Chapter Six*
2009
"Zandy," Candace called me from the loading bay.
"Just a sec," I called back, trying to get the stupid name tag on. I was able to get the pin in without managing to poke my skin; today was already a win.
I joined Candy in the back and looked at the three large boxes marked 't-shirts'.
"These came in today, but I haven't been able to get anyone to put 'em away," Candy explained, handing me a box cutter. "There's three empty shelves on the wall. I want as many as will fit of each on there. Don't worry about the case above them, I'll have one of the guys do that later." I nodded and she smiled, patting me on the shoulder. "I don't know what the heck they are, but this seems to be the first place they've shipped 'em. I checked the item number and this order seemed to be the only one on the computer. Must be some new band."
Candy left me back there, closing the door behind her since costumers weren't allowed in this area.
It was a Friday afternoon and I had just started my shift at work. It had been a few weeks since I found out about Karsten. Sure, it was a huge blow to my self confidence, but nothing I didn't get over within the first couple days. After our scene in the restaurant, he had quit his job and apparently moved. What a coward, not being able to stand up to a girl. Even if he was gay.
Today was June 28th, eleven days since the video for Knives and Pens had been released on YouTube. I had made fun of Andy multiple times while watching it, but it was really bad*ss. Everything just looked like it was done well and Andy had this type of presence when he was on camera. It was breathtaking almost. Chris did awesome, he couldn't have played better and he always seemed to know what to do to allow the director to get the right shot. Sandra did awesomely, especially considering it was her first time on a professional camera. She had to be the best female drummer--no, artist--out there right now.
In the midst of all this, they were hurrying to finish recording and editing because their album was set to release on July 20th. They were also looking for more guitarist, and Andy was contemplating taking up and offer from a guy named Pan. When Andy had first told me, I immediately thought of the Greek god of wildlife, the one with hooves for feet. Yeah, not the best first impression.
I snapped out of my thoughts and slid a razor out of the box cutter I held in my hand. I sliced open the tape on the first box. When the cardboard flaps popped open, I almost dropped my cutter and I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. Just to make sure I wasn't seeing things, I cut open the other two boxes. I was faced with the same thing, just different designs and styles. No. F*cking. Way.
Slipping my phone out of my back pocket secretively, I snapped a photo of the contents of the boxes. No way in hell was I going to send it to Andy. No way, these were going to Lottie and the guys. They would flip!
I quickly sent the pictures to their phones, writing a caption. 'Look at the sh*t we got in today.' I sent it and stowed my phone back into my pocket. I took an armful of shirts from the first box and went out onto the floor. I spotted the empty racks Candy was talking about and put what I had on one. I repeated the process with the other two shirts. When I had filled them to the max, I grabbed a medium sized shirt from each pile and set it aside for me so I could buy them when my shift ended.
I went back out onto the floor and went through all the shelves, arranging each by size. I was still all happy and bubbly inside from the discovery I had made a few minutes earlier. As I was working, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I slipped it out and saw I had a new txt message from Lottie, Skin, and Bone. I put my phone away, deciding I'd read them on my break.
David, the assistant manager, let me on my fifteen minute break at five-thirty. I went to the staff room and quickly pulled out my phone to read the texts.
From: Lottie
-Oh my god! No f*cking way!!! I gotta get me some of those :)
From: Bone
-Thats f*cking rad dude. Can't believe there's actually a tshirt.
From: Skin
-Ay, I gotta get me 1! R they on sale right now?
I responded to only Skin's message, since he was the only one who had an actual question.
To: Skin
-Yea, you better get 1 quick tho. Theyre sellin lik hotcakes. I've had 2 restock those shelves once already, nd I put a f*cking ton on ther.
I never got a reply from him, but I knew he'd gotten the text. Knowing Bone, he was probably dancing around his room like a little girl on Christmas morning.
For the rest of my break, I sat in the back room and just rested. And thought a lot, unfortunately.
Every time I'd let my mind wander, it kept going back to Andy. His beautiful eyes, his perfect pouty lips, his dark soft hair, his strong stature. The way he was funny and had a kind if dry humor, but was sincere and caring. I could see he loved me, just as a sister though. He'd been like my big brother for so long, and now that's all I was thinking he'd ever be. He was concerned for me, and the other day at the restaurant proved that. The concern and care in his eyes was overpowering and comforting. I always knew I could count on Andy to pick me up when I fell, no matter how hard.
