Hobos and Hallucinations

It was June, early June. School had let out a few weeks ago and my friends and I were looking forward to a few days out of town. The big event was the Dir en grey concert. We'd been fans for years and already seen them twice, but honestly, what could another time hurt? A lot, apparently.
We had the plan all worked out in our heads. Everyone else had permission except me, but I had a lie, ready to be put to use. I would tell my mother I was going to stay with a friend (Alyssa) for a few days and conveniently enough, my mother didn't know where she lived or her phone number.
It was the day before we left and it was my time to do my only duty, lie. I walked up to my mom and sweetly asked "Mommy?" she knew I wanted something. "What do you want?" she asked. "Well, I wanted to know if I could stay at Alyssa's for a few days. It's summer now and I don't wanna waste it." She consented, without asking for any other information.
After much excitement-raising and packing, Gabby picked me up to go to Tiffany's. Bailey was at volleyball practice and we had to go pick her up. We left the house, in a booming car full of screams and music. Bailey got in and ranted about the grueling volleyball experience as we headed home.
The night was spent listening to music, chugging coffee, and talking about the past concerts. At around one in the morning we went to bed. But not without more excitement!
We had to sleep in her little brother's room since he wasn't there and her room was too messy. It was frighteningly dark in there with only the streetlamp for light. Tiffany and I got into this conversation about how when we were little kids, we'd pull the covers over our head because of the "monsters". "But, at least the monsters aren't real now!" I said to her. "What would we be afraid of now though?" She asked. I thought and I thought and suddenly I screamed "Zombie Kittens!" We both just laughed and went on and on about it. "Oh no! The zombie kittens! They're gonna crawl up here and eat our brains!" She said, trying not to laugh. "But not after they bat them around a few times with their...zombie paws!" Sure, it was all good fun, but then it got serious. I pulled the covers over my head and she did too. "Keep covered! They won't be able to get us under here!" She screamed. There was a little bit of the blanket that wasn't covering my line of view and I actually got scared! "I'm scared, man!" I whispered, so the zombie kittens wouldn't hear. "Me too!" Tiffany replied. Eventually she fell asleep, but I just tossed and turned.
I woke up at 9:00 and Tiffany and Gabby were already downstairs. I slipped on some slippers and tried not to trip over my pajamas. They were Gabby's and were literally, twenty sizes too big for me. When I got downstairs I was greeted with "aww" since I looked like a little kid. We drank coffee, too much than what's healthy, and set off for Koji's house! Taco and Koji were supposed to procure the map and print off the tickets.
When we got there, they hadn't done either and Taco was in the shower. Tiffany was seriously furious. She yelled at Koji since she couldn't get to Taco. She hadn't even packed yet! We waited and waited and finally all was ready. Not until we were two hours late leaving, though.
Pulling out of the driveway, we all screamed for joy. All except for the quiet little Taco. Gabby's car was packed...painfully! I was next to the driver's side in the back, Taco next to me, Bailey next to her, and then Tiffany. Koji was lucky for being able to ride shotgun. "Because she smokes" was the excuse.
About halfway there, we all started getting sweating and sore; at least the "we" that were in the back seat. Taco and I had to shift every few miles and each time we did, a line of sweat would drip from between our arms. I got really thirsty but had to pee. We were stuck in a slow-moving line of traffic with no gas stations around so I decided to hold it. But I was extremely thirsty as well. Bailey told me to just swish the drink around in my mouth and spit it out the window. It was a good idea and I was excited. So I did as she said and Gabby rolled down my window... a bit too much. The wind raped my face as I spat the liquid outside. I couldn't roll it back up so I was stuck until I asked her again.
We got to Chicago and everyone called their parents, but I had to be quiet so they wouldn't know I was there. Since we were saving all our money for t-shirts and other things like that, we had to stay on the street. Sleep on the streets of downtown Chicago. What fun!
We drove around to find the Rivera and Bailey saw this really pretty Asian guy. She waved at him and yelled "HEY!" as loud as she could with this really goofy face. He waved back and smiled. Tiffany said "Bailey, he probably thought you were mentally challenged and just wanted to humour you." Then we all laughed and I said "Yeah, he probably thought you were 'emo' as well and would go kill yourself if he didn't wave." We laughed even more. When we found the place, we drove around some more to find a parking place. The signs were so confusing! They all said something like "no parking on Wednesdays due to cleaning" or something like that, but it was more technical and threw us off. That is, until we realized that it was Thursday so we were good.
