FicWad

I t ' s a d o g e a t d o g w o r l d o u t t h e r e





"Alright, so now that we've covered the new record, let's talk about what else is going on with you? Any new girlfriends?" the female interviewer clumsily bridged the transition from professional to private life.

Andy, Patrick, Joe and Pete had several interviews to cover this week. Most of the time not all of them had to be present and this time it was only Joe and Andy. (A real shocker, I know.)

Before the drummer could inform the woman that they preferred to keep their private lives out of the media, the guitarist had spilled the beans.

"Oh yeah! I'm seeing someone. She's amazing," his eyes were glowing with honest joy, his lips/ lisp a wide grin.

Andy pushed him in the side, "Dude! No babbling out your dating or relationship status. Man..."

The interviewer raised an eyebrow and shot him a questioning look.

"Hey," the drummer leaned towards her and lowered his voice (probably in an attempt to sound sexy?). "Could you do us a real favor and forget what Joseph Bigmouth just said? It's band policy, you see." He winked at her (probably in another attempt to be sexy).

She looked at Joe, who just shrugged, still grinning, and then back at Andy. Then a smile formed on her lips and she crossed out the last notes she had scribbled onto her pad. "Why, sure, guys. No problem."

"Thank you a lot," Andy replied and shook his head at his bandmate.

Joe didn't care about this new 'band policy'. In his opinion it had only been established because Pete hadn't managed to get a date for weeks and he would get upset if that became public knowledge. Joe wanted to shout his luck out into the world. He was sure that his fans would understand that he was only a human being, a man with needs and a lot of love to give. Clearly, Joe was somewhat disillusioned about obsessesed women and their estimations of what he was allowed to do in his sparetime.

While the interview kept going on and Andy took care of the questions from now on, the guitarist let his mind slip back to the last time he had seen Brenda. Naked. (I am not sure if this piece of information refers to the 'a man with needs' or 'a lot of love to give' part so we'll assign it to both categories.) Her demeanor had led the man to assume that she would be quite wild in bed and he had found his hopes confirmed. At first he himself had been rather clumsy (getting caught in his own shirt when trying to take it off, trying to open her bra in the back when it had a huge clasp in the front, etc), still hardly believing that a woman of Brenda's type would want to rock the plank with him. Clearly, Joe was also somewhat disillusioned about his own person and who he estimated he could be doing in his sparetime.

As for Brenda, well, she really liked Joe. There was something in the way he talked to her, in the way he would think of the silliest things to say just to make her laugh, in the way he focused all his attention towards her whenever they had met, that made her believe that he was one of the good guys. Of course, it was way too early to make a commitment yet, but Joe made her question her vow of not getting seriously involved with a man again. Aww.

After the two of them had shook the interviewer's hand and said goodbye Joe headed home. Once arrived, he called Carl to let her know she could come over now to supervise him training Dax.

"You boys make a really great team," Caroline mentioned after Dax had followed Joe's commands mostly right away. Admittedly, they usually worked out better if the woman was around, even if it was Joe who said them.

"You don't want him trained for competitons though, do you?" she asked while they were having coffee in the kitchen. The dog was busily chewing on one of the last intact rubber toys that his owner had purchased during his visit at CeCe's pet shop.

"Nah," he pulled a face. "I just wanna keep him from eating my clothes and making me look like a fool when we're outside." I'm not sure it took Dax to make him look like a fool - but I wasn't invited into this conversation.

Then Joe told her about the interview and how Andy had freaked out when he had mentioned there was a woman in his life. Carl inquired after how things were going between them. She noticed that he was really very much into this woman, he couldn't praise her enough. He did leave out the sex scene though. (Very much like me, yet Joe didn't do it out of laziness and a lack of imagination but because of decency. Whatever that is.)

"Can I ask you something personal?" Carl was scratching Dax who had laid down on her feet.

"Is this about my hair again?" Joe rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Isn't it terribly hard to find someone when you're in a famous band? Like, how can you ever be sure she's really interested in you as a person?" Glad to see I'm not the only person with a lack of decency.

"That is diffcult... But then again, how can you ever be sure of that? Fame or no fame?"

Carl nodded, "True..."

"It does help if the girl you're dating didn't even really know about your band before you mentioned it," he laughed.

"I couldn't imagine living like you do," the woman let her eyes wander over the luxurious kitchen. "I mean I could imagine living in a house like this," she added grinning, "just not all that traveling and being worshipped by thousands of kids... Um, I checked the web because I was curious about your band."

