CHAPTER 1 (I Am Bulletproof)
Arsenal POV
Ugh how the fuck do I keep forgetting how toasty LA gets in the summer? The Gold Coast wasn’t this bad back in Australia when I went there for Soundwave! I thought as I walked down various streets in the mid-afternoon LA heat.

Then again, I was wearing black clothes but that’s what I wear nearly everywhere I go – literally.

Must be the fact that I frequently go on holidays to the Gold Coast in Australia and my body doesn’t have much time to adjust to the climates and all that travel related stuff seeing at the seasons are opposites there and here...

Anyway I was listening to ‘I Am Bulletproof’ by Black Veil Brides who was one of my fave bands, in a three way tie with Mötley Crüe & Metallica, Blood On The Dance Floor not far behind.

Yes, I like 80’s music a LOT – it’s better than the uh ‘audio files’ that most people around my age & younger listen to these days, well it is in my opinion and I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks and I sure as hell don’t give a fuck if you don’t like the stuff that I do.

Today I had been hanging out at the mall for something to do, plus I had to get new drumsticks, picks and guitar strings for my bass & electric guitars & drum kit that I like to play whenever I can, besides I was running low on picks & the other stuff I needed.

I was wearing black skinny jeans, black thigh-high boots, a BVB tee, various bandanas tied around the belt loops of my pants, a studded belt on my hips along with my fave leather gloves that I absolutely ADORE, my choker that was also studded and a rhinestone star necklace.

I also had my hair styled like Nikki Sixx’s (Mötley Crüe’s bassist, now Sixx: AM as well if you didn’t know). My makeup was dark & glittery on my eyes and blood red lipstick. I also had warpaint smeared on me too, but not a lot like CC, more like what Ashley does.

Anyway I had been walking down the street, singing along to I Am Bulletproof when I heard shouting ahead of me. I looked up to see a pair of people fighting about something, looks like a couple with a one-way ticket in a V8 supercar straight to splitsville.

From what I could see the guy (who looked VERY familiar) was angry at the girl for something. She was protesting madly but the guy wasn’t having any of it, storming off angrily after flipping her off and the girl stomped back inside.

He shoved past some other guys standing nearby with surprised yet angry expressions on their faces, then they started walking in the direction the pissed dude went, but a bit calmer than him.

Shrugging I unplugged my earphones and put them along with my iPhone into my shoulder bag that I take EVERYWHERE after texting my housemate Deltora to feed my kitten as I was gonna be out for a while.

Then I kept walking down the street, following the guys I saw a little while ago, seeing as I was heading that direction anyway.

I wonder what had that guy so pissed off... I thought, then as I went further down the street I heard his mates (I go to Australia a lot so I pick up on some things they say, then again I was raised there too) shouting at him to calm down and wait up. He turns around and yells at them to shut up.

When he turned, I saw his face and recognition hit me. It was Christian Coma of Black Veil Brides! So that meant he was being chased by Andy Biersack, Ashley Purdy, Jake Pitts and Jinxx! Ok calm down Arsenal, calm the fuck down. Your idols are right in front of you, don’t freak out! I thought to myself as I recognized the five men in front of me.

Then CC lost the plot again after one of the guys said something; I wasn’t able to discern what they were saying – they were a bit too far away from me to be able tell what they’re saying, I could only hear them talking.

I think it was Ashley from what I could hear from where I was standing – most likely something about picking up chicks now that he was single, what with Ashley’s man-whore reputation even though he’s a nice guy (I had hung out with him a fair few times, we only don't see each other much because we both have crazy schedules).

I was still walking though they had slowed up a fair bit. CC stormed off again, this time going across the road. A few meters behind the rest of BVB, I halted suddenly and I paled & gasped.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jinxx turn towards me and ask if I was ok or something like that, but I was lost in the memory of the last time something like this happened, but it wasn’t CC who was in danger.

The last time this happened was when Ashley was involved in an accident; I had shoved him out of immediate danger and took the hit that nearly got him. He got out with minor injuries except for a broken wrist. I however scored broken ribs, broken leg and whatever else the Doctor diagnosed me with.

Then I heard screeching behind me to see a car speeding out of control, and CC was in the car’s path. “Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!” I yelled not caring at that moment if Andy, Ashley, Jake & Jinxx heard me (I think they did, I saw their heads swivel toward me as I ran though I don’t think Jinxx looked away from earlier), tossing my bag near them.

I sprinted towards CC and yanked him out of the way, again taking the hit shouting “NO!” as I shoved him towards his band mates, being hit by the car in the process. I screamed (kind of like when I do Screamo) and flew through the air and landed heavily as I heard that moronic driver race off. I groaned and coughed, breathing heavily and painfully.

