Dess felt like her stomach was going to explode as she sat there, her hands underneath her butt as she stared straight ahead. She had shown up early to their photo shoot and she had been asked to sit in the lobby until the other girls showed and of course knowing Ella that could be an hour from now. Dess had slept poorly the night before, even though she had been exhausted, still she couldn’t sleep. She yawned widely, her eyes watering as Dess looked down at her phone and smiled at the selfie that Andy had sent her along with a text. Before opening it, Dess looked up as the large glass doors squeaked open and she saw that Sammi had showed up and was getting checked in. Silently Dess looked down, a smile creeping onto her face.


Andy: I know you’re really nervous but I know you’ll be great and remember that no matter what I love you…more than I can ever scream : )


Dess just smiled as she shook her head and placed her phone back into her bag. Sammi looked just as tired as Dess felt, her usual happy eyes sheathed in large sunglasses and Dess noticed that Sammi held a very large cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. The two girls smiled at one another as Sammi sat down and began filling things out and Dess sighed loudly. She really hoped that they wouldn’t have to wait too long, especially since Dess was shooting last and so the hard part for her was the interview process.

Silently she tried to go over everything she and Andy had talked about-things that they wanted known and things that they wanted kept private. With her eyes closed, Dess heard another squeak from the doors in front of them and she smiled brightly as Ella, also clad in large sunglasses and looking tired, walked in and sauntered up towards the desk.


“Thank God…I thought we would have to wait here forever for her to show up…” Sammi grunted, moving her glasses down her nose as she looked to Dess, who could only laugh and nod her head.

“Morning ladies…” Ella said quietly as she took a seat on Dess’ left and began to fill out her paperwork.

“We were just saying how we were surprised you were able to get here so early El.” Sammi smirked over at Dess, who was still choosing to remain silent. It was clear to Dess that Sammi and Ella had some sort of love hate relationship going on and Dess was not about to get in on any of that.

“Odessa?” A woman was standing in the doorway of one of the other doors that had been closed and as Dess looked up she felt her stomach lurch.


Dess stood, looking down at Sammi nervously and she was met with a small reassuring smile. The woman who stood before her seemed nice, her suit was obviously high priced and Dess felt slightly more at ease as she was led down a long hall, past magazine covers that had been framed and she tried to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. This was all part of her interview, which the other two girls had already done since they were conveniently in the area. Finally the woman stopped at a closed door, she knocked twice and both of them were met moments later by a bubbly girl in a pair of jeans and a Sleeping With Sirens shirt.


“You must be Dess! I’m Lauren!”The small brunette reached out and wrapped her arms around Dess as she led her into a brightly lit dressing room where two other people were standing.

“Uh-hi.” Dess stood there, waving slightly to the two other people in the room as Lauren continued to lead her around until Dess was sitting in a low backed chair similar to one she would sit in at her hair stylist.

“Dess-this is Marco who will be doing your hairstyles and this is Linz, who is awesome with makeup. They’ll take good care of you while we get this interview done.” Lauren seemed so at ease as she took a seat from across Dess on a small stool and held a pad of paper in her hands. Dess could see that Lauren had also set a small recorder on the coffee table in front of her and suddenly Dess felt her palms getting sweaty.

“Nervous?” Linz asked as she spun Dess around to face the mirror and the tall pink haired girl began to run her fingers across Dess’ face.

“…alittle bit.” Liar! Dess knew she was blushing then and Linz only giggled as she began to open up jars and pallets and set them on the counter.

“Lets get started shall we? How did you and Andy meet?” Lauren fired off the first question and since Dess couldn’t spin around to face her, she caught Lauren’s eye in the mirror as she thought about her answer.

“We met in the summer of 2011 at my Warped Tour date in Northern Virginia. I had taken my little sister, Moira, there for the first time since our mother wouldn’t let her go alone. I-I got kind of lost in the crowd and used the nearest pole to pull myself out and we kind of ran into one another…” Dess smiled softly as she remembered that day and how funny the entire encounter seemed to her now.

“But you didn’t know who he was at the time?” Lauren asked and Dess smirked as she remembered everything from that day. Marco was at the back of her head, fluffing her hair as Linz looked down at a set list to see which look she needed to do first.

“No-it was really funny because he kind of kept me out of the loop. I was curious about the band and so I waited around after the Used played and watched them. He came out on stage and I literally thought my heart was going to stop beating as he dedicated their first song to me and that was that.” Dess smiled as Lauren giggled from beside her.

“You didn’t start dating right away though correct?” Lauren asked and Dess winced as Marco pulled back some of her hair and began to tease it roughly. Linz had begun placing large amounts of white foundation on her face and Dess knew she would have to get a chisel to remove it all later.