Joe shrugged, "It is stressful at times. The traveling and the shows are not a problem, I love to get out and play. We're very much a live band, we love to tour. The whole media thing is annoying though. But it's part of the game. You can't be successful and expect to just get the positive things out of it. Plus, Pete and Patrick get the most media coverage so I'm not actually that much a target for paparazzis and crazed fan chicks."

For the next half hour he told her about what touring life was like and all the cool experiences he had had with other celebrities as well as fans. Somehow their conversation got back to relationships in the end.

"So, do you have a boyfriend? Maybe we could go on a double-date sometime?" Joe suggested.

Carl's opinion on double-dates was not one of the highest but she decided to answer one question at a time, "Not a boyfriend, no, but a -"

Joe's cell phone went off. Brenda. He excused himself and walked into the living room to answer. This gave Carl the time to check her watch and she realized she should have picked up somebody else's dog for a walk five minutes ago. On her way out she waved at Joe who mouthed "See ya".





-






"And this is exactly why the two of you shouldn't be left alone with press people," Pete stomped into the room and pointed accusatorily at Andy and Joe.

"What are you talking about?" Joe asked. As a reply a magazine landed in his face.

"Learn how the fuck to be professional," Pete growled.

"You're a professional asshole, man," Joe rubbed his nose, which still hurt from its crash with the mag.

Both Patrick and Andy witnessed quietly. They were a lot smarter than Joe.

"Page 27."

The fro'd guitarist was quick to flick to the according page. His eyes scanned the article until he had found what he figured Pete was so furious about.

"Joe Trohman revealed that he was head over heels in love with a mystery woman. He said that their wedding would take place early next year," he read out loud. Then he grunted. "I did not say that... I DIDN'T SAY THAT!"

"You know they make up crap like that all the time," Patrick pointed out. "Don't get upset over this, Pete."

Andy couldn't believe his ears, "She promised me she wouldn't mention Joe's girlfriend..."

"See!" Pete cried triumphantly. "Blabberjoe did give them a reason to write shit like that."

"I didn't even call her my girlfriend," the accused defended himself. "I just said I was seeing someone."

"And I told that interviewer woman to scratch that," Andy said. "She said 'No problem.'... I feel violated."

"The fans are gonna hate this, Joe!" Pete wouldn't let it go. No date in weeks, remember?

"Guys, calm down. No one's gonna believe that crap," Patrick tried to soothe the tempers in the room. A rather lame attempt, if you ask me. Of course, we'd believe it. We'd even believe it if the media told us that they're just a bunch of real human beings with bad hair days and feelings like everybody else. Even though that's totally incredible.

Two hours later Joe was hanging out with Brenda in front of the TV. He had told her about Pete freaking out over the made-up wedding.

"Awww, you mentioned me in the interview?" the woman was all smiles. "You are so sweet, Joe."

She kissed him. Tsk.

Once they pulled apart he grinned widely, "Sure thing, babe." Tsk.

"Your fans will hate me now," she giggled. "That is SO cool!"

Joe laughed.

"I bet this whole rockstar thing is soooo cool. You get to meet so many people, see so many places, people love you, go insane when they see you."

"Um, you've been around town with me before. You know I'm not really recognized that much... but yeah, the meeting people and seeing new places is pretty sweet."

Brenda got carried away, "The money, too. Money and fame - what more could you want?"

"How about a hot girlfriend?" Joe suggested.

"Mr Trohman, it seems you got it all then."

He enjoyed another long kiss before he replied, "So it seems... just sometimes it would be nice to be able to stick around longer somewhere. In foreign countries, it's not like I get to see much of other cultures, you know? Especially not when you have a couple of shows with no day off in-between. And I'm not that much at home... I still don't know what exactly I'm gonna do with Dax when we start the tour in two weeks."

"I can take him," Brenda said, ignoring the downsides her boyfriend had just menioned about being in a successful band.

So it was decided that she would take care of the beagle. Speaking of which, where was he right now? Oh, right... Someone should have told his owner that just because he was familiar with some of the rules that applied to the pet section in the Trohman residence by now, he would not resist the temptation of left-over Chinese take-out food that somebody forgot to put in the fridge.

Brenda got back to the subject of Joe's stardom and inquired after things like how it felt to have thousands of people cheering at him when he was on stage, or have them leave millions of comments on his buzznet. Slowly but surely the man got the idea that she had a somewhat too glorious idea of being a public figure.

But she looked up to him because of it. Sure felt nice, eh, Joe?

Later Dax was hoping they would be done upstairs soon because he really wanted to sleep and the humans' verbalized enthusiasm about their current activity was not really permitting that.