Disclaimer: I don't own MTV, MTV2, Rolling Stone, Fuse, LOGO, AFI, and such!

Rock n' Roll Life

Chapter Ten: Girl's Not Grey (AFI)

"Congrats, you guys!" Collins said, sitting down with an armload of drinks, "The video was a success, and Mark didn't have a nervous breakdown!"

"Yay!" the band and crew cheered, raising their fists.

Collins began to pass out the drinks. "Hmm... here're some beers... and Sprite for you, baby..."

Angel took the can of soda, rolling her eyes. Roger popped the tab to his beer and snuck her a sip of it. Collins shot him a dirty look.

"I think this one will be a hit, guys," the director announced, "You are all really good actors. Oh, and Rog, I know you were ready to scratch off your makeup. Thanks for hanging in there."

Roger winked, wiping lipstick off his can.

"So, what's gonna happen now?" Mark asked.

"Well, we'll send it to stations like Fuse and MTV and we see what happens," Collins explained, "If they like it, they'll put it on."

"Whoa, MTV?" Roger asked.

"Is that bad?" a producer asked.

"No, no... I just... would they want us?" Roger took a sip of his beer, wiping his finger across the bottom of his lip.

Angel laughed. "MTV plays music videos? I had no idea."

"I didn't mean that!" Roger said, "I meant... you know..."

"Her?" Mark asked, pointing to Angel.

Angel grinned. "It'd be hilarious if they can't air it because of me."

"Is it possible?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," Angel said, "The Strokes' video for 'Juicebox' isn't allowed on MTV because there's two guys making out in a bathroom stall. They air an edited version on MTV2 and you can see that the guy's about to orgasm in the Fuse version."

Everyone stared at her for a moment. "How fascinating," everyone said, sarcastically.

"Yeah. They won't allow me on," Angel mumbled.

"Oh, quit being so negative, you guys!" Collins said, "It's gonna be fine."

Rolling Stone

Open Mind

Interscope band Subatomic Treehugger's first video from their first major album No Secrets Here, "(April Is) the Cruelest Month" was deemed "inappropriate" for air on MTV last week. The video features drummer Angel Dumott-Schunard, 18, in lingerie and kissing his boyfriend, Tom Collins, 29, with "sexual passion that some viewers of MTV may not be able to handle" according to a press release made by the station.

These statements have caused mass uproar with groups like PFLAG and GLAAD, who deemed the banning of the video as "discrimination against the GLBT community as well as discrimination against Miss Schunard and her identification as a woman and her boyfriend for being in love with her."

Roger Davis, 26, lead singer of the Treehuggers, left a statement with Rolling Stone about the whole controversy. "It's MTV's decision," said Davis, "Bitching and moaning about it is going to get us nowhere. All we can do is press on... we support Angel with her identity as a woman and... no one can stop us."

LOGO, a channel directed at a gay audience, who, like MTV, is owned by Viacom, plays the video in heavy rotation on its music-driven program, The Click List.

Another station playing the video is Fuse, MTV's up-and-coming rival. The video is also in heavy rotation on the station and giving off great publicity for the up-and-coming band. END

Collins walked into his girl's cozy little apartment. "Angel?" he asked as he pulled the bill of his beanie. It was the day before Subatomic Treehugger's No Secrets Here tour and he wanted one last night with Angel before they were thrown on a tour bus with Mark and Roger.

"Hey, Tommy!" Mimi said, walking into him for a hug. She parted, a sneaky grin on her face. "So... uhm... how do you feel about handcuffs?"

"E-excuse me?" Collins asked.

"Nothing!" Mimi said, her leg springing up for no apparent reason. "Looking for Angel?"

Collins was still trying to take in Mimi's question. "Huh? Oh yeah. Where is she?"

"She's somewhere in this place... I think she's cleaning. Psyched for the tour?"

"Yeah, I am, actually! You have to see some of the shows, Mimi! We got some good bands playing with us. Like... Billie Bob's Black Bird Bunch. Billie's this really nutty short girl. And that band cyberboi."

