Six Ways From Sunday

Chapter 1

 “Are you about ready in there? More than just you have to use this bathroom you know!” My little brother was getting on my nerves. Didn't he know I had to straighten my hair and put on my makeup before I could go out in public?

“Shut the fuck up! I'll be out when I'm out. It isn't like you've got anything pressing to do!” I yelled back through the locked bathroom door. Sometimes being an older sister drove me nuts. I was honestly thankful I'd only actually been an older sister for six months.

“Damn it, Juliet needs to get ready for a photo shoot! Get the fuck out of the bathroom Charli!” Charli... that's me. Juliet – yeah, that's my brother's girlfriend. Juliet Simms. Oh, did I mention my little brother is Andy Biersack? You know, Black Veil Brides' Andy Biersack? Yeah.

“Andrew! Shut the fuck up! Juliet can come in here if she wants to, I'll unlock the door for her. For fuck sake, we're both girls, it doesn't matter if she's in here with me.” I reached over and flipped the lock on the door. “Ok, send her in.” Juliet came in and rolled her eyes.

“I told him it was fine, that it could wait. I also told him if I really needed to get in here, I'd just ask you to let me in. It isn't like we haven't shared the bathroom here before.” Juliet shook her head and hopped into the shower. “He's just pissed because it means he can't come in here with me, which was what he wanted in the first place. Right now, I'd rather he not be in here. I can't get ready with him around.”

“Who can?” I asked her. “I'm his sister and he bugs the shit out of me.”

“You going with him to the studio today?” Juliet asked, changing the subject.

“I was thinking about it.” I shrugged even though Juliet couldn't see me. “I don't know yet. I mean, it's not like I have anything to do there.”

“But you can see..” Juliet trailed off, not sure if she should finish her sentence. She knew there was some chemistry with one of the guys and me, but she wasn't quite sure who it was. All she knew was that it wasn't Andy because he was my brother.

“If you mean I can see whoever it is that makes me go weak in the knees, yeah, I know. But... I just don't know right now if I want that. And wouldn't that be weird, me dating one of my brother's band mates?” I stopped talking as I started putting on my eyeliner. Last time I tried to talk and put on eyeliner, I ended up poking myself in the eye hard enough that I wore an eye patch for two weeks.

Juliet got out of the shower, wrapped her hair in a towel and her body in another towel, then joined me in front of the mirror. “Why wouldn't you want that right now?”

I sighed, trying to put what I was feeling into words. “I just found my brother six months ago. A brother I didn't even know I had. I mean sure, Mom and Dad embraced me when I found them, and so did Andy, but... I don't know. It's just all so fast and all so weird to me. My adoptive parents never adopted another child and they didn't have any of their own, so I grew up like Andy, an only child. But neither of us really was an only child.”

“Ok, but putting that aside, if love found you, you'd take it right?” Juliet studied me. She had a way of doing that so I didn't feel uncomfortable or ashamed. My scars weren't always visible but she'd seen them all. At least I could truthfully say the scars weren't self inflicted. But that didn't mean I didn't feel they made me ugly.

“I guess so. I don't know. I mean, if love found me I suppose I'd take it. But could I really take it if it was one of Andy's friends?” I must have looked a bit freaked out because Juliet laughed to lighten the mood.

“The only friend of his that you could date that would upset him would be Jinxx and that would only be because of Sammi.” Juliet grabbed for the hair dryer and turned it on, ending our conversation for the time being. Since I was ready to go, I waved goodbye to what I considered my sister-in-law even though they weren't married, and headed for the kitchen. There I found my brother chowing down on a bowl of Cocoa Puffs like they were going out of style.

“Nice to see you're normal in some ways.” I smirked as I grabbed a bowl of Special K. Unfortunately, Andy had apparently gotten the awesome stay-skinny-as-a-rail genes and I'd gotten the get-as-big-as-a-house genes. If I'd eaten the Cocoa Puffs, I'd have gained ten pounds. “Can I go with you today? I don't have anything better to do and I don't want to hang around here all day.”

“Sure.” Andy answered around a mouthful of cereal. I swear Mom and Dad never taught him any manners. He swallowed the cereal and looked at me. “So, you going to flirt with Ashley some more today?”

I looked at him for a moment. I was floored that he'd seen right through me. How the hell did he know I had a thing for Ashley? Which was what I blurted out the next second. “How the fuck do you know I have a thing for Ashley?”

“Because, Charli Biersack, I've seen the way you look at him at the studio. He likes you too, you know.” He put an emphasis on the Biersack. For years, my last name had been Doll, because that was my adoptive parents' last name. But after finding my birth family, Andy had made it his crusade to make me use my birth name, not my adoptive name. I kept trying to tell him it wasn't that simple, but as with most little brothers, he didn't listen very well. “Besides, he flirts with you.”

“He flirts with Juliet, Lauren, Sammi, and Ella too. It's because I'm female.” I rolled my eyes. It was true that he did flirt with them, but it was more of a friendly flirting with those four. With me it almost seemed like the flirting was meant to convey interest. Of course, my limited experience with men might have made it seem that way when it really wasn't.

“No, he friendly flirts with them. He flirts with you differently. I can't explain it because I don't flirt.” Andy said. “I just know that you've got a thing for him and I'm pretty sure he's got a thing for you.”

“And I'm pretty sure you're out of your mind, brother.” I put our cereal bowls in the sink and turned around to stare at Andy. “Ashley doesn't like me like that. He friendly flirts with me, just the same as he does with Juliet, Sammi, Lauren, and Ella.” I sighed because in only six months, Andy had gotten to know me well enough to be able to see that I wanted Ashley.

“Whatever. Let's go. The guys are not going to be happy if I'm late, because today is when I start recording vocals.” Andy grinned and held out his arm. I slipped under it and snuggled up to my younger, but taller, brother. He gave me a hug and looked down at me. “I guarantee you that Ashley likes you a lot. He isn't just friendly flirting.”

“Whatever Anders.” I waited as Andy said goodbye to Juliet. I loved them both, but they made me sick with how lovey-dovey and cute they were. I adjusted my hair, making sure it was hanging down the way I wanted it to. There was one thing that my brother, his girlfriend, and their friends didn't know about me and I preferred to keep it that way.