Freak
Chapter 6
By: Makena
It was almost time for Good Charlotte to go out on stage. They had all conjugated near the couch, waiting mostly in silence. Billy was chewing on his finger nails, something he did randomly, and Paul was reaching for a cigarette.
"Don't do it," Jeremy warned him.
Paul hesitated and slipped his cigarettes back into his pocket. Jeremy smiled triumphantly and looked over at Benji.
"What are you doing after the concert?" she asked him.
Benji, slightly startled, looked up at her. "What? Oh... um, sleep I would suppose. Why?"
"I think we should go bowling."
Benji laughed. "Go what?"
"All of us should go bowling," she repeated. "Bowling alley's stay open for the longest time and if you aren't doing anything after the show and I'M not doing anything after the show - we should go do nothing at the bowling alley together."
"Bowling?" Joel asked.
"Yeah! Come on... it'll be fun. And Paul can smoke freely there..."
"I say we go bowling!" Paul said, raising his hand.
Jeremy laughed. "Well, if no one else wants to go..."
Pierre walked by as she was saying this.
"Bonjour, Pierre!" she called out. "Wanna go bowling after the show?"
Pierre paused and looked at Jeremy.
"Sure," he said with a small laugh. "Who's all going?"
"Me and these idiots."
"Hey!"
Jeremy laughed.
"Five minutes and you're on, guys," one of the stage directors, holding up five fingers in case none of them knew how many five was.
"Oh, that's us," Benji announced proudly, standing up.
"I'm gonna go out then," Jeremy announced, also standing up and walking towards the door. "I'll see you out there. Break a leg. That would make me laugh."
They laughed and said good bye to her. Benji had to toss her the pass again and she tucked it back into her hoodie before scampering off towards the concert.
----------
"Excellent, excellent," Jeremy told them after their encore.
The concert hall had emptied out pretty quickly, and although there were still a few people left inside, it was empty for the most part.
"Thank you, thank you," Benji said, bowing for her.
Jeremy laughed. "Don't get too ahead of yourself," she said.
"Have you ever come to one of our concerts before?" Billy asked.
Jeremy shook her head.
"I missed you last year because my parents thought I was gonna get anthrax if I came, and I missed you in 2000 because I didn't know your tour schedule." She shrugged. "Oh well. I saw you this year."
"Really?" Paul laughed sarcastically.
"Really!" Jeremy said in pretend enthusiasm. "Can we go bowling now?"
They laughed at her and her sudden urge to go bowling, but agreed and decided to leave a little early so they could catch a cab. Not that they were blowing off fans...
"I have to go get Simple Plan and Autopilot Off," Jeremy announced before they could get a taxi. "I'll be back... wait here."
She returned to the concert hall and luckily still had Benji's pass around her neck, so she got back inside and had to drag Simple Plan out by their ears. Autopilot Off were having fun at the merch booth and wouldn't leave, but they said Jeremy's blue hair was cool and that they wouldn't mind...
"Okay!" Jeremy interrupted before they could go any further. "I don't really wanna know."
They laughed as she grabbed Pierre and Sebastian's arms and had to drag them out into the cool, crisp night air.
---
"Strike!" Billy yelled, hopping up and down and watched his ball knock over every pin.
"Spare," Joel said. "You got it in the gutter last time."
"But I knocked them all down..."
"On your second try!"
Jeremy laughed as the two argued weather it was a strike or a spare, while it flashed "BILLY - SPARE" on the screen above. The bowling alley, for being 12 in the morning, was packed. A couple of lanes around them remained open, but there were plenty of people still there and still bowling.
"Billy!" Paul said finally. "It says spare. Now shut the fuck up and move your ass... it's my turn!"
Billy frowned and nearly fell when Paul came rushing for his bowling ball. Meanwhile, in the lane next to them, Sebastian had set his ball down on the floor and kicked it, and he had gotten a strike.
"You can not believe how much that hurt my foot," he moaned, gently rubbing his toes. "I think I broke my middle toe."
"Your middle toe... what?" Jeff asked him. "How the hell did THAT happen?"
Sebastian shrugged and Jeremy laughed returning her focus to their own game. Paul held his cigarette in his mouth as he released the ball and it knocked down three pins.
"Wow," Jeremy said. "You suck."
"Why THANK YOU!" Paul shouted.
Jeremy laughed. "Touchy little man, isn't he?" she asked Benji.
Benji laughed and shrugged, taking a sip of his soda. Jeremy sighed and smiled, growing a little sleepy. Benji looked over at her and couldn't help but smile.
"You know where we should go after this?" she asked Benji.
"Where?"
"Tattoo place down town. They're open till one in the morning."
"Are you gonna get a tattoo?"
"Who's getting a tattoo?" Billy asked, who hat disappeared to get himself some snacks but was now back with a coke and some chex mix.
