I rubbed my hair out with the towel I was happy I'd brought along. I’d already changed back into my normal clothes, not putting in much effort other than putting my normal jeans and a dry shirt over my swimsuit.

I felt dizzy with a giddy excitement as the moment underwater kept replaying. The kiss still felt like static electricity on my lips.

I could hardly believe it happened... And I definitely did not expect the wave of obsession that followed it. I just wanted to go hug him forever.

Finishing up changing, I put everything back into my bag and went back out where Andy waited, suddenly dry, and calm, leaning against the bathroom smoking a cigarette, watching the waves of smoke tangle as they drifted upwards.

“Ready?”

I nodded, feeling spike of anxiety when he extended his hand towards me politely.

“That’ll take some getting used to.” I murmured, grabbing his hand, walking beside him as we made our way back up the beach, where the entrance was closed off with traffic cones and caution tape.

We'd been exceptionally close for as long as we'd known each other, but there's something unexplainably amazing about being this close.

“It’s only been a few minutes.” He reminded me with a smirk.

“A few exceptional minutes.” I countered, then my cheeks reddened in embarrassment as I realized stupidly I’d worded that. I didn’t bother apologizing, and he just laughed it off.

My hair was dripping still, and was tangled mermaid style. I wasn’t sure where we were headed, exactly, and I didn’t ask, since every time I had, he only gave vague answers.

It's a crazy, difficult thing to explain... When you have a crush, you're ecstatically aware of that other person. But when you finally get to love them, it's like everything you knew changes, your center shifts, and suddenly not everything revolves around a certain thing or problem, because all you see is them.

And crazy as it sounds, my newfound love made my surrounding even more bright and beautiful, the sky painted over with a second layer of sparkling stars, and the neon street signs, and those drunken people still wandering the streets, I could see them all differently now.

“Where’d you go?” Andy nudged me, pulling me from my deep thoughts. I looked up at him, stunned for a moment before I could gather myself to speak. “Just thinking.” I admit.

“About what?”

“Everything.” I sigh, tilting my head back to peer up at the massive palm trees lining the sidewalk. “Never really experienced this before...”

“What’s that?”

“The whole lovey thing...” My eyebrows pulled together in deep thought. “I always liked this one guy at my school. He was cool, kind, charming, but always just out of reach. I thought back then, though, that it was because he was so popular... but then he came out as gay the following semester, and I realized that was why nothing ever clicked. He rejected my low-key flirting and all because he wasn’t even into my gender.” I laughed at the memory. “Though the experience had a decent ending, the rejection killed any hope of me ‘flirting’ again.”

“Until now?”

“Not even now.” I smile small, glancing at him. “Mostly because I don’t think that’s me to toss around seductive glances and phrases. I didn’t realize it back then, because I sucked at it.”

“Hmm.” He hummed thoughtfully, peering down at me with a smirk that made me kinda uncomfortable. “That explains a thing or two...”

“What?”

“You were impossible to read. And because of that, right up until you threw yourself at me in your Grandmother’s hallway, I wasn’t entirely sure that you liked me that way.”

“Threw myself...” I muttered under my breath. “Well, you could have received it better.”

“Here we go.”

He’d stopped abruptly, leaving me to stumble forward a few more steps before noticing he’d stopped. I paused to wring out my hair again, looking into the open doorway of the dark bar along the sidewalk.

“Another concert or drinks?” I wondered skeptically, before falling back into our invisible ball of energy, slipping past the doorman into the dimly lit room.

It was certainly larger than the one we went to in Pendant, but there was also twice as many people there. Booths were full of pretty girls in shiny, short dresses, hanging with a few preppy men, girls in faded band shirts sitting at the counter, probably rejects from the college.

Looking around the room, there was all kinds of people here. People that made me feel uncomfortable, some that made me curious, like the man sitting at the bar with scales tattooed into his skin with a split tongue and horns implanted into his skull. Yep... California, living the dream.

There was a live band setting up on the stage in the far end of the room, but for now, loud party music played over the speakers. I stood close to Andy as we made our way further in, not in the mood to get into an altercation with security and then getting kicked out for insufficient ID.

Like everything else I'd seen in California so far, it was much different than Pendant. The bar was dim, yet there were neon signs everywhere. The music was loud, the people were loud, and the whole place made me feel like I was on the verge of a panic attack with all the pressure in the room, even though no one could see me.

