Someone out There Loves You

“Clayah. CLAYAH!” Mark shook me.
“What?” I groaned. “I’m fucking sleeping, dude, this better be good.”
“Get up and get decent,” he whispered sharply. “NOW.” Then the door slid open and he left.
I tumbled out of my bunk, rubbing my eyes and stretching. The bunk’s weren’t particularly comfortable, but after airline seats it felt like sleeping on a cloud. And even though I had been tired, I spent some time learning my way around the bus with my eyes closed. That way, I could make coffee without having to fully wake up.
My eyes barely open, I grabbed my iPod and hit shuffle, throwing my hair around my face to keep it dark when I left the bunk area. I didn’t give a damn what Mark said-- I wasn’t doing anything ‘till I got my fucking coffee.
“Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” by Say Anything busted through my ears on full volume (I’m not much of a talker in the mornings either) as I made my way to the “kitchen.” First thing to be set up last night was the coffeepot, of course, so that and my huge bag of Starbuck’s grounds was all that was there.
Putting in the filter, I sang along to the song. I hate it when people sing with their headphones in, ‘cause it sounds all flat and bad, but the band was used to it. I literally bit Levi one morning for trying to make me stop. 
“If I die and go to hell real soon,” I “sang.” I scooped grounds into the filter and filled the pot with water. “It will appear to me as this room...” I poured the water in. “And for eternity I‘ll lay in bed, in my boxers, half stoned, with a pillow under my head...” I let the coffeepot start. “I’d be chatting on the interweb…” I filled a glass of water and took my medication. “Maggots prey upon the living dead… I had no interest in the things she said on the phone every day, I’ll permanently hit they hay, hey!”
“I called her on the phone and she touched herself!” I threw myself into it this time, probably sounding like a dying bird. “She touched herself, she touched herself. I called her on the phone and she touched herself, I laughed myself to sleep..”
I was feeling pretty proud for doing everything with my eyes mostly closed when my hair started to tickle my nose as it fell around my face. I turned toward the mirror on the door to the bunks and flipped my hair down. 
“At this rate, I‘ll be heading for electric chair... I‘m only human with my cross to bear…” I ran my fingers through my hair and tied it with the ponytail holder on my wrist. I flipped my head back up, belting, “When she described her underwear--”
And as I adjusted my hair in the mirror, I saw people behind me. Not just the band.
I turned around. The closest person to me was Ray Toro.
We all just kind of stood there staring at each other. I threw my earbuds around my neck for something to do with my hands; my face was burning hot ad my mouth bone dry. And honestly, I’m not the type to get embarrassed easily.
Everyone was staring at me; My Chemical Romance, The Used, and Green Day. As far as my own band, Drew looked horrified. Levi and Monster’s eyes were wide and their jaws were dropped. Mark looked like he wished he never knew me. If there was one person who spoke for an entire band, it was the lead singer. Everyone knew that.
Think of all the things I’d just said.
Suddenly, Frank Iero pushed himself through, tripping on Mike Dirnt’s foot. Frank stuck a hand out to me.
“Hi!” he said. “I’m Frank.”
I didn’t move for a second. First off because I was still pretty shell shocked with embarassment. Second because Frank Iero wanted to shake my hand regardless.
I took his hand and shook it. “Clayah… Clayah Shier.”
“Hi, Clayah,” he smiled. There was a silence as he looked me over. “Cool boxers.”
I looked down. Spiderman and Wolverine looked back up at me. I was starting to think these boxers were cursed.
“You look about the same age as my daughter,” Frank said. Then he turned back to the crowd, searching. “MollyMollyMollyMOLLY!” He reached an arm through the mass and pulled a girl through, who did look about my age.
“This is my daughter, Molly,” Frank said.
My Chem fans all knew who Molly was, but I only knew one girl who had actually seen her. She was at a show somewhere where Molly had gotten pulled onstage to sing part of a song. I don’t think the girl actually knew who Molly was at the time, but she figured it had to be her when we found out about the whole thing.
Molly seemed pretty cool. It was eerie how much she looked like Frank. Her clothes surprised me, though. She was in a red plaid skirt and a collared shirt as opposed to everyone else, who was in jeans and tshirts. And she looked tired, like she had taken a red eye plane. But with how messy the prep school-esque clothes were, it looked pretty punk rock.
