Sequel: American Candy
Status: Complete

The Reckless and the Brave

Ash's Story

Ash seriously hated this part of her job. She didn’t want to go out with Ronnie, despite the fact that they had been together before. She was a different person than she used to be. She wanted to have a movie night with Louis, not going out to eat, again, with Ronnie. This was getting frustrating as can be. Not to mention the fact that they didn’t really have a lot in common anymore. Ronnie wasn’t trying to be a good influence. They both were older, and wanted the same things…just not with each other. They basically grew apart.
She looked over at her boyfriend, who was currently pouting on her bed. He was just as opposed as her going as she herself was. He didn’t like seeing her with Ronnie. Despite being the sassy, outspoken member, Louis didn’t want to say anything to the older male. He had been in jail. Louis admitted that he was definitely scared of the slightly taller male, but he trusted the purple-haired girl with all of his heart.
“Please don’t look at me like that,” Ash pouted, sitting down in Louis’ lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.
He ran his fingers through her long hair.
“I hate that he has so much control over you,”
“I know,” Ash sighed. “It’s not going to be easy, we knew that.”
“I wish that you could just leave his record label without ruining your career.” Louis sighed.
Ash chewed on the inside of her lip.
“Maybe we can…”
“I don’t think that’s possible, love.” He laughed sadly. “I adore you, yeah?”
“Yeah,” She beamed, pressing small kisses on his face. “Be the Peter Pan to my Wendy?”
Louis chuckled, flipping his hair for effect.
“Wendy run away with me…” He sang softly, causing the girl to beam again. “If I could fly away to Neverland right this moment, I would go just for you.”
It was one of those rare occasions when Ash openly blushed, but she did. It started in her ears before slowly spreading across her cheeks, tinting them a nice, cherry red. Louis laughed. It was a glorious sight, really. This tattooed, purple-haired girl was blushing like no tomorrow at something that he said. He had every right to be proud of himself, Louis had a right to be a tad bit smug.
“What in the world has gotten into you?” She laughed, looking back up at him. “You’re being all…I dunno…strange.”
“Because I’m being honest?” He questioned, one eyebrow raising in question.
“Yes!” Ash laughed loudly, pressing her forehead to Louis. “You’re being not you.”
“I am too!” Louis laughed in response. “Just because I’m being like this, I’m someone else? Thanks, love.”
Ash rolled her eyes, pressing her lips to his quickly before pulling back.
“I love that about you, but I’ve got to get ready.”
“What are you wearing?” He questioned, watching her turn back to her closet.
“I don’t know. It has to get the okay from Inga.” Ash groaned. “Why is that woman still here?”
“Because she’s teamed up with Simon Cowell, and you can’t just off her.”
“Gr,” She stated, hands on her hips. “I’m going to wear the sweater that you got me in London.”
“I bought you a lot of jumpers.”
“And I have no idea why. I don’t actually like sweaters.”
“You love them!”
“I love the ones that you got me,” She grumbled, pulling off her shirt to put on the ‘jumper’ that Louis bought her. “They are the only ones that I will willingly wear.”
“That makes me feel special.” Louis jokingly stated. “I love that you wear them, though.”
“Thanks,” Ash laughed, finally dressed for her ‘date’.
“Tell me about yourself?” Louis asked, playing with the purple hair again. It’s quickly becoming sort of a habit of his. He liked the way that the colors looked in his hands. He could get distracted by her hair all day, if he had the time. He wanted to know about his girlfriend though, even if he understood her better than anyone else in the entire world right now. He wanted to actually know what went on in her life prior to him.
“Like what?” She laughed loudly.
“Your past?” He prompted.
Ash stared at her boyfriend. Her past was definitely something that she did not want to tell her boyfriend. She wanted to keep those secrets all bottled up. She’s not one of those people that open back up something that has happened a long time ago. It is in the past, and that’s where it was going to stay. They did not need to be discussed again.
