The Hand of Destiny

ASHLEY'S POV

*Time lapse 3 weeks later to September – The start of the collage year*

~

Over the last 3 weeks I’d learnt a lot of things about Andy; the best of them though, was that he happens to be going to the same collage as me this year. It occurred to me after knowing the guys for about 3 weeks that I didn’t know how old they are. I just assumed they were the same age as me. Then I realised they must be older; after all, it was uncommon for a boy my age to live in the city on their own. So I asked them and found out that Jinxx and Jake are a couple of years older but Andy is actually one year younger than me at 18. C.C is only a year older than me at twenty, making the age difference between Andy – the youngest - and Jinxx – the oldest - short enough that we’ll all end up in collage together for at least one year.

Today was my first day back at school since the summer holidays began (they ended far too soon for my liking...) and I was at a new collage, which I enrolled in over the summer after I had to move apartment.

I’m not walking 10 miles there and 10 back every day and I can’t keep getting cabs every morning. Still, school should be more fun with the guys.

After the excitement of the holidays it was back to dealing with stupid cliques (which you’d think would end in the middle of high school as people grew up, but no).

I half climbed-half rolled out of bed (Seriously, having to leave warm duvets to go to that hell hole they call a collage is a tragic start to the day) and headed towards the bathroom for a shower. I kicked off my boxers, turned on the shower and waited for the spray to heat up. If there is one thing I hate, it’s freezing showers in the morning. I washed my long hair and quickly rubbed some cherry body wash on before turning the shower off and watching the bubbles get sucked down the drain. I had to wipe the mirror with a towel before I could use it as it was all steamy and therefore failing in it’s primary function as a mirror. I dried my body quickly before throwing the towel into the corner by the door, messy? Yes, but efficient when I was trying to work out which towels needed washing.

When I was back in my room. I started to get dressed, pausing once in front of the mirror to check out my tattoo.

I really do love it, over the last couple of weeks I’ve had the outline filled in and it looks amazing - Brian really is a great tattoo artist.

After deciding that my black ripped jeans would work for today, I pulled on my Kiss shirt and wrapped a belt of an unnecessarily bright pink shade around my waist. It would look good with my Converse,as they too are a shocking pink and work with the belt. When I went back into the bathroom, the mirror had thankfully de-misted itself enough that I could see into it properly. My hairdryer was already plugged in from the last time I used it (I know, I know, plugs in the bathroom are a bad idea but it has a cover on it, so it’s fine) so I just flicked it onto max and started working on my hair. Fifthteen minutes later and my hair was suitably dry and ready to be straightened. When I first started straightening my hair, I was always burning the tops of my ears by accident. Luckily though, it’s a rare occurrence now. Good thing too, because my ears were just permanently red and it was not a good look. After straightening, I teased it a little to give it some volume and started with my make-up - eyeliner, a bit of eye shadow and of course my fake mole.

Finally ready an hour and a half after I got up, I grabbed my bag and headed out the door, ready for what is sure to be a day filled with fun (note the sarcasm). I walked to the collage instead of taking a cab, mainly because it was only 10 minutes down the road and I don’t have money to be throwing about here and there without cause.

I really should get a car but once again, I already have to pay rent and I’m a 19 year old on his own in the city with no job.

When I put it like that I really do seem like a kid with no life plan…

Eh, it’s kind of true…

As I approached the gates leading up to the collage, I glanced around quickly in search of one of the guys before remembering we were going to meet in the main office to get our timetables.

I tried to worm my way through the masses of bodies all crowded in the doorways, chatting away about their summer breaks and casually oblivious to the fact they’re blocking the entrance. Idiots…

“Hey, watch it!” I exclaimed as someone slammed into my shoulder on their way past. Quick as that, I felt a hand on my shirt yanking me backwards before pushing me to the side of the entrance - away from the steady flow of people coming in. Unfortunately though, it was away from the people and into a locker reserved for students working in the office.

“What the fuck did you say?” Marcus James – a jock from my old collage- spat at me with anger in his eyes.

What the hell is he doing here? He moved! Not very far evidently which sucks ‘cause I was hoping to never have to see his stupid face again.

“I said” I started as I pushed myself away from the locker, “watch it. I don’t appreciate you pushing past me like you’re the only one in the hallway” I snarled back, not in the mood to take his shit.

“Better watch it yourself Purdy, you don’t want me as an enemy. Again.” He was trying to be threatening, though to be honest, I’ve been pissing him off for years and he’s never done anything to me, so I’m not particularly worried. He learnt not to give me shit a couple of years back in our old school. He’d spent the whole of a maths class poking me in the back of the head and I got annoyed, so, I turned around and grabbed his hand to make him stop but caught it wrong and broke one of his fingers. He cried like a girl, it was a good day.

Then a familiar face popped up beside me.

“Hey dumbass! I’m pretty sure Ashley doesn’t want you standing that close to him and I don’t want you shoving him into lockers, so why don’t you just move along? Since you’re obviously a typical jock, I’m going to assume you have an airhead girlfriend around here to spend time with so… ba-bye now!”

Andy waved exaggeratedly as Marcus.

“Who the hell is this short ass?” Marcus asked with an amused smirk.

“Andy Biersack, it’s not nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Ballsack?” he smirked. “Dude, you’re weirder than Purdy over here, so I’m gonna leave you fags alone, later Purdy!” He laughed before walking off done the hallway, probably to find his dickhead friends.

