Seis:

I awoke hours later and almost had a panic attack once I realized that I was lying on Ashley’s chest. What the fuck? He was sound asleep. I tried to move without waking him, but failed…epically. He blinked the sleep from his eyes before settling his gaze on me. “Hey,” he whispered.
“Hey,” I whispered back. I laid my head back down on his chest and sighed in contentment when his arms encircled me.
“Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not.” My voice sounded off, like I was going to cry or something. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears from spilling. I opened my eyes when I felt Ashley’s lips on my forehead, then my nose, then finally my lips. His thumbs brushed away the tears I hadn’t known I shed.
“I’m here if you need me, you know that right,” he asked me softly.
I couldn’t look him in the eye. I mean come on, how do you tell the guy you’re crushing on “No, I didn’t know that. I’ve been told that you’re just a man whore and don’t give a fuck about women. And although in the short time I’ve known you you’ve been nothing but nice to me, my best friend thinks you’re just trying to screw me over”? I sighed and buried my head in his chest.
“It’s okay to be confused,” Ashley sighed.
“What the fuck are you, a mind reader?” I asked.
He chuckled, “Something like that. Just know that you can trust me, Lex. I promise you can trust me.”
I lifted my head off his chest and managed a small smile before attaching my lips to his once again.
~****~
We had another concert tonight, and I was pretty damn excited. I decided on a pair of white skinny jeans with black paint splatter and a shredded Black Veil Brides shirt. I left my hair down and shoved my feet into my Converse before going to the makeup table and letting Ashley do my makeup this time. Ashley placed himself in between my legs, and got to work on my subdued stage makeup. I smirked as I watched his eyes glance down at what I had on then bite his lip.
“Is something wrong, Ash,” I whispered into his ear. He shuddered as my lips brushed against the shell of his ear.
“You’re such a fucking tease,” he chuckled. He finished my makeup then helped me off the counter. I tossed a glare at him when he smacked my ass, and growled when he smirked and waved at me.
“Come on, it’s show time,” Tom said before wrapping his arms around my waist and ushering me out of the room.
“Dude, chill, the crowd isn’t going anywhere,” JP chuckled.
“Awe, leave him alone, Tomi just wants to shake his ass in front of the girls,” I laughed.
We went out on stage and started the show. About half way through our set, I noticed some guy shove one of our fans so hard that she smacked into the metal fence. The fence slammed into her stomach and I was sure I saw the breath knocked out of her.
“Hey asshole!” I yelled. “If ever touch one of our fans again, I’ll kick your fucking ass mother fucker!” I yelled into the mic.
“Bitch, what are you going to do,” the guy yelled.
“Come up here and say that to my face mother fucker. Matter of fact, you want to hit someone, bring your ass up here, I fucking dare you!” The guys were furious too. I could see BVB standing side stage, and blushed a little when I saw the look of pride on Ashley’s face.
We continued on with the show and all was good…but suddenly the guy I had yelled at, stormed through the barricade, knocked over two security guys and grabbed my ankle before yanking me off the stage. My jaw slammed into the stage as he dragged me off and all I could taste was blood. He got one punch in before I slammed my mic into his face. I landed a well-aimed kick to his groin and watched him fall to the ground in pain. I was picked up by security and placed back on stage.
My boys didn’t care about the show, they had stopped playing and Tom was holding me in his arms while we watched the guy get put in handcuffs.
“I hate to break it to you mother fucker, but you hit like a bitch. I’ve taken harder hits than that,” I chuckled darkly.
I spat some blood onto the stage and smiled at the crowd. “Are you guys alright out there?” The crowd screamed in return. “Good, good. Now we’re going to take a five minute break I need some water, and JP looks like he’s going to piss his pants. So give us five minutes and when we come back, we’re going to fucking party!” The crowd roared. I smiled and waved and allowed Tom to help me backstage. The fall probably messed my ribs again.
As soon as I was behind the curtain, I was in Ashley’s arms. “Are you okay?”
