looked like a goddess.

"Hey Brian." She said looking back down, she had her knees pulled up to her chest and was hiding her face in there.

I sat on the bench and pulled her to me, and let her cry on my shoulder. "What wrong?" I asked rubbing her back in a circular motion.

"He ch-ch-cheat-cheated on me." She wailed and started crying harder on me.

"The asshole cheated on you?" I knew exactly who she was talking about. Her boyfriend, Josh Franklin, was an asshole who hated me with a passion. He was always trying to compete with me. Once he had found out I wanted to ask out Kristina, he started to pursuer her and asked her out first.

"He said he was only in the relationship to to to-"

"Make me jealous right?"

She nodded "Ya, how did you know?" The tears had finally stopped but she was still sitting on me.

"He's always trying to compete with me."

"But what did I have to do with it?"

I rubbed my neck and stared out, suddenly getting nervous. "I li-lik-like you." I finally stuttered out.

She looked up and smiled "Really?"

"Ya" I asked nodding.

She kissed my cheek and told me I was too cute.

"Thanks."

She moved out of my lap but still had her arm around my waist. "You wanna know the worst of it?"

"What?" I asked, still giddy at the contact she was keeping.

"I bought this really pretty prom dress, its all black with Pink trims. And its a halter top, and has layers at the bottom. She finished with a sigh "Guess I never get to wear it.

Guess it was time to get over my nerves

"Hey Kristina?"

"Ya?"

"Will you go to prom with me?"

Kristina turned and smiled, still looking like a goddess with drying make-up on her face. She smiled bigger and kissed my cheek again,

"I was hoping you would ask, because I like you too."

End of Flashback

I turned when I heard laughing at the end of that hallway, I turned to see Kristina walk in to the room.

Her face dropped and she said "Shit" before running out of the room.