Second Chances

By the time we got back to the tattoo shop to get ready, it was brushing 4pm. The guys crowded in Jashire’s room to get ready while I all but panicked in my room. I tried to distract myself by putting the three new outfits away, and I was so out of it that I didn’t even pay attention to what Jazz bought for me. “It’s no use…there’s no way I can face him…not after everything that happened.” I pulled my cell out and sent a text to Clair, telling her that we had a show tonight so if she wanted she could take pictures. I needed a distraction, and my usual routines weren’t helping so I turned on Ihome on and blasted Bewitched by BOTDF. It was one of my favorites and not only did it allow me to do vocal warm ups, but it also helped calm me down. Getting absorbed into the music, I went back to my closet and grabbed random clothes, accessories and my black and red wolf tail, coming out with one of my favorite outfits.

I changed quickly, and redid my hair, before starting on my make-up. I modeled my band after Black Veil, so we usually did some kind of war paint. More often than not, I simply accented my eyes, making them look even more wolf like than my custom contacts did. Then, I did Jinxx’s signature war-paint over my right eye. I was a fan of Black Veil for years before I made Lone Wolves, I was allowed to show support to them.

I replayed the song again and just focused on singing, letting my voice warm up a bit before we had to go to the bar to do sound check. By the time I finished singing I had calmed down quite a bit and was ready to face the night. I made my way to Jashire’s room and sat on his bed while Kay, Elk and Kai were doing their make-up. “Where’s Jazz?”

“Getting all fancied up in his bathroom.” Elk glanced at me via the mirror he was using to do his eyeliner. “You look hot.” I laughed and blushed lightly.

“Yeah, thanks Elk.” I shook my head and looked out the window. “I’m thinking we can play Bewitched before we go on stage. And I know I want to play our cover of Rebel Yell, but the rest is up to you guys.”

“You and your obsession with those two songs. I’ll never understand it.” Kay said as he finished up getting ready.

“Shut up, I happen to like a lot of music, you just don’t know how to appreciate it.” We had this kind of play-argument every time we played. By the time Jazz reentered his room, the guys and I were laughing near hysterically.

“Whatever you guys are on, I want some.” Jazz sat next to me and Kaos and purposely messed up my hair. I glared at him and messed his hair up in turn. I smirked before dashing out of the room and back to mine to fix my hair before Jashire had a chance to do anything else.

“Come on guys! We gotta go!” I practically ran up the steps to the tattoo shop and double checked that everything was closed up. The guys would probably take the rear exit anyway, so I locked up and literally ran into Clair on the small porch. “Hey girl! So I see that you’re excited for tonight.” Clair had a plain tight black shirt and ripped black skinny jeans.

“I’m just glad you asked me to do this for you.” She was smiling from ear to ear as the guys walked around the building to the parking lot.

“Who’s the girl?” Kaim asked as he looked Clair over.

“This is Clair, the girl I tattooed earlier, and our photographer.”

“I hope you have another job kid, we don’t do a lot of shows. Not many bands are interested in us.”

“I do have a day job, I do photography for different magazines, so I’m not worried.”

I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled, “Just follow Jashire’s car to the venue and we’ll let you do a photo shoot before we do sound check.” Jazz, Kai and Kay loaded their guitars into the trunk of the car. The owner of the bar was a friend of Elks and let him keep his drum set in the rear storage area, so all Elk had was his drum sticks. They were a weird teal color with random black streaks throughout.

It took us about twenty minutes to get to the venue, and another ten for the guys to tune their guitars and come up with the set list. We played parts of the five songs we picked out and Clair snapped photos, getting amazing shots of each of the guys. We posed for a few pics before we went to our waiting area. “I want to meet Black Veil Brides before we go on stage.” Kaim whined as he laid on one of the couches, his head on Elks lap.

“We might be able to after the show, but for now this is just like every other show we’ve done. We go on, play our set and go to the merch table.” Jashire was always the one to keep us on track when it came to our shows. It was like every other night that we played technically, but I could tell that it wasn’t just me who felt like something different was going to happen.

Clair opened the door to the sitting area a little, “Hey, umm you guys up for talking with Black Veil Brides right now? They said that they wanted to talk with their opening band before the show.”

I groaned and curled up on one of the three couches next to Elk, “Yeah, we can talk with them until the two minute mark.” Clair smiled and opened the door fully, letting the other band walk in.

“Damn Havic, you’re right you do look a bit like Jinxx.” Kaos spoke quietly, but since the room was silent everyone heard him. I glared at Kaos but nodded a bit anyway.

“I’m guessing you’re a fan?” Andy looked at me and asked as he sat on the couch across from Elk, Kaim and myself. Ashley, and Jinxx sat on either side of Andy, leaving CC, Jake and Jashire the third couch. Kaos was sitting on the arm of the couch next to Kaim.

“Yeah, I’ve been a fan for a few years.” I met Andy’s gaze and smiled a bit, “Let me introduce my band. I’m Havic, the vocalist. Next to me is Elk, he’s the drummer, then there’s Kaim, he’s our rhythm, guitarist, Kaos is our bassist, and Jashire our lead guitarist.”