Ashley Walker was born in Houston, Texas. Born and Raised, mostly, there her entire life. Her parents were traditional southerners. They had a ranch just outside of the city, and too many animals to really count. Money wasn’t an issue, until no one really wanted to go see the Ranch anymore. The city just got a zoo, which was a trillion times better. Slowly, the Walkers began loosing more money than they were making. Ash, just eleven at the time, wondered why her animals were slowly disappearing but they always had some form of meat at night to eat when her parents didn’t go to the store in weeks. When she found out that her favorite cow, Moo Bug, was her dinner one evening, Ash stopped eating meat. She never, ever wanted to eat another friend for the rest of her life. So she hasn’t.
Her parents weren’t very approving of this, by any means. Her mom slowly was okay with it while her father was firmly set against. That just sparked a little argument every now and then until they were fighting about everything that they held in for the past seventeen years. Then Ashley over-heard them talking, finding out that she had an older sister who they didn’t keep. That tore her up completely. Soon afterwards, Ashley and her mother moved to New York City where they met up with her sister. It was an awkward meeting, and she never saw her sister again.
Ash got into the wrong crowd in middle school, eventually leading her toward her best friend, Spencer Tucker. They started to hang out, occasionally do some lines of coke with each other. It sparked an interesting friendship, that’s for sure. The fourteen year old had no idea the hold she had over the thirteen-year old or that her younger friend’s brother was huge bad influence. It hit them hard when Spencer’s older brother, John, died when she was fifteen. So they kept doing what they did. They went out with her older friends, grabbing attention because of their looks, and willingness to try nearly anything. They took the girls in. They made them feel welcomed.
By the time Ash was sixteen, all of the girls had met one another. They didn’t know how dark the paths that they were leading would end up being if it wasn’t for Simon Cowell. In every since of the way; Simon saved them from themselves. They were getting out of control, but with his guidance, they made something of themselves. They were forced to focus. They now had a direction to go in, and it wasn’t backward. He found out about the drugs quickly. He then made sure to clear them from the girls place. That was one of the many reasons why Simon wanted them out in LA instead of New York City. New York held a lot of bad memories for them. They left behind past lovers, in Emery’s case or Lola in Liz’s. Roxie left behind her privileged life. Ash left her mom and her sister she didn’t know of, and Spencer left her broken life. They were going to become something in LA. They knew this for sure.
Ash met Ronnie Radke when she was seventeen, two years ago. She was still a little hooked on drugs when he was getting out of jail. He thought that he was helping her by always being around her. In fact, Ash was one of the few guys that she felt like she could trust with everything. Not the mention the fact that their sex life was wonderful. So, the drug thing wasn’t that big of a deal. Ash didn’t want to admit it until she was forced to go into rehab by Simon that this was a problem. It was low-key. The entire band just stayed out of sight while she was getting better. It was what was best for the band. Ash was completely different when she got out. The girl was out just in time for the album to go platinum. That was a huge deal for the girls.
Along with rehab came a break up of sorts with the famous male singer. You can’t really call hooking up and then not hooking up a break up. So, they just sort of stopped. Ronnie said that he couldn’t be around her anymore, and she took the news better than she thought that she would. It was a step forward. Rehab was hard. Ash had to fight a lot of demons just to get to a place of acceptance. But can one really accept what they did to themselves? Could they honestly move on from something like that? Somehow, the girls did it.
Now the purple-haired girl stared over at her British boyfriend. She was with someone that she would have never, ever, seen herself with before. She didn’t really know what to think of it. She knew that she was in deep with Louis. She was probably head-over-heels if she allowed herself to admit it to him, but honestly she couldn’t. She wasn’t Liz or Emery, and surprisingly she wasn’t going to accepted it as quickly as her best friend had. She wasn’t going to go down that road just yet. It was way too unfamiliar.
But Louis deserved to know what was going on in her brain. He had a right to know what exactly went on with her just a few years ago, and so that’s what Ash decided.
“So… I’m from Texas. My parents are divorced, and I have a sister that I have only ever met once. I got out of rehab two years ago for drugs. Where do you want me to start?” She started, having him hang off of her every word.

