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As soon as the others showed up it was decided that the band would go to the radio interview and the girls would stay behind to shop and gamble. Alicia was especially fond of the idea. Mikey had kidded that she had been twitching to get to the casino since they had arrived.
Monica, if truth be told, would have preferred to go with Gerard but she smiled and agreed to the plan. He kissed her goodbye and told her he loved her. She missed him almost immediately.
An hour later the girls were in the casino. "Fuck I won something," Alicia screamed as the slot machine she was playing starting playing some unknown happy tune complete with flashing lights.
Jamia and Monica left their own machines to see what the fuss was about. "Shit. You just won $800.00. I can't even win a free spin," Jamia complained.
Monica laughed, "I think I won $3.00 once but I'm not sure. All these machines are so loud and confusing." She shook her head at the now dancing Alicia.
"Ha, Mikey told me I was gonna lose and look I won." She happily collected her money. Jamia and Monica went back to their machines hoping some of her luck had rubbed off on them.
At the same time at the radio station the band was half way through their on-air interview. So far it had been just like so many others before it. Same question each time with the same answers. It wasn't until the on-air personality uttered the word Emo that things went down hill.
"You are touted by many as the definition of Emo."
Gerard cut him off savagely, '"I've always thought of us as just a rock band. I think a great rock band can really play any type of song it wants and to categorize us along with other bands that can't do that I find to be disappointing, you know. Let's say they are calling us Emo then what else is like us? I don't hear anything as eclectic or as fearless so I think it's inaccurate."
The interviewer had trouble trying to phrase the last questions.
Ray tried to savage the rest of the interview answering the questions when Gerard had just sat back and remained silent. Bob answered several questions too. However the feeling in the booth was tense.
Afterwards as they got back into the van it was Frank who spoke first, "Gee you need to mellow some about the whole Emo thing. We all know it's a load of shit and so do are fans. What you did was just give the stupid fuckers who say it power."
Gerard shot him a pissed off look, "I'm just so fucking tired to that shit. We are a rock band. We tell stories with our words. We don't tell kids to hurt themselves or any kind of shit like that."
"Gee, just calm down. It doesn't matter what some stupid fuckers say. We know the truth." Mikey told him.
He turned to look at his brother with an angry retort on his lips but when he saw Mikey's face he bit back his words. He was taking out his dark mood on his friends. He sighed, "Hey, I'm sorry I know you guys are right."
Ray clasped his shoulder "You got a lot of shit going on we understand."
Anger once more hit Gerard. Ray, the person who had caused a lot of his confusion and anger was being Mr. Understanding. "Yea I do have a lot of shit going on" he replied sarcastically.
Ray sat back in his seat. He knew Gerard was still pissed at him he had just hoped that is wouldn't reappear before the concert. Mikey shot him an understanding look. He hated it when any of them fought. Trying to change the subject he announced to the them "Alicia sent me a text right before the interview that she won $800.00 in the casino."
Frank turned to him "And she happen to mention how much money she spent trying to win that $800.00?"
Mikey laughed, "Hell no, and I don't want to know. As long as Alicia is happy then so am I. If she want to fucking spend money in the casino then it's OK by me." He looked down at his Sidekick it was another message from Alicia. She asked why Gerard wasn't answering his phone or messages.
"Hey Gee, is your Sidekick turned off?"
Gerard nodded, "Yea, I forgot to turn it back on after the interview." He made no move to correct the situation.
Frank received a message from Jamia. "Shit Gee I think you better turn it on" he said reading the screen.
Gerard looked confused. "Why? What's going on?"
Mikey was starting to piece together the situation. "Monica has been trying to get you. Alicia doesn't say what the problem is but Monica has been trying to reach you about something important."
"Jamia's message says just about the same thing. "Tell Gee to call Monica." He looked over to see Gerard speaking into his phone. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"Are you almost back to the hotel?" she asked.
"About five minutes away. Tell me what's wrong."
"I'll tell you when you get here, OK?" her voice sounded wrong to him but he agreed.
Bob turned around to face them from his seat in the front. "I can't get Kara on the phone but she left me a message. It's sort of garbled but she is saying something about her aunt and Kelly. She really sounded upset."
"Fuck" Gerard said loudly, "Monica is an only child. That means the aunt she is talking about is Kyle's psycho sister. The one that called Monica a murderer. Shit you don't think she said something to Kelly do you?" He pictured Kelly in his mind. She was such a sweet kid he would hurt the bitch if she had said anything to her.
Frank was talking to Jamia. He ended the call. "She said that Monica is up in your room and is very upset. She got a call from Kara earlier but won't say what it was about. She just keeps saying she needs to talk to Gee."
Ray understood, "If it has anything to do with Kyle then she won't want to talk about it with Jamia and Alicia, they don't know what we do."
Gerard swore again, "Fuck, Monica doesn't need anymore drama right now." His face full of guilt, "She has enough dealing with her fucking boyfriend and his problems."
Mikey put his hand on Gerard's shoulder, "It's OK man. Monica is strong. She can handle it."
The van pulled into the parking garage and Gerard shot out the door to the entrance.


Authors Note - Gerard's quote in the interview about Emo are his exact words from a recent interview. It was plain to tell he was angry.