So to Hell with Good Intentions

“Oh. My. God. Toby have you seen your man’s hair in this music video!?” Lydia squeals before shoving her phone in my face.

Laughing, I pull the phone out of my face and take it in my hands to see the video. “Holy fuck! Spence what the fuck do you call this hair!?” I turn the phone around and show the video to Spencer. Both Spencer and Ricky look at the video; Ricky starts laughing but Spencer is glaring at me. “Hey, I love your voice and can say you rocked Adele. But that hair!?”

“Please!” Spencer scoffs. “You had a scene phase, didn’t you?”

“I went from emo, to goth to whatever this is!” I say, motioning to my outfit. I’m currently wearing an oversized Misfits t-shirt with blue sugar skull fox legs and a pair of black Doc Martens. “I didn’t do the scene hair.”

“Why do I feel like that’s complete bullshit?” Ricky laughs. I just smirk at him before going into my spare room and grabbing one of my big rubbermaid containers filled with photo albums. Most of them are candids over the years or my attempts at modeling. I walk back into the living room and plop the container right in front of Ricky and Spencer.

“Have at it boys! You have full permission to make fun of me since I do it to you guys on a daily basis.”

Both Spencer and Ricky share a look before looking right back at me. I just smile before grabbing my glass of wine and sitting on one of my bar stools next to Lydia. “Go on, start looking. I can promise you, you won’t find Scene October anywhere. You’ll see Emo October, Goth October, October attempting to be a boudoir model with a horror twist and you’ll see a good chunk of all my favorite makeup looks I’ve done over the years. Oh and you’ll see pictures of me and Chris growing up. So use that blackmail however you want.”

“Is the boudoir picture album labeled because I’m not about to see my friend’s girlfriend naked?” Ricky asks me.

“Like I’d want you to see my girlfriend naked.” Spencer shoots back and the two begin to argue over something else entirely.

Lydia leans over towards me. “Do you ever think that if they ever leave us they’d end up leaving us for each other?”

“You, me and the whole entire fanbase.” I laugh, loudly causing the two to look at me. “What? Lydia said something funny.” Both narrow their eyes at me. “Are you gonna look through pictures or what? Because either way, I’m going back and making fun of Spencer. Because I’m a horrible girlfriend that doesn’t fluff her boyfriend’s ego.”

**

“Hey Spence!” Lydia calls out, causing the lead singer to look up at her from his spot on the ground. It’s been an hour and they still haven’t found picture proof of me being Scene. But Lydia and I kept looking up old pictures of Spencer and boy, the man oozed Scene. “I’ve got to say, you definitely aged like fine wine. Because these pictures of you when Ice Nine Kills first started are hilarious.”

“I do miss the big stretched ears and the piercings though.” I point out. “But yea, this look.” I motion to him and his outfit. “So much more attractive.”

“Glad you think so babe.” He rolls his eyes at me. “I thought about changing the look but since you love it so much I think I’ll keep it.”

“Smart ass.” I snort before putting my phone down on the counter. “Any luck boys?”

“You’re right, you didn’t have a Scene phase.” Ricky says in defeat. “And I didn’t appreciate having to see you dressed in lingerie and a Ghostface mask.” He shudders at the memory.

“You didn’t have to open the album clearly marked Slasher Boudoir photoshoot” Spencer rolls his eyes while Lydia laughs.

“That photoshoot stays between the 4 of us, okay?” I narrow my eyes at them. “The rest of the band mustn’t know, okay?”

“Because Joe and Patrick will give you hell for it?” Spencer asks.

“It’s like you know your bandmates.” I roll my eyes. “But yes.”

“Who did you do that shoot for?” Lydia questions. “From what you said, Spencer is the only boyfriend you had that’s horror obsessed.”

“Don’t tell me it was Trever.” Spencer begs. “I already hate the man, I don’t want to be jealous that he got this as a gift.”

“It wasn’t Trever.” I assure him. “My friend was starting her boudoir photography business and needed someone to take pictures of to add to her portfolio. I just so happened to be in Philly at the time so we drank wine and she took pictures of me.” I shrug. “It was actually her idea to do the horror movie twists. We did just do a Scream movie marathon the night prior.”

“And which friend is this?” Spencer questions. “Is this Marnia? The one you have matching tattoos with?”

“Yes!” I reply. “She’s the one that has the Jason tattoo that matches my Freddy tattoo on my wrist.”

“I’ve really got to meet her.” Spencer says. “She doesn’t live in L.A, does she?”

“Nope, you’ll have to go to Philly for that.” I reply. “We could always go down in October.” I suggest to him. “We can hit up Eastern State Pen while we are there.”

“What is Eastern State Pen?” Lydia asks. “You talk about it a lot, especially when talking about your special effects origin story.”

“So Eastern State Penitentiary was a prison in Philly that was operational from 1829 to 1971. It was the first prison that wanted to focus on reforming the prisoners rather than punishing them. It was the largest and most expensive prison and was the model for several other prisons. It also housed Al Capone and Willie Sutton at one point in time. It’s used as a historic museum now and during the spooky season it’s used as a haunted house.”

“And that’s where it comes in when talking about your origin story.” Ricky finishes. “How old were you when you started?”

“16.” I reply. “I kinda lied about my age to get the job.” I sheepishly admit. “They found out but kept me on because I was a good makeup artist. Working there was also the reason why I started going by October instead of Tiffany.”

“And why is that?” Spencer questions. “Not that I don’t love the name October.”

“Way too many Tiffanys worked there.” I laugh. “So my boss asked if there was another name I could go by and I suggested my middle name.”

“And the rest is history.” Lydia laughs.

“Then at 18, I applied to be a makeup artist on Saw: The Final Chapter and from there I got to work on a bunch of amazing movies and get to meet this asshole.” I point to Spencer. “And I then completely ignored Chris and fell in love with this asshole despite the warnings.” Spencer shoots me a dirty look before flipping me the middle finger. I just blow him a kiss.

This is my life now and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve got the best friends, the best boyfriend. Nothing in this world could make me happier…