“No. I didn’t want to start something with someone I had just met. We spent a few days together-as friends and then the entire time while he was on tour we talked pretty much every day. We were best friends before we started dating…although he wanted more quicker than I did.” She laughed and stared at herself in the mirror and Dess’ eyes fell on a small picture of Andy, circa Set the World On Fire and she realized that Linz was applying her makeup in the same fashion.

“You kept him waiting-I like that. So tell me about your life together…what do you guys do for fun?” Lauren watched as Dess thought for a moment.

“We mostly just lay around the house and watch movies. We’re both huge movie buffs although we just bought a house so we’ve been pretty occupied with getting everything set with that before they tour in January.” Dess watched as her hair grew taller and taller and the area around her eyes grew darker and darker.

“Yeah, out in Virginia right? So what attracted you to Andy? Those eyes of his are mighty gorgeous.” Lauren giggled and Dess laughed right along with her. What had attracted her to him in the first place?

“Yeah, my old childhood home actually. Um, I really loved hearing him speak, he’s so insightful and sarcastic-I have a really dry wit and sometimes people don’t respond well to it, but Andy always seemed to get where I was coming from.” Dess held her mouth open as Linz came at her with the reddest lipstick possible and Lauren waited a moment before asking her next question.

“So you tour with the guys-how is that? Will you always tour with them or is this just until you and Andy get comfortable enough to be apart from one another?” Dess tried to move her head to look at Lauren, but Marco tugged her hair the opposite way, making her eyes sting and Dess glared up at him.

“It’s a lot of fun and actually my plan the entire time was to always be able to tour with them. I became a mobile artist where I work so that I could be there. I don’t know if I’ll ever not tour with them-it’s too much fun to miss out on…” Dess never realized that maybe to some people her always being on tour with Andy may seem like she was insecure about her relationship.

“Work. Right, lets talk about that. What is it that you do exactly?” Lauren asked, her fingers flying across her paper as Dess inhaled and tried to think of what she wanted to say.

“I work for DC Comics and I am responsible for writing, sketching and finalizing three Batman Serial comics. I also did sketch board work for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. I’m also really proud to announce that I will be starting my own line of art inspired t-shirts and stickers which Black Veil Brides have so generously offered to sell at their merch table during their upcoming tour.”Dess smiled as she looked in the mirror and her mouth fell open. She looked like Andy-identical to the way he looked on the cover of Set The World On Fire, except her eyes were a moss green instead of light blue and her blonde hair still shone brightly under the lights.

“We are actually going to take you to set-you three are going to shoot for the cover first to get that out of the way and then we’ll come back here to finish things up while the other two shoot. Here’s your first outfit…” Lauren had moved to a rack in the corner and removed what looked to be a t-shirt and a white pair of socks and handed them over to Dess.


Dess was left alone in the room to change and as she looked at herself in the mirror again she shivered-she looked spookily like Andy and it was almost off putting. Holding out the clothes in front of her, Dess raised an eyebrow as she noticed that there were no pants to this outfit, only a pair of black boy shorts with white piping around the waistband. Shrugging she began to change and after looking around for shoes, Dess only shrugged as she walked up to the full length mirror and took herself in.

She didn’t look half bad standing there in an older Black Veil Brides shirt, Andy’s face glaring at her and Dess actually liked the tub socks that was part of this whole thing. She reached to open the door, looking left and then right to see which way she was supposed to go and suddenly loud laughing could be heard from her left and so Dess figured that that was where she should head.

Dess came upon a sight that could only make her giggle-both Sammi and Ella were standing there, dressed identically to Dess, their makeup slightly different and as she got closer Dess felt her smile grow wider. Sammi had black diamonds framing her eyes, her lips were also a dark black and her hair was now black and sticking up in the back and on the sides-she could have passed for Jinxx’s twin. Ella was smiling as Dess approached, her own dark hair teased high and her eyes were framed in heavy black makeup that ended half way down her cheeks in jagged spikes-Jake. Both girls were standing in the center of a white painted room and as Dess finally stood in front of them she looked down, her eyes growing wide. The entire middle of the floor was covered in records-Black Veil Brides records and Sammi and Ella were both standing right on top of them.


“Don’t worry-they’re fake. You look fucking hot Dessa…” Ella smiled over at her and Dess could only smirk in return as she was still getting used to all of their new appearances.

“We all ready girls?” A small woman with a very large camera smiled over at them as Dess turned to face her. The woman kind of looked like a bug with her big glasses and frizzy hair and Dess just moved silently around as two assistants came over and positioned the girls.

“Okay, so here’s what I want-Dess in the middle with Ella on the left and Sammi on the right. Dess will face the camera, while the other two girls will be with their backs to her sides but facing forward. Also, all three of you-I want you to tug those shirts down and look at me like I’m your lover. Okay?” Dess felt like her head was spinning but she did as she was told.