We parked, got our stuff, and set out a little "camp" spot in front of the venue. Before retiring to sleep, we wanted to explore a bit. We passed this phone shop being run by three really pretty Asian guys. "I think they were watching us! Let's go back!" Bailey squealed. "But then we'll have to cross them a third time to come back!" I complained. It did no use because she was set. So we walked past them again and they did look. We laughed so much. The third time we ran, to be inconspicuous I suppose. But running in front of the huge glass windows of that place made us completely conspicuous!
It was about seven at night when we all got settled. We'd made signs. One said 'DIR', another said 'EN', and the last one said 'GREY'. Come nightfall, we all held them up. Tiffany had grey, I had en, and Bailey had the Dir. People kept driving by asking us what we were doing and we told them. "Waiting for a concert." They'd just shake their heads at us. This one dude drove by and we told him the same thing and he yelled "You're sick!" Oh how we laughed. A cab drove by and asked us if we were homeless. Oh how funny. We told him "No, we're just waiting for a concert." "When is it?" he asked "7:00 tomorrow." he shook his head and drove away.
Bailey wanted a picture of the sign. Mainly because it was misspelled "Dir en gray" instead of "Dir en grey". She crossed the road and stood on the other sidewalk. This guy on a bike came up to her and she let out a shrill screech. Since he asked, she told him what she was doing. "One day, will you take me to a concert?" he weirdly asked. "Umm..." she stalled. "I'm sorry, it's just cos you're so sexy." Tiffany was worried so she called her to come back and she told us what happened.
I felt left out, cos nothing happened to me. "Well, let's see what I attract, guys!" I said, smiling. I walked out to the edge of the sidewalk and yelled "Albert Fish!" Suddenly, and I mean suddenly, a fire truck raced past with its sirens going off. My eyes went wide in shock and I just laughed. From then on, any time anyone said my name "Sku" a fire truck, a police truck, or an ambulance would drive by with sirens blaring.
My teeth were feeling a bit gross so Bailey and I brushed our teeth and spit on the sidewalk near the building and rinsed with bottled water. Everyone laughed at us, but at least we didn't have bad breath. Time came for one of us to have to pee. Koji and Taco left to find a bathroom. About half an hour later they came back. Then, this hobo guy came up to us and asked for "fity cent". We told him we had no money and he passed on. About twenty hobos came up asking us for "fity cent". I guess that's how much a single dose of some drug is or something.
I had to use the bathroom as soon as they got back. I guess I just didn't have to when they left. Taco went with me. On the way back, we heard this weird noise coming from some bushes behind some really high iron bars. "Huh... must be a cat." I said. "Yeah, a cat's making that noise. More like a dying cat." Taco said. I just laughed. "Or... maybe it's some serial killer guy, waiting to jump out and get us!" Taco went on. She kept going on and on about it and scared me so I ran. I stopped about halfway to the venue to catch my breath. We kept walking when we started talking about Mana. He's pretty much my lolita idol. "Hey Taco." I said. "What?" she replied. "Will you go to one of my tea parties when we get back home?" I asked. "Sure." she consented. "But... you have to be dressed up as Mana. I have a dress you can wear, and lipstick. Oh, you have to have the freakishly low voice too." She just laughed and agreed. I rolled around on the concrete in excitement, laughing.
When we got back there was this woman and some guys across the street at a bus-stop being really loud. Koji had decided to sleep in the car and Taco had joined her. It was just Tiffany, Bailey, Gabby, and me. The woman kind of scared us, she was probably on something or drunk. She came up to us and said "Anyone mess with you? Cos if they do, I'll kill'em! I'll get out my knife and kill'em! You guys are cool! They don't mess with my friends!" and she walked away laughing with her friends.