♪•§•♪


“Don’t you look great,” Liam stated, looking at his girlfriend as she applied her make-up. “Where are you lot heading out tonight?”
“I have no idea.” She answered honestly. “Probably some random veggie restaurant that they found,”
“Really?” he laughed.
“Simon’s really trying to play the whole “Ronnie’s giving up meat for Ash because he’s so in love with her” deal,”
“I don’t ever seeing that happen,”
“Neither do I, which brings me to believe that sometimes his plans aren’t always all the way thought through,”
“They probably aren’t,” Liam laughed, leaning against the counter, looking at his girlfriend. “You don’t need that crap on your eyes.”
Spencer rolled her green/blue eyes.
“I love eyeliner, get over it.”
“But you have on like a lot.” He argued. “You don’t need it.”
Spencer sighed, giving her boyfriend her attention.
“Li, that’s really sweet. I love that you find my natural crazy face pretty, but I don’t. I love eyeliner and I will continue to love eyeliner until the ends of this earth. Got it?”
Liam sighed, laughing and shaking his head.
“I might do something crazy while you’re gone.”
“Like?” She furrowed your brows. “Liam Payne, you are as harmless as a bunny and cuter than a puppy dog. What in the world could you possibly do, that would be considered crazy?”
“You’ll see,” He smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I hate to tell you to have fun on your date, but…”
“It’s not a real date, baby.” Spencer sighed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “Besides, no one is cuter than we are.”
“Yeah!” Liam laughed, agreeing. “Wanna take some more photos?”
“Sure, cutie.” She messed up his short quiff before kissing his nose. “Just let me finish my other eye,”
“Thank God, you looked very awkward with just one done,”
Spencer laughed before tugging her iPhone out of her jeans pocket. They decided to take some mirror shots of themselves because that’s how cool they are. They took more with Liam kissing her cheek and her smiling before taking the always cute kissing photo. Liam insisted that he took a picture of their intertwined hands, so she allowed it to happen. And because Liam Payne was ‘dating’ someone, he felt as if he was free to post just that picture. It caused quite the backlash, but he snickered and ignored his twitter notifications for a while. He wanted to spend the most amount of time with the girl as he possibly could. Their time together tonight was rather limited. He knew that in a matter of an hour or so, someone would come knocked at his hotel room to get her.
“I love you,” Spencer smiled back at her boyfriend when the time came. He smiled at her in return, and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
“I love you, too,” He smiled, pressing a loving kiss to her cheek before letting her go. On the other side of the door Inga waited with Ash to take them to the meeting room where their dates were waiting. Slowly, Spencer pushed open the door, the two girls standing on the other side. Liam slid into the doorframe, leaning up against it as they started to walk away. “Hey, Vocals!”
Spencer turned around, laughing at the nickname, and stopped.
“Yeah, Brit?” She shot back.
“Don’t have too much fun without me,”
“Never,” She laughed before blowing him a kiss and turning back around to continue the walk down the hall with the other girls.

