In The End

7: He Literally Saw Me Get Beat Up By a Big Fish

      I limp my way to Hot Topic for work, pain shooting through every part of my body with every step. It took all of my makeup to cover my hands and face, and I'm having to wear my Black Veil Brides pullover drawstring hoodie I'd gotten at one of their concerts a few years black, under it is a thin long sleeved OM&M shirt, and I've paired them with my night waisted black super skinny jeans, and it's the beginning of summer. I'm wearing my new joker converse, to ensure that no skin is showing. This morning, I'd gotten up super early to avoid Mason, because I got lucky and missed him last night. Dad had to carry me up to my bed yesterday, and now I have to burn my sheets because his hands touched them when he laid me down.
   If straightened by silver hair at six thirty in the morning, had my makeup, which consists of, sadly, all of my concealer and foundation, a blackish maroon lipstick, my black lip ring, black septum horseshoe ring, and heavy blackish grey eyeshadow.

Though I look nice, I look dead. Thankfully, I can blame the limp on yesterday's Sea World incident.
I have to fight my way into he store too, which isn't that unusual, especially if a band is playing, or a new piece of limited edition merch they really want to get is inside.
Right as I'm enteringHot Topic, I'm shoved out of the store by a body guard. I Yelp, lightly grasping my bruised shoulder. What the hell?
"are you kidding me? I work here!" I shout over all the girls screaming and boys hooting. the guard stares at me for a second, before sounding the burglary alarm.
  I give him the dirtiest look I could muster, before reaching over and punching in the code.
  he lifts me into the store before saying his apologies. I give him a withered look. muttering under my breath about trust issues, I stomp over to the check out counter, where Micki and Sam are working.
  they're staring behind me like puppies staring at food on the table, out of their reach. I sigh and snap my fingers in front of Micki's face, and she snaps out of her trance. She turns to Sam and slaps his arm, getting his attention.
  "Hey, guys, first, there is a huge line of customers, there's no music, and no one is handling the crowd. now, I'm here for my shift early."
  "Bladen, can you---"
  " Sam, you already got off to a bad start with the 'Bladen'," I warn, and he gives me the puppy dog eyes.
  "what he means, Blade," Micki corrects, "is we're hoping you can cover for us. Just for a couple of minutes, thirty minutes tops. I'll give you half of my pay check," she rushes out before I can say anything.
  "I'll give you half of mine too," Sam adds, making me cave.
  "twenty minutes," I say firmly, showing no move of compromise. "I have my job to do too, so you better make this fast." they beam at me, and Sam hands me my badge. I guess it is someone famous. I roll my eyes as they scurry off, before sighing and grabbing the megaphone from the back room. 
  I jump up onto the counter and say into the megaphone, "Listen up! you're going to have to come in single file! no one is meeting anyone until you are in the store and calm!" people immediately start to calm down and form lines. I jump down and hand the megaphone to the bouncer dude who shoved me out of the store, saying, "tell them whatever you need to." He nods and turns to the person he's protecting, who is around his height, meaning he is like a scarecrow compared to my curvy 5'2.5" frame. 
    I jump over the counter and quickly turn on the Of mice & Men playlist Before apologizing to the impatient customers. Then, I quickly start the check out.
Man, I'm like the flash at the check out, because within five minutes, the line of 20 people is now only 3. As I'm getting ready to check out the person, I hear a very familiar voice yell out into the megaphone, "Good Morning, LA!" I quickly duck my head on instinct of hearing a strong male voice, though I know he won't hurt me. "Today, we're helping out a charity for cancer kids, and we kind of need your help. So, for a chance to meet all of Black Veil Brides, then you have to buy at least 3 items from Hot Topic, and donate at least $10 to the charity. Thank You, BVB Army!" Andy finishes.
  The customer at the counter clears her throat, and I snap back into reality, finishing up her check out. I quickly ask her about the charity, and she declines.
As soon as I'm finished, and switch the 21 pilots song that was playing to the Black Veil Brides playlist on Spotify, Perfect Weapon blasts through the speakers a beat before the fans' cheers erupt the air.
And he smiles and looks at the checkout counter, only to see me. His smile widens, and I watch and pick up something before heading over to the counter, and I hold my breath as he puts his items on the counter, causing me to avert my eyes.
    "Will this be all?" I squeak out, and Andy laughs.
    "Blade," he starts, And I look at him. Big. Mistake. His blue eyes are full of happiness, and my mind immediately goes into gibberish mode.
I open my mouth to say something. What was I going to say again? Oh yeah--no. Was it--no. Maybe--nuh uh. Could it have been-- nope. This goes on for a good thirty seconds, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. I finally slap my hands on my forehead, groaning out, "words." Andy throws his head back and laughs. An actual laugh, not a wimpy half hearted laugh. I smile, but remember that there will soon be a line of customers.
   I quickly scan his items, which include a batman wallet, a batman ball cap, an Of Mice & Men muscle shirt, and a....charm bracelet? As soon as I scan that one, he takes my hand and the bracelet, now out of its holder, and puts it on my wrist. Every charm is a different band logo. It has sleeping with sirens, of mice and men, Fall out boy, black veil brides, bring me the horizon, and pierce the veil. I just stare at it.
