The Punchline to the Joke Is Asking

"We're going on vacation!" Gabe and Pete yelled together, bursting into my place well after everyone else had arrived to hang out. Their announcement was met with many cheers.
"Sorry, My Chem, you're not coming." Gabe frowned sadly at them, and Frankie and Mikey pretended to burst into tears and started hugging each other. Ray, Gerard, and Bob exchanged a glance and shrugged, pretty mellow about it.
"Everyone else, we're going to New York!" Gabe cheered, and everyone got excited again for a second, then looked at me.
"Cool." I grinned, nodding.

When we got to New York City, I grinned, taking in the sound of traffic and the smell of pollution.
"Home, sweet home." I grinned, looking around the city.
We'd ditched our stuff at an upscale hotel and had just started wandering around the streets, looking for stuff to do. Well, the guys were looking. I had my own agenda.
"Where should we go?" Gabe wondered out loud.
"Central Park?" Pete suggested, and I glanced at him. That was on my list of places to hit.
"I'm game." Bill agreed, and everybody else just kind of nodded, willing to go with it.
We got to Central Park, and Brendon immediately took off to chase the ducks, Bill and Gabe going with them. Patrick and Andy decided they needed some mature supervision and went with the trio.
That left just Ryan, Joe, and Pete with me.
We wandered down the path, the guys chatting as I glanced around, lost in thought.
"Cyn!" Called a familiar voice, and a black kid my age dropped out of the tree he'd been sitting in. "That you?"
"Depends, you still pissed?" I grinned, hugging him.
"Nah, I needed that." He laughed, shaking his head. "Where ya been, man?"
"Everywhere." I shook my head, grinning incredulously.
"Heard you got swiped by a stoner and an emo." He raised his eyebrows.
I glanced at the guys, aware they were watching for the first time. Then I looked back at the guy. "Yeah, Joe 'n Pete." I jerked my head at the guys. "Ryan, too." I looked at the guys again. "Guy, this is Kyle."
Kyle tilted his head. "Are you the guy in that band? Panic! At The Disco?"
"That's me." Ryan ducked his head bashfully.
"Kyle, you seen Trey 'n Jamie around?" I asked.
"Jamie's same as ever, Trey pulled a magic trick." Kyle shrugged, and I frowned.
"Jamie'll prolly get it." I said, and Kyle nodded.
"I gotta jet- Pinhead put a price on my pretty face." Kyle grinned crookedly, then sauntered off down the path.
"I think I understood half of that." Pete frowned, trying to figure out what we'd been talking about.
"Kyle heard about you guys taking me right out of the park, and it looked like a kidnapping. He asked what's been going on with me, and I told him he wouldn't believe me if I took the time to tell the story. I asked where my friends are, and he said Jamie's still hanging at the usual places, but Trey disappeared." I frowned at the sidewalk as we kept walking. "Then he had to go 'cause he can't stay in one place for too long- a drug lord put a price on his head for some reason." I shrugged. "Which is pretty much a normal day for a street kid."
"That's a sucky day." Ryan shook his head.
"No, you don't want to know what a bad day is." I said, zoning out as we walked.
"You ever have a bad day?" Joe asked.
"Many."