♪•§•♪


“I want to go skateboarding,” Liz stated, hands placed firmly on her hips. “But we have no damn where to do so,”
“You can look like you’re ready to skateboard?” Niall furrowed his brows. “What are you wearing?”
“Thanks, babe.” Liz sighed, sarcastically rolling her eyes.
“He does have a point,” Roxie sighed. “You look like you belong on Glamour Kills,”
“Hmmm…I wonder why,” Liz rolled her eyes.
“Are they fighting again?” Emery questioned, joining the group that was left after Spencer and Ash left the group. Liam, Louis, Zayn, Niall, and Harry all stood around with the three girls left.
“Just a bit of a jab or two,” Niall shrugged.
“I think that I need to just…argh!” Liz nearly yelled, sitting down on the ground of the conference room they were currently occupying in their hotel. “I hate today. So fucking much,”
“Why?” Emery laughed.
“I’m just losing my mind on this tour.” She stated simply, looking up at everyone.
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone is going crazy around us. Louis’ a jealous bitch, Liam’s going crazy because he can’t openly date Spencer. You and Zayn are practically married already. Niall and I are moving in together. Harry is just being himself, and who the fuck knows what’s going on with Roxie.”
“Liz….”
“And I hate the fact that we don’t get to hang out after the shows more. I hate that my life has been put under a microscope. I hate that I have no fucking family to go home to when all of this is over. I get a shared apartment in a city that I call my home yet I’m never in. I’m just sick,” She was standing up by this point. “I want to be able to dress just like I am right now. I want to make the music that we all love without the fear of Simon freaking out on us. I want to be myself again, and I can’t right now. I’m going insane,”
“Liz…” Niall trailed off, wrapping an arm around the girl. “You don’t just have those things. You have us too,”
“So what happens when we all go our separate ways? What happens when we’re in-between flats, Nialler?” She questions.
“We-“
“We’ll figure it out, I know,” She stated.
“Maybe we need a break from tour.” Emery sighed. “We don’t get enough free days off as it is,”
“We’re just now in,” Liz groaned.
“I think that you need a good, long, fuck.” Roxie stated, crossing her arms across her chest. “Why are you so uptight?”
“Why are you so secretive?” Liz shot back. “I’m sorry, but these things are driving me crazy.”
“You aren’t the only one,” Emery stated. “We never have time for ourselves either, we’re all in this together. It isn’t just about you?”
“I’m going to take a deep breath, and then I’m going to go find a damn skateboard.” Liz stated, taking a deep breath before she looked over at Louis. “Get me a board,”
He shook his head with a small laugh before directing them away from the rest of the group.

♪•§•♪


Liam was shaving his head. He really wasn’t sure why he did it, or let Harry and Zayn help him, but he did. He suggested the idea to the two of them, and they agreed to help. Roxie had disappeared somewhere else and Emery sat on the toilet while the three British boys gathered together to shave one of their heads. He wasn’t totally bald, but his hair was next to non-existent. Emery knew for a fact that Spencer was going to have a freaking fit. She herself couldn’t believe that had allowed this to happen within the same room that she was standing in. Emery knew that this was a bad idea when Liam came up with it.
Zayn gave Emery a small little wink while Harry plugged up the clippers for them to use on his head. The girl rolled her eyes before standing up. She wasn’t hovering over them, per say, she just wanted to make sure that they weren’t going to muck up Liam’s hair. She didn’t want all of them to die just because they scalped Spencer’s boyfriend. The vocalist’s anger was as red as her hair, and something like that would make her see red. So Emery took charge and quickly grabbed the clippers from Harry’s reckless hands. He furrowed his brows at her, making Zayn laugh at them.
“There is no way in hell that I’m going to let you near the Paynster’s head. Got it, Curly?” She stated slightly slowly. Harry pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and sulking on the toilet, taking Emery’s spot.
“Zayn, you’re bird’s rude.”
“She’s controlling,” Zayn laughed, again winking at her.
She shook her head, and stood directly behind Liam.
“You do realize that your girlfriend is going to murder you in your sleep tonight, right?”
“Yes,” Liam smiled.
Emery gave him the funniest look, considering the fact that Liam was smiling dumbly.
“You do realize that you will probably have to sleep with one eye open, yes?”
“Nothing different than every night,” Liam joked. “She’s cute like a lioness, but I’d rather not cuddle one without caution,”
Harry barked out a loud laugh, Emery rolled her eyes, and Zayn shook his head. Liam, being who he is, just smiled goofily.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Emery sighed before turning on the clippers. “Okay Liam…are you ready?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Liam smiled, looking as ready as he will ever be. So, Emery shaved his head.



