Heaven Help Us

Kiss the Ring

The next morning, we were all rushing around to get ready. I had to leave before everybody else in the household, but I took a moment after getting dressed to sit and think.

I looked around Rain’s bedroom, and found that I had trouble calling this ‘Rain and Dante’s’ house now. It was…home. I had a place here.

Before I left, I found Jeph and took him aside from the crowd in the house. He was putting on the last of his necklaces and he looked up at me and smiled.

“Today’s the day, isn’t it?”

I understood what he meant and I nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

“Good. That’ll be the best birthday present ever.”

There was a permanent smile on my face. “How would you like to help us close the show tonight?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re ending the show with Done For You, if you want to sing it with us.”

“Yes! Mommy will love that. That’s one of our favorite of your songs.” He smiled happily.

After I finished telling Jeph the signal to come on stage, I went and found Rain.

“You look beautiful, babe.” I told her.

“Thank you,” She blushed. “You and Jeph look very handsome.”

“We know,” I winked at her and then hugged her. “I love you. I have to go, but I’ll make sure that security knows you’re supposed to be side stage; you won’t have any troubles from the venue tonight, I hope.”

“Don’t worry, Andy. Everything will be perfect, I’m sure.” She smiled and gave me a kiss. “Now go do what you’ve got to do.”

I nodded and then found my way to the door. Dante followed me outside and stopped me by my car.

“I got it,” He said, and handed me a small black box.

I opened it and looked inside to see the ring that I had given Rain forever ago.

“Thanks, man,” I said, beyond grateful.

“No problem, I just hope everything goes well tonight.”

“It will. I’ve spent endless hours making sure that it will.” I assured him.

“I know, Andy. Now seriously, go, make sure everything’s the way it needs to be.”

I thanked him again and then hopped into my car, making sure that the ring was secure in my pocket.

I got to the venue and ran around making sure that the equipment was set up right and that nobody was going to screw anything up.

I went over and found all of security. “Okay,” I said after I had gathered them together. “There’s going to be a list of people you need to allow backstage and side stage. But the two most important ones will be Rain and Jepharee Moore. A black haired woman with a blonde child, okay? That’s my girlfriend and my son. It’s his birthday and I’m proposing to Rain tonight, and it has to be perfect. I’m stressing out enough already, because I’m terrified she’ll reject me-” I rambled.

“Andy,” One of Black Veil Brides’ regular security guys put his hand on my shoulder to shut me up. “It’s fine. We’ve got it.”

I nodded. “Thanks, man. Just…remember. Black haired woman with a blonde little boy-”

He laughed. “I know who Rain and Jeph are, dude!”

“Okay, okay, yeah you’ve got this…we’ve got this. It’s going to be fine. Everything is going to be perfect.” I breathed in and out, trying to calm myself down.

“Andy!” Blasko called. “Sound-check!”

I nodded again and ran out to the stage. “We’ve got everything hooked up, let’s just find the right volumes…” The sound guy said.

Jinxx and Jake started. Perfect volume, the strings had just been replaced, the cables were securely plugged in.

Ashley was next. Same as with Jinxx and Jake, he had just put on new strings and the cables were secure.

CC was after Ashley. His kit sounded as good as ever.

I was nervous, but I sounded great anyways. The microphone was new, and fantastic.

Ashley caught up with me after the sound check, as everyone had started coming in. “Everything will be fine, Andy. She won’t say no, she’ll love this, I know she will. You’ve got this, man.”

“Thanks, Ash. Hey, I was wondering if you’d do me a favor?”

“Yeah, anything.” He said and sat down next to me.

“I have the ring, but I don’t want to just take it out of my pocket…I was thinking maybe you could hold onto it and after the end of Done For You, when I’m done talking, if you’d quickly give me a hi-five or something while simultaneously handing me the ring?” I hoped I was making sense.

“I’d love to,” He grinned.

I gave him the box with the ring and thanked him. He just smiled at me and then walked off as Rain and Jeph came into the back room.

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I could upload the proposal chapter tonight...or I could upload it first thing when I wake up in the morning, as a Valentine's Day update. But I also know (think) that it's Valentine's in the UK right now, so whichever option is the most popular amongst you lovely readers, I will go with.

P.S. I can't wait to finish writing the wedding chapter... :D