Verboten
Chapter 20

Friday, September 18, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club. I do own Andy's real name though.

Fore Note: Thus starts another adventure. Roxy is comatose and Bloom has gone missing. Will things ever get back to normal? An even deeper question, what is normal?

It was late. Not too late but late enough. About nine o'clock.

The streets of Gardenia were lit with street lamps and everyone had taken to staying inside. The wind blew a frigid chill over the city; a sure sign that autumn was coming. Gold and red leaves were already starting to litter the streets, much to the dismay of front yard owners. The seasons did not care though. They went on their eternal march one after the other without so much as a thought for humans and their feelings. The change of seasons meant many things for many people.

For Andrea Amorelli, he did not know what it meant for him. College would start for him again he supposed and the band would have to be put on hold for a bit so that they could adjust. He planned to still play gigs at the Frutti Music Bar but he had no aspirations for fame and fortune. He simply loved music and loved to share it with his loved ones but he did not wish to complicate his love with money. It would lead to too many troubles.

That, however, did not make him spiteful towards other musicians who had such aspirations. Who was he to rain on their party? He certainly was not going to ruin it for Musa with her magical voice. She deserved it but he hoped that she did get swept with all the greediness that came along. He hoped the best for her.

Andy sat on a couch poring over his new schedules and trying to make sense of it all. All the lights in the house were off except for the living room and kitchen and his parents were out in the backyard having some alone time of their own. He had satisfactorily gotten all his classes; music history, music appreciation, vocal interpretation, etc.

It was moments like this when he wondered: where the hell was he going with his life? Quiet moments as if the flow of time itself had stopped. He found himself wallowing in some misplaced nostalgia. That question came out of nowhere. He hoped it never came back again.

It idly poked at his brain and Andy gave in. He seriously did not know where he was going. So many things had happened in the past month. Bloom came out of nowhere with that new boyfriend of hers that he refused to acknowledge plus some new friends from whatever foreign school Bloom had went to. Apparently, they had come from Greece. Which was all too coincidental because how did all of Bloom's friends and their boyfriends all end up in Gardenia? Gardenia was not a major city center with its one university and international wharves. It was nothing special but it was rather peculiar.

There was Riven, the egotistical redhead maniac who was rather objectionable of Musa's choices and the major moody jackass of the group. There was Helia, philosophically flaky but obviously had an appreciation of all forms of art and Andy had taken to him immediately. Nabu was right up there with Helia but not as philosophical as he was well-grounded. His mind did turn to mush a little when his girlfriend Layla was around but that was fine. Brandon was somewhat of a mystery to him. He seemed just the shell of a person who did whatever someone told him to do. He was rather disturbingly subservient in a sense and did not react much to anything. He was a good person, Andy could tell with a lovely girlfriend but he seemed to be worn down by something. Timmy, although he worked somewhere else, was the geek of the little group and he and Andy hit it off rather well. He was pretty sensible and Andy liked that in a guy.

Lastly, the blond sonavabitch guy thing machine of mass destruction asshole who throws knives…thing…

Andy's mind took to grim thoughts.

You think you know a guy until he starts throwing switchblades and serving trays at people the accuracy of a sniper.

Sky had been, officially, the nicest person of the entire group. (What kind of name was 'Sky'?) He was sociable, cheerful, polite and good-looking in his own right for a blond. He was the image of a saint. He treated all customers with respect as if their very choice would make or break his heart (blue puppy eyes helped). He made everyone feel important and powerful.

And that was dangerous, Andy reflected. The musician could feel something simmering under the surface, an unreadable emotion that no one seemed to understand. It was dark, for sure. The man kept secrets. Dark secrets probably. (Who didn't have them?) Sky was the observant one of the group and often played the role of diplomat. He was as talkative as he was silent with that serious stare of his and the smirk gently pulling at his lips. It was unnerving to Andy.

And Bloom had to be the one hitched to him.

How the hell had that happened?

When had it happened?

It took a lot for Andy to just not go up to the guy and kick his ass for simply existing. The guy screamed that something was wrong and Bloom was engaged to him. She wanted to be his wife of all things?!

If he had ever tried to even lay a finger on him, Andy wondered if he would even have a hand afterwards. He knew that all the guys had a degree of martial arts skill and that was probably the reason why they were friends. It was more than evident when they practised on the beach. They ranged from gentle tai chi to judo to hard-core military style combat. They fought as if their lives depended on it sometimes and that freaked the crap out of Andy. What kind of man fights with that much determination?

A man who fights for his life, something told him.

Andy himself had done some aikido in high school but that was nothing special. He wondered if any of them were legitimately Greek at all. Helia seemed most likely with his name but distinctly looked like a cross between Asian and some unidentifiable European. Riven had a very English name but had Asian screaming about him. Nabu was obviously African. Timmy and Brandon looked more like Europeans with both of them being somewhere around the British Isles. Sky was maybe somewhere in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. That did not matter much considering all the immigration going around in the world though.

