The next week sort of went by in a slow blur. I blocked everything out, not wanting to think too much about our missing band member. If I didn't think about it, then I could just about bare turning back to the drums while onstage and see Mike drumming away, rather than Jimmy, without wanting to breakdown and smash everything in sight.
And to add to everything else, Avery appeared to be avoiding me, and she'd been doing a good job of it as well. She'd rarely be alone, and when all of us were sat together, she'd either sit beside Val or Brian or as far away from me as possible, making sure that I had no way of me being able to speak to her discreetly. It was probably my fault that she was avoiding me, after all, I was about to tell her something that she didn't want to hear, but I had to tell her, because it was driving me insane not being able to tell anyone. It was one of those things that needed to be said out loud before you could tackle the situation, and I needed to know how Avery felt too, because if she felt the same way, then we could both try to deal with it together rather than alone.
Denial is a powerful emotion, and I had a feeling that was exactly what Avery was doing: denying this whole situation in hope that it would go away on it's own. But it wasn't going to, and deep down, I knew she knew that.
Today was one of the last tour dates that we'd be doing before we headed back home. The bus driver pulled up outside of the venue, and everyone bailed out, stretching their legs after the past twelve hours of being stuck inside the same four walls. And despite being only a few feet away from Avery, I had somehow not been able to manage to speak one word to her. It was beginning to drive me insane. This couldn't be ignored any longer: I had to speak to her today, or at least before we all headed back home from tour and, seemingly, all of what had happened would be forgotten.
The rest of the day went on as normal: we set up our equipment, went onstage and did a few songs as rehearsals to make sure everything was set up before we headed out to lunch. I kept an eye on Avery, seeing if there was any moment where I'd be able to talk to her alone, but not once did I get the chance. She sat beside Brian while we were out for lunch, and when we got back to the venue, she sat went and sat with Brian once again, and helped him reattach a string he'd broke on his guitar. It wasn't even as if Avery was finding things to do to avoid me, because everything she did, would be something that she'd normally do anyway. For example, she often reattached strings for Brian on his guitar if he broke one when they were at home; otherwise he'd leave it and wait until all of his guitars had broken strings before he'd send them back to the shop to get them restrung, because he was extremely lazy. And Avery had taken it upon herself to learn how to restring guitars in order to save sending the guitars away, and it had saved a lot of time and money when we'd been recording City of Evil, because she'd often come in to restring his guitars if no one else was there to do it for him. Of course, a technician could've done the job at this current moment in time, but since Brian had been practicing his guitar in front of Avery when it had broke, she'd decided to save time finding a technician, and just changed it herself.
There was a moment later on in the afternoon when I thought I might have had the chance to talk to Avery, but ironically, my wife had intervened, coming in to kidnap Avery to take her and Lacey to a nail studio in town in order for the three girls to spend some, I quote, 'quality girl-time together' as my wife had put it. I'd let out a mildly frustrated sigh as I watched my wife drag my only chance to talk to Avery away - well, at least for a few good hours.
Val and Lacey appeared a few hours later, sporting their freshly painted nails. Val had got a midnight blue with silver sparkles, whereas Lacey had gone with a glossy candy red colour. Noting that Avery wasn't with them, I asked where she'd gone; turns out, Avery had parted from the group as they'd walked through the parking lot to go retrieve something from the coach. I excused myself and headed down the hallway and out of the venue before making my way onto the tour bus to see if I could catch Avery before she headed back inside the venue.
YOU ARE READING
Tonight The World Dies
Fanfiction.:SEQUEL TO SAVE ME:. Avenged Sevenfold have begun to carve a place for themselves in the music industry, and all things seem to be looking up. But, during the process of making their fifth studio album, a tragedy befalls upon the group that will un...
