Worry Rock
Fame
*November 2015*
---Carlie's POV---
"So, your first album just came out, Baby's First Rock Album. What can you tell us about it?"
"Well, Steven, I guess it's just pretty much a compilation of all the songs we've written before. Basically everyone except Mick here wrote something, and so we kind of just put it all on there," Boom told the Steven of Steven's Untitled Rock Show. "It's a lot of stuff about just living life, you know?"
"Yes, I do. Can you explain the name to us?"
"Well," started Boom, laughing. "It's kind of just because it's our first album. And 'baby's' because those two, " He points to Jake and I, and we wave innocently. "Are pretty young. They're seventeen. And the other two," He points to Mick and Warren who give mischievous smiles. "Act like they're five years old anyway."
"I take offense to that!" says Mick.
"No, you don't," Jake cuts in.
"Eh," grunts Mick with a shrug.
"Hey, what about you? You're not exactly mature either!" I put in, directing the comment to Boom.
"Compared to you," he retorts.
"Ooh, burn," says Warren. I stick my tongue out at him from under my purple, green, and gold Mardi Gras mask which covers the area around my eyes, folding my arms and pouting like a spoiled child. As I've mentioned before, we're not telling the world Jakob is, well, himself. Billie's son. Yet. So we're all wearing masks now. Jake has a simple black mask that covers his whole face with the exceptions of holes for his eyes and mouth, Mick is wearing a mask that looks like the one from that old movie "The Mask," Warren has a black mask covering the area around his eyes and a black scarf around his head like Wesley from "The Princess Bride," and Boom has a Spiderman mask, but with a few touches like he cut out holes for his eyes (it was originally sheer), and then for his mouth and two small holes for his nose. I mean, he's lead singer. He needs to be able to sing! And that means getting as much oxygen as possible.
"How did it happen that you got on Adeline?" asks Steven.
"Basically what happened is that we were just really, really underground, you know, nobody knew us, we might as well not even have been a band then. But then Billie Joe heard of us and out of curiosity came to watch is play, and it pretty much snowballed from there." I choke back laughter. After all, that story is totally true. They just don't know a few small details such as, I dunno, how Billie found out. The fact that he's the one who planned for us to have that show. Stuff like that. Little stuff.
"How have these past few months been?" asks Steven. "You've gone from pretty much nobody knowing who you are to having been signed to a major label on Adeline Records. You made an album that's expected to go platinum, and I've heard a rumor that you're going on tour with My Chemical Romance soon."
"Well," starts Boom, "I know this is probably the most used phrase in the music business next to 'I'm not a sell-out,' but I really have to say, it's surreal. It's just like, one day you're laying around with your buds watching Steven's Untitled Rock Show and wondering whether you'll ever get off the ground and then a few months later you're on it. I mean, you know, it's just...wow."
"And what about the touring? Is it official yet? Are you going to be on tour with My Chem?"
"Yes, we are," says Boom proudly. "They pretty much just called up Billie Joe and said they'd heard us playing on MTV, and they'd like us to come on tour with them."
"And we said fuck yeah!" I add.
Boom laughs. "So we said yes."
*Two Weeks Later*
"Come on, everybody! Let's watch ourselves look like idiots on TV!" yells Mick, and in comes everyone to the living room of the Armstrong household. We decided to have sort of a movie night kind of thing where everyone gets together to watch first our TV talk show debut and then figure out what happens next, depending on how everyone's feeling. A lot of people end up on the floor since there isn't enough room on the sofas, including me. I'm laying down on my stomach looking up at the screen. Joey is next to me. Jakob is sitting against the sofa with Jen. Yep, he finally asked her out. I look over at him with his arm around her shoulder and smirk. "Shut up," he mouths with a small smile before turning to lightly kiss her on the cheek, making her blush. They make a pretty cute couple, actually. I'm so happy they finally got together. I turn back around as the show comes on, and the room cheers as they see us all sitting there.