“And there they are,” Inga smiled toward the two, dark-haired men that were waiting for their “dates” in another hotel conference room. Kellin smiled and wrapped his arms around Spencer. He complimented her, making her smile and compliment him back. Ronnie kissed Ash’s cheek softly before hugging her. Ash laughed, hugging him tightly. Inga smirked in the corner. She was quite proud of the work she and Simon were accomplishing. No, Simon wasn’t really trying to tear the girls away from One Direction, but Inga definitely was. Sure, Emery hit her pretty fucking hard, and Simon managed to convince her to not press charges against one of his girls’, but it left the blonde bitter. She was worse than she was before that point.
Inga honestly didn’t like Reckless Little Hearts as much as she used to. In fact, she hates working for them now. Without realizing it, the girls had made her life Hell. Her ex-boyfriend, an ex of a friend of hers, dumped her because she couldn’t get him in to see the girls. Guys would smile and wave at her. They would flirt, but then pretty Roxie would walk by and she was yesterdays old news. So, she was very bitter. She couldn’t stand the girls anymore. She had control over what they looked like on stage, and that was slowly disappearing. If she could control anything else, it was their relationships. It worked for Harry and Roxie so far. She was still plotting. She could see that small glint that still lingered in Kellin’s eyes. She saw the way that Ronnie was starting to brighten the more time he was around Ash. She definitely recognized the look of boredom in Roxie’s eyes whenever she couldn’t find someone to bring back to the hotel.
“What time do we need them back by?” Ronnie spoke up,”
Inga cleared her throat.
“Actually, there are a few things that Simon has asked me to go over with the four of you,”
Lie number one.
“Oh, okay,” Kellin smiled.
Spencer rolled her eyes. . Kellin was nice like Liam in that way. It was kind of comforting in a sense, but he still had his bite. Liam’s a puppy, he’s just cute and stuff. Inga smiled at how eager Kellin was to please. That was good, really good. If she wanted to really get her way with this, he had to be willing to do what Spencer wouldn’t. Simon was very specific with what was in their contracts, which was going to end in a month and a half. The boys had to make a huge effert.
“Fans are seeming to be buying the relationship recently,” She stated.
Lie number two.
“Why not?” Ash huffed. “We’re doing almost anything that we can,”
“Not everything,” Inga sighed. “I know this is hard, but you all have a job to do. You’re cover-ups. You’re supposed to look like you’re in love with each other. Why can’t you be a little bit more convincing?”
“We’re trying as hard as we can,” Ronnie sighed. “Look, Blondie-“
“Ronnie,” Ash warned, gripping his arm. “Stop it,”
“Fine,” He rolled his eyes.
“Look more like a couple. You’re relationships are supposed to be sold as a falling too hard too fast type deal,”
“Like they said, we’re trying.” Spencer stated, looking dead into her eyes. “We’re doing our best.”
“Simon isn’t happy with what is going on right now,”
Lie number three.
That was the last thing that Inga really had to say before the four of them were exchanging glances. Like this, Inga couldn’t only see their questioning glances at each other but she could feel their uncertianity. She could tell that they wanted to make this work, for the sake of their careers. She could tell that the girls were more concerned about their boyfriend’s image than they were about themselves. That’s why Inga knew that this plan would work. She couldn’t mess with RLH’s image, but if it was One Direction’s image, Spencer and Ash would throw themselves underneath a bus to save their boyfriend’s.
The two fake couples left the hotel with more determination for no reason, and a knew skip in their steps. Ronnie wouldn’t keep his hands off of Ash as soon as they stepped out into the sea of paps. They walked with Ronnie plastered up behind her, his arms around her middle, with her hands linked with his. Yeah, they looked like they were more loved up than ever. Spencer walked with both arms wrapped around Kellin’s middle and her head tucked into his neck. His arms were tightly around her. They pushed their way through, walking on down the street. Kellin and Spencer went one way while Ronnie and Ash went the other. It was going to be published as their time apart as a couple. Kellin would slow down every few steps or so and kiss Spencer a little deeper than before. The opposite way, Ronnie and Ash were now linked tightly, barely any room between them. Ronnie would kiss her temple as often as possible.
And later that night, Ronnie and Ash were photographed kissing in the middle of the sidewalk, “unaware” of everyone watching them. And yeah, it was the princess, foot-popping kiss that could have had Ash weak in the knees. But the girl wasn’t. She knew that she was convincing though. Ronnie just went for it, considering the fact that it was his job. He wasn’t too worried about her boyfriend, he was kind of dainty, a pretty boy. He was more worried about what Ash herself would do. She may be small, but the girl packed quite the punch. He’d been on the other side of one of her fists. It did not end up too pretty.
On the other side of a no-name town, Kellin and Spencer were “caught” in a so-called intimate moment. The paps were closer to sworming them. On a whim, Kellin took charge. He looked over at Spencer, simply asking if she trusted him and she agreed, then he was kissing her so hard, she didn’t know what to do. But, like a reflex, Spencer gripped his head, looking like she was deeping the kiss when the paps arrived. With his hands against the brick wall of a building and Spencer’s body pressed tightly against his. It looked sexual, in all honestly. It looked like something that wasn’t supposed to get caught on the camera. However, they knew what game they were playing at. They knew that this would be printed on the front page of various tabloids. They were going to be all over twitter.
Then they pretended to be embarrassed and rushed out of the crowd, walking back down the street and toward the hotel. Kellin sent a text message to Liam, whos number he had for reasons like this, saying three simple words; I’m so sorry.

