(thank you to a certain friend of mine for helping me with this chapter! I owe ya, hun.)
Chapter Twenty-Six
The interview went on for about another twenty minutes, and the girls and I watched in awe on the television screen. Then the host said, "Well, that's just about all the time we've got tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, the Ramones, once again!"
The crowd cheered and that was the end of the show. I saw their shadows come our way to backstage. When I saw Joey, I ran to him and hugged him tightly. "You guys still cease to amaze me!"
Joey laughed his huge laugh and hugged me back. "Calm down Angela, it was just an interview."
"I know, but…you know I'll always be you guys biggest fan."
Joey smiled and kissed my cheek. Hopefully Johnny didn't see that, or I knew he'd have something else to say about it later. Luckily, from the corner of my eye, he was busy talking to some guy. After the boys finished up the interview, we all follwoed Marky and Kat and went to a bar and grill to get some food into our system before heading back home and just falling asleep.
We walked down the streets in a row, taking up the entire sidewalk. I held onto Johnny's arm firmly, happily thinking about he conversation that took place last night between Johnny and Joey. It was honestly a really great feeling I got just thinking of how they wouldn't fight anymore.
Then…that's when I thought about the proposal again. Anxiety had started to hit me then and there. When would he pop the question? Where? What would the ring look like? Would it be intimate? Would it be in front of anyone? I bit my tongue so I couldn't say anything further, and pushed the idea at the back of my head as I thought of more important things. The time just wasn't now to think of such things. I needed to think of other things so that the anxiety wouldn't kill me. I worried to much as it was.
"So, is this restaurant any good?" I asked.
Marky nodded, "Best on this street. My family owns it."
Kat, the tall, leather-wearing-huge-titted-black haired girl nodded, "My father owns the place. You'll get to meet him soon." She smirked to herself, dragging on a cigarette as she looked at Marky. I smiled at her lightly, not looking at her intimidating self for too long. I shifted my eyes to Johnny.
"Angie, what's the matter?" he asked. Oh no! He could tell I was distracted. I guess that the whole idea of Johnny proposing didn't exactly make it to the back of my head. I darted my eyes around a little before I was able to reply.
"Nothing baby, I'm fine." I smiled. I heard a scoff from a female, to see it was Josephina, who was clinging onto Joey and swooning. Joey kept his cool and continued to walk forward, as it nothing was going on. I seriously had to keep from laughing. Joey was so cool he could choose to give attention to any chick he wanted.
"Oh Joey, this is the best night ever! Oh, I love you Joey...Joey?"
Joey continued to ignore Josephina.
I couldn't help but notice a familiar person coming towards us. It looked like someone from the paparazzi with a big flash camera. Sneakily the flashed it into our face, everyone's eyes shutting as quickly as possible and groaning. I never liked people like that.
Publicity was part of what Johnny did. I couldn't get mad at him for that. In fact, I was completely fine with it. Honestly, I didn't want the attention. But no relationship was perfect, right? There were always some hills you had to overcome. The only thing that I hated was the fact that the life span of celebrity relationships were never that long, really. But Johnny was a musician. He wasn't exactly in the same category, and neither were the rest of the Ramones.
When I was a young girl I'd read magazines about who was with who, and I noticed marriages could last as long as 4 months to 6 years. I didn't want that. I wanted to marry Johnny and be with him forever. I think that was the plan from the begginging. Some sort of force pushed me on stage that night, when I was just 19. When I first met him. I didn't know why, but it was fate.
No matter what the status between me and Johnny was, I would always love that one Ramone more than words could describe. From the famous play of 'Romeo and Juliet', I could rephrase it to 'tis is the east, and John is the sun'. Johnny was my life. No back up plan, just, you know, the only thing I could live for. It may have sounded a bit desperate, but I didn't care, because I knew that if ever his life was getting too much for him, I would be the one to be there for him when noone else would be. And he knew that. That was how much I cared.
While lost in all my daydreaming thoughts on my mysterious, sexy, appealing, sensual, arousing, loving partner, I failed to realize that we had finally arrived at the restaurant. Everyone filtered in through the doors, feeling welcomed into this place as if they were regulars. Actually, they were regulars. At least I was guessing. Johnny held the door open for me as I walked in, smiling at me. He joined my hand with his and we made our way to a large booth suitable for 8 people. A man with short, black, greying hair and big green eyes came to the table, a hearty smile on his face.
