Give Me A Label (I'll Make Confetti)

Chapter 40: Carpe Diem

They climbed back into Mycroft's Jag and headed out, Greg going through the CDs Mycroft had. He found another copy of ¡Uno!, as well as the next one, ¡Dos!. ¡Tré! wouldn't be out till January next year. Deciding to listen from the beginning, Greg put ¡Uno! on.

'Didn't you just change that in my bedroom because you wanted to listen to American Idiot?' Mycroft said.

'Yeah,' Greg nodded as he slid the disk into the CD player.

'So you're putting it on now because...?'

''Cause I wanna listen to it,' Greg said. Mycroft sighed, and then rolled his eyes when Greg grinned at him.

'Did you know Green Day now has four members?' Mycroft said while Greg fiddled with the CD player.

'Duh,' Greg rolled his eyes. 'I love Green Day, 'course I know that. Jason White's been tourin' with Green Day since Warning and was made an official member last September.'

'I suppose it gives Billie Joe more freedom to perform on stage,' Mycroft mused.

Greg snorted. 'You haven't seen Green Day live, right?' Mycroft shook his head. 'Well Billie Joe is the picture of a front man; he talks to the crowd, gets 'em jazzed up, and runs around like a lunatic. Fuckin' awesome,' Greg grinned.

'He never really plays every guitar part when performing live anyway, so why not make Jason White, the guy who does it, a member?' Greg continued. 'Billie Joe always plays Good Riddance, I know that much. But he prefers to get the audience involved than strictly play each and every guitar part, even though he writes it.'

'Are you stalking Green Day?' Mycroft asked.

'Maybe,' Greg chuckled. 'I keep up to date with all their stuff on Facebook, their website, and sometimes Tumblr. Good fun chatting to other people who are obsessed with Green Day.'

'We'll have to go when they tour,' Mycroft said.

'Yeah, that'd be awesome,' Greg nodded. 'They're touring this year for ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!. We should totally go.'

Mycroft smiled at the weird energy Greg seemed to get just from the thought of seeing his favourite band live. He loved Green Day too and wondered if they were really as good live as Greg claimed they were.

Greg finally got the CD player working and skipped through the first two songs, stating that he wanted to listen to one in particular. He finally stopped on track 3 and waited.

Mycroft recognised Carpe Diem; it was one of his favourite songs on ¡Uno!. Greg bopped his head along to the song, humming under his breath, and began singing out loud when the chorus started.

'Carpe Diem, a battle cry! Are we all too young to die?'

'Ask a reason and no reply,' Mycroft couldn't help but join in.

'Are we all too young to die?' Greg grinned. 'Hey, what the hell does Carpe Diem mean, anyway?' he asked over the top of the rest of the chorus.

'Seize the Day,' Mycroft answered.

'What?'

'It literally translates to Seize the Day,' Mycroft said.

Greg continued to stare at him.

'Horace,' Mycroft said before realising Greg still had no idea what he was talking about. He sighed. 'It comes from a longer phrase. Basically it means that life is too short, we're all mortal, and we should enjoy what we have while we can because you can't change the fact that life is the way it is; whatever will be, will be; Seize the Day; etcetera. You should seize the day while you have the chance and enjoy life.'