(Are We The Waiting Green Day) See that boy? See him standing in his own shadow, deep in his own thoughts. He is someone who is now just a memory, lost in my mind. He is one of two people whose stories are combined. I knew him but the other is just a story from his lips. Their story is one like any other, but with more of a twist. The Time? 21st Century. The Setting? The place in California that's too dangerous for anyone, except the punks that already live there. The Punks that were left to contaminate the streets, coloring buildings with images from their minds. Gloria, a nice name for a nice girl, right? Growing up in a household with two parents and anything she could ever wish for. A life of perfection, from her parents eyes. Her eyes must not have seen the same as her parents. A perfect life that wasn't perfect to her. She knew something was missing, the only thing she could do was wait for it. She might have thought she was waiting for a moment or a memory but she was waiting for him. (Waiting Green Day) Jimmy, he never was the romantic type but I guess that all changes when you meet the right person. I remember knowing a girl like that, What’s Her Name? I remember the face but I can't remember the name. I still wonder where she is now and how her life is without me but I let those thoughts stay in my head.
Let me tell you about Jimmy, that son of a gun. He is the one who started the story leading to his own death. They call him a saint, St. Jimmy king and ruler of all. He named himself king and gave me the title of The Jesus Of Suburbia. My real name is Johnny, when I was young my Dad just left. Once he left my mom went into a silent mode, like a ghost. After a while I couldn't stand it and left her, I haven't talked to her in years now. Just as I was being drowned by the city Jimmy saved me. He taught me how to live. We were the troublemakers of this dirty town. (Saint Jimmy Green Day) Popular guy Jimmy was, well known by the forty thieves or punks of the area. They only praised him because he had the “stuff”. I didn't, well I liked the “stuff” but I liked Jimmy too. Just something about him, a getaway from reality taking you to parties just to get wasted, shooting tin cans at this old place we found and the endless supply of the “stuff”. People say he is insane or just plain crazy. If anyone who thinks a little differently is crazy then I guess we all are. (Welcome to Paradise Green Day) While I was with What's Her Name, Jimmy found a girl of his own, or more like she found him. He was on the side of the road, crying. I know it sounds a little childish but if you were as messed up and on the type of hangover he was on you would be crying too. Jimmy told me this story and now in honor of him, I’m telling it to you. For all I knew Gloria could have been an imaginary friend from a dream or a made up story from the depths of Jimmy’s mind. Some of us never believed him but now we wouldn't ever doubt that the tragedy of Jimmy and Gloria is true. Gloria didn't know anything really, she did grow up in a very restricted household. He must of really loved her. He did really love her, never talked about anything else. She found him, mumbling crazy things under his breath on the side of the road. She must of seen something in him, the way he never combed his hair or how he always had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I don't know what made her stop and help him up. She drove him back to our place, a old broken house, deserted and lost in the rush of the city, broken and lost sorta like Jimmy. His parents left him, I’m pretty sure his dad got shot in front of him by his mom. His mom then ran away leaving little Jimmy to fend for himself. The people around here must of liked his smart remarks and taken him under their wing. He then grew up into a life of alcohol, swearing, drugs, fighting, and cigarettes. I guess you could call them punks, they certainly acted like them. Jimmy was raised by a few wasted guys, dropouts in high school. They treated him more like a little brother than a child. (21st Century Breakdown Green Day) I don't know where those guys are now, but Jimmy is still here, or was.
