The Most Unexpected Faces (Black Veil Brides)

Your Forever Is All That I Need

ASHLEY’S POV

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Andy had asked me not to make plans for after our New York show and it was safe to say that I was left intrigued. Of course, we were in New York, so he was most probably taking me to a tourist attraction in an attempt to try and make us a ‘normal couple’, but it seemed like more than that.

After our show, I’d hit the showers and washed off my war-paint, briefly watching it swirling down the plug hole like black rain before stepping out and drying myself off, only to be met by Andy – who timidly requested that I dressed somewhat formally tonight.

‘Nice shirt with skinny jeans casual’ he called it. This small tidbit of information had me narrowing down options in my head; dinner would require more formal dress, but doing something like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge wouldn’t require us to dress up nice. Unless, of course, Andy just wanted to make it special and define this night from the other more casual and laid back ones we’d spent in each other’s company.

As the taxi we were travelling in continued to cruise down the busy streets of the always active New York, I let my gaze focus out the window, watching the many streetlights flash by the window in succession.

We were both in the back seats of the taxi, so when I flicked my gaze to the left, I had a very clear view of Andy.

It was plain to see that he was nervous, he was practically radiating worry, at this point though, I had no idea why. Cautiously, I slid my hand across the space between our seats and weaved my fingers with his, lightly squeezing his hand when he responded by looking at me with a timid smile.

I was slowly starting to find my confidence in Andy again, though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t rush back into this and revert to the way we were without second thought. He’d hurt me and we needed to do this right, otherwise it wasn’t worth trying to fix our relationship at all; because if we didn’t fix this fully now, it would just fall apart again later. Our relationship was like a vase, in a way. It was strong and perfect but all it took was one drop for it to shatter - to try and go back to the way we were now would be like piecing it back together but not gluing it, meaning even a little knock in the future would have it in pieces again. No, we needed to fix this properly to make our relationship as strong as it was. I needed to rid myself of the doubt he would leave me.

The taxi ride was just under the thirty minute mark and the silence that had settled over the car like a blanket was only disturbed by speech a few times. I couldn’t quite decide whether it was a comfortable silence or not; I was sitting there a little awkwardly but when I could look out the window, it wasn’t that bad. Andy was a whole new question though, he seemed to be very deep in thought most of the journey and I assumed he wasn’t analysing the silence, so whether or not he felt tension in the air remained a mystery.

By the time we neared the sea front, I was beginning to get an idea of where we were going. Signs informed me that we were nearing roads used for travel to Long Beach; finally, after thirty minutes I had a clue where we were going.

Andy had spoken to the driver before I was in the car so I didn’t have a clue where we were headed until then; in all honesty, I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, despite how I seem to be portrayed, I actually have a soft spot for things like this. Call it cushy, but when romance is involved, location can really have an effect and it seems Andy evidently knows me well enough to know I’d enjoy a place like this.

My Long Beach suspicions were confirmed when started driving down the road connecting the rest of New York to it; shooting Andy a grin, I saw the corners off his mouth lift – he knew he’d picked a good location.