The Only Thing I Ask

“Fuck!” Zacky cursed over his phone, trying to contact Brian. He kept getting into voicemails. He slowly turned around, nervously looking at a girl behind him. She was staring at their wall of fame at the studio, reading framed articles about them and looking through their awards cabinet.

He couldn’t help but attracted to this girl, she was definitely his type. A skinny girl, medium height with long, straight brown hair with black dyed tips hanging from her head and looking hot effortlessly. She wore dark and deep eyeliner just like the rest of them and her lips was pink but when she smiled it showed her dimples on both sides of her cheeks.

She wore a black Motorhead tshirt, a thin black and white striped vest over it and a pair of grey khaki shorts. Zacky also saw that her slim wrist had a glimpse of a tattoo that he hadn’t figured out what yet. She might have looked like a rock star herself. Wow, what a first impression, Zacky!

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t reach him. Maybe we can do this some other time, later?”
She turned around to him. Her beautiful hazel eyes narrowed.
“Hmm…I can’t. I gotta go to New Zealand after this. I’m interviewing Slipknot. Maybe we can do this by ourselves?”
“Uh…but don’t you wanna interview Syn too?”
She smiled, and it made Zacky’s heart melted.
“We’ve interviewed him a lot. It’s you in the mystery.”

Zacky suddenly flushed. He didn’t really used to be around women anymore after no more groupies. Except for Valerie and Michelle. Those twins were something else entirely.

He eventually agreed to be interviewed by this small and petite reporter but just a nice height to him. Probably would be like an ant to Rev though considering he was like a giant.

The reporter introduced herself as Tona and she worked for Kerrang! Magazine, a magazine which lay out stories of bands like them. A lot like Rolling Stones but focused entirely on heavy metal bands.

She came with her photographer with appointment today, and Brian was supposed to be here with him taking this interview about dual guitars together but Brian could not be reached at the moment.

When Zacky showed Tona and her photographer a meeting room to have the interview, Tona felt uneasy.

“Hmm…I’d rather do it in your recording studio. What do you say?”
Zacky gulped. He totally took that question as something else in his mind. His dirty mind.
“Er, sure.” He led the way, with his hand slowly bang on his chest, telling them to stop pounding.

There was no one in the studio right now, only three of them.

“Okay, so this is where we produce our album, we’re thinking of producing our next album by ourselves though.”

Tona started writing right when Zacky spoke. Her photographer snapped away some pictures of the studio.
“Sorry it’s a mess.” Zacky took the ashtray and bottle of beers away from sight. She chuckled.
“It’s ok. It showed that you actually done some work here.” She smiled. He smiled back, more like grinning.
“So should we do it here?” she pointed to a couch.
Zacky wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Yeah, sure.”

Tona sat down crossing her legs, brought out a small recorder from her pocket and turned it on. Zacky too, took a seat beside her. He saw another glimpse of tattoo on the back of her knee. It was a tattoo of a lightning bolt.

“So, Zacky Vengeance. Thanks for having me.”
He chuckled. Every words that came out of her mouth made him feel nervous.
“You’re welcome.”
“How are you now, being a famous rock star and all, do you feel like dreaming?”
Zacky looked at her intently. Was she going to have this interview about him, and not dual guitars anymore?
“Well, yeah. I felt like that evey single day, everytime I woke up.”
“You must have missed your previous life, when you weren’t a public figure?”
“Hmm..nah. I sucked back then. Nobody ever paid attention to me. It was when I joined the band that I feel alive.”
Tona nodded and smiled.
“So tell me about your sleeve tattoos.”
Zacky frowned. “Wait, isn’t this going to be about dual guitars?”
“We’ll get to that, right now I’m warming up to you. Can’t you see?”
Zacky raised his eyebrows. “Oh, we’re warming up now?”
She nodded again, clicking her pen, and smiled brightly.
“Say, Tona. Do you have a boyfriend?”
She stopped clicking her pen. Her eyes widened, her face flushed.
“Why do you ask me that, it’s embarassing.”
“Well, it’s my way of warming up to you. If you can’t handle it, then we’re gonna have to do this some other time.”
She gave in. “No I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Zacky smiled in secret victory.
“I saw that tattoo on your wrist, what is it?”
She held out her arms to glance at it.
“Oh, it’s a fallen angel. It’s my first tattoo.”
“What does it mean?”
“I used to be an angel to my mum and dad, but I ran away from home when I was 15 so as a rebellious pose I got this tats to describe myself at the time.”
Zacky was surprised. This beautiful and in-control character of a woman had a dark past?
“What about that cute lightning bolt?”
She looked down at her knees and laughed.
“This one was silly. I made it so that I can get a superpower to run fast. But of course I can’t.”

Zacky laughed too and they ended up sharing stories of their tattoos instead of having the real interview.

“Oh shit, I have another interview at 3 but I still haven’t interview you about the dual guitars yet!” She looked at her watch and panicked. It was almost three o’clock.
“Looks like you have to come again.”
She smiled and her frown settled. “Aren’t you guys busy? I’ve been working so hard to get this interview for so long and kept putting on hold.”
Zacky tore out a piece of paper nearby and wrote down his number. His private number.
“Call me when you’re ready. I’ll make time for you.”
She took it and grinned broadly.
“Can I call you for something else?” she teased him, biting her pen.
Zacky leaned into her. “Like what?”
She leaned even closer. “Like ask you out or something?”
Zacky smiled. His eyes kept glancing at her lips. “I’m the one who should be doing that.”
“Well, aren’t you going to?”
He narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly,

CLICK!

A flare of flash suddenly filled the room. Both Zacky and Tona drew apart due to being surprised. The photographer took a picture of them flirting.

“Dude!” Tona yelled at the guy. He just simply shrugged and moved away to another object to snap on.

“I’m sorry, Zacky. I won’t publish that photo, I swear. I’ll delete it once I snatched away that camera off him.” She looked over at the photographer angrily.

“That’s okay, Tona. Actually, when you do have the picture, email it to me, okay? Here’s my email.” He grabbed the piece of paper from Tona’s hand and added his email address right below his phone number.

Tona can’t help but smiling. Zacky was so charming, how could she not fell for him? Plus he’s a rock star, someone that Tona dreamed to be with.

Zacky once again led them out of the studio, and apologized again for Brian being M.I.A. When Tona finally in the driver’s seat, Zacky approached her.

“Say, Tona. You wanna go out on a date with me?”
Tona stunned, her jaw dropped.
CLICK! Another flash from the camera guy went off.