As the plane took of, Destiny wondered for the hundredth time what the hell she was doing. What business did she have flying off to West Chester to spend time with a world famous rock star that she had met and spoken to for all of about ten seconds?
Oh well. Too late for second thoughts now. The plane was rapidly ascending into the air.
Still, though, she couldn't quite get her head around the whole situation. She and Ville Valo, locked up in a house together? What did they have in common? Nothing, from what she could tell. He was a celebrity and she was just some reformed junkie that he had found in a tattoo shop. She wondered if she was merely a distraction. He had mentioned something to Kat about a bad break up and a dire need to 'get away from it all', so perhaps she was merely something to keep him amused in the meantime.
She sighed and pulled her iPod out of her carry-on, popping the earphones in and switching it on, flicking it to the new HIM album. She skimmed through the songs for a moment, before finally settling on 'Ode to Solitude'. She turned the volume all the way up and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes. Some turbulence shook her for a moment and then she began to drift off to sleep, hoping against hope that she wouldn't be plagued by any of her living nightmares before the plane landed.
Ville paced around the Pirate Bar nervously. Destiny was, at this very minute, in an airplane somewhere above Pennsylvania, due to land in Philadelphia at any moment. He didn't know why he was behaving like a school boy waiting for his prom date to show up, but he couldn't help it.
Missy walked through the room, not looking at him or speaking to him. He guessed Bam had indeed confronted her about what Ville had confessed to him in the kitchen. Whatever, it didn't bother him at all. Not only was Missy his best friend's wife, she was also not his type. Plus, Ville had hated being put in the awkward situation of rejecting her advances. When Bam and Missy had first gotten married, he had really liked her. But something had changed and she had become a whole different person. He struggled to understand why Bam was still putting up with her. He could understand giving love a second chance, but it was plain that Missy was no longer the woman he married.
Ville sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair.
Just when he thought he was about to burst with the suspense, Bam bounded into the Pirate Bar in his customary boisterous manner.
"C'mon, Valo, lets go! Time to pick up your lady." he announced, a wide grin plastered across his face.
Ville frowned at him slightly.
"She's not my 'lady', Bam." he reminded his friend. "Merely someone I'm interested in getting to know."
Bam rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, whatever, you Finnish Romeo." he said with a wink. "Get your ass into the Hummer and lets get out of here!"
As Destiny walked through baggage claim, she kept her eyes peeled for Ville. He had no said what he would be wearing, nor what sort of car he would be in, so she merely scanned the parking lot looking for those all-too-familiar green eyes that she had seen in her dreams at least a dozen times since meeting him.
Finally, she spotted him and another, much shorter man leaning against a big, blue Hummer. She squinted hard to see if the short man was indeed who she thought he was.
Bam Margera. No doubt about it. That cheeky grin and thick, curly mop of dark brown hair could not be mistaken. She smiled. She loved Viva La Bam. She used to watch it religiously, even when she was so stoned out of her skull that she could barely move.
When she approached them, she could have sworn that Ville's emerald green eyes lit up. She shook her head, positive that she must have imagined it, but when she looked back up, there it was again. A sparkle somewhere deep within his eyes that had certainly not been there a second before.
When she finally stopped directly in front of them, he smiled.
"Destiny, good to see you? How was the flight?" he said, extending his hand.
She shook it.
"Oh, it was okay. Uneventful." she said, shrugging.
Bam cleared his throat and started pointedly at Ville.
"Oh, right!" Ville exclaimed. "Destiny, this is my good friend-"
"Bam Margera." she cut him off, offering the skateboarder her hand.
He shook it enthusiastically.
"Heard a lot about you." he told her, causing Ville to blush.
"Christ, Bam, you're making me sound like some kind of weird stalker!" he exclaimed.
Destiny and Bam laughed.
"Anyway." Bam continued. "You'll be staying at my house. Booze is on me, so feel free to stay as long as you want."
She grinned at him.
"Careful." she warned him. "Offer me free access to your house and you may never get rid of me. I've always dreamed of living at Castle Bam."
Both Ville and Bam laughed.
"Honey, if you make my Ville happy then I wouldn't mind in the slightest. Maybe it would inspire him to visit more often."
