Leaving You Was Never Easy, chapter 3
We had been driving around the streets for hours, it was late and anybody would have given up and gone home but we kept driving around searching for the 17 year old girl that was our missing friend. We drove past hundreds of people, gone through 4 cups of coffee each and still hadn't seen Ali so we had no choice but to head home. "Frankie what if we don't find her?" Marz cried like a lost child.
"We WILL find her Marz, trust me," I said stopping the car outside her house. The street was dark and empty, and for once, it was quiet, but only because the guys were touring again. I had a bad feeling all of a sudden, like that feeling you get when something is wrong or someone is in trouble but you can't help them. I was getting myself upset so I decided to go for a sleep straight away. Thoughts swam in my head the whole night and I couldn't sleep at all. I just lay there, missing Tre and Mike and Billie and worrying about Ali. I just felt incomplete without her here, if we could just find her then we'd all be together. We'd all be happy. But I can only hope.
**
I woke the next morning to sharp sunlight beating on my face and birds singing outside. I headed for Marnie's room to see if she was ok about us not finding Ali. She was still fast asleep and looked so tired so I just left a note on the refrigerator and went for a walk. The world was peaceful this morning, and the beaches began to wake, with surfers heading for the best morning tides and tourists out soaking up the California sun. I walked along an alleyway and onto a busy road, dodging fast cars as I went. My newly died hair (now purple and black) blew about in the breeze like flames and my muddy Chucks walked all over Berkeley until I saw someone lying in an alleyway. I thought it was just a junkie or a homeless guy until I heard cries of pain and fear coming from the crumpled heap that was once an able body. I crossed the road quickly and ran over to the body.
"Listen can you hear me? Just try and move your hand if you can hear me," I said calmly trying not to upset both myself and the person.
"H-he-l-lp," she said in a wheezy voice, her breath almost gone completely.
"I'm going to roll you over onto your back ok, it might hurt a little, just keep taking deep breaths," I said rolling the girl's body onto her back. I tilted her head back a bit, to open her airway a bit, and that's when her chest stopped moving, her breath was no longer existent. She was dying. I pinched her nose, opened her mouth and gave two rescue breaths (like I had been taught as a kid). Then I pressed my clenched fist onto her chest and tried to resuscitate her, and save her life. Blood was slowly creeping from her head and it was on my hands. I felt guilty, but I shouldn't have felt like that, I had saved her life! Her eyes flickered open like wings of a butterfly and she rolled over onto her side coughing and gasping for air. "Hey, it's ok, you're ok honey," I said calming her down, her face now showing through thick black hair. She looked at me shocked and I noticed deep blue eyes with little specks of gold and green near the edges, this girl was unique, and I had never seen eyes like that since...this can't be happening. My eyes welled up with tears and my lip quivered as it all came back to me. I hadn't just saved someone's life, I had saved Ali's life!
"Ali?" I said crying and laughing at the same time. "Ali?! Is it you? Is it really you?"
"Frankie!" she whispered hugging me, I wiped some of the blood from around her forehead. "Oh my God, I thought I was going to die Frankie."
"Hey, you're fine now, let's take you home and get you all fixed up"
"Where are you staying? Did you find a house?"
"I found more than a fucking house Ali, I FOUND MARNIE!"
"What? You found who? Marnie? MARNIE?" she said laughing.
"Yeah, oh my gosh this is the best life ever now, I have all my friends back with me and I have met the best friends anyone could meet."
"Yeah, sorry, what? Who did you meet?" she said frowning curiously.
"Green Day, they live next to me," I said smiling
"Awesome! Oh my God!" she said screaming.
"Hey, since when were you all Green Day fan?"
"Since my mom left and I was allowed to do what the hell I liked!" she laughed
"Hey your mom left? When?" I said worrying again.
"Well, when you left, your dad just left the house one night and nobody knows where he went, but anyway, she said it was all her fault for not letting us be friends and she decided alcohol was the best way to cope with the guilt, and she came home one day and just got a bag with her stuff and left with one of the guys that she used to work with, and they're in Canada or something," she said as if it was fine to her.
"Jeez, that's bad, so where's my d -" I cut myself off, remembering what he had done all those years. "It doesn't matter."
"If you meant your dad, no one knows, but your mom is fine by the way, she moved away to New York to get a job with this newspaper and your brothers have gone to college and they want to see you again," she said as we got into a cab and drove to my house. I was shocked by the things that seem to happen when you're not there, but mind you, I had found my lost friend and shacked up next to my favorite band for god's sake! So we got back home after ten minutes or so and then I wondered what I'd say to Marnie when I- I mean WE went in.