But, for almost three months now, I had been developing these odd feelings for him. Every time he'd touch me, even just the smallest brush, I could feel this jolt of electricity bubble under my skin where ever his hands or shoulders had made contact. It had always been there, ever since I first met him, but it just seemed so much stronger now.
Then, whenever I saw him shirtless or I was in a once comfortable position with him, I would blush and stammer and make an utter fool out of myself. These types of things had never happened with Andy before. He'd always been the person I was most comfortable around and could say anything to. Now I felt I had to keep secrets from him about my feelings.
Like that day I ranted about not being able to talk to him or Karsten about what was stuck in my mind. Finally I had gone over to Lottie's and talked to her about everything.
I was having these feelings toward Andy that I had never knew existed, much less between us. Such as the shocks, and then there were the funny jumpy feelings I got in my stomach every time I saw him. There was also the feeling of my heart turning head over heels (if my heart had such things) whenever he smiled that special smile. The jealousy I felt toward Scout whenever I saw her on TV, like a few weeks ago when Andy and I were watching Halloween II. I would scowl when I saw her, not even realizing it.
After an hour straight of listening to my boy problems and internal conflict, Lottie finally gave me an answer.
"You love him," she had told me, saying so like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes at her. "Of course I love him, he's my best friend," I countered. "He's like the big brother I have but haven't seen for four years."
She groaned and slapped her fists on the couch. "That's what I'm saying!" she shouted, frustrated. "You're used to loving him as a brother, but now you have these feelings for him that you can't explain. It's love you idiot! Not brotherly love, but...loverly love." She seemed uncertain about that last part of her sentence.
I groaned loudly and pretended to sob. "But I don't wanna love him like that!"
"Too bad, you weirdo. You love him, and there ain't nothing you can do it about it!" She stuck her tongue out at me like a little kid.
I was pulled out of my thoughts and memories by the lounge room door opening. Jared, one of the guys that was at my level, walked through the door and smiled.
"Deep in thought?" he asked, walking to the fridge and pulling his soda out. As long as I had worked here, he had always had that same soda here, everyday.
"Yeah," I said, standing up. "But now my break's over." I walked to the door and opened it before leaning back into the room and addressing Jared again. "You know that'll give you kidney stones. I heard they're especially hard to pass in the male urinary tract."
He pulled his soda from his lips, looked at it for a few seconds, then shrugged, bringing it back to his mouth to take a big gulp. I rolled my eyes but smiled and started the rest of my shift.
Three hours later, I was walking out of the store with my bag of shirts and the rest of the people that close with me, into the parking lot. I said goodbye to everybody and got in my car. The twenty minute drive home was filled with music and my trying to change out of my shirt and into the one I had just bought. It was quite a struggle in the little Chevy I had. I loved my car. It was a black '86 Chevy Camaro Iroc Z. I guess Andy had bought me it before we had moved and told my mom to ship it over to me as a surprise. And let me tell you, it was one awesome surprise.
I shoved the shirt I was previously wearing into the Hot Topic bag and jumped out of my car. I raced to the front door and tried it to see if it was locked. Fortunately, it wasn't, so I just let myself in and dropped my things by the front door like I did everyday.
"I'm home!" I called throughout the house. The TV wasn't on in the living room and none of the lights upstairs were on. Andy hadn't told me he was going out with the guys tonight, and the house didn't feel empty. I shrugged and walked into the living room, reaching my hand out to flip the switch to the overhead fan.
That's when I noticed the back porch light was on. I tilted my head to the side and walked over to the back door, sliding it open quietly. I peeked out the door and saw Andy sitting in my chair, talking on the phone. He had this glint in his eyes, like something amazing was about to happen.
It was silent on this end of the phone, but I'm sure someone was talking on the other side. "Yeah, definitely," Andy was saying, nodding his head. "That's awesome, I'll see you then, Pan."
Oh, so it was wildlife god guy. Good to know Andy had another guitarist, though.
Andy started giving directions of where to go and I went around to walk up behind him. I crouched down through some tall bushes and leafy trees. I made a half circle and was behind Andy, just as he hung up the phone. I brought my hands to his face and cupped them around his eyes. He didn't hesitate and brought his hands up to mine, pulling them off gently. He held his hands in mine and those electric shocks ran through my fingers and up my arms, making my heart flip. The things this boy does to me.
He turned around in the seat and smiled at me, until he saw my shirt. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened, taking in the image on my shirt.
