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Let's get on with it, shall we?

Perfect 012

[Play], Will

"...Will, this is Mikey. He and I used to date when I lived in Jersey. " Andie remained at my side, but I saw her smile quiver as she watched my reaction apprehensively. Before anything could happen, Mikey spoke very delicately, owing to the situation.

"Uh, I think I've got an interview with a bass guitar magazine, I'll catch up with you later Andie. Nice meeting you, Will." He waved to both of us and headed off in the other direction, leaving me alone with Andie. He had barely been gone two seconds when Andie slipped out from under my arm and started back the way we had come. It took me a second to realize she'd gone and to catch up to her.

"Hey, hey. What's the matter?" I asked, seeing her very upset expression. "Do you think I'm mad at you for what happened back there?" I motioned to the scene we had just left.

"Are you?" She didn't slow her pace, just kept walking.

"What gives me the right to be mad?"

"That I didn't tell you. That I kept it secret. That you didn't have the chance to prepare yourself." Andie said very quickly. "I made you look like an ass. I'm sorry. I just wanted you guys meet in a better situation than what just happened."

At this I stopped her and made her look at me. "I'm an ass by myself," I said with an encouraging grin. "I probably would've made a mess of everything if I knew about your history with Mikey." I paused and then laughed a little.

Andie crossed her arms and looked sulky. "What? Why are you laughing?"

"You never told me you knew My Chem personally. Now I'm mad at you!" I joked.

"Oh, ha ha, Shallow-Will. Very nice." She seemed put off, but her mood lightened considerably so I decided to ask her one thing I just thought of.

"Would it be alright if I asked you something about your relationship with Mikey?" She nodded. "Is he the reason you left New Jersey, because you guys broke up or something?"

A moon passed over Andie's expression but it was gone before I could question it. "Now that would be really shallow. No, um... it's a long story, I'd rather not talk about it." The definitive way she said it, made it a closed case for now. But I'll put this away for later so I won't forget o ask her again, when the time is right.

"So I take it you guys are still good friends then?"

"Yeah, I'm still great friends with everyone in that band. Frankie was my roommate for a year and a half. His girlfriend is my cousin, too. And Ray, Bob, and Gee are like my older brothers."

[Pause], Andie

Don't look at me like that. I know what you're thinking. 'If Will is your boyfriend, you should trust him and tell him blah blah blah...' I can't, alright. It's complicated. I don't want Will knowing my family is a crazy gunslinging mafia and that I should be staying in Seattle; he'll send me back there before sundown. I especially don't want Will to know hos things ended up with Mikey, now that the whole thing is healed up and resolved. Speaking of Mikey, I really need to talk to him. I miss the guy and I haven't given either Way brother a proper hello. So excuse me while I go do that, okay?

[Play], Andie

"Listen, Will, I've gotta go catch up with some of my friends, I'll be back in a bit okay?" He nodded and kissed me on the cheek while playing some video game or another with some guys from Avenged Seven Fold and The Used. They'd been at it for some time now, in between eating and interviews. (Tomorrow is the official first day of shows and what not.) I had to ask around for a little while until I found Mikey, Gerard , and Frankie all at the Starbucks that Frank had mentioned earlier.

"So that was Will," Frankie stated without preamble as soon as I joined them. To this, I nodded.

Surprisingly Gerard smiled. (He was one of the biggest advocates for mine and Mikey's relationship and I haven't spoken to him since the Christmas before I left. I spent it with their family. Now that I think of it, that was almost two years ago.) "He seems like a really nice guy, doesn't he, Mike?" Gerard said nudging his brother back into reality.

"Huh? Yeah, nice guy." Mikey looked far away as he rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses.

"No really, what do you think about him?" I honestly did want to know, no matter how bad their response could be. They looked at one another, equally puzzled at my words.

