We'll Brave This Storm

"He did what?" Ashley questioned loudly, his voice echoing through his empty apartment. Him and I were currently sitting in his kitchen, chatting over two cups of coffee. Well, it was supposed to be coffee but I chose tea and Ashley, being the party animal he was, chose a bottle of beer. I was now telling him about what happened between Andy and I.
I nodded sadly, "Yeah, he did Ash."
"That seems so," he trailed off. "So un-Andy like. He's usually as quiet and thoughtful as a mouse." I chuckled darkly at his strange analogy, unsure of how to respond.
"Well, the mouse must have came up with rabies or something cause he did all of that. Not to mention bringing Ronnie into all of this."
"He even brought Radke into this?" Ashley questioned completely shocked. I only skimmed over a few parts when I told David, but I just unleashed onto Ash. I felt bad pouring all of this on him, but he asked and it felt kind of good to get it out.
"Yeah," I nodded giving him a quick run down of what happened yesterday, ignoring the whole drawer thing obviously. "Ronnie had dropped me off about an hour or so before you and I started talking over the phone. Andy ended up spying on Ronnie and I so," I trailed off quietly. "I gave him something to look at." Ashley cut me off.
"Gave him something to look at," he trailed off, his eyebrows furrowing but then going wide. "You kissed Ronnie?" I nodded sheepishly, starting to feel as if what I had done was wrong. Ashley bit the inside of his lip, "Okay so what else happened?"
"We said goodbye, he drove off, I walked up my lawn and boom, confrontation." I told him just about every word that was exchanged that day. I took sip of tea, coating over my now hoarse voice from talking.
"Wow," Ashley breathed out before he took a much needed swig from the bottle. I don't blame him, I feel like I need a beer myself. "Want me to talk to Andy? Maybe I could see what's up."
"I don't know Ash, I don't want you getting thrown into all this as well."
"I get where your coming from," he nodded, dropping the subject. We then treded onto happier subjects. The rest of the evening was wasted away on his livingroom couch, sipping on more tea and watching reality TV.
-x-
Ashley's POV
Thursday; January 3, 2008; 10:34 pm
"Oh, Ashley," Mrs. Biersack smiled up at me stopping in her tracks. She slid her black business purse up to her shoulder and balanced a coffee thermos atop a few stacks of paper. "What are you doing here this early in the morning? The clock is barely rounding ten-forty. Aren't you usually asleep at this time?"
"Yeah," I nodded chuckling, "it's a bit early for me to be around here but I'm here to see Andy."
"I figured that," she chuckled back. "Good luck trying to get him up and out of his room though, or even out of bed. He's been having a rough week. Something about the band, maybe?" Oh, so he hadn't told his family about the whole Lexi/Brittany incident. I figured he would, due to how close they all are, but I guess not. "I'm not 100% sure though, I just know I am running late for work. I gotta be in my office by eleven."
"Ooh," I hissed slightly. "Traffic out there is terrible, you better get a move on." With that we bid our goodbyes and she scurried off to her car.
I stepped onto the Biersack's porch, the sound of one of their four cars peeling out of the drive way sounding in the background. I pulled out my set of keys, searching for the spare Andy had given me long ago. Once I retrieved the key I strolled inside, immediately going to Andy's room.
I barged in, not even bothering to knock, something Andy had hated, but I think this was an exception. He was sprawled out on his bed. Pieces of lined paper, some crumpled into balls and others slightly crinkled.
"Andy," I said loudly, but not loud enough to wake anyone else in the house. He just groaned as rolled over to his right, crinkling more papers in his attempt to ignore my calls. "Andy, dude get up."
He popped one eye open, squinting to adjust his vision on me. I'm taking a guess that he read the wall clock behind me and he let out a groan.
"What do you want," he questioned mumbling.
"We gotta talk, man."
"What do mean," he asked. His eyes went wide and he let out a fake gasp. "Are you gonna break up with me?"