***
An hour later, the show's over, and we all sit there watching boredly. Eventually, everyone leaves except for Boom, Mick, Warren, Stella, Matt who she brought along, Jen, and the people who actually live here. Adrienne and Billie went out, though, so Jake, Joey and I are the ones left.
"So," says Mick. "What do you want to do?" We're all just sitting in the living room in the same spots as when we were watching TV, but the TV's off now.
"I dunno," I say.
"I'm going outside," says Joey, standing and stretching. I roll over onto my back, looking up at him.
"To do what?"
"I dunno. Walk? Skateboard? Something. Oh, I know. I'm taking pictures."
"I am still amazed that a boy who gets mobbed by paparazzi whenever he goes to an event is so interested in photography," I say. He just shrugs and goes off to his room to get his camera.
"Well, I'm gonna go and visit Maddie," says Boom getting up. Maddie's Boom's friend. "See you!" he says to everyone. He comes up to me laying on the ground. I put my hand up, and he grabs it and pulls me up to kiss me on the cheek. Yes, he's still pretending to be my boyfriend. "Bye, babe." He's pretty good at it though, isn't he? If I liked him that way, I would love to be his girlfriend. But since I'm already his friend, I'm happy.
"Bye, sweetie." He starts walking towards the door as I lay down again. I look over to where Stella and Matt are sitting. Matt's whispering something into Stella's ear, which makes her giggle and blush. "You know what?" I say, more to myself than anyone else, "Boom!"
"Yeah?" he says right before he reaches the door.
"I think we should start seeing other people!"
"Okay!" he says and walks out after waving and grinning at me. There we go. I'm openly single again. I smile and look around the room. Matt is looking confused.
"Well, you two seem really choked up about the whole breaking up thing."
"Yeah, we have more of a just-friends relationship anyways," I say. At that, Mick, Warren, Jake, and Jen (who was told about the situation) all start cracking up laughing, and Stella and I crack amused smiles. Matt still looks confused.
"Um, okay."
"You know what, Jenny? I'm taking you out tonight. We'll go out to eat or something," says Jake.
"Sounds good to me," says Jen, hugging him around the waist and resting her head on his chest. His arms are around her, holding her gently.
"Aw, you two look so cute together," says Mick in a girly voice. Jake just smiles, looking down at her, and she looks up and kisses him. "Aw!"
"Shut up, Mick," says Stella. "Matt, can we go out tonight too?" she says pleadingly. "How about we double?"
Matt looks over to Jake questioningly. "Fine with me," Jake says with a shrug, and Jen nods.
"I think that's a great idea," says Matt, earning a kiss on the cheek from Stella and grinning.
"Okay, so everybody's going out and leaving me here alone?" I say, pouting.
"You won't be alone!" says Mick.
"Yeah, you got us!" adds Warren. My eyes go wide in mock horror, and I get up, running off and throwing my arms around Joey's waist. He just walked into the room with his old-fashioned film camera around his neck and his skateboard in his hands.
"Joey, save me!" I yell.
"Um," he says, laughing.
"They're leaving me alone with the wonder twins!"
"Oh. Okay. You all can come board with me if you want."
"Okay," I say with a smile and walk up to get my skateboard. When I come back down, Jake, Jen, Matt, and Stella have left, and Joey, Mick, and Warren are all by the door waiting for me. "Hey guys," I say. We all walk out and jump onto our boards. For a while we just board along, not really paying much attention to where we're going, but it's okay. We know the area anyways. We're yelling and singing loudly as we go along by the light of the streetlamps. We roll down to the Sonic a few streets over and all get something to eat, hanging out and just talking. Suddenly, I see a flash to my right and look over. Joey's standing there holding his camera and smiling at me. "Did you just take a picture of me?" I say.
"Yes," he says smiling.
"Why?"
He shrugs, and Mick comes running up to us. "Take a picture of me!" he yells, posing idiotically.
"No, me!" yells Warren, coming in front of him and striking an equally stupid pose. Joey laughs.
