The Runaway: An Ashley Purdy Love Story

Audrey got out of the shower in Ashley's hotel room, finally feeling clean for the first time in two months. It was actually pretty nice to have a place to stay. Ashley had tossed out the clothes that she'd been wearing and had lent her an outfit of his own for her to wear. She'd put them on and lain across the bed, feeling her eyes droop almost instantly with exhaustion. She hadn't been so comfortable in the last two months. Hell, probably even before then, what with everything that...No. She refused to think of it. That was the past. She wasn't ever going back there again. It didn't matter what had happened there. Her life there was over.
She rolled over and closed her eyes, drifting off just as Ashley re-entered the room, coming from Andy's room. He closed the door quietly, locking it, and turned the lights off as he curled up on the couch, not wanting to wake her.
***
Tears clouded her eyes as she lay across her bed. How could her mother believe that bastard over her? How could her mother not believe what he'd done to her? Her mother had called Audrey a liar, had slapped her and sent her to her room. Why would Audrey lie about something as serious as what he'd done?
No more, Audrey thought. She had waited for them to go to bed that night, and then she'd packed up a few things into a backpack, taken some money from her mother's purse to add to what she'd managed to save, and had taken off in the dead of the night, not looking back again.
***
Audrey awoke the next morning, not knowing where she was for a second. When Ashley came through the door, it registered in her mind. "Good morning," Ashley stated as he tossed his dirty shirt into the suitcase at the foot of the bed and headed into the bathroom. Audrey heard the water in the shower turn on, and Ashley came back out a second later, heading to the closet for a towel. "I'm just going to grab a shower, then we have to get on the bus," he told her, heading back into the bathroom and shutting the door.
Audrey took a moment to get her bearings as she got up from the bed. She glanced out the window of the hotel room and saw Andy, CC, Jake, and Jinxx standing outside around a tour bus, the words Black Veil Brides emblazoned on the side of it. Black Veil Brides? Audrey thought as she waited for Ashley to get out of the shower. Ashley had said that they'd been on tour. But just what kind of band was this 'Black Veil Brides'? She filed this information away to ask Ashley when he got out of the shower.

Ashley emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, towel-drying his hair, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt. He tossed his dirty pants in the suitcase and zipped it up then sat on the couch to put on his shoes. Audrey watched him tie one boot before she asked, "What kind of band is Black Veil Brides?"
"We're a rock band. We've been playing together with this lineup since about 2010 or 2011, although Andy started the band in 2006 in Cincinnati. He's the only original member left," Ashley explained.
"Oh."
"Yeah." Ashley tied his other boot then straightened up. "You've never heard of us?"
"I wasn't really big on rock music," she explained. "I'm fairly new to it."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Let's just say...certain things in my life has led me to rock music. I don't think anything else really can connect with me in the same way anymore," Audrey said.
"Anything you care to talk about?"
"Nope."
Ashley nodded and stood up. "Okay. Well, we need to get down to the bus before they leave us."
"You don't think they'd actually do that, do you?"
Ashley laughed. "Probably not. But you never know." He grabbed his suitcase and headed for the door. "Come on."

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