Rotting Out

My eyes lazily fluttered open and I stared at the side wall for a minute before processing that I was awake. The sun was peaking through the blinds. My alarm went off moments later and I scrambled quickly to my phone to turn it off. A smile appeared over my face as I processed that it was Friday and that I was seeing Green Day tonight. My heart was beating fast and I told myself in my head to calm down. The heart kept ticking as if nothing could slow it down….I stretched and turned to my side, moving off of the bed slowly and getting up.

My feet led me to the kitchen and I lazily made myself a bowl of cereal. I sat down on the couch, eating and not yet being aware of the time. My heart was still racing incredibly fast and I knew that it wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon, so I gave up with it.

Ten minutes later I went to the bathroom and took off my clothes to shower. Turned on the water and stepped on in. Did normal hygienic procedures and turned off the water; stepping out in reaction. Grabbed my towel and wrapped it around myself. I started into the steamy mirror in disgust, hating everything that I saw. I quickly ran through my hair with a brush and turned on the hair dryer. I proceeded to dry my hair and then I went to the closet to pick out clothes. I grabbed my pink Misfits shirt and matched it with some baggy black cargo jeans. It looked liked acceptable concert attire, especially since I planned on going in the mosh pit.
I went back to my room and picked up the flat iron, combating my annoying wavy hair. I stared in the mirror and stopped once I was pleased.

A sleek smile took over me, “Today’s my day,” I thought.

I grabbed my gray eye shadow and applied it in front of my little mirror. I looked ridiculous, but I’ll just wear a hoodie and it will all be okay.

Twenty minutes later, I was finally finished with being a girly girl. And to celebrate, I picked up my guitar and a random red guitar pick lying on the floor. I played a little bit of “Friday, I’m in Love” by the Cure…it was suiting for the occasion. I was so happy that it was frightening me. I was smiling with my off white teeth glistening; I never smile with my teeth. Matter of fact, I rarely smile a smile of any sort so yeah…

I heard my mother scream which awoken me from my day-dreamy state of mind. I ran out my bedroom door and into her room, “What happened?”

“There’s a damn spider in here, get it away from me!”

I sighed and smashed the daddy long legs against the wall with a random shoe I found. And then my mom realized that it was one of her expensive heels… “Ramona, what the hell is wrong with you? Get out of here, now!”

I ran back to my room, slamming it behind me, and putting a chair up to the door to make sure she couldn’t get in. “You bitch!” I heard her scream, as she was passing my door. I saw a slight jolt at my door, she must’ve attempted getting in here, but failed. My happy mood is gone, for now at least….

Oh, poor mommy with her stained expensive heels, oh god have mercy on her. I got out my songwriting notebook and wrote down a few of my thoughts:
“Please, make this end.
Just one bitter pill; that’s all it would take.
A pill to laugh and a pill to cry
Another pill to live and one more to die.”
I played a few chords on my guitar, quietly. I wrote them down underneath the “lyrics” I had just written. “Hey, maybe this will become something one day…”

I heard a loud groan from my mother, one of frustration as she walked back to her room and closed the door loudly. I crawled into my closet and sat against the piles of clothes that had fallen from the hangers. I still think I’m going to run away. And it’s going to be soon, too. I can feel it,...

I crawled back out of my closet and walked out my bedroom door, making my way through the hallways, the living room and everything in between to the front door. I grabbed my coat and keys. My body left the house, and hands closed the door gently to be sure that it was not noticed that I had left…

I was just about to open the door to my car when I muttered to myself, “Shit.”

I ran back inside the house and gathered things up for the concert since it was about noon right now and I wanted to get a good place in the pit. I got a piece of white poster board from my closet and black marker to write something on it later on. I as well gathered fifty dollars, my tickets, my phone, my ipod, and my lucky charm that resembled a turtle and threw it all into my purse. I left my room once again and grabbed my hoodie on the way out, “Bye mom!” I yelled and walked out the door.

I got in my car and drove off to get Darcy first. I drove for a good mile and a half and pulled up into her driveway and got out to ring the doorbell of her townhouse. A few moments later, Darcy walked out with her hair in a pun and in pajamas. “Oh hey!” she smiled and hugged me tightly.

“Hi, remember it’s the Green Day concert today thing. I was thinking we should go early, so can you go get ready or something kind of quickly?” I asked her urgently.

“Ah, I almost forgot! Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready, okay? You can go pick up Ana and come back for me or something. Call you when I’m ready, ‘kay?” She responded.
I nodded and walked back to my car. I drove to Ana’s house and called her on my phone.
“Hello?” She answered.

“Hey, I’m outside. Are you ready to go?”
“Give me like five minutes and I’ll be outside, but yeah pretty much,” she said.
“Okay, bye.” I hung up. I turned on the radio and turned the dial, looking for something good to listen to. There was a Guns N Roses song on the radio, I could tell. I realized that it was “Welcome to the Jungle” and sang along.

Ana finally came outside decked out in the best concert going clothes she had. She was wearing a green Misfits shirt with black skinny jeans and a studded belt with black converse. She was definitely ready for this thing, “You have money right?” I asked.
“Of course, so what now?”