When Gloria found him she took him home to us, he let her wipe the dirt off his face and clean the cuts from a recent fight. After that she just kept coming back, I guess those punks weren't the only one who liked his smartass remarks about life. (¡Viva La Gloria! Green Day) Gloria must have learned a lot about life and the truth. Once you leave school, life and reality team up against you and shove you down, and there is no one to help you. After a while she started changing. Jimmy said she even copied his lip ring, and chain from his belt. He described her with wild hair dyed redder than blood, eyeliner as black as the hole in the earth’s soul. A smirk, a glare, studded boots, and eyes that warm your body and absorb you into their sunny light. (Last of The American Girls Green Day) She sounded unforgettable, you could say she was always meant to be the punk type but her mom fed her too much Christen, good grades, and soft pink school girl for breakfast every morning. Once her parents found out about Jimmy, her parents hated him and that’s my best guess why Gloria ran away. (¿Viva La Gloria? Green Day) She loved her Jimmy, and Jimmy loved her right back. Her dad called the police and looked into Jimmy’s records. I guess Jimmy had been to jail one too many times probably for murder or drugs because the police decided Jimmy kidnaped Gloria, using illegal drugs to tempt her or something like that just to make this worse than it already was. Jimmy and Gloria lived a life always running from the cops and eventually the cops caught up with them. We all knew they would. They caught Gloria at a 7 Eleven and took her home, she wouldn't tell them where Jimmy was. Jimmy came back to my place, he said he couldn't find her. We went around asking people about her, there was a rumor that she was dead and Jimmy believed it. (Murder City Green Day)
I’ve never seen him like this before and it was hard to describe what happened next. Jimmy looked to the sky as if there was something there, as if he believed that the something was looking down, right at him, listening. (Know Your Enemy Green Day) He started shouting. “I NEVER KNEW YOU. ALL MY LIFE, YOU WERE ABSENT, MISSING, LOST. WHO WERE YOU? BEFORE ALL THIS WHO WERE YOU? SHE SAID, I REMEMBER SHE SAID THAT YOU WOULD LISTEN. I BELIEVED HER UNTIL NOW YOU WERE NEVER HERE FOR ME. EVER!” His head sunk down and he started mumbling. “I was nothing to you and you were nothing to me. My dad gone, my mom didn't care about me, neither did you. I have walked the same earth you have and know the same faces, but because of who I am do you look down at me?” He looked at me and his eyes were different, anger swelled beneath them instead of tears. His voice was sharp and jagged, it struck my ears like lightning. The veins in his arms stood out against his skin making his tattoos move as if they could feel his anger. He continued mumbling, telling his story, his mom killing his dad then leaving. How he grew up blind, then met her. The fights stopped and he was cured. No more novocaine to take the pain away. No more beers to blur the scene, because of Gloria but all of that was ripped away, faster than a knife slashes an arm. (Give Me Novacaine Green Day) Gripping his own arm he began to scream, a sad but piercing scream, it hurt to watch him, it hurt to hear him. They had broken him, took away the one thing that kept him from going mad and never coming back. He can't bear it anymore. We all watched him, hands gripping arms, curled up. Sounds started coming from his lips, he sounded like a hurt animal, blood started dripping down his arms and no one dared to touch him. His head snapped up, eyes straight at me and with his eyes came everyone else’s, he grabbed my gun and before anyone could move or even blink, with a insane laugh, Jimmy was gone. (21 Guns Green Day) He loved her I can tell you that much, after he pulled the trigger a shot rang through the air, it was the only sound. People, most I didn't know stood around him. They all started slowly coming back to life, a girl was sobbing in the background of my drained mind.
Someone must have called the cop’s because they showed up and in the car with them was Gloria, she must have brought them here. Somehow she knew this was going to happen but when she saw him, Jimmy laying there, her eyes didn't look sunny anymore, they looked sunken and dying, she was dying inside. The police were stunned but they knew to hold her back. Gloria wasn't going without a fight, she screamed, kicked and punched one cop in the face. He fell and I would have laughed but faster than Jimmy she had the cops gun in her hand. I saw blood streaming from her head down her arm before I noticed a gun shot ringing in my ears. (Last Night On Earth Green Day) All I could hear was Jimmy screaming and Gloria’s gun shot, all I could see was Jimmy absorbed in his own shadow lying dead next to Gloria. What happened left everyone silent, no one touched them for a while.
After that, seeing them lying next to each other we all just stopped. The life of fighting, getting wasted and novacaine from Jimmy was gone. The punks left and the city took over what used to be our place. I got a job and never saw What's Her Name or anyone from those memories again. We were the ones to bury Jimmy’s body, no one knew where his mom was. Gloria was buried next to him. It was like a dream that keeps repeating in your head, now its like a second life someone who I will never be again, the reflection in the mirror that looks like you but just isn't you. (Wake Me Up When September Ends Green Day)