The New Drummer

After the interview the guys had been trying to get ahold of Evie ever since she left Matt’s house. The guys were starting to worry and I knew exactly what was happening with her while the guys were freaking out. She was starting to second guess her decision and I don’t blame her. After she left Matt’s I went off to the backyard and read all of the comments myself. A majority of them were positive and encouraging but I knew the negative ones were staying with her. They always did no matter how many positive comments there were. I was in my own thoughts when I heard Zacky frustrated groan.

“Still not answering but at least her phones on now,” he sighed, “It didn’t go straight to voicemail this time.”

“You think we should let her be?” Johnny asked.

This was definitely uncharted territory for us since we had never had a girl in our band and we were all at a loss. Val, Lacey, and Meghan all offered to go over and talk with her about things but we thought that this was something that we needed to take care of as a band and it was. At the end of the day we were all that we had as band. I was thinking of something to do when I noticed everyone had stopped talking and we were looking at me.

“You’re going over there,” Matt said, “You’re going to go over there to see what’s wrong.”

“Why me?” I asked, “Why can’t it be one of you guys? She likes you guys more than me.”

“Exactly,” Zacky said.

“You’ve been a giant douche bag to her for the last month,” Johnny stated as Matt and Zacky nodded their heads, “Minus yesterday I’m pretty sure she thinks you hate her.”

“I don’t exactly hate her,” I started and then I saw Matt smirk at me.

“You like her,” he stated without hesitation, “You think she’s attractive. That’s why you’ve been a dick.”

“No,” I said quickly trying to steer the conversation away, “I do not find her attractive. She’s taking medication for depression and anxiety for fuck sakes.”

“That doesn’t bother you in the least bit,” Zacky said, “You can’t hide that you like someone from us Haner. We’ve known you way too long.”

I sighed and looked at the guys as I ran my hand through my hair.

“Fine,” I mutter, “I find her attractive. I just. . .She’s so go with the flow and comfortable in her own skin and with her past that I don’t know what to do. She’s completely outside of what I’m used to.”

“Brian it’s been years since you dated,” Johnny said, “Just go be her friend for right now and see what happens. Plus, you owe her a huge apology. She’s taken your shit for a month and hasn’t been a bitch about it.”

I sighed knowing the that the guys were right and I got up from the couch. I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys from the coffee table and headed out the door.

“Let you know what happens,” I said as I shut the door and headed to my car.

I had no clue what I was going to say when I got to Evie’s house but today I was going to just wing it and see what happens. I pulled up to her house and was a bit worried since I didn’t see a car parked in the driveway. I was hoping she might have parked her car in the garage attached to the house and got out. I knocked on the door and prayed that she answered.



My phone had been ringing for the last twenty minutes nonstop and I was in no mood to answer it. Yesterday when I got home from the interview I turned off my phone and ended up spending the rest of the day reading the comments on the Avenged Sevenfold official twitter page. A lot of them were encouraging and positive but what seemed to stay with me were the nasty, negative comments about how I joined the band, my appearance, and my personality. I had just looked to see that there was the millionth missed call from my brother and sighed. I knew I had to answer the phone eventually because in all reality this was going to be part of my job from now on. On the other hand, I just wanted to hide away from the world and protect my emotions. I picked up the phone from the coffee table and was going to actually call back one of the guys when my doorbell rang. I sighed putting my phone down on the coffee table and decided to wait to see if the person would go away. I was in no mood to be around anyone today and I wasn’t going to change my mind. The person on the other side of my front door however wasn’t getting the hint. After the third time my doorbell rang, I decided to get up and go answer it. I had made the decision if it was the guys I would ask them to leave. I didn’t need a pep talk and I didn’t need someone to pity me. I just wanted to be alone to sulk for a day and then move on. When I pulled the door open I was shocked to see who was standing on the other side of the door so the insult I had ready to go wasn’t used.

“Hey,” Brian said awkwardly, “I came to check on you.”

“I can see that,” I said, “Come to tell me that I’m not being professional enough because I’m not answering your guys’ calls?”

Brian looked a bit shocked that I gave him attitude but I was in no mood to be yelled at for being antisocial today. When Brian didn’t respond right away I decided to end this awkward visit.

“Alright well you checked on me I’m fine,” I said, “You can go report to. . .”

“Wait Evie,” he said placing his hand on the door, “Can I please come in and talk?”

“Why Brian?” I asked completely fed up with the world today, “For the last month you’ve insulted me every chance you get. Just because you were nice to me yesterday doesn’t mean jack shit with the last month.”

