Another Day, Another Hotel

Shout Outs and the Drunk-College-Girl Woo

After our gig in Chicago, I call the boys.

"And then we went to the Penguin Plaza at the zoo. And there were BABY penguins!" Jakob shouts into the receiver.

"Really? They were out?" I ask my overenthusiastic son.

"No!" he squeals. "But they will be soon!"

"That's great Jakob. Can I talk to Joey now?" I hear Joey bitching at Jakob to give him the phone. I think Joey grabs the phone from him and Jakob yells, "BABY PENGUINS!"

I chuckle.

"Hi dad," Joey says.

"Hey," I say. "So, we're going to be on TRL-" I begin, but I'm cut off with:
"Ooh. Maybe your boyfriend will be there."

"Shut up!" I shriek into the phone.

***

Well, we pulled into New York yesterday and guess what today is!

"So," Ronnie says twirling his trumpet around. "What are WE supposed to do while you're in preteen paradise?" He points to Jason Freese.

"Yeah, really," Jason Freese says. Jason White agrees.

"I don't know," I say sighing. Tre pulls out his wallet and hands Jason White a 50 dollar bill.

"Have fun."

We all laugh. "But not too much," I add.

***

We're at MTV studios. Fuck. Me and the boys are waiting backstage while My Chemical Romance does there interview. One of the chick VJs comes backstage to say hi.

"Hey Vanessa," Tre says getting up and shaking her hand. He always remembers the girls' names.

"Hey all," she beams at us. Me and Mike mumble our hello's.

"So has our producer talked to you?" she says.

"Yeah, but she didn't really say much, just that it'd be a standard interview and that My Chemical Romance would be out there too," I say. "But not much else."

"That's cool," she says before an aide sweeps her away.

I sigh and put my head in my hands.

"Don't freak," Mike laughs.

"I don't want to be here," I groan.

"Well, there's nothing you can do to get out of it now," he laughs again.

That aide comes waves at us and calls, "Green Day, you're up."

"For Fahey-love," Tre whispers into my ear. I sock him in the arm really hard.
We walk to the end of the hallway and wait until we are waved onto the stage. I'm shoved from behind by I believe Tre, so I'm forced to go out first. I walk down the ramp onto the set and the teenagers take a moment's break from their 'shout-outs' to freak out and give the drunk-college-girl woo. I hate the drunk-college-girl woo. I smile, wave and look at Gerard, who's entire fault this is mind you, who's got a huge grin on his face. I give him the stink eye just long enough to make sure he knows I'm giving it. We all line up at the front of the stage and are interviewed by -gah- Damien Fahey.

"So, like, what are you guys doing right now?" he says.

"Uh, well, right now we're on a North American tour with these guys," I say, sticking my thumb at My Chemical Romance. "Backing American Idiot."

The crowd drunk-college-girl woo's again.

"Yeah," Fahey grins stupidly at me. "That's doing really well isn't it? It's sold, like, 6 millions right?"

"Yeah, around that," I say.

"What are you doing next, after this tour?" he asks.

"Well, after the North American one with them, which wraps up in June, we're going to England and playing around there."

"Awesome," he grins again.

"Yeah, and we're supposed to play at this venue called Milton Keys. It's huge, huh?" I say, looking over at Mike, trying to deflect some of the attention. It doesn't work.

"Uh huh," Fahey says switching his mic to the other hand.

"Then we keep touring. It won't end until the end of the year."

"That's so awesome," he says.

"Yeah," I say. He says something to Gerard, but I'm not paying attention.

"So Billie Joe," he says getting my attention again. "Your video for 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' has been like, eating up our countdown."

I nod, trying to show interest.

"It's been at number one now for, like, four weeks," he looks over to the producer to make sure his numbers are right.

"Oh wow," I say actually surprised. That's a dark video for this crowd.

"And I guess that's, like, because it's such an awesome clip," he dissolves into giggles and touches my arm. He touches my arm. Against my will, I look at him sideways and scoot over towards Mike. I swear I do it just out of reflex. I hope in the back of my mind it doesn't show on camera. I'm really trying to not shout "STOP TOUCHING ME YOU CREEPY SIX FOOT FREAK!" But I don't, which is good.

The rest of the interview goes kind of quick, kind of slow. Luckily I succeed in getting attention on Mike and Tre, who keeps wandering over to the giant window and waving at the kids on the street. We walk off stage and I let out a sigh of relief.

"He touched me," I say to Gerard.

"I know," he cackles.

***

The My Chemical Romance boys are going to get coffee or ice cream or hookers or something. Adrienne joins us and we go to get Ronnie and the Jason's. We were supposed to meet in front of the Toys'R'Us. Well they're not there. Surprising.

"Where are they?" Adie says, fishing around in her purse for something.

"Don't know," I say, looking around the busy street. My cell phone goes off and Adie grabs it from me, answering it.

"Uh, yes," she says looking confused.

"What?" me and Mike say at the same time, but she waves us quiet. I jab her arm but she gives me a look. I stop. I can tell it's serious.

"Oh my god, Jason we're looking for you. Where are you?"

Her eyebrows shoot up.

"What?"

"Well what happened? What did you do?"

She sighs.

"Okay. We'll be right there."

"No, no, Jason, calm down. We'll be right there."

She hangs up.

"What's going on?" Tre asks, waving to some hussy who screams 'I love you Tre!' at him.

"They've been arrested," she says crossing her arms.

"Oh shit," all three of us chorus.