"…you told the greatest stories of love and bleeding crowns, but to the sick and hungry, you cannot be found…"
Oh my apologies for such a late posting. I was singing to one of my favourite Black Veil Brides songs ever. Nooo not really. But I am sorry this chapter is so late. Things just got in the way; you guys know how life can be sometimes. But I finally kicked my ass into gear and got with the program. And I think you'll appreciate it. This chapter is one of my favourites.
Now, I got a few messages from some people asking me to update and such. I DO appreciate that you guys love the story that much, but just remember that life does tend to get in the way and a story cannot be rushed or it won't be good. Thank you all soo much for the love and support. Andy and I both appreciate it :D
Enjoy!
Hello all.. {Chapter Four - Her Quirks & Counting Stars}
After getting a phone call from the doctor, bright and oh so early, about my follow up appointment, I couldn't go back to sleep. And since he said that I should be able to move about the house by myself now, I decided to let Andy sleep in and not worry about me. The doctor said that as long as I didn't strain myself I should be able to handle most things on my own now; just to take it easy and then sooner or later I'd be back to normal. I was more than happy to hear this, because I was sick of being stuck in the bed all day. It'd been a week and a half since the incident at the concert, but it'd felt like a year and a half.
Needing some fresh air, I headed outside to check the mail and stretch my legs. The sky was slightly overcast but I didn't mind that; I didn't particularly like the sun. Not like most normal people did. Checking the mail, I saw that we didn't have any then started back towards the house. I raised my arms up and stretched them into the air, feeling my arm muscles expand slightly. I'd have to be more careful from now on. Because I surely didn't like laying in bed all the time, and I surely didn't want others having to wait on me hand and foot anymore. It just made me feel uncomfortable. Now I could get back on my feet and do as I pleased, but the slight revelation made me think of Andy having to leave and honestly, I didn't want him too.
Upon entering the house, I was greeted with an interrogation.
"Where were you? Why aren't you in bed? Are you all right? Did you need something?"
I laughed lightly at Andy's bombarding of questions. "Andy, I'm all right. I was just out checking the mail."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "May I ask why?"
"Because… to see if there was any mail in the mailbox…?" I replied, a questioning tone to my voice.
He pursed his lips. "What I mean is, why didn't you ask me to do it? You should be in bed."
Then I realized, he'd been asleep when the doctor called. He wouldn't have known about my progress.
"It's okay, I'm official. Doctor called not too long ago and said that I should be able to move about the house now."
He eyed me warily, a slight smile on his face. "Well all right, but you scared me."
We headed into the living room, where I sat on the couch and grabbed the television remote. "I didn't mean to, promise." I smiled brightly at him.
He followed me into the room and sat in the chair next to me. We flipped through the channels, not really aiming to watch anything. He really didn't mind what we watched, as he was texting back and forth with one of his band mates. Apparently, he was needed for some business meetings about the upcoming drop of their new album but he'd told me that he wasn't quite ready to head back into the real world just yet. He liked this 'vacation' he was on. Though I knew he couldn't put it off forever and the thought made me sad. Even though it had only been a week and a half since I'd personally met him, it felt like it had been forever and I'd gotten to know him so well. He was already such a good friend.
Anna also kept telling me that I should make a move soon as well. That she saw all the time that he was way into me. I wanted to believe her, trust me, I really did. But sometimes I was so shy when it came to guys; I didn't have the best history. And this was Andy Sixx. I mean, I'd seen the last girl he'd been with and there was no way I could compare. But still, there was something in my gut telling me that I had to get him to stick around a little while longer. Because I really did want him to stay...
Seeing as there was nothing really on television, and I really didn't care to hang around the house anymore, I looked over at Andy who was busy texting away. I wasn't even sure he'd really looked up at the television screen since we'd come into the living room. I couldn't blame him though, he was thinking about a lot. His band had cancelled the last few tour dates because he'd wanted to stay here, and then there was the fact that he still had that album hanging over his head, so I nudged his leg with my foot and to get his attention.
"Let's go do something." I said, bluntly.
He simply just looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"You know, go out... and partake in vigorous activity?" I said sarcastically.
He smiled hesitantly. "Are you sure you're up for that?"
Laughing lightly, I nodded. Truth was, I was so ready to get out of this house, I could explode. Sure, technically I wasn't supposed to go out and strain myself yet, but I'd be careful and I'd be with Andy; who I'm sure would be more than happy to do anything I needed him too.
Standing up, I raised a brow at him. "Come on, please?"