"Hardy-har-har," I rolled my eyes. He sat up, laughing at his own stupid sarcasm and rubbed his tired eyes.
"Hardy-har-har is right, but seriously. What do you want? It's too early to be up."
"What happened last Saturday?" I picked up a sleeping Batman from the leather computer chair that was in the room as well and took a seat. I placed Batman back on my lap, petting the still sleeping puppy. Man, was that dog a heavy sleeper.
A look of confusion scribbled on his face and it showed in his voice too. He repeated what I said. "Last Saturday." His eyes then widened and he realized why I was here.
"Yeah," I nodded, confirming what I said was indeed last Saturday. He then begin to give me his side of the story.
"Well," he begun, "last Sunday was Lexi and I's one week anniversary. I wouldn't have been able to see her that day though because we were heading up to my grandparent's house. You know, like we do every new year." I nodded at his words, running my hand through the puppy's hair. He continued his words.
"So I decided to be a good boyfriend and celebrate it on Saturday, a day her and I could both be together. I wrote a song from the heart and everything, that was my gift to her. I called her that morning, told her to come over whenever she was ready. About ten minutes later I got a knock on the front door." He inhaled a deep breath, reaching off the bed to grab a half empty bottle of water that was on the floor. He uncapped it, letting the water coat his drying mouth and continued once more. Hopefully without interruption cause I wanted to hear what he was about to say.
"I went to go answer the door, thinking it was her, even though that would be a fast arrival. I opened the door to see Brittany standing there."
If my eyes could go any wider, they'd pop out of my head. I stopped petting Batman for a moment. "Brittany? As in the Brittany. That had tore out your still beating heart?" Let me tell you a bit about Brittany. She and Andy had been together for as long as I've known him, so about two years. Maybe even more. When I first met her, I knew something was up as if the age difference hadn't given it away. She was 18 and he was 15. The rest of the guys thought the same thing I had when they met her.
We never wanted to say anything though because she obviously made him happy, if 'happy' was even the word. She made him ecstatic. He gave her everything but she never gave anything back in return. She changed him, physically and mentally.
Brittany was constantly cheating on Andy. Everyone thought Andy would never see through her, until one day. From then on the couple had this routine. They'd break up due to her infidelity, she'd somehow weasel back into his life, they'd get back together. The cycle would always repeat, no matter what. One day after what could have easily been two million break ups, Andy had enough and got rid of her for good.
He seemed to be doing fine with out her and he slowly returned to the Andy we all knew he really was. He went months without her and that's when Lexi had came into his life. Back to what he was saying though.
"She talked to me, said that she heard about Lexi and I. She convinced me that she was sorry for what she did and we got back together. We kissed and I realized something. I do love Lexi, but just as a friend. We were just a quick, thing. Almost as if we were a lust couple.
The person I really belonged with was Brittany. Things between us got heated, we took it upstairs then got walked in on by Lexi. I'm pretty sure you know what happened next though.
After all that I made another realization. Pushing all of my stupidity behind, my feelings for Lexi were true. It was just hard for me to let go all of those times with Brittany."
After Andy's story I was beyond shocked, but you couldn't blame a guy for telling the truth, even if it was cold to hear.
"Andy, you are in the shit house for that one."
"I know." He whispered.
"It's gonna be a crazy thing if Lexi ever forgives you for that."
"I know." He said getting a few octaves louder.
"You'll be even lucky if she ever gives you the time of day."
"I know!" He exclaimed making the dog in my lap jump slightly. I laughed at him.
"But you know what? I'm going to help you. It hurts to see you down like you've been the past few days."
"Really," Andy questioned astonished. "After my big screw up?"
"Yeah, now here's the plan."
It was now somewhere around seven-ish in the evening and we spent the whole time talking about this 'plan' of ours.
"This is crazy," Andy laughed running a hand over his face.
"I know," I laughed along with him.
"But it might just work."