The Only Thing I Ask

They went out drinking in a pool bar later. The boys were exceptionally good at pools, but Michelle learned how to pool since she was 8 from her father. When Valerie was too busy playing make up and dolls, she followed her father around. That night Michelle proved to them that pool is really her thing.

Brian, needless to say, was impressed by her skills. Slowly his alter-ego disappeared and started to pay attention to this alien girl. They hadn’t hung out with girls like her much. Most of the groupies or girls that followed them around on tour were either want to get into their pants, or they’re just too girly.
Valerie is sexy, Brian thought, that’s why he was attracted to her from the first time he saw her. But Michelle was beautiful, cute and attractive. Her personality, the way she talks, it’s almost sarcasm but in the end people were laughing. The way she teased them into playing pool with her, made Brian’s eyes popped open.

She blended well with Jimmy, Johnny and Zacky fast. They all liked her a lot. Especially Jimmy. Crazy as he was, he couldn’t get his hands off Michelle. Brian slowly felt the insides of him churning, like he was about to explode into flames. All he wanted to do right then was to grab his best friend away from her. But of course, his little ego was still there, glinting, and never going to let Matthew have his way.

Brian took a sip of his whisky and watched the couple cuddled by the pool table. He smiled unintentionally when he saw how happy Matthew was. How could he ever think about wanting Valerie at all? He couldn’t! It was just a onetime fascination, that’s all. He never thought about it seriously anyway.

“Are you that bad?”
Brian almost spilled his drink when Michelle suddenly sat beside him, holding her pool cue and grinning.
“Excuse me?” he simply, coldly took another sip without looking at her.
“I’m winning. It’s not even your turn yet.”
He turned and gave her his infamous smirk. Without realizing that she would innocently bit her bottom lip waiting for reply, he wasn’t prepared. His eyes locked into hers and he forgot what he was about to brag. He certainly wanted to brag about something…but what was it? Damn she looked so cute.
There it was again. The electric shock came rushing to Michelle’s body through her spine. It was sudden and brief but they weren’t even touching. She quickly looked away, but her heartbeats rose to a point where she just awkwardly jumped down from the high stool and ready to walk away. But Brian was quicker. He grabbed her wrist, discreetly.
Michelle flinched a little, and slowly turned to him.
“Do you feel that?” Brian’s brown eyes shot straight into hers.

Her heart beats anxiously against her chest. Why did she feel this way towards this cold and angry looking guy, she really had no clue. But yeah, she felt it.
“Feel what?” she lied.
Brian stared into her green eyes for a moment. Piercing and sharp. Then suddenly in a swift move, he let her go to grab himself another drink.
From afar, Matthew had let Valerie go and have fun with Zacky, Johnny and Jimmy at the pool table, and he saw what happened between Michelle and Brian.

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Valerie knocked but no one answered. That was expected because they all must have been in the recording room. When she opened the great big heavy door, she found all of them at the lounging area, laughing their asses off. It was such a surprise to see Brian laughed so hard like that. That must have been one hell of a funny story.
“Hey, Val! You gotta hear this!” Valerie stunned, jaw dropped when Brian, who looked like he was half-drunk made his way towards her.
“What is it? Are you drunk?” suddenly she was on speaking terms with him. Judging from his way, he had completely accepted the fact she’s dating Matthew, made her feel relieved a bit. Matthew was still laughing, so did Johnny, Zacky and Jimmy.
“No, no. Johnny farted during our recording. He thought he could get away with it but when we listened to it again, there it was! His silent fart!” Brian started to tell a story.
“Yeah I thought that was the sound of my snare but I don’t remember hitting that note!” Jimmy cut off and continued laughing.
“Come on guys! You’re embarrassing me in front of Val!”
“Hey Johnny, I bet you could fart in bass too!” Brian added, and they were all broke in hysterical laughter.
“You guys are definitely drunk.” Valerie sighed heavily but felt comfortable and right at home.
“Whatcha got there, babe?” Matthew moved his wheeled office chair closer to her and grabbed the plastic bag in her hands.
“I brought you guys some food. It’s almost past lunch, I bet you didn’t look at the time.”
“Wow! Sweet! You’re an angel, Val!”
They were cheering happily and dug into the pizza that Valerie brought them and thanked her happily. Including Brian. Wow, drunk Brian is fun!

Matthew pulled Valerie away and brought her out of the studio for a while. Outside in the backyard, facing the beach, Matthew kissed her crazily.
Valerie had always enjoyed his kiss more than anything. But she knew he wanted more. They’ve only seen each other for a month or so, and she didn’t think she was ready yet.
“Hey babe. What’s up with Syn? So warm all of a sudden?”
Valerie made the right choice of topic to take Matthew’s mind away from sex for a while.
“He’s totally drunk, that asshole.” Matthew laughed a little. “Where’s Michelle?”
“She…had something to do.”
“Oh.”
They were both quiet for a minute, enjoying the view.
“I like drunk Syn. He’s like a brother.”
“Yeah, I missed him like that when he’s sober too. He used to be warm, and funny you know. He wasn’t so cold and uptight as you see him now.”
“What happened?” like Valerie didn’t know. The story was all over the internet. But she wasn’t really paying attention to Brian when she’s being an Avenged Sevenfold fan. She had his eyes on Matthew only.

“Back when we launched Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, we were almost as awesome as those established and famous rock bands out there. We had our own tour bus, though it was really small and we had to cramp our asses in, but we made it. We slowly gained our fan base by leaning on to opening gigs for other bands. Groupies were made, and Syn was popular as hell.”
Valerie nodded in agreement. Brian really was popular back then. He was the face of Avenged Sevenfold. It was probably because of his familiar spiky hairdo and his amazing guitar skills. Not to mention his good looks.
“There was this groupie, came into our tour bus just like you did a month ago. We really didn’t know what to do with them so we just hung out. A girl named Maya, was flirting with Syn. Syn was single, so did she so they hooked up. It was as simple as that. It supposed to be.”
Matthew looked down to his feet and chuckled. Valerie listened carefully.



“But Syn, he was a vulnerable and miserable idiot. He fell in love with her. He took her in and had her followed us around during tour, in that motherfucking cramped bus because he wasn’t able to be without her. She was more than happy.”
He paused, before continued with a heavy heart.
“Back then, Syn had his ‘little drug problem’.” Valerie knew about this. Syn was once got in trouble with his acid and methamphetamine use and end up spending a month in jail. His popularity went down after that.
“Yeah, after he got out. The girl was gone, nowhere to be found. None of us knew where she went. Syn thought he was going crazy. Until one summer, when we did opening gig for Metallica, we saw her stepping out of Metallica’s huge-ass bus with Lars. I don’t know the true facts of this but it was Syn and Johnny who found her.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Syn was broken hearted and he becomes what he is now.”
Valerie now understood why Brian avoided groupies and attracted to girls who don’t pay attention to him.
“I think Michelle would be perfect for him.” Valerie, like reading Matthew’s mind suggested the idea. Matthew turned and gazed at her, grinning broadly.
“I think so too! Oh babe, you read my mind!” Matthew cupped her face and brought her to his lips.
“Help me get my best friend back.” He whispered to her mouth and Valerie nodded in smile.

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