He took a deep breath, raising a brow at me and I squealed in victory. I'd won him over. Heading into my room, I got changed and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. I didn't feel much like straightening it at the moment. It was overcast and humid outside, it would just frizz anyways. The only thing that had to go right was the day. I wanted to show him everything I could about where I was from and that if he wanted to, he could always come back to visit. The thoughts circled into my mind as I finished applying my makeup and just then, Andy poked his head in, he was ready.
I smiled at him, and got up, sliding on my vans shoes. Digging into my purse, I searched for my keys and when I found them, Andy snatched them out of my hands.
"Dude?" I scoffed, smiling at the same time.
"You let me drive, you're still healing, despite what the doc said." He pursed his lips at me.
Rolling my eyes, I laughed. "Fine, let's go Mr. Biersack."
"HEY! What'd I say about that god awful name?" He said as we left the house.
There wasn't much to show him, as I lived in a very small town. But I figured that if I was going to make the best of this then I had to do what I could with what I had. First off, from my house to town was a long drive itself so I spent a lot of time showing and telling him different things about how I was sure the landscape here was different than what he was accustomed to.
There were a lot of cattle out in the open fields, especially long horned cows. We saw a few rare white tailed deer skirt by off the road and into the woods. You usually didn't see those until the very early morning when it was still and they were sure that no one would mess with them. Andy asked, very sarcastic like, if people wore cowboy hats and chaps, and still got around usually on horses. I couldn't help but laugh at his humor. He was making it so easy to be around him. I never wanted him to leave.
"No... while I do live in Texas, we are a bit more industrialized." I said, laughing lightly.
He snapped his fingers. "Damn, I was hoping to see some sort of shoot out, or a draw or something." He looked over at me from his seat and gave me a quirky smile.
When we came into town, I showed him our very small city hall that I actually had never gone into myself, but still, I thought he might have some interest in it. Next, we drove through town, seeing people go about their business, following their daily routines and I realized… I lived in a boring town. But when I looked at Andy, he seemed to have the most interest in it that I'd ever seen in anyone. The time moved by so quickly after that, that I didn't even notice my stomach start to growl. Andy pointed it out for me when we got back into the car after having skipped rocks at the lake, one of my favourite things to do, even though I sucked at it big time.
"Sounds like you might be a bit hungry," Andy said, slipping the key into the ignition.
My head whipped over to where he sat as I slipped on my seatbelt, and yet again, his face rendered me breathless. As I tried to look at his face, buckle my belt, and respond to his statement all at once, it proved to be true that I'm a simple minded creature that cannot multitask to save her life. As I opened my mouth, the belt buckle slipped from my hand and slapped me right in the face.
"Motherfuck!" I yelled.
My hands covered my face and I heard Andy right away, asking if I was all right. I wanted so badly to start crying. Usually I have a high tolerance to pain, I really do, but this was a metal belt buckle that had been sitting in the sun and it just whacked me in the face.
"Oh my god, I can't believe that just happened. And in front Andy freaking Sixx too… " That last bit I sort of mumbled to myself, not sure if Andy heard it or not.
I heard him chuckle and I suddenly felt one of his hands over mine and I flinched, not sure how to respond.
"Katie, let me see." He said, his voice soft and calm.
"I'm fine, really, totally fine." I replied, the searing sting from the belt still apparent.
"Okay, but still, let me look." He persisted, his hands prying my own away.
Knowing that my face was probably already swollen -again- I cringed and pulled my hands away from my face, the slightest movement, making my skin sting. With my hands out of the way, I heard him hiss in empathy of my pain.
"Wow, you whacked yourself pretty good, it's already bruising."
"Great. Now you know," I said, to him but not really meaning to.
He furrowed his brows. "Know what?"
I laughed humorlessly before looking at him. "That I'm a complete and total klutz."
It was no secret to my family and friends that I was a complete and total klutz. If there was a way for me to fall, then I'd find it. Even if there wasn't a way for me to fall, still, I'd find my face hitting the ground whenever possible. I had been hoping to avoid that with Andy; so much for that.
He smiled that cute, boyish smile that I'd already come to love so much and shook his head. "No matter, we all have 'moments'." He replied.
He examined my face a bit more before we decided to head somewhere to get a bite to eat. Seeing as I lived in BFE or rather 'Bum Fucked Egypt', there weren't a whole lot of good places to choose from, so we headed into the next town over where I knew we could find something he'd enjoy. After a bit of deliberation, we finally settled on a small 'hole in the wall' type place that I'd been to a few times, knowing they had kick ass burgers.
