The First Punch

As we walked into the thrift store I was so happy to see Arlene was working. She was the owner of the place and she was the nicest old lady you could ever meet.
“Alex!!” She tried to run over to me but it was just a fast walk. I loved her to pieces and she basically took me as her own daughter, she gave me advice, money, clothes to help me with modeling and so much more.
“Hi momma.” I said giving her a hug. She always loved to see me, especially when I have been away for a long time on tour or modeling trips.
“Girlie.. I haven’t seen you in so long!” She looked up to me and behind her round glasses you could see some tears starting.
“Oh.. Momma no! It’s okay!” I said pulling her back into a hug and rubbing her back.
“I just haven’t seen you in so long.” She tightly grabbed me and she was crying into my chest.
“Oh momma.” I continued to rub her back and she started to calm down. She pulled away and looked into my eyes.
“I’m so happy you’re here. Do you need anything?” She asked holding my hand. I shook my head and she looked to Ahren who was standing beside me. “Alex.. Who’s this? Finally someone to replace that trash Mike?” I laughed and Ahren looked at me confused.
“Mike? You mean Mike Fuentes?” He asked and I nodded my head to confirm. “So the rumors are true that he abused you.. That piece of shit.” He sighed and came closer to me grabbing the hand that Arlene wasn’t. “I’m her boyfriend, Ahren.” I rolled my eyes.
“He’s not my boyfriend yet.. We’ve only been on like half of a date.” I laughed and momma looked at me.
“And why the hell not?! What did I tell you when you hit 17 and were starting to seriously date guys?” She looked me right in the eyes urging me to recite it to her. I rolled my eyes and laughed.
“Once you meet a good guy you know won’t hurt you, take him by the hand and make him yours.. But you may not have to because you know he’ll never leave your side..” She nodded and smiled at me remembering what she had said to me so long ago.
“Don’t you forget it girlie. Oh and don’t roll you’re eyes at me!” She said playfully walking back to the counter she was sat behind when we came in. Ahren and I were still hand in hand remembering what Arlene had said. I led him to the stairs, once we got up his eyes opened wide.
“Shit she has all this?!” He said letting go of my hand and running to one of the 5 racks of vintage and original band merch. This floor was the floor she made dedicated to me. At first this floor was just storage and downstairs wasn’t full at all. Now downstairs is full and up here is filled with band merch and just all things bands and punk.
“Yeah.. I helped her make this floor. For all of the kids like us around here.” I walked closer over to him and whispered in his ear. “She doesn’t like me talking about it but she hooked up with Elvis once..” His eyes widened as I told him. He took a look around the looked at me again.
“Like Elvis Presley?!” He was wide eyed as he whispered to me. I nodded and laughed. “Shit that’s awesome…” He took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair. He put his hat back on and continued to look through all of the stuff. I walked over and started to look too.
We looked around for a long time and all together we found 2 Rage Against The Machine shirt, 1 Audiosoave shirt, 3 Misfits shirts, a pair of ripped jeans for me, a faux leather jacket for me, and tons and I mean TONS of AC/DC merch for Ahren.. As we walked to the front counter we saw the shop filling up with tons of alternative kids. We dumped our stuff on the counter and Arlene counted up the shirts, punched in the prices, then did the same with the jeans and jacket.
“Uh.. Alex?” We heard a shaky voice behind us. We both turned around and looked at the girl with blue hair and a fringe covering her face. She was looking down at the ground, playing with the bandage on her arm. I took a look at what she was wearing and truth be told she looks just like I did when I was like 16. Except she had snake bites and a bridge piercing. I had spider bites, both nostrils, and my septum. She had size 0 looking tunnels. When I was 16 I had 1/4”, now I’m at a full inch. And she was wearing an AC/DC shirt that looked like it was from here.
“Hey! I love your shirt! Just saying!” Ahren smiled and looked at me. “By the way I’m Ahren.” He slightly waved.
“Hi.. I know who you are.. clean vocalist from The Amity Affliction..” You could see her start to blush and slightly smile. She looked up and was looking at my arm. “Can I talk to you privately Alex?” She asked shyly. I smiled and nodded. Taking her hand and guiding her to the back of the shop when it was just a small closet. We walked in then she shut the door.. She signed in relief and looked at me..
“Hey whats up?” I asked looking in her eyes as tears started to well up.