A while passed, with many bathroom trips (having to wake Koji and Taco up to guard Gabby since she was asleep) and many laughs. I was sitting on the right of Tiffany and Bailey on her right. The blankets underneath us did a lot to keep us warm. Suddenly I saw a rat! I pointed at it and halfway-shouted "Look! A rat!" More in interest than anything. But that poor rat, it must've thought I was going to kill it or something, because it ran out into the street! That's not a smart thing to to in Chicago, maybe it wasn't from around there. A car came along and hit that poor rat! We even saw its little body jump! After that car, two more came and we saw it flop with each time! We screamed and howled and mourned over the loss. I decided we should name it so I asked Bailey what we should name it. "Walter!" she said. And so, the dead rat was Walter. She and I went out into the street to take a picture of him for memory with Gabby's phone. He was just a furry little pancake on the road.
"Shit!" Bailey exclaimed and I didn't know what was going on. "What?" I asked. Bailey had the cell phone in her hands. "I'm trying to get a cool picture of the train that keeps on passing but I'm always too late!" She lamented. "You'll get it eventually, man." I said, trying to comfort her. Then, this homeless-looking man came up to us. "You know, you guys don't have anything to worry about here! No one will mess with you. You're just some girls from out of town, waiting for a concert. You got nothing to worry about. You're safe." He said after we told him what we were doing. "Any of you have a cigarette?" Apparently, that's why he was talking to us. "No, sorry." The truth was, we did, but we weren't gonna give it to him. Who knows what he could've used it for in downtown Chicago. "snap!" I heard some kind of noise. "YES!" Bailey yelled. She'd finally gotten the picture.
"Guys, I gotta pee. Who wants to go with me?" I asked. I'd held it for hours and it was coming out one way or another. They decided to come with me and have Koji and Taco guard Gabby again. It took much convincing of a grumpy Koji to wake her up and stand guard.
Well, we were on our way when we noticed some angry-sounding voices on the sidewalk we were traveling on. We noticed a few people avoiding that side so we crossed. I had the signs pinned to my pants and it was very difficult to walk. These cops motioned for us to come to them, so we did.
"What are you three doing?"
"Well, we're waiting for a concert."
"When is it?"
"Seven pm tomorrow."
"Where are you staying?"
"Oh, in front of the venue. We don't have enough money for a room."
"Well, where are you going?"
"Going to the bathroom. I gotta piss and that Marathon is the closest place."
"Ok then." the woman said with this shocked look on her face. "Be safe."
It made no sense that she was shocked, I mean, she's a cop in Chicago! But, while we were being questioned, we noticed the source of the commotion that we avoided. There was a legless guy in a wheelchair getting mugged by about five men. Why the cops didn't notice was beyond me. They should've been helping him out rather then questioning three girls with full bladders!
I could hear some birds signing on our way back. "It's getting to be morning." I said. "No. It's still dark outside! Look at the sky!" Bailey retorted. "Dude, I can hear the morning birds! And look over there, the sky is a lighter blue than the black over there!" I argued. We argued all the way back. I looked at the clock on the front of Starbucks and it said 4:18. Sure enough, I was right. After a while, the sky started lightening more and more cars drove past.
This mentally handicapped-looking man came up and stared at us. Tiffany decided to talk to him. He was so amused and taken with her black painted fingernails. She showed him the star-book she'd made for the band. He wouldn't leave, even when Tiffany left him. Finally someone came and got him, we think it was his mother.
It was about noon when a car drove up and stopped. A guy got out. "Ha! I bet you thought you were going to be the first one here, didn't you? Well, you were wrong! Wrong! We've been here since seven last night!" Bailey proudly yelled. He looked startled to say the least. "Yeah, actually, I thought I was." He sat down and we talked about random things, especially Walter. Whenever cars drove by where he fell, we'd yell "Walter!" in pained voices and hold our hands out dramatically.
Bailey saw this building getting worked on across the street. It had revolving doors. "Oh my god, guys! That place has revolving doors! I've never been through one!" she excitedly said. Then she adopted this dreamy look "It's been my dream ever since I was little to go through one... who wants to go with me?" After much debate over if we'd get in trouble or not, I agreed. We crossed the street and came upon one of the worker guys. "Excuse me, sir. Is it alright if we go through that door and come right back out? She's never been in one before." I asked politely. "Ah...Bosnian..." he said, and we then knew he didn't speak English. But Bosnian?! Of all reasons not to understand English in Chicago, he's Bosnian! So we went through it anyway on the count of three. We were all laughs when we got out. But we noticed that none of them were watching. "Tiffany! Did you see us?!" Bailey called to the other side of the road. "No! Sorry!" She yelled. "Bailey, why don't we just pretend we are, out here. Like it's invisible or something." I proposed. "Hey Tiff!" Bailey shouted "Watch us! We'll do it again for you!" Tiffany watched as we went round and round with our hands in front of us, like we were going through an invisible revolving door. They just laughed with us as we swiftly crossed the road.
