I woke up the next morning and rolled out of bed. It took a minute to remember that I had been expelled from school. I went downstairs and ate waffles for breakfast; shitty, generic waffles. After I was done, I went upstairs to my room to start packing. For the day, I chose to wear black skinny jeans and a Marilyn Manson tank top. I packed all of my clothes (which aren’t really saying much. I only have like 20 shirts and 15 pairs of jeans.) I packed my two good pairs of converse and everything else I held near and dear to me. After I was finished packing, I began writing a note to my mother to explain my absence. Dear mother, I have set out in search of father. I will eventually return home, hopefully with him. Sincerely, Courtney. What I wanted to write was not what was on the paper. I wanted to tell her how much I hated her criticism and her constant nagging about me not having any friends. I’d like to say it didn’t bother me, but it did. It always ate away at me how I wasn’t the daughter she wanted. It only took me about an hour to pack and write the note, so I had the rest of my day to do whatever I wanted. I went into the basement and began to sing Saviour, one of the songs off of BVB’s new album. I couldn’t play guitar or drums or bass. I wasn’t really anything special; just a girl who was part of the Black Veil Brides Army; just another outcast with nowhere to go and no one to wish me well. I sobbed and then remembered what Andy said. When he got pissed, he’d just write songs. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and began writing lyrics. They weren’t anything even close to Andy’s, but they were my thoughts and anger and sadness put into music. I began to sing it. I sang the whole entire song before I noticed the figure standing in the corner. “That was amazing. Did you write that?” he asked. “Andy? When did you get here?” I asked. “I’ve been here since you started singing Saviour. What song were you just singing?” he asked. “Oh I just wrote it I don’t really have a title for it yet,” I said, kind of embarrassed. He took the paper from my hand and read over it. We both began to sing it. Our voices harmonized in a way that made me think I was listening to an album. We sang until I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Oh shit, my mother was home. She walked down the stairs and when she got to the base, she stopped and stared us. “So this is your friend Andy?” she asked with a tone of disbelief. “Yeah, what about it?” I asked. “Nothing. I just didn’t realize you both liked to sing even though you’re both horrible,” she said. As Andy was about to say something, I spoke up. “Shut up! How would you know? All you ever do is smoke and drink! You probably don’t even know what music is! I’m sick and tired of you always criticizing me! You have no right to tell me who I am! Andy is an amazing singer and you’re just jealous because I actually have a friend!” I grabbed Andy’s wrist and stormed passed my dumbfounded mother. I ran upstairs to my room and grabbed my small suitcase. “Is there anywhere I can crash before we leave?” I asked. He nodded and took my hand he led me out of my house and down the street. At the end of my street sat a tour bus with all the band members painted on it. “I came to tell you we’re leaving earlier than expected. Instead of three, the decided to leave at seven tonight,” he said smiling at me. We got on the tour bus and he led me to my room. I set my suitcase on the bed and couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t a huge room but it was enough. There were five other beds, but only one was in my room. Just then, I heard a door open. “Andy? Is that you?” the voice asked. I knew that voice. That was Ashley Purdy, the bands bass player. “Yeah. Hey I have someone I want you to meet. Hey Courtney, come on out here,” he said. I walked out of my room and saw Ashley’s mouth drop. “It’s nice to meet you, Ashley. I’m a HUGE fan,” I said as I held out my hand for him to shake. He ignored it and gave me a hug like we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. I hugged back, a confused expression on my face. “You’re family now; families don’t do handshakes,” he said with a smile. Out of that same room came Jinxx (one of the guitar players and backup vocals) and out of another came Jake Pitts (the lead guitarist) and C.C. (Christian Coma who plays drums). They all gave me hugs and welcomed me into their family. I felt like crying, but I didn’t. I finally felt like I belonged, like I was home. “I wonder what you’d look like with a Black Veil Brides makeover….” Jinxx wondered aloud. “I’ll be right back,” I said. I went into my room and shut the door. Then I got to work. I put on a black tube top that just covered my boobs and exposed the tattoos I had been secretly getting for years now. I had a Black Veil Brides logo tattoo, a bloody rose, an anarchy symbol, and a lot of other small ones just to fill in space. I got out my black and red petticoat from Hot Topic and put it on over my black skinny jeans. I teased my longer than shoulder-length hair out as far as it would go and put a headband around my forehead. Then I got to work on my war paint. I did the best I could and then walked out into the main part of the tour bus. One by one their mouths dropped. First it was Ashley, then Jake, then Jinxx, then C.C., and last but not least, Andy. “How do I look?” I asked. “Like one of us,” Andy said while smiling that perfect smile. I sat down with the rest of them and we talked for a while about nothing substantial. After a while, C.C. spoke up. “We better get to sleep. We gotta be lively and energetic for the concert. Don’t wanna disappoint our fans,” And then he leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Although, I think Andy might have already done that. The girls won’t like how close you are to Andy. Just be careful,” he said. I walked into my room and Andy followed. “I get to share a room with you since I’ve known you longest,” he said. I did notice that my bed was big enough for two, but I didn’t think anything of it when I first got here. I crawled into one side and Andy crawled into the other. The bed was big enough that we didn’t touch, but I still felt the heat radiating off of him. With a smile on my face, I fell into a wonderful sleep.