It was a black unisex t-shirt with the most unique image on it, something only Andy would surely think of. There was an anonymous young lady wearing all black with a black veil covering her face in an oval frame-like thing. Under it said 'Black Veil Brides' and the whole thing was surrounded by red. It was one of three shirts that we owned, and I had also bought.
"What the hell?" Andy asked slowly, not believing his eyes.
I smiled widely at him as he looked up at my face. "We just got the shipment in today. There's two other shirts that we got."
Andy looked dumbstruck, then his whole face lit up and he smiled brightly. He came up out of the chair and moved around it, coming toward me. Soon, I was in his arms, being twirled around like I was six instead of sixteen, but I wasn't complaining. Being in his arms and so intimately close to him made me happy and gave me that tingly feeling all around. He's like my drug, my 'meth' for lack of better words. And yes, I just made a reference to his Montana Meth appearance when he was, like, fourteen.
After we had finished our ballet session, Andy and I obsessed over the shirts. Andy was so glad that these designs had actually been put through. He mentioned something about hopefully getting a sponsor through Hot Topic so they could do a tour sometime in the near future.
Soon after that, our conversation switched gears and we started talking about tomorrow, the last day of my sophomore year. Personally, I was so elated to be finishing this year that there really isn't words to express my happiness. But, I did want to go all out and do something absolutely crazy tomorrow. It couldn't really be a big production since it was only a half day of school, but it'd be good enough to freak out everybody else at school. It would give me some type of entertainment and a feeling of accomplishment. Even if it was in the form of being taunted and mocked for the rest of my high school life.
"You should come to school with me tomorrow," I was saying to Andy. We had moved from our position by the chair to the trunk of the tree. Andy's back was against the trunk, his legs spread apart so I was able to fit between them. My back was pressed firmly to his chest, his arms around my waist. I traced the tattoos on his arms, his face sunken into the crook of my neck.
"Would the school allow that?" he asked, his voice vibrating against my shoulder.
I shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know. I don't think they would really care. They're all too afraid of me to really protest."
Andy chuckled, which caused that vibrating to occur again. "Fine, I'll come to your school. But we need to do something crazy since I didn't do anything my senior year."
I rolled my eyes. "And who's fault was that?"
"Yours."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really."
"Whatever Andy," I sighed, getting tired of the petty argument. "We should do something with that black body paint that you have. That'd be so rad."
His head perked up and he rested his chin on my shoulder. "Yeah, do a sort of warpaint, type thing. That'd be bad*ss."
"That would be bad*ss," I agreed. "I'll go all out with makeup, too. And my hair."
"Mmm," he mumbled, "I'm liking this more and more."
"Me too," I smiled. I checked the clock on my phone; I was getting tired. 11:29, it read. At that precise moment, both Andy and I yawned simultaneously. Afterwards we chuckled, but then convinced each other to go up to bed.
The next morning, I got up bright and early to take a shower. After that, I threw on a black tank top and some black shorts. I blow dried my hair and ran a straight iron through it quickly; I wanted to get dressed before I did my hair this morning.
Throwing open the closet door, I plucked a plain black t-shirt off of a hanger and pulled a pair of black leather looking jeggings off of my dresser. I pulled both on quickly and practically ran back into the bathroom.
I was pulling hairspray, hair wax, and a comb out from under the sink just as Andy opened his bedroom door and joined me in the bathroom. I messed with my hair and made it choppy and stand up while Andy brushed his teeth and washed his face. How else do you think he keeps his teeth so white and his skin so flawless?
After he was finished, Andy tossed me some black body paint and told me to put it on with a makeup pad. Then he pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his front pocket and headed downstairs. I shook my head. I really had to get him to stop smoking. He'd been doing it since he was sixteen.
I finished with my hair and opened the jar of black acrylic paint. I took an unused makeup applicator and dipped the side of it into the jar. Bringing the pad to my arm, I smoothed on the paint generously. The whole thing was just kind of random swipes of paint so it looked messy and unplanned, which it was. I did the same to my other arm and then to my neck. Then I stuck three fingers into jar so I could do a different design on my chest and face.
The t-shirt I was wearing was a slight v-neck, so I dragged my fingers from hollow part between the two bones of my collarbone to where the shirt started (just above my cleavage). I got more paint on my fingers and used the index finger of each hand to make a swirly design along my collarbone. I made two diagonal streaks between my collarbone and the three lines down the middle of my chest.
