Love Never Fades

With a soft sigh, forty-three-year-old Ashley Purdy watched his twin daughters from where he sat at his dining room table. The sixteen-year-old girls had been a handful for him even before they were born, but he’d done his best to raise them on his own. It wasn’t that their father’d wanted nothing to do with them; it was because he didn’t even know of their existence in the first place.

Having fallen in love with his best friend, despite everyone thinking he was a ladies’ man, he’d made a drunken mistake one night. Granted, that mistake had resulted in the best things to ever happen to him, his precious daughters, but to him, it was a mistake, all the same. He’d felt like he couldn’t be as honest with his best friend, a man he hadn’t spoken to in nearly twenty years. Once he’d discovered he was pregnant, he’d run off one night while they were on tour, using the cover of darkness to aid his escape. Never once had he looked back, but never had his love for that man faded.

Over the years, he’d kept up with his best friend and the band he’d once been the bassist and backing vocalist of. Black Veil Brides had continued on, despite his sudden disappearance, and eventually found a new bassist to replace him. It seemed as though, even though everyone else had given up hope, they never despaired that they’d find him.

The best friend in question, though…well, young Andy Biersack had eventually resigned himself to moving on and finding someone to love. By all appearances, the young man genuinely loved the woman he’d married when he was twenty-seven, and had recently divorced. What he didn’t know, considering that they hadn’t spoken in so long, was that he’d loved him just as much in return, and was left with a broken heart when he disappeared. He’d never been quite the same after Ash ran away, but had hidden it well.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

The sound of a knock at his front door startled him from his thoughts, causing him to gasp a bit louder as he rose.

“I didn’t know you were having any guests today, Mama,” his older daughter, Legacy, said as she looked up from her homework.

“Neither did I,” he answered, making his way to the front door.

“We’ll head upstairs,” his younger daughter, Magick, said. “We’ll be able to concentrate better, anyway.”

Nodding, he waited till they were gone before he even attempted to open the door, which earned him another set of knocks from whoever was on the other side. Curious, but wary, Ash unlocked the mahogany panel and pulled it open, gasping for a third time as he registered who was standing on his front porch.

“Ashley?” a demonically deep voice asked, sounding relieved and gleeful. “Thank Godsmack I finally found you!”

Ash felt like he couldn’t breathe for a few moments before finally choking out one word: his long-lost best friend’s name. “Andy?”

“Yeah, Ash.” The younger man nodded, tears forming in his eyes. “After you disappeared that night, I kept hoping you were still alive, that we’d see each other again someday. I guess I was right not to give up hope.”

It took a few moments for him to regain his composure, and while he did so, he listened quietly.

“I still dunno why you disappeared that night, but I’d like to…if you’re willing to tell me, that is,” Andy said, his blue eyes as bright as the sky with his happiness.

“Why…why don’t you come in?” he asked, opening his door a bit wider. “It’s a long story, and it’s gonna take a while to tell.”

His old best friend nodded, the happiness never leaving his eyes, even as his smile faded slightly. Still, he stepped into the house, standing quietly in the foyer as he closed and locked the door. Offering him a drink, he led him to the living room where they could make themselves comfortable, as he hadn’t been kidding when he said that his explanation was a long one. He accepted the offer, quickly taking his boots off while Ash was pouring their drinks, and he hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake in coming clean at last.

Notes