No one really knows why Fall out Boy are so secretive, why they refuse to show their faces. Someone once told me that the lead singer has really bad anxiety and so can't bring himself to talk to anyone but the other band members, let alone have an entire fandom after him.

I understand what that's like. Before I came to Chicago, my stepfather would beat me every day and so I never wanted to leave my room. I'd just sit there for hours on end, playing Fall Out Boy as loudly as I dared, which wasn't ever very loud, plotting my escape. I hated talking to other people because they usually had no idea what was going on at home, and that annoyed me no end. I wanted to scream the truth at them, and at the same time, I wanted to crawl under my bed and never show my face in the light again.

So one day, I saw my chance. I made up a story about internships in Chicago and left. I've never gone back, not in the three years that I've been here. And nor do I ever want to. In an ideal world, I'd have taken my mother with me. I did in fact tell the police about the beatings before I left, but I don't think they ever did anything about it.

Still, though. One day, I'd love for Fall Out Boy to come out and show us all who they really are, but I don't think that will ever happen. The secrecy means you don't tend to get a lot of fangirls in the fandom, because to like them in that way, you kind of need more than their voices.

All I know is that the lead singer is incredible. He has the kind of voice that can be deep and soulful one minute, and then high and angry the next. Somehow, I've always thought that Fall Out Boy understand me. Like, their lyrics have always portrayed exactly who I am and what I'm thinking in a way that sounds good. A lot of people say that Fall Out Boy will never show their faces. There's a whole group of people who try to find out who Fall Out Boy are, but they've never come close. The band members protect their accounts with software and shit, and they never give anything away.

Personally, I don't know what to think. Sometimes, I wish that they'd do a gig or something, just so I could see them, but then again I kind of enjoy the secrecy. The whole thing is just more interesting this way.