"I am," Jeremy replied.
"Really?" Joel asked, jumping into the conversation. "What are you gonna get?"
Jeremy laughed. "I donno," she said. "I was just saying..."
She was suddenly bombarded with suggestions until Paul screamed at Joel to get his ass up and bowl.
"Bowling," Joel said, but nobody was really sure if he was talking to himself or to some one there. "Bowling For Soup."
"Girl all the bad guys want," Jeremy said.
Benji laughed again as Jeremy fell deep into thought. She smiled stupidly and quickly tried to hide the fact she had been smiling in the first place.
"What?" Benji asked. "What are you smiling about?"
"Oh, it's nothing. It's..." Jeremy smiled again and leaned closer to Benji. "Have you ever wanted to do something so sporadic and random people would be so shocked, yet not THAT shocked when they thought about it for a while?"
Benji frowned. "I don't know if I follow," he admitted.
Jeremy laughed slightly. "Like... leaving. No note, no good bye. Just - leaving to start over in a new place. If I did that randomly, people would be shocked but not as shocked once they really had time to think about it."
"Oh," Benji said, laughing slightly. "I..."
"Benj! You're up!"
Benji looked up at Joel and stood up, taking his turn. Jeremy had to wait to hear his response until after she had taken her own turn, and then it was Billy's turn once again.
"As I was saying," Benji said. "I guess I have wanted to do something random."
"You mean you've never done anything random in your entire life?" Jeremy asked.
Benji shook his head. "Well, random yes. Shockingly random that pretty much nobody would expect - naw."
"Really? You look like a random kind of guy."
Benji laughed. "Thanks," he said. "I think."
Jeremy smiled and thought about something. She thought about it in her mind for a moment before bringing it up. "We should do something random tonight," she told Benji.
"You mean like get tattoos?" he asked.
"That's not random enough," Jeremy said. "Besides... everybody pretty much expects me to get a tattoo one of these days."
She paused in case Benji had anything to say.
"Well... what did you have in mind?" he asked.
"Let's get married."
Benji sat in his hard, plastic chair in the bowling alley. Had she just asked him to marry her?
"Are you kidding?" he asked finally, not sure if it was a joke or not. "You really wanna get married? To me?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Why not?" she asked. "It's perfectly legal, right?"
"I've known you for, like, a day," Benji reminded her.
"Two," she corrected.
Benji sat still in his chair for a moment again, thinking it over. Finally, he looked up at Jeremy.
"Okay," he said.
Jeremy stared dumbfounded at him. Her heart stopped and her jaw dropped. "Really?" she asked.
Benji shrugged.
"Sure. Random, unexpected. Fun, right?"
Jeremy laughed and tried not to shake. Was this really happening? Was she really going to marry this man? She laughed from nerves and happiness and nodded.
"Okay," she said. "Lets go."
"Right now?" Benji asked.
"Now."
"Oh. Okay..."
They said good bye and gave them all their apologizes for leaving early - they were "tired" and wanted to get Jeremy's tattoo before she had to get home. But they didn't go to the tattoo parlor at all. Instead, they hopped the very first flight to Vegas without a warning or a word to anyone.
"We're gonna get married," Jeremy whispered, smiling.
Benji smiled as Jeremy suddenly grasped onto his hand. She laughed slightly.
"God... I met you yesterday and we're getting married today. It's like a dream come true." She paused and laughed again - she couldn't stop laughing. "I can't believe it - I've always wanted to elope."
Benji smiled and kissed her softly on the cheek. They landed shortly in Los Vegas and Benji and Jeremy went straight to the first somewhat decent looking wedding chapel - ignoring the one that was stationed in the airport completely. Between the two of them they had almost $200 - most of that coming from Benji. They finally found a chapel they figured looked like an okay place, paid the $50 and waited for the three other weddings before theirs.
They waited on one of the wooden benches in the chapel to watch the first three marriages. Jeremy rested her head on Benji's shoulder. She wasn't nervous. Not very, anyway. She didn't have a second thought or a regret as the "minister" called them up.
"Nervous?" she asked Benji, squeezing his hand.
"You know what?" Benji said. "Not really." He laughed. "You'd think I would be, but... I'm not."
Jeremy smiled as they took their place across from each other and held on to each other's hands. The marriage was only supposed to take a couple of minutes, and they went by in a blur.
"Do you, Benjamin Madden, take thee Jeremy Winn, to be your lawfully wedded wife until death do you part?"
"I do," he responded, not taking a moment to pause and think about his answer.
"And do you, Jeremy Winn, take Benjamin Madden, to be your lawfully wedded husband until death do you part?"
"I do," Jeremy replied, also answering quickly.
"With the power vested in me, by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Benji leaned over and kissed Jeremy on the lips.