"Hey, Marz, we're home," I said laughing silently with Ali.
"We? Who's we?" she said coming down the stairs. Then she looked up and her jaw dropped.
"ALI?! OH MY GOD!" she said running up to her.
"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in years Marzipan!" (she used the same funny names for her).
"Hey, Marz, did the guys call?"
"Yeah, they came over an hour ago, they just got back y'see, from touring," she explained to Ali.
"Yeah? Frankie told me about them, I can't wait to meet them!"
"She likes punk rock now!" I whispered to Marnie laughing at her still shocked face.
"Well, we could go over, they're just chilling with mates right now and stuff."
"Okay cool," I said getting Ali some painkillers for her head and heading for the back door, knowing that they'd be in the back yard. We all jumped over the 5ft wall to see the guys all lying on the grass.
"Hey people!" Tre shouted in his always strange manner (too much energy!).
"Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing much, just chilling," Mike said from the grass.
"Okay, guys, this is Ali that I was telling you about."
"Hey Ali! See, I said you'd find each other!" Tre said skipping around.
"Yeah ok Tre."
"Ohhh! Guess what!!!" Tre said jumping up (someone at least shut him up for a bit!).
"What?"
"We got a deal for our next album!"
"That's awesome Tre! Wow!" I said smiling.
"I know, it's crazy!" He screams running up to one of the spare rooms dedicated to one of his many drum kits. Ali, Marz and Mike were chatting so I just went upstairs after Tre. I COULD PLAY DRUMS TOO Y'KNOW!
"Hey!" I said running into the room to find Tre going absolutely insane on the kit.
"Oh HEY!" he says as the crashing sounds of the cymbals fade.
"Here!" I said nudging him from the stool and starting some drum solos and fill-ins.
"Woooooo! We rule!" he screams falling onto the sofa with a cola in his hand and throws me a can as well. I fall back onto the sofa and give Tre a hug.
"I've not seen you in ages dude! So, how were the gigs?"
"It was fun, but we were all worried about Ali and everything."
"Well, no more worrying for us 'cause we're all here and we can party all night long!" I shout and get up to start some 70's dancing.
"Yeaaaaah!" he shouts in reply and we stand there dancing to no music and spilling cola everywhere. We stopped to look at the messed up room and just walk out and leave it. Meanwhile Ali and Marz are talking to Mike and Billie about music and life and stuff like that, but Tre and myself get hyper on more cola and eventually feel the urge to go diving. So there we stood on the wall counting down the seconds, and Tre grabs my hand and we jump in, fully clothed and now soaking wet.
"Oh shit, that was fun!" I laugh.
"Yup!" Tre replies laughing. We turn round to see Billie, Mike, Ali and Marnie jumping in after us. This was perfect, I had all my friends with me and we were all doing fine. We talked for hours and hours and then we went to a party a few streets down, we had been invited a few nights ago but never considered going because of Ali but now we had no excuse, so off we went.
* * *
I was wearing a black skirt and striped socks with a Ramones teeshirt. Ali had one of my skirts and a top on and same goes for Marnie, only she had heels on, I had my trusty black Converse, as always. So there we all were, at this party which turned out to be hell for the guys 'cause no one would leave them alone (oh joy!) and people staggered about drunk and high on god-knows-what. I barged past stinking junkies (sick!) and squeezed past a doorway to find Tre standing on the balcony looking onto the beach. "Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing, it's just that, well, what will we do if the band doesn't work out, we would have no jobs, no money or anything," he said looking sad.
"Hey, don't worry Tre, the band will work, I just know it will, you'll grow old together, don't worry about it," I said re-assuring him.
"But what if it doesn't work? What if we all fall out and I lose all you guys? I can't let that happen."
"We WON'T let that happen, Tre, it'll be fine, it'll all work out awesome," I said and gave him a hug.
"Thanks, I love you Frankie."
"I love you too Tre," I said and smiled, we walked off to find the others and leave, but Billie was being attacked by stupid girls and Adrienne, his girl friend, was tearing them away one by one. It was quite funny to watch, meanwhile, Mike, Ali and Marz were outside trying to get us out of the hellish party. After a while, we managed to get out, and we walked home, half drunk, to get a decent nights sleep.