She grinned at Ville, who smiled shyly back. This surprised her. Finnish Rock God, nervous of Former Rock Addict? It was unthinkable.
"Anyway." said Bam, breaking the momentary silence. "Enough of this small-talk shit, lets get back to the house and get drunk!"
The all climbed into the waiting Hummer, Ville extending a hand to help the diminutive Destiny up, and set off at top speed towards Castle Bam.
On the drive home, Bam kept shooting glances over his shoulder in the rearview mirror. When Ville had invited Destiny to stay, he had not mentioned that she was a total knockout. This could only end badly for a man trying desperately to keep his marriage intact. He didn't speak, but merely listened to Ville and Destiny talking in the back seat.
"I like what you've done with your hair." Ville said, twisting a strand of it around his finger.
Destiny smiled.
"Thanks. But then, anything would be better than that nasty-ass red I had in it." she said ruefully.
Ville chuckled and put his arm around her shoulders, sending a pang of jealousy through Bam's stomach.
"It's not a shade I would recommend." he admitted in his deep voice. "So where are you living now that you're out of rehab?"
She wrinkled her small, delicate nose.
"In this shitty one bedroom apartment that the clinic set up. It's just until I can find my own place." she assured him.
"Well, like Bam said, you're more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like." he reminded her.
She smiled up at him, her brown eyes sparkling.
"I just might." she stated with a wink.
As the Hummer pulled into the driveway of Castle Bam, Destiny stared out the window in awe. She didn't try to hide her amazement at the sheer size and opulence of the place. Ville found it irresistibly adorable. He helped her down from the Hummer and led her by the hand to Bam's front door, Bam himself following not far behind them.
When they entered the house, Bam yelled at the men lazing around in the kitchen to come outside and help him with Destiny's luggage.
"And it anything gets broken, the culprit sleeps out in the Treetop Casino for a week!" he warned as they all followed him out to the Hummer and began to unload Destiny's bags.
While they were busy, Ville gave Destiny a quick tour of the house which ended in the infamous Pirate Bar, where a young woman with straight brown hair and a sour expression sat, nursing a glass of wine and avidly reading a magazine.
"This is Missy, Bam's wife." he introduced her.
When Missy failed to acknowledge him, he cleared his throat, forcing her to look up.
"Hello." she said, shooting Destiny a withering glare.
"Hi!" Destiny replied, offering her hand out for Missy to shake.
When the older woman simply continued to look at Destiny's outstretched hand like it was carrying some horrible, contagious disease, she retracted it, looking up at Ville questioningly. He merely shook his head and led her out to the deck, where he sat down on a lounger and lit up a cigarette, offering her one at the same time. She took it and then leaned forward to accept his offer of a light. Taking a deep drag on the strong Finnish cigarette, she sat back in the lounger opposite Ville.
"What was her problem?" she asked after a second, gesturing back inside towards Missy.
"Just some marital problems between her and Bam." he said non-noncommittally
"What kind of problems?" Destiny pressed, anxious to be brought up to speed on the daily comings and goings of Castle Bam so she could be sure not to offend anyone else in future.
Ville inhaled on his cigarette, allowing the smoke to drift from his nostrils in a lazy spiral.
"I'm not exactly sure what started the problems, but all I know is that they've gotten bad enough for her to physically throw herself at me every chance she gets." he said casually.
Destiny's eyes widened.
"Are you serious!"
Ville merely nodded.
"That is, until the other day when I told Bam about it. I think he must have said something to her because now, she won't even look at me. Not that I'm complaining." he added quickly.
"It isn't fun having your best friend's significant other come onto you." she said knowledgeably. "It puts you in the awkward position of 'Do I tell them? Do I not tell them? Am I totally ruining their relationship if I say something or am I totally ruining our friendship by not saying something?'."
Ville glanced at her, his eyebrows raised.
"Sounds like there's a story behind that bit of insight, love." he stated, taking a final drag on his cigarette and then tossing it over the railing.
Destiny was silent for a moment.
"There is." she agreed, she too tossing her cigarette butt off the deck. "But that's for another time."
Ville stayed silent, not wanting to push her. The fact that she was here was enough. It was still in the 'getting to know you' phase. He had a feeling that the 'skeletons in my closet' stage wasn't too far off, and he planned on being nothing but patient with this extraordinary girl.