The music cut out so that someone could step up onto the low platform stage to make and announcement into the mic. Only a handful of the people packed into the bar looked up or turned to listen.

“Please welcome our band to the stage tonight, they’re a local alt-rock band called Illuminice.”

More people turned their attention to the stage as a group of very normal looking men and women walked up on stage. Even as they began to play their energetic tunes, interacting with the crowd in front of them as much as possible, they weren’t what was holding my attention.

In the dim shadows beside the stage stood a man, in his hand a bronze bottle. He was no different in appearance than anyone else here, but what concerned me, and froze me in place, was that it looked like he was staring at me. Even with his eyes hidden behind a pair of midnight tinted aviators, I could feel a cold, intense gaze. I turned fearfully to check how close I was to Andy. Our arms were touching.

“Are we visible?” I whispered under my breath, tugging at his damp sleeve. He pulled his attention away from the band to look down at me. “Huh?”

“Are we visible right now?” I murmured again, throwing a quick glance at the man in the corner. Sure enough, he still stared. This time when our eyes locked, he raised his chin slightly in acknowledgement.

“No. Why?”

“Someone’s staring at me.” I told him without looking away from the man. His hair was long, coming just below his shoulders. It looked dark, almost black. He had defined cheekbones and tattoos on the exposed joints of his gloved hands. It clicked for me once I noticed the final details that I recognized him.

“That man has been following me.” I whisper in a cold voice, unable to pull my gaze away from the mysterious man near the stage. He lingered in the shadows, staring me down behind his dark glasses.

“Who?”

Andy scanned the crowd trying to see who I was seeing. “There’s no way anyone could see you right now unless...”

He stopped, and the man’s head turned just slightly and his attention was turned to Andy. Andy froze, not completing his sentence.

“Andy?” I whispered to him in panic.

He blinked in shock. “No fucking way...”

“What?” My eyes flashed from him to the man, they had now locked gazes.

“Come on.”

He grabbed my hand, keeping me at his side as we walked through a split crowd towards the man. His lips curled up into a satisfied, smug smile as we approached. He lifted a gloved hand to push up his glasses, propping them on his forehead on a bed of layered biker-rocker hair. Bright brown eyes glinting in amusement as he assessed Andy.

“You look good - for a ghost.” He shrugged.

“Ash...” Andy breathed. I looked at him in concern, realizing he wasn’t talking to me.

“Ashley, holy shit...”

The man winked at him in recognition, and it clicked into place.

“Wait... Holy shit, you’re Ashley?”

He nodded proudly, while pulling a pack of crushed cigarettes from his leather vest pocket, balancing it between his lips while he lit it up.

“The very same.” He extended his hand towards me, I shook his hand, his grasp strong and cold. A ghost’s grip...

“I’ve seen you around a bit. I had my suspicions...” He nodded towards me coyly.

I looked at Andy, then him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I saw you at the beach with some familiar looking fellow, I didn’t think I was right, but I couldn’t be sure. Then our paths just kept crossing and here we are.” He spread his palms, gesturing around the room, buzzing with conversations and people not concerned with us.

“How the hell did you end up in California?” Andy demanded in confusion. He was trying to process this. “I thought... I thought you’d gone on, I tried... I was going to...”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Ashley silenced him. “I don’t think we could’ve seen each other again had you gone through with it. That’s a heavy thing to give up, what changed your mind?”

Ashley’s grin only grew as Andy’s silence stretched. His eyes flickered from me to him in amusement. “Ha! No way. Finally tied yourself down?”

I knew I was blushing in embarrassment like hell, and even though Andy couldn’t blush, his expression gave away his immense discomfort. “You’re still an asshole...” Andy shook his head, but couldn’t rid himself of the grin on his face.

“That’s great. What’s your name?” Ashley’s undivided attention turned to me. He huffed grey tendrils of smoke into the air as he waited patiently.

“Asheen.” I tell him, feeling awkward that our names are so similar.

“She’s Ash, too.” Andy told him with a smug grin. “Thing 1 and Thing 2, funny how things work out.”

I jabbed him in the ribs.

Ashley nodded cooly, taking a long draw of his cigarette, the end lighting up with pale red embers as he inhaled. “Twinning.” He replied, shooting me an amused look.

