I Know It's Hurting You, But It's Killing Me (A7X Fan Fiction)

Chapter Two: Welcome to the Family

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           After several beers later, Zack was too drunk to go home, and Lyric was too drunk to remember telling him he couldn’t stay the night. So he stayed, and before the night was over, the first shelf in Lyric’s fridge where all the beer had been was completely cleared off. The coffee table was covered in beer bottles, as well as the table outside where Zack had spent a good portion of the afternoon and night smoking cigarettes.

            Lyric and Zack spent their time together catching up, telling jokes, laughing, and overall just having a good time. Just like it used to be.

            It was around 1AM when Lyric heard Zack’s phone going off. He was passed out on her couch, so she carefully took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. He had one missed call and one text message. She didn’t want to be nosey, but on his droid phone, the last half of the text message was scrolling along the screen.

…are you? We are all worried. Said you’d be home tonight. Call when you get this.

 - Shadz

If her memory served her right, Shadz was A7X’s lead singer’s stage name. M. Shadows, Lyric remembers reading, and oftentimes shortened to Shadz.

Lyric decided to call Shadows and tell him Zack was fine, and passed out on her couch.

“Zacky! Where the fuck have you been, man?” Lyric heard Shadow ‘s voice booming through the phone.

“This isn’t Zack… this is his sister,” she said slowly, suddenly becoming nervous. Her tongue felt numb, and her legs were weak. She wasn’t even quite sure why she was nervous. Maybe it was because she was on the phone with someone famous, but she should be used to meeting famous people. How many times have I met famous authors? Or maybe it was because she knew nothing about Shadows, except for what she found on the internet, and knowing Zack, everyone in the band probably knew all about her.

            “Lyric! This is Matt. It’s nice to talk to you! Where’s Zacky?” Shadows practically yelled, his voice grew more excited once he heard whom he was taking to. I’m glad he finally got up enough courage to go see her, Matt thought to himself.

            “He kind of passed out on my couch a few minutes ago. I heard his phone go off and checked it. I saw the text you sent and just wanted to let you know he’s safe.” I hope he doesn’t think I’m a freak for looking at Zachary’s text messages.

            “Oh. Thanks so much for calling back! We were all worried about him, since he told us he’d be coming home tonight,” Matt said.

            “You’re welcome,” Lyric responded, and then remained silent, unsure of what to say next. Thankfully, Matt seemed to have something in mind.

            “So… how would you feel about coming over to my house with Zacky tomorrow? The band is dying to meet you! We’ve all heard so things about you,” he went on, babbling about how Zack always talked about her (all good things, he assured her) and how much he missed her, etc.

            So a half an hour later, when Lyric finally got off the phone with Shadows, plans had been set for the next day. After they both woke up, they were supposed to go to Matt’s house for a last minute party. A party to celebrate welcoming Lyric into the Avenged Sevenfold family, but of course that part was a secret.

            Matt, Synyster, The Rev, and Johnny all stayed up for another hour with Matt’s girlfriend, Valary, planning this party for Lyric. Matt was super excited and wanted it to be the biggest party they’ve ever thrown, but thankfully Val was able to convince Matt that no such thing was possible to plan and prepare for in as little time as they had if sleep was also part of the plan. So he agreed on a smaller scale party, but made Val promise that one-day they would throw a big, kickass party for Lyric.