"What do you mean it's gone?!" Ricky begins to throw clothes everywhere and tears the room up trying to find it. "Chris! He knows I'll be vulnerable without it! He took it when he was here!" Ricky kicks a wooden doorway with his black boot. "I'll be back."
"Ricky! Ugh!" He slams the door on his way out, I slide my black dress over my head and ditch the heels to run after Ricky. "Chris! I swear to God!" Ricky shouts at Chris's door as he kicks at it.
"What do you want?" Chris flings the door open to where it smacks the wall behind it with a loud bang. "Are you serious? You took Ryan's ring!" I run to Ricky in time to see him shove Chris violently before inviting himself in. "I didn't take anything from you! Are you crazy?" The two boys are both on the ground with their fist ready to break a few bones. "I'm so fed up with you!" Ricky shouts, Chris is the first puncher and that's when Ricky just snaps. I freeze as the two start kicking, punching, and anything in between. "Ricky, stop! You're going to kill him!" Ricky was winning at that point, Chris was now missing from fatigue and he was getting the worst of it all.
I grab onto Ricky's arm and try to pull him off of Chris. "Vinny! Josh! Devin!" I scream for the two nearest to the room when Ricky brushes me off easily. Vinny and Devin don't get there before Josh, he wasn't mad but he was obviously irritated. Josh and I pull a kicking and cussing Ricky from Chris, his lip us bleeding badly and his stomach is pretty bruised. All Ricky has is a black eye. "And stay away from Vanessa or I will kill you!" Ricky snaps at Chris, but I don't think he is listening at all. I don't really blame him either.
Josh wrestles Ricky out the door, leaving Chris and I alone; something I wasn't a fan of. Chris groans and rolls onto his side, he may have started the whole thing but Ricky sure as hell finished it. Now I could see that Chris is bruised on his ribcage and he has a short cut on his temple. I kneel beside him and touch the wound on his ribcage, making him flinch.
"I'll be right back." I enter the bathroom and wet a towel with warm water before power walking back to Chris.
"You brought this on yourself." I say as I clean the cut and keep a gentle hand on his side. "I didn't take shït from him." Chris mumbles as he lays his head on his bicep, I sigh and decide to stay out of the argument. "Can you sit up?" Chris props himself up on his hands, brushing his hair back with his fingers. "I'm fine, I don't need your charity." Chris drags himself to his feet only to fall on the dresser near by.
"Come on." I roll my eyes and help him over to the bed, Chris doesn't object but I am pretty sure he doesn't like being helped by anyone. Chris leans on the headboard with his legs crossed as he recollects himself. "What's this about me stealing his ring? I thought he lost it." I give a nervous laugh and scratch my head.
"Uhm, funny story. Ricky is way to attached to it and I think it also is another reason he gets so depressed anytime he looks at himself, so I had him take off the ring for a few minutes and just put it by our stuff. Then you came in during those few minutes, automatically talking about it like you knew he didn't have it." I do put the blame on myself for him loosing his ring, maybe I was just jealous about Ashley and this is where jealousy got you.
Something important lost.
"You're so stupid, but I do always see you fix these situations. Did anyone else besides myself went into your room?" I nod, Vinny had been there. But, he wasn't even a demon as far as I knew. "Vinny, but he's not an angel or demon...Is he?" Chris shakes his head and tucks his hair behind his ear, revealing his gauged ears. Ricky has been wanting to start gauging like Chris but, I think it would be better if he didn't turn into another Chris.
"But he is a very good friend of Josh's right now." That sent out a huge red flag, I feel really bad now. Chris got beaten up for something he didn't do, and to top it off he looked like he just came back from taking on a kangaroo in Australia and still had to go to the party later. "Sorry about the whole thing with Ricky, I'll see you at the party." I quickly get up and power walk out the door to see that Josh and Ricky were arguing silently between themselves. "Hey! Will make Greg mad if none of us are down there in fifteen minutes." I point out and grab the collar of Ricky's shirt to drag him to the hotel room without protest.
"Watch the fancy button-up shirt." Ricky huffs before brushing his black shirt off like he was pure royalty. I just roll my eyes and slip my heels on. "It wasn't Chris, it was Vinny." Ricky raises an eyebrow as he attempts to tie a tie with his fingers. "Vinny? No...For first, he's to much of a coward of me he wouldn't try to steal something from that belongs to me...Did you see him when he walked in on you in just a towel? And second, what would a human want with my ring."
"Chris says he's very close to Josh, sounds like he would get anything for him." Ricky shakes his head and begins to grow aggravated with his tying skills. "My Dad showed me how to tie one before he..." My parent's death was something I never talked about unless it was my grandparents or sister. Ricky was silent, he knew about my parents, but he didn't know how they met their own demise. I prefer to keep it that way, the tie was defeated by yours truly and then we met all the bands downstairs.
"Vanessa! Oh my goodness, you look absolutely gorgeous!" Greg smiles with his hands covering his mouth, my outfit consisted of a black dress that dropped into a V in the back and had two horizontal strips of clothing removed from each side of the dress. I had only wore it one other time and that was last years prom, I got Ricky to help me with wrestling my hair in a straight ponytail. The heels weren't that tall but with the gold studs I thought I fit the character of Ricky's date.
"Really?" I had invited Alice along, who stood near Andy and Josh. "Let me speak for all of us when I say that if Rick doesn't dance with you, I will." Everyone except Ricky laughs at Ashley's comment, I nudge him playfully. "He's just being his usual self, don't frown over someone as cocky as Ashley." Ricky just fakes a grin and walks with our large group towards several cars. "Okay, In Ricky's car will be Vanessa, Alice, Chris, Ashley, Andy, and Josh." We all look at each other with surprise before looking back at the car with wide eyes.
