Bluff

The sun had set now, and the chill of night washed in before Kory had awoken. She wrapped the fleece blanket around her shoulders tightly, and walked out into the kitchen without seeing who had left the studio, or if anyone had. Clara was gone, along with most of the staff, and the clock on the microwave read 11:39 in bold green letters.

When you first walked into the studio, you walked into the front office, it's walls painted red and many different framed album covers along the walls, checkerboard carpet was consistent through out the entire building, except for the two larger studios and the kitchen. An oval-shaped desk was in the center of the front office, where you simply identified yourself. Then, there were two hallways; one curved left, the other curving right. Though, the right hallway was always much less occupied than the left, and Kory had only ever worked down there a few select times.

Down the left hallway, the first place you came across was the kitchen. It was very 70's and retro; the walls were painted red, like the front office, and there was an L shaped, counter top in the far right corner. All of the kitchenware was orange; and contained the usual things a kitchen would as far as food went. In the center of the room, was a white table with matching chairs around it, and a single booth was on the north wall, below a large window.

As the hallway continued, the red walls were occasionally interrupted by the black soundproof doors of around four different studios. Between each door, part of the wall was hollowed out and a few candles were placed inside. And, at the end of the hallway, was the studio in which Avenged were currently working.

Kory grinned to herself. The candles in the walls were supposed to be a reasonable version of the castle in Beauty and the Beast, Melody's favorite movie of all time. She and Kory never really fought growing up - they didn't ever spend enough time together to do so. But, once Melody had turned eighteen, the two often went surfing together and did other fun things every weekend. They'd gotten pretty close over the years, and once Melody had announced that she'd be moving to South Carolina to be a recruit Marine, Kory was crushed. Though she still supported Melody's decision, she didn't want her to leave. Twelve weeks without her sister seemed tragic, and she was over halfway finished but the neglected feeling still lingered.

"What're you thinking about?" Jimmy's voice startled Kory, pulling her from her daze and making her flinch. He had been worried about her all day, and even though he knew he wasn't the only one worried he seemed to be the most frantic at this point in time.

Shrugging, Kory shook her head. "My sister," she answered, a small smile lingering on her lips as memories of the two of them skipping school and heading up to LA to spend the day resurfaced. "I think you'd like her."

Jimmy smiled. "I'm sure I would." He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask what was going on or not. He wanted to for a lot of reasons but he didn't want to make her upset. She was sleeping so much more often now than she ever had before, and she still looked so tired all of the time. Jimmy'd be damned if he made it any worse.

"Now you're thinking." Kory grinned, and pulled her knees up to her chest, as if the cold air had gotten to her despite the fact that the heater had been on for hours now because of Mason's fear of just that.

Jimmy shrugged and shook his head, just as Kory did when he'd claimed her to be thinking about something, receiving a small laugh to escape her lips. "You," he replied, "I'm thinking about you."

It wasn't the answer Kory had expected, but she took it anyways. "What about me?"

"You're sick. Emotionally, by far, but I think your emotional state is getting to your physical state. See, I can sound smart when I wanna," he said, adding the end to make things sound much less serious.

Kory sighed, un-phased by Jimmy's light-hearted attempt to get through to her. But she thought that if anyone deserved an explanation, it was Jimmy. "My mother, Nicole, is a lot of things but she is not my mom. Even growing up, I wasn't too fond of her as most first-born girls are. My dad was my rock, my hero, growing up. So when my mom went on a business trip when I was nine, she got wasted with her coworkers to celebrate some sale or something and she cheated on my dad. When she told him, he was crushed. But she just said that the divorce papers would arrive within a few days. She had tried to take my sister and I to her mom's house, but I was in no way ever leaving my dad. Even as a kid I saw that he shouldn't be left alone after something like that. So Nicole let me stay with him until the divorce was final. Even as a kid, I hated her for hurting my dad in any way.