* * *
I awoke next morning to find myself on the sofa, with a blanket over me, I had that horrible 'morning after drinking party' taste in my mouth so I went to freshen up. The light hurt my eyes a bit and the air was fresh, Ali and Marz were in the back yard talking. "I know it's so obvious, but they don't even realize it," they laughed. Realize what? What's going on? I headed for the back yard to see what it was when the phone rang...
"Hello?"
"Hey, Billie and Adrienne have bought a house!" said the voice, it was Tre.
"Really? Wow, so when are they gonna move out?"
"They're saying just as soon as possible, so anyway, you wanna come round and hang out coz I'm bored."
"Yeah sure, I'll see you in a moment then, bye."
"'Kay, bye." He hung up the phone and I got back to finding out what this 'obvious' thing was.
* * *
"Hey, what's so obvious?"
"Oh, nothing," they said in unison. I can tell a liar a mile away, and there were two standing right in front of me just now.
"Ok, I am not going to believe that! Just tell me!"
"No, I can't- I mean- DOYOULOVETRE?!" Ali blurted out.
"What?! Do I what?"
"Love Tre?" Marz said laughing.
"Course I do, he's like, my best friend."
"No, we mean, do you LOVE him?"
"What?! NO! No! Ok!?" I couldn't believe they thought that, he was my best mate! I mean, I do love him, but not like that. So anyway, I went over to Tre's place and found him lying on the sofa watching MTV... "Hiya," I said falling back onto the sofa.
"Hey, so, there's something I want to ask you," he said seriously.
"Sure, go ahead," I said getting curious.
"We're going on tour again in two months, after our album is released, and it's international, so we're allowed to bring someone along, and I was wondering if you would come with me?"
"Oh my God, yeah, I'd love to go!" I said giving him a hug.
"Awesome! So, Billie and Adie called just there and they're moving in next week."
"Ok, cool" We sat watching MTV for most of that day and then went out for some drinks.
* * *
A few hours passed and surprisingly, we weren't that drunk. I guess it was just not that kind of time to get drunk and forget about everything, all of us were happy with life, but Billie Joe was moving and Mike was hinting on the idea as well. Ali had been with her boyfriend for a while and they wanted to get married soon, it was like, the end of something. It seemed as if my life here in California would come to an end and we'd just go our separate ways. We were growing up and moving on. Well, some of us were...
* * *
Several weeks went by, Mike had found a place to live, Billie and Adie got married, Ali moved in with her boyfriend, but Marz, Tre and myself stayed in the same houses, lazing about, well, Marz joined a college so it was just me in the house a lot because of the distance from the college that she joined. Green Day toured a lot, and apparently 'sold out' but they had just become...big I suppose. Really big, the new album, named 'Dookie' (lovely!) was released and the tour dates were set, the day of the tour starting came crawling quickly and I started having second thoughts, well, we would be going to my old home town, great!
"Frankie, c'mon, let's go," Tre shouted to me from the stairs.
"Ok I'm coming," I yelled back from my room. I felt nervous about going back and seeing that hellish place that I left those few years ago. I picked up my bags and headed down stairs.
"You all set then?"
"Yeah, listen, when are we going to Philadelphia?"
"That's our second show, some place called Trenton, why?" Tre asked
"I thought so, just wondering," I said blankly
"You can tell me Frankie," he said looking straight at me.
"It's just that, well, I'm a bit weird about going back there, I used to live there," I said looking at my shoes.
"Hey, it's alright, you'll be ok," he said walking out of the front door.
"I just had a bad time there, and it's gonna bring it all back y'know."
"We'll be fine, ok?"
"Yeah, let's go then," I said following him out of the door and towards a smallish tour bus.
* * *
The journey was quite boring, we stopped after about 3 hours of driving and went into a hotel to get some rest before the concert the next day. I walked into the cream painted room and lay on the linen covered bed and drifted off to sleep. My head was full of thoughts about my past and what - or who I might see on my trip back home, if it was a place you could call home. I slept until 8 o'clock next morning and got dressed and went to meet the guys in the lobby as we had planned.
We were all there and set to head for the venue. It was only ten or fifteen minutes away and we were there really quick, with fans eagerly waiting outside. We ran inside and soon, the show began with some old and new songs, and some covers. It was great, I was so happy, and I totally forgot about going back to Trenton and walking those empty streets that I walked so many times before. The show ended with a cover of Blitzkrieg Bop and the fans were going crazy. We stayed backstage for a while and then headed back to the tour bus for a long drive to Trenton (joy!). I dreaded the moment when I would look out of the window and see that old place that I had left behind, this was my return to hell, and the memories would come back and haunt me the whole time...
