Roof-Top Romance

It was already mid afternoon. Gerard and I had a long night ahead of us. It was my birthday party tomorrow and I had to be home by morning. Gerard volunteered to drive a night shift to get me home on time, but I felt bad because they didn’t get to party in New Orleans. They all seemed to forget about it.
Bob must have turned the bus around and no one knew. I went up to where he was and sat with him on the passenger seat. “Bob, I am really sorry you drove all that way for nothing. We wasted so much gas and money. I feel horrible.”

“It’s okay. As long as you had a good time, that’s all that matters.” He told me.
“I am happy if everyone is happy. You have been up here all alone the whole day. That couldn’t have been fun. Gerard and I plan on driving a night shift so I can be home by morning. You can pull over so you can at least eat dinner with us.”
“Okay. Well you can go back down. I’ll be down in a bit.” He said.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you a couple of things. I’ve been talking to everyone else most of the time and rarely to you. I think drummers are awesome. My mom always had hopes of me starting a band and being a kick ass woman drummer. Do you like it?” I asked.
“Of course I like it,” Bob replied. “It’s what I do... The hard part isn’t keeping the beat or knowing all the rhythms. All of those things can be learned. The tough part is making up your own beats and remembering all of them.”
“The only experience I’ve ever had is with school band. I’ve never been on a set or had lessons.” I told him
“Well I could teach you some things here and there if you’d like.” He said.
“Bob, that would be the coolest thing in the whole world.”

“What’s going on up here?” Gerard asked as he walked toward Bob and I. “Oh Bob, did you hear the good news? Elena is part of the band now. Or at least for now. She’s going with us back to Jersey on Monday,” He told Bob.
“Are you really? That’s cool. Why didn’t you say something? Now I have plenty of time to teach you.” He told me.
“I don’t know, it wasn’t in my mind at that exact moment. It’s still pretty new to me, you know. I was more focused on you hanging out with us.”
“Well thanks, kid.”
“Gerard, Bob is going to teach me how to play drums. Isn’t that awesome?”
“Wow, you are going to be busy. Singing lessons from me, drumming lessons from Bob, helping write songs, school… you have a lot of work ahead of you. Think you can handle it?” He asked.
“Are you kidding me? Bring it on! I’m so pumped! Besides, I don’t see this as some screw off vacation. This will be a life changing experience and who better for it to be with than My Chemical Romance, a band that I love very much?”
Gerard laughed. “Okay, but it can get hard. It’s usually fun, but it can get hard.”
“That’s okay. I feel like I can do anything right now,” I told him.
“Well how about for now we work on getting back to your town? Birthday... big fun!” He said sarcastically.
While Gerard and I were talking, Bob pulled the bus over to the lot of an empty building. The town was pretty empty too.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Probably close to Tennessee.” Gerard replied.
“Yeah, we’re just outside of Nashville.” Bob said.
“Wow, we’ll get home sooner than I thought.” I said.
“Is anyone hungry? I’m f’n starving!” Frank chimed in.
“Yeah, I’m hungry,” Bob replied.
“I think we all are. No one has really had much of anything today,” I pointed out.
“I actually forgot about food. I had my mind of other stuff,” Mikey said.
“Man, its times like this I wish we had a porch. We could be kickin’ it southern style with some macaroni and hotdogs and be tellin’ stories.” I said.
“That would be interesting,” Gerard said.
“And what’s funny is that I could actually picture Bob in overalls and a straw hat!” I said excitedly.
“Oh my God, I could so see that too!” Gerard exclaimed.
Everyone started to laugh.
“Well Elena, I could picture you as a little house wife too,” Bob fired back.
“That’s funny, but she got you Bob.” Frank said to him.
“Yeah sure, I’ll get you back. You’ll be with me for a while.” Bob threatned.
Everyone made Oooh sounds.
“I’m not worried. We’ll have some fun.” I said to him with a smile. “I know all about that Southern stuff, Bob. I’m a natural born Texas girl. I’ll get you hooked up with the finest overalls, a beautiful John Deere tractor, and the best macaroni and hotdogs this side of Texas. I make amazing Kool-aid too. I got this.”
“You know what? That’s just hilarious, but I’m from Chicago. John Deere isn’t really my thing. But you go ahead and do whatever makes you happy alright? I’ll stick with this here drumset and you go ahead and stay in the kitchen.”
The Oooh sounds started up again.
“So wait, you’re like almost Spanish?” Frank asked.
“Holy shit you are dumb. She was just born there. Not raised and she’s freakin’ white as hell. Not tan like Spanish people,” Ray said.
“Well actually, we’re ½ Spanish and we’re white too,” Mikey said referring to himself and Gerard.
“Hey Mikey... Italian. And only part. But close.” Gerard told him.
“It’s an honest mistake,” Mikey said.
“I think the correct term would be Latina, if you’re talking about what I might be. As far as you, it would be Hispanic. And yes, I wish I was Latina. I would be 50 times sexier,” I added.
“Well Elena is a Spanish-type name. It was our Grandmother’s name,” Gerard said.
“Funny you should mention that. I was reading the album the other day. One of the people that it’s dedicated to is Elena Lee Rush. Is that her?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?” He asked.
“Well you know how my name is Elena Rushing?” I asked him.
“Yeah, what’s your point?”
“My point is that my middle name is Lynn and our names are very similar. Elena Lee Rush, Elena Lynn Rushing. I think that’s kind of freaky.”
“It’s crazy how stuff like that works out you know?”
“Well sorry to interrupt a nostalgic slash ironic moment, but we should eat now,” Ray said.
“Sorry Ray, I was all into talking again. Okay, where should we eat?” I asked.
“Well, I’m sure there’s something around here,” Mikey said.
“Well who wants to drive to find it?” I asked them.
“I will,” Frank said.
“How bout you do some of the driving, Elena.” Mikey poked.
“Okay, shut up. You know I would, I kind of don’t have my license. You figure out a way to make that one work and I’ll be more than happy to drive you around.”
“Dude I’m totally kidding. It’s not a big deal. Damnit why don’t we hire someone to drive our asses around? This is stupid that we rotate. Don’t other bands have people to do this shit for them?”
“Mikey chill your shit. We aren’t exactly rich, you know. It’d be nice to save some money.” Bob pointed out.
“Okay for real lets go. We’ll figure out your guys’ relationship problems later,” I said.
Frank went up to the front of the bus to drive. Mikey followed him up there. Bob went in the direction of the restroom and Gerard, Elena, and Ray stayed in the lower part of the bus.
“So does this mean I’m going to have fans?” I asked them.
“Well you might when people find out who you are. That means you have to pull off the image,” Gerard told me.
“Pull off the image how?” She asked.
“You have to dress somewhat like we do and the makeup is optional, but for this album we’ve kind of had a theme,” He replied.
“Well that’s cool. I love your makeup. I actually did it myself a couple of times because I had the CD on and I was bored,” I told him.
“Well that’s pretty cool,” He said.
“Yeah I think so. As far as the clothes goes, I totally understand. I mean you guys can’t be dressed in the bullet proof vests and then have me come out in some kind of mini skirt or some shit like that. But the makeup, do you do it yourself or do you have someone else do it?” I asked him.
“It depends,” He replied. “For videos and things like that, someone else does it. For concerts, I do it.”
“Will you do it for me for the party?” I asked him. “I have stuff in my purse.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Speaking of your party, who all is going?” He asked.
“Well, you don’t know these people but it’s going to be Caitlin, Chris, Bennie, Adam and Cameron. They’re all cool people. They’re not like crazy fans or anything. Caitlin likes a song or two, Cameron kinda likes you guys, Bennie loves your old stuff, Chris I’m not sure about and I don’t know if Adam even knows who you are.” I told them.
“What about Danny?” Ray asked.
“He can’t come. Something about him staying the night at his friend’s house and they aren’t allowed or some crap like that,” I told him.
“I see,” Gerard said.
“Yeah, they are cool to hang out with. They’ll say hi but they won’t be all over you like some of your other fans. There is one guy that I invited to come. His name is Nick. My friend Kelsey calls him Eric Gerard because he kinda looks like you. It’s a funny story really...” I trailed off.
“Okay then,” Gerard said looking at her oddly.
“Yeah, it’s really not that important,” I said trying to cover up my feelings of stupidity. The last thing Gerard wanted to do is hear me drone on about the guy I’m in love with.
Gerard just laughed at the situation, which helped eliminate the awkward-ness. But I was saved by the bell when my phone rang.