"Don't they spell their name weird?" Mimi asked.

"Yeah, c-y-b-e-r-b-o-i period. All lowercase. They're this emo-like band, but they're really cool."

"How long is this going to be?"

"About a month an a half for this tour. Then we're scheduled to do a certain summer tour."

"What tour?"

"Can you say Warped Tour?"

"Are you fucking serious! Warped Tour! Whose lead singer did you guys kill to get on Warped?"

"Well, you see, Roger had this old sledgehammer... what do you think we did, Mimi! We earned it!"

Mimi clapped. "Congrats."

"Now, seriously, where's Angel?"

"I think she's cleaning the shower in the bathroom."

"Thanks."

Collins walked to the bathroom and heard a loud grunt. He smirked as he stuck his head into the bathroom. He saw bare feet coming from the door of the shower. He leaned on the frame of the doorway, watching aqua blue toes wiggle to an unknown beat.

Angel groaned, pulling a long strand of hair from the drain. "Mimi! This is totally your hair!"

Collins tried to stifle a laugh.

Angel got up slowly. She turned her head. "Fuck! Collins! What are you doing here!"

"You didn't know this was minority Three's Company?" Collins joked.

Angel blinked several times. "Three's ... oh! Right! Hah!" She walked closer to him, cringing. "But really, I'm a mess. I have soap scum in my hair!"

"But it was totally worth it. You grunting and doing all the motions were really sexy." Collins pulled Angel against him. He played with her jeans, which were clearly his, and clearly falling off of her body. "And don't worry about what you look like. I've seen you in basically everything."

She sighed, trying to pull her arms out of Collins' embrace to pick at some soap on her legs. "True, enough." She looked up at him. "Well, because you are in one of those moods, follow me to the bedroom."

Collins grinned like any wolf in a fairy tale. "Really?"

"Okay, so maybe I got your hopes up, but come on, it'll be good, I promise."

They walked to Angel's bedroom. Collins braced himself for the explosion of aqua, lime green, and fushia that adorned the walls like battle scars.

Angel led him to the bed, which was a tame purple. She ran to the closet and swung it open dramatically. She bend down on her knees and picked up a bright pink bag. She got up and dropped it in front of Collins. "Happy six months, baby!"

"Are you serious?" Collins asked, laughing. In all honesty, he shouldn't have been surprised at all by Angel's generosity. She loved giving. Anything. Collins grabbed a tissue paper-wrapped package from the bag.

Angel leaned on the bag, her hand under her chin and holding it up. She grinned as Collins pulled a pair of zebra-striped handcuffs in front of her face. "This is so typical of you."

Angel winked.

Collins peeked into the bag. "What else do you have? Hm.." he pulled out another tissue paper package. "Question, Angel, seeing as though you're the one with the lacy underwear in the relationship, why is there a pair in my hand?"

Angel gasped. "Oh shit! Gimme those!" Angel grabbed it from him. "Mimi! God!"

Collins laughed. He found one more package and opened it. "A box." He snapped the box open. "Chopsticks?"

"Yep!" Angel said, getting up, "We're going to get some hibachi! Let me get dressed and we'll get going."

Collins picked up the handcuffs, smiling. "So I get food and sex tonight? Alright!"

"Tom, please, put those down!"

Mark threw his clothes across his bed. He had decided to bring back his emo look. He thought Angel did a great job at reinventing him, but he just didn't have the energy to keep it. He folded some sweater-collared shirt sets. Everyone had some sort of anguish. Whether it was because your body didn't match your mind, your addictions ruined your life, or you just couldn't find yourself amongst the haves and the have nots. He was a have not. At least Roger was identified as "the frontman" and Angel was "the drag queen." He was nothing. He was just Mark.