"We WILL find her Marz, trust me," I said stopping the car outside her house. The street was dark and empty, and for once, it was quiet, but only because the guys were touring again. I had a bad feeling all of a sudden, like that feeling you get when something is wrong or someone is in trouble but you can't help them. I was getting myself upset so I decided to go for a sleep straight away. Thoughts swam in my head the whole night and I couldn't sleep at all. I just lay there, missing Tre and Mike and Billie and worrying about Ali. I just felt incomplete without her here, if we could just find her then we'd all be together. We'd all be happy. But I can only hope.
**
I woke the next morning to sharp sunlight beating on my face and birds singing outside. I headed for Marnie's room to see if she was ok about us not finding Ali. She was still fast asleep and looked so tired so I just left a note on the refrigerator and went for a walk. The world was peaceful this morning, and the beaches began to wake, with surfers heading for the best morning tides and tourists out soaking up the California sun. I walked along an alleyway and onto a busy road, dodging fast cars as I went. My newly died hair (now purple and black) blew about in the breeze like flames and my muddy Chucks walked all over Berkeley until I saw someone lying in an alleyway. I thought it was just a junkie or a homeless guy until I heard cries of pain and fear coming from the crumpled heap that was once an able body. I crossed the road quickly and ran over to the body.
"Listen can you hear me? Just try and move your hand if you can hear me," I said calmly trying not to upset both myself and the person.
"H-he-l-lp," she said in a wheezy voice, her breath almost gone completely.
"I'm going to roll you over onto your back ok, it might hurt a little, just keep taking deep breaths," I said rolling the girl's body onto her back. I tilted her head back a bit, to open her airway a bit, and that's when her chest stopped moving, her breath was no longer existent. She was dying. I pinched her nose, opened her mouth and gave two rescue breaths (like I had been taught as a kid). Then I pressed my clenched fist onto her chest and tried to resuscitate her, and save her life. Blood was slowly creeping from her head and it was on my hands. I felt guilty, but I shouldn't have felt like that, I had saved her life! Her eyes flickered open like wings of a butterfly and she rolled over onto her side coughing and gasping for air. "Hey, it's ok, you're ok honey," I said calming her down, her face now showing through thick black hair. She looked at me shocked and I noticed deep blue eyes with little specks of gold and green near the edges, this girl was unique, and I had never seen eyes like that since...this can't be happening. My eyes welled up with tears and my lip quivered as it all came back to me. I hadn't just saved someone's life, I had saved Ali's life!
"Ali?" I said crying and laughing at the same time. "Ali?! Is it you? Is it really you?"
"Frankie!" she whispered hugging me, I wiped some of the blood from around her forehead. "Oh my God, I thought I was going to die Frankie."
"Hey, you're fine now, let's take you home and get you all fixed up"
"Where are you staying? Did you find a house?"
"I found more than a fucking house Ali, I FOUND MARNIE!"
"What? You found who? Marnie? MARNIE?" she said laughing.
"Yeah, oh my gosh this is the best life ever now, I have all my friends back with me and I have met the best friends anyone could meet."
"Yeah, sorry, what? Who did you meet?" she said frowning curiously.
"Green Day, they live next to me," I said smiling
"Awesome! Oh my God!" she said screaming.
"Hey, since when were you all Green Day fan?"
"Since my mom left and I was allowed to do what the hell I liked!" she laughed
"Hey your mom left? When?" I said worrying again.
"Well, when you left, your dad just left the house one night and nobody knows where he went, but anyway, she said it was all her fault for not letting us be friends and she decided alcohol was the best way to cope with the guilt, and she came home one day and just got a bag with her stuff and left with one of the guys that she used to work with, and they're in Canada or something," she said as if it was fine to her.
"Jeez, that's bad, so where's my d -" I cut myself off, remembering what he had done all those years. "It doesn't matter."
"If you meant your dad, no one knows, but your mom is fine by the way, she moved away to New York to get a job with this newspaper and your brothers have gone to college and they want to see you again," she said as we got into a cab and drove to my house. I was shocked by the things that seem to happen when you're not there, but mind you, I had found my lost friend and shacked up next to my favorite band for god's sake! So we got back home after ten minutes or so and then I wondered what I'd say to Marnie when I- I mean WE went in.
