Someone out There Loves You

“Monster, you are so dead.” Bert clutched the bars and knocked his head in between the two of them.
“What did I do?”
“Uhm, well, let’s see,” Frank said, “You got us arrested.”
“This isn’t my fault!”
“Yeah it is,” Quinn said. “You led us onto private property. Shortcut my ass…”
“It wasn’t me that got us arrested. We would’ve just gotten a ticket if it hadn’t been for Jeph.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you were the one who pointed to the hanger!”
“Maybe,” Jeph admitted, “But Clayah kicked the door in.”
“Like you had a better plan,” I defended. I was trying really hard not to talk and not to move. I didn’t want to freak anyone out, but I was in some severe pain. Luckily everyone was distracted with being pissed off at everyone else.
“Will all of you just shut up?” Tre snapped. “The Blame Game is pointless right now.”
“I beg to differ.” Drew was freaking out; she was fiddling with the ends of her long brown hair, twirling it around her finger.
“Drew, calm down,” I said. “The last time you did that was at The House Of Blues the night you swore you saw Gerard and Mikey there.”
Gerard and Mikey looked up from their places in the corner and on the cot. “When was this?” Mikey asked.
I waved it off. “It was no big deal,” I said. “The night we got signed Drew was waiting and thought she saw you guys in the café.”
The conversation ended when a cop strolled up, holding the handcuffed Frank by the elbow. The cop unlocked the cell and let Frank in. Frank was uncuffed and the cop locked him in again.
Considering we were in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the United States, all but one cell was taken that day. The police saved themselves space and threw all of us into the open cell. We scattered ourselves all over the floor and leaned against walls and sat on cots, waiting to get the hell out of there.
“Frankenstein, please tell me Mollers picked up her phone,” I said.
“She did.” Frank rubbed his wrists to rid himself of the handcuff pain. “She grabbed a taxi and she’s on the way down with my checkbook to bail us.”
“Praise the Lord,” Tre cheered. “Molly’s gonna get really pissed that she had to get out of bed, but she is getting the biggest hug ever when I see her.”
“You touch her you die,” Dan said. “She’ll be that mad.”
“See if I care.”
“Why does it smell like bad onions and sex in here?” Bert crumpled his nose. “Know what, I take that back, I don’t want to know.” Ray turned and looked at the cot he was sitting on, slowly standing and leaning against the wall.”
“There goes my chances of ever going back to college,” Levi said.
“Are you seriously thinking about right now?” Jeph said dryly.
“That, and the fact that I really want to wash this ink off of my fingers.”
When we got to the station, we were all taken through the general arresting nonsense; fingerprinting, interviewing, checking in all of our shit. Apparently Ray and I sort of stunned one of the cops.
“So you ran away from a mob of fans,” he said, “While carrying vinyls and ice cream?”
“Yeah,” I said. “No idea how. But if I could have one request—can we get that ice cream put in a freezer?” The cop actually laughed at that.
I looked at my watch. “Methinks we’re going to be late for sound check.”
“Clayah, you are the only person who would say that,” Gerard smiled.
“Well… we are.”
“Frankly, I don’t really care about the show right now,” Mark snarled. “I just want to get the hell out of jail.”
Another twenty minutes went by before a couple officers came to unlock us.
“Mr. Iero, your daughter just came.” It was the cop that laughed about the ice cream and vinyls.
“Thank God.”
“And you’re all lucky. We heard your stories, and we’re letting you off the hook. You don’t have to pay bail, just the money to repair the door.” Everyone glared at me and I looked at my feet. “You’re all free to go.” I had no doubt in my mind that Ice Cream Cop had something to do with dropping our bail—he seemed nice like that.
“Thank you, officer.” Mikey didn’t even try to contain his relief.
“Just one more condition,” the cop said. “My daughter is a really big fan of all of your bands, so can I get some autographs?”

“Every single one of you.” Molly pointed down the line. “I despise every single one of you.” Mollers yelled at us while we officers brought out the bins of our stuff.
“If it’s any consolation,” I said, “I got your ice cream.” I held out the bag to her. She narrowed her eyes at me but took the bag anyway.
“And Dad…” Mollers sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why the hell are you wearing a tank top?”
“Because I tried it on and was forced to buy it before I got killed by a mob of fans.”
“I’m sort of glad about that part, because I really like these pants.” Tre smiled and admired his jeans. “They make my legs look good, yes?”
“You’re all such idiots right now.” Mollers turned and stormed towards the door. “I can’t believe you got arrested. And then I came all the way down here and you didn’t even have to get bailed out!”
“Thaaank you.” I came up behind her and gave her a hug around the shoulders. “We love you and are thankful for this.”
“Yeah, Tre communicated that when he nearly suffocated me.” Mollers let out another sigh. “I’ll forgive you tomorrow, when I’m actually going to feel well enough to go to the show. And here.” She handed me a silver packet with one of my pills in it. “Frank said to come quick because he thought your chest was hurting. I thought it’d be a good idea to bring this, after what happened last time.”
“Thanks. See? You do love me.”
“Don’t push it, Clayah.”
“Uhm… hate to bring this up,” Frank said, “But being a dog lover and all, what’d you do with Jayce?”
“Pete’s watching him on the bus.” Then Molly looked at me. “’It’ll only be a couple of hours, Molly,’” she mimicked. “Then you go and get arrested.”
“Like I planned for this?”
“You still owe me soup, too.”
“I was a little busy getting mobbed to think about soup.”
“I am sick and I am pissed,” Mollers snapped, “And I want some fucking soup.” I rolled my eyes.