I washed my hands and grabbed a thin paintbrush from a random drawer. Well, it actually had the word 'Andy' spray painted on it, so it wasn't really random. I dipped the bristles of the brush into the paint and drew a line starting foam the right corner of my mouth to almost my ear. Then I drew X's along the line in random places, making it look like a stitch. If you couldn't tell, I stole the idea from the Knives and Pens video where Andy had a stitch on the side of his face.
I added more lines on the X's and some straight ones in between them. When I was finished with that, I traced the right half of my lip on the edge with the paint also, top and bottom. It connected to the stitch at the corner, which made it look like the stitch was holding my lips to my face. Then I pulled out my black lipstick and added a light layer to the right half of my lips, so it looked like it was fading into my skin. I put some gloss on top so my lips didn't look all dry and cracked because of the lipstick.
Finally, it was time do something with my eyes. I wanted to do something creative, so I firstly put in my neon blue contacts. Then I took some kohl and applied it to my whole eyelid, both top and bottom. I put it on in ovals, making them larger and larger so it touched on the outside corner of my eye. That's when I started adding wings and spikes into the mix. After I was satisfied, I went over the whole thing with the body paint so it looked shiny. I redid the process with the other eye.
After I was finished, I had to admit, I looked pretty bad*ss. Yeah, I looked like I was ready to head to a KISS concert, but it was rad. I think Andy would definitely get a kick out of it.
Just as the thought made its way into my brain, Andy came bounding up the stairs, lighter still in hand. I growled, yes, literally growled, at it and he caught the sign and pushed it into his jean pocket. He looked at my makeup and paint job and wolf whistled.
"D*mn Zandy, you did a good job. I might steal your look for concerts now. It kind of looks like warpaint," he commented. Now that I thought about it, it did resemble warpaint. Except this stuff was black and real warpaint was usually an assortment of greens.
"Thank you, thank you," I said, bowing and smiling. "Now it's your turn. I'm gonna make some breakfast while you get dressed and ready." He nodded and smiled, kissing me on the cheek before I fled downstairs to make us some pancakes.
I was tempted to make them from scratch, but I did not have enough time for that today. So I quickly thanked Bisquick and mixed all the ingredients into a medium sized bowl. I turned the griddle that came with the stove on halfway through mixing and hoped it didn't take forever to heat up. I had never used this griddle before today, so I had no idea of it's heat conducting abilities.
Apparently my praying worked, because the stone slab heated up in a short five minutes. Oh, how I love you person who invented Whirlpool products.
A half an hour later I had sixteen pancakes made up and Andy was making his way down the stairs, still shirtless and his body covered in the acrylic paint. He was wearing black super skinny jeans and a huge metal studded belt slung around his hips. He was wearing just that, black socks, his black rosary and the leather choker I stole from him a while back. Hey! I gave it back, that's all that matters.
"Breakfast's ready," I announced, smiling and setting the plate of hotcakes on the kitchen table.
Over the past few months I had definitely redecorated the whole house. On my weekends, I painted the whole house and added pieces of furniture so the house actually looked lived in by someone other than white trash. Then again, Andy and I are from Ohio; you can't get more white than that.
I had painted the living room dark blue with thin black vertical stripes. The sectional couch was grey and the table beside it was stained black. There was a regular lamp with a cerulean shade. We had taken out the carpet and put in dark hardwood flooring and threw a black rug with white and silver abstract designs on it in the middle of the square room.
The kitchen was now a nice deep wine red color and I had made sure all of our appliances were a coppery-silver color. The cabinets, which didn't reach all the way up to the ceiling, Andy and I had stained dark. On the ledge of the cabinets I had put things we had collected over the years. There were these two skeleton heads with different colored wax dripping from the top up there with a plaque I had made in wood shop that said 'Rock and Roll' in between them. When I was in eighth grade, my science teacher, Mr. BeDell, had given the skulls to me at the end of the year. He was the only teacher that I had ever had that seemed to actually get me. Albeit, he had really bad ADHD, but he was an awesome dude. I planned on visiting him sometime when I was back in Ohio.
The dining area, where we were sitting now, was an olive green. The four windows in here had their sills painted black and written on in silver Sharpie. Andy and I left each other notes up there or encouraging words to get us through the days. My favorite one up there was 'F*CK THE HATERS!', a little advice Andy had written. After that, I had added 'Haters= H.aving A.nger T.oward E.verybody R.eaching S.uccess'. There were other things up there too, but none of them stood out like those ones did. I'm sure the next thing Andy wrote would dominate for a while, though.
