Paparino's Piccolo Gattino

During third period, everybody in Ash’s gym class were grouped up with their friends on the bleachers since they didn’t have to dress out because of it being the first day. He and CC were the only two in their little group since no one else wanted to be near them, fearing that they’d turn into homosexual freaks as well if they were within ten feet of them. That suited the two of them just fine because everybody else was either a jock, cheerleader, or some other form of prep, and they were the last social group on the face of the planet that either of them got along with.

Since no one had bothered them thus far, neither of them really worried about trouble starting, although they didn’t lower their guards completely. Jinxx had explained to him during second period that, while he was a bit hyper and crazy, CC was fiercely protective of his friends and those he loved. He’d gotten into many a fight with someone else, especially one of the preps, to protect both him and Jake in the past.

Although he still feared him a bit because of his dominant personality, Ash figured it might be a good thing to have a friend who was like that. If ever he needed someone to help him out of a tight spot, the crazy drummer would probably be the one he went to if he needed a punch thrown. He just wasn’t good at defending himself, as the various cuts, scrapes, and bruises that littered his body showed, if one could see them. He sighed as he thought about how he’d like to be able to fight back for once.

It was after the gym coaches came in to tell everybody to start packing up their things, that the dismissal bell would be ringing so they could head to fourth period soon, that trouble began to brew. CC had his chocolate-brown eyes locked on a group of jocks across the gym who appeared to be looking in their direction with evil smirks on their faces. Ash merely tried to ignore them, hoping that they’d just leave him alone and not beat him senseless on his first day in a new school. That hope was crushed, though, when one of them knocked him down the bleachers as the bell rang, his group of friends immediately pouncing. He screamed in terror and agony as they kicked his head and already-bruised ribs, soon feeling a crack in his chest.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” he faintly heard CC scream.

“Not a chance, fag boy,” the apparent leader of the group answered, laughing maniacally.

“That’s it, you bastard! You asked for it!” his new friend snapped.

Moments later, he heard a grunt and numerous cries of pain, as well as the sound of several bodies dropping to the floor. He was in too much pain to open his eyes and take in his surroundings, but he was pretty sure that CC’s protective nature had kicked in and he’d done something to stop their torment. He then felt his friend gently lift his head and place it on his lap, his fingers brushing his hair back out of his face.

“Ash! Can you hear me?” he asked, greatly concerned.

“Need…nurse,” Ash gasped, wincing as he wrapped his arm around his ribs.

“They broke one of your ribs, didn’t they?” CC asked, concern lacing his voice.

“I think…so,” he answered, barely nodding. “Hurts to…breathe.”

“I’m gonna have to pick you up and carry you to the office,” he told him. “I’m sorry if I hurt you worse, but you’re in no condition to walk.”

Nodding, he allowed him to slip his arms under him, yelping when he wrapped his arm around his side.

“I’m so sorry, Ash,” the drummer said, slowly rising to his feet. “I hate seeing others in pain, and I know I’m just making yours worse.”

“It’s…okay, CC,” he assured him. “I know…you’re not…trying to.”

With a nod of his own, his friend strode toward the doors leading from the gym to the hallway, having to turn around and open it with his back. They both heard a soft thud! and an “Oof!” as he accidentally hit someone with it, and CC immediately called out his apologies. Neither of them were expecting to see the man he’d accidentally hit with the door, but were glad that he came along when he did.

“What happened to him, CC?” Ash cracked his eyes open a bit to see Andy standing there.

“Jocks pushed him down the bleachers, then started kicking him,” the drummer answered. “I think they broke one of his ribs because he says it hurts to breathe.”

“Give him to me and I’ll take him to the office while you get your things,” Andy said, a bit of a dominant tone to his voice.

“Are you sure, Mr. Biersack?” his friend asked uncertainly.

“Yes, I’m sure. And I’ll make sure you get a pass to your next class,” the man answered.

As gently as possible, CC transferred his friend into the teacher’s arms, wincing as he yelped again from the pain he was in. The moment he was settled, he nodded to the man before running back into the gym for their things while Andy took off at a jog through the halls. It wasn’t long before he was kicking the door to the office for someone to open it since he obviously couldn’t knock, and several gasps were heard as what he assumed was Miss Gentry opened the door and she and her coworkers got a good look at him.

She asked what’d happened to him, considering that she’d just seen him a few hours ago and he appeared to be fine, concern lacing her voice. The band director explained what he’d gotten out of his friend, telling her that the other young man should be here in a couple minutes and could fill her in better. When she was told that he had a suspected broken rib, she immediately grabbed the phone and called for an ambulance, one of her coworkers showing the pair back to the nurse’s office where he could lay him down. It was only when he was laid down on some bed-like object that he began to feel his consciousness waver, and that told him that he likely had a concussion, as well.

