21st Century Breakdown: Nathan and Ari

Prologue - Song of the Century

Prologue

"Ari, we need to break up."

Such a simple sentence, said so nonchalantly by the boy standing in front of me in the foliage of Oakland, California. It seemed so cliché, to break up with a girl like this, speaking the refined sentence with such composure. I pulled my hood over my head of black hair, the early April wind chilling me to the bone, with the added help of the fever I was fighting. He looked at me as if he were trying to let the words ninja their way into my mind and/or heart and attack me emotionally, his eyes - normally bright blue - were gray and bleak today, the same dull color as the sky.

"Nathan..." I started to plead, but I soon realized that there was much more to getting him back than that of a weak plea of help from a frail little girl like myself. "This is bullshit. What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?" I finished, referring to the living hell my life was already becoming, even though the unthinkable words had been spoken a matter of five minutes ago. "And, just to let you know, you've been a complete dickhead towards me ever since...Tuesday."

He is Nathan Pritchard. I am Ari Armstrong. Our best friend is Anthony Wright. Our dads are Mike Pritchard (Mike Dirnt), Billie Joe Armstrong, and Frank Wright (Tre Cool) of the punk band Green Day. The three of us have been friends since we can remember, because of our dads, of course. Why Nathan and Anthony chose to hang out with me rather than Joey or Jake, my two brothers, I have absolutely no idea.

Nathan and I have been dating since a few days after Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" album came out in '09. Almost three whole years...with a few break ups in between. I could tell, though, that this time he was serious. That we would both be emotional wrecks for more than a day.

"Tuesday?" he questioned. I nod. "How so?"

I sighed, causing a fit of coughs to come out of my mouth. "Well-" cough "-I was out sick on Monday, and on Tuesday, you were a total bastard who one, didn't even bother to keep a text-conversation going, two, didn't even bother to video chat with me that night, and three, hugged another girl right in front of my face. You hugged another fucking girl! Is that really something you do in front of your fucking girlfriend?!?" I shrieked, starting to cough again. "Honestly Nathan, I wouldn't do any of that to you...especially not all in one day. Because all that shit happened Tuesday."

He looked at me with all seriousness in his eyes. "Arianna Ryan Armstrong, none of that means anything."

"Nathaniel Damien Pritchard," I began, using a variation of his own words against him, "I have two words for you: three weeks. Three fucking weeks."

"Three...what?" he responded, absolutely dumbfounded. He began to scratch his head through his own hood while I slapped my hand against my forehead. Bad idea... I thought to myself as my head began to ache.

I looked at him with my definition of a bad-ass look plastered onto my face, along with the first of many fake smiles. "Today is April fifth. Do you know what day it was three weeks ago?" He shook his head, his brown hair starting to fall into his eyes. "It was my birthday three weeks ago. My seventeenth fucking birthday."

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If any of you have ever read my little book of blurbs that I have here on Wattpad, then you would know that I wanted to write a story about the children of the members of Green Day. Well, this is it. The prologue, at least. And I guess sort of a teaser, too.

The title...ah, well, I came up with that while listening to the song "21st Century Breakdown" on my iPod. Because you know how the 21st Century Breakdown album tells the story of Christian and Gloria? Well, this is going to tell the story of Nathan and Ari, hence the title.

Honestly, I'm not very good when I comes to titles. My titles aren't witty and clever and creative like other titles are. And that's how you should be able to figure out what I wrote!

But anyway, this is the prologue/teaser, and there should be more to come, and let me know what you think about:

~the title

~the concept of this book

~and whatever else you wanna say, because I honestly have no life so I'll talk with you!

-Elissa