Zacky and the Lawyer - An Avenged Sevenfold Story

Chapter 5: Holding Hands

The next few weeks of the tour seemed to pass by in a blur. The guys were performing almost every single night, and since we were constantly headed towards the next show, there wasn't time to stop and sleep in a hotel. Since "tour bus sleep" isn't the best sleep in the world, we all started getting a bit irritable after a while. Mildly-annoying habits that would usually go unnoticed garnered snippy remarks, and spats over little things that didn't matter became more frequent. And despite the fact that everyone in the group got along well in general, being constantly cooped up with each other with no escape to the outside world tested everyone's patience. To top it all off, the kids started to become more restless over time, which made finding a quiet place to do my work increasingly difficult.

With all of these things considered, it's no surprise that we were all relieved when the band finally had a few days off. We stopped at a hotel in Orlando for three nights, and finally being back to a real bed and normal living accommodations was pure bliss.

I spent the first night holed up in my room alone, savoring some privacy and time to myself after having none for the past two weeks. The kids were wonderful, really, and I enjoyed getting to play games with them and Val. Reading Tennessee bedtime stories at night always put a smile on my face, too, and I'd been able to do it a lot more recently with the guys' frequent shows. Even so, having no respite from the three of them on a tour bus could be a lot to handle, and I was thrilled to know that my long shower didn't have any chance of being interrupted by the sound of someone crying.

After the best night's sleep I'd had in weeks, I woke up feeling refreshed, and ended up spending most of the second day working in my room. It wasn't very exciting, but there were some important tasks I needed to catch up on. While fighting this case for Avenged Sevenfold was my main focus at the moment, it wasn't technically my only job. I had other clients who needed my attention, even if I wasn't anywhere near the office right now. I met Johnny and Brian in the middle of the day for lunch down the street from the hotel, which provided a nice break and a chance to stretch my legs. But, aside from that, I had the day all to myself.

I finally joined back up with the group around noon the next day, after a text from Matt asked me to come to his and Val's room. I went up the elevator and walked down the hall to their suite, double-checking the number on my phone. Matt and Val usually had the biggest room, but considering they had to fit four people into it and that it was always our unofficial meeting place in hotels, I suppose it made sense. I knocked on the door to have it opened by Val a few seconds later.

"Good morning!" she said brightly, stepping aside to let me in. I glanced at my watch curiously as I crossed the threshold, and saw that it was 11:54 AM. Well, she was technically still right. "Good morning, Val," I said, laughing a bit as she shut the door behind me. None of us were exactly known for getting an early start, at least not when we had the choice.

Looking around the room, I realized that everyone else was already there, lounging on the couch and beds or standing around in the small kitchen. "Hey, you guys. What's up?"

"Morning, Christa," Matt said, greeting me from in front of the open fridge door. "Not too much, we were just trying to get up and get moving for the day. Seems like everyone's about ready to get out of the hotel before we go stir crazy." He grabbed a bottle of orange juice and shut the fridge door, looking around at his bandmates and family for confirmation.

"Yeah, I think we're all ready to get out of our rooms, at least," Zack said. His expression shifted to an amused one before continuing. "The boys, in particular, wanted to go shopping for some 'cool clothes'." He looked over at Tennessee and River seated on the couch, but they were immersed in a video game and weren't paying him any attention, so he turned back to the rest of us. "I think they got jealous of us buying new concert outfits a few weeks ago. I can't imagine they'd be entertained by something like that for very long, but they keep bringing it up, so..." he trailed off with a shrug.