But... What About the Band?

Vivien's POV

After Mikey's accidental exposure of his naughty bits, the house was a bit awkward...for about 5 minutes, anyways. Then, it was back to band work.

Mikey was drying his hair and had a towel wrapped around his lower body. He still seemed to be recovering from seeing "himself" in the shower. "So I'm playing bass, right?"

"Yes." answered Gerard, my awesome and super talented boyfriend. He was getting his vocals ready by drinking room-temperature water and experimenting with range.

"There is a dilemma, if you don't mind me pointing it out." started Khadijah. She had Brendon and the two had entered the scene again after running off because of seeing Mikey nude. "Brendon and Gerard's voices...there is no way that they can sing together in harmony."

"She's right." I agreed. "Gerard, you've got some kind of crazy weird accent and Brendon's voice is kind of throaty. I don't know who's is stronger, though."

"I can't sing back up." said Brendon, looking a bit squeamish. "Last time I sang backup, I got picked as lead singer."

"But you sing with Ryan all the time." retorted Gerard. "Yeah, I listened to Pretty. Odd." Everyone gave him funny looks. "What can I say? It was good!"

"Their voices were compatible, though." stated Hayley. "You two's aren't because you both have really strong voices. When Brendon sang backup, his voice was lower than usual. If you have a strong voice, it's not always good for you to make it low too often. You two will sound a hot mess together.

"How about you two sing half-and-half?" suggested Asia. "And let Hayley join the band. She has an amazing voice and could keep the balance, although she's a pretty strong singer herself."

"Good point..." said Spencer.

"Let her in!" Frank high-fived Hayley, who smiled and returned the high-five.

"Babe, we need the instruments from the van." I said to Gerard.

"Yeah...how bout you guys go get em'?" The room eyed Gerard suspiciously. "I'd help but it ruins my voice to lift stuff."

Everyone besides Gerard and I went to unpack the van. Amps, a drum set, guitars, a keyboard, a bass guitar, and a few mics wee brought up. Some of the neighbors cursed at them because of the noise. When the group got back upstairs, Gerard and I were busy making out.

"Hows that for you voice?" asked Brendon.

"Works like a charm!" Gerard replied, excitedly. I giggled.

And thus our band practice began. Even though Asia, Khadijah, and I weren't part of the regular stage band, we were pretty important. Khadijah was Hayley's replacement, in case anything ever happened. I was on hold for guitar and Asia for piano. We also helped with song writing and making the music.

"OPEN UP!" Someone was yelling and knocking continuously at the door. It was 3 in the morning. Everyone was asleep.

"Who is it?" groaned Gerard, tossing in bed. No one answered because they couldn't hear us. I heard threats of the door being knocked in and so I made my way to the door.

"WHO IS IT!?" I yelled.

"LAPD!" said two voices from behind the door. "Open up!"

"Fuck." What the hell were the cops doing here at this hour?

I opened the door. "Hello ma'm." The two officers made themselves comfortable in our living room, without even bothering with the 'no shoes' sign. "There have been complains about the racket coming from this apartment unit. Sometimes continuing late into the nigh."

Gerard entered the living room. "Viv, why the fuck are the cops here?"

"Good morning to you, too, sir." said the cop, tipping his hair to Gerard.

Khadijah and Asia were the next to enter. "What the hell is all that noise about?" asked Asia. She didn't like being awakened from her sleep.

"There's apparently been a lot of noise coming from our apartment." I growled.

"I was playing bass on the roof last night." Mikey sheepishly admitted. He looked a mess with his bedhair. It was probably all too sexy for Asia, though.

Brendon came in dancing. "We have to take our clothes o-oh shit! Why are cops here?" Everyone eyed him curiously. "I was playing Rock Band and then I started listening to my iPod. I couldn't sleep!"

"Which is why I'm not sleep." grumbled Frank.

"What's going on?" Spencer asked and she and Hayley entered, her multicolored hair sticking up in all directions. It looked like fire.

The officer looked stunner. "Well, goddamn! How many of you are there?"

"9..." Khadijah thought about it. "Yep, 9 last time I checked."

"This is kind of against the law." said one of the cops in a snobbish kind of way.

"We're reporting you to the housing authorities!" said the other douchebag cop.

"Um, bye." I waved goodbye and shut the door.

"We were gonna have to move soon, anyways." said Frank. He rubbed the back of his head. "It's much too small in here for all of us."

