The Long Road

The next day we went down to Gilman Street, knowing we would have to face our doom. We unpacked everything and glanced around the room, but there was no sign of Pete or his band anywhere. We played our usual set and hung around a while, cautiously watching out in case Pete sneaked up for a surprise attack.

We got to know some of the people who came daily to Gilman, from funny and opinionated punks with a squillion piercings to a few average teenagers wearing old concert shirts and quietly sipping Cokes, everyone seemed to love our music. Several people asked us if we were going to work on a new album soon, and said that they had already bought our album off ITunes.

After saying our last goodbyes, we went back to Billie's in high spirits, but we all knew we weren't off the hook.

'Just because he wasn't there, doesn't mean he's not gonna get you back.' Billie said simply as we ate a late lunch of Italian potato salad. Billie felt in a vegetarian mood that day, so we all decided to follow and try it out.

'We know that, it was just a lucky escape, that's all.' Justin said as he casually took out all the cucumbers and dumped them in my bowl.

'Maybe I could come down next time, talk to this kid.' Billie suggested as he stole all the extra cucumbers from my plate.

I poked Billie in the ribs and laughed gently. 'You know he just basically ignored you last time.'

'Well, it's worth a shot.' Billie said, shrugging his shoulders.

'I agree' Justin said, giving me a serious look. 'And, if I didn't break his nose Billie, you can break it for me.'

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The next day it turned out that Gilman Street was closed (apparently due to a cockroach check) and this gave us extra time to get ready for Pat Mangarella's party. Billie reminded us to dress extra snazzy, since we would be surrounded by all of Pat's other clients, The Goo Goo Dolls and the All-American Rejects, including all their friends and friends of friends.

We also got word that Jeff Matika, Jason Freese and Jason White were tagging along as well. To be surrounded by all these well known bands made us all edgy and excited at the same time. That night, Katie and I got dressed in the basement while the guys went upstairs to dress. Luckily, we both had packed wisely and had the two perfect dresses.

Katie had a strapless plaid party dress, accompanied with back peep toe heels. Meanwhile, I had an turquoise 80's styled punk halter dress with black leggings and simple black heels.

While I helped Katie pin up her hair, Joey came downstairs to check on us. He looked gorgeous with hair gelled into casual spikes, a dark brown button up shirt with black waistcoat and black skinny jeans. Just looking at him made me go weak at the knees.

'Hey girls, we're all ready to go now - whoa!' he stopped, his eyes on me. His eyes travelled up and down, checking out my dress. Katie giggled at me while I blushed once again.

'You - you look amazing!' Joey said, a gentle smile creeping onto his lips.

'Uh - thank you. You look pretty snazzy yourself.' I gushed, trying not to stare too hard at him.

'You look amazing too, Katie.' Joey added, looking quickly over to her. 'Justin is going to go wild when he sees you.'

'Ah shuddup.' Katie moaned, hitting Joey over the head. We both laughed and looked away when we looked at each other.

'Well, as I was saying. We're ready when you are.' Joey said. With another quick smile in my direction, he dashed back up the stairs rather quickly. I sighed to myself, staring at the stairs. Crap, I really had it bad for him. But for some reason, I still didn't know wether he would really like me back.

'Crap, you have it bad for him.' Katie laughed as she grabbed my attention. I rolled my eyes and continued pinning up her hair. If she even mentioned Joey one more time I would strangle her. But, at the same time, I never wanted to stop hearing his name.