“It’s Bennie. Do you care if I take it?” I asked.
“No, go ahead. It’s your phone,” He told me.
“Hello?”
“Hey sis it’s me.” Bennie said.
“Oh hey, what’s up?”
“Nothin' much just chillin here with Adam and Cameron.”
“Are you guys still coming to the party?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m calling about. Are you still having it? Cause you haven’t been at school and I haven’t really talked to you so I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Oh, well yeah I’m still having it. Hold on okay?”
“Okay.”

I covered up the phone. I looked at Gerard and Ray and asked, “Should I tell him about... you know?”
“Yes, you should tell everyone. We have to go to New Jersey to get our tour information so make sure you see everyone by Sunday.” Gerard said.
“Okay,”

“Okay Bennie, you still there?”
“Yeah I’m here.”
“Well make sure you bring a camera or something tomorrow so you can get pictures with me because I won’t see you or talk to you very often after tomorrow.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve been hanging out with My Chemical Romance and they invited me to go on tour with them. We leave Monday.”
“That’s funny, but really... what’s going on?”
“Bennie, why would I lie about something like that? This is the last weekend I am here. I am leaving Monday.”
“Holy shit sis that is f’n awesome!”
“Uh, okay...”
“Dude you’re famous!”
“Um, not exactly. No one knows me.”
“They will. It’s the big time sis.”
“Okay then. But it’s no big deal, really.”
“Okay, well yeah I’ll call some people and-“
“NO! Don’t tell or call anyone! This is my birthday party and I only want the people I invited.”
“Okay.”
“Well I’m gonna go. Love you bro!”
“Love you sis. See you tomorrow.” (End call)