Disclaimer:

This is fan fiction. Though the characters involve real people, this does not recount real events. The rating on this story is PG.

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Author’s Disclaimer: I do NOT own The White Stripes. They are people. Not objects. The following is a work of fiction that came from MY imagination. Please read and send me reviews…I really like reviews.

S O M E T H I N G N E W

© Glitterscars, 2003

Meg smiled her big, reassuring smile as we walked out onto the stage amidst cheers and shouts from the audience. We both took our traditional places, her seated behind her drum set and I standing, vulnerable in front of a crowd of at least a thousand people.

All of them were wearing red and white, the trademark style Meg and I developed to go along with our name. But looking at all these people, all these people who thought they knew us and everything about us just from hearing a song or two on the radio…looking at these people made me think of a sea of blood and whipped cream.

“Jack! Jack! Jack!” they were all screaming. But for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to start playing. It was as if my hands were frozen in place and I couldn’t move them at all. Meg kept looking over her drum kit to see when I would start but I just couldn’t. I’d had enough of this. I wanted…no, I needed a break. I took one last look at the audience then walked off stage.

“Jack, what’s wrong?” Meg asked me when she caught up with me backstage. The people in the audience where beginning to shout and I was worried that a riot would begin. I looked into Meg’s eyes and saw a look of deep sadness. I knew at that moment that she felt exactly the same way I did.

“I just can’t do this anymore Meg, it’s just to demanding. They’re killing me.” I said, motioning in the direction of the audience. She sighed then wrapped her arms around me and we hugged for the longest time. I had never felt so relieved in my life.

“I know Jack, but we have to finish this tour. If we don’t then the record company could sue us. It’s almost over anyway.” She said to me when we finally pulled apart.

I nodded and together we walked back out onto the stage. The cheers erupted once again and I found myself playing the introduction to Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. Little did these poor people know this would be the last time I would ever play that song, ever again.

“Good show guys! The audience LOVED it!” Manny, our tour manager yelled as we walked backstage after the show was finally over. I just gave him the finger and went to my dressing room, slamming the door behind me. I got into the shower and let the warm water run over my face. When I got out Meg was sitting on the sofa reading a magazine and eating cashews.

“I’d appreciate it if you knocked next time.” I said grumpily as I rummaged through my bag trying to find something comfortable to wear.

“I did. You didn’t hear me so I thought I’d just wait for you in here. Besides, I have some good news for you.”

“Go on.” I said. Whatever good news she had would most likely cheer me up. At least a little bit.

“Our next show is at a really small club. Only about two-hundred people are going to be able to fit in there. Not to bad, don’t you think?” she said. She genuinely looked like she was trying to cheer me up so I decided I wouldn’t burst her bubble. I put on the best fake smile I could muster.

“That’s great! I’ll only have to sign two-hundred autographs, and I’ll only have to give a hug to two-hundred people, and I’ll only have say “Hi, thanks for coming” two-hundred freaking times!” It didn’t work. My bad mood took over and I blasted all my negative energy at poor Meg who was just sitting there looking stunned.

“Sorry…I, I’ll just go now.” She said, not wanting to start a fight. My heart dropped and I immediately felt bad for the way I reacted to her good news.

“Aww Meg, I’m sorry. You can stay. Really…I didn’t mean it. I’ve just been having a rough time.”

“Jack I’ve been having a rough time too but you don’t see me yelling at someone who can’t do a single thing about it! We only have three more shows left on this tour so we might as well make the best of it. Come on…let’s go shopping.” And she took my hand and pulled me out of my dressing room. Then she pulled me back into my dressing room so I could finish getting dressed.

The first place we went was the CN tower. Then after looking at that we made our way to the Skydome. Then we went shopping at some cool vintage stores and to be honest, that really cheered me up a lot. We were having fun and blowing off a lot of steam. No one even recognized us because we decided to go incognito. Meg was dressed in some old ladies dress and I was wearing a brown suit with a brown fedora. It was dark outside anyways so if anyone did recognize us then it would probably be some mugger who only wanted our money.

All good things must come to an end though. When we got back to the hotel there was a horde of fans waiting outside my hotel room. Luckily they didn’t see me so I went back the opposite direction to a pay phone so I could call the cops to get them away from there. It worked rather well.

“I told you that we’d have fun,” Meg told me when we walked into our room.

“Ok, so you were right. Don’t rub it in. Do we have anything left in the mini-bar?”

“We better! Jack I swear to god…if you drank everything in there then YOU are paying for it. That stuff is really expensive!” she said to me in an exasperated voice.

I laughed and laughed and for some reason I just couldn’t stop. I fell over onto the couch and just laughed my head off, all the while Meg was looking at me like I was some kind of nut-case. When I finally stopped laughing and sat up she sat down next to me and put her arm around me.

“Well, it’s nice to finally see you laughing. I really don’t think that’s something you’ve done for a long time.”

I punched her playfully in the arm and we ended up having a pillow fight. It was the best night I had had in a really long time. We fell asleep sprawled across the floor of the living room and didn’t wake up until late in the afternoon the next day.
A week later we were playing our last show for the tour. It was in New York City which was one of my favourite places to go. I was happy about this being our last show, but nervous about having to tell the press that the White Stripes were no longer together.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing was going to happen to the relationship Meg and I had. She was my best friend and she was always going to be. We just weren’t going to be in a band together anymore. If she wanted to start up another band I would support her 100% of the way.

After the last show I went into my dressing room and started packing up all my stuff. Meg came in and we asked one of our roadies to go find Manny. We were going to tell him.

“What can I do for you? He asked when he got into my room.

“Manny, we really need to talk. And you might want to sit down for this.” I said. He sat down and Meg and I looked at each other. “Um…I don’t exactly know how to say this, but…” I trailed off and looked at Meg for help.

“We’re not going to play anymore.” She told him. Manny’s face dropped and he went as pale as a ghost.

“You…you’re not going to play anymore? Meaning…you’re breaking up? Is this the end of you guys?” he asked.

“Of course not,” I told him. “This is only the end of the White Stripes. Meg and I are still going to be us. We just won’t be rock stars anymore.

“But, can I ask why?”

“No. Because you wouldn’t understand.” I said. Meg just looked at her feet and a tear ran down her cheek. I slipped my hand in hers and squeezed. She squeezed back and I knew she was going to be alright. Manny looked at us and stood up.

“Well then,” he began, “I wish you both the best of luck. And before I leave I must tell you that I have never worked with such wonderful people in my life. If you ever need anything from me, you know where to find me.” And with that he shook my hand, gave Meg a quick kiss on the cheek, tipped his black bowler hat towards us and walked out.

“Jack?” Meg said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad we did this.”

“So am I.” I replied. Then I bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips. This was the start of something new. We walked out of the venue, hand in hand and knew that we would live “happily ever after”.

N A V I G A T I O N :

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