We walked in and were seated by a waitress and given time to decide what we wanted to eat.
"So this place has good burgers, eh?" Andy asked, his eyes scanning the menu.
"Yeah, they're really good," I replied, pressing my fingers to my face where the belt smacked me. "Anna and I love this place."
"Leave it alone, you're only gonna make it hurt worse." He said, not even looking at me.
Instantly, my hand dropped from my face and he smiled at me. Continuing to look over the menus, we decided soon after what we both wanted and placed our orders. A couple of people gave Andy some weird looks, and a couple of people freaked out but didn't have the courage to approach him. Me being me, I began to feel a bit smug, but I didn't let it show. That wouldn't be cool, not in front of Andy.
We sipped at our drinks and made small talk, he asked if I'd lived here all my life and I told him, 'Sadly yes,' but made a laughable joke about it. Eventually the conversation edged into what other bands I liked, seeing as he'd noticed all the CD's in my room. I went into full length detail about some of the bands that I was recently obsessed with, and not once did he try to interject. He just sat and listened. It wasn't until our food came out, that I realized I'd run my mouth like some sort of babbling idiot.
"Here you are, enjoy," The waitress said, setting our food down.
After she left, I leaned close to Andy. "You could have mentioned that I was running my mouth like a motor."
He shook his head. "No, I liked it. You say interesting things." He smiled again.
My heart squeezed. He'd have to stop that soon.
"You were so right, damn good burger," Andy said, sitting back in the booth seat, patting his stomach.
"Told you so." I replied smiling widely, causing my face to hurt a bit and winced.
Andy eyed me quietly, before pulling out his wallet. "We should probably get you back home so we can ice that," He pointed to my face. He started to set two twenties on the table but I stopped him.
"No way, I got it. I'm showing you around." I said, pushing the money back towards him.
He scoffed and put the money back on the table. "Katie, I got more money than I know what do with sometimes. Besides, what sort of gentleman would I be if I let you pay?"
I suppressed another urge to squeal and let him pick up the check. After paying for our food, we got back in the car and headed home. It was pushing 5 already. How had that happen? When we left, it was only 10:30 when we'd left the house. I guess I was just that comfortable with him already. Time had flown and I had barely noticed it., that had to mean something didn't it?
As we turned the corner, I saw my grandmother's car in the driveway. "Lovely she's home early."
Andy laughed. "Why is that bad?"
"She's gonna wonder where this came from," I said pointing to my face.
He laughed again. "Just tell her."
Shaking my head, I replied. "Apparently, in the time you've spent with us, you've learned nothing about that woman. She's not that easy to satisfy."
We headed into the house, and I dropped my purse by the door. Andy came in after me and my grandmother sat in the living room, a look of 'You better talk now' on her face. But it changes as soon as she saw the blackening bruise under my left eye.
"What the hell happened to you?"
Rolling my eyes, I headed to sit next to her so she could examine my face, just like I knew she would demand to do anyways. She put on her glasses and looked, touching my face and making the whelp sting. Andy just stood by the door, not sure what to do.
My grandmother turned my head towards the overhead light. "This is gonna be here for awhile. Did you do this to her?" She looked at Andy.
Andy's mouth opened but nothing came out; I wanted to die.
"No he didn't. I… slapped myself in the face, with a belt buckle…again."
"Well Christ, how hard did you have the belt pulled down to buckle it? You did some damage."
"It's nothing. I'll ice it and I'll be fine. People need to stop fussing over me!"
Biting the bottom of my lip, I realized what I said and looked at Andy. All he did was give me a sweet smile. I'd have to apologize for that statement, because Andy hadn't been fussing over me at all. He never had; since the concert, he hadn't fussed over me. He was just being nice. Sometimes I said the wrong things and the very wrong time.
"Go put ice on it, and some ice on that temper of yours as well," She said, as I went into the kitchen.
I made an icepack and motioned for Andy to follow me out to the back to sit outside. Sitting down on one of the steps on the back porch, I put the ice to my face and it stung, but I expected that. What I didn't expect was the sting from Andy. The incredibly sweet sting.
"You know, you're rather amazing." He said, coming in front of me and leaning on the railing of the steps.
I stifled very sarcastic laughter. "O…kay, if you believe so."
He nodded. "I do."