  "I wanted to thank you for yesterday. I really needed an outside opinion on that," he explains.
   "it's totally cool, but I can't take this, it's  sweet and thoughtful, but I can't take it because I literally did nothing."
  "I won't take no for an answer, and I want to donate $300 to charity," he says, handing me a credit card. I smile and take it with the hand he is still gingerly holding, but he stops me by saying, "I need to talk to you about this,"and he drags his finger up to my shoulder gently for emphasis, making me blush, "before the concert tomorrow, which, by the way, here are four tickets." As I completely fan girl and he getting a good laugh, I think about what he could mean, but can't recall anything. Maybe he thinks he saw me or something?
Wait.
No.
There was something that could've made him think something was wrong, and that would be me almost crying in pain after a little shove. He knows I don't cry over petty injuries, he literally saw me get beat up by a big fish.
He releases me, lets me swipe his card, and bag his items. Andy smiles at me once more before asking, "can I leave this here with you so I don't lose it while meeting fans?"
  I nod and start to respond, but I'm cut off.
  "BLADEY-POO!!" Someone yells, and suddenly I'm on the floor. I hear people gasp and Andy yells, "oh god" before dying with laughter.
  "Blade, I missed you after we left yesterday! We're sorry if Andy was bugging you, we saw him talking your ear off. How are you?!" CC yells right as Andy complains, "hey! I was only talking to her for a minute!!" In between chuckles.
  "Ow," is all I let out. CC quickly scrambles off of me, and jumps out of the employee area. I don't think if he'd known that I was a punching back yesterday, he would've tackled me. I feel like I've gotten the wind knocked out of me, except the feeling you get in your chest when that happens is in every inch of me.
I just manage to hoist myself up whenever I hear a voice yell out, "BLADE, BABE!" Causing me to groan. I barely get out "oh no" before I'm tackled yet again, and I feel the air leave me. This time, the pain is worse.
  Ashley immediately jumps back up and opens his mouth, only to close it and point at my suspicious clothing choice, which would be normal. In the winter. After a second, he says, "different" Making Andy snort and CC clip his head.
   I finally hoist my self up once more, and wheeze out " you guys should look into football if the music career doesn't work out. "
  "Oops, sorry, Babe," Ashley says with a wink, causing me to go red. He laughs and pats my back.
  This time, when someone screams my name, I squeak out, "oh, no way in hell," and quickly shove Ashley in my spot as I jump out of the way right as The melodic guitarist hurls himself at the poor bassist, who was now standing in my old spot, confused.
   "Hey, your not Blade," Jake complains as he stands up.
  "Nope," we hear a wheezy voice call, and it takes me only a moment to realize it's Ashley. Jinxx then walks up to me and taps me on the shoulder, saying "hey, Blade, it's good to see you. I'm sorry about yesterday." This earns him a huge Cheshire Cat grin. Even though that still hurt really bad, he didn't tackle me.
  "Jinxx?" He raises an eyebrow. " you just became my favorite. " he gives me a questioning glance, and I just point to the chaos of a fight.
"---really sorry, Ash, I honestly was aiming to tackle Blade," says Jake, trying to calm the fuming Ashley Purdy.
  "Last time I checked, Jake, IM NOT A GIRL!"
   Jinxx just sighs and gives me a light side hug--thank god--and says, "your my favorite too," making me giggle and my inner fangirl mentally faint. "Well, I'm off to call Alice," Jinxx calls, and part of me is happy he found Alice Mogg, a model and his new girlfriend. After his and Sammi Doll's divorce he needed her, but it's still sad. (A/N: this is for real, Sammi and Jinxx actually got divorced and are split up T.T)
  "Hey, would you look at the time? I have to call Ernie" Jake rushes past me, and I feel sad that Ella and Him didn't work out. But hey, he still has Ernie. (Also true T^T)
  Before anyone can do anything, my two coworkers come up to me and say, "Blade, bvb isn't here! We can't find them! Sorry to make you work extra. We'll  still pay you." Mikki says, and Sam nods in agreement. They don't notice CC, Ashley, Andy, and now Jake and Jinxx, who're now back from their phone calls. Sam didn't even look to see who was behind the counter before saying, "no customers back here," forcing Ashley to join the rest of bvb at the side of the counter.
Andy looks at me with a raised eyebrow, am I just shrug painfully in response. I mean, it's no wonder they didn't find the band. They each take a cash register and enter in their passwords, checking their account. Every part time worker gets a check of $500 a month (a/n: this isn't true I really don't know but it would be kewl if it was cause then it would be like waht I'm sidekick foo! Sorry I had sugar. Read onwards!) and I'm getting $250 from each. I'm basically getting a whole other paycheck. Chasss!!! Anyway, they both give me the $250 without even looking up at me, so I clear my throat to try to get them to look up.
My attempt to catch all of the eyes behind the "staff only" counter fails though, because all Mikki says is " oh, here's your check for the month, Blade, it came in today with ours," and hands it to me. It's only then that she finally looks up at me, and sees Andy next to me. She gasps, causing Sam to look up and see the band as well.
"Oh god," they squeak.