My Name Is Jimmy and You Better Not Wear It Out

I didn't know if Tunny remembered what he said last night, about me tagging along on tour, but I didn't care.

I left home. I'm going to get away from my fucking mother. I can do WHATEVER I FUCKING WANT, WHENEVER I FUCKING WANT.

I sleepily pulled my car up in front of Tunny's house and parked. I sat there for a moment, the adrenaline from leaving home so suddenly was starting to wear off and the fatigue was setting in again. I forced myself out of the car and walked up to the front door. It opened before I had the chance to knock.

"Jimmy! What are you doing here at such an early hour?"

I grinned sleepily at Tunny's mom. She looked almost exactly like Tunny, except where as Tunny was tall and skinny, his mom was shorter and plump. Their personalities were almost exactly the same as well, except Tunny was more wild and open about it. I bet she had been too, when she was 22. I bet she was an absolute wonder to be around when she was that age.

"Hey Ruthie. I kinda...left home, and now I need a place to crash. So...can I stay here?"

"Oh, of course darling! I'll make up a nice bed for you on the couch. Just stay quiet for a moment, Chris and David are still asleep."

It was five in the fucking morning, of course they would be asleep. But Ruthie was an early riser, I've known that forever, and somehow she managed to run on less than seven hours of sleep each night.

I watched her quietly as she set up a place for me to sleep, just like she would do when I was little and my mom would drop me off here so she could go out and party for a night. I'd known Ruthie, David, and Tunny practically all my life. They were my second family. I frequently wished they actually were my family. Would be better than living in that shit hole with Mom.

When she came back with a pillow for me, I collapsed onto the couch, burying my face into the coolness of the fabric. Ruthie pulled a blanket over me and kissed the top of my head.

"Sleep tight, my little Jumping Bean."

I grinned slightly at the old pet name she had for me. I was as energetic as a kid as I was now, continually bouncing around and making noise. Ruthie would always warn me that if I didn't calm down, one of those days they would shrink me down and make me into a jumping bean. The name just sort of stuck with me, and she would always call me that.

And around that line of thought is when everything went black and I passed out. Probably snoring, too. That's definitely attractive.

Around noon I woke up to the sound of Tunny stomping down the stairs to get what smelled like breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever.

He stopped dead when he saw me on the couch, and I gave him the Hitler salute. He just flipped me the bird. I grinned sleepily, enjoying the pissed off look on his face. He hated when I did that. He's been hating my doing that for about two years.

A little background on that exchange:

Tunny and his family are Jewish. They may not be practicing very much now, but they used to.

I've known this all my life, I've been to a synagogue with them once or twice when I was five or so, I don't have anything against it.

Here's the somewhat amusing thing about it that I realized right before this whole exchange started happening.

I had been thinking about the Holocaust for maybe about twenty minutes, and in that thinking I was thinking about how Hitler wanted blondies with blue eyes for his master race and brown haired people with brown eyes at that time in Germany.

And while i was thinking this, I had been looking at Tunny, who was probably wondering why my fifteen year old self was staring at him for such a prolonged period of time.

And I noticed something.

Tunny has blond hair and blue eyes. Both his mother and father have blond hair and blue eyes.

And for some reason, at the time, I found this extremely funny. And thus started what I call, "Heil Tunny," and so far the only way I can piss him off without even really trying.

"So, what the hell are you doing on my couch?"

"Ruthie let me in?"

"Why?"

"I left hom eand I was dog tired and I needed a place to crash while I waited for us to get on the road?"

"You left home!?"

"Oh yeah. That a problem?"

He reached over the couch, grabbed my shoulders, and shook me back and forth.

"ARE YOU KIDDING? THIS IS FUCKING GREAT!!"

He pulled me off the couch and dragged me to the kitchen, where Ruthie was making pancakes and eggs.

"Ma! Did you hear!? Jimmy left home!"

"Yes, Chris, I know. And he can stay for as long as he needs to."

I couldn't help but grin. This was awesome! I got to live with my favorite family ever and I got to go on tour with Tunny and his band!

Too bad that second part didn't come for another few weeks.

But those weeks seemed to fly by. Tunny took me to band practice and we went to parties and we smoked some EXTREMELY nice pot. This was the fucking life.

And all of the sudden, we were piling our stuff into Tunny's convertible and Ruthie was handing me two full bottles of my pills so I wouldn't run out anytime soon. Right as we were about to leave, Ruthie pulled me away from the car and handed me an envelope. I gave her a questioning look before opening it, finding a large wad of bills. My eyes practically bugged out of my head as I pawed through it, getting a rough estimate.

"Ruthie, there's almost $400 in here, I can't take this!"