"We spent the day watching Scooby Doo and when he refused to sleep in the bed, he slept on the sofa and I slept right next to him," she smiled simply, as if the memory was one of her best - despite the circumstances. "The next morning we went into the studio; at the time I didn't understand why he didn't take a day off, Nicole did whenever a family member had passed away or she was just tired. So we went into the studio, and at the time we were recording Papa Roach's first album. I spent all day cuddled up next to Jacoby and the day went by rather fast. So when it finally came down to it, Nicole won full custody over Melody and my dad over me.

"But, just a few days ago, Nicole came to my dorm and asked if I'd be willing to move to New York with her. She had already set up an apartment and gotten me a job as a journalist and at first the answer was, of coarse, no. But now I'm not sure what to do. I don't wanna leave you guys, and I don't wanna leave my dad or Marrissa or the studio and I think that I'd even miss Clara. But, still, being a journalist could be a major discovery for me," Kory finished with an exasperated sigh. She was so flustered and frustrated that she had no clue what to do. Maybe Jimmy's opinion would make more sense than her own.

He took a few seconds to think, before something caught his attention. "I thought you wanted to write a book, not be a journalist?" At least, he remembered her mentioning something about writing a novel.

Kory nodded. "Yeah, I've never even considered journalism but it's a start," she said, shrugging. Even though she really wasn't into the idea, everyone had to start somewhere, right?

Jimmy shook his head. "Kory," he drug out the y, "I don't think that's fair. If you don't wanna do journalism stuff, don't. You do whatever makes you happy." Jimmy grinned at her then, pulling her into a tight hug. "Are you hungry?"

Shaking her head, Kory sighed. "I'm fine, thanks."

Sighing, Jimmy grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "I've finished my parts for today, come on," he said, no negotiation in his voice.

"Where are we going?" Kory asked, putting her full trust in Jimmy's hands without regret. "I still need to tell my dad first."

He nodded in understanding, before walking towards the studio and opening the door to reveal both his and Kory's face to everyone. "Hey, Mason, I'm taking Kory to the doctors. She's not hungry and she's slept all day."

Mason sighed, before nodding and walking towards the two, hugging his daughter tightly. "I'll talk to you about everything later. Keep yourself safe," he said, before placing a kiss on her temple. He thanked Jimmy quickly, before going back to finishing up things with Johnny.



Kory had been bouncing her knee rapidly for the past twenty minutes as they waited for the nurse to come back. She was more nervous than Jimmy had ever seen her before.

Placing his hand firmly on her knee, Jimmy laughed. "Stop it, you'll be fine. Don't like hospitals?"

Shivering, Kory shook her head and bit her lip. "I'd usually rather die before actually coming into a hospital. You better feel pretty lucky, Sullivan."

Jimmy laughed again, and nodded. Before he could reply, there was a knock on the door and the short Latina nurse walked in. "Korrissa Lukay?"

Kory nodded, and crossed her legs over one another, placing her entwined fingers in her lap to hide her nervousness. "Yes, ma'am."

The nurse, named Sophie, smiled softly. "Well, Korrissa, there's nothing to worry about. You're just under a lot of stress and straining yourself. You just need to take a few days to forget whatever's bothering you, eat whatever you want, and do whatever makes you happy." Sophia pulled out a small metal clip-board. "You're a little malnourished, and make sure you drink lots of water for the next few days."

Sighing in relief, Kory nodded and thanked the nurse before standing up. Her cheeks were tinted red, and she stopped before opening the door. "Do you guys' have any stickers?"

Sophie laughed, but nodded. "They're at the front desk, hun," she said, a smile on her face.

Kory nodded and thanked her, avoiding Jimmy's eyes as the two of them walked to the front desk. She spent a few seconds before finally settling on a pink sugar skull sticker.

"Why a sticker?" Jimmy asked, laughing softly at Kory. She stood about a foot and a half shorter than him, so it didn't seem as weird as it should.

"It's tradition," she replied simply. The two then walked out into the cold air, into Jimmy's car, and back to the studio to greet the guys.