"Say cheese!" he says, holding up his camera, and they both yell "Bacon!" and do a stupid pose. Joey and I laugh as they continue to model. Joey snaps pictures, and then Warren runs over and grabs me by the arm, pulling me over to where he and Mick are. Laughing, I try to run away, but they have me by each arm and are holding me in place. Eventually, I give up and stick me tongue out at the camera.
"Okay, guys, that's enough," says Joey after about an hour of us acting like idiots. We had even taken the camera from him to take pictures of him for a time before he got nervous with us handling it and took it back.
"Fine with me," I say with a shrug. The twins nod, seemingly having grown tired of taking pictures. "Let's go home."
"Yeah. I'm tired," agrees Joey. We throw our trash in the trash can and hop onto our boards. "You sure you guys don't want a ride home?" Joey asks Mick and Warren once we're home.
"Nah, we're good," says Warren. "Bye."
"Bye!" we reply as the two set off, and we go into the house.
*New Years' Eve*
--Jakob's POV---
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
"CHARLIE!" I yell, and she turns around and jumps into my outstretched arms, and we squeeze each other tightly, just like we do every year. I let go of her after a moment and turn around to where Jen is. She steps into my arms and kisses me through my mask. We're at some party for MTV this New Years', so we have to wear our masks. But it's really getting annoying having to wear this thing. It itches. And have you ever tried to kiss your girlfriend through the little hole in the mask made for your mouth? Not fun. I pull away, saying, "That's it." I run up to the stage and grab the microphone. "Hey, everybody!" I say into it, and the crowd looks my way. I see Carlie, Boom, Mick, and Warren all looking up at me, confused.
I put my hand up to my mask and pull it off, saying, "I'm Jakob Danger Armstrong, and I play bass in Worry Rock!" I turn to see Jen running up to me, and I help her onto the stage. "Let's do this right," I say quietly so that only she can hear, and her lips form a smile before pressing against mine. I wrap my arms around her, ignoring the cheering and whooping from the crowd. I hold her tightly against me, and it feels like a perfect fit. I feel like I never want to let her go. Like she's part of me or something. I just feel this electricity going through my whole body. She makes me feel happy to live. God, I love her.
Once I finally pull away, I see that the rest of the band have taken their masks off as well, throwing them off into the sea of people, and have run up to join me. "I'm Boom, this is Charlie, this is Mick, and here's Warren, and we are Worry Rock!" yells Boom into the microphone to the cheering crowd. Mick is mooning them. I start laughing at him, and Jen giggles, but she doesn't laugh too hard because she's a little busy holding me up.
***
Whoa... ouch. Ow, my head, my head, my head. Damn alcohol. Damn drinking. Damn anyone who ever offers me a shot of booze again. Hell, might as well damn everyone else while I'm at it. Damn everyone. Wait a second, what the hell? I took my mask of last night. Oh man. Well, too late to take it back now. People know. And the tour with My Chemical Romance is coming up. Oh well, I'll worry about that later. First, Aspirin.
I tentatively open my eyes to find myself spread on top of the hotel room bed still in my clothes from last night. Suddenly, I lack the motivation to move. I lay here for about a half an hour before I see the door open slightly. Jen's head pokes tentatively through, and she smiles when she sees me laying here. She disappears, coming back a few minutes later to sit on the bed next to me with a Styrofoam cup of water and a couple of pills, which she sets into my hand. I close my eyes.
"Good morning," she says into my ear, and I groan.
"Bad morning," I correct. She kisses me on the cheek and pulls me up into a sitting position so that I can swallow the pills. After handing her back the cup, I flop back down on the bed.
"How about you go take a shower, Jake? You'll feel better." She lays down next to me sideways, looking at me sweetly with those beautiful blue eyes.
"Hygiene is overrated," I mutter.
"Jake, come on," she says, and I feel her get up off the bed and grab my hand, pulling me up. I groan again as she leads me along, my eyes still closed, and then lets go of me when I feel tile under my bare feet. "I'll see you in a little while," she says, and I open my eyes. I'm in the bathroom, and she's standing in front of me. I smile softly, and give her a light kiss before she walks out of the room closing the door.
