Booze, Boys, and Buses

Kacie’s POV

“I’m gonna miss you guys.” I said, standing alone with Zacky near the gate to the plane.

“I’m gonna miss you too. I’ve never had such a good time with fans. Usually they ruin everything, but this was great.” He said back to me.

I looked at him and felt the spark. You know, the spark you get when you like someone. Not like a fan liking a guy, but a person liking another person. I wanted to kiss him, just a peck, but it wouldn’t be right, it was a little too much of a fantasy. I hugged him, and his warm embrace made me like him even more. I had to stay strong. And I did. After I was done hugging him, I waved goodbye and walked onto the plane. He had my cell-phone number and I had his. It would be rare for me to call him, just because I didn’t want to turn into an annoying fan. I don’t know maybe if I heard about something online I would call and question him about it, but I didn’t want to seem persistent. I boarded the plane and didn’t look back. I had had the craziest week of my life, but I loved every minute of it. Cassandra fell asleep shortly after we had started flying. She’d still had a little bit of a hangover. All she’d done on our last day with them was slept. She got what she’d deserved for it I suppose. Pretty soon, my eyes were also falling heavy with fatigue. It didn’t take me long to fall asleep.

Cassandra’s POV

When I woke up, it was time to get off the plane. I hadn’t missed Matt at all, but I did miss the rest of the guys. Kacie and I walked in silence as we left the airport. She was still a little sore with me from a few nights ago. I had slept all during our last day with the guys. I hadn’t meant to, but I did. Matt and I had worked hard together to make my once in a lifetime chance a living hell. I never wanted to hear from him again.

It was a while after that before we heard from them again. Kacie called me frantically from work to tell me about a Myspace message she had received.

“Oh my god Cass! I’m going to send it to you and you need to get it on your e-mail ok?!” She asked excitedly.

“Ok.” I said.

I opened up my laptop and got on to aol.com. I opened my e-mail and downloaded the document and then opened it on my desktop.

“Ok, I’m reading it now.” I told her so she didn’t think that I was ignoring her or something.

From: Avenged Sevenfold

Subject: Off Tour

Message: Hey Kacie, this is Zacky. We’re getting off tour tomorrow over here in California. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out or something. I’ll come up to Maine if you want me to. It’s weird not having you and Cass around. I have something to talk to you about too. I’ll be calling you later tonight. Stay cute! Love, Zacky Vengeance.

“Oh my god.” I said after I had finished reading it.

“Yeah I know! Can you believe that he misses me! He wants to come all the way up to Maine to see me.” She said.

“Oh wow. I wonder what he wants to talk you about.” I said.

“Yeah I know. How awesome would it be if he wanted to ask me to be his girlfriend or something!”

“Kacie, not to burst your bubble or anything, but this is Zacky Vengeance.” I bluntly stated.

“Well thanks for ruining my dreams miss ‘everyone poops.’” She mocked.

I laughed as we said our goodbyes. It was hard telling what she and Zack were going to talk about. When they left each other two weeks ago, they seemed to be getting rather close. November was here and the weather was getting really cold. I had to start wearing winter jackets all the time. Later that day when Kacie got home, she started cleaning the apartment. The phone rang and we both stopped what we were doing and looked at the phone. Kacie charged to it to see who it was. She jumped up and then grabbed it. She answered it.

“Hello?” She said in a high pitched, excited voice.

“I’ll be right back.” She said to me, walking into her room. “He wants to talk to me privately about something.”

“Fine.” I said, deep down being disappointed by the fact that he didn’t even want to talk to me.

Kacie’s POV

“Ok, so what did you need to talk to me about?” I asked.

“First I wanted to ask you if you wanted me to come up to Maine some time to hang out with you. It was so much fun having you and Cass over.” He said.

I laughed in delight of the fact that he actually wanted us around more often.

“It’s actually up to you. If you want to come you can, if not, then don’t.” I said, not wanting to be pushy.

“Ok, then, looks like I’ll be making a trip to Maine. I need you to do me a favor.” He said, making a pause for effect.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I need you to get it out of Cassandra’s head that Matt’s a jerk.” He explained.

This did have reason for the pause. Why would he want me to convince her of something like that? Especially since he really was a jerk.

“What? Why?” I asked, clearly confused.

“I think he misses her.”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, that he’s even more depressed now than before. Plus, he talks about her a lot. I know all he says is how annoying she is, but he clearly just finds comfort in talking about her. No matter the context.” He thoroughly explained.

