Chapter Sixteen: 21 Guns
(Billie Joe’s POV)
Tré, who has also moped -- of course, he moped by writing some of Billie Joe‘s poetry/lyrics on his walls -- (and who has been inspired by Billie Joe “replacing him so quickly”) , invites Billie Joe over. Tré mentions how he felt about the failed riot, and Billie Joe counters that he felt the same exact way, then explaining what happened with Davey at the café. They end up working everything out, after a long talk and Billie sharing the poem/lyrics he wrote in Chapter 13. This is also where Billie Joe explains his past as the Jesus of Suburbia/St. Jimmy and with Davey/Whatsername. At the end of the chapter, Tré and Billie Joe both decide to quit the revolution, as they make plans to move to the City soon.
Chapter Seventeen-a: American Eulogy -- Mass Hysteria
(Billie Joe’s POV)
This song is about the hysteria following Tré and Billie Joe quitting. Billie Joe is pretty pissed off that everyone is reacting so strongly, like it’s the end of the world or something. He quietly stays at Tré’s house and they wait for the tension to die down. Alone, he thinks over his revolution as compared to Davey’s, Gloria to Whatsername. He decides that, upon moving out to the City, he and Tré should join what was Davey’s group, not as leaders, but as members.
Chapter Seventeen-b: American Eulogy -- The Modern World
(Tré’s POV)
Tré’s opinions on the (literally) modern world. He’s kinda being all ranty to Billie Joe now that he has someone to rant to again. Tré talks about how the world is decaying and how everything seems to be collapsing, that this is the era of descent and that systems are failing and the world is just generally screwed up. Tré ends by saying that he doesn’t want to live in the modern world.
Chapter Eighteen: See the Light
(Tré’s POV)
Technically the last chapter. This is Tré’s promise to Billie Joe that he is going to become clean and that they are going to stay together, forever. Tré looks over his life and his relationship with Billie Joe, noting what went wrong and what might still go wrong. He talks to Billie Joe for a while, and they compare their lives and their relationship -- or, the relationship of Christian and Gloria -- with that of Billie Joe and Davey -- or St. Jimmy and Whatsername. At the end of the chapter, they start packing to move out and the two make hotel reservations.
Chapter Nineteen: Minority
(posting it @ htttp://www.twitter.com/StJimmysEulogy)
(Billie Joe’s POV)
As he and Tré leave for the City, Billie Joe reflects on how the Jesus of Suburbia became St. Jimmy, and how St. Jimmy became Gloria. He thinks back to a time when he was addicted to…well…anything he could get his hands on and how he was so desperate that Davey left him. At the end, he says a final goodbye to the suburban town he once called home and creates a tune for the words he made up all those years ago:
“I pledge allegiance to the Underworld. One nation under Dog, here of which I stand alone. A face in the crowd, unsung against the mold. Without a doubt, singled out, the only way I know. I wanna be the minority. I don’t need your authority. Down with the moral majority. ‘Cause I wanna be the Minority…”
Chapter Twenty: Welcome to Paradise
(also @ twitter.com/StJimmysEulogy)
(Billie Joe's POV)
A month or so later -- Tré and Billie Joe's life in the City.
Umm... what?
And, as you can find on the Minority/Welcome to Paradise Twitter, I'd already written a bit of Chapter Eighteen.
(Tre's POV)
After minutes of breathless kissing and touching wherever our lustful hands could reach, Billie Joe muttered something incoherent. I asked him what he'd said.
"I said -- I wrote those lyrics for me," he restated.
"Which lyrics?" I questioned.
"See the Light. The ones on your walls."
"Oh. What about them?"
"I wrote them for me. But they can be for you, too."
I just smiled and nodded, before walking over to a wall and running my fingers over the carefully Sharpied words. A moment of silence passed before, finally, I said something. "Come here, Billie."
Slowly and silently, he walked over to me. I pulled him against me and kissed him once more, feverishly pulling his shirt off -- or trying to, anyway -- at the same time. "Make love to me again. In here. Now," I whispered in his ear. "It's gonna be our last time in the room with your words on its walls."
Billie Joe looked up at me in surprise as I threw his shirt to the ground and began taking off mine.
"We're gonna move far, far away, soon." I brought him close to me once more. "Because, Gloria, I love you."
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