A few days had passed and Odessa and Andy were trying to make Moira’s visit special and over all they had succeeded. She had gotten to spend a lot of time with some of the other guys from the band and it seemed Moira and CC had bonded over the fact that they were both kind of crazy, in a funny way.

Andy sighed as he looked towards the end of the couch where Moira was sitting, her eyes on the television and he felt sad. It was her last day with them and unfortunately Dess was needed in her office for most of the day. Andy had tried to make it up to Moira, but he could tell that there was something plaguing the younger girl.


“Something wrong Moirabear?” Andy asked as he saw the younger girl look over at him, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Nope. I actually wanted to show you something…” She smirked and suddenly she was up and out of the room. Andy looked off towards the hall, smiling as he saw her come back with a very large book underneath one arm.

“What would this be?” He asked as Moira came and sat down close to him. He looked over at her, noticing that her collarbones jutted out of the top of her shirt and he felt his heart break.

“You’ll see…” She said devilishly as she flipped open the first page and Andy felt his eyes grow wide.


Staring down he was met with pictures of a girl who looked very familiar, but he wasn’t sure as to who it was. One picture showed her, bright pink hair with her eyes heavily lined in thick eyeliner, as she scowled at the camera, her snakebite piercings glaring in the flash. A second picture was of the same girl, her ripped and tattered shirt nearly hung off of her stick thin frame and she had on a plaid skirt with heavy looking boots. Each picture was different, this girl seemed to change her hair color constantly and finally Andy recognized who this was. After all he stared into those moss green eyes almost every night before bed.


“Is this-is this Odessa?!” He asked, looking up from the book and seeing the joyful gleam in Moira’s eyes.

“She would kill me if she knew I brought this…and that I showed you.” She replied as she watched him silently flip through the book, his mouth hanging wide open.

“I never knew she had snakebites…or her eyebrow pierced…or her nose. Why did she take them all out?” He asked as he looked up from the book and saw that a sadness had passed over Moira’s face.

“Dess was always changing. I remember one time she changed her hair color three times in one week. After our father died…my mother wasn’t able to deal with things like bills. Dess had to take care of everything and she soon realized that no one wanted to talk to some kid who had more metal in her face than it seemed possible.” Moira said sadly and Andy glanced back down at the pictures.


One picture was of Dess and he felt a connection with her. Her hair was in her face, much as it usually was now, except instead of light blonde, her hair was a bright electric blue. Her piercings stuck out on her face, her snakebites and nose piercing making her face look even more delicate than it did now. She was smiling at the camera, a smile he had never seen grace her lips before.


“I’ll never forget the day she came home. She left early that morning and was gone all day. I had been home from school and I remember her walking into my room. She’d left the house with purple hair and had come back with light blonde. All of her piercings had been taken out and she gave all of her clothes to me. All she would tell me is that it was time for her to grow up and that she was done trying to be something that couldn’t be accepted.” Moira looked over at Andy, both of their eyes sad.

“Why though?” Was all Andy could ask and Moira just shrugged.

“My guess is that our mother had something to do with it.” Andy’s brow furrowed. He liked Odessa’s mom, she had always been nice to him and she seemed to truly care for her daughters.

“What happened between your mom and Dess? It seems they can hardly be in the same room together.” Andy asked and he felt Moira heave a heavy sigh next to him.

“My father’s death was an ugly ordeal. Dess had just left for her internship and he was diagnosed two days before she left. He told her to go, saying that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed and that he would see her when she got home. My mother and father never told Dess how bad off he was and she didn’t even know he was dying until finally my mother called to tell her…” Andy said nothing, but just looked on sadly as Moira continued.

“I will never forget that sound coming from the other end of the phone line. We had been up with him all night and all he could do was ask for Dess, or Dragonfly which was his nickname for her, and finally we were able to say goodbye. He died, begging for Dess and my mother made the phone call two hours after he passed. I remember sitting on the couch watching and I could hear her scream from over the phone…it chilled me to hear her sound like that. She never got to even say goodbye to him.” Andy felt his blood boil. How could someone be so heartless as to not let their child say goodbye to her father.

“Dess came home for the funeral and she was left with all of the responsibility of it. My mother was unattached at that point, probably from shock and Dess had to pick up the slack. She couldn’t even see his body-my mother wouldn’t allow it as she was afraid it would damage Dess. She cried for days and I don’t think I’d ever seen her so upset. A week after his funeral Dess changed herself…claiming that she needed to grow up.” Moira wiped a tear from her cheek and Andy sniffled on her right, he had never known the pain the love of his life had been through.