“Ow...” I groaned, throwing up blood and having trouble breathing. The last thing I saw and heard before I blacked out was BVB running towards me to see if I was ok, I also heard one of them call an ambulance, then shouting my name as if he knew me. Another one of them gripped my hand and told me to stay awake; I was too sore and tired to focus on what was around me. I murmured “CC...” then passed out, still holding the hand of one of them.

CC POV
This morning me and the guys had gotten back from a tour we just finished and I decided to go to the mall for a bit and visit my girlfriend Lauren since she wasn’t able to come on tour with us.

The guys tagged along seeing as they didn’t have anything else to do so we drove to the mall for a bite to eat, and we grabbed a few things while we were there. I got some new drumsticks; Jake, Jinxx and Ashley got strings and picks, Andy just looked around at everything in the store. Then we got a few things each from Hot Topic.

Ash stared at girls as we walked around (not surprising), mostly at a girl that had black hair with blue & chrome streaks, styled like Nikki Sixx’s.

She wore a BVB tee, black skinnies, a few bandanas, leather gloves, a studded belt, a studded choker, a rhinestone star necklace, a bit of warpaint from what I could see and these thigh high leather boots, SEXY! Too bad we didn’t see what she looked like, though she had a LOT of tattoos. My fave was the trident in the clam with the wave going around it on her upper right arm; it looked awesome and was incredibly detailed.

Then we drove to Lauren’s house. I was excited to see my girl again though I had an uneasy feeling in my gut. I told the guys this but they brushed it off as me eating too much, too fast. I flipped them off, I always ate a lot but never really got gut aches afterward unless I wasn’t feeling well or a random case of food poisoning.

Anyway we got to Lauren's house and there was another car in her driveway which was unusual. Me and Jinxx glanced at each other, and then I went inside, only to see that Lauren, MY GIRLFRIEND, was busy fucking another guy AND playing tonsil hockey with him! “WHAT THE FUCKING HELL LAUREN?!” I yelled, getting their attention as Andy, Ashley, Jake and Jinxx sprinted inside. “C-CC it’s not what it-” “DON’T GIVE ME THAT BULLSHIT, YOU’RE FUCKING ANOTHER GUY WHILE YOU’RE DATING ME! WHAT ELSE WOULD IT FUCKING BE?!” “But baby-”

“Don’t. How long has this been going on?” I asked, barely holding my anger in. Lauren stayed silent and looked away. “HOW LONG?!” I roared, punching a wall, leaving a hole. Lauren mumbled something that I didn’t hear. “What?” I spat. “Since you left for tour” she repeated, this time louder so we could all hear her.

My fists clenched as I took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. Then I broke down and fell to my knees, in between sobs I managed to choke out “Why?” Lauren just looked away guiltily. I glanced briefly at the guys to see Ashley & Jinxx fuming silently, Andy & Jake gave me sympathetic looks before glaring at Lauren and the guy on the couch.

I just stood up, sniffled and wiped away the tears that leaked from my eyes, glared at Lauren, turned around and walked out of the house, and away from her. I heard Andy, Ashley, Jake and Jinxx follow me out the door. “I’m really sorry baby, please forgive me?” I heard Lauren ask quietly from behind us.

I turned around and crossed my arms and glared at her. “Why should I?” I spat angrily, kicking my feet at the ground, sending dirt everywhere. “Because I love you!” she begged, tears streaming down her face.

“Not good enough. WE’RE DONE LAUREN! I LOVED YOU BUT I CAN’T ANYMORE IF THIS IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN I’M ON TOUR! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! I DON’T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU ANYMORE! WE ARE OVER!” I yelled, cutting off her protests.

Then I flipped her off and walked off angrily as she went back inside, slamming the door behind her hard enough to rattle the windows. I heard the guys running behind me, calling out for me to wait up and calm down. Right now I wasn’t thinking clearly and so I turned to them and yelled at them.

“JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I screamed as I saw a girl in near distance, she looked pretty familiar (and hot) but that didn’t matter to me right now so I just kept walking, the guys closer than they were a little while ago.

“Hey dude, that means we can go pick up chicks” said Ashley, ever the perverted dick that I’m friends with. Normally I would have laughed and agreed, but not today. “SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP PURDY! I’M NOT IN THE FUCKING MOOD FOR ANYTHING RIGHT NOW EXCEPT A GODDAMN DRINK” I snarled angrily.

Ashley paled and flinched, I didn’t usually have outbursts like this so I didn’t blame him for reacting like that. Then I turned and started walking across the road, not noticing or caring that a car was speeding around the corner, heading straight for me.