Gerard held his hands out before him, shrugging. "What can we really say? I mean, we've only bumped into the guy once. You know us, we're not gonna pass judgement on appearance or first impressions." He paused and pulled his hands under the table. "Okay, let's be blunt, I hoped you and Mikey might get back together. Long sweaty tour plus old flames reunited, don't make me fill out the rest of the equation, alright?"

At his brother's statement, Mikey blushed but kept his cool as he tried to smooth things over. "What Gee means is that he is very childish for thinking things could go that way. It's only wishful thinking on his part."

"Right," I replied, playing along with Mikey. We spent the rest of our coffee conference pretending Gerard hadn't said that last bit he had admitted to thinking. It turned out rather amiably because of this set up. It was like old times just as soon as Jamia, Ray, and Bob managed to join us. I was afraid that Jamia would broach to the subject of shipping me back across the country, but something Frankie said must have made her think twice; she didn't mention my bad judgment call again. Though, it was silently understood, that I would have to be careful while on the road.

Before we realized it, we had chatted and drank through to sunset. It was getting really good, too, what with all the catching up and everything. I felt like I had never left them and nothing bad had happened between me and Mikey. It felt all right for me to be here with my old friends who knew me and my situation inside and out. The only bad thing about being with them again is realizing how on edge I always am when I'm with Will.

My personal reasoning about why I am the way I am with Will? Because I worry that being with him puts him in as much danger as I am. This is what my father must have felt when he was in hiding in L.A. with my mother. You care for someone so much, yet you know just being with that person could kill them. It's a terrible feeling. And for Will to die in similar circumstances that my mother did? I just don't want history to repeat itself. I really do have to watch out now.

[Fast-Forward], Gerard

Pomona, California. About a month into this obscenely hot tour we call Warped. Ugh. So hot, very, very, very, very....Hot. No, HOT. HOTTTTT. Blah, but I have something on my mind that's not about this sticky weather. It's actually been on my mind for a little while now. It's about Mikey. You know how he likes to hid his feelings? Everyone knows that's not exactly great for your mental health right? Being the lovely big brother I am, I'm going to poke his conscience about it. Who knows, maybe he'll let up on it...

[Play], Gerard

The sun blared down at us as we finished our set. Sweat and stink, the five of us tottered tiredly to the closest available shade under a tent.

"Christ, what that crowd crazy as hell or what?", Bob breathed after chugging down a million gallons of water.

"Or what", Frankie replied with a smirk.

"Let's go see what Shadows and them are doing. I could use a beer right now", Ray said, ruffling his cork-screw curled hair to work more ventilation into it.

"Good idea", both Frank and Bob mumbled in agreement.

"Have fun with that and tell Johnny to give me back my eyeliner, he's only had it for a week", Mikey said, forgoing a buzz to stay with his sober brother, yours truly. I'd hoped I could get to talk to him alone, what with Andie coming back into our lives so suddenly and with a new boyfriend no less.

"Mikes, you got a sec?"

I watched him kick a piece of loose cement with the toe of his sneaker. Anyone would have thought his behavior normal and unassuming. But his very relaxed body language was only ever a decoy. That's the thing with my brother, he always knows something serious is about to happen and, on reflex, he kinda shuts down on you, no matter who you are.

"Don't do that", I said, trying not to scare him into his shell. "Look at me, Mikey, I ain't gonna hurt you. Look at me." I usually don't tell him what to do, except when he has his head in his ass, hiding from the world. He looked up and pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah?" His voice was quiet, his guard up and ready.

"I'm gonna cut through the bullshit and ask you; are you okay?"

He gave me a puzzled look, but I know my brother better than that. "C'mon, you know what I mean. Don't make me drop you. You might be taller, but I fatter and older so let's have it." I succeeded in a ghost of a smile from him and a shrug after that. "Okay then." I made it seem as though I was letting it go and busied myself with getting water from a cooler nearby and I know Mikey thought I was through with him. Two seconds later, I got my scrawny sibling struggling in a tight headlock. "Oldest trick in the book, Mikey!", I grunted with glee as he squirmed in my grip. "Let's have it."