Just a few minutes later, CC burst into the nurse’s office with his bookbag and hoodie, his breathing ragged from where he’d run from the gym. He quickly filled the nurse in, who told Miss Gentry so she could relay the information to the Dispatcher she was on the phone with. Since there was nothing more he could do for his friend, he was given a pass to his fourth period class and sent on his way, although he felt bad for having to leave him there more or less alone. Thankfully, since fourth period was his planning period, Andy was free to stay with him, which gave him a bit of reassurance.

“All right, where’s the injured student?” he heard someone ask.

“This way,” someone else answered.

“Hi there, son.” Ash cracked his eyes open to see a middle-aged man in a white uniform shirt and dark pants squatting down beside him. “My name’s Mark. Can you tell me what yours is?”

“A-Ashley,” he answered weakly.

“So what happened, Ashley?” Mark, who was obviously an EMT, asked.

“H-hurts to…b-breathe,” he gasped, clutching his side tighter.

“His friend told us that a jock pushed him down the bleachers right before the third-period dismissal bell rang, and that a group of his friends subsequently started kicking him,” Andy told him, knowing that he could barely talk. “He told me he thinks he’s got a broken rib since it hurts to breathe, and the way he seems to be fighting to stay conscious, I think he might have a concussion, too.”

“And you are…?” the EMT asked as he wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Ash’s arm.

“Andy Biersack, the band director,” he answered. “I was passing the gym and his friend accidentally hit me with the door as he was opening it to carry him to the office.”

“Do you have any idea how to contact his parent or guardian?” he asked him, still continuing with general exams.

“No, but I’m sure the secretary, Miss Gentry, can find out,” Andy answered.

“If you’re able, you’ll have to come with him since he apparently trusts no one but you,” Mark sighed. “He needs an adult with him, although you won’t be able to make any decisions or sign any forms for his care at the hospital since you’re not his legal guardian.”

“That’s fine. I just need to run to my office to get my stuff, then to the faculty parking lot for my bike,” he told him.

Nodding, Mark continued packaging him up for transport as Andy rose to his feet to head to his office for his things. Ash whimpered at the thought of being left alone with the EMT, but he assured him that he’d meet them at the ambulance so he could see him one last time before they took off for the hospital. Since he was in so much pain and obviously no condition to fight, he nodded weakly and watched as the teacher he was pretty sure had become a friend left the nurse’s office.

When they finally had him ready to go, another EMT entered the room and helped Mark move the backboard he was now strapped to onto the stretcher, where he was then secured so he wouldn’t fall off. He yelped as the jolt of the stretcher being raised sent another shock wave of pain through his ribs, and both men apologized and promised they’d give him something for the pain once they were in the ambulance.

True to his word, Andy met them by its back doors like he’d said he would, gently grabbing the young man’s hand in a comforting gesture as he promised to be right behind them. Ash watched from where he lay as best he could as Mark closed one door, his partner closing the other, once they got him loaded into the vehicle. Trying to keep his eyes focused at that angle hurt not only them, but his already-throbbing head, so he eventually had to look up at the ceiling. He was startled when, moments later, he heard the roar of a motorcycle right behind the ambulance, but Mark was able to calm him down with a few softly-spoken words of comfort.

By the time they reached Duke Medical Center a few miles away in Durham, he was really fighting to stay conscious. The EMT hadn’t given him enough drugs to completely alleviate his pain, but whatever he’d given him was potent enough to have him fighting a blackout worse than he had been before. He was vaguely aware of the ambulance jolting to a halt and the stretcher he was on being taken from he back, but it was shortly thereafter that his memories would start to get fuzzy as he slipped in and out of consciousness. In fact, he barely remembered Andy finally getting to see him what seemed like weeks later before he finally succumbed to the blackout trying to take over him when he was left alone.



After the doctors had gotten a CAT scan of his head and a set of chest X-rays, Ash was moved to a recovery room for observation. He did, in fact, have a slight concussion and a couple broken ribs from the kicks he’d sustained on the gym floor, but other than that, he was doing fine. Andy breathed a sigh of relief when they finally allowed him to see him, glad to know that his injuries weren’t too serious.

It was as he sat by the young man’s bedside, gently holding his hand as he reassured him that he wasn’t alone, that someone barged into the room as if they owned the place. Without letting go of his hand, he turned his attention to the door, which had been slammed against the wall, to find out who’d entered without permission. Judging by the woman’s features, it was pretty obvious to him that she was Ash’s abusive mother, and since the hospital didn’t know she was abusive, they’d called her since she was his legal guardian. That didn’t mean that Andy was happy to see her, and doubted the young man would be when he awoke, either.

“Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck are you doing here?” she growled.

“Andy Biersack, band director at Orange High School,” he answered smoothly, giving away no hints that he knew of her abuse. “And you are…?”

“Ashley’s mother, Adelaide Purdy,” the woman snapped. “Course, you have no right to be asking who I am.”

“I merely asked because I was asked to accompany him from the school by the EMTs and wanted to be sure you were who I thought you were,” Andy told her. Again, he gave her no hints that he knew of her abuse.

“Well, now that I’m here, you have no right to be,” Adelaide snapped, her jade-green eyes narrowing.

“How about we let Ash make that decision when he comes to?” he suggested, trying to be civil. It was harder than it looked, considering that he wanted to bash her skull in for abusing such a handsome young man.

“Ash? Seriously? Only his fags of friends back in Missouri called him that,” she snorted.

“It’s what he asked me to call him, and I intend to abide by his wishes,” he told her smoothly.

“You should be abiding by mine, since I’m his legal guardian, and I don’t want you here.” She gave him a fairly evil look. “You’re no good for him, especially since he’s a big enough fag on his own.”

“That’s enough, Mrs. Purdy,” Andy growled. “You shouldn’t be using derogatory terms against your own flesh and blood.”

“Key words there, ‘my own flesh and blood’. He’s my son; I’ll call him whatever I want.”

He had to take a deep breath and bite his tongue so hard he tasted blood to avoid saying anything he shouldn’t to her.

“Now get out of here before I beat your brains in!”

“Threats don’t work against me, Mrs. Purdy. If anyone shouldn’t be here, it’s you.”

At a loss for words, she stood there staring at him, her jaw slack.

“Yes, that’s right. I already know you abuse him at home; I was just going to be civil and not mention it since I felt it wasn’t my place,” Andy told her testily. “However, if you really want to start something with me, I can easily have you arrested for child abuse.”

Still unable to speak but obviously fuming, Adelaide turned and stormed out the door, which she slammed behind her.

“You shouldn’t have said that to her.”

He turned his attention back to the young man he sat beside. “She deserved to have something said to her about it, Ash.”

“That’s just going to make her abuse worse, though,” he told him, grimacing a bit as he tried to sit up.

“Hey, take it easy.” He gently pushed him back, then pressed a button on the rail of his bed to sit it up. “And if you really think it’s going to make it worse, I know of a way to get you out of it.”

Curious, Ash merely cocked a brow at him.

“I know some people that work up town,” Andy told him. “A couple of them are friends of mine from Ohio that moved here for jobs like I did. They can help get you emancipated so you can get away from her, if you want.”

“Really?” he asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

“Really, really,” he chuckled, squeezing his hand. “Trust me, one of them has a child of his own; the other watched what I went through with my abusive ex. Either way, neither of them tolerate abuse and would be more than glad to help you out once you’re released from here.”

“But that just leaves one problem.” The teen sighed dejectedly. “Since I don’t have any money or a job, I’ll be homeless once I get away from her.”

“No, you won’t.” The wheels in his head were turning.

“How? I have nowhere else to go,” Ash told him.

“Because, if you really need a place to go that bad once you’re emancipated, you can live with me,” he answered. “I have a spare bedroom that I don’t mind you using.”

“Seriously?” he asked, his eyes lighting up a bit once again.

“Mmm hmm. If not seeing you beaten or homeless means giving up my spare bedroom, I’m more than willing to,” Andy answered, nodding.

“But what about finances?” he asked curiously.

“Don’t worry about it. I have an inheritance from my late grandfather that’s worth so much, I doubt I’ll ever be able to use it all,” he chuckled. “The only reason I’m really working right now is to keep myself entertained and teach new skills to those who actually want to learn them since I doubt I’ll ever achieve my dream of being in a band.”

They sat there discussing what it would take to achieve the goal the teen had in mind, deciding that Andy would accompany him to the magistrate’s office once he was released and felt up to going. He wasn’t going to make him go back home to Adelaide once he was released, although Ash decided he’d tell her he was hanging out with CC until the paperwork was filed and he was officially emancipated. He didn’t want her trying to come after him and his new friend have to get in the middle of it, especially since he was a minor and she his legal guardian and she could have him charged with aiding and abetting.

By the time visiting hours were over, the teen felt satisfied in knowing that he wouldn’t have to deal with his abusive mother anymore, and Andy warned the nurses at the nurse’s station not to let Adelaide near him on his way out. They nodded their agreement once he told them that she abused Ash, saying they’d call security on her if she showed up, whether it was during visiting hours or not. Heaving a sigh of relief, he headed back to his bike and strapped his helmet on, ready to head home after a long, exhausting day.

Notes