The Hand of Destiny

ASHLEY POV

~

"So you guys are staying round our’s tonight, right?" C.C asked, too happy for the ungodly hour of the morning in which our school starts.

"Yeah, should we just go home after, get our stuff and head over to yours or is there a certain time you want us round? Wouldn’t want to walk in on anything..." Jinxx asked teasingly.

"Hope you’re not implying anything Jinxx" he grinned back at his friend "not like you can talk or anything, how is it going with Sammi by the way?"

"She’s my friend and my friend only" he argued.

Bet he’s real pleased we’re back to this topic...

"Did you say she’s your only friend?" Andy teased.

"Dicksmack..." he said it affectionately; even though they annoyed him he knew it was intended as a joke - he loved his friends to pieces.

"Did you really just call me a dicksmack?" Andy said, acting mock outraged.

"Fine then... is cockmunch any better?"

"Jerk..." Andy smiled.

*****

"You know, if this was a kids sitcom show, this would be the time when the parents would come home, freak out, and all the teenagers would be like ’it all just got out of hand!’" Andy commented as we looked at the wrecked kitchen. Jake had been less than amused when he came back from buying snacks and drinks to find his kitchen trashed. Though in our defensive, it wasn’t intentional. Who would have thought that making cupcakes (if you could call our burnt end result that) would result in such a mess...

"Right" Jake said to draw attention to himself. "I just have a couple of small" he made a pinching gesture with his finger and thumb "small questions, number one being WHY IS THERE PEANUT BUTTER ON MY CEILING?!"

"Well, we were trying to make peanut butter cupcakes, so we put all the stuff in the mixer and turned it on. Turns out that is VERY important that you put the lid on said mixer lest it go everywhere" C.C answered his rather exasperated flat mate and best friend.

"Oh God, I don't even want to know what happened to the rest of my kitchen! Just clean it up, okay?" he sighed.

"Fair enough, I’m going to find a mop" C.C announced.

"The floor is actually reasonably clean though C.C, you’d be better off cleaning the surfaces" Jinxx pointed out.

"The mop's not for the floor, it’s for the ceiling..." he shook his head and left the room in search of cleaning equipment.

"Jinxx, if you sort the mixer and the oven out, me and Andy will get the surfaces" I suggested and grabbed a sponge from the sink, handing another over to Andy when he came over and joined me. We worked in companionable silence, our hands occasionally brushing as we went to clean the same spot and our hips sometimes bumped as we moved around the small space. Once I was happy that the other guys were deep into their own conversation, I nudged Andy with my elbow. I’d wanted to ask this for a while but the time never seemed appropriate.

"Andy?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

He briefly stopped scrubbing to look at me.

"Of course you can, you can ask me anything Ash" he smiled at me reassuringly.

"Well, do you remember our first band meet up? When we played spin the drumstick?"

He nodded for me to continue.

"Well, you said we couldn’t be together because you didn’t want to lose me and you said it’s because of experience that you thought that would happen? Well what did you mean by that?"

Andy looked down and stopped cleaning, occasionally opening and closing his mouth as if trying to think of how to reply.

"I was just thinking about something that happened with an old boyfriend..."

"What happened?" I asked, if it was a bad experience with a boyfriend then I wanted to show him that that wouldn’t happen to us; bit hard to do though when I didn’t know what this bad experience was.

"I don’t really want to talk about it right now, if that’s okay..."

Well this might be harder than I thought.

I was about to ask him more when C.C interrupted.

"Okay Jake, the ceiling is now officially peanut butter free. You guys done with that counter over there? Good, now everyone back to the lounge" he playfully commanded. We all made our way back to living room where I happily fell onto the sofa and nestled myself in the cushions. I bounced slightly when I felt the sofa dip next to me when Jinxx sat down.

I like Jinxx, obviously I like all the guys but ever since the first band meeting we’ve been gradually growing closer. Not in a relationship way, in a friend’s way of course. Living next door to each other has its perks and even when Andy’s busy with something else we still hang out. We became close enough friends that it became instinctive to lean in when he put his arm around me. Yeah, we’re cuddly friends, apparently Jinxx is the sort of person that likes hugs, and since he stopped doing in to the other guys because he thought they were getting annoyed at him, he was happy to have someone in the group who also liked to cuddle.

It’s slightly weird, considering Jinxx was the one who was wary about kissing guys but apparently he has never had a problem with this as it is purely friendly.

Andy shot us a weird look as I leant my head against Jinxx’s chest. It resembled jealousy which was unfair of him. If he wanted to be with me then he could but he chose to push me away instead.

That reminds me, I still don’t know what happened with his old boyfriend that has scared him off having a relationship with me. I really need a way to get an answer out of him.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" the boy in question asked.

I thought about it, this could be the perfect opportunity to find out about Andy's ex. What am I meant to say though, 'hey guys, I’ve got an idea! Why don't we all talk about our various previous relationships and why they ended?’. A truth game would work... I got it.

"What about truth or dare?"