I heard someone shout “Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!” then the next thing I knew I was being shoved towards my friends by this girl shouting “NO!” at the same time. I tripped and fell back, landing awkwardly, breaking my wrist as the girl screamed as she got hit by the car that nearly nailed me.

I sat there in shock and horror as she flew through the air, landing heavily nearby, the moronic driver speeding off. I heard a nasty cracking noise as she landed, sounds like she broke a few bones, yikes poor thing. She coughed and groaned, her breathing was labored too as I saw her cough up blood and mutter “Ow...”

My band mates came over as Ashley frantically dialed for an ambulance as Jinxx went to her and held her hand, telling her to stay awake. Andy and Jake helped me up as we heard her say “CC” before blacking out. “CC! CC! CC!” Andy yelled, trying to get my attention as I was breathing shakily.

Jake slapped me, snapping me out of the little trance I’d slipped into. “Huh what?” I said as I came to my senses, my expression still one of shock & horror as I stared at the girl who saved me.

“Mate are you ok?” asked Jake staring at me. “Yeah yeah I’m fine, my wrist hurts like hell though, fuck” I replied, looking at him and Andy. Then we made our way to Jinxx & the girl as Ashley said the ambulance was on their way. “Oh my god, Arsenal! Jinxx what happened to her?!” cried Ashley as he took a good look at her, he seemed to recognize her from somewhere, probably someone he had a one night stand with, maybe he tattooed her, who knows...

“She got hit by that moron that drove off when she shoved CC out of the way. When CC ran onto the road she said and I quote ‘oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’ then she threw her bag next to us then yanked CC out of the way and that car sent her flying and she landed heavily here, though when CC started running over the road she had a horrified expression as though she’d seen this happen before” said Jinxx, a very worried expression on his face.

“She said CC just before passing out too” Andy said. “Wonder what that was about?” “Dunno, but I heard some nasty cracking noises when she landed, I think she’s done her ribs, her breathing was all dodgy and she threw up blood too” I said, shaking at the memory.

“I'm curious as to what she meant by ‘Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’ when she ran over here after leaving her bag next to us. God I hope she’s ok” said Ashley as the ambulance turned up at last.

They hurried over, bringing one of those bed things on wheels along with their huge kits. “What happened here?” asked one of the paramedics, pulling on gloves and examining the girl, giving her a shot of something, maybe morphine or something like that. “She got hit by a car saving our friend here who also broke his wrist” said Jinxx, indicating to me, I held my wrist up which was hurting more and more by the minute.

“We think she might have broken her ribs, CC said he heard some nasty cracks when she landed heavily and he said she coughed up blood before blacking out” The paramedic nodded before telling her partner to let UCLA know to be ready and waiting for them.

“From what you’ve told me her ribs are definitely broken and there’s a possibility of internal bleeding so she needs to get to a hospital immediately and you need to get your wrist looked at ASAP” the paramedic said as she and her partner put the girl onto the bed thing and loaded her into the ambulance and they drove to the nearest hospital.

We scrambled to our feet and hurried back to Andy’s car that we had come over in, Jinxx picking up the girl’s bag as he went then we drove to the hospital, hoping that the girl, whatever her name was would be ok.

“Hey guys, is it just me or did she look familiar to any of you?” said Jake as he looked out the window. We all thought about that for a moment, then Jinxx spoke up “Yeah she did actually, I think she might have been involved in Ashley’s accident a few years back, cos you know how she said ‘Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’ before running over to CC?”

“Oh yeah she did too. Wait, do you think she was the one that shoved me out of the way? I think I might have given her a tattoo at one point, I’ve seen her at the tattoo place I work at occasionally, that trident & wave tattoo on her arm looked very familiar, so did the one on her side” said Ashley as realisation dawned on his face.

“I think so; why else would she say that? She obviously knew who we are too, cos she said our names and all” said Jake. “And she had a BVB shirt on and a BVB bag as well as some of our warpaint” I added.

“Mate, she had like 5 bandanas total, on her pants. I think they were Poison, Skid Row, Metallica and Guns N Roses or something along those lines” “At least she has good taste in music” “And clothes too” said Ashley with his usual perverted grin.

Andy groaned, “Really Ash, really? She could be dying and what she’s wearing is what you think about? Blooooody heeell, why am I not surprised” Jake, Jinxx & I snickered; Ashley just poked his tongue out at Andy.

“What? She did look hot in her ripped tee, skinny jeans, leather boots, studded stuff & gloves, you can't deny that!” I had to admit, Ashley had a point. Shaking my head I said “True enough, don’t forget the tattoos as well. My guess is she has tattoo sleeves and various others, she had glove things on that looked like leather” “Oh yeah, that explains why her arms were colourful” said Jinxx. Jake, Ashley and I face palmed simultaneously and Andy shook his head in amusement as we pulled up to the hospital.

