Punk Rox!

“So, no hard feelings?” I hugged Juliet again.

“Nah, little hurt, but as long as this boy makes you happy, I’ll be okay. I mean, I’m strong. I’ll get over you in no time.” She smiled jokingly.

“Thanks, I feel so special,” I smiled back, “And I’m not gay!”

“Of course you’re not,” She wrinkled her nose like a rabbit.

“I’m just...special,” I sighed, defeated. Maybe I should just go with gay. I was dating a boy that I’m seriously attracted to. Granted, the only boy I’ve ever been attracted to.

“That, you are. Special. Special needs.”

“I’ve been told,” I rolled my eyes playfully. Everything felt lighter now after talking to Juliet. I felt more confident.

“Take care of yourself, and you don’t have to move out right away. I mean, I do love you, but it’s more of sisterly thing now.” I told her.

“Oh, you expect me leave?” She tilted her head, keeping a straight face before grinning.

“I have to go,” I smirked, really having no more time to play.

“Meeting back up with cutesy boy?”

“Please don’t call him that,”

“Fine, how’s midget?”

I laughed. I’d told her all about Jess.

“Everyone calls him that so, why not?”

“Well?” She dragged out.

“What?” I was utterly clueless.

“Are you meeting back up with him, or not?”

“Oh, uh, that was a serious question?”

“No, Andy, it was donkey,” She joked, “Yes, it was a serious question.”

“When’d we get a donkey?” I looked around the room, she laughed.

“Yesterday,”

“...Really?”

“I really do hope you’re kidding,”

I stayed silent for dramatic effect.

“So, gonna go meet your midget?” I laughed at this.

“My midget? Yeah,”

“Alright, don’t get into trouble,” She deepened her voice to sound like my father.

“And remember...” She leaned close, “God’s watching,”

I burst out laughing, if that wasn’t a blast from the past. If the nuns at my school hadn’t actually said that to me before, it wouldn’t be nearly as funny.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I rolled my eyes and turned to leave.

“And bring him here before I go to live with my brother, pleeeeeasssse!” She begged.

“Like I said, you don’t have to leave immediately,” I said over my shoulder.

“I know, I’ll probably say I’ll leave by the end of the week and end up still living here for another month...” She grumbled, I smiled.

“Then, I have plenty of time to show off my boyfriend to you, don’t I?” I smirked and with that, I opened the door and left.



I walked into the studio and heard my baby’s beautiful voice. Josh and Heath were leaning against the wall, Ethan was standing by the tech guys, arms crossed but smiling, and Quincy and Skeeter were sitting in random chairs in the room.

“If he can just finish this perfectly, they’ll be done.” Josh told me quietly.

“Really?”

How long was I gone?

He and Heath both nodded.

“Do you by chance know where Harper is?” Quincy whispered over Jesse’s voice. I shook my head. I hadn’t seen Harper at all that day.

“Where’d you go, anyway?” Josh asked.

“I just...had to talk to someone,” I explained as vaguely as possible. He still had no idea Jess and I were a thing. I wasn’t entirely ready to go public with this, much less tell anyone in our business yet.

“Quin, after this, whether he screws up or not, you wanna work on back-up?” Josh asked Quincy, who nodded. Heath was skittish about him, but everyone just fell into place once they all got together. It seems they had put aside their differences and really connected all over again. Pünk Rox was complete. And it looked really good. They all looked like they were having the time of their lives and it made me happy to see Jess happy. Minus the stress, they really were having a lot of fun. And that was reassuring.

“Another battle won naturally,” Jess’s voice flowed easily and he took off the headphones.

“Fucking finally!” Ethan shouted in triumph.

“Did I do it?” He muttered breathlessly.

“Yes, Jesse,” Josh leaned over Ethan and spoke into the mic.

“Yay...” He didn’t sound quite as ecstatic as everyone else. He looked up and saw me, I smiled to him and his face lit up. A wide grin spread across his face and he ran out of the recording room, straight into my arms.

“I knew you could do it,” I whispered into his hair, he nodded quickly. I heard someone cough and looked up to see a very confused Josh looking down at us.

Shit.

“Come on, you sexist! Their love is beautiful!” Ethan went into drama mode.

“Sexist?” What the fuck.

“I was about to ask the same,” Jess looked over his shoulder.

“Whatever! Josh, look into your heart! How can you say these two don’t belong together!” He pointed to us.

Josh opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by more of Ethan’s bizarre dramatic ranting.

“Gay love is true love!”

“Ethan, shut up,” Jesse warned.

“I... I, um, don’t know how to respond to that...any of that...but I have no problem with gays. If you wanna sleep with a man, that’s perfectly fine.” Josh looked down at us and smiled.

Jess and I returned it and I brought “my midget’s” face up so I could look into his eyes. I gently kissed him once and stood up, pulling Jess up with me.

“I can’t say I didn’t expect it, but I didn’t see you as a top.” Josh smirked, I rolled my eyes while Jesse giggled before realizing what he just said.

“Hey! I can’t help it I got shorty genes!”

There was a round of awes from Ethan and Quincy.

