Dreams Only Last for the Night.

"ARE YOU NAKIE?!!" Jack yelled jumping on the bed waking Alex and I. I groaned and turned on my side clinging to the blankets so Jack wouldn't reveal my naked body. "Jack, unless you want my naked ass on your face you better get out of here." Alex warned him sleepily. Jack laughed and plopped down between us. "Not like I haven't seen you naked before Alex. Now April on the other hand." He said turning towards me with a grin. I looked over my shoulder. "Not a chance Barakat...get out or I'll hurt you." Jack stood and shrugged. "Oh well. I'll just find some hottie tonight at the show." I turned to Alex and kissed him quickly on the lips and put on some sweats and a t-shirt and headed to the bathroom for a shower. When I got out the smell of breakfast came from the kitchen. I walked in and found all the boys grabbing plates. "You better get in there before they eat everything." Mom laughed. "Here babe, I saved you some." Alex grinned at me holding two plates. We all went into the living room and ate while chattering about how excited we were about the show. "I know Emo's isn't a big place but just think of some of the names that have gone through there." Michael said. I smiled as the guys of NST, Papa Zane, and Doug got even more excited about the show in Austin.

After loading everything up I hugged all the guys and told them I'd see them soon. "I'll miss you." Alex said over dramatically. I rolled my eyes. "It's only a few hours. I'll even call you when we park." I put my arms around his neck and we smiled at each other. "I love you." He whispered right before he kissed me softly. "I love you too." I said. "Come on Alex! We don't have time for this mushy stuff!" Zack yelled with a smirk from the bus. I pulled Alex to me and kissed him one more time while flipping Zack off. The guys left for Austin and I went back to my house to get ready. I rode with my family to the show with a caravan of cars of some of the friends and families of the NST guys following.

We parked in a reserved lot behind the venue and everyone gathered in a group to walk in. We were let in the side which was where the inside stage and bar were. No one was playing in there so that was where the staff made a makeshift backstage area for everyone. I walked around trying to find Alex when I ran into Dan. "Hey! Are you ready for this?" I asked giving him a hug. "As ready as I'll ever be." He said nervously with a grin. "Have you met all the ATL guys?" "Yeah they are great, that Jack character is going to be fun." We both laughed and I looked around the room anxiously. "Looking for someone?" Dan asked. "Yeah. My boyfriend." I said catching sight of Jack. "I'll talk to you a little later, I see Jack and I'm sure he knows where Alex is." I gave Dan another hug and made my way through the crowd towards Jack. Before I could get to him Ryan walked up to me with a worried look on his face. "What?" I asked. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn't find the words. "Where's Alex Ryan? What is going on." Before he could answer me there was a squeal from behind me. I turned and came face to face with my two best friends. "Amber, Eryka!? What are you doing here?" I asked in shock. "To see our boys silly." Amber said hugging me. "I missed you so much!" Eryka said. I looked up from hugging her to find Syn and Matt. "Hey guys!" I hugged them both at the same time then I was picked up from behind and twirled around. "I missed you so much April!" Rev said sitting me down and squeezing me to him. "What are you guys doing here?!" I said excitedly looking at all of their faces. Suddenly I everything hit me....like a ton of bricks.

"You alright sunshine?" Rev said putting a hand on my shoulder. "Where is he?" I said blankly. "Where is he always?" Matt said pointing to the bar. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I forced myself to turn and face him. There he sat with Johnny right beside him. Johnny raised his glass to me when he caught me staring. Zacky looked at him then followed his gaze to me. He smiled widely at me. He stood and started to walk towards us. "Oh April. You found them. Avenged Sevenfold is at our show! How crazy is that?" Jack asked walking up to me. He saw Amber suddenly and his smile faded. "Hey Jack." Amber said quietly. "Hey." He immediately noticed her hand in Matt's and knew that was her new boyfriend. "Have you seen Alex?" Jack asked me. I shook my head as Zacky pushed past Rev to break into the circle. "You look as beautiful as ever." He said looking me up and down. I could see Jack out of the corner of my eye looking irritated. "Let's go find Alex." I said grabbing Jack's hand and walking towards the door. "Are you alright?" Jack said once we had made it outside. I leaned against the wall and shook my head from side to side. "What's wrong?" I heard Alex yell. I looked up with relief as he ran towards us from across the street. Suddenly the door opened and Zacky stepped out. Alex came to an abrupt stop realizing who Zacky was. Jack and I found ourselves in the middle of a severe stare down. I looked from Zacky to Alex and walked to Alex. "You ok?" He whispered as I hugged his neck. I nodded and looked into his eyes. I didn't want to see what was behind me.