“Well we’re going to go pick up Darcy and then speed off to the venue I guess,” I responded. She nodded and I made my way back to Darcy’s place. I pulled up to Darcy’s home, once again and hoped that she would finally be ready to go by the time I got there. I pulled up into her family’s driveway and got out of the car; I walked up to the front door and ran the bell impatiently. “Darcy!” I yelled.

A few minutes later she walked outside, dressed in a Clash shirt and black skinny jeans with her hair straightened and she had added some fake purple extensions. “How do I look?”

“Wonderful, now let’s go,” I told her and rushed back towards my car. We hopped on in and sped down the street to the freeway.

I turned on the car radio, and turned it to my favorite rock station. A song by Radiohead was playing entitled “Creep”.

Ana began to hum along. It wasn’t quite hitting me yet that I was seeing Green Day later in the evening; my heroes for crying out loud.

Around an hour later, I parked in the venue’s parking lot and got out of the car. “Ready, y’all?” I asked in a dorky tone. They nodded in response and got out of the vehicle as well. I locked the car in response and sped walk over to the gates in which we would soon be allowed to run in and find a nice spot to sound (maybe next to the stage if we are lucky).

We handed our tickets to security guards as we walked through the entrance of the venue. There weren’t too many people there yet as the concert had another four hours or so until it began. We found a comfy spot pretty darn close to the stage; it was next to the catwalk if you will that stretched a fourth down the floor.

“Hmm we have a while until they start, huh? Does anyone want to go to the bathroom?” Ana asked.

“I kind of need to go,” Darcy said.

“Okay, we’ll be right back. Just stay here and save our spot, ‘kay?” Ana told me and then they walked away. I looked around myself and saw people of all sorts of stereotypes. There were the obvious burnouts, there were some people with Mohawks, and then there were people than were dressed a lot like myself.

There were girls who had medium hair laid naturally as they wore a plain t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a random raggedy jacket. Those are the type of people I tend to fit in with the most. In the corner of my eyes, I saw a quiet looking gentleman. He looked down in the dumps and rather pissed off in general. Yet there was something mysterious about the guy…he had shaggy dark-ish brown hair and was dressed kind of grunge looking in attire. I wanted to say hi, but I was too scared. He walked from where he was standing, right behind me, and walked on to the stage quite casually. I figured out that he must’ve been an important person; perhaps part of an opening band.

Darcy and Ana walked back towards me and Ana said, “The restrooms were actually pretty good.”

I smiled quietly and sighed. Darcy and Ana decided to sit on the floor along with listen to their mp3 players. I sat down and took out my little notepad I always carried around with me. I starred at the floor, it had an interesting gravely gray tone to it. I began to draw a drawing of my friends listening to their music. I don’t think they noticed until I was half way done…and then they crept over my shoulder.

“Wow not too bad,” Ana said. Darcy just smiled.

“Thanks,” I replied and continued drawing until it was completed. It happened to kill a lot of time and now we were half way through the waiting period until the first band begins.
A stagecrew man suddenly walks on stage casually, “Two bands are going to warm up now.” And then he ran off stage.

I suddenly saw the band that I had listened to so much, but it was not Green Day; it was just Rancid. They were as old as I suspected they would be from photos and knowing that they are old enough to be my parents by far.
Tim began to sing their song “Ruby Soho”:
“Echoes of reggae comin' through my bedroom wall
havin' a party up next door but i'm sittin here all alone
two lovers in the bedroom and the other starts to shout
all i got is this blank stare and that don't carry no clout at all”
He danced around the stage with his guitar in hand and then vigorously sung into the microphone:
“Destination unknown
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho”
Then he sang drunk-ly the rest of the song:
“He's singin and she's there to lend a hand
he's seen his name on the marquee but she will never understand
once again he's leavin' and she's there with a tear in her eye
embraces with a warm gesture it's time, time to say goodbye 
Destination unknown
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho
Ruby's heart ain't beatin cause she knows the feelin' is gone
she's not the only one who knew there's somethin' wrong
her lover's in the distance as she wipes a tear from her eye
ruby's fading out, she disappears, it's time, time to say goodbye
Destination unknown
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho

Destination unknown (Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho)
Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho”

They finished the song and the people that had already entered the stadium had all applaud towards the band, including my friends.

“Uh one more song as the last part of our little warm up, this one is called ‘Maxwell Murder’”
The bass line began and a mini mosh pit formed behind me. I ran in with my friends and the song occurred:
“Maxwell can't tell he's in hell
he just wants you to visit him there
same old game that he's playin'
his rules are never fair 

nobody want to look back everybody wanna get high tonight
before they run outta time where's the felon the chargible
felon the name of the crook who committed the crime 

dial 999 if you really want the truth
dial 999 if you can't see it through
he ain't jack the ripper he's your ordinary crook
calling maxwell murder for you 

maxwell got a hand in his plan
he knows who you are in this plan
chop the rock before you bought it
sick maxwell knows you got it

nobody want to look back everybody wanna get high tonight
before they run outta time where's the felon the chargible
felon the name of the crook who committed the crime 

dial 999 if you really want the truth
dial 999 if you can't see it through
he ain't jack the ripper he's your ordinary crook
calling maxwell murder for you “

The song of course included Matt’s famous bass line. Rancid as a whole quickly left the stage before people could even try to applaud.