When we found the others, it was starting to get dark.
"Let's hit a club." Gabe suggested, grinning.
"Yeah!" Pete agreed enthusiastically.
The guys started discussing well-known clubs, regular celebrity haunts, and I just rolled my eyes, not saying anything.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but do you know where the best club in New York is?" Pete asked me.
"Yeah." I replied mildly, shrugging.
"Which one is it?" Gabe asked enthusiastically.
"It's not one you've heard of." I snorted. "I don't even think it's a good idea for you to go."
"Why not?" Bill demanded.
"I'm not babysitting you." I rolled my eyes.
"Kid, make that make sense." Andy ordered, and I glared at him.
"Don't talk down to me, man." I raised an eyebrow at him. Calling me 'kid' was one thing, but that was just telling me what to do.
"Chill." Joe said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I glanced at him, then sighed, rolling my eyes.
"Best club in New York is pretty shadey. I don't need you getting mixed up in fights and drug deals. If you even look at a gangster wrong, you're shark bait." I shook my head. "The blues are scared of it- they get hurt if they show up in uniform, but there's plenty of vice." I shrugged. "They're a rough crowd."
"Then why do you know?" Brendon asked.
I laughed. "I've been going since I was 11."
The guys glared at me.
"Fine, but if you get in a fight, all I'm doing is recording it for future laughs." I shrugged, then took them to the ghetto.
We arrived outside a rundown building with two huge guys dressed in black standing outside.
"Here it is." I grinned, happy to be back.
The bouncers glared at us, and one of them started to hold up his hand to the guys as I walked past.
"Chillax, Rick. They're with me." I said coolly, and the bouncer glanced down at me.
"You sure they're cool, Cyn?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
"Fly." I answered, sickly sweet.
Rick shrugged and let the guys pass.
"Should I be worried he knew your name?" Gabe grinned, looking ecstatic.
"Only if the guys inside remember me." I grinned crookedly.
Inside, it was dark and hazy, with loud music and lights flashing randomly, the crazy beat pounding. There was a long bar, not terribly busy tonight because the dance floor was packed. Off to one side were couches, pool and card tables, and the doors to back rooms, where there was a little privacy.
"I like this." Pete nodded.
"Yeah, the cops never shut the joint down- they'd get lynched." I informed him over the music. "Literally."
Gabe, Bill, and Brendon were already dirty dancing all over each other, and Pete went off to join them.
The rest of us crashed at a card table, doing our best to talk over the music.
At the table next to us, there was the sound of arguing, then a gunshot. All the guys looked, but I ignored it.
"Don't look, stupid." I growled, and they looked back at the table. "Like I said, rough crowd." I smiled.
A little later, a scantily clad girl minced over, and started flirting with Ryan.
"Carla, what happened to our rule?" I asked her, amused.
She glanced at me, then did a double take.
"Cyn? Oh my god, I can't believe it's you!" She yelled, and hugged me as best she could while I was sitting down. "Does the rule apply when you're with a bunch of them?" She wheedled, glancing at Ryan.
"Ah, whatever." I waved her off, laughing. "I'm not sticking around to watch you try to seduce my friends."
"Gonna play some pool?" She asked shrewdly.
"Maybe later." I grinned. "For now, I'm going to go dance with my friends."
Carla looked over my shoulder at Pete, Brendon, Gabe, and Bill, and I could see her mouth almost start watering.
"Have fun." I smiled impishly, then vanished into the mass of gyrating bodies.
Gabe and Bill immediately pulled me over to dance with them, which was fun. We danced for ages, having a great time before we collapsed back at the table with the other guys.
Carla had vanished, and so had Joe. I frowned, glancing around. Carla was my age, it would be creepy if Joe had gone off with her-
No, there he was, talking to a guy in a shadey corner.
"Shit." I said, then ditched the table and headed for Joe.
"Hey Joe, what's up?" I asked casually, glaring coldly at the guy he was talking to.
"I'm getting some decent pot." Joe grinned.
"No, you're not." I informed Joe, who glared at me, then I smiled sweetly at the man. "He's not interested."
"I think he is." The man said. "Now, sweetheart, if you wanna deal, too-"
I cut him off. "We don't deal with vice and if I see you again anywhere near my friends I'll blow your cover sky-high, sweetheart." I growled.
The man grimaced. "C'mon, you wouldn't really-"
"I've done it before." I said coldly. "Now scram, or you're going to find out exactly what happened to the cop they only found pieces of."
The man winced, then vanished into the crowds.
"Jesus, Joe, can you not buy pot from the vice?" I sighed, relieved.
"How could you tell?" Joe whined.
"He was clean cut. Nobody else wears a polo here." I said. "You've got to be able to see through people."
Joe and I went back to the table, while Joe told everyone what just happened.