"Newsflash: We don't have money like that!" Asia said as she dramatized it and made her eyes wide and flailed her arms.

"I do." said Gerard. He then looked around and quickly rephrased. "I mean Frank, Mikey, and I do. Don't forget that we ARE, or at least were My Chemical Romance. We play at stadiums and arenas."

"So did we." said Spencer and Brendon.

"Lets just put it like this:" said Frank. "We make a lot of money."

"Well we do have school in the Fall, so could we somehow find a place that's centrally located?" I asked. We have been living in this apartment for almost 2 years. I was kind of fond of the place. It was the first and only place the three of us had lived in since we moved out of our parents homes. It was a place of our own. I was thinking this while Khadijah expressed it out loud.

"I'll be really sad to leave this place." said Khadijah, an expression of sadness overcoming her face. "We've been here for forever." She ran her hand over a nearby wall. Asia and I nodded.

Brendon put an arm around Khadijah and pulled her close, causing her to blush. "Sometimes you have to let go."

"I don't want you to..." mumbled Khadijah. Asia and I were the only ones who caught it and we grinned at each other. She seemed hazy.

"What was that?" asked Brendon who got no answer from Khadijah and, much to her delight, he didn't let her go.

"We can talk about this in the morning." Gerard said. "I'm going back to bed. Come on Viv."

"I'll be right there." I motioned for Khadijah and Asia to stay. Khadijah reluctantly left the comfort of Brendon's arm. We went to sit at the table as our guests exited.

"Do you all want to give it up?" I asked.

"I don't...but Brendon said you have to let go sometimes." Khadjiah's mind was elsewhere.

"Shit, Brails, you're infatuated!" Asia said in an overly loud tone for that time of morning.

"At least I don't have pictures of him in the shower!" snapped Khadijah, looking annoyed at the pot calling the kettle black.

"Girls, break it up!" I said, sitting on the table so they couldn't see each other.

"I love it here." Khadijah and Asia said simultaneously.

"So do I." I said, my mind pondering to the cop's threats. "Lets sleep on it." We agreed to do so and we went to our beds.

In the morning, there was another knock. It turned out to be the manager. Like the knock before, it summoned the entire household to the door.

"I'm giving you a 30-day eviction notice." said the manager.

"What?" Asia yelled, sounding very unprofessional. "We've been faithful and honest!"

"And noisy, if you bring up recent reports." she retorted. "The neighbors who've been here for 7 years called. I can't have them leaving. So stick with the story and move. I don't want to evict you.

"LIES!" Frank yelled. He was also jumping, trying to making his presence known over the sea of people taller than himself.

"OUT!" The landlady called back.

When the manager left, Khadijah, Asia, and I took to the floor and went about ranting about what good tenants we'd been and how we didn't deserve this. We also called her an assortment of nasty things.

"Girls, come on, there's nothing you can do about it." Spencer said, ending out rant. "At least you have people to help you pack."

"Yeah, we're very resourceful." said Frank, pumping his muscles up.

And so the packing began, but not before our resourceful Frank found us a house with enough rooms for all of us as well as a studio.

"This is so cool!" exclaimed Spencer. The new house had a spacious kitchen that was perfect for Khadijah, who loved cooking, particularly baking. It had 7 bedroom and a huge den. The studio was in the garage. We had an office for studying and such and a dining room. It was all-around beautiful, as well as close to our college. All that was left to do was to pack up the apartment.

Brendon, Khadijah, and Hayley packed the kitchen, with that trio often breaking into song. Mikey offered to help Asia pack her and Khadijah's bedroom,s but Asia declined because of certain disclosed items, and so they packed up the halls, bathrooms, and the living rooms, often with Asia pausing and starting at Mikey. Frank, although small, was the chief person in charge of moving heavy things, along with Spencer. We called them our lifting team. Gerard and I packed my room. When the kitchen trio was finished, Brendon helped Khadijah pack her room and Hayley helped Asia pack her room, because she need a female who would understand her dilemma.

When Gerard and I sat down for a break, we went onto my soon-not-to-be-mine balcony.

"How do you like California?" I asked.

"It's nice, I guess." said Gerard. "I miss Jersey."

"Anyone you miss in Jersey?"

"Viven, for the last time, I told you, I'm not sleeping around."

His eyes met mind and he knew exactly what I was taking about.

"Yeah..." he stared off the balcony. There was a lovely view of the city but it wasn't what he was looking at: he was concealing his feelings, for the Ways emotions, unfortunately, showed through their faces.