“Now to answer your previous question, I actually came here for you.” Ashley said as he tucked his lighter into his vest pocket again. “It’d been a long time since I’d seen you. Because after I died, I just travelled. I went everywhere I’d never been and always wanted to go, perfecting some tricks along the way. Hell, I cannot tell you how much it pisses me off that I can’t shoot fireballs or anything. All I can do is prank people, fall from great heights and spend eternity with other spirits.” He shook his head regretfully. “An arsenal with fire balls? That’d be insane.”

Andy chuckled, pushing his hair off his forehead. “I never really thought about what powers I didn’t get, I was trying to figure out how to control the ones I already had.”

“Nevertheless,” Ashley paused, taking another puff. “I wasn’t sure where you’d gone after graduation. I poked around Pendant a while to make sure you hadn’t died and I found out you were here in Berkeley... Small problem of it was timing... I came out here, searching for a few weeks to pick up on a new lead that led me to find out you had died in a car accident. Do you know how fucked up that is?”

He took another smoke, watching it rise from his lips in temporary enchantment before shaking the haze away and frowning. “’Course, given my situation, it wasn’t so bad to find out we were on the same side of humanity again, just really disappointing to hear... Especially when I only found out after about all the things you’d been up to.” Regret burned in his black-rimmed brown eyes and Andy tucked his hands in his jeans pockets, his hair still dripping in places.

“So if you were hard to track before, imagine tracking you afterwards, when you could literally be anywhere, and on top of that, invisible. I just stayed in California, hopeful maybe you were around, but I only lost hope in that notion after a while. I just did adapt to the quick paced California life before I saw Ash on that beach with you. I wasn’t even following you intentionally, sorry if I scared you.” Ashley nodded towards me.

I nodded in acceptance of his apology, too busy processing this new information. I’d only ever heard of Ashley and seen a few photos of him. The tales of his and Andy’s adventures in school had become my bedtime stories, every night Andy would tell me something else they’d done to get into trouble, and every story ended the same way: with him sighing in sorrow thinking about the memories.

“Regardless, though, I am sorry for what happened to you.” Ashley nodded towards him sympathetically. “Let’s get a drink. You drink?” He gestured a gloved hand towards me.

“Uh.. Not usually?” I hedged, unsure how to respond.

Ashley looked at me in confusion, then at Andy. “Never met someone over eighteen that didn’t enjoy drinking.”

His smirk faded into amused disbelief. “Wait... No way! How old are you?!”

I floundered, both embarrassed and concerned with how much he cared. He laughed loudly, clapping his friend on the shoulder. “A minor, huh? What are you? Fourteen?”

“Seventeen.” I corrected in an offended tone.

He grinned and punched my shoulder with a bit more enthusiasm than necessary. “I guess that’s not too young...” He turned to glare at Andy with a smirk, “Still young enough to be creepy. What the hell, man?”

Andy rolled his eyes and headed towards the bar. I followed as closely as I could, because even though a friend of Andy’s was normally a friend of mine, Ashley seemed very unpredictable, and maybe a bit unhinged after all this time.

“So, Ash.” He stated loudly from behind me, his suddenly authoritative tone demanding my attention. “How the hell did you two come together?”

“Ashley.” Andy turned to glare at his friend. “Not now, okay?”

Ashley raised two glove clad hands in defense. “No problem. Just asking.”

Andy sighed, making his way behind the counter, looking over the shelf of expensive liquors before selecting one, grabbing two glasses and climbing on top of the bar counter in front of us, sitting cross legged while he poured and prepared the two drinks.

Me and Ashley sat directly in front of him in the stools. I clasped my hands together and watched him lace the drink with a lemon slice, while the waitress behind the counter worked around him without interruption.

“Oh, aren’t you a gentleman.” Ashley deadpanned after Andy handed him his shot glass.

“What?” He replied with mild irritation in his tone.

“Don’t even get one for the lady.”

Ashley got up, reaching over the counter for a crystal patterned shot glass, grabbing the bottle from Andy’s hand and filling it up despite his protests.

“No way, dammit Ashley, no.”

Ashley ignored him and pushed the shot glass towards me, and I looked up at the both of them, stuck in a hard place. I could opt to drink the shot, just to try it, and to make progress being friends with Ashley, but then Andy would sulk about it. I frowned in disgust once the alcohol fumes hit my nose and that alone was enough to make my decision for me. I pushed it away.