"Where were you?" I asked buying time. He grinned and said, "Sightseeing." I shook my head and kissed his cheek. I turned and grabbed Alex's hand and walked up to Zacky. "Zacky, this is my boyfriend Alex." Zacky nodded slowly understanding that I didn't want to talk. "Nice to meet you. April it was good to see you." He walked inside leaving us alone. Jack punched the air a couple of times then looked at Alex and said, "Don't worry bro, I always got yo back." Then he tried his best at a gangster walk as he walked inside. I giggled and shook my head. Alex lifted my chin to look into his face. "Are you sure you are alright?" He asked. I smiled. "I'm fine now that you're here." I pressed my forehead against his. There was a scream from behind him and we both turned to see a few girls running towards us. "OhmyGod! Can I get a picture with you?" One of them screamed. Alex obliged, like the sweet rock star he was. "Ok, I'll be around after the show, I gotta get in there now. Have fun guys." He said making his way out of the crowd of girls that encircled him. "I want you to meet some important people." I said as he threw an arm around my shoulders and we walked inside.

"You remember Amber," I said as we walked up to the girls and they guys of A7X. Alex nodded and shook her hand. "How are you?" He asked politely. "I'm good." She said with a smile. "This is Eryka, my other best friend." I continued. "Nice to meet you finally." Eryka said with a grin. "Nice to meet you." Alex smiled. I continued the introductions through the A7X guys and then stopped at Zacky. "You met Zacky outside." I said quietly. "Yeah." Alex said flatly as he pulled me to him by the waist. "We've met before right? At that one party in L.A.?" Matt said breaking the awkward silence. "Yeah. Just for a second though. We performed a song, we had just gotten signed." Alex replied. "I remember that." Rev said looking to the ceiling thoughtfully. "Yeah you guys play that pop stuff. Not like our music." Zacky said maliciously. I felt Alex tense up and before anything could happen I said, "We have to go meet more people. Maybe we'll catch you guys later." I led Alex away and I could see The Rev hit Zacky in the shoulder out of the corner of my eye. We found an empty corner and I pushed Alex against the wall. He looked over at Zacky angrily and I cupped his face in my hand forcing him to look only at me. "Don't worry about that drunken fool. Just think of me." I leaned in to kiss him but he stopped me. "That's the problem April, I'm thinking of you running away with him again." He looked down to the ground. "Alex. I love you with all of my heart; you are the only person I want to be with. Zacky just wanted several options in his bed and I didn't want to be one. I would never leave you babe, it's me and you forever." Alex still didn't look up so I lifted his chin with my fingers. "I love you." I said earnestly. He grinned my favorite grin and I kissed him.

"Hey NST is about to go on." Rian said finding us a little bit later. "Oh, come on I wanted to wish them luck." I said and raced to the side of the stage where the guys were lined up on the stairs waiting to go out. I hugged everyone then when I got to Dan I squeezed him a little tighter. "Don't worry kid, you are going to knock 'em dead." He smiled and nodded his head. Soon Alex was at my side and after he told them all good luck we walked to the back of the room to join all of the other friends and family of NST. Their set was amazing. Dan killed it and the crowd absolutely loved it. "They are great!" Jack leaned over and said in my ear. I smiled and nodded. "Will you stand on the side of the stage?" Alex asked as we walked to the back stage so they could get set up. "Yeah. I'm just going to get Amber and Eryka. I'll be right back." I kissed him quickly and walked to the back of the room. "Hey." Someone slurred from my right and grabbed my arm. "Zacky, leave me alone I have to get back on stage." "Oh that's right, lover boy is on next. I'll try not to barf as he sings." Zacky said making a bad joke. I rolled my eyes and tried to pull away. "April, you know I'm more man than that skinny jean wearing, shaggy haired fairy." I tried yanking away once more then Zacky pulled me to where I was only inches from his face. "At least he had the balls to make me his girlfriend." I said and with that Zacky let go and sulked back to the bar.