“Why was your mother so jealous of their relationship?” Andy asked and Moira smirked over at him.

“She could never really understand the connection that Dess and my dad had. They used to sit up late at night…watching old Batman reruns and just laugh. He called her ‘Shadow’ for the longest time and she loved him for being so supportive of her. My mother was never able to connect with him like that.” Andy felt his heart sink, he had never known that Dess and her dad had been so close.


Andy looked back down at the book in his lap and his eyes focused on one picture imparticular. It was of Dess and an older man. She looked to be about sixteen in the photo, her hair was a deep red and she had on a the Used shirt. Andy looked closely, seeing that the older man in the photo had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and his eyes were the same light green as Dess’. She looked so happy in that moment and Andy felt the tears coming to his eyes.


“Dad was always supportive of us. As long as we got good grades we were able to do what we wanted and Dess took full advantage of that. Drove my mother insane when she would come home, her hair different colors and every time she’d get a new piercing our mom would cry for hours. Dad would just laugh and ruffle her hair and tell her he loved her no matter how weird she looked.” Moira reached up, brushing her cheek softly and Andy moved to the kitchen to get her a tissue.

“She used to be so happy, but then after dad died it was like a huge part of her went missing. She smiled, sure, but her eyes never looked truly happy…until she met you.” Moira looked over at him and Andy felt his cheeks grow hot.

“She had to have been happy before she met me…she’s always happy.” Andy said as Moira just shook her head and pulled the blanket she was wrapped in tighter to her body.

“She’s a really good actress. I remember after she came back from her little trip with you after Warped. God she wouldn’t shut up and at that time I was so beyond jealous of her…I said some things that I shouldn’t have. But the look on her face when she said your name…it was like everything was right in her world again. She started painting again. She used to paint all of the time when dad was around, but after he died she would just work on comics…her paint sat on her shelves for years.” Andy felt his heart race as he looked over Moira’s head and took in the watercolor that Odessa had done recently.

“But I haven’t done anything…nothing to really change her life so drastically.”He said simply and Moira shook her head in frustration.

“You let her be herself. She got lost Andy…you helped to find her again. I want you to promise me something.” Suddenly Moira’s face was serious and she reached over, her tiny hands grabbing his and he shivered; she felt like death.

“Promise that you will always be there for her. Marry her. Give her babies and be the guy for her that won’t let her forget who she is.”Moira’s eyes scanned his and he bit down on his lip.

“I can’t promise that she’ll want to always be with me Moira. I can’t make her marry me if she doesn’t want to…but I will promise you that I will do my best to make her happy.” Andy said as Moira rolled her eyes and grabbed the book from his lap. Quickly she turned to the very last page and held it up for him to see.


There were two pictures, one had been taken during the fall when Andy was at the Montgomery house for Thanksgiving. It was of him and Dess and he had his arm wrapped around her shoulder as her hands rested on his chest and she was looking up at him as he looked straight in to the camera. The smile on her face was so wide that he could practically see all of her teeth.

The second picture he didn’t recognize, but it was another one of Dess and her dad. She was wearing a cap and gown and it was obvious that it was taken at her High School graduation. The two pictures were almost identical in the fact that Dess was standing next to her father, his arm around her shoulders as she smiled up at him and he looked right at the camera. The smiles on her face were identical.


“You mean the world to her…please just take care of her for me. I don’t want to be looking down from wherever I’m at to see her crying.” Moira smiled then, her smile was weak but it was a smile all the same. Quietly she took the book from Andy and set it on the floor and as she looked up she noticed that he was staring at her.

“Do you believe in heaven Moira?” He asked softly and she could see the tears in his eyes.

“I believe in the theory of Heaven. I don’t know if that’s where I’ll end up…”She said, lifting a finger to her lips as she bit down on a nail, a nervous habit.

“Do you think you’ll go to Heaven?” He asked and Moira swallowed as she thought it over for a minute.

“To be honest…I don’t really give a shit where I end up…there just better be some rocking music to listen to while I’m there.” With that they both erupted into laughter.

Notes

I'M BACK! Who missed me? Better yet who missed Andy and Dess? Sadly my laptop crapped out on me down at the beach so I had to hand write everything. GOOD NEWS- I wrote like a mad woman and have five new chapters that need to be typed up.

So yeah, reviews please : )

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