You Fall Apart and Then You...Stop!

"A straight edge party?" Ronnie asked suspiciously.

I nodded "Yeah."

"There's no such thing," he said refusing to take the bait.

"Everyone in that band is a straight edge, I swear. If you dont believe me, you might as well come see for yourself."

He stood silent for a moment. "I will,"

Shit.

"But you won't know where, or when I'll show up."

I rolled my eyes at him, "I think I can be trusted."

"Can you?"

"Yeah," were my last words before I headed out and over to the Catholic Knees bus.

************************************************************************

"Max!" Aaron yelled already drunk out of his mind.

People of all sorts surrounded the bus, making as much noise as possible.

"Hey," I greeted.

"My guy's on his way. Dude we're gonna get so-" Aaron stopped talking the second Aiden approached us.

"Get so?" Aiden interrupted, giving me a cold condescending smile, just waiting for me to fuck up.

"None of your beeswax!" Aaron snapped.

Aiden ignored him, still smiling at me.

"Uh, I was looking for Andy." I said suppressing the urge to call him Sir.

"Maybe you should leave her alone," his smile only becoming more wicked in the moonlight, "we both know youre not the best of influences and I cant afford to have her slip up."

"Excuse me?" I asked in disbelief.

He leaned down to come face to face with me.

Was he always this tall?

"I saw you with Aaron yesterday, snorting coke, and on the verge of popping pills. Now, personally I dont give a shit about what Aaron does, he's free to do whatever he wants. But I'll fucken die before

I ever see MY Andy with and open wrist, covered in tears begging to die, ever again." He said through greeted teeth.

I hung me head low, "I just met her."

"I can tell she likes you, and you like her. I'm not stupid."

"She's a cool girl, but I'm not gonna marry her."

"Are you like permanently stuck in highschool? Liking someone doesnt mean youre going to have to
marry them. However, it does mean that shes going to keep you around, and youre going to stay around, and I'm afraid that you staying around is going to screw everything up."

"Why is me staying a problem?" I whispered, my blood boiling, turning my hands into fists, ready to throw a punch, getting tired of his bullshit.

"Because honestly, you're a bit of a fuck up." And that's when my fist headed straight for his face.

He caught my wrist mid-air. "You can either get high with Aaron, or hang around Andy. But you cant
do both." He let go of my hand harshly and walked away.

I was left standing alone, I didnt know what to do. I no longer wanted to be here, be anywhere.

And so I left. Walking in no particular direction, just in the direction of ANYWHERE but here.

***********************************************************************
I eventually stopped walking when I heard a jumble of hushed whispers.

"Did you need something?" I heard Andy's thick voice ask.

"I heard what happened, I just wanted to check on you," replied a deep male voice.

"Chris, honestly I'm fine. I was never going to do it," she said.

"Then why did you buy the bottle?" the male voice asked.

"I dunno. Maybe I just wanted to see if I would actually do it." she mumbled.

"And if you had done it?"

"Then I'd be fucked up right now, not talking to you and just a little bit happier." She replied, trying her best to make a joke out of the situation.

"It's not funny!" He scolded.

"It is to me! God, I mean why doesnt anyone understand that I was never going to actually do it. I just wanted to..."

I was a little to wrapped up into this conversation that I almost didnt hear my phone ring. Almost.

I quickly silenced it.

Too late, they knew someone was there.

I heard a couple of footsteps and then, from behind a tour bus emerged Chris. Chris Motionless. As tall and as menacing as ever.

Andy stood behind him, a tiny contrast. "Max?"

"Hey," I responded nervously.

"Why arent you at the party?" She asked.

"Aiden sent me to look for you..." I lied, stuffing my hands in my jeans pockets, keeping my eyes on Chris.

She followed my gaze up to him.

Chris sighed, clearly displeased with the interruption. "Promise we'll talk later?"

She nodded.

She waited until we were far away enough to speak. "So where are we going?" she asked.

I kept my gaze straight ahead, "I told you, Aiden..."

She moved in front of me, blocking my path. "I know you were lying."

"And you came with me because...?" I asked.

She shrugged, "I didn't want to talk to him anymore."

"How'd you know I was lying?" I asked curiously.

"You put your hands in your pockets when you lie," she pointed out, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You noticed that?" I couldnt believe someone had paid enough attention to me to notice something like that.

"I've noticed a lot of things about you actually," She admitted, stepping aside so we could continue walking to absolutely nowhere.

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"You only tie your hair back when you're about to do some heavy lifting, or when you're wearing a hat. Most noticeably you let you hair down to hide your face because youre ashamed of something. You like to play with your lip rings with your tongue whenever someone asks if you want to drink. You laugh a lot when you're sharing old stories, regardless of whether theyre funny or not, you're also not as charming as all the girls say you are."

I looked over at her to find she was already watching me.

"Not as charming?"

She laughed softly, and nodded. "They say that you can make a girl faint with just once glance," she said, dramatically fanning herself.

I let out a small laugh. "If not charming, that what do you think of me?"

"I said not AS charming," she corrected.

"So you do find me charming," I said smiling down at her.

"I find you..." she paused looking for the right word, "interesting."

"But still charming?" I asked.
She shrugged, "I can see how you could be. With your million dollar smiles, and your appetite to make people as happy as you are."

"You know I notice stuff about you too," I looked over at her, she was still looking at me.

"Yeah, like?"

"Like your weird need to wear a sweater everywhere-"

She cut me off, "That's not weird!"

"Shh, I'm talking. And yeah it is weird. You freak." I teased, making her laugh. "You also give alcohol this weird disgusted, yet longing look, like you cant decide whether you hate it or like it. But either way, you turn your back and smoke a cigarette. And you my friend, also like to hide behind your hair, usually right after you flinch. You flinch a lot, by the way. And you're also not as charming as all the boys say you are." I looked over at her one more time to see that she was deep in thought, thinking about everything I had just said.

"But you know what you are?"

"Hmm?" was her response as she kept thinking.

"You really are just as pretty as all those magazines say you are." And I meant it. She was a really pretty girl, inside and out. And I've only known her for about 3 days, but it was easy to tell that all her intentions were always good.

She stopped walking for half a second, and tucked the white piece of her hair behind her ear. She also does that quite a bit, but I didnt point it out.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

And we kept walking. In silence, but not awkward silence, in fact it was the most comfortable silence

I've been a part of in months.

"Why aren't you at the party?" She finally asked.

"Aiden doesnt like me." I shrugged.

She laughed, "Aiden doesnt like anyone."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I went out to look for some ice-cream, and Chris found me."

More silence.

Then I got an idea. "I could find us an ice cream joint."

"Ice cream joint?" She asked, "What are you from the 50's?"

Then she gasped loudly, moving in front of me, blocking my path, "I know what you are."
Dramatic Pause. "Vampire." And the sincere look on her face sent me over the edge, and I burst out laughing.

"I may not be as charming as all the boy say, but I am funny." She said walking ahead of me.

"I have ice-cream on the bus. You wanna come?" She asked once I caught up with her.

I stayed silent for a minute, I really didnt want to see Aiden, but I really wanted to keep talking to Andy.

And so the night ended with me and Andy finishing an entire carton of ice-cream. Talking about random stuff like movies and music we liked, just like when we met the first night.