A Life Better Than Reality Lies in My Dreams

When we got into our room I plopped down on the first bed. "Man I am TIII-EERD." "That good of a night?" Amber said giggling and setting her luggage on the floor by her bed. I raised myself on my elbow and rolled my eyes, "So you want to venture out today? Maybe go to the beach?" I asked as Amber plopped down on her bed. "After a nap....I'm tired too." "Ooohh, That good of a night?" I asked in a mocking tone. Amber rolled her eyes and got under the covers and closed her eyes. I grabbed my phone and headed to the balcony. "Who are you calling?" Amber said not turning to look at me. "I'm going to tell Ryan the news." "OK, well tell him I said hi and I love him." I walked out on the balcony and took in a deep breath of ocean air. I stared out and saw nothing but beautiful blue water and the smooth sand of the beach. I decided to snap a picture with my phone before dialing Ryan's number. After two rings Ryan's voice came on the phone. "Hey girl how's Cali? I miss you already!!" I laughed and said "I miss you too. I have some news to tell you." There was a pause. "Did you kill Amber?" Ryan asked jokingly. I laughed and said. "No, but you might want to sit down for this." "Ok April. You are starting to scare me." Ryan said getting serious. "No, no. It's great news!" Ryan let out a sigh of relief. "Whew! OK what is it?" I told him about meeting Alex and Jack and about hanging out with them, all night. Ryan laughed and said "Alright April, I'm happy you and Amber bagged you a couple of rock stars but how is that good news for me?" "Weeelll." I started stretching out on one of the lounge chairs. "They were in town talking about their upcoming tour with their record company." "And?" Ryan asked impatiently. "Amber and I showed them No Such Thing's music and they really liked it. So much they are talking to Zack and Rian and the record company and possibly getting you guys to open for them." There was complete silence on the other end for a minute. "You there?" I asked with a smile. "I think my heart stopped." Ryan said quietly. "Well don't tell the other guys yet. It's not for sure yet and I don't want to get everyone's hopes up." "April you can't expect me to keep that from them!?" Ryan screamed. "I shouldn't have even told you! What if it doesn't happen? Then I’ll have been the only one that got something out of meeting Alex....well Amber too." We both laughed and then Ryan said seriously, "Well if it doesn't work out at least we got our music out there a little." He paused and then said with a laugh, “And you and Amber have your story of sleeping with rock stars!" "Well I'm going to get off here and take a nap." I said yawning. "Oh, Alex wore you out?" Ryan said laughing. "God you and Amber I swear!" I yelled in the phone. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! I love you and call me if you sleep with another rock star!" Ryan said laughing the whole time. "RYAN! Bye, I love you." I snapped the phone shut and laughed to myself as I went inside to take a nap.

When I woke up Amber was still sleeping. I yawned, stretched and sat up in my bed. I looked at the clock and determined I'd only been asleep for a little over an hour. I rubbed my eyes sleepily and decided to go out and walk around to let Amber sleep. I grabbed my camera and pulled my hair up into a messy pony tail and left the hotel. I decided to walk along the board walk so I could get great shots of the beach and check out the stores. I was nearing a cafe with tables covered with umbrellas outside when I moved over for a mom pushing a stroller while scolding her toddler. Not paying attention, I suddenly tripped on something and would have fell face first if an arm wouldn't have shot out to catch me. I stood up with my back to my savior and said "Thanks." as I turned and then my mouth dropped open. "No problem. My fault anyways, I shouldn't have put my backpack practically in the middle of the board walk." I was speechless as I stared at the guy I've been dreaming to meet practically half my life. "You OK?" He asked with a laugh. "You're Zacky Vengeance." I said in a whisper. He looked up and down the board walk then leaned closer to me and whispered in a joking tone, "Don't say it so loud." I laughed at his joke and then started gushing. "You are the reason I'm here....I mean my friend and I. We came to Huntington Beach wanting to find you guys and here you are right in front of me. I'm dreaming. I'm still asleep." I said putting my head in my hands. Zacky was laughing and he put a hand on my arm, "Are you always this confusing?" I looked up at him and smiled. I took a deep breath and said, "Sorry. Let me start over." I stood up straight and stuck my hand out. "Hi, my name is April and I love you." We both laughed and he took my hand and kissed it softly "Hello April, I'm Zacky and I love you too." My heart practically stopped as I stared into his beautiful green eyes. "Can I get a picture with you?" I asked seeing the moment fleeting. "No problem." Zacky put his arm around me and threw up the 'rock on' sign. I snapped the picture and Zacky said, "Let me see it." He took my camera and examined it and said, "Let's take another one. But this time I'm going to hold the camera." I looked at him puzzled and said, "Ok." He put his arm around me and then counted to three. When he got to three he turned and kissed me on the cheek and took the picture. He handed me my camera with a big grin on his face. "That should be a good one for your Facebook." I laughed and all I could do was nod my head. "So what are you doing right now?" Zacky asked putting his hands in his pockets. "Standing here talking to you." I said with a hint of sass in my voice. "Smart ass. I meant are you busy right now?" I just looked at him with a blank stare. "No." I asked wondering what he was getting at. "Well I was wanting to catch a movie and I was supposed to go with Brian but he bailed on me." Zacky said looking at his feet. I laughed and he looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. "I'm sorry it's just you are acting like a shy high school boy asking a girl out on a date. You are Zacky Vengeance, that's enough to make any girl drop her panties." I said with a smirk. "Maybe you just make me nervous." He said taking a step towards me. My breath caught in my throat and I couldn't do anything but stare into his eyes. "So you wanna go?" He asked after a moment of silence. "Yeah." I said without thinking about it.