This boy was the epitome of perfect. He was everything I'd been asking for. I was starting to think, more and more, that Anna was right. But I didn't know how to make the first move to save my life because I was too damn shy. Sure, I could be friends with him, no problem. But anything more? That required a lot of work from my end simply because I made too much work for myself. I stressed and over thought things. In the end, I always worked myself into a frenzy when it came to boys and having a romantic relationship.
"Well, I'm warning you now, I don't think I'm always so amazing." I said, pulling the ice away from my face.
He cringed at what I assumed to be a mess on my face, but smiled. "I'll be the judge of that."
ANDY'S POV
I don't think she realized just how amazing she truly was. After having spent so much time with her, on such a personal level, I'd come to know her in a way that I didn't know anyone else. In fact, it was probably the best thing that had happened to me. Since all I was doing nowadays was writing, doing band rehearsals, or touring, I hardly knew what it meant to connect with someone on such a personal level. And she brought that back to me. She reminded me what it's like to get to know a person.
She may have thought she was weird, but I just thought she was interesting. Every new day that I spent with her, I learned something different.
Like that when something startled her, she laughed. Or like when she got really lost in a book, she chewed the bottom of her lip without realizing it. Or when she sang along with a song, she made sure to pay attention to each emotional note.
I could have gone on forever about the things I noticed about her. But it's what I was thanking her for. I couldn't tell you the quirky things about any of my band mates and I felt so terrible about that. She's opened up my eyes and really made me see; I'm not just looking anymore.
"You're gonna need to keep ice on that for the rest of tonight," I said, looking at her face again.
She nodded and we just enjoyed the setting sun and the soft wind. She told me that it wasn't like that too often around her part of state. Usually it was just hot, humid, and still. But on rare occasions, the wind flowed just right and it was too pleasant to pass up by sitting in the house.
Before long, the sky had gone dark, and the crickets and frogs were singing. We sat next to eachother on the steps, looking up at the stars, wondering aloud how many we thought were actually out there.
"Man, I'd hate to have to be the person to count them all," She said and giggled. "I wonder if there is really someone who has to count stars…" She said, not really inquiring, but actually wondering.
I chuckled and she looked at me. Her face still very pretty despite the black bruise taking up most of it. "I know that's a silly thing to ask."
"No, it's not. It's something that no one else would ask, so you did." I replied.
She became silent for a few moments, and I began to wonder what she was thinking. I would have given anything to be a mind reader, well except being there with her, but I would given almost anything; just to hear her thoughts. It had only been a week and a half since she'd come into my life, but what a whirl wind she'd caused. And I wasn't sure I was ready to put my feet back on the ground.
She finally looked back at me again, and took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. It was rude," Her voice was quiet and timid; afraid almost.
"What did you say?" I asked, wanting to know just what she meant.
She bit her bottom lip in hesitation before speaking again.
"Well when I told my grandmother that everyone needed to stop fussing over me, I realized that you'd done a lot in the last week. You'd done so much that you really didn't have to do and I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate it because I really, really do. And I-"
I stopped her by placing a finger to her lips.
"Katie, it's all right. I may still be figuring out your grandmother," He said looking towards the house. "But I've learned a few things about you."
"Like?" She asked, a very sweet and warm blush taking over her face.
"That you're pretty stubborn, that you don't want others doing for you what you could easily do for yourself, that you hide pain by laughing it off… even if it's a searing hot belt buckle in the face." I laughed.
She did too, and it wasn't just a quiet chuckle, she really laughed, as if she needed to hear me say what I'd said. It was like the music I'd never written, her laugh. Very pure and melodic, almost like wind chimes in a soft breeze. Kinda like the one tonight.
"So, you wanna try counting the stars?" I asked.
It started out when I met this girl
She threw me down on this spinning world
I'm over my head, yeah it could have been but...
I'm a bird with broken wings
She's a song I love to sing
Come curl up to me, we'll let our bodies test their chemistry
She's got blue eyes and a smile like the sun
And then she cries "I think I'm done.."
But then I swear that she's the one
(Swear she's the one)
I swear that she's the one
(Swear that she's the one)
I swear that she's the one
(Swear that she's the one)
I swear that she's the one
That I'm falling for
Oh, oh, oh!
What's this? Is Andy really falling for this girl?
Hope this chapter made up for such a long absence and I will try my best not to let it happen again. I really do enjoy writing this story; Katie & Andy are one of my favourite pairings that I've written. Does everyone like the POV from Andy, and would you like to see more? Let me know your thoughts and such!
Andy would appreciate it much :D
Song credit "I Swear She's The One" by Sparks The Rescue