"Baby doll." He smiled at Kat. She leaned over to kiss his cheek, "Hey daddy. Marky brought the band over." She smiled innocently. Marky waved at what seemed to be his uncle, shaking his hand past the table.
"Tonight's on the house guys," the man said. Everyone cheered.
I smiled and looked at Johnny. "Then we should probably get looking at the menus." I commented as I opened up the leather book, seeing all these extremely delicious Italian and Irish plates.
"Just order a shit load of ribs or something," Joey suggested. "Wait, oh nevermind I cant. It aint kosher."
"Ah come on Jeff, live a little. Having somethin' that isnt kosher wont kill ya for one night, will it?" Dee Dee chuckled. "Come on."
Johnny tapped Joey on the shoulder, and Joey turned his head. "Well. If ya do decide to eat anything tonight, you have to try steak and Guinness pie. It's just like from Ireland. Amazing, seriously." Johnny smirked. I had to contain my excitement as the two were finally getting along. I had to admit though, it really was a weird feeling. I was just now getting used to the whole idea of having less tension in the house.
I mean, with Dee Dee having problems with drugs, Joey and Marky with drinking, and Johnny with being hostile, I guess there wasn't much peace. I was really looking forward for time to go by; for obvious reasons. I smiled to myself lightly, putting my hand on Johnny's thigh under the table. He jumped a little and laughed. "Babe don't do that, you scared me." He leaned over and kissed my cheek.
"So what's really delicious on the menu?" I asked him spuriously as I looked up.
"Well, you could always try colcannon, or creamy kale. Not gonna lie, it sounds gross, but my grandma in Ireland made it whenever we would fly down there," he said, seemingly taking a walk down memory lane. I looked at the pictures, which did look quite appetizing.
"I want pasta. You can never go wrong with pasta," Rosy said to Dee Dee. They held hands and toyed with eachother's fingers on the table.
"We can share." Dee Dee smiled, looking at Rosy as if he was in love or something. I could tell she seemed to be, at least; I looked at Johnny the way she looked at Dee Dee. It was really cute to look at those two, but...poor Vera. Dee Dee must have totally forgot he was married. How was he supposed to explain the pictures from the paparazzi to Vera when he got home? I just shook my head. I guess it was Dee Dee's business. I still couldn't help but feel a bit upset about it, though. Rosy was nice, but she needed to lighten up with Dee Dee before shit got serious.
A waitress eventually came by and took our orders, scuffling away afterwards as if she needed our meals done in 30 seconds. She came by after a minute or two with a pitcher of Artois, everyone taking their own glasses.
"So, you guys touring anytime soon?"Josephina asked them.
Joey nodded. "Argentina next week. Can you believe it? Overseas. I cant wait." He smiled.
The men nodded amongst themselves. "It's like, our favorite place to tour," Dee Dee said. "Rosy, wanna go with us?"
She nodded. "I'd love to!" she exlaimed happily. I swear I could see two small hearts in her eyes as she said it, too.
I smirked a little to myself, then looked away.
"Look, you have someone to keep you company." He smiled and looked in my direction.
I nodded. "Yeah, but you know? I was thinking…maybe I should stay back this time. You know, get to know New York by myself for a week or two," I suggested. Being away from Johnny? I didn't want to actually do it. But I felt like he could use his time away from me too, and plus, maybe he'd find me a beautiful ring in Argentina or something.
Johnny put his glass down and swallowed. "Wait, wait. Sweetie, New York can be dangerous, ya know. Especially at night. And you're not all that familiar with it. I don't want you to get hurt."
"John, I'll be fine. Okay?" The conversation from earlier between me and Kat was rising in my mind again. I finally knew what she was talking about. She was right. Johnny was being a control freak, but I knew he was only doing it because he cared. But even though that was the case, it actually was a little annoying. I made a mental note to talk to him about it later when we got home.
Johnny rolled his eyes and sighed.
"You can stay with me at my place of you want," Kat chimed, raising one arched eyebrow. She smirked a little to herself. "You're kinda like my family now too. Marky considers you a sister," she said.
I looked over at Marky who was slowly turning pink. "Aw Mark, how sweet!" I said and kissed his cheek. Everyone laughed. This was turning out to be a great night so far. "Thanks Kat, but I already have a place to stay. I live with Johnny, so while the guys are gone I'll just stay there at his house. It'll be fine." The food came along seconds later.