“I came over to say I’m sorry,” he said, “And I wanted to explain my divorce story to you. I thought you would appreciate it.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I responded, “Either really. You don’t really want to be here so tell the guys I’m fine and I’ll be at the meeting on Monday. Have a good day Brian.”

I then slammed the door shut in Brian’s face and leaned against the door rubbing my hands on my face. I was feeling stressed and I needed to do something now that I was finished with my cry fest.

“I can’t have kids and Michelle cheated on me,” Brian yelled when I pushed myself off the door, “That’s why we got divorced.”

I immediately opened up the door to see Brian standing there awkwardly and I pulled him inside the door. I shut the front door and crossed my arms not believing him.

“The guys don’t know that,” Brian said, “I told them we fell out of love and so did Michelle. The guys don’t know that I can’t have kids either.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked and Brian sighed.

“Because I’m fucking sorry, okay Evie,” Brian exclaimed, “I’m sorry I’ve been absolute asswipe the last month. Michelle hasn’t told anyone but me because she didn’t want me to shocked but she’s pregnant with her husband. I pretended to take the news great but I’m a fucking wreck and I know you know what I’m going through.”

The minute those words left Brian’s mouth, I took a good look at him and I noticed that he seemed to have something weighted on his shoulders. I knew I couldn’t be a complete bitch to him and knew we both needed to get some things out in the open about each other. Brian sighed and ran his hands over his face and turned to leave.

“This was a dumb. . .” Brian started but I slid in front of him.

“You’re not leaving,” I said stopping him as I grabbed my purse on the coat rack, “Come on. I’m just as stressed as you. Let me get my purse and we’ll go to the grocery store.”

“Why?” Brian asked confused.

“To get shit to bake,” I said, “I’m a stress baker. What do you want to stress eat? Cookies, cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, pie?”

“Let’s just go see what sounds good,” he said smiling lightly at my idea.



After two hours of being at the grocery store to actually grocery shop for myself and to buy the stuff for me to cook for like an army of a ten thousand troops, we had officially gotten back to my house and Brian and I were acting like we had been friends for years. He had told me some corny joke as we had put all the groceries on the counter and I had just rolled my eyes.

“That’s a terrible joke not something I would use to hit on a woman,” I chuckled as I started putting things away.

“It works everytime,” he said grinning, “I swear. Want some help?”

I just laughed shaking my head.

“Nope sit on the counter and don’t worry your pretty little head,” I said, “I can put things away. Want to tell me the entire story of your divorce?”

He sighed and I then knew he wasn’t sure if he should.

“I found Matt moved on two months after he gave me the divorce papers,” I said, “By the time the divorce papers were finalized Charly had Evann two weeks later.”

“Holy fuck,” Brian said shocked, “Please tell me they didn’t get married two months later.”

“Close,” I said, “It was a bit longer six months. I was a bridesmaid.”

“Why did you put yourself through that torture?” asked shocked and I shrugged my shoulders.

“To be honest Matt and I had finally hashed everything out in a couple of my counseling sessions,” I said, “He finally admitted to me that he blamed me and I told him the real reason of my reason to try and commit suicide. We hashed out everything. It got ugly, I refused to be in charge of Charly. It took a coffee date with Charly alone to make me see that things we now out in the open and I still cared for Matt. Now it was more of a sister way that I cared for him but I still needed him in my life.”

“Wow,” he said, “So you were serious when you told us that you guys are cool?”

“Totally,” I said, “He was the first person that wasn’t family that I called to tell him the good news. I might have totally woke him up but he’s another brother I have.”

“Do you have any girlfriends?” Brian asked and then his eyes widened when he realized what he said and I laughed.

“I do,” I said, “Most of them I’ve made on the road. A few of them live here and I’m still friends with a few girls who I went to high school, Meghan being one of them. We’re just so busy and most of our schedules don’t match up to hang out as much. We usually have giant skype dates. Now what do you want cake or cookies?”

The rest of the day was basically like that with Brian. We spent the day baking at getting to know each other. Brian didn’t really open up about his divorce but I wasn’t going to pry. I knew it was hard to accept and acknowledge that you had a failed marriage. It’s something that I still don’t like to admit out loud but I knew that with time hopefully Brian would open up. We talked about the comments and Brian gave me some really good advice about the negative comments. He told me that his negative comments just make him work that much harder. He uses them as chips on his shoulders to keep him on his toes. It made sense and he reminded me that I was still a kickass drummer. After six hours of spending time with Brian I had a new sense after my really shitty day the day before. I was a kickass drummer and I wasn’t going to let anyone get me down. No matter how hard they tried fans were going to have to get used it. I, Evelyn Mathers was the new drummer of Avenged Sevenfold and no one was going to change that.