---Carlie's POV---
"So, your first album just came out, Baby's First Rock Album. What can you tell us about it?"
"Well, Steven, I guess it's just pretty much a compilation of all the songs we've written before. Basically everyone except Mick here wrote something, and so we kind of just put it all on there," Boom told the Steven of Steven's Untitled Rock Show. "It's a lot of stuff about just living life, you know?"
"Yes, I do. Can you explain the name to us?"
"Well," started Boom, laughing. "It's kind of just because it's our first album. And 'baby's' because those two, " He points to Jake and I, and we wave innocently. "Are pretty young. They're seventeen. And the other two," He points to Mick and Warren who give mischievous smiles. "Act like they're five years old anyway."
"I take offense to that!" says Mick.
"No, you don't," Jake cuts in.
"Eh," grunts Mick with a shrug.
"Hey, what about you? You're not exactly mature either!" I put in, directing the comment to Boom.
"Compared to you," he retorts.
"Ooh, burn," says Warren. I stick my tongue out at him from under my purple, green, and gold Mardi Gras mask which covers the area around my eyes, folding my arms and pouting like a spoiled child. As I've mentioned before, we're not telling the world Jakob is, well, himself. Billie's son. Yet. So we're all wearing masks now. Jake has a simple black mask that covers his whole face with the exceptions of holes for his eyes and mouth, Mick is wearing a mask that looks like the one from that old movie "The Mask," Warren has a black mask covering the area around his eyes and a black scarf around his head like Wesley from "The Princess Bride," and Boom has a Spiderman mask, but with a few touches like he cut out holes for his eyes (it was originally sheer), and then for his mouth and two small holes for his nose. I mean, he's lead singer. He needs to be able to sing! And that means getting as much oxygen as possible.
"How did it happen that you got on Adeline?" asks Steven.
"Basically what happened is that we were just really, really underground, you know, nobody knew us, we might as well not even have been a band then. But then Billie Joe heard of us and out of curiosity came to watch is play, and it pretty much snowballed from there." I choke back laughter. After all, that story is totally true. They just don't know a few small details such as, I dunno, how Billie found out. The fact that he's the one who planned for us to have that show. Stuff like that. Little stuff.
"How have these past few months been?" asks Steven. "You've gone from pretty much nobody knowing who you are to having been signed to a major label on Adeline Records. You made an album that's expected to go platinum, and I've heard a rumor that you're going on tour with My Chemical Romance soon."
"Well," starts Boom, "I know this is probably the most used phrase in the music business next to 'I'm not a sell-out,' but I really have to say, it's surreal. It's just like, one day you're laying around with your buds watching Steven's Untitled Rock Show and wondering whether you'll ever get off the ground and then a few months later you're on it. I mean, you know, it's just...wow."
"And what about the touring? Is it official yet? Are you going to be on tour with My Chem?"
"Yes, we are," says Boom proudly. "They pretty much just called up Billie Joe and said they'd heard us playing on MTV, and they'd like us to come on tour with them."
"And we said fuck yeah!" I add.
Boom laughs. "So we said yes."
*Two Weeks Later*
"Come on, everybody! Let's watch ourselves look like idiots on TV!" yells Mick, and in comes everyone to the living room of the Armstrong household. We decided to have sort of a movie night kind of thing where everyone gets together to watch first our TV talk show debut and then figure out what happens next, depending on how everyone's feeling. A lot of people end up on the floor since there isn't enough room on the sofas, including me. I'm laying down on my stomach looking up at the screen. Joey is next to me. Jakob is sitting against the sofa with Jen. Yep, he finally asked her out. I look over at him with his arm around her shoulder and smirk. "Shut up," he mouths with a small smile before turning to lightly kiss her on the cheek, making her blush. They make a pretty cute couple, actually. I'm so happy they finally got together. I turn back around as the show comes on, and the room cheers as they see us all sitting there.
