The Long Road

The next morning, I woke up early and stared getting changed, even though it was hours before the show. After pacing around for another two hours, eating nothing but a cold piece of toast, everyone else woke up and packed all their things. We called up a bus boy to help with the luggage (probably what we should have done the first time,) and we heaved it all down to the car park and threw it all in the boot.

We checked out of the hotel and started driving towards Oakland. We had to wait in early hour traffic jams but we eventually started making good time as we drove over Bay Bridge. After a little while, I found that we hard parked outside a small brick building with a crowd full of people lined out the front. There was a sign hanging out the front that had '924 Gilman Street' printed on it.

We pulled out our instruments excitedly and made our way to the back of the building where Joey said he would meet us. A shiver went up my spine when I saw Joey leaning against the wall talking to a tall man who looked as though he was in charge of the place. I started thinking to myself, was I getting a crush on Joey? I brushed the thought aside hastily. I knew that Joey and me would only be friends, and I wanted it to stay that way.

'Hi Leslie, glad you got here, for a few minutes I thought you weren't going to show up.' Joey said, looking at me straight into my eyes with his green ones. I swallowed hard and pulled on a nervous smile.

'No, we just got stuck in traffic.' I addressed my feet. I introduced him to the rest of the band and we pulled our stuff inside.

We sat in a small waiting room with white washed walls and old comfy chairs. We sat around and waited to go out and set up our equipment. The first band finished and we were told to go out onstage. My stomach twisted itself into a giant knot and I felt my face go pale.

We walked out onto the stage and started setting things up. I glanced out into the audience. There were people wearing casual shirts and jeans, others with leather jackets and chains hanging from their ears. The crowd was a full mix of different genres, and all of them were staring at me.

I scanned the crowd for Joey, desperately searching for his face in the crowd of strangers. I eventually found him at the very back, standing next to a guy who's face I couldn't see. Joey smiled and nodded at me. My heart suddenly started pounding like crazy, and at the same time a wave of confidence washed all over me. Pulling a grin onto my face, I picked up my guitar and started the opening chords to one of our songs.

That afternoon we performed our entire album, which was mostly a mix of fast paced punk rock and acoustic songs still full of attitude, encouraged by the roaring crowd. My happiness was made from the smiling of Joey, and the satisfaction of performing in the one place I had wanted to for most of my life.

When we played the last chord on the last song, the yelling of the crowd was so loud that I couldn't even hear myself talk. After putting our instruments backstage for safe keeping, we joined the crowd and made our way over to Joey to watch the next act.

'You guys were great!' he said, shaking his hair out of his eyes. The shiver went up my spine again, but I ignored it.

'Yeah it was epic! Best show I've ever had!' Justin said, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet.

'My dad will be back anytime now.' Joey said, looking nervously over his shoulder.

'Relax! Surely he's not that embarrassing! Your acting like his famous or something!' Hamish laughed.

Joey laughed back, but his eyes stayed sombre and serious. I was just about to ask him what was wrong when Joey looked over his shoulder again and suddenly started waving.

'Over here!' He yelled. A hand waved back and somebody pushed his way over to us.

'Hey, you're the band right? Your music is epic, really raw! No wonder Joey want's a CD!'

My throat went dry and every other part of my body felt stunned. I couldn't believe who was talking to us. Standing next to Joey with arms folded casually and a wide grin on his face was Billie Joe Armstrong himself.