"Hey, Marz, we're home," I said laughing silently with Ali.
"We? Who's we?" she said coming down the stairs. Then she looked up and her jaw dropped.
"ALI?! OH MY GOD!" she said running up to her.
"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in years Marzipan!" (she used the same funny names for her).
"Hey, Marz, did the guys call?"
"Yeah, they came over an hour ago, they just got back y'see, from touring," she explained to Ali.
"Yeah? Frankie told me about them, I can't wait to meet them!"
"She likes punk rock now!" I whispered to Marnie laughing at her still shocked face.
"Well, we could go over, they're just chilling with mates right now and stuff."
"Okay cool," I said getting Ali some painkillers for her head and heading for the back door, knowing that they'd be in the back yard. We all jumped over the 5ft wall to see the guys all lying on the grass.
"Hey people!" Tre shouted in his always strange manner (too much energy!).
"Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing much, just chilling," Mike said from the grass.
"Okay, guys, this is Ali that I was telling you about."
"Hey Ali! See, I said you'd find each other!" Tre said skipping around.
"Yeah ok Tre."
"Ohhh! Guess what!!!" Tre said jumping up (someone at least shut him up for a bit!).
"What?"
"We got a deal for our next album!"
"That's awesome Tre! Wow!" I said smiling.
"I know, it's crazy!" He screams running up to one of the spare rooms dedicated to one of his many drum kits. Ali, Marz and Mike were chatting so I just went upstairs after Tre. I COULD PLAY DRUMS TOO Y'KNOW!
"Hey!" I said running into the room to find Tre going absolutely insane on the kit.
"Oh HEY!" he says as the crashing sounds of the cymbals fade.
"Here!" I said nudging him from the stool and starting some drum solos and fill-ins.
"Woooooo! We rule!" he screams falling onto the sofa with a cola in his hand and throws me a can as well. I fall back onto the sofa and give Tre a hug.
"I've not seen you in ages dude! So, how were the gigs?"
"It was fun, but we were all worried about Ali and everything."
"Well, no more worrying for us 'cause we're all here and we can party all night long!" I shout and get up to start some 70's dancing.
"Yeaaaaah!" he shouts in reply and we stand there dancing to no music and spilling cola everywhere. We stopped to look at the messed up room and just walk out and leave it. Meanwhile Ali and Marz are talking to Mike and Billie about music and life and stuff like that, but Tre and myself get hyper on more cola and eventually feel the urge to go diving. So there we stood on the wall counting down the seconds, and Tre grabs my hand and we jump in, fully clothed and now soaking wet.
"Oh shit, that was fun!" I laugh.
"Yup!" Tre replies laughing. We turn round to see Billie, Mike, Ali and Marnie jumping in after us. This was perfect, I had all my friends with me and we were all doing fine. We talked for hours and hours and then we went to a party a few streets down, we had been invited a few nights ago but never considered going because of Ali but now we had no excuse, so off we went.
* * *
I was wearing a black skirt and striped socks with a Ramones teeshirt. Ali had one of my skirts and a top on and same goes for Marnie, only she had heels on, I had my trusty black Converse, as always. So there we all were, at this party which turned out to be hell for the guys 'cause no one would leave them alone (oh joy!) and people staggered about drunk and high on god-knows-what. I barged past stinking junkies (sick!) and squeezed past a doorway to find Tre standing on the balcony looking onto the beach. "Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing, it's just that, well, what will we do if the band doesn't work out, we would have no jobs, no money or anything," he said looking sad.
"Hey, don't worry Tre, the band will work, I just know it will, you'll grow old together, don't worry about it," I said re-assuring him.
"But what if it doesn't work? What if we all fall out and I lose all you guys? I can't let that happen."
"We WON'T let that happen, Tre, it'll be fine, it'll all work out awesome," I said and gave him a hug.
"Thanks, I love you Frankie."
"I love you too Tre," I said and smiled, we walked off to find the others and leave, but Billie was being attacked by stupid girls and Adrienne, his girl friend, was tearing them away one by one. It was quite funny to watch, meanwhile, Mike, Ali and Marz were outside trying to get us out of the hellish party. After a while, we managed to get out, and we walked home, half drunk, to get a decent nights sleep.
* * *
I awoke next morning to find myself on the sofa, with a blanket over me, I had that horrible 'morning after drinking party' taste in my mouth so I went to freshen up. The light hurt my eyes a bit and the air was fresh, Ali and Marz were in the back yard talking. "I know it's so obvious, but they don't even realize it," they laughed. Realize what? What's going on? I headed for the back yard to see what it was when the phone rang...