I sighed, being irritated by his assumption. He didn’t know for sure, and I didn’t want him bringing Matt over here and having him and Cassandra fighting the whole time that they were here in the apartment.

“Fine, I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises.” I said, deep down giving in to his cute voice. There was no way I could say no. “So when are you coming?”

“I’m going to be coming over, tomorrow. But don’t tell Cass, it will be a surprise.” He said.

“Ok. I guess I’ll talk to you then.” I said.

“Ok, see ya.”

I hung up the phone and went out into the living room. I hope Zack meant that he wanted me to get her to like Matt after they showed up here. I think it would be rather pointless to ask me not to tell her about him coming and then telling me to get her to like him. I shrugged to myself and then sat down on the couch. I had work tomorrow night. We had this all nighter thing going on in the scheduling department. It was only eight, but I was starting to get tired.

“Hey, I’m gonna go do my makeup and then go to work.” Cassandra said, walking over to the bathroom to begin putting on her face.

“Ok.” I said, sitting on the couch.

I ended up slowly closing my eyes and then falling asleep. I was awoken again the next morning by Cassandra who was staring at me with big blue eyes. I couldn’t help but jump.

“What?” I asked.

“Someone left you a message.” She said with a huge grin. “Don’t worry, I didn’t listen to it.”

She handed me my cell phone and then sat down to turn on the television. I clicked open my phone and then listened to my voicemail. It was from Zacky.

“Hey, we won’t be coming there until later tonight, so just sit tight babe, we’ll be there I promise. We had a little plane trouble. Talk to ya later.” It was over.

I sighed and shut my phone. It was nothing really. He only called me babe. I had to start fanning myself from sudden light headedness. That was a bit much for me to take in. Zacky had just called me babe. Woah.

“So what was that about? It was obviously something good.” Cassandra said, leaning closer to me.

“It was nothing.” I lied, putting my phone in my pocket.

“Uh huh.” She said sarcastically.

Cassandra’s POV

“Bye Kacie!” I yelled out the door as she headed to work at around eight o’clock. This wasn’t normal, but they had some big meeting thing. I went into my room and shut the door. I’d decided to start reading. I had to make some room in my outlet for another cord so I unplugged my alarm clock, figuring that I wouldn’t need it again until Wednesday, and plugged in my reading lamp. I started reading and slowly I dozed off. I woke up to a start when I heard some crashing and banging out in the living room. I heard some voices. I jumped out of bed and went to Kacie’s closet. I knew that her four year old brother had given her a plastic baseball bat for Christmas, so I decided to use that. I slowly opened the door and walked out into the living room. I saw some large shadowy in front of me and I swung. I made contact with someone’s head and they let out a yell.

“Shit!” The person yelled.

I swung again, this time the bat was grabbed in mid swing and I tried pulling it back. Someone turned on the light and I gasped when I saw Zacky and Matt standing in the living room. Zack was holding onto his head and Matt was glaring at me. I dropped the bat.

“Woah, sorry guys.” I said.

“Sorry? We just flew all the way across the country to see you and you repay us by hitting us in the back of the head with baseball bats?” Matt said.

“I don’t care that someone got hit, I’m just sorry it wasn’t you.” I bluntly stated, walking into the kitchen.

I rummaged through the freezer and found some peas. I tossed them at Zacky.

“You hit me with a bat and now you’re giving me peas?” He asked.

“It’s for the pain dummy.” I laughed, but then my eyes narrowed when they came across Matt’s stern and serious face. “So where are the rest of the guys?”

“The only two that really wanted to come were Matt and I.” Zachary explained, shifting eyes at Matt.

Matt just hit him in the shoulder to tell him to stop. So Matt had missed me. I knew he would have to come around at some point, and here it was, weeks after I had left. He actually missed me.

“Wait, the great egotistical Matt Shadows missed me?” I asked, sounding astonished. “That’s absurd.”

“Never mind, I knew this was a bad idea.” Matt said, beginning to walk out the door.

“Matt, give it a rest, I was just kidding. You don’t need to be so defensive about things. Shit man.” I said with a chuckle.

He grumbled and shut the door on his way back inside. Kacie had failed to let me know that they would be coming over; this was such a pleasant surprise.

“Are you guys hungry or something?” I asked.

“Nah, we are tired though.” Zack said.