“Chill, I’m fine. My ribs hurt like a bitch though,” I chuckled but then groaned because it hurt. I was given some water and I chugged it down quick before smiling up at Ashley. “Really, I’m fine,” I smiled.
“Your arms are bleeding,” Andy mumbled as he held a towel to my arms.
“Oh, must have opened them up during the fight,” I shrugged at their questioning looks. Soon our five minutes were up and we were back on stage. We played three more songs then introduced Black Veil Brides.
~****~
My fight during the concert was all over the news and tabloids the next few days. Vanilla Lace had an interview that would be done on our bus. I sat on Tom’s lap while Tom, JP, and Josh crammed themselves on the bus’ little couch. BVB stood in various places around the bus, watching us.
“Okay, so Alexis, Tom are you two together?”
Tom and I looked at each other before erupting into laughter. I had to hold both hands to my sides. It hurt so much to laugh but I couldn’t help it. Josh and JP joined in to. After we had gotten that out of system I answered. “Sorry, that was just too funny. To answer your question, hell no, we don’t see each other in that way.”
“Speak for yourself,” Tom smirked. “You know you want to fuck me.”
“Oh yeah, you got me,” I replied sarcastically. “Fuck me right now!” We chuckled but again, assured it wasn’t like that. “That would be too damn weird. Too weird,” I shuddered at the thought.
“Okay, fans want to know, if there’s anything going on between Alexis and Ashley?”
I blushed at this one, but shook my head. “Nope sorry to disappoint,” I chuckled as I scratched at my neck. I honestly wasn’t sure if there was anything going on, and even if there was, it’s none of their fucking business.
“Okay, some fans wanted to know about your home life, Alexis. One fan wanted to know if you were abused how come no one did anything to stop it or put your dad away.”
I sighed and swallowed the lump in my throat. “You know how you’re on the street and you see someone getting mugged. You feel bad for them, and you’re like ‘Gee, someone should help that person’ and you don’t anything. There are hundreds of witnesses around and they see what’s going on, but they do nothing to stop it because they think someone else is going to step in and save the day. Everyone knew what my dad was doing to my mom and me, but no one did anything because they thought someone else would.”
The bus grew silent at my explanation.
“Um,” the interviewer cleared his throat. “Your band has been trying to get people involved in blood donations. Pictures have cropped recently of your band mates donating blood and even the members of BVB. Fans want to know, why donating is so important to Vanilla Lace.”
I smiled a sad smile and took off my hoodie to show her the scars on my arms. “I’m a cutter. I have received two blood transfusions in my lifetime, and I’m here today because someone decided to give blood.” I smiled.
“You said that in the present tense, are you still cutting?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I’m not going to lie to the fans because that would be wrong of me. I’m dealing with a lot of shit, I just happen to deal with it in a way that’s not good for me. I hope no one thinks I’m being a hypocrite because I don’t want any of the fans to do this. But I’m not going to lie to them either. The fans deserve better than that. I’m not perfect and I won’t ever admit to being perfect.”
Tom’s arms wrapped around my waist. “We’re all a little fucked up,” he smiled.
“Yeah, she’s gotten way better though, so I hope the fans don’t take this too hard. What you’ve got to understand is that cutting is a real addiction, and we should be happy that she’s here and trying.” JP smiled.
“Ditto man. We even got tattoos together.” Josh smiled. We all bared the inside of our arms where you could see the word ‘LOVE’ tattooed in blood red ink and made to look like an open wound that someone had cut.
“I was really depressed a few years back, and couldn’t figure out why I felt so unloved. I grabbed a blade and carved the word love into my arm. When the guys found out they were pretty pissed. A few weeks later, they surprised me by taking me to a tattoo parlor and they tattooed my scar onto their arm. Once the skin was healed I had them tattoo over my scar.”
My boys kissed my cheek which made me smile.
We said goodbye to the interviewer and I sighed as I flopped onto the couch. “I feel so exposed!” I groaned into my hands.
“Haha, it’ll be alright,” JP smiled as he cracked open a beer.
All through the interview, I purposely made sure not to look in BVB’s direction. I finally glanced over and saw the sad looks on their faces.