“I’m Lexi, and I’m so happy to finally meet you..” She wiped her eyes, being careful not to smudge her eyeliner.. She looked like a scene kid but I could tell she wasn’t. “You’ve honestly helped me so much.. Just with you being you.” I smiled looking at her arm.
“How’d you start?” I asked looking at her. She at first looked confused but then she followed my eyes to her arm.
“Uh.. My mom.. She abused me from when I was 5 till I was 10. Then my dad took her to court for a divorce and during that they asked who I wanted to be with and I said my dad. They asked why and my dads layer pointed out the marks I had on me. With that he won. But I started to self harm when I was 5. Just by scratching myself and leaving deep marks. Then it got worse over time and now I’m like this..” I sighed and looked at her. “And I’m guessing you started when your dad started to abuse you..” I nodded at her. “I just feel like I’ll be fucked up for the rest of my life..”
“Trust me you won’t..” I assured her.
“How do you know? You still self-harm..” She pointed to my arm.
“Well I was abused from when I was 8 (when my mom committed suicide) till I moved out when I was 17… So 9 years of parental abuse and 2 years of abuse from Mike that just ended like 2 months ago.. I’m working on it..” I explained.
“Oh yeah.. Mike.. Are you and Tony still together?” She asked.
“We never really were.. More just like friends with benefits.” She nodded and looked at me questioningly. “So you and Ahren are..” She asked confused.
“Well we really aren’t anything.. yet I mean.” She nodded her head and put her hand on my knee.
“Just don’t get too attached..” I looked at her now confused..
“And why not?”
“He lives in Australia.. He’s only here for 1 more week.. Him and the band are going back the week after next.” I shook my head at her.
“No.. no he would’ve told me..” I didn’t want to accept what I had heard.
“Yeah.. he posted it last night.” She said pulling up the Instagram post. I read it in disbelief.. The picture was of him and a few of his friends on a porch. With the caption. Can’t wait to get home and chill with the buds!! I miss that shit. Leaving on the 18th! Australia here we come.
“Oh.. I’ll talk to him about it." I wrote down my number and gave it to her. “Text me.” I flashed her a smile then walked out of the tiny room. As I walked through the shop I saw a few girls chatting up Ahren. Once I got to them all of the girls stared at me in awe. Like I was a God or something.
“Alex Cavella.. It’s her.. Oh my God.. It’s you it’s really you!” The tallest girl said scurrying over to me and hugging me. I laughed and hugged her back. “You’re great!” All of her friends giggled and ran out of the shop. This happened about 4 more times until the shop floor was empty from teen girls and guys. Ahren got to talk to a lot of his fans too so it worked out well.
“Alright.. Now that all of those fangirls are gone I can ring you out. Okay so only like $30.” She smiled and I handed her the money. Ahren pushed my hand aside and handed her the money. I pushed my hand back and Arlene took his and mine. “Sorry not sorry.” She giggled and winked at me. She put the cash in her register.
“Momma, you’re starting to sound like me..” I blushed and looked at her.
“Cause I love you!” She smiled and handed us our stuff that was bagged one for him and one for me. “Such a lovely day right?!” She laughed and I looked at Ahren.
“Hmm.. Maybe Australia would be better right now, huh Ahren.. Might as well just leave on the 18th…” I rolled my eyes then looked at Arlene.
“Shit Alex… I was gonna tell you..” He came towards me and I backed up. I’ve been in these types of relationships too much, I couldn’t deal with another one.. “Alex.. I’m so sorry.. I just really liked you and I wanted there to be a possibility of us actually being together… I’m so sorry..” He looked down then at me again.
“So you’re leaving on the 18th to go to Australia?” Arlene asked looking at Ahren. He nodded his head and she looked to me. “He’s good for you.. Maybe just friends for now.. Because I can see that you both don’t want to leave your friends and the place you love.” I nodded at her and looked to Ahren.
“Just friends?” I proposed and he nodded.
“We should get going though. We only have 2 hours until I gotta be at the venue. Oh and very nice to meet you.” He said grabbing Arlene’s and kissing the top of it. I smiled and pushed him towards the door.
“Nice to see you again momma. Bye!!” We walked out of the store and hopped into his car.
“Where to now?” I said turning up the radio.
“Wanna go to like a park or something?” I looked to him then the park that was down the road, it was packed.. Too many people. I shook my head.
