Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

11 ☼ savory

April 2007 

"David!" Noelle said happily, her dad waiting to greet her outside the house. This house had so many memories that if the walls could talk, they'd scream. 

"How's it been, hon?" He said, walking down the porch steps and squeezing her. "Kicking ass and taking names?"

"Always. Where's Dari?" 

Her fresh faced, in all ways but blood little sister came bounding out the door and into her arms. "Ellie!" Darien yelled, squeezing her. Darien was a seventh grader, adopted when Noelle was 18 and she was four years old. 

Darien was on the chubbier side, with long brown hair and bright brown eyes. They didn't get to see each other often, but Darien worshipped her older sister. 

"Dars! It's been so long honey, how are you?" 

"I'm good! I've made so many friends this year and there's this guy who hates me and--" it took Darien a second to process three fifths of Avenged Sevenfold was standing behind her sister with Mandy. "Holy shit." 

"Dari!" Noelle snapped gently. "Use appropriate words." 

"Oh like you weren't cussing up a storm at her age." David lit his cigarette, sitting on a the porch's rocking chair. "Ellie, why don't you introduce Darien to your..." A look of recognition came across David's face. "You." He pointed at Jim. 

"Uhm..." Jim trailed off, confused. 

"Dad, don't be weird about it. Jim, Matt and Brian, this is my little sister Darien. She's a big fan of yours. Fairly obviously."

They were more than happy to each give Dari a hug and speak to her. While they were busy with that, Noelle made small talk with her dad. 

"Hey dad," She said more privately, leaning over and hugging him. "Darien keeping you young?" 

"You know that boy." David cut straight to the point. "The tall one. He was in the house waiting for you one day, with this other boy. I had to scoot their little asses out the door until you got back home. I had no idea how the damn kid got in the place. Or why a twenty six year old was waitin' for my kid..." 

Noelle looked at him confusedly. "David, I met them in January. Never before in my life." 

"No," David said. When he was confident in a point, he did whatever it took to get it across. "I met that boy. He and another one, smaller with black hair... God, the other one! he had piercings on 'is damn face." 

"What was his name then, dad?" She crossed her arms. 

"Zack." 

She felt her face flush. "Zack?" 

"Said he'd known you for some time. And then you came home early and I found you upstairs, in bed, all blank faced with your hair cut off and the sink clogged." 

She went quiet. "That's weird." 

"Weird indeed." He gave her a look. "He ain't look like a days gone by since I kicked his ass to the curb." 

Noelle nodded. "The notebook." She changed the topic. "Where did you say it was?" 

"I put it on your desk." He nodded. "Go inside, take a look." 

She walked over to Brian, currently free from her little sisters wrath as she interrogated Matt about his gauges and how they worked and how she wanted them too. "Hey! Not to invite you into my childhood home or anything, but you wanna come check this notebook out with me?"