Login with:

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Google

Yahoo

Aol.

Mibba

Your info will not be visible on the site. After logging in for the first time you'll be able to choose your display name.

Andy

Changes.

I feel like I talk too much about my day, and am just plain repetitive, don't you think? Anyways, the next morning, I went straight work writing up the sheet music for a few more tracks from the Black Veil Brides album, unsure which ones they had in mind.

After that was done, I went on a walk, I couldn't go far from the house, though, that was apart of the whole 'grounded' thing. After that, I took another shower, freshened up, and by that time, it was almost two in the afternoon, so I began to pick out my outfit for that evening.

That's when my Mom came home and found me in my room, comparing pairs of jeans.

"Hey Sweetie." She greeted me, and I smiled at her, but became concerned when her returning smile was strained.

"What's up?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing... Find something to wear tonight?"

I pursed my lips as I moved aside the black sweater I had, and tried the grey tank top with the leather skinnies I had laid out on the end of my bed. Finally, I shook my head and sighed. "What the hell do you even wear to a concert?"

My mom was big on music in her teenage years, and had seen all the famous hair bands in concert. She understood this question well.

"Most concert goers wear shirts to support the artist they're seeing, but if you're performing, wear something you feel comfortable in. It doesn't have to match what the rest of the band has, because I've seen their wardrobe, and it's not exactly rainbows and butterflies like yours is." She joked, walking into my room to stand beside me and admire the options I had laid out so far.

"Looks like to me it's time for a bonding trip to the mall." She suggested with a slow nod.

"What?" I laughed.

"Hot Topic?"

"Seriously?" I cocked an eyebrow, but she was laughing, "Hell yeah, come on, we'll get you something that'll put them all on their asses. A new band shirt?" She suggested as I grabbed my black ballet flats and slipped them on before grabbing my jacket and following her downstairs.

"Sure." I agreed, still smiling and laughing, because my Mom was usually pretty outright about a lot of things, but she never suggested shopping on the dime, and most importantly, she never suggested Hot Topic as our shopping location. Mostly because she 'didn't like looking at all the sad emos left over from MCR's breakup hanging out there, still listening to early Fall Out Boy, wearing beanies, with dark makeup and clothes, looking like some emo parade rejects'.

"What brought this all on?" I wondered as I pulled my seatbelt across and locked it into place while she looked over he shoulder to back out.

"I dunno... I guess with school and all that jazz, we just never get some mother/daughter bonding time. And since you no longer want to get your hair done, I don't have that." She shot me a joking scolding look before laughing. "Anyways, I don't have any dresses to work on until Saturday. So you're stuck with me."

The lonely Hot Topic store sat in the busier side of town, the part I almost never visited, because it deviated from the small town vibe I enjoyed so much about the side of Pendant I lived in. But there were two sides to the river that devided the town, and we lived on the 'unsocial' side. The other side had department stores like Home Depot, Walmart and Target. So really, Pendant wasn't all that small. The part I actually lived in, though, was.

She turned on the radio as we drove, and I appreciated the sound of music again for the short ammount of time I had. Once we parked, I climbed out, and stared up at the store in a few minutes of awe. I'd only ever been here a handful of times, but every time was a wonder.

"Alright, let's go."

I followed my Mom in, and instantly, my attention went elsewhere.

There were banners for different bands hanging from the ceiling, rack after rack of band shirts, and trinkets. A huge section of the store was just rows of CD's, vinyls and concert movies. The other half was consumed in a wide variety of different forms of band merch.

Every time I came here, it never failed to make me happy and excited. I seperated from my Mom to go look at band shirts. Name a band and they had a shirt for it. I noticed a distressed My Chemical Romance shirt, a colorful Panic! At the Disco tank top, and a few others. It was hard to look at them all because there were so many.

"Oh... Ash."

"What?" I looked at my Mom in confusion, and she was beaming, smiling up at something.

"How big is that band you're playing with?"

"Huh?"

"How popular are they?"

"I dunno... They only play Pendant as far as I know." I shrugged.

"I think they're a bit bigger than that."

She pointed above my head, and I turned, my eyes scaling the massive rack of shirts, and at the top, was a banner from their album, We Stitch These Wounds.

"What?" I whispered in surprise, "Mr. Turner only mentioned that they had the untitled EP. They actually released it?"

"Coming 2010..." My Mom read in deep thought, "Five years ago?"

I smiled in awe, looking up at the band, all different members, except for Andy, who fronted them, wigged out in massive amounts of Kiss style makeup and studded belts. The banner was just one of those 'blast from the past' things they kept hanging around the store, but it still shocked me, and made me feel the swelling wave of pride looking at it.

