Cause I Love You's Not Enough

Going to a Green Day concert was first on my ‘to do’ list this summer. It’s the summer going into my senior year in high school here in Nevada, and school had just ended last week. I had been bragging to everybody all about today, and I was stoked beyond anything I’ve ever been excited for in my life. There was just an hour left before I got to see my favorite band, the concert started at 7:00. I was going to be driving myself there and back, since my parents could care less about me. I dressed in my favorite pair of faded blue skinny jeans that had patches on them, including a Green Day one, and a wonderful fresh looking ‘American Idiot’ band tee along with it. I put on my black eyeliner that was bound to come off at least half way through the night. Did I mention that I had gotten floor seats? Anyway, after that I straightened my black hair that easily flowed in the wind and seemed to sit on my shoulders perfectly. I quickly glanced at the clock to my right that read 6:30PM.

“Shit.” I said to myself. I hurriedly unplugged the hair straightener not even bothering to turn it off first and quickly put on my black worn out chucks that I’ve been wearing since the 8th grade. Pretty sad, huh? I grabbed my phone and my cars keys and began to run down the steps. Me, being the clumsy girl that I am, tripped on the last step and fell on my face.

“Ow.” I squealed and got up, while brushing myself off. I yelled to my mom that I was leaving.

The drive there was quick and easy, and so was getting in the arena. I showed the ticket man my ID, with a long sigh, and he said I could go in. I looked down the two hallways on either side of me, there were people everywhere covered in Green Day merchandise. I saw a sign that read ‘floor’ and I quickly ran down that hallway and eventually made my way to the floor. I pushed everyone out of the way to get to the front, and they all scowled at me, but I didn’t care. Just a few minutes later, Green Day came running onto the stage with their ‘theme song’ playing as Billie Joe threw his hands up in the air to the beat. I saw Tre yell something and sat down, ready to begin. Mike was jumping up and down and moving his bass back and forth towards the crowd. Billie Joe had his hands on his hips as he stood on the amplifier that sat at the front of the stage, practically right in front of me. He grabbed his guitar and bursted into American Idiot. The crowd behind me went wild and so did I. I jumped and yelled out every lyric with all my heart, and didn’t take my eyes off every member of the band. Billie looked down at me and gave me a smile as he hand into the microphone, my heart about melted. But, he was married and had two kids, plus I was seventeen and Billie Joe was thirty-two. Tre on the other hand, he’s wonderful. I love him.

'Jesus Of Suburbia' went by extremely quick, and 'Dearly Beloved' was my favorite part of their performance. 'Holiday' was just starting.

“This song is not anti-american, it’s anti…war!” Billie yelled into the microphone.

There was a huge most pit behind me that I didn’t want to get into.

"Hear the sound of the falling rain! Coming down like an armageddon flame. Hey! The shame. The ones who died without a name. Hear the dogs howling out of key. To a hymn called faith and misery." Everybody sang with Billie. I felt as if my voice wasn't even there, because I was screaming and jumping and running out of breath. During the bass and drum solo part of the song. Billie yelled, "lights out!" Then the whole arena went black and a few seconds later, Billie turned on a giant flash light and shined it into the crowd. He let Mike and Tre keep doing what they were doing for a few more seconds, then began to sing again. The next three hours went by insanely fast. Good Riddance was on and everybody was singing along. I looked around and saw many people sheding tears as they were singing, as well as I was. We all held our hands up and made the 'rock' symbol with our fingers, desperate for Billie to shake our hands like he did during 'Dearly Beloved'.

'Minority' was about half way over, and everbody, litterally everbody, was jumping and screaming the lyrics back. All of a sudden, confetti came flying out from the stage and it was covering up everybody. I couldn't see because there was so much. I reached up and grabbed as much as I could and shoved it all into my pockets. I had grabbed so much, that my pockets were full. Good Riddance was playing now and there was one spotlight shining on Billie as he stepped up to the very front of the stage with his microphone.

"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life." Everybody sang along again. After the last chord, everybody screamed, cheered, clapped and whistled. Billie turned around and brought all of Green Day back on stage. Inclucing the two Jasons and Ronnie Blake. They all stood next to eachother and took a big bow. We all screamed some more and they ran backstage.

[[TRE’S POV]]

I grabbed a towel and wiped off my face. I looked through the curtain and saw a group of guys in a circle pushing a girl around out on the floor and laughing. I threw the towel down and charged out onto the stage.

“Hey!” I yelled with my hands on my hips, trying to make my facial expression seem pissed off. My voice echoed in the arena, it sounded cool and I smiled at that, but quickly went back to paying attention to the punks. The guy with the blonde hair let go of the girl and let her drop to the ground, I felt sorry for her.

“Oh, hey Tre!” He said.

I clenched my teeth together, I hated when people acted like they knew me.

“Leave,” I told them, “or I’ll make you.”

They all scowled at me and left. I saw one guy stick his middle finger up in the air and I rolled my eyes at them. The girl turned and saw me, her eyes went wide then she attempted to hide her face.

“Hey, why so shy?” I asked, sitting next to her. She looked up at me again. Her eyes were watery and she was holding her arm as if she was in pain.

“Is your arm hurt?” I asked. She nodded her head and slowly let go of it. I carefully grabbed her arm. It was bruised and I could tell that it was broken.

“Let me take you backstage and I’ll get you some help.” I said picking her up in my arms. I began walking towards the steps on the side of the stage.

“Did you enjoy the concert?”

She smiled, “it was the best time of my life.”

“That’s good to know.” I smiled, “have you been a fan long?”

“I grew up to Green Day.”

“Awesome! So, say around…20 years then?” I asked.

“I’m seventeen.” She mumbled.

I got backstage and laid her down on the couch that we had put back there just to piss the workers off. I took her arm and snapped it back into place. She screamed then bit her lip so she wouldn’t start crying. Billie and Jason (White) came out to see what was going on.

“Tre, what have I told you about picking up girls?” Jason asked suspiciously, but jokingly.

I looked over and saw her face go bright red. I held back a smile out of embarrassment. This girl was cute, but I was fifteen years older than her.

“No, it’s not that. I saw a group of guys pushing her around. Her arm is broken. Do we have anything to wrap it up with?” I asked.

“Here.” Mike said taking his shirt off then handing it to me. I wrapped his shirt around her arm, hoping to keep it straight for now.

“When are we leaving tomorrow?” I asked.

“Tomorrow night, around 9:00.” The other Jason told me.

“Okay.” I sighed, “what’s your name?”

She looked up at me, her eyes weren’t so watery.

“My name is Danielle, but please call me Dani instead.” She begged. She sounded disgusted of her name.

“Alright, Dani, I’m taking you to get that arm checked. Lets go.” I told her, pulling her up. I put my arm around her waist and walked out of the arena to the side of the road and waited on a bus to pick us up.