"Hello?"
"Hey, Billie and Adrienne have bought a house!" said the voice, it was Tre.
"Really? Wow, so when are they gonna move out?"
"They're saying just as soon as possible, so anyway, you wanna come round and hang out coz I'm bored."
"Yeah sure, I'll see you in a moment then, bye."
"'Kay, bye." He hung up the phone and I got back to finding out what this 'obvious' thing was.
* * *
"Hey, what's so obvious?"
"Oh, nothing," they said in unison. I can tell a liar a mile away, and there were two standing right in front of me just now.
"Ok, I am not going to believe that! Just tell me!"
"No, I can't- I mean- DOYOULOVETRE?!" Ali blurted out.
"What?! Do I what?"
"Love Tre?" Marz said laughing.
"Course I do, he's like, my best friend."
"No, we mean, do you LOVE him?"
"What?! NO! No! Ok!?" I couldn't believe they thought that, he was my best mate! I mean, I do love him, but not like that. So anyway, I went over to Tre's place and found him lying on the sofa watching MTV... "Hiya," I said falling back onto the sofa.
"Hey, so, there's something I want to ask you," he said seriously.
"Sure, go ahead," I said getting curious.
"We're going on tour again in two months, after our album is released, and it's international, so we're allowed to bring someone along, and I was wondering if you would come with me?"
"Oh my God, yeah, I'd love to go!" I said giving him a hug.
"Awesome! So, Billie and Adie called just there and they're moving in next week."
"Ok, cool" We sat watching MTV for most of that day and then went out for some drinks.
* * *
A few hours passed and surprisingly, we weren't that drunk. I guess it was just not that kind of time to get drunk and forget about everything, all of us were happy with life, but Billie Joe was moving and Mike was hinting on the idea as well. Ali had been with her boyfriend for a while and they wanted to get married soon, it was like, the end of something. It seemed as if my life here in California would come to an end and we'd just go our separate ways. We were growing up and moving on. Well, some of us were...
* * *
Several weeks went by, Mike had found a place to live, Billie and Adie got married, Ali moved in with her boyfriend, but Marz, Tre and myself stayed in the same houses, lazing about, well, Marz joined a college so it was just me in the house a lot because of the distance from the college that she joined. Green Day toured a lot, and apparently 'sold out' but they had just become...big I suppose. Really big, the new album, named 'Dookie' (lovely!) was released and the tour dates were set, the day of the tour starting came crawling quickly and I started having second thoughts, well, we would be going to my old home town, great!
"Frankie, c'mon, let's go," Tre shouted to me from the stairs.
"Ok I'm coming," I yelled back from my room. I felt nervous about going back and seeing that hellish place that I left those few years ago. I picked up my bags and headed down stairs.
"You all set then?"
"Yeah, listen, when are we going to Philadelphia?"
"That's our second show, some place called Trenton, why?" Tre asked
"I thought so, just wondering," I said blankly
"You can tell me Frankie," he said looking straight at me.
"It's just that, well, I'm a bit weird about going back there, I used to live there," I said looking at my shoes.
"Hey, it's alright, you'll be ok," he said walking out of the front door.
"I just had a bad time there, and it's gonna bring it all back y'know."
"We'll be fine, ok?"
"Yeah, let's go then," I said following him out of the door and towards a smallish tour bus.
* * *
The journey was quite boring, we stopped after about 3 hours of driving and went into a hotel to get some rest before the concert the next day. I walked into the cream painted room and lay on the linen covered bed and drifted off to sleep. My head was full of thoughts about my past and what - or who I might see on my trip back home, if it was a place you could call home. I slept until 8 o'clock next morning and got dressed and went to meet the guys in the lobby as we had planned.
We were all there and set to head for the venue. It was only ten or fifteen minutes away and we were there really quick, with fans eagerly waiting outside. We ran inside and soon, the show began with some old and new songs, and some covers. It was great, I was so happy, and I totally forgot about going back to Trenton and walking those empty streets that I walked so many times before. The show ended with a cover of Blitzkrieg Bop and the fans were going crazy. We stayed backstage for a while and then headed back to the tour bus for a long drive to Trenton (joy!). I dreaded the moment when I would look out of the window and see that old place that I had left behind, this was my return to hell, and the memories would come back and haunt me the whole time...