Right smack in the middle of the small half-octagonal room was a small square black table. It fit perfectly into this little nook and it was perfect for just me and Andy. If Sandra and Chris or the twins and Lottie came over we'd just pull out TV trays and take a seat in the living room.
"Good, I'm hungry," Andy said, rubbing his belly. I laughed breathily and shook my head at him. Andy was definitely something else, but I loved him nonetheless.
We plopped down in our respectable chairs and dug into the pancakes. And when I say chairs, I mean the actual chairs, not just their positions at the table. Andy and I had both decided to have our own chairs and not just places at the table. So, we had went out and bought a small can of silver paint and an artist brush and painted our names on the back panels of our chairs. Now, we would always be sitting in the right chairs and there wouldn't be an argument over whose was whose.
I don't think Andy even chewed his food, he was done so fast. He dumped his paper plate in the trash and dropped the fork in the sink and ran up the stairs, his door slamming behind him. I rolled my eyes and finished eating my food in silence, taking this time alone to think.
Today was my last day as a sophomore. I couldn't believe I had made it this long in school without killing someone yet. Everyday was so predictable and followed a set pattern and I was sick of it. I liked my life to be full of randomness and unforeseen adventures and mischiefs. I wanted it full of gutsy decisions and spontaneous times. I hated school, but it would get me to my profession that I wanted, so I had to endure it. Only two more years.
Finally, summer was upon us. I didn't so much like the heat as much as I liked the idea of going one hundred and some days with no school. And all my time would be with Andy and the rest of Black Veil Brides, including it's new member. And it was also more time with the twins and Lottie, who I was getting to be closer friends with. Skin and Bone were like the goofy but protective older brother or cousin everybody wanted and Lottie was that gal pal that you could tell all of your girl problems to. I had the whole summer with them all to myself.
I finished my share of the pancakes and cleaned up the table. I didn't bother with the kitchen since we were running a little short on time. I ran up the stairs, passing Andy's closed door and walked straight through mine. My room was bathed in pitch black darkness since my black curtains were pulled closed. I ran my hand over the black wall and flipped up the switch that turned on my silver overhead fan. My messy room was revealed before me and I did a mental cringe. I didn't mind my room messy, but this was definitely pushing it.
My gray carpet was littered with dirty and clean clothes alike and my Invader Zim rug had disappeared under an onslaught of sheets of white paper that hadn't quite made it to my Zombie Hello Kitty trash bin. My queen sized bed was unmade, the black, custom made (by Andy's screen press he had gotten from his buddy, Matt Good) Black Veil Brides comforter in a big tangled heap at the foot of the bed and the sheets underneath not even on the bed. Whenever I made my bed, I put the sheets on, but when I got in it at night I would peel the sheets back form the comforter and throw it on the ground. My black pillow was laid horizontally while the Emily the Strange one next to it was vertical. I liked to snuggle with my pillows when I was asleep. But for the oddest reason, I felt like the past few nights it had been Andy in place of the pillow. I wasn't like, fantasizing about him being there, but, just the way the pillow felt, not exactly squishy and flat, was what made it odd. The object next to me was hard and angular and usually really warm. Not exactly something you would expect from an inanimate object.
The white, drawn on, desk in the farthest corner of my room was littered with papers. Scratch paper for math problems and rough drafts of English essays. There was so much crud up there that I couldn't even see my laptop.
My walls were already covered in pictures I had drawn, Andy had drawn, band posters and pictures. I had posters up of people like Aural Vampire, The Misfits, Danzig, AFI, Lords of The New Church, Evanescence, Bring Me The Horizon, and Atreyu. There were plenty more, just too many to name. My plethora of pictures were of my mom and I, my dad and I when I was little, my older brother and I, my little brother and sister and I, Andy and I, Andy, his family and mine, and memories of back home. The newest additions were the pictures of Chris, Sandra, Andy and I messing around in the weirdest places and the twins, Lottie and us being absolute morons.
