You Told Me This Gets Harder, Well It Did! 8/24/06-8/27/06 (boo)

The rest of the week in London was pretty busy for the guys. They did several interviews and a photo shoot.

On Friday, the guys had a press conference about the new album. They were really excited to get a chance to kind of introduce people to the album. They wanted to explain that "The Black Parade" was like their alter-ego on the album. They also talked about how hard they worked on it, and explained the whole concept, in hopes that more people would check it out when it was released.

Later that day, they played the Leeds Festival. They were all loaded up in a van and taken to the trailer behind the stage where they would get ready for the show. Andie watched the show from behind the stage again. They guys were all on stage in their "uniforms" as Gerard came out waving the Union Jack. The guys were great, as usual. And the crowd seemed to enjoy the performance as much as they did.


On Sunday, the guys were scheduled to play the Reading Festival. And, as with the Leeds performance, they were taken to a trailer behind the stage to prepare for the show. They were ready early enough that they had some spare time in the trailer.

"Hey, Frank, Andie and Jamia have been talking..." said Gerard with a knowing grin as he sat close to Andie.

"Oh yeah? Is that bad? What'd I do?" Frank thought a moment. "Wait, I haven't done anything!"

"Noo...Frank," Andie laughed.

"She suspects it, Dude," said Gerard nodding as Andie elbowed him gently.

"Gerard! Don't tell him! Now he's gonna be all nervous because he'll think she's expecting it!" Andie turned to Frank to explain. "She just...has an idea that you might, because of something you said to her."

"Well, yeah," Frank grinned. "That's okay. It probably won't be a surprise to her. We've talked about it off and on for years now. I'm just thinking...I wanna go ahead and make it an official engagement, you know?"

"Yeah..." Andie smiled at him as Gerard watched Andie.

"I got the ring and everything," Frank beamed. "I'll show it to you later. Just don't tell her!"

"Oh God, no! I wouldn't dream of it!" said Andie.

Just then, they were told they had twenty minutes until they took the stage. The guys all jumped up and started doing jumping jacks and stretching so they would be ready.

Gerard kissed Andie's nose and hugged her. He lingered with her in his arms and squeezed her tight.

"Whoa, Gerard, are you alright?" Andie said into his neck.

He pulled back with his hands at her waist, beaming at her. "Yeah, I'm alright. Shit, I'm fucking great!"

Andie laughed and shook her head. "You are fucking crazy! Get out there and shake your money maker!"

Gerard laughed and kissed her cheek as he took off with the guys, all of them pumped up and ready to take the stage again.

But the show that day got off to a very bad start...


Andie was watching from backstage with some security guards when the guys took the stage in the same way they had at Leeds. They were the next act after Slayer left the stage.

Gerard came out waiving the Union Jack again. The crowd before them was a mixed bunch, though, and things took a strange turn. Apparently, some half-witted Slayer fans who hung around weren't too thrilled that the guys were playing there as well. So while half the crowd consisted of fans screaming and hooting, another part of the crowd was booing and throwing things at the guys.

At first, Andie was just...shocked and confused. She wasn't sure what was happening. She looked to Gerard and the guys. They appeared to feel the same. Then she saw Gerard's face as he turned in her direction, and she knew he was upset.

As they continued to be pelted with bottles full of piss, apples, oranges, bacon, and golf balls, among other things, Andie turned to the security guards standing nearby and stared at them incredulously. "Aren't you going to fucking do something?!" she screamed at them over the crowd.

"There's nothing we can do from here! There's guys on the ground! Your guys have to come off themselves unless they're hit!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?! What the fuck kind of bullshit is that?!" Andie screamed before she gave up wasting her breath on them. She turned back to watch the show in horror, scared for the guys' safety. She'd never seen anything like this at a concert before and she was worried what might happen next.

**READERS: IT'S NOT PLEASANT, ACTUALLY IT PISSES ME OFF, BUT HERE'S A VIDEO THAT SOMEONE TOOK OF THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO4QsQxcpjk
(IF YOU WANTED TO GET A VISUAL FOR IT)**

The guys played and tried to ignore the bottles of piss, but Gerard was visibly upset. Not only was he giving them all the finger, but he fought back with the only "weapon" he had, his mic. At one point, he sarcastically asked them to boo and hiss before he said, "We might be the outsiders today, but we represent EVERY outsider out there!"

The entire show went much the same way.

At one point, as Gerard was about to introduce "Venom", he said to the unruly crowd, "This song is called 'Thanks for all the bottles. Thanks for all the piss. Thanks for all the golf balls. Thanks for all the apples. And thanks for all the sticky shit!'"

They did, briefly get the crowd on their side by getting everyone to chant, "Fuck the Daily Mail!" a few times in response to their article about music, such as theirs, causing people to harm themselves. And the show ended in much the same manner as it began. But Andie was no longer waiting backstage.

Gerard and the guys came off the stage and he asked the security guards where she went. The lugs just shrugged.

He went back to the trailer and was walking in the door behind Frank when he heard Frank say, "Oh shit."

**SOUNDTRACK: "READY TO FALL" BY RISE AGAINST**

Gerard looked over to see Andie standing across the room with a hurt look on her face. She'd obviously been crying for some time and was shaking. He walked over to her and took her into his arms.

"Andie! It's okay!" he hugged her.

But Andie pulled back. Gerard was confused.

"No! It's not! What the fuck happened out there?!" she pressed him back from her so he had to take a step back.

He stared at her incredulously then his face melted. He knew she was upset because she cared about him so much. "Andie... C'mon..."

"NO!" she stepped back further. "No, Gerard! You could have been seriously hurt! And you just kept on!"

"Andie! If we were in any real danger, we would have left the stage! I swear! And half the shit didn't even make it to the stage, anyway!"

The guys all looked at one another but kept to themselves as they found some bottles of water and grabbed some seats.

"You WERE in danger, Gerard! I SAW what happened! And I heard YOU taunting them!" she shook her head looking at him as if he had slapped her.

"Well, I didn't know what the fuck to do! Shit! What was I supposed to do?" he looked at her and then around the trailer to his friends. "Anybody? What the fuck was I supposed to do??"

"I don't know!" screamed Andie, crying harder. "But I can't fucking take this shit!"

Andie stormed past Gerard and out the trailer door. Gerard followed after her.

"Andie! C'mon!" he tried to catch up with her as she took off running from him, but lost her in a crowd of people.

He walked around, trying to find her, until he gave up and went back to the trailer, feeling utterly defeated and confused.