"Let me go!" Mikey wheezed.

"I don't think I will," I teased. But as soon as the words left my mouth, he managed to elbow me very close to my crotch, right in my inner thigh. I hobbled about, laughing (I'm very ticklish in that area) while Mikey gasped for air like a goldfish a few feet away.

"I'm fine, okay, Gee. Fucking fine without you attacking me into a response," Mikey snapped, straightening his glasses.

I shot him an inquisitive smile. "I don't believe you."

"See if I care whether you do or don't." He took off his glasses and wiped at his eyes gingerly. "Go bother Andie about it if you think you know better than the actual people involved. She'll tell you the same damn thing." Then his shoved his glasses back on and, without another word to me, shuffled off.

I hope you know that he's lying right through his teeth. He shuffles his feet when he's trying to make himself look nonchalant so you'll doubt what you're thinking. What he said though, about Andie telling me the same thing, that's what I'm afraid of-- that they care hell a lot about each other but are either too fucking proud or tied up with someone else to say anything. Then again, I could be horribly wrong. Yeah...I might be.

[Play], Atiana

I see you, baby, shaking that ass. Shaking that ass...!

"Oh hey, Andie, I was just looking for you." I flagged down my fair-headed friend to the PETA2 bus I was visiting. (You know, I helped her dye her hair platinum blonde. Mm-hmm, yessir! She says it's a cautionary thing so the bad guys won't be able to spot her so easily. Bad guys or not, it looks great on her, now that she let her hair grow to mid-back.) I watched her make her way over to me with a grin of her face.

"Ask me why I'm smiling," she said once she reached me.

"It looks more like a grin to me," I said pensively. To this, Andie rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Okay, okay, why are you smiling?"

"We're well into the tour and father dearest still has no idea about where I am. Last Jamia told me was that my dad is busy off in Italy or something. Gonna be there for a while by the sound of it." Andie's accomplishment on pulling the wool over Mr. De Angelis' eyes is a very big thing. Yanno, since everything has to be on the "D-L"-- very covert stuff.

"Let's have a celebratory drink on that," I said handing her a Red-bull.

"Wait!," Andie yelled flailing her arms wildly, but it was too late. By the time she wrestled the can away from me, not a drop was left.

I smacked my lips, enjoying the light, buzzy feeling that my whole body was filling up with. " I feel like crowd surfing." Andie looked dumbfounded. "Right now."

"No no no no no no no, buddy, you need to stay here, remember what happened the last time you---"

"RAWR!"

[Pause], Atiana

Maybe no one's told you this, but caffeine of any kind has the same effect on me as uppers on a kid who needs Ritalin instead. I can get obscenely hyper and crazy, not to mention I'm already a little inebriated with two beers. I can pretty much do anything right now and I do mean anything.

[Play], Andie

"Hear me roar, Andie!"

Shit on mince pie, I'm in for it now. For a second I thought of how best to contain my friend from doing something she might regret later through a pensive thought in a hospital bed. But all that was a bust when Atiana heard the opening chords of Aiden's set.

"Last one Aiden's show is a stoner!" crowed Ati. I gave her a two second head start as I downed my can of Red-Bull then went after her.

They were starting their second song, "The Last Sunrise" by the time I got there and the crowd was going wild. It didn't register in my mind right away why the crowd was particularly crazy until I saw Ati. She had stripped down to her string bikini that she wore under her clothes, owing to the hot weather. Seeing me, she waved excitedly before tossing herself headlong into the crowd. I glanced aroaund to see what Nick thought of all this only to see him laughing his head off as he played. Ati, much to my relief, cleared the barrier and sailed right into the throng of fans, surfing above all others. She had her arms outstretched to either side of her body, her palms held skyward, while her legs remained crossed at the ankles. Her expression was a curious one, very somber for someone who just dived into a crowd.