FINALLY! I thought as my wrist was hurting more and more which was reallllly getting on my nerves, I had been mentally and quietly cursing the whole way to the hospital. A nurse took me to another room and a Doctor came in to examine my wrist which hurt like a motherfucker.

The Doctor x-rayed it and told me it was broken – no shit Sherlock, why else would it be motherfucking caning right now?! The Doctor laughed and I realised I had said that out loud.

“I said that out loud didn’t I....” “You sure did CC. Yes I know who you are and I am a fan of BVB” he said, answering my unspoken question. Then he gave me a shot of something and the pain FINALLY started backing off. “Sweet baby Jesus that feels better” I sighed in relief as he put on the cast.

“You’re gonna have to keep this on for a fair bit, so I don’t think you’ll be doing much drum practise for at least a fortnight, maybe 3 weeks” said the Doctor, I pouted childishly (What can I say? I’m an overgrown kid). “You mind if I ask how you broke your wrist?” the Doctor asked as he filled out the necessary paperwork.

“Well this morning me and the guys had gotten back from the tour we were just on. We’d hung out at the mall for a bit then went to my now ex-girlfriend’s house. Anyway I broke it off with her, I was pissed, clearly not thinking and I started going across the road. I didn’t notice an idiot driver was coming around the corner heading directly towards me” I began to explain while the doctor kept filling out a bunch of paperwork. “Go on,” he gestured for me to keep talking.

“Then I hear this girl yell ‘Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’ then she ran over to me, shoved me out of the way and then got hit by the car. She screamed as she was flung into the air then she landed heavily near me. I heard a few nasty cracking noises as she landed so I guessed her ribs broke. She coughed up blood and her breathing was laboured too” “Yikes, coughing up blood is never really a good thing”

“Then my band mates came over, Ashley dialled for an ambulance, Andy and Jake came to check on me and Jinxx went to her. He held her hand and told her to stay awake; she mumbled my name then passed out. Then the ambo’s turned up and took her here and me and my friends followed and we brought the bag she had with her too” I explained, examining the cast.

The image of her battered body on the road in front of me was swimming in the front of my mind; it seriously scared the shit out of me, nearly getting hit & possibly killed. “Ah yes she was brought in shortly before you arrived and went straight into emergency surgery. Do you know who she is?”

“No but we think she was involved with Ashley’s accident from what she said before running to me, Ashley seemed to recognise her from somewhere” “OK we’ll need to search her bag for some form of identification”

“Ok, Jinxx has her bag and thanks for help with my wrist doc” I said, holding up my wrist. “No problem, that’s a waterproof cast as well just so you know. I hope I don’t freak out too much at the rest of BVB” said, mumbling the second sentence. I smiled and shook my head, our fans are awesome.

We walked out to the waiting room and my friends immediately swarmed me. “Calm down guys, just a broken wrist and I gotta keep this on for a while, so very limited drum practise. Doc here needs to see her bag for some ID as well” I explained, Jinxx handed the girl’s bag to the Doctor who opened it and found the girls wallet which had her ID card in it.

He took one look and murmured, “Darn it, here we go again” I guessed he knew who she was. He put her things back in her bag and handed it back to us and said we could see her when she’s settled into a room. “Wait doc, what’s her name?” “Arsenal Neytiri Jaxx” he replied before walking off.

“I wonder what that was about” said Jake, sitting back down. “Arsenal... neat name” I said, sitting down with her bag, seeing Ashley was deep in thought about something while looking at something on his phone. “Funny last name, I wonder if it’s her actual name?” said Andy returning from a vending machine after getting a drink for all of us. Jinxx thought for a moment and grabbed her wallet again and plucking out her ID card.

“He’s not joking, it’s on her ID card and all, completely legal and everything” he said, showing us. ARSENAL NEYTIRI JAXX the name section read. I looked over at the photo and saw she had jet black hair, with chrome and blue here and there. Her warm eyes were chocolate brown and her skin was a nice tanned colour, she was gorgeous as hell, with the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen.

I passed the card around and when it got to Andy he said “Hey Ash, come here a sec” Ashley looked up from his phone and moved over to were Andy was sitting, putting it in his pocket. “What is it Andy?” he asked, curiosity in his tone.

Andy showed him the card and said “Does she look familiar to you? To me she sort of looks like a more female version of you but with neon blue and chrome in her hair” my head shot up at this, so did Jinxx & Jake’s. “What?” said Ashley, taking the card and looking at it.

Notes

chapter 1's up, let me know what you think!! BTW this is my first story on here

*revised 29-03-15*