“Ok, well, one of you could stay in Kacie’s bed and the other can stay in the living room.” I told them, beginning to walk into the kitchen for a glass of water.

“Ok, I call couch!” Zack yelled.

“Fine, I’ll stay in Kacie’s bed.” Matt said, sounding almost too disappointed.

“Dry up Matt, it’s not like you’ll have to talk to me or anything.” I said.

“No, but it’s closer to you than I ever wanted to be.”

“If you were coming here just to be an ass, then you can leave. I don’t want you coming into my apartment and treating me like this.

“Fine, I’ll stay.” He said, clearly not wanting to give in.

I smiled in my accomplishment and strutted off into my bedroom. Matt came in after me and lay down in Kacie’s bed. He turned against the wall.

“Am I really that ugly?” I asked.

He grunted and gave me the finger. I shrugged and rolled over onto my side as well.

“You know, I don’t know why you hate me so much, I never did anything mean to you until you were mean to me first.” I said with a cough to follow.

He turned over and faced me. His face seemed rather kind for once. Almost as if he had a feeling other than hate inside him. I smiled to myself knowing that I had finally cracked the surface.

“It’s just tough you know? Losing her, messed me up pretty bad. I thought that after a year it might be better, but I still wake up every morning and look over expecting to see her and I don’t. And then when I saw you, and some of the things you do just reminded me of-“ He stopped. “Never mind, this is stupid.”

“Matt, I’m here if you want to talk. I think you’ll feel better if you get all of this off of your chest. I’m sorry that I remind you of her.” I honestly admitted.

“It’s ok. It’s not your fault. I am sincerely sorry for being so mean to you. I guess I was kind of a jerk.”

“Kind of? Matt, you were a complete asshole.” I said, but then I realized how harsh it was. “I’m sorry for being a jerk too.”

“It’s alright. Do you want to be friends?” He asked giving me a sort of dorky grin.

Man, this was a cheesy moment. I shook his hand anyway. I was glad to know that he was man enough to apologize to me. We didn’t speak anymore, and just slept.

“Hey, wake up.” I heard softly in my ear.

I groaned and swatted in the air. I wasn’t quite ready to wake up yet. I opened my eyes and met Matt’s hazel ones. That’s just what I wanted to see in the morning. Especially knowing that he wasn’t being so much of an ass anymore.

“Zack’s making breakfast.” He said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Shit, please tell me that he isn’t going to catch the apartment on fire. Kacie and I really can’t afford it right now.” I said, grimacing at the thought of our angry landlord.

Matt chuckled. “It’s ok, he’s probably just taking the ham from the fridge and cooking that.”

“No!” I yelled, jumping out of bed.

That was supposed to be for me and Kacie’s weekly treat. I ran into the kitchen only to see Zachary Baker opening up the oven. Black smoke came billowing out of the oven. I stood there with my arms crossed and I was tapping my foot on the wooden floor. Zack pulled out a completely black ham and set it on the stove.

“You’re eating that whole entire thing.” I said.

“Ew! No way man! That’s fucking sick!” He defended.

“Zachary James Baker, Kacie and I have enough money to treat ourselves to a nice dinner once a week. Number one, you took it without asking. Two, you cooked it without asking, and three…you burned it!” I yelled, pointing at him.

I heard the fire alarm start going and then the showers on the ceiling started going. The three of us became completely soaked. Matt took my hand and helped me get out of the building. Zacky tagged along behind us. I saw everyone else in the building all come outside and stare at the building. They were all wondering what was going on. It was November 2nd, so as you can imagine, it was rather chilly. I shook and my teeth chattered. Matt put his arms around me, but they just made me colder.

“Matt, that isn’t exactly helping.” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh, sorry.” He said, removing his arms.

He was fast at getting to the point if he liked you. I wasn’t too worried about that right now. I was too busy worrying about what Kacie was going to say when she got home around ten.

“Hey Zack, what time is it?” I asked.

He pulled out his cell phone and peered at it.

“Ten o’ clock.” He replied, putting more emphasis on the Os then necessary.

“Shit.” I murmured.

No sooner had I said that and Kacie pulled into the parking lot. She stared up at the building and then slowly walked over to us.

“I want to hope that this doesn’t have anything to do with you guys.” She said.

“Zacky was cooking a ham.” I said.

She sighed and rubbed her temples.

“Again, this is going to be a long week.” She said.