We pulled up to the movie theater and Zacky turned to me and asked, "What do you want to see?" I couldn't think yet. I was still overwhelmed by everything that was happening. I was sitting in Zacky Vengeance's car about to be alone with him in a movie theater. He cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows looking impatient. "Something scary I guess." I said. A slow smile spread across his face and he said "My favorite." and got out of the car. "Mine too." I said smiling as I met him at the back of his car. We got our tickets and headed inside. "So do you want anything?" Zacky asked stopping close to the snack bar. "No I'm fine." He rolled his eyes and said, "Are you sure? You can have whatever you want. I'm a rock star April, I can afford it." He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and said "Fine, we can SHARE popcorn and a drink, if you want." He smiled and said, "Alright but we are drinking Pepsi." I just smiled and he ordered. We found two seats in the middle of the pretty empty theater. There were three teenagers at the very top row and an older couple sitting close to the front. I grabbed a hand full of popcorn and Zacky asked, "So how long are you here for?" "Two weeks. My friend Amber and I are taking a vacation away from our lives back in Texas." I said as I pop 2 pieces of popcorn in my mouth, "Why did you need a vacation from your lives?" He asked taking a sip of soda. "Well we've been going to school since last May and we just needed a break from it and we didn't feel like sitting in our small home town doing nothing." "Where you from?" He asked. I laughed and shook my head. "No where you ever heard of. It's called Evant. Over half of the people I meet in Texas don't even know where it is." "Well you can show me on a map sometime." He said laughing. The lights went down and I turned towards the screen. I could see Zacky staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned to him and he grinned. I gave him a questioning look and he shook his head smiling and faced the screen. The movie started and it was pretty scary from the start. One part made me jump and grab Zacky's hand. We both looked at our hands then at each other. He had a grin on his face and I had an embarrassed look on my face, I quickly moved my hand to my lap. He rolled his eyes and took my hand in his interlacing our fingers. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, "So you won't be scared anymore." I blushed in the darkness and turned to watch the rest of the movie.

After the movie was over Zacky and I stopped to throw our trash away. The three teenagers came out of the door and one stopped and slapped the other on the shoulder. "Dude, its Zacky Vengeance!" he said in a loud whisper. Zack turned around and smiled. "What's up guys?" "Oh my God will you sign my cup?" One of the boys asked. Zacky laughed and said, "No problem." as he grabbed the cup and pulled a sharpie from his back pocket. After he signed the popcorn tub and one of their shoes and posed for pictures we headed for the car. "Always come prepared?" I asked nodding towards the sharpie in his back pocket. "Yeah I've seen to many disappointed fans because someone doesn't have a pen." He said chuckling. When we got to the car Zacky opened the passenger side door for me and motioned for me to get in with the wave of his arm. I giggled and got in. As he slid in to the driver's seat I checked my phone for the first time since turning it off when we were headed into the theater. 4 missed calls and all from Amber. I laughed and Zacky looked at me. "Good text?" He asked. "No my friend called me 4 times. I left her while she was sleeping so she's probably worried about where I am." I sent her a text that said "On my way back." In less than a second she replied "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" I smiled and sent her one back that said, "Tell you when I get back. BE PATIENT!" I looked over at Zacky who was looking at me sideways. "You tell her you were with me yet?" He asked with a grin. "No. I'm going to surprise her with the pictures." I said returning his grin. I told him which hotel was mine and he pulled around to the doors. "So I had a great time today. You don't know how many dreams you made come true for me today." I said looking into my lap blushing then up to him. He just grinned and said, "Well do you want me to make a couple more dreams come true for you tonight?" I looked at him in shock and waited to hear what he was going to say. "We are all going to hang out at Matt's tonight and maybe you and your friend would want to come along with me." My eyes got wider and I had to stifle a shriek. "Yeah we do!" I said with a big smile. "Cool I'll pick you up here at about 8 OK? Can I get your number so I can call you when I'm almost here?" He asked with a small grin. "Smooth Mr. Rock star, that's one way to get a number out of a girl." We both laughed and I gave him my number. "So give me yours so I know it's you calling me." "Smooth." He said laughing and gave me his number. "OK. See you at 8." I said giving him a smile as I put my hand on the door handle. "Wait." He said leaning towards me. I stopped everything as he leaned towards me, moving, breathing, thinking. He kissed me gently on the cheek and then whispered "See you soon." I was in a euphoric state as I made my way up to the hotel room. I walked in the room and sat on the bed and Amber looked at me questioningly. "Where have you been? Why do you look like that?" I tossed her my camera and she turned it on. "OH MY GOD! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU CALL ME?!?!" She screamed as she jumped up to stand by my bed. "Because we went to a movie and I had to turn my phone off." I said lying on my bed and looking up at her. Her eyes were about to bulge out of her head and she screamed "TELL ME EVERYTHING!!" I told her about my day with Zacky and then stopped and strolled over to the window, leaving her sitting on the edge of my bed. "That's not even the best part." I stopped and looked out the window. "There's more? How can there be more?" she asked exasperated. "He's going to pick us up at 8 and we are going to meet the rest of the guys at Matt's house." I said slowly turning towards her. Her mouth was hung open and I was afraid she was going to faint. I smiled at her and she looked at the clock. "WE HAVE LESS THAN 3 HOURS!!"