The Metalheads

"Kat. Kat, Kat, wake up darling, its just me," I heard Andy's deep and sad voice calling my name. I forced my eyes open and my head throbbed as I tried to regain consciousness.

"Ugh, ouch." I rubbed the throbbing spot on my forehead, and felt a little dried blood between my fingers. I couldn't remember anything from a few hours before, except that I had been hit in the head.

"Are you okay darling?" He seemed really concerned about me, which made me happy.

"Yeah, its just that my head is killing me." He said nothing as he reached down and rubbed the dark purple bruise on my forehead that was about the size of an orange.

"Oh...there's also a cut right...there," he put his finger right on the small gash in between my eyes, and I winced in pain.

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to hurt you. Its a pretty bad cut." I felt a small drop of water roll down my nose. Andy was wiping off the blood with a rag and I smiled.

"Thanks for helping me Andy." He just smiled and stroked my cheek with his fingers. I quickly glanced over at my alarm clock.

"7:30? Shit, we have to go!" I ran to my closet, tossing off my pajamas along the way, and I slipped on a KISS t-shirt, my favorite pair of black skinny jeans, and laced up my combat boots as fast as I could.

"C'mon, were gonna be late!" Grabbing my leather jacket and my backpack on the way out, I dragged Andy by his arm down the stairs and out the door. I stopped to adjust myself, then we continued to dart down the street to our bus stop.

"What's the rush?" asked a voice behind me. I turned to see my best friend Ashley Purdy. He had helped me through everything I had been through the past few months, and we had grown super close since then.

"Oh, hey Ash." I stopped to let him catch up with us, and I dropped Andy's arm.

"Who's this?" Ashley asked as he pointed to Andy.

"He's my new neighbor. He moved in yesterday." Ashley seemed amused. As we walked, Ashley asked me to explain how I got the bruise on my forehead. In the midst of our conversation, the bus pulled up next to us. The 3 of us filed onto the bus and took seats next to each other.

Andy was being strangely quiet. I watched his icy blue eyes wander around the inside ofthe bus, scanning each of the passengers. Was he ok? Did he think that Ashley was my boyfriend or something? After a few minutes, he finally spoke.

"Kat, can I ask you something?" I turned to face him.

"Yeah. Whatsup?"

He hesitated. I knew this question was important.

"How...exactly did you get out of that prison camp?"

His words rushed through my ears like poison. Every muscle in my body tensed. I could feel the tears threatening to spill from my eyes. Ashley knew how I got when people asked about Sarah or the prison camp. He put his arm around my shoulder immediately.

"I don't really know. All I know is that I just kept running, and the rest of the prisoners were behind me. Except for Sarah." He looked at me with a shocked expression. Before Andy could get out his next question, the floodgates opened, and the tears flowed down my face like a waterfall. Fortunately, there was no makeup for me to ruin.

"Oh, Kat I'm so sorry. I didnt mean to upset you." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug as I continued to cry.

"Its ok, its not your fault. I just need to get over it already." Ashley knew me better than that. He knew that if I was mad enough that I could do some serious damage. The more I thought about it, the more anger filled my mind. I think Ashley could see it, because he instantly put his hands on my shoulders.

"Kat, it's okay. Don't think about it. Don't get mad. Its gonna be ok." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Andy looked kind of scared as he watched me breathe.

"Whats wrong with her?" He asked nervously.

"She just gets really mad when she thinks about it too much. She tries to hurt anything she can get her hands on, sometimes without even knowing. About a month ago she jammed her fist into the wall so hard it almost broke her entire hand."

Andy's eyes widened. I opened my eyes and stared into Ashley's. He calmly stared back, and pushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The bus grumbled to a stop in front of our school and everyone piled out.

"C'mon, let's go." Ashley led us towards our first class. We had only walked a few steps when the jock of the school, Brody, stopped us in our tracks.

Brody was a normal person, like the people on the other side. He just went here as punishment for skipping too much. That didn't stop him from keeping up his reputation as a bully.

"Oh look, it's the emo girl who escaped from prison camp. How was it in there sweetie? I hope you enjoyed it," he said, laughing.

Before I could even raise my fist to punch him, he pushed me down to the ground with one of his big beefy football player arms. Andy reached down to help me up. Ashley couldn't tolerate it anymore. He stepped in front of me and started to yell.

"Don't do that to her! You're just jealous because she can actually fight her way out of a situation without preying on someone else." Brody just laughed and stepped closer to us.

"Move it Ashley the Girl. I've got things to do." With one push to the side, Ashley's skinny body slammed into the lockers next to us. He let out a groan as Andy did his best to pull him up. Brody inched closer and closer to me. I managed to trip over something while walking backwards, which didn't help me at all.

"Don't touch me," I warned him. He ignored my warning and picked me up by my arm.

"You don't tell me what to do." Despite my squirming and kicking, he punched me right in the nose and let my limp body fall to the ground. Pain rushed through my face and my vision went blurry. How was no one seeing this happen? How was no one hearing the screaming and pounding of the fight that we were in? Maybe everyone else was as scared of Brody as I was. To my surprise, Andy jumped into action, pouncing on Brody and pinning him to the ground.

"Do not touch her ever again! Get away from her! Go away!" I had never seen him so angry before. As my vision returned to normal Ashley scrambled over to help me up. A small pool of blood had formed at my feet. Ashley took a small cloth out of his backpack and handed it to me. I pushedit against my nose to stop the bleeding.

"Thanks," I whispered.

"Great," I thought. "Something else I have to deal with today. A bloody nose."

As Brody stalked off, Ashley stood up and yelled at him.

"That's right, you better leave. Fucktard," and I couldn't help but laugh. That was one of his favorite words to say.

Andy crouched down next to me and rubbed my shoulder.

"Are you ok?" I stood up and brushed him off.

"Yeah I'm fine. Maybe now I can go to class without crying or getting punched in the face." We made it through the rest of the day unbothered. I showed Andy around as much as I could, and introduced him to lots of people.

Every once in a while, I saw Brody standing off to the side, watching us. I knew what he was doing. He was planning his next move, waiting on the perfect moment to strike again.

Notes

Here's a long chapter for you guys. I hope you like it. As always, thank you so much for reading and don't forget to check out my co-author @Andy'sPanda38 and her stories.
♥♥~Madisonrobo