"You expect us, mostly men, in that." Andy points his finger at the small sports car but Greg just chuckles and shrugs. "Come on now, we are all men it won't hurt to sit on someone's lap for a few minutes." Greg continues on to Marilyn, who was the sober driver for the next vehicle.
Ricky sighs and rubs the back of his neck. "Uhm, there are three seats in the back so two people will be sitting in someone's lap. Choose now or I choose for you."
When no one spoke up Ricky smirked, and that meant he was about to have fun. "Alice with Josh, Andy with Ashley." Arguing immediately burst out mostly from Josh. "I have a girl at home may I remind you!" He snaps at Ricky who just flips him off as he enters the driver side. Andy and Ashley were probably more uncomfortable than Alice and Josh by the looks of it. Andy was very far from him, almost on Ashley's knees. Andy talked to me non-stop to distract himself from the moment.
"So, when I get home Juliet and I were thinking of going to Florida. You and Ricky should come with us, it'd be fun." I cut my eyes at Ashley, he had himself pinned up to the seat with his hands strictly near his groin. I guess he was frightened of the idea of anyone except woman touching him anywhere. Guys are so weird about homo stuff.
"Thanks, but after tour I have collage if I don't accept this record offer."
We finally made it to the other large hotel that had the dance floor and drinks. When about twenty of us, tattooed and pierced with nothing but black for clothing climbed out of the car, let's just say we have all the attention it's almost like the red carpet. "Don't mind the looks, people just don't know when to not be rude." Chris speaks loud enough for the people around us to get the memo, but none look away some even had their children by the hand as they whispered to them.
"Take a picture it last longer!" Chris finally shouts to the crowd we have surrounding us. We all wait for Greg to tell us we could head in with security, I hold Ricky's hand to reassure him that no one was going to start screaming about how tattoos were unholy and that goths were the devil's righthand people. "Excuse me, miss?" I look to the sound of the small voice to see a young girl, she couldn't be more than seven.
"Oh, yes, sweetheart?" I feel Ricky's chin rest on my shoulder as he takes interest to the conversation. "Oh! Uhm! I just really like your tattoos and you look really pretty." I giggle, if the world had more accepting people like her maybe we wouldn't have these protests over gay rights and maybe this band wouldn't exist to give people like us hope.
"Thank you very much." The little girl begins to blush hard as she giggles as well. "Your boyfriend has pretty eyes and I like his hair." I never really thought much about his eyes, except that they were so damn blue they hurt my own eyes. "He just cut it." I turn to Ricky and play with his hair, it's his turn to blush and turn to Chris. "You are very kind, that's something none of us get hardly ever from people outside of our own bubbles."
"You all look pretty though." I think I might just start crying, had everyone at school broke me so hard that compliments hit me like that. "Thanks."
"Can you tell your friends that?" I nod and shake her small hand, wiping forming tears from my eyes. "Yes I can."
"Erica? Come on now! Stay away from strangers!" A woman in her mid forties runs over to the little girl and scoops her up, tearing our hands apart. "Please don't touch her, she can be very unknowing of her surroundings and what's right and wrong." I hear someone stand from the bench we were on, of course it's Chris...It's always Chris. "What's so wrong about Vanessa speaking with her?" I stand from my own seat and touch Chris's hand with a shake of my head.
"No, Chris, it's okay! It's a skill she needs to learn!" Otherwise I wouldn't be here with you in a band in all this drama. "I don't know any of you, that's what's wrong about it!" The woman strikes back, ignoring me in the cross fire. Now everyone, even Marilyn and Josh are on their feet. Ready to back Chris up on anything he said.
"Exactly, so why are you acting like we are ant different from you?"
"Because you are!" That hurt, it hurt us all. All of us had some type of bullying or lose in our lives that made us different and everyone would let us know about it. "Pardon me! My wife, she knows nothing, she's just...Very cautious!" A man pushes his spouse away and towards the elevator. "Wow, did anyone else get just a little stung by her last compliment?" I murmur as I watch the family leave in the elevator.
"Yeah, but she's right...We are a bit different. It's what makes us who we are and I'll be the first to stand up for it, I like who we are, guys. I like our bands, our tattoos, our make-up, everything! I like that we can take something like Selena Gomez and hit a few guitars in with some high notes and make it even better! I like that we've shown kids that we can be who we are. That being different is better than being like everyone who can put on foundation or throw a football. That's us, guys, let's never change that. Not for people like her, not for anyone." I never knew Ricky could be so moving, it makes me smile.
"Me too." I say and hug Ricky tightly with a laugh. "Same here." I feel Alice hug around me.
"I'm with you guys, this doesn't mean I'm gay!" We giggle when Chris joins in our hug, and soon everyone has declared their loyalty to how they are and when Greg walks back to us we are all nothing but a mass of rejects.
A mass of rejects that had each other, our family. Even if we didn't like everyone in it, we still would have each other's backs in the end.
Something I've been yearning for since middle school.
A real family.
...I've been sleepwalking, been wandering all night. Been trying to take what's lost and broken and make it right...
[Song: Burning House by Cam
I know I said this chapter Ricky and Vanessa would be VERY close but, Edmond has been so busy and I feel bad so I'm making fillers till he can finishing up the editing. Now with a Chris Motionless fanfiction to be published soon he has more on his plate with the Ashley Purdy fanfiction also(not counting the books and fanfics on Quotev). He's trying his hardest, please don't be upset, I've gotten DMs in my Instagram or Pms in Wattpad about updates and I, on his behalf, know he is working fast with school now going on. He finally agreed to edit the Vanessa and Ricky chapter after I tutored him in our Spanish class so it won't really suck now. So, that's why updates are slow. He and I apologize for it.]