Ashley laughed, downing his shot in a blink of an eye and reaching for mine. “Suit yourself.” Ashley shrugged dismissively, already reaching for the liquor bottle to fill his glass again. I listened to their conversation starting back up, and I turned in my seat to look around myself some more. Andy asked Ashley a string of confused questions, demanding details on where he’d been, why he’d waited so long, etc. Ashley answered cooly, almost always pondering just before answering, pausing to swish the amber liquid in his glass around thoughtfully while he contemplated his word choices.

It was crazy that Ashley and Andy had reunited at all, even if just by chance. I knew from all the stories that Andy missed his friend greatly, and that he was more than happy to have him back... It just made me wonder how things would work out from here. Would Ashley come back to Pendant with us? For what time we had left there, or would he turn it down and decide to hang around California some more. Would he even want to join us?

And if he did, would he live at my house like Andy did, or would he do his own thing?

I looked over my shoulder at him, trying to figure him out. He was kind and friendly on the exterior, and I felt like I could trust him. It was just how unpredictable he was that worried me. Any friends of Andy’s had become good friends of mine, people I’m proud to call my friends, and they’d never done wrong by me. Ashley was something else entirely, it seemed.

I became wary of Andy while they caught up. Ashley would begin to complain about more ‘ghost logic’ and when he said too much, Andy scowled at him and would sneak a glance in my direction. I’d pretend not to hear or notice, but it continued to concern me that there was something he wouldn’t tell me, and I felt like it tied in with my Grandmother and what he said to that guy at the park yesterday.

I had this theory about it, but everytime I thought about it and how it might work, I only ended up laughing in embarrassment because of how ridiculous it sounded. Was it possible Andy could like... See the future?

If so, why had he so willingly let so many things happen if he could have seen them in advance?

“Ash, you’re familiar with that whats-her-face?” Ashley spoke to me suddenly, assuming I’d been fully committed to their conversation.

“Huh?”

“What was her name?...” He pinched the narrow bridge of his nose in deep concentration for a brief moment. “Elizabeth!” He snapped his fingers, setting his glass down with a clatter. “I dated her older sister for a while.”

“Vienna?” I wondered in confusion. I hadn’t thought about Elizabeth’s older sister in years. She was much older than Elizabeth when we really committed to being friends and was already getting ready to move out. It momentarily put me in a daze as I wondered how many times Ashley had been at the house when I had.

“It was not long-term by any means,” He shrugged, “I didn’t want what she wanted, and it was just as well. She was a whore.”

I coughed in surprise, and he looked at me in amused confusion. “Did I hit a nerve?”

“Wow...” I murmured as I collected myself. “Okay. That was blunt, but definitely hit the nail on the head. Now why are we talking about Elizabeth?”

They shrugged in sync. “Just talking about familiar faces. Do you know what ever happened to Vienna?” Ashley asked, “I feel like proposing a nice, ghostly visit.” He flashed me a wicked white smile.

“Elizabeth didn’t talk about her much, not after she moved out. I think it bothered her quite a bit. She did mention that she got into drugs in college. She could be dead or something else at this point.”

Ashley nodded slowly in thought, his expression remaining the same. I tried to read him, to figure out if this news bothered him at all, but if it did, he kept it firmly tucked away.

“Ugh, so much has changed.” Ashley frowned, reaching for his glass to swirl the contents again glumly. “Almost everyone I knew from the old neighborhood has moved or something... It’s crazy to imagine.”

Andy frowned and nodded, sliding forward on the counter top to dangle his legs over the edge, kicking the heels of his boots against the wood underneath. “I know the feeling... Fuck, I felt like that before I died. While I went through my suicidal stint, everyone around me was carrying on with life, doing so much better than I was. Black Veil Brides 2.0 took off, consisting of Jinxx, Jake, CC and some rag-tag guys they picked up off the street. My friends were all going to college, getting married, having kids before they even graduated... And there I was, curled up in my bed, blinds drawn, a Kiss record playing through my headphones while I sulked.”

“Black Veil Brides 2.0?” Ashley wondered incredulously after a few moments of silence.

Andy sighed like it was hilarious and something he didn’t want to talk about because it was such a long story.

“They became more of a BVB cover band, in a way. Even though half the old members were still there, they felt weird about outright resurrecting the band without us. So they went through a couple different name changes and members came and went. They never found reliable people to take those positions. They just played music for fun and no longer had ambitions to be famous.”

“Remember when you wanted to name the band Biersack?” Ashley snickered. “We all had to fight you on that.”