***
An hour later, the show's over, and we all sit there watching boredly. Eventually, everyone leaves except for Boom, Mick, Warren, Stella, Matt who she brought along, Jen, and the people who actually live here. Adrienne and Billie went out, though, so Jake, Joey and I are the ones left.
"So," says Mick. "What do you want to do?" We're all just sitting in the living room in the same spots as when we were watching TV, but the TV's off now.
"I dunno," I say.
"I'm going outside," says Joey, standing and stretching. I roll over onto my back, looking up at him.
"To do what?"
"I dunno. Walk? Skateboard? Something. Oh, I know. I'm taking pictures."
"I am still amazed that a boy who gets mobbed by paparazzi whenever he goes to an event is so interested in photography," I say. He just shrugs and goes off to his room to get his camera.
"Well, I'm gonna go and visit Maddie," says Boom getting up. Maddie's Boom's friend. "See you!" he says to everyone. He comes up to me laying on the ground. I put my hand up, and he grabs it and pulls me up to kiss me on the cheek. Yes, he's still pretending to be my boyfriend. "Bye, babe." He's pretty good at it though, isn't he? If I liked him that way, I would love to be his girlfriend. But since I'm already his friend, I'm happy.
"Bye, sweetie." He starts walking towards the door as I lay down again. I look over to where Stella and Matt are sitting. Matt's whispering something into Stella's ear, which makes her giggle and blush. "You know what?" I say, more to myself than anyone else, "Boom!"
"Yeah?" he says right before he reaches the door.
"I think we should start seeing other people!"
"Okay!" he says and walks out after waving and grinning at me. There we go. I'm openly single again. I smile and look around the room. Matt is looking confused.
"Well, you two seem really choked up about the whole breaking up thing."
"Yeah, we have more of a just-friends relationship anyways," I say. At that, Mick, Warren, Jake, and Jen (who was told about the situation) all start cracking up laughing, and Stella and I crack amused smiles. Matt still looks confused.
"Um, okay."
"You know what, Jenny? I'm taking you out tonight. We'll go out to eat or something," says Jake.
"Sounds good to me," says Jen, hugging him around the waist and resting her head on his chest. His arms are around her, holding her gently.
"Aw, you two look so cute together," says Mick in a girly voice. Jake just smiles, looking down at her, and she looks up and kisses him. "Aw!"
"Shut up, Mick," says Stella. "Matt, can we go out tonight too?" she says pleadingly. "How about we double?"
Matt looks over to Jake questioningly. "Fine with me," Jake says with a shrug, and Jen nods.
"I think that's a great idea," says Matt, earning a kiss on the cheek from Stella and grinning.
"Okay, so everybody's going out and leaving me here alone?" I say, pouting.
"You won't be alone!" says Mick.
"Yeah, you got us!" adds Warren. My eyes go wide in mock horror, and I get up, running off and throwing my arms around Joey's waist. He just walked into the room with his old-fashioned film camera around his neck and his skateboard in his hands.
"Joey, save me!" I yell.
"Um," he says, laughing.
"They're leaving me alone with the wonder twins!"
"Oh. Okay. You all can come board with me if you want."
"Okay," I say with a smile and walk up to get my skateboard. When I come back down, Jake, Jen, Matt, and Stella have left, and Joey, Mick, and Warren are all by the door waiting for me. "Hey guys," I say. We all walk out and jump onto our boards. For a while we just board along, not really paying much attention to where we're going, but it's okay. We know the area anyways. We're yelling and singing loudly as we go along by the light of the streetlamps. We roll down to the Sonic a few streets over and all get something to eat, hanging out and just talking. Suddenly, I see a flash to my right and look over. Joey's standing there holding his camera and smiling at me. "Did you just take a picture of me?" I say.
"Yes," he says smiling.
"Why?"
He shrugs, and Mick comes running up to us. "Take a picture of me!" he yells, posing idiotically.
"No, me!" yells Warren, coming in front of him and striking an equally stupid pose. Joey laughs.