[Fast-Forward], Andie

This is how Warped was pretty much everyday; fans could bet nice money on the fact that they might run into a band member, minus a good amount of clothing and good sense. Big Bun ran around in a Speedo once while Jeph from the Used only had a puny pineapple to get pictured with by a passing fan. Other than that, it was sweaty bodies and flailing limbs everyday. On our days off we'd wreak havoc on the city we were in. Ati and Nick as well as Frankie and Jamia frequently went on double/triple dates with me and Will. Those were fun. Save for the times when Atiana and Jamia liked to bitch at each other. That happened a little too frequently for my taste.

[Play], General P.O.V.

"Shut up control freak, no one cares," muttered Atiana under her breath as Jamia went through her customary regulations for going out on the town at a Texas stop.

"Wanna repeat that, little tyke?" Jamia mocked as she put her hands on her knees and lowered herself as if speaking to a very small child. They were in Andie's hotel room, waiting for her as she put on her makeup in the bathroom; it was date night with the boys.

Atiana rolled her eyes and simply gave Jamia the finger. These two had gotten off on the wrong foot. As Atiana had just stated, Jamia was a control freak. Jamia, on the other hand, thought that Atiana was too flippant about security even though she knew about Andie's delicate situation.

"Oh, yeah, real grown up, teeny-bopper." Jamia turned around to face the mirror and fix her hair.

"At least I don't have a skunk up my ass..." Atiana said this in her best bubble-headed voice which sounded airy and annoying to Jamia. The former knew this therefore used her best qualities to piss off the other girl

Jamia was about to reply something in response to the irritation when Andie walked out from the bathroom and caught her at it. "Stop. Don't even go there," Andie said, picking up her purse as she pointed at Jamia. Over her shoulder Atiana gave Jamia a snide smirk. "I can see you in the mirror, Ati. Don't provoke her."

"Tell the old hag to loosen up, then. Hell, even the sisters at my Catholic school were less uptight than her. And they're married to Jesus."

"Oh shut your trap, you little skank," Jamia snapped, turning to look Atiana in the face. The teen rose from the bed she was sitting on, defiance etched in her young face.

"Make me, gutter-slut." Both had closed what little space was between them before Andie could intervene. They stood toe-to-toe waiting for a moment before Atiana pushed at Jamia's shoulder with the tips of her fingers. "Thought so."

Jamia teetered a little as Atiana walked away. Andie hoped this would be the end of it. She was wrong to do that. In half a second's time, Jamia had tackled Atiana onto the bed. Andie had barely time to blink before both her best friends had started biting, scratching, and pulling hair. Added to this was the screaming of a good number of creative titles for one another. "Jizz-face" and "rotten-crusty-cunt-whore" were a few combinations. Down the hallway, Nick, Frankie, and Will came bursting into the room as soon as they came within earshot of the commotion.

"Get off of her!" The boys entered as Andie was pulling a kicking and swearing Atiana off of a livid and screaming Jamia.

"Woah, woah, woah. What is going on here?" Frankie asked the room at large, his eyes wide. With excitement of confusion or a mixture of both, was a mystery even to Frankie himself.

"We missed a good one by the looks of it," said Nick with a devilish grin.

This time both fighters opened their mouths to speak, only to be silenced by their mutual friend. "I've had enough of your bickering! We've been basically living together for the past month and a half and you guys still can't get along. What is the matter with you? You're so fucking frustrating to me. And you call yourselves my friends. Will and Mikey get along better than you two do, and they actually have reasons not to like each other, but do they act on it? No. They leave their shit at the door because they don't want to ruin it for everyone."

There was silence now. Will was tempted to break it and correct his girlfriend; he and Mikey only seemed to get along because they never talked to each other. Will had yet to talk to Mikey and make sure everything was cool between them, the right timing that had yet to present itself, however, prevented that. After a moment longer, Andie stormed out and everyone knew that the only person allowed to follow her was Will.

---*---

Ati and Jamia better learn how to control those tempers!

As you can tell, we're moving fast through this tour to get to the good stuff. Will and Andie action as well as another confrontation to come.

08 April 2007//1106p