He walked to his bathroom to comb his hair. He knew he had to stop living in the past, in the regret he built around himself. He was being the boring one and he couldn't do that. He looked at his reflection. No visual make-over could change that. He had to make-over his mind, if that made any sense.

He uncovered some toiletries and threw them on the bed. "Eh... all in good time..."

The phone rang. He leaned over and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mark! It's Roger!"

"Hi, Rog!"

"Hey! Ape and I are goin' to the new hibachi place! You wanna come?"

"I'm ruining your date."

"So?"

"Well... I..."

"Mark, you're not going to spend the last night before our tour masturbating to those porn channels you can see through the static."

"I didn't plan on..."

"Get your pants on! I'm coming over!"

Mark sighed, hanging up.

Collins kissed Angel as he took his seat. "This is so exciting!"

"Have you ever done this?" Angel asked.

"Not really..."

"Are you serious? I've done something you didn't? That's a first."

Collins rolled his eyes. "Baby..."

"...It's not that I don't mind, it's just... okay. I was reading some forums today because I was bored and I really didn't want to clean the bathroom and I did and there was this whole thread about how I should go out with someone that was my age and, according to them 'pretty like me.'" She put up air quotes for emphasis. "But, Collins, I'm happy with you. I love you. I just..."

"Angel, do you honestly think everyone is going to approve of us?"

"No."

"So chill. We got tons of stuff against us. You're eighteen, I'm twenty-nine. You're a cross dresser, I'm a bisexual man. You're Puerto Rican, I'm black. It's just not supposed to work. But I love you as much as I did when I got you that dress at Hot Topic."

Angel blushed. "Thank you, Tom."

"Anytime, babydoll."

"But now I'm pissed we have to share everything with Mark and Roger! It's not fair!"

Collins laughed. "I know, I know, I'm sure we can find something to..."

"Hey, Collins! Hey, Angel!" Roger yelled from across the restaurant.

Angel and Collins turned to see Roger, April, and Mark. "Oh! Hey guys!"

"We didn't know you'd be here,"Roger said, putting his hand on Collins' shoulder as he ran over.

"Well, here we are!" Angel chirped, "You wanna sit with us?"

"Sure," Roger said. He told the waitress they'd sit with Angel and Collins and Mark and April walked to the table, ordering drinks.

"I claim next to Angel!" Mark yelled. He slammed next to Angel, his chair nearly tipping over.

"No fair!" Roger argued.

"Don't fight!" Angel begged.

"Collins laughed. "You're too cute sometimes..."

April kept quiet.

Angel took notice. "April, are you okay? You seem kinda down..."

April shrugged.

Angel looked at Mark for help. Mark shrugged as well. He looked at Roger. Roger was too busy reading the menu.

Angel pouted. How could Roger be so ignorant? Collins had such a habit of being up her ass whenever she went through moods. Perhaps Roger was just different.

Mark bit his lip. "Uhm, Rog, can we have a band meeting?"

Roger nodded. "Sure, yeah, okay. Let's go."

The band got up and went to the...

"Angel! Hello? Men's room!"

"Oh... right! Sorry!"

...bathroom.

They leaned against the tiled walls and began to talk.

"What the hell's going on?" Roger asked.

"We were going to ask you," Mark said, "April's not looking too hot."

"She's seemed very down the past few weeks..." Angel mumbled.

"She's just pissed we're going on tour," Roger explained.

"Are you sure about that?" Angel asked, trying to ignore a stare or two.

"Yes, I'm sure, Angel, she's not fucked up like y... like some people," Roger mumbled.

Angel rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Roger, she needs some help. Please. Talk to her. If she ends up doing something stupid, what are we supposed to do?"

"She doesn't even like Angel, for God's sake," Mark said, "Don't you talk to her?"

"Look, April has issues with Angel, I know, but I also know that she's okay. She'll be fine. This is none of your damn business," Roger mumbled, leaving.

Angel looked at Mark. "Like boyfriend, like girlfriend."

Mark nodded and caught the door for her. "Come on. Let's make the best of this."