"Wow..." I breathed, a grin slowly appearing on my face. I could rest easy knowing, that in a way, Andy had completed his dream of starting a band and getting it somewhere.

I hadn't realized that I'd spaced out until my Mom was nudging me, "Hey, did you find something yet?"

"Uh..." I quickly tore my eyes from the banner and scanned the shirt rack, grabbing the first shirt my hand touched.

"Guns and Roses?" My Mom commented skeptically with a half smile, "I thought you didn't like them?

"Huh..." I chuckled nervously, "Music tastes change."

We looked around a little longer, but no matter where I was in the store, my gaze continued to go back to that poster.

"Well, we'd better be getting back if you're planning on being ready by the time Christian shows up." My Mom said after another half hour in the store, checking the time on her phone.

I nodded and followed her to the register to check out.

Something just bothered me after that encounter. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it was in the back of my mind, just sitting there, ticking away like a bomb about to go off.

My Mom even asked a few times what was up, but I didn't have an answer for her, so I wrote it off as just being nervous. She offered, with a bit much enthusiasm I might add, that I could always cancel if I didn't feel up to it. But I had already sold the story, and was actually excited to go, and see them all again, so I persisted, telling her I was fine.

When we got home, I went to my room, and changed into my new shirt, which was just a black, distressed tee with the Guns & Roses logo on the front. I added the pair of black skinnies I bought, as well. My old pair were really more of a dark grey, and I felt like I needed to look the part to play with them.

I was just finishing up my makeup, when my Mom called up the stairs, "Ash! Christian is here. Want me to send him up?"

Her voice was wary, and hopeful that I'd decline, but I wanted the chance to talk to him before we left.

"Sure!" I shouted back, and a few moments later, CC was pushing open my bedroom door with the same hesitant, alertness about him as he had the first time.

"Almost ready?" He hedged, his hands buried in his pockets. I nodded and capped my eyeliner pencil, looking down at the mess of necklaces, bracelets and assorted pieces of makeup scattered across my vanity. "As I'll ever be."

"They'll love you." He said sappily, "You're amazing at playing piano."

I just shook my head slowly, furrowing my brow in thought. "It's not that."

"What is it?" He became confused, perched on the end of my bed, looking at my back. I looked up into my mirror, at my reflection, searching for answers in my eyes.

"You never said your band actually released an album." I said conversationally, shrugging.

"I didn't know I was supposed to?" He said it like a question. "Anyways, yes, and we went on tour, too. That was Andy's last year in school, we took off during spring break, skipped the rest of the semester, and toured all summer in my cousin's stinky cargo van."

I imagined them playing small club shows, having to work odds and ends to get Andy in because he was the youngest, and not yet 18.

"Also, all the music that was on that album, is the same stuff on the EP. Just more refined. We had some guy at Andy's school mix it for us, and he made it sound like it was more than just a crappy phone recording." CC laughed fondly at the memory.

"Dammit, you distracted me... What's wrong?"

I pursed my lips to keep from grinning at him, looking back at him in the mirror's reflection. "We're gonna be late." I reminded him, and he hurried to pat down his coat pockets until he pulled out his phone to check the time. "Shit." He cursed. "Finish you... Girly stuff, and meet me downstairs."

"May I remind you, your whole band wears makeup!?" I shouted after him as he darted out the door into the hall. Not to anyone's surprise, he did not reply. I chuckled and grabbed my bag and leather jacket, and headed downstairs, concentrating on remaining calm.

Notes

Hola bros! Sorry about missing yesterday's update. I'm thinking about updating every other day, because I have a bunch of projects to work on right now, including writing a one-shot for the Easter story exchange thing. :D
Also! Small thing, that made me happily squeal for a few minutes, Andy Black himself liked one of my comments yesterday hahaha I told him I'd already listened to We Don't Have to Dance 250 times already, according to iTunes. The fact that he still takes the time, no matter how popular he is, to interact with fans, is amazing, and one of the reasons I admire him.

Comments

I just want to say, I am here to support you no matter what you do <3

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/12/20

Oh gosh, I'm getting weird vibes towards this "sketchy" part of town.

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
5/8/19

I am absolutely in love with this book!

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/30/19

Poor Ashley. Poor Andy. Poor Asheen. Wow, what a story! :)

Merelan Merelan
4/29/19

I am conspiring so many theories about this book my head hurts... lol... anyway, great chapter as usual! Can't wait to read what happens next

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/25/19