"Oh man, this looks amazing!" Dee Dee said. "Let's dig in, guys."
"Definitely," Joey said. And suddenly, it was like back at the apartment. The men just completely turned into monsters when they were around food. The dinosaurs of the 20th century. Johnny even got food on me while he was busy being a carnivore over his steak.
"Ugh, John!" I wiped the food off with a napkin and scooted away from him, closer to Rosy, who was giving Dee Dee the exact same look. Josephina moved away from Joey and and Kat did the same thing with Marky. It was honestly hilarious, but it was fucking gross! Why did men eat like this?
"Jesus, would it kill you all to use a damn fork and knife for once in your miserable lives?" Kat took a sip from her glass.
Me and Josephina laughed, and Rosy started to smile. Kat was pretty funny, actually. None of the men responded, just continued eating. Us girls tried as best we could to eat quietly and stay away from the males of the group.
No one really spoke while we were eating. I think it was because the food was really good, even though my boyfriend and his bandmates all ate like a bunch of pigs. Johnny had to have better manners than this! I had to hand it to Marky though, his cooking skills must've been in the blood line. That was the best food I tasted in years from a restaurant!
The waitress from before came back and laughed like crazy when she saw us. "Wow, looks like you guys are really hungry! Is everything alright around here? Need anything else?"
The boys grunted like cavemen and I laughed. This was seriously hilarious. Rosy was laughing so hard that it looked like she was having a seizure, and Josephina put her hands in her face and smiled. Kat just shook her head and continued eating.
After a while, everyone was finished, and the guys didn't look so good. In fact, they looked a little green. Probably ate too much. What a bunch of boars.
"What's the matter, John?" I asked sarcastically. "Are your eyes bigger than your stomach? Hm?"
He stifled a burp. "No, no, what? No, never. I am perfectly fine, thank you." He looked away embarrassed. He knew I was right.
"Whatever." I said and smiled.
"I don't know, ya'll are looking a little sick there." Rosy chuckled and Josephina high-fived her.
"Listen, good food like this only comes once in a lifetime," Dee Dee said, trying hard to defend himself, but he held onto his stomach. "Oh…alright, maybe we went a little out of proportion with the food."
"Oh, you're just now realizing that?" Kat asked and pushed Dee Dee playfully.
Joey and Marky put their heads down on the table, looking worn out.
"Well guys, I guess it's time to head over to my place for the party," Kat said.
"Oh, you have a party tonight?" Dee Dee's eyes lit up. "Can we come?"
"Dee Dee, she's obviously inviting us. She just said it five seconds ago," Joey said and smiled.
"Oh. Sorry, I wasn't listening."
"As usual," Johnny mumbled.
We left the restaurant after giving a marvelous tip and we headed to Kat's place. But since she lived in Brooklyn, we all had to drive there. Since the tour van was parked nearby where Johnny left it, we all used that to get to where we had to go.
On the way there, we were all silent and just enjoyed riding in the car. Kat was driving. After about twenty minutes, we were there. As we got out of the car, Marky and Kat looked at eachother devilishly.
"Tonight's gonna be fun. I hope Angela likes to drink." Kat smirked. I smiled myself. I hardly had alcohol, so how bad could it be to get a little tipsy, right?
"Just not too much," Johnny grumbled. I put my smile away and nodded, the relatives opposite of us rolling their eyes. I never really thought of Johnny being controlling. It was just him, something I got used to. But what if he did step all over me? Kat's voice resounded in my head again. I was suddenly a bit scared, and squeezed his hand lightly. Then I leaned forward into his ear.
"Are you feeling alright, honey?"
He chuckled at my question. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You've just been kind of on edge all night. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just hate parties. Noone's in control. Somethin' always happens."
"John, for once in your life can you just have fun?" I looked into his beautiful eyes. "You always wanna go home and be boring. Live for once, babe. Come on, it'll be fun."
"We could always go back home," Johnny suggested.
I shook my head, "We should go out, have a little fun." I smiled. "Come on, baby."
Johnny gave me a half smile. "Alright, alright." After a couple of minutes, he seemed just as excited as I was to party it up a little, and he kissed my lips lightly before stopping on the sidewalk, outside of a sketchy looking apartment building. It looked like the kind of place the mafia would kill someone, to be honest.
But when we opened the door, it was like a whole new world was revealed.