"Say cheese!" he says, holding up his camera, and they both yell "Bacon!" and do a stupid pose. Joey and I laugh as they continue to model. Joey snaps pictures, and then Warren runs over and grabs me by the arm, pulling me over to where he and Mick are. Laughing, I try to run away, but they have me by each arm and are holding me in place. Eventually, I give up and stick me tongue out at the camera.
"Okay, guys, that's enough," says Joey after about an hour of us acting like idiots. We had even taken the camera from him to take pictures of him for a time before he got nervous with us handling it and took it back.
"Fine with me," I say with a shrug. The twins nod, seemingly having grown tired of taking pictures. "Let's go home."
"Yeah. I'm tired," agrees Joey. We throw our trash in the trash can and hop onto our boards. "You sure you guys don't want a ride home?" Joey asks Mick and Warren once we're home.
"Nah, we're good," says Warren. "Bye."
"Bye!" we reply as the two set off, and we go into the house.
*New Years' Eve*
--Jakob's POV---
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
"CHARLIE!" I yell, and she turns around and jumps into my outstretched arms, and we squeeze each other tightly, just like we do every year. I let go of her after a moment and turn around to where Jen is. She steps into my arms and kisses me through my mask. We're at some party for MTV this New Years', so we have to wear our masks. But it's really getting annoying having to wear this thing. It itches. And have you ever tried to kiss your girlfriend through the little hole in the mask made for your mouth? Not fun. I pull away, saying, "That's it." I run up to the stage and grab the microphone. "Hey, everybody!" I say into it, and the crowd looks my way. I see Carlie, Boom, Mick, and Warren all looking up at me, confused.
I put my hand up to my mask and pull it off, saying, "I'm Jakob Danger Armstrong, and I play bass in Worry Rock!" I turn to see Jen running up to me, and I help her onto the stage. "Let's do this right," I say quietly so that only she can hear, and her lips form a smile before pressing against mine. I wrap my arms around her, ignoring the cheering and whooping from the crowd. I hold her tightly against me, and it feels like a perfect fit. I feel like I never want to let her go. Like she's part of me or something. I just feel this electricity going through my whole body. She makes me feel happy to live. God, I love her.
Once I finally pull away, I see that the rest of the band have taken their masks off as well, throwing them off into the sea of people, and have run up to join me. "I'm Boom, this is Charlie, this is Mick, and here's Warren, and we are Worry Rock!" yells Boom into the microphone to the cheering crowd. Mick is mooning them. I start laughing at him, and Jen giggles, but she doesn't laugh too hard because she's a little busy holding me up.
***
Whoa... ouch. Ow, my head, my head, my head. Damn alcohol. Damn drinking. Damn anyone who ever offers me a shot of booze again. Hell, might as well damn everyone else while I'm at it. Damn everyone. Wait a second, what the hell? I took my mask of last night. Oh man. Well, too late to take it back now. People know. And the tour with My Chemical Romance is coming up. Oh well, I'll worry about that later. First, Aspirin.
I tentatively open my eyes to find myself spread on top of the hotel room bed still in my clothes from last night. Suddenly, I lack the motivation to move. I lay here for about a half an hour before I see the door open slightly. Jen's head pokes tentatively through, and she smiles when she sees me laying here. She disappears, coming back a few minutes later to sit on the bed next to me with a Styrofoam cup of water and a couple of pills, which she sets into my hand. I close my eyes.
"Good morning," she says into my ear, and I groan.
"Bad morning," I correct. She kisses me on the cheek and pulls me up into a sitting position so that I can swallow the pills. After handing her back the cup, I flop back down on the bed.
"How about you go take a shower, Jake? You'll feel better." She lays down next to me sideways, looking at me sweetly with those beautiful blue eyes.
"Hygiene is overrated," I mutter.
"Jake, come on," she says, and I feel her get up off the bed and grab my hand, pulling me up. I groan again as she leads me along, my eyes still closed, and then lets go of me when I feel tile under my bare feet. "I'll see you in a little while," she says, and I open my eyes. I'm in the bathroom, and she's standing in front of me. I smile softly, and give her a light kiss before she walks out of the room closing the door.