After the show everyone went to the Hilton where we had an after party on the roof. There were lights all along the rails and it was absolutely beautiful. There was music and food and of course all the alcohol you could drink. "This is my kind of party." Rev said walking up beside Alex and I. We both smiled at him. "You mind if I dance with your lady?" He asked. "Go ahead, just don't keep her too long." Alex put my hand in Rev's and he twirled me onto the dance floor. "I'm sorry about Zacky, he said he was going to behave himself." Rev said looking around at the other dancers. I looked down and smiled. "When has he ever behaved himself?" Rev shrugged. "I just didn't want him ruining anything for you." "He didn't, if anything he made it stronger." I smiled over at Alex. Rev followed my gaze and smiled. "You are really happy huh?" "Yeah." We danced in silence and when the song ended Rev hugged me to him then whispered, "That's all I want, is for you to be happy." I kissed his cheek and we walked back over to Alex. "Thank you sir, she is a very lovely lady." Rev put my hand back into Alex's. "I know, I'm lucky to have her." We mingled around for a while and then when a slow song came on and Alex whispered in my ear, "May I have this dance?" I smiled up at him and nodded. We danced in the middle of the floor. "I love you April." Alex said after a moment. "I love you too Alex." I smiled up at him. "Today when I said I was sightseeing...well I lied." Alex grinned. "What were you doing then?" I demanded not the least bit amused, and then he dropped to one knee. The music stopped and everyone was staring at us. Alex held my left hand in his and smirked up at me. "You are my entire world. I can't think without you, I can't breathe without you, I can't live....without you. You are my heart." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a tiny black box and opened it. He placed the most beautiful ring I had ever seen on my ring finger. It was a platinum ring with a kind of rope design along the sides with a big diamond in the middle that had a diamond on each side. "Will you marry me?" Alex asked. I looked down at my ring then back to him. Words escaped me. I pulled him up and crashed my lips to his. All of the party go-ers cheered and when I pulled away Alex laughed. "Is that a yes?" "A million times yes!" I said and kissed him again.

Everyone came up and gave their congratulations. Eryka and Amber squealed as they ran up to me. My mom was crying as she gave me a huge hug. Bob shook Alex's hand then gave me a hug. "About time!" Ryan said giving Alex a high five then hugging me. Jack picked me up and twirled me around. "Now we are going to be like brother and sister-in-laws!" I laughed. "Jack you and Alex aren't related, and I already considered you like my brother." "Aww!" He said then gave me a kiss on the check. After the crowd went back to partying I walked over to grab a drink. Zacky walked up and I backed up instantly. "Whoa. Peace, I promise." He held his hands up. "What is it?" I said annoyed. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry and I am glad you are happy now." He said slowly. "Thank you." "Friends?" He asked and stuck out his hand. "Friends." I smiled and hugged him. "Everything ok here?" Alex asked walking up. "Yeah." I smiled up at him. Zacky gave a wave and walked off to join Syn by the food table. "Come on Gaskarth, let’s go somewhere we can be alone." I hugged Alex to me. He held up our room key and said, "I think I know where we can go." We got in the elevator without anyone noticing. We made-out in the elevator and when we stepped out I looked up at Alex and smiled. "What?" He laughed. "I think I'm going to love spending the rest of my life with you." "Me too." He said then picked me up bridal style and kissed me as he carried me to our room.