She smiled at me. “Hey, Clayah.” I smiled back.
“Awesome song you were singing, by the way,” she said. “Say Anything rules.”
Molly Iero I thought, I totally fucking love you right now.
“For sure,” I said. “Oh, duh. Proper hello.” I stuck out my hand so she could shake it.
Another awkward silence. “So…” Molly said. “You’re a comics person?”
I nodded. “More cartoons, though.”
“Rugrats?”
“Fuck yes.”
“We’ll get along well,” we said in unison. The rest of the bus laughed.
“Clayah, I'm just curious-- How old are you, actually?” Frank asked.
“Fourteen.”
“HOLY HELL!” We turned toward the crowd again. Billy Joe Armstrong’s eyes were wide.
“Sorry,” he said. “That kinda came outta nowhere, but… that’s… pretty fucking cool.” He put a hand over his mouth. “Sorry, I shouldn’t say that.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Fuck? I’m fourteen,” I laughed. “I probably say ‘fuck’ more than you do.” That made him grin.
I proceeded to shake everyone else’s hand. When I was walking past the rest of the band, I shot them a kind of “I’m sorry” face, but Drew had relaxed so much by then that she almost looked asleep.
I made it to the back of the mass, toward the front of the bus, now about to shake the Way brother’s hands.
I WAS ABOUT TO SHAKE THE WAY BROTHERS’ HANDS.
I swallowed a fan girl reaction, smiling and keeping my voice even. “Hi, guys, I’m Clayah. In case you didn’t hear that the last twelve thousand times.”
They were staring at me in a way that made me self conscious. Which, honestly, I very rarely felt.
“Hi,” Gerard finally said, shaking my hand. “Gerard. You’re really fourteen? You look older.”
“I get that a lot,” I chuckled. “But yea, I’m really fourteen. Just lucky to be here, we all are.” I gestured to the rest of R&R behind me.
“A-a-and, I’m M-Mikey,” Mikey stuttered. Why did he stutter? Whatever.
“Hi, Mikey. Not that I didn’t know who you guys are-- everyone knows who you guys are!”
Why did they just look afraid for a second?
“We love your band,” I continued. “We love all your bands!’ I turned toward everyone else.
“Yeah,” Mark took over. “We all feel really blessed. We’ve looked up to you guys for years.”
“That’s such a weird coincidence,” Bert McCraken said, his jaw dropped. “Because we’ve looked up to you for years, too!”
No wonder everyone liked Bert.
We spent the next hour over coffee (mostly devoured by me, Gerard, and Mikey, SHOCKINGLY) and conversation. It was awesome-- everyone was so fun, and my whole entrance went forgotten. And the fact that Drew and I (and now, Molly) were the only girls on tour wasn’t a weird thing at all, like Drew had anticipated. Which I didn’t get. But, whatever.
Dan told us the entire schedule for the next week.
“So we don’t actually leave to go anywhere ‘till tomorrow,” he said. “As for today we gotta meet up with some of the MTV crew. Reprise set something up that they’ll be following the whole tour or some shit like that. Our manager was telling us that we’ll be doing something different in every city… what that means, I don’t know…”
“We’re jumping off buildings, dude,” Bert said. He pointed at my boxers. “Like fucking Spiderman.”
“That would be raw…” Levi’s eyes gazed off as he imagined it.
“You’re afraid of heights,” Monster said.
“Yeah, but if I were in a Spiderman suit I wouldn’t be.”
“Touche,” Gerard said.
“ANYWAYS,” Dan interrupted. “I suggest you guys get a hotel for the night,” he said, addressing Rush And Ruin. “Bus bunks aren’t any fun.”
“Band rule, no hotels,” we said simultaneously. The guys looked at us.
“Before we left,” Drew said, “We set a list of rules. One of them was no hotels.”
“We want the whole tour experience,” Mark said.
“Plus,” I added, pointing at the TV, “This thing has an X Box.”
Quinn shook his head at us. “You’re gonna get sick of it really fast.”
“Nah,” Drew waved the comment off. “We’ve been waiting years for this-- I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of it.”
“Okay,” Tre jumped in. “I think I’m gonna be forced to adopt you guys.”
To be on tour for only about a year with these guys was not going to be long enough.