Andy would have written them off as trouble of the illegal kind if they had not been able to actually speak Greek. Funny thing was, they could!? Andy had taken his high school Greek (barely passed it) and he freaked out when Helia spoke to him in a slightly accented version of the language. That truly freaked the shit out of him. He did not believe that they were Greek until they all spoke to him with different dialects of the same language. That was just freaking freaky.

Still, he knew something was wrong.

Andy was jarred out of his reverie by the sound of the doorbell. He jumped in his seat and wondered who would be visiting at this hour. He grumbled slightly as he got out of his comfortable spot on the couch and went to answer the door.

What he found was the living shell of his ex-girlfriend.

She was a ghost with pale skin and haunted blue eyes. She trembled violently and her face was wet with tears. She held herself nervously and she refused to look him in the eye. She hiccupped frequently and had her arms wrapped about her protectively like she was naked.

Andy, stunned, asked, "What happened?!"

"I-I-I…" Bloom sobbed out pitifully. "I di-didn't mean t-to…"

Andy quickly guided her in to the living room and told her to sit.

"God, Bloom, what happened?!" was all he good say. He held her by her arms tightly. God, what had brought to this state?

Bloom curled into a ball on his couch. She sobbed into his embrace. "Omigod, he…h-hates me! I know he hates! I was so stupid, Andy. I don't know what to do. He's mad at me, I know it!"

Bloom honestly looked horrible. Terrible, tattered, even destroyed. Dark bands started to form under her eyes and her fiery hair was a mess. Her shoulders quaked often and she often rubbed her hands together as if trying to wash something away. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had not slept much or even well. There was a sniff in her nose and her lips were dry.

He supplied her with Kleenex and she blew her nose like a trumpet. "What am I going to do? They're going to kill me! I know it." She started to rock herself nervously. Andy held her tightly.

He worried as he listened to her. She said that someone would want her dead. She had done something stupid but Bloom could do no evil, he though. Who would want her dead? Bloom was the nicest person on the planet. She sounded as if she were in deep trouble. What the hell had happened this afternoon? She was perfectly fined when she had called him earlier today for the concert at the bar.

"But why are you here? What did you do?"

"I-I-I was st-stupid, Andy!" she mumbled. "Please, can I just stay the night? Just one night and I will never ever bother you again. I know I shouldn't be here and I promise that I won't come back!"

"No-no, stay!"

His mother walked in with a question laced on her brow. "Who was at the door, Andy?" Her eyes landed on the redhead. "Bloom? What are you doing here?" Seeing that she was distraught and unable to answer, she looked to her son. She whispered, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. Can she stay the night?"

"What?!" his mothered said a little too loudly. Bloom cringed.

Andy got up from his seat, looked back to see if Bloom would be fine and waved his mother into the kitchen quickly.

"Andy, what is going on here?!" he mother whispered angrily.

"Mom, this isn't what you think it is! I seriously don't know what happened! She just appeared at the door like that," Andy said helplessly.

"Then send her home to her parents."

"Mom, look at how late it is?! Look how awful she is! Just let her stay the night, Mom. Please?"

It was a half later after Mrs. Amorelli gave in and let Bloom stay in the guest room. She lent her some clothes to sleep in. Andy worried immensely as he saw his mother guide her to the guest room. She had said that they would kill her. Who would?

Latter Note: I bet half of you were expecting me to send Bloom to her parents. Nope, too classic. It's Andy's turn to suffer. *evil laugh*

1) Officially, in the show, the specialists have never stated where they were from but in this story, I'm making it Greece. One, it gives us a plot that we can grasp for secondary characters to think. Two, Helia's name is Greek (even though it's a girl's name...) and a lot of good things came from the Antiquity. I have a theory as to why the boys can speak Greek.
2) I made up Andy's real name, Andrea. Andrea is a male Italian name in contrast to it being normally heard as a female English name. Andrea is the equivalent of Andrew from Italian to English. So no, his parents did not get confused with his gender at birth. :)
3) Andy's last name is not canon, not official. It is a real name by itself. None of the Winx characters have ever been given a lastname except for Bloom's in the 4kids books ('Peters').
4) Riven's name is Old English. It means 'to be torn apart' as in the verb 'rip.'
5) Andy called Helia 'flaky.' That usually means that you're cheesy or strange. It's a bit of slang. If you bother to look this up on Google, do not go to Urban Dictionary.
6) For fair's sake, there is nothing realistically wrong with Andy knowing aikido. Any kid can learn a martial art and I don't think Andy is going to be different! It's just like judo, tae kwon do and karate!