Andy scoffed, “Hey - it was Biersack for a while. What? Are you pissed that we didn’t name the band Purdy?”

Ashley gave him an unamused look. “Purdy would have been amazing, thank you very much.”

Andy sighed with a faint smile on his face, looking down at his glass, swishing around the contents before pushing himself off the counter, landing on the balls of his feet, chucking the shot glass across the room.

Of course, once it exited the bubble of invisibility, it shattered in reality above the head of a pervert groping a woman in a dark booth. His head shot up like a flash, fear, confusion and annoyance in his expression as he searched for the culprit.

“Let’s get outta here.” Andy walked towards me, holding his hand out like a 50’s gentleman for me to grab and climb down from the barstool. We looped arms like we normally did, only it felt much more heartwarming now.

“Lets.” Ashley responded nonchalantly, stubbing his cigarette out on the counter before chucking his half full shot glass, as well. It landed six inches to the left where Andy’s had hit, and it showered a rain of broken glass and liquor down on the frustrated man.

Ashley parted the crowd smoothly, sliding through the packed club with ease. I stuck close to Andy’s side until we were out on the sidewalk. I cleared my throat awkwardly and resumed my regular distance. Sure, that one kiss felt like it changed everything, but really it didn’t. It just confirmed what both of us already knew but were too cowardly to say, so we said it in actions. Still, I wasn’t ready to go from casual best friend with a crush to devoted lover in a flash. It’d taken me long enough to realize I liked him this way as it was.

“So, what’s your guys’ plan?” Ashley inquired, walking backwards in front of us, managing to narrowly avoid the various mailboxes and other ornaments decorating the sidewalk.

“For what?” I wondered, my wrist still draped over Andy’s bent elbow as we walked aimlessly.

“Are you like... Dating or a ‘friends with benefits’ type thing?”

I blushed as more visuals than I was comfortable came into my mind. “Uh... Neither?”

“Neither?” Ashley scoffed, his tawny brown eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Heh, I guess that makes sense. Neither of you got to the point and said ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Are you or not?”

I looked to Andy for advice, or to at least read his expression to figure out what he was thinking.

“Oh yeah.” Andy winked at his best friend, and got a sneaky smirk which only threw me deeper into the pit of embarrassment. My cheeks flared up hot and pink again. I was thankful for all the neon signs on the dark storefronts illuminating my face different colors than the one that was so prominently there.

He cleared his face and corrected his composure to a more professional kind. “Actually, we’re just starting out.” His entangled hand squeezed my palm in a silent gesture of our newfound union.

Ashley didn’t pry to much. He just gave Andy coy eyes of understanding before nodding and changing the subject.

The spurs on his black cowboy boots clicked and rung with each step he took, mixing with the clatter of Andy’s jean chains.

“Why do you all wear such noisey clothes?” I demanded out of nowhere. They both looked at me in confusion and surprise.

“What?” Andy was the first to respond with a confused laugh.

“All the chains and the buckles and the spurs. Everyone I’ve met from Black Veil Brides dresses like they’re a walking noisemaker.”

There was a long moment of silence before either of them before Ashley shrugged, his backwards walking slowed.

“Uh... I never really noticed how loud we were.” He commented, sheepishly looking at Andy as it dawned on both of them, and all they could hear was the clattering and clicking of their accessories as we made our way downtown, with the restricted beach to our right.

Leather squeaking, chains rattling, spurs clicking, it was maddening now as it was all we could hear. They instantaneously burst out laughing, unable to stop the contagious laughter from coming as they clutched their ribs. We weren’t even walking anymore, I had stepped away from Andy to drop my arms and stare at them both in concern and amusement.

“Alright, Alright...” I sighed with a grin, pushing them both forward. “Let’s get a move on, I want to get home before sunrise.”

Notes

Hello again! Close to three months since the last update and I'm sorry. I've really been wanting to work on this story, but every time I sit down to work, I just can't envision the characters the way I want to or describe them how I want. Then I realized one of my major problems when it comes to writing is me worrying about how much my readers will enjoy it, so I pressure myself to create something I can't. So I've gone back to the basics with these good old characters.

Ashley Purdy has arrived!

And one small plot change: Ash is now 17 instead of 16 because the age difference felt really weird. Seventeen feels closer to adulthood than sixteen.

Anyways, thank you everyone who's still around after all this time. This story is ten months old whoa
Shoutouts!

- Kookie14
- Allie_BVB
- anathema