What the actual hell?! I love the way as soon as he sees Andy, he automatically assumes he’s gay because that’s the judgemental jerk he is. Wait, scratch that, I don’t love it, I hate it.

He’d always called me gay even though I’d never told him or anyone at school besides my friends. He'd only found out recently after the party incident with Zane. The again, he probably didn’t even mean it. He just used ‘gay’ as an insult like most of the other kids round here, like there’s anything wrong with it!

I shook my head slightly and turned to Andy, a smile growing on my face as his eyes met mine.

“Well, now that that’s over, you want to get our schedules?” I asked him, feeling much more upbeat now that it’s finally sinking in that I’ll get to see him every day. (Not that I don’t try anyway, it’s just a little awkward when I make excuses to see him even though he says I can come round and hang out anytime. One of my particularly special ones was ‘Hey Andy, um, I just came round to see if I could borrow some... orange juice! You got any orange juice?’)

“Yeah sure! I’m hoping I’m with at least one of you guys in all my classes. Can’t remember if I told you or not but I’ve not been to this collage before. I went to a different one until June this year and then decided that when the new collage year started here, I’d transfer over to be with the guys” he told me as we made our way over to the main desk.

“No, you didn’t but that’s cool, I’m probably not going to be much help though considering this is my first year here too, remember? ”.

“Oh yeah! I keep forgetting you used to live on the other side of town” he laughed at his own forgetfulness.

“Yeah, I only moved 10 miles and I gotta change collage and everything” I replied before quickly turning towards the lady at the desk, and giving her mine and Andy’s names, and then turning back again.

“If this is technically your first day, then how come that guy seemed to know you?”

“Unfortunately I knew him in my old collage. He moved about a year ago, I guess this is where he went.”

“Don’t let him give you any shit, Ash” he told me and I rolled my eyes at him.

“He won’t do anything, he’s all talk”.

Andy started laughing, “all talk? Who even says that?!”

“Leave me and my vocabulary alone” I told him while holding back a smirk. We grabbed the timetables the woman placed in front of us and started to look over them.

“Andy! Ashley!” We turned to see C.C running through down the hallway towards us with Jake and Jinxx just behind him, but at a much more normal pace. C.C practically tackled Andy and me into a hug before starting to compare timetables with us. Jake and Jinxx joined us and started looking at there’s too, luckily it looked like I was with someone for nearly all my lessons, which was definitely good news. My previous year in collage wasn’t exactly great, hopefully though this one will turn out a lot better. I looked around at the guys huddled around me, yep, definitely going to be interesting…

*****

The first couple of lessons went surprisingly well; Jake and I chatted about bands and our favourite musicians all the way through art (only earning us one glare from the teacher, Mr. Stamget) and history was actually okay; though I’m pretty sure it was only fun because of board game me and C.C made using some scrap paper, a couple of colouring pencils and some paper clips we found on the desk. We never gave it a name or even an official set of rules but it goes without saying it was epic, even though C.C did gloat whenever he won (a lot…).

I had various lessons with all of the guys except Andy, who I’d not actually seen since when we were in the main reception this morning. This wasn’t a problem as we all had different classes, it only became a problem when we were twenty minutes into lunch and we still couldn’t find him, even though we’d all agreed on the place to meet when class was over.

After five more minutes we decided to look for him and spent most of the remaining lunch break searching. With only ten minutes left until the bell would - go signalling more classes - we still couldn’t find him, and then we heard a bang.

And another one.

And another one.

We followed the sound until we ended up by some lockers from which the banging seemed to be emanating.

“You don’t think some kids actually stuck a person in…” Jake started.

“Probably, I’ve seen it happen before” I sighed before moving closer to the locker.

“Hey, anyone in there?” I asked and was surprised when a deep voice answered.

“Well yeah, it’s not ghosts banging” Andy replied sarcastically, though I could practically hear his smile.

“You gonna get me out or not? Combination’s 21-7-12. I would know, stupid jock put me in my own locker”.

I quickly undid the locker door and Andy tumbled out, thank God he had one of the longer lockers, trying to fit him in one of the short ones would not be a pretty thing.

“You alright? What the fuck happened?” I asked as he brushed the front of his t-shirt down.

“That guy that was giving you shit earlier stuck me in here, no big deal” he replied non-chalantly once he was satisfied by the state of his shirt.

“How is it no big deal, what if he does it again?” Jinxx asked.

“He won’t.” I replied knowingly. “He’s only trying to prove to Andy and himself that he’s tough and not to be messed with, he’s not though. If you do something to annoy him, it’s sort of a onetime punishment deal. He’ll only do it again if you annoy him again. He is genuinely too lazy to bully people; he does the bare minimum to maintain his little status”

“He better watch out, no one messes with my friends” C.C said and the rest of us nodded at Andy.

“Thanks C.C, it’s nice to know you guys got my back” He smiled.

“Hell yeah” Jake said as the bell rang signalling the end of lunch.

“Come on, we gotta get to class, who has maths with me next?”

~

3RD PERSON'S POV

~

The boys went off to class, blissfully unaware of the boy with the blonde hair standing around the corner from where they were. When the bell went and they departed, he walked up to the locker which was still open slightly because of something jammed in the door. Andy hadn’t noticed that the scarf he was wearing earlier – more for fashion than warmth – had gotten caught in the door. When the hallway was empty and silent again as it had been before lunch, the boy reached out and pulled the scarf into his hands before pushing the locker shut. He buried his hands into the soft, red fabric and brought it up near his neck, against his chin.

Nobody heard his quiet but strong whisper.

“My Andy”.