"Well, are you ready, Ray?" Gerard asked as he held onto the microphone and looked out over the crowd at the tiny nightclub in New Jersey where they were playing.

"Yeah," Ray said, but he still seemed nervous.

Several months had passed since they'd last played Drowning Lessons. They'd spent their days practicing until they couldn't take it anymore, until their fingers bled, until Gerard's voice gave out. They could play this song in their sleep. There was no reason why they couldn't do it here and now.

The show was going well so far, but Gerard had a feeling that this wouldn't last forever.

After all, it was March 22, 2003. In another ten years, My Chemical Romance wouldn't even exist.

Ray, Frank, Mikey, and Matt all began to play, and this time, they all started at the beginning, together. Gerard smiled - already, this was going better than last time. He listened for his cue, and when it was time to come in, he sang, "Without a sound, I took her down..."

So far, so good.

Soon, Gerard was lost in the music, listening to the beat of the drums, the pounding notes of the bass, the beautiful melodies of the guitar. He sang and screamed along, but every so often, he worried that it would all fall apart, just like it had at the theme park. If it did, it would be worse this time. They had a real audience now, fans who had paid money to see them.

Only a year ago, Frank had been one of them.

Gerard smiled and turned to Frank as he sang, "I never thought it'd be this way, just me and you, we're here alone. And if you say, all I'm asking for is..."

All of a sudden, there was a deafening crash.

"Shit, is everything okay back there?" Gerard asked as he turned backwards to see what was going on.

"Yeah, I think so," Matt muttered as he reached down to pick up the cymbal that had fallen off of his drum set. Frank sprinted to the back of the stage to help him, but the cymbal had a huge crack running from the edge almost to the center. Ray and Mikey kept playing in an attempt to entertain the crowd, but Gerard had no idea how they were going to finish the show.

Once he'd re-attached the cymbal, Matt hit it once, but it sounded flat, lifeless. Gerard started singing from where he'd left off, hoping that the audience wouldn't notice, but the cymbal breaking seemed to have killed whatever momentum they'd had from the beginning of the show. As they continued to play, the fans looked increasingly bored, as if they were simply waiting for the next act to start. No matter what Gerard did, he couldn't win back the crowd.

After the show was finally over, Matt complained to Ray about having to replace the cymbal, while Gerard poured himself some vodka, hoping to forget about all of this. "Maybe we should just stop playing Drowning Lessons," he said to Frank and Mikey. "It's clear we're never going to get it right."

"I don't know," Mikey said. "I think it's a good song."

"Not when we play it live!"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Gee," Frank said. "Matt's cymbal cracking was just a freak accident. It won't happen again."

As usual, Frank was right. It was just a coincidence that Matt's cymbal broke during Drowning Lessons. There was nothing wrong with the song itself. They'd play it again sometime, and everything would be fine. This wouldn't happen again.