Chapter 1 – Checking In

'Oh, yes!' shouted a genuinely excited Andy, gleefully surveying his new surroundings. 'This is the life! This is what we want!'

He clocked a fresh bottle of champagne sitting on the desk in the corner of the room, just underneath the wall-mounted CRT television. 'We are living the dream!' he stated to his bandmates, who were standing in the doorway together, looking at him as if he was a madman.

'Are you being serious, man?' asked Ashley. 'I can't tell if you're joking.

Andy uncorked the bottle of bubbly and poured the frothing fluid into his wide open mouth. With champagne overflowing out of his gob, running down the contours of his nude chest and onto the freshly cleaned carpet, Andy replied: 'Of course I'm being serious. Why do you think I would be joking?'

The rest of the guys laughed.

'Take a look around!' Andy shouted, indicating to objects around the room. 'There are only two single beds, for starters!'

'Yeah, and look at that TV, man,' piped up CC from behind Andy. 'This place sucks serious ass.'

Shaking his head, Andy defended his room. 'Look, this room isn't for us all, obviously. Jake, CC, Jinxx, your rooms are down the hallway.'

He took another swig from the bottle, but managed to get more on the floor than in his mouth.

'CC,' he said, wiping a mixture of saliva and champagne off his youthful chin, 'my TV isn't your concern, OK? You have one exactly like it in your room.'

'But, just look at it!' replied CC, pointing at it with both hands. 'It's tiny! How are we meant to watch anything on it?'

'It doesn't matter anyway,' said Jinxx with an apparent tone of sarcasm. 'English TV sucks anyway! It's all politics this and embroidery that. You'll just turn it off after five minutes.'

'Yeah, you've got a point, but we're not even in England, are we?' said Andy. 'We're in Scotland, you fool! Don't you remember high school Geography, Jinxx?'

'England, Scotland, it's all the same,' replied Jinxx, trying to pretend that he hadn't made such a simple schoolboy error. 'Anyway, that probably means that there'll just be shitty bagpipe music and haggis on TV instead. Scots love that crap.'

'Don't go hating on Scotland,' said a clearly offended Andy. 'Just look at it!'

With a camp flourish, Andy skipped to the window in the room and opened the curtains, unveiling a picturesque view of a drab industrial estate and an enormous Tesco hypermarket poking into view in the distance.

'Gentlemen, welcome to Aberdeen!' said Andy with a ridiculous amount of pride.

The rest of the gang continued to stare at him as if he was a lunatic, in silence, for at least twenty awkward seconds.

CC took it upon himself to break the silence. 'How much did the label spend on this place?'

'Take a guess!' shouted Andy from across the room, with a massive toothy grin plastered across his gorgeous face.

'Uh, I dunno,' said CC with zero interest. 'They got it for free?'

'Wrong!' bellowed Andy.

'I don't care, I hate your shitty games anyway.'

'Well I'll tell you then!' trumpeted Andy, clapping his hands together, creating a powerfully loud noise that brought the group to attention. 'Our management paid just sixty-six pounds, per night, per person! Isn't that great value for money?'

The guys continued staring. Andy had lost it. He was a goner.

'How much is that in US dollars?' asked Jake, who wasn't in the hotel room at all, but standing in the hallway outside.

'Oh shut up, Jake,' said Jinxx, along with moans and groans from the rest of the group.

'Well,' said Andy, 'I'm glad you asked! Currently, at the time of me saying this to you – which is of course 9:48pm on Sunday the 26th of February 2012 – the current pound to dollar rate is at 1.58645.'

'That's just $104.71 per person a night,' said Ashley, brandishing a scientific calculator in his hand.

'He's right,' said CC, also holding a calculator. Andy has managed to get CC interested in the topic. 'How many nights are we staying for, again?'

Andy kept his manic grin as he delivered the reply: 'We shall be staying here, at the Aberdeen West Premier Inn, for a full THREE nights!'

Ashley and CC tapped away at their respective calculators, before saying together, in perfectly synchronised unison: 'That's a mere $314.13 for our entire stay, which also equals up to £198!'

'I knew you'd be impressed!' said a smug, nodding Andy. 'That also includes our breakfast in the morning, so we can treat ourselves to a great traditional British fry-up every day! Cool, huh?'

The gang nodded.

'Yeah,' said Jinxx. 'That is pretty cool.'

Andy nodded and smiled at Jinxx, who swiftly returned the facial gesture.

The pair embraced this heart-warming moment of male bonding. The atmosphere in the Premier Inn room quickly turned pleasant and warm, and made the other members of the Black Veil Brides smile as they enjoyed this touching minute of loving friendship.