“That is so cute!” Quincy definitely didn’t appear to be straight, but neither did Ethan. But Ethan had told us he was, in fact, straight so, I wondered about Quincy.

“Sorry, but if I may, are you straight?” I asked him, maybe I shouldn’t have?

“Not really, I’m bi, but Jess is too cute for me,” He winked, “I need someone who can take charge once in a while,”

I had no idea how to respond to that.

“I shouldn’t have asked...” The majority of people in the room began laughing.

“Don’t ask Quincy anything about sex, you may never want to fuck again,” Jess giggled.

“I’ll take your word for it,” I smiled leaning down and touching our heads together.



“Chibi! Chibi! CHIBI!” Jess shook me awake.

“Jess!” I groaned, covering my head with a pillow.

“Chibi, wake up! Our EP comes out today! WAKE UP, YOU LAZY BASTARD!” He shook me more fiercely.

“Jesse-baby, okay, I know, give...give me a second...” I sighed, tired.

“No! Andy! Now!” He begged, I could hear him growing frustrated. I peeked out under the pillow and looked at his flustered face.

“Jess,”

“Mm?”

“What time is it?” He suddenly looked anxious.

“...um... Seven forty-five...”

In the morning!?

“Jesse!” I groaned again.

“Please!” He begged.

I jumped out from the pillow and grabbed him, pinning him to the bed.

“Ah! Rape! RAPE! I NEED AN ADULT! I NEED AN ADULT!!!” He screamed.

I chuckled.

“You are an adult,”

“Then, I need a capable adult!” I laughed and started kissing down his neck.

“Please, Andy!” He begged again, ignoring me.

“Jess, it’s too early!” I groaned.

“Clearly it’s not too early to rape me!”

“There’s no such thing as a bad time for that,” I smiled, he sighed, but returned it. We jumped when we heard a sudden banging on our door. Well, the apartment door. Jess doesn’t live me, but for the mean time, he stays over with me sometimes. Juliet had gathered her things and moved back in with her brother. We still talk and she thinks Jesse is absolutely adorable. It’s nice to see her moving forward with a smile.

Jess crawled out from beneath me and walked out of the bedroom. He was the only one fully dressed in a tank top and sweatpants. No, we don’t sleep naked and haven’t had sex yet. Why do we have to rush things?

I dragged myself out of the warm confides of my bed and grabbed pants and a shirt. I figured I should tell the neighbors no one was actually being raped. I guessed that was who was so urgently knocking at the door. So, you can guess my annoyance when it was just Ethan.

“What the hell?” I grumbled, irritated that this was who had to interrupt us.

“Nice to see you, too, rocker man, but we have no time for friendly greeting!” Ethan rushed out, “You have to see this.”

“Rocker man?” I glared as Ethan pushed passed Jesse to get inside.

“Why are you here?” Jesse asked.

“Shush, shush, shush,” Ethan brought his finger over Jesse’s lips to silence him. Which seemed to only confuse him further. I then noticed Ethan was carrying a laptop case in his hands.

He placed the case on the table, opened it, and flipped the laptop screen up. It opened to a news site. I didn’t see anything specific because Jesse literally pushed Ethan out of the way and stared at the screen. I placed my hands on his shoulders and peered over him. My heart jumped into my throat reading the headline and the picture attached.

ANDY BIERSACK OF BLACK VEIL BRIDES DATING A GUY?

The picture was of the kiss Jess and I shared outside the recording studio with him sitting in my lap. Jess covered his face with his hands and I could just tell he was a blushing mess. I read caption below the picture:

Frontman of Black Veil Brides is seen kissing an unidentified boy.

At least they still don’t know who Jess is. But I have a feeling that’s about change with their debut EP coming out today.

“I knew I should’ve just kept yelling at you!” Ethan seemed embarrassed for us both. I closed my eyes and slammed the screen shut. I spun Jess around to look at me, his face was covered in a deep red blush and tears filled his eyes. I felt so guilty he had to go through this. I gently took his face in my hands and touch our foreheads together.

“It’s gonna be okay, baby,” I told him softly, feeling wet tears fall onto my hands. I quickly wiped them away and brought his lips to mine.

“What are we gonna do?” Ethan asked quietly, not looking at either of us.

“What do you mean?” I was going to stay optimistic for Jess.

“This might be a blessing in disguise, okay? Look, don’t worry about Black Veil Brides, our true fans will stay by us, and you guys shouldn’t worry too much either. You have a steady fan base on YouTube, right?” I asked, they nodded.

“And you can only get new fans. You may lose a few because not everyone can except this, but don’t worry, okay, just work on getting out there. True music lovers don’t give a fuck about the religious basis of the music or the sexuality of the those making the music. And those are the fans that really matter. Even if there’s just one fan, keep playing for them. I know I would.” I reassured them, earning a teary smile and vague laugh of joy from Jesse before he started crying, clinging to my waist.

“I guess you’re right,” Ethan offered a weak smile, he looked like he was about to throw up, though.

“Look, we can’t worry about this now. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Speaking of, I still needed to tell my parents I was dating Jesse. Well, this will be one hell of an eventful week, now won’t it?