You can and you will. I want to know that you're okay, cash wise. Chris can be a bit frugal when it comes to just about everything."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she wouldn't hear it. She just hugged me, forced the money into my jacket pocket, then pushed me lightly towards the car. I looked back at her before I got in, she just waved, then slipped into the passenger seat.

After running over to the house that Tunny's band mates shared to make sure they were ready with all the instruments, we started off towards the City, music plaring from the radio with the top down.

That got pretty old by the end of of the first day on the road.

Because Tunny was DEFINITELY too frugal to let us stop at a hotel on our first night we slept in the car at a gas station. We left bright and early the next morning and made it to the City in record time.

I was practically bouncing off my seat. This was great. This was so BEYOND great. I was in the City, with Tunny, out of the clutches of Jingletown and Shitsville.

We got to the place where the show was going to be. A somewhat crappy looking place on the outside, but on the inside it was nice. Full bar, nice little stage, lots of room for a crowd. I watched Tunny's opening bands setting up and doing sound check.

One by one, the bands disappeared behind stage, and finally Tunny gave me a shaky-looking thumbs up and a nervous smile before heading backstage as the kids started filing in with their tight pants and colored hair.

About ten minutes later, after the place had reached full capacity or whatever, the show started. I bobbed my head along with the bands that I didn't know, then backed up towards the bar as Tunny came on stage with his band so I could see the whole thing go down. I wanted to see how much they enjoyed Tunny.

"Hey, we're Slow Down or Burn Up, and this is our first song."

The music started suddenly, and I could tell immediately everyone loved it. Tunny half sang, half screamed, questioning if we knew the enemy, telling us what to do to keep the enemy at bay.

I watched as everyone started jumping, screaming their approval. Grinning, I leaned against the bar, fully enjoying the look on Tunny's face as he performed.

"This band is great!" I glanced over at a blond chick talking to her friend. I nudged her arm with my elbow and she looked at me, obviously confused.

"The singer is my best friend."

And without even meaning to, I started a stampede of people buying me drinks, all of which I accepted eagerly. And even though when I'm around Tunny and drinking I'm perfectly fine, I was a pretty angry drunk.

And boy did one guy learn that when he bumped into me.

"Watchit, bub." Jesus, I was slurring my words. The guy turned around to apologize, but I just full out punched him in the face. he immediately turned and tried to punch me back, but even when I'm drunk I'm fast. I ducked and he ended up punching someone else, thus beginning the largest bar brawl I've ever seen.

The crowd didn't notice until the fight was shoved on them, forcing them to join in. I vaguely saw Tunny's face over the fighting crowd, and he just looked plain shocked. It was kinda funny.

All around me the brawl continued. And it continued until the cops came and dragged everyone in the crowd away, me included.

Apparently I kept saying, "But the singer's my best friend!" God, how stupid can I get?

They threw us all in jail, and I pretty much passed out on the floor until morning when I heard a nightstick hitting the bars of my cage.

"James StClaire?"

I blinked at him, momentarily confused, then nodded slowly.

"Your bail has been paid."

He pulled me out of the cell and led me down a hallway to the front office of the building.

There was Tunny, and he didn't look too happy.

The officer pushed me over to him, and Tunny nodded in thanks. He pulled me out of the station, and when we got to the sidewalk, he started yelling at me.

"How could you be such an IDIOT? You dumb little FUCK, how could you do that at our first show!?"

I winced at how loud he was.

Hangovers = not fun

"Jimmy, you listen to me! That was so beyond NOT COOL. I had to spend our whole god damn pay and then some to get you out of fucking jail!"

"Sorry, Tunny."

"Sorry? You're sorry?" SORRY DOESN'T CUT IT."

I was silent, staring at my feet. I didn't know what I could say to make this better.

Tunny paused and stared at me, then he reached into his car, grabbed my bag, and threw it at my feet.

"You can find your own way home, you little fuck, because I cannot afford to bail you out."

I watched him get into his car and start driving away, and I realized that he was actually going to leave me here. And then I was angry.

"Well fucking FINE. Leave me here, you god damn PRICK!"

I grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at his car. It made a satisfying CLANG and bounced off.

I picked up my bag and turned the other way.

Now I'm absolutely fucked.

April 1stday in the city
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame
The same
The ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery"And bleed
And bleed the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ fromt he hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line
To find the money's on the other side
Can I get another AMEN?
There's a FLAG wrapped around a score of men
A gag
A PLASTIC BAG on a monument
The representative of California has the floor
Zeig heil to the PRESIDENT GASMAN
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
BANG BANG GOES THE BROKEN GLASS
KILL ALL THE FAGS THAT DON'T AGREE
TRIALS BY FIRE SETTING FIRE
IS NOT A WAY THAT'S MEANT FOR ME
JUSTCAUSE ------ JUST CAUSE WE'RE OUTLAWS YEAH!
I beg to dream and differ from the hallow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on holiday