“What kind of name is Havic?” CC the drummer of BVB asked.I knew he wasn’t trying to be offensive so I had no problem telling him how I came up with the name.

“I love wolves, and when I was younger I had this brown and white wolf plushie that my older brother got for me. I’d bring it everywhere, and people always said wolves would bring havoc and chaos. Well I decided to name him Havic with an ‘I’ instead of an ‘O’ just to make him unique. I lost him a while ago, but the name has always stuck with me. So that’s my stage name, and I prefer to go by it instead of my real name. It just makes things easier for me.”

“So that’s what your eye makeup is symbolizing? Wolves?” I looked up at Jake as he spoke.

“Yeah, along with my custom contacts my eyes are pretty much lupine, then again if you look at everyone in my band we all have the same eye makeup, just in our own style making us each as different as any wolf in a pack.”

“So the band name isn’t just for show then, you all are like a pack of wolves. I like it, it’s very different.” I nodded at Andy’s comment and risked a look over at Jinxx. He looked like he was deep in thought, I probably over did it with the story of the stuffed animal.

“We have a new member to our pack, Clair, she’s our photographer. Though today is her first day with us, she seems to fit in rather nicely.”

“I love how you take on the alpha role of the band, but who’s the real leader of the band?”

“It’s me or Jashire, depending. I mean he’s the one who makes sure we’re not killing each other when someone puts on music.” We talked for a while until it was time for us to play. The crowd was amazing, but I knew they were mostly here for Black Veil.

“How ya guys doin’ tonight?!” We were three songs into our set before I finally addressed the crowd. I was greeted with screams and some boos. “Thank you all for coming out to see us, I know most of you are only here to see Black Veil Brides, but whatever. To all my Loners in the room, this one’s for you. It’s called Haunted Melody.” More people in the crowd cheered than I was expecting. As the final notes hung in the air I looked at the front row of people, a young girl caught my attention. I jumped down between the stage and the barrier, and hi-fived the few fans I had. I went up to the girl, took her hand and kissed the back of it. “What song do you want us to play as our last one before Black Veil comes on?”

“Your cover of Rebel Yell…please.” I smiled and nodded before getting back up on stage. We jumped into our next song without hesitation, and it seemed like the crowed was even more amped. I glanced over to the side stage and saw Ashley, Jinxx and Jake watching us. I smirked and addressed the crowd for the last time.

“Alright, this is going to be our last song. We enjoyed putting our unique style into it, so if you like it great, if not even better. This is Rebel Yell.” We took a more haunting tone for this one since we didn’t want to copy any other bands cover of the song. When we finished the crowd was estatic, and had just the right amount of energy for Black Veil. We walked of stage, and headed to the dressing room when Ashley stopped me.

“That was amazing, I had no idea you could sing like that.” I blushed lightly at the praise.

“Thanks Ash, but I’d thank Kaim, Jazz and Kaos. They’re the ones who have the true talent.” I excused myself and went into the dressing room, and wished I could just leave. I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. “I can’t handle this.” I sighed and laid my forehead on my knees. I felt like someone was standing over me, and assumed it was one of my band-mates. I looked up when I felt someone sit on the floor next to me. It was Jinxx, “What?”

“You alright? You don't look too good.” I could hear the concern in his voice.

“No offense, but wince when do you care about people you just met?”

“Since this person is one of our fans and looks like she needs help.” I cursed my luck, he was always able to read me easily.

“I’m just stressed and tired. Today has just been a really off day for me. It’s really nothing to worry about. You have a show to put on you know, you should get to it.” He got up and left the room, once again leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sighed again before getting up and heading out to the merch table to sign some things for the few fans we had. It was nice to see just how far Black Veil Brides had come since I first started listening to them. If anyone deserved to be the best and biggest band in the world it was them.

It was well after midnight by the time the club was empty except for the two bands and crew. I helped Elk pack up the little bit of merch that we had and bring it to the back room with his drum kit. When we got back to our table, Jazz was already deep in conversation with Andy and Ashley. “What are you guys talking about?” I was pretty nosey when it came to my band and knew it was a bad habit that I had to break.

“I was just asking Jashire if you guys would like to tour with us. You’re all very talented and this is a good way of getting your name out there.” I knew I was staring at Andy in shock, but couldn’t bring myself to care. He and Ash laughed at my reaction, making me blush again. “So, what’s the answer?”

“As much as I’d like to, we don’t have a bus, or anything like that.”

“We have a party bus that you guys can use, it’s no problem. We ever can spare a couple members of our crew if you want a driver.” I looked from Ash and Andy to Jazz, all were practically begging me to say yes.

“Fine, how long do we have to pack?”

Notes

This too forever to write. I don't write music at all or even poetry so feel free to come up with whatever kind of sound you want for Haunted Melody. As for Rebel Yell, there are a lot of covers out there so I had to come up with something that was different. Anyway, hope you enjoyed.