“I need to go to Lian’s though.” I slipped on my sunglasses.
“Can I ask why?” He asked pulling onto the road and heading for Lian’s.
“I just gotta ask her about something..” He nodded his head and continued to drive. Once we got there we saw that most of the cars had gone but there were still a lot left. I grabbed my bag and got out of the car. I rushed inside to see Lian and tons of band members playing with the cats.. I found it particularly funny because Ghost was playing with Ghost. When I came in everybody looked to me and smiled. Ricky jumped up and Ran over to me.
“Allllleeeeexxxx!!! I never got a chance to say hi yesterday!” He hugged me and didn’t left go for like 30 seconds. When he pulled away Ahren came in and everyone went oooh.. I looked to Hayden who was looking at me as though he wanted to fuck me that moment and Tony couldn’t help but blush when I looked at him.
“Lian.. I need to talk to you.. Like now.” I took her hand and rushed to her room, then locked the door behind us.
“Alex whats up?” She asked concerned.
“I’ve missed my period.. I.. Do you have a pregnancy test left?” She nodded her head quickly and leaded me into the bathroom. She took it out of a drawer and handed it to me.
“Alex.. if you are.. this.. it’s Tony’s..” I nodded and she walked out, then shut the door. As I was waiting for the results Lian knocked on the door. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah..” I was leaning against the wall just staring at the stick. She wrapped her arm around me and was rubbing my shoulder.
I felt tears start to fall from eyes as I watched the test show two lines.. The tears started coming faster and faster and at this point I had fallen down to the floor and Lian was sitting next to me trying to console me. I couldn’t stop crying. SuicideGirls.. Im gonna loose my job.. I can’t.. That is my pride and joy.. I can’t be.. This has to be wrong… We heard knocking come from the door out of the bedroom.
“Lex… Li.. Let me in…” I could hear Jaime’s concerned voice coming from the other side.. Lian looked to me. I nodded and she got up and Headed for the door. Once Jaime came in I stood right up and went to him. I was crying so hard I swear I was going to die from dehydration. “Alex.. What.. What… oh my God.” He said as he looked on the sink to see the test with two lines on it. “It’ll be okay Alex.. Lian and I will help you. Just remember the whole band is here for you.. wait if that tes- To-.. Tony’s the father…” I was nodding my head as I dug it into his chest. He rubbed my back to try and soothe me, but it wasn’t working.
“Alex, Vic and Tony are here to see if things are okay. Do you want them here or..” Lian said standing by the bedroom door. I started to cry harder as she said Tony’s name.. I’ve disappointed him.. I shook my head which was meant to be no but Jaime took that as a yes and told her to let them in. I tried to hide my face to keep my soiled face out of peoples sights.
“Axl.. what the matter?!” Tony said running to me. Jaime stepped back and let Tony console me. “Axl, try and tell me whats wrong.” He looked down at me and kissed my head. He wiped a tear away from my face that was slowly making its way down to my chin. After about 10 minutes of Tony holding me and me calming down I looked to him, now wiping the tears off of my face.
“Tone.. Do you love me?” I asked him trying to catch my breath from sobbing.
“Axl, you don’t even know.. I love you more than anything.. why are you asking I thought we were just friends with benefits?” I got up on my toes and kissed him on the lips..
“I was wrong Tony.. I’ve just been having a really rough time and I didn’t know what I wanted but after being with Ahren last night.. I’ve realized.. You’re the only person I want to be with.. You’re always so good to me. I just have been having mood swings and I think my depression is coming back in full force and.. I just didn’t know what I wanted. I was questioning myself and others and.. I’ve come to my senses.. I need you Tony..” He slightly smiled, then it went away.
“Have you been taking your medication Axl?” I looked down at the floor and shook my head, he sighed and picked my face up to look at him. “We can get back together.. But you have to take your meds.. And no secrets. Deal?” I nodded my head and hugged him tight. “So starting right now.. no secrets.” I pulled away and looked up to him.
“Well then I’ve something to tell you.. I- I’m uh..” He looked at me and his eyes widened.
“Axl are you.. Are we.. Is..” He tried to talk but I think he knew what was coming next.
“Tone.. I’m pregnant."

Notes

Hey guys! How'd you like it?! So just a warning I might end the fic soon. But don't worry there will be a sequel.. I might make this fic a trilogy. Comment, rate, subscribe! <3 xoxo