"Gerard, look at me."

He looked and his eyes had tears welled in them. "It was wrong! I knew it was and I act like I don't care and I do, dammit, and its so hard to apologize!"

"Gerard..." we went inside and sat down. I laid his head on my lap, stroking his hair, assuring him that it was okay. He was weeping, something that neither Way brother did often.

"I have an image to keep!" wailed Gerard. "I kicked them out because it would affect me! I love them to death, their like my brothers. I'm an awful person, Vivien."

"You're not an awful person." I said, our eyes meeting. His were bloodshot. "I know you're not. I know the real you and I love you...but you should apologize."

"Impossible." Gerard sniffed, shook his head, and sat up. "They went traveling around the world. Knowing them, they're probably in another band by now. They were damn good."

"Oh" was all I could say.

"Viv, you've got me acting like a fag, crying on your lap." We laughed.

After all of the packing was done, we paid our rent and, at Mikey's suggestion, we hit the town.

"So where to, ladies and gents?" asked Frank, who was driving.

"The karaoke bar!" I screamed at the top of lungs. Everyone looked a bit shocked, but agreed.

At the karaoke bar, we had a celebration dinner. Everyone, minus Khadijah and Mikey, had wine. Mikey didn't like drinking and Khadijah didn't drink.

When it was karaoke time, Asia and I went up first. We were going to attempt to sing "Oops, I Did it Again" by Britney Spears. Asia and I, were were a duo who couldn't sing, especially me.

"I just wanna let ya'll know that I can't sign for shit, so bear with me."

We stepped on stage and took the mic. The music started and so did our friends' terror. Khadijah, Brendon, and Frank were laughing their asses off, though. I could have sworn that someone stuffed napkins in their ears.

"Viven, get the hell off the stage!" yelled Gerard. "You, too, Asia!"

We laughed and danced off the stage. It had been fun while it lasted.

Gerard when next. "I'm going to perform Umbrella by Rihanna. I want to dedicate this to Vivien."

When he started singing, it was like heaven. When he finished, I was the first to applaud. He winked at me. My heart fluttered.

"That was so beautiful!" I exclaimed. The only one who didn't seem to be charmed was Asia. She had a grim expression on her face. "That was fucking creepy." We laughed and she remained grim-faced until Khadijah took the stage.

"I'm gonna do Dead! by My Chemical Romance." She smiled at Gerard and saw the annoyance in his face. She then winked at Asia and gave an energetic performance that left her out of breath. She nailed Gerard's vocals and left the stage with a bow. There was a loud applause.

"What can I say, Gerard, I'm a huge fan." she smirked and high-fived Asia.

Hayley stood on stage and announced that she was going to sing a song titled "We Are Broken". "It's a song by a band my friends and I had in high school." When Haley starting singing, a hush came over the room and everyone seemed mesmerized. When she ended and bowed, Spencer jumped up, whooping and hollering. "That's my girl!"

Frank was next. He brought a CD and popped it in. It had a simple beat which we soon learned was The Emo Song, by Adam and Andrew. He knew every lyrics and left us with stomach cramps from the laughter. He was so energetic and hilarious.

The last one up was Brendon. "I'm going to do a song by Leathermouth." He glanced at Frank. The song was screamo and, for some reason, on the karaoke machine. Brendon was an vocalist, but screamo vocalist wasn't on his resume for a reason. He was awful at it. After many moans from the audience, Frank jumped on stage. He took the mic.

"I'm gonna show you how screamo's suppose to be done, my friend."

He delighted everyone, it seems, but Hayley, Spencer, and Khadijah. Khadijah was the terrified and holding her hands to her ears, clenching her face. When it all was over, Frank stepped over to Khadijah.

"Whats the matter?" asked Frank.

"Screamo is, by far, the most terrifying genre of music. It didn't help that you looked like you were having some type of seizure." said Khadijah, she still looked very uncomfortable.

He snickered. "If that's how you feel. It's my specialty."

"How about we go to the new house?" suggested Mikey. Everyone cheered at the suggestion and left, with Gerard and myself holding hands. We headed for the van and Gerard, very suddenly, hopping in the air and let out a very loud "WHOOP!". Everyone turned around and looked.

"I haven't had so much fun in a while!" Gerard was smiling. Feeling confuzzled by his unusual optimism, everyone joined in on the crazy acting. Our group must have been the most lively group of people in Los Angeles that night.