♪•§•♪


“You might be my new favorite person in the entire world,” Roxie stated simply, running her hand through the sandy brown hair of the boy in front of her. He was attractive, and he was a musician, just her type. He actually played an instrument, unlike that curly-haired ass that she refused to mention. He was like her, or so she was convinced. He was a whole lot nicer than she was, that was for sure. She was enamored with him though. He was nice…with a bit of danger around him. He wasn’t as careful, or as dangerous. He was kinda like Harry, but not at the same time.
“Really now?” He questioned, laughing. “Why do you say that, love?”
“Because you’re so dang cute,” She winked, playing with his hair still.
“Thanks, babe, but I’m not really looking for a relationship right now,” He admitted.
Roxie smirked, pulling her hands to his face with a feather-light touch.
“Odd….so am I,” She whispered, leaning in ever so slowly to kiss the drummer.
“Mmm,” Josh muttered, accepting the feeling of her soft lips against his. “Okay. I can be okay with this,”
“Good,” Roxie retorted, kissing her lips roughly against his, taking the opportunity to shove her tongue into his mouth.
Unluckily for the two drummers, a certain curly-haired boy was standing near-by seeing everything that was happening in the room. He was tipped off by Inga. He thought that she was lying, honestly, but when he saw it with his own eyes. He couldn’t believe it honestly. He wasn’t that surprised that Roxie had moved on, but this was with Josh. Josh is one of Harry’s best mates. He may not be as close to him as Niall is, but he’s still in the boys’ band. Roxie might as well be going after Liam.
Harry quickly decided that he was no longer going to stand by and watch. As quickly as he showed up, he turned around and ran right into Inga. She gave him a frown, looking at him like she honestly was concerned. He shook her off, and kept on walking down the hall. Inga wasn’t having that though. She quickly grabbed his hand.
“Harry! I’m so sorry,”
“Shut it,” He retorted, retching his arm from her.
“No, I really am!” She stated, stepping in front of him again. “I didn’t know that they were going to be like that. I just thought that they were flirting. I know that you-“
“You don’t know a fucking thing!” He retorted. “Who are you to say how I feel, huh?”
“Harry…”
“Fuck you!” He spat, breathing heavily.
It was like everything had stopped. Harry was breathing heavily, and Inga stared at him with wide, blue eyes. He could tell that she didn’t know how to react, but he felt vulenerable. He knew that his feelings were written all over his face. Inga just didn’t know what was going to happen, but when something did, she was taken completely by surprise. Because Harry Styles swiftly picked Inga up, pressing his lips to her, his tongue entering her mouth almost instantly. He rammed her against the wall of his hotel room door, not caring who saw. He reached for his key card, slipping it in, and shoving the girl in. The door swung close behind him.
Roxie and Josh walked out of the room just in time to see Harry pushing Inga inside of his hotel room and some crashes heard soon after that.
♠ ♠ ♠
I loveeeeeee this one. Expect big things ladies and uh gents? Yeah....comments please? :)

xoxo Rae