Author's note: And we are pretty much finished. Just a few more things to clear up, and we'll leave that to Roger.
I ended up not going to the Midwest. A quick check of recent obituaries showed that both my grandparents had died a week before. I tried to quit; I don't even know why I started in the first place. I guess Charlene finally got to me. The rest of the story is pretty simple: The band graduated, we found a new drummer and recording some singles. April ended up using smack; I've always felt bad for that. Maybe if I'd tried harder to quit, she wouldn't have started, and we wouldn't have gotten AIDS. She died, leaving me a note telling me we had AIDS. You all know the rest of the story. I did finally quit, met Mimi, and…well, you know. I haven't really thought about Charlene since high school. I guess, maybe, she thinks of me time to time. I get an occasional phone call, and Mark makes me send postcards every now and then, usually at the holidays, but we haven't talked in four years. I never did get back to high school. You don't really need a degree to be in a rock band, right?
Author's note: And we're done! I have to put this out there now, the lyrics in chapter 16 belong exclusively to me; it's a poem that I wrote specifically for this story. Keep an eye out for the sequel, as of right now titled "Mommie's Revenge" (it will probably change), coming soon!