The girls were all moved into position with Dess in the front, facing the camera and Sammi was to her right with Ella on the left. All three of them tugged their shirts down, Dess bending slightly as she smirked into the camera. This wasn’t so bad and as they all laughed and giggled as they tried different faces and posses, Dess found that she was having more fun than she thought she would have.

It got really funny when the two assistants were back, this time each of them carrying a guitar a piece and one of them also had a mic stand in his hands. Ella took one guitar while Sammi took the other and Dess was given the mic stand as they all posed and then Ella got that mischievous look in her eyes. She held the guitar over her head, Sammi getting the idea and within seconds the two girls brought the guitars crashing down as Dess stood in the middle, a small smirk playing on her lips.


“I love it! Ella-babycakes you’re up first. You other two girls can head back to your dressing rooms…” The photographer dismissed them as Ella moved over to a small table in the corner and began to remove her clothes-in front of everyone. Dess and Sammi only laughed as they parted ways and soon Dess found herself back in her chair, Lauren sitting in front of her.

“Well that looked pretty awesome. Ready for more questions?” Lauren asked as Dess sat down, her chair was still facing towards the mirror and silently Linz began to remove all of her makeup and Marco was trying to gently get her hair to calm down.

“Su-sure…” Dess stuttered as her head was pulled back roughly by Marco, who only gave her a sympathetic look in the mirror.

“So what got you into Batman?”Lauren asked and Dess felt herself smile despite the throbbing pain in her skull from all of Marco’s poking and prodding.

“My dad was an avid Batman lover-he collected all of the comics and he used to let me stay up late to watch the old 60’s sitcom with him. I guess Batman just always makes me think of him and the times we used to share…” Dess sniffled softly as she thought about her father and everything that he was missing out on.

“Now you lost your dad at a pretty young age right? That must’ve been hard…” Lauren looked at Dess, her eyes sad and sympathetic.

“Yeah when I was eighteen he passed away from Cancer. I had to grow up a lot and I actually changed myself from the way I truly was because I was under the impression that no one would take me seriously if I had a face full of metal and bright pink hair…” Dess laughed as she glanced up and noticed that Marco had gotten her hair under control and was now rolling her bangs into curlers.

“That’s kind of sad. What made you decide to change back to your old ways?” Lauren asked as Dess smiled softly and glanced at the picture of Andy that was still hanging on the mirror.

“It’s going to sound so cliché, but Andy really had a lot to do with it. He’s always so comfortable being himself and seeing that he could be successful while still being true to how he is-well I just decided one day that I wanted the old me back.” Dess laughed as she looked in the mirror and noticed that Linz was coming at her with a huge powder puff that was covered in white powder.

“So how’s your sex life?” Lauren asked, an impish grin on her lips as Dess felt her eyes grow wide and she gulped loudly. This was one question that she and Andy had agreed on-their bedroom life was private and would remain that way.

“Everything in that department is fine, thank you for asking.” Her response was clipped and short and Dess could tell that Lauren was taken back by her answer.

“Okay. So what’s the most romantic thing he’s ever done for you?” Lauren switched gears, thankfully, but Dess really had to think about this one.

“I would say the first time he ever surprised me before we started dating was pretty romantic. I was out raking leaves, it was the day before Thanksgiving and I thought he was going to be in Ohio, but he actually flew to Virginia and spent the holiday with my family and I. He’s such a romantic person that it’s really hard to pick one thing though…” Dess smiled in the mirror as Linz began to apply more eye makeup, making Dess’ eyes looked winged on the ends as she gave her a massive cat-eye.

“That’s really sweet. Do you have a favorite Black Veil Brides song? This is the last question, so take your time.” Lauren said sweetly and Dess found that she really couldn’t choose. It was like asking someone to pick their favorite child.

“There is a song on their new album called Done For You…I can’t really explain it right now, but it’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever heard Andy sound and it always makes me melt…” She felt herself blush as Lauren smiled over at her and then moved to turn off her recorder.

“Well that’s the last of my questions. If you want to take a break and go catch the other girls as they shoot feel free…” Lauren stood and reached for Dess’ hand as the two women shook hands gently.


Dess looked at herself in the mirror as Marco and Linz backed away and she felt, for once, truly like a princess. Her hair was curled in two curls by her forehead, her eyes were heavily lined and cat shaped as her eyelashes, fake of course, almost reached the bottom of her eyebrows. Her lips were a cherry red and as Dess glanced at herself and then looked at her next outfit, she smiled. Maybe this photo shoot thing wasn’t so bad after all.

Notes

I, personally, love this chapter and the next one because I think a photo shoot like this would be so fun to not only do, but to look at the photos afterwards.

This story-sadly-isn't getting as much love as I hoped it would...so come on guys don't let me down with those reviews! The more you review-the more I update each week : )

Love you guys! <3

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