The next person was this guy with fluffy hair. Starbucks was open so we all went and got coffee. We got the key to the bathroom and my hair was uber-greasy. It had been bothering me since the day before. It was only my bangs though, which was weird, but annoying. So I pumped some soap into my hands and started the water with my elbows. "You aren't really going to?" Gabby questioned. Then I dunked my head under the running water and washed my bangs.
When we got back, we told them how my name was cursed. I showed them and sure enough something with a siren drove past. "I wonder what would happen if we all said my name?" I, ignorantly, questioned. "Ok, on the count of three, dudes!" I instructed. "1...2...3! SKU!" all seven of us yelled. Then, a bunch of sirens went off in every direction. The original five, us, just smiled knowingly, while the two dudes just looked amazed. Another car drove over the scene of Walter's death and we all lamented him with much shouting.
It was a while until more people showed up, around three. Bailey taunted them all. No one believed we'd been there so long, but we were proud. We weren't about to be trampled from not holding on to the rail this time! We were going to be first!
Bailey and I felt the oncoming event and got extremely excited. After swing-dancing and ballet, we grabbed our signs and did some cheers. "Give me a DIR!" I yelled happily as I struck a pose, holding my sign high. "Dir!" Bailey replied, striking a pose of her own and doing the same. "Give me an EN!" I yelled, making a different one this time. "EN!" She followed. "Give me a GREY!" I cheered. "GREY!" Bailey sounded. "What does that spell?" I asked loudly. "Dir en grey!" The both of us screamed and we jumped about. That cheer went on many many times when we decided to mix it up. Sure, people were staring, but they were here for the same reason. We only found one or two people actually there for the Deftones. I held the Dir and the en. Bailey had the grey. I jumped up really high and yelled "Dir!" and then "en!", thrusting my arms up high in the air. Quickly, with no pause, Bailey shouted "grey!" We did that one more than we did the first. We were facing the highway, the way we thought they'd come.
The doors opened and a guy that worked there came out. We told him what we'd done and didn't forget to add the fact that I ran away. "You all did what?!" he asked, in shock. We told him again. "If you were my kids, I would beat yo asses!" he yelled as we just laughed. "Actually, it wasn't bad at all! We never felt threatened or anything!" we tried to reassure him. He went on to tell us how dangerous the area was, but we didn't care. The concert was worth it. He told us that when Dir en grey got there, he'd see about getting us to meet them. "No way!" I thought. "But," he continued "Only a few of you get to go at once, we don't want anyone else noticing. Go out back." We were all smiles as we waited. He also assured us that we would be able to get in early, no matter what, for waiting for so long.
So, we were waiting in line when someone from the line wanted pictures of the signs. Suddenly, a bunch of people came running up from the other side of the road. "Pictures?!" one of them screamed as they all got in the picture. "Let's do a pyramid!" I yelled. Bailey, Tiffany, Gabby, me, and a few other people from the line got in position. I held the "Dir" and the "grey" in my hands and the "en" in the middle with my mouth. We all got down and talked a bit.
It was time to go try to see if we would be able to meet them. Tiffany, that guy we met, and I walked behind the place, talking about random stuff. No one showed up, so we walked back. The second time, we were frustrated. "You know?" Tiffany began "People you want to show up only show up when you're doing something embarrassing." I agreed as I sat on top of the fire-hydrant. "Hey!" I squeeled. "Why don't we sing?" I asked. "Sing what?" The guy asked. "My.... Bologna has a first name. It's O-S-C-A-R!" I began singing. "Come on! We have to do something embarrasing! And if being caught by Dir en grey singing the bologna song isn't, I don't know what is!" I tried to get the two of them into it. They sang along. Still nothing though. "Well, at least I could say we sang the bologna song behind the Riviera now." I shrugged it off.