All of these pictures got me thinking. If people would push past how we dressed and the music we listened to, they'd actually see the people we were. We were fun loving idiots like the rest of society, we just did it in a different style. We cracked the same jokes everybody else did and hung out at the same places, we just decided we didn't want to conform to what society wanted us to and rebelled. We are people just like everybody else on this planet, but we're people who don't give a crud what others think. We do what we do to please ourselves and the ones we love, the ones we know support us, and nobody else. Just because we decide to be independent and ballsy enough to dress abnormally doesn't mean you can bag on us. Really, we should be looked up to, because everybody who dresses "normally" doesn't have the guts to do what we do. They're too busy meeting everyone's standards and requirements that they don't have the courage to speak out and be themselves. And that is exactly what my friends and I do; the things that the rest of the world is too afraid to submit themselves to.
Suddenly, all of what Andy had been telling me over the years became infinitely clearer. The words he had spoken to me, through conversation and music, made sense. This is the message he's trying to send to people. We don't give a f*ck what others think because they are in no position to try and drag us down. Just because they're afraid of our success over them doesn't mean we should give up what we want to achieve so they can feel a sense of pride and dignity. We are our own people and we can do what we want as long as it doesn't cause harm to the way society is driven. All our haters are just bagging on us to make themselves feel bigger and more accomplished. And if they can't do that by some other means, f*ck it.
Feeling much better about myself this morning than all others, I tugged one of my black leather jackets and snatched up my Batman book bag. Running out of my room, I switched off the light and slammed my door. Just as I was coming out of my room, Andy was opening the door to his. I flung myself at his approaching figure and latched my arms around his neck. He seemed dumbfounded for a moment, but who wouldn't be? The girl who was your best friend just grabbed you into a hug and held on to you like a mad woman. I think you'd be a little miffed by the whole thing too.
"I love you, I love you, I love you!" I shouted to him, although all the words seemed to blend together in one long, jumbled line. Andy hesitantly wrapped his arms around my waist and squeezed slightly.
"I love you too, Zandy," he said softly.
I held onto him tighter, not willing to let go.
"Okay, I love ya, but if you don't let go you're gonna be late for our three hour day of school," he said, trying to detach me from his body. I shrugged, but complied and released him from my hug/death grip.
I took a step back and took in Andy's wardrobe. He was wearing the same jeans and belts from earlier, but he had finally put a shirt on. His shirt was just plain black, like mine, but there was a good sized tear in the side and one by his chest where his body paint underneath could be seen through. Over it he wore a black leather vest that had metal studs on the right half of the lapel. On the left side there were pins from various bands that Andy liked.
His make up was similar to mine, but under the spikes of his eyes were these thin lines that appeared to form by his ear and came across a few inches from his nose. Under that line, he had covered a fraction of his jaw in the body paint. Also, from one of the spikes on his eye, came a thin wavy line, almost like a teardrop, but it came all the way down his face and disappeared under his jaw and down his neck, which was covered thoroughly with black paint.
"Ready for the war?" he asked, holding his hand out for me to take.
"Ready as I'll ever be," I responded, gripping his hand in mine.
Today would totally kick *ss.
{***************************************BVB*************************************}
I was completely correct. Today was incredibly rad!
It had gone by in a breeze and I loved the strange looks we got from students and teachers. The looks on their faces when we walked into school was priceless. And then again when we walked into each short period. Andy smiled smugly, but would mumble things about hating being back in this hell hole. I rolled my eyes every time but smiled anyways.
Then administration had a cow when I walked into school dressed like I was with Andy right beside me. He was obviously not in high school anymore. Some people didn't believe he was in high school when he actually was. The way held himself, the grammar he used, and his height and depth of voice made him seem much older than he was. I always thought of him as a wise soul in a youthful (hot) body. Okay, do not tell anyone I added that word there in the parentheses.
The principals and teachers and such had the whole farm when they saw Andy smoking in between class periods. I would have told him to put it out right away, but he needed a break between periods. He has serious ADHD and could not keep still in class. He would beat rhythms on the table and drum his fingers on his thighs. He had even taken to running his fingers up and down my arms and spine which just sent the electric shocks that happened each time he touched me into a frenzy. He needed those few cigarettes to calm his body and sooth his need to be moving constantly.
School was the longest three hours of my life that day. But I was so happy that I got to endure the torture and misery with Andy once again. He had cleared his schedule for those three hours to sit in my boring class with me and relive his horrible high school experience. Yes, even when he really didn't go to this school, he was still taunted and teased about how he looked and dressed, not to mention his music blasting through his headphones at lunch.
His response to everything everybody threw at him was, "F*ck off, motherf*ckers! I don't need your sh*t! I already went through high school, I don't need you little f*ckers make me relive it."
Oh yeah, totally rad day.