Getting Surreal

Twenty minutes later after being rushed around this way and that to gather essential equipment and make it to the right place and, really, she wasn’t even sure where she was, and Becks was living in a state of high anxiety. ‘Is being here really the right choice?’ ‘Can I really do this? Am I good enough?’ ‘What if I screw up and fail Frank and the guys?”

She took a moment (knowing that she really didn’t have too many moments to waste at present) from tuning Frank’s second guitar to reinforce herself against the negative voices in her head.

‘I was asked personally for this job by the guitarist himself.’ She smiled at how nervous Frank had seemed when they first met. ‘I managed just fine as my own guitar tech, why should this be any different?’ ‘What else did you even have going on for you? Day jobs and a piss-poor band that was holding you back, that’s what.’ Following that last thought, she conjured an image of her old job with her perverted douchebag of a boss and then an image of her current employers, one by one.

Frank and his adorable smiles and front of ‘not-giving-a-shit’ even though it was kind of obvious that he cared –a lot. Small, full of energy, and somebody that she had a strong feeling of understanding from, right off the bat, like he was somebody that she could truly trust.

Ray with his easy-going and almost too-kind-to-handle personality that almost made you want to just sit and talk with him for hours on end. It didn’t even matter what, either. She had a strong feeling that she could sit and talk to Ray for hours about Donkey Kong 64 and she’d still leave feeling rested and ready for whatever life had to throw at her.

Bob. She had literally only just met Bob ten minutes ago, but he seemed great. To the point and takes-no-shit kind of personality, yeah, but, come on then, anybody that would be accepted into the band that was My Chemical Romance seemed to need the ability to be not only straightforward, but chill and funny. If any of them could possibly embody these things, it was their new drummer, Bob.

And then there was the Way brothers.

Gerard. Crazy, but cool. He seemed unbalanced, but only in the best of ways. She could feel it off of him; maybe it just takes one to know one. He was the kind of person with a passion that you admired and wanted desperately to imitate. Yeah, GeeWay was an inspiration.

And Mikey.

Mikey. She smiled at the thought of him.

Suddenly, she felt a surge of inspiration to be the best guitar tech possible for these guys. She was just finishing up tuning the guitar when she felt a presence at her side.

“You good?” Frank asked her.

“Yeah, just finishing,” she replied, looking up at him from her kneeled position and handing him the guitar. “Here ya go.”

He took the guitar and gave her a small smile. “Thanks. Not really what I was talking about, though.” She froze for a second then shook her head.

“Just nerves” she explained standing up.

“Yeah, it is pretty crazy around here. You’re doing great, though!”

She laughed. “I haven’t even done anything yet,” she said as she helped him carry some stuff towards the stage. “All I’ve done is talk to you guys on the bus.”

“Yeah, but,” he huffed as he dropped his amp next to the stage, “That’s kinda huge in itself. Big deal.”

“Andy must’ve realllly sucked.” She joked, putting the rest of the stuff down.

“He was awful.” Frank stretched his back a little. “Total douche that couldn’t get along with anyone. With you?” He stopped stretching and looked around the venue. “It just seems like a natural fit. You get on with everyone.”

“So far.”

“Ah, such the pessimist, you are.” He shot her a smile which she quickly returned.

Just then, Brian came up to them from behind the stage. “Good to go?” He asked, looking between the both of them.

“Yeah,” Frank replied. Becks just nodded.

“Awesome. You,” he looked at Frank, “get your ass on stage.” Frank grinned and nodded a goodbye to them before grabbing his guitar and running on stage where the rest of the band was congregating. “Aaand Becks,” she looked up at him, “I want to introduce you to some of the other techs. Come on.” With that, Becks followed Brian to where some scruffy guys dressed in black were hanging; some fiddling with equipment, some just idly chatting. “Mince, Barry!” Brian called, getting the attention of two of them. “This here is the infamous Becks, I’m sure you’ve heard of her by now. Treat her well, alright?” He gave one last smile to her before walking off to take care of whatever manager’s business he had.

“So,” Becks looked over at the one that spoke up, not knowing exactly what to expect. “You’re the new Andy?” She nodded with a twinge of a smirk. “That guy was such a dick. Iero must have had God on his side to get an angel like you to sign up for this shit-storm.” He was smiling at her.

“A fun shit-storm.” The other guy retorted pointedly.

“Yeah,” the first guy said, looking at his buddy, “but a shit-storm, nonetheless.”

She smiled. She could tell already that she was going to like these guys.

“So,” she looked between the two that were talking to her, “you guys also tech for My Chem?” At their nods, she continued, “Who for?”

---

The next half hour was full of the tweaking of equipment, watching the band get themselves together, and idle chit-chat with the other two My Chem techs, Barry and Mince.

It was mayhem, it was loud, it was insane.

And Becks was loving every second of it, her earlier concerns about her choice to join the band on tour completely dissipating.
This? This is where she was meant to be. She could feel it in her bones with the rushing, chaotic surge of energy that every second seemed to pass along; she had made the right decision, and she was supposed to be here. And really, the guys sounded great during sound check, which made her feel that little bit better.

Especially when the band came off the stage after their sound check, already a little bit sweaty and very amped up.

Frank threw an arm around her shoulders and beamed a smile to anyone who would look his way.

“That. Sounded. Brilliant” He muttered happily directly into her ear. She blushed and looked around, her eyes landing on Mikey who was seeming to find his feet very interesting as Gerard was chatting to him before she smiled at Frank, telling him how glad she was to hear that he was pleased. After that, she stayed quiet and listened to the rest of the group chat excitedly about how they were feeling and how they were sounding and what this stint of touring could mean for them.

“So,” Gerard spoke up, “food?” The whole group nodded eagerly, some letting out cries of agreeance.

“Yessss, I’m fucking starving.” Frank said as he took his arm off of Becks’ shoulders and rushed to join Gerard in leading the group to try and find the food room.

“I hope it’s tacos,” Becks said aloud to nobody as she followed the group.

Ray’s head whipped around and he smiled at her, amused. “Tacos?”

“Oh yeah, tacos.” She laughed as he fell in step with her. “How does the whole food thing work here, anyways?”

“Eh, it’s kinda like cafeteria food at school. Sometimes catered.”

“Sometimes tacos,” Mikey said from her left. She hadn’t even noticed him there but returned his small smile with a huge grin.

“I love tacos.” She stated the obvious just for the need to say it. She heard Ray chuckle.

---

The food was, when the group had finally found their way to the designated room, unfortunately for Becks, not tacos, but pizza. Lots and lots of pizza.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Ray said to her from across the table as he stuffed half a slice of pizza into his mouth.

“What’s ‘maybe tomorrow’?” Gerard asked, easing into a chair next to Ray.

“Tacos,” Mikey explained with his mouth full. He nodded his head at Becks next to him. “She loves tacos.”

“Apparently a lot.” Ray added.

Becks just nodded her head. “Pizza’s good, though. I like pizza.” She stated matter-o-factly, her words coming out a little mumbled around the huge bite of pizza she had just taken. Deciding that eating was more important than talking, she fell silent, enjoying her food as she watched the guys all goof off and chat with each other.

It wasn’t too long before Brian came in and started herding them all out to go and get ready for the show, the band heading to their bus to get what they needed, and Becks going off to make sure Frank’s equipment was all functioning perfectly and making sure his guitars were in perfect tune.

She couldn’t keep the smile off her face the whole time. She had a full stomach of decent pizza. She was beyond elated to be getting along with everybody so well.

And she absolutely could not wait to watch My Chemical Romance perform in just a couple hours’ time.