We sat in line, after they redirected it out of the way of the construction. I sipped on my iced black coffee we'd gotten from this Vietnamese bubble tea place. My stomach started hurting so I had to throw it out.
The guys who were working moved the line again to where it was originally, under the construction. We all got into formation when they said it was going to begin. "Females on the right! Males on the left!" A security guard yelled. I thought it was weird but went along with it. "Gabby. I should get first." I was second in line. "Why?" she questioned. "Because, Gabby, you slept and I didn't!" After much arguing over the subject, I was first in the whole female line. "Alright. Go in!" the security guard said. With a flurry of off-heartbeats, I ran in first, after being patted down, and gave the ticket woman my ticket.

After the concert, we were wandering around, looking for eachother. "Sku?" Koji said. "What?" I replied. "I've got some bad news." She said solemnly. "What? Did my mom die or something?" I joked. "No...ummm... she found out and is pissed." She said, stone-faced. "No way! How? Oh shit." I said in disbelief. Later, we chocked it up to the yelling of my name in unison.
After talking to people and an old friend from the previous concert, Ronnie, we got into the car and left. After about an hour of driving, we stopped at a McDonalds to eat. I brought my laptop in to see if I had any music of one of the opening bands, The Fall of Troy, because I had enjoyed their show more than any opening band I'd ever seen. I was scrolling through the songs when my computer froze. I clicked buttons, clicked my mouse, while dragging the scrollbar on my Limewire a million and a half times. Suddenly, this god-awfully loud death metal song started playing. It was one of those opera type death metal bands and the guitar was playing some devilish tune as heavenly opera singers sang. My eyes went wide in panic as I tried to shut it to stop the music. No such luck. So I ran to the nearest door and saw, to much dismay, "Emergency exit only. Alarm will sound." I screamed "No!" Then I ran into the bathroom and heard a flush, still no luck. I ran through the practically empty McDonalds, except for a few Spanish people. Finally I got to the main door and yelled in apology "I'm sorry! My computer's gone retarded!" I frantically ran outside and sat on the hood of the car, hugging my laptop to get it to shut up. I finally got it to "thaw" and shut it off. Then I noticed Bailey sitting in the backseat with a vastly confused look on her face. I told her what happened and went back inside.
We set off for home again and practically everyone fell asleep. Tiffany and I were pretty much the only ones awake, except for a dozing Taco. "I wanna say something, but I'm afraid it's just an illusion." Tiffany said. We were both faint and delusional from hunger and lack of sleep. We couldn't stomach anything in a few days due to the excitement. "What?" I asked. "Well, just a few seconds ago, I saw this giant maggot writhing in the tree line. Like on top of them." She confessed. "Yeah, hallucination." I said, mid-laughter. Sometime after, I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was early morning and the car was hot and filled with humid air. Gabby had stopped at a rest stop to get some sleep. I couldn't stand the heat and Tiffany woke up. We went outside to get some air and possibly something to drink. The machines were broken so we were out of luck. We decided to sit in the small building with the restrooms. The man working told us we couldn't sit in there, so we went outside again. Tiffany was standing when I sat on the bench next to the building. Suddenly, I felt something itchy and moving inside of my pants. I looked down and saw hundreds of thousands of ants crawling on the ground, on my pants, on my shoes, and on the bench. I screamed in horror as I shook my legs. "There's ants in my pants!" Tiffany just laughed. "Seriously though! They're in there!" So we ran to the bathroom and I took my pants off to viciously shake them out. Ants went flying everywhere as I picked them off the inside and off my legs.
After getting my pants back on, Tiffany and I decided to go on a walk. We got to the edge of the grass of the rest stop and surveyed the surroundings. There were houses in the distance and a light haze laid over everything. The sun wasn't in full view but it illuminated enough to make the sky seem like a giant rainbow. I looked down at my shoes when I saw something small, white, and writhing on my shoe. "Oh my god!" I screamed. "There's a maggot on my shoe!" The both of us ran as fast as we could in the no longer peaceful morning, back to the car. Taco was awake and we talked. Eventually we were restless and woke Gabby up to take us home.