Life As It Is

"It's like cleaning after two five year olds." Ella thought to herself after cleaning up the row of alcohol in the kitchen as well as any other crap.

This was her parent's way of punishing her. Besides the abuse.

It had all continued the days leading up to Billie Joe's birthday. Ella thought it was the best to stop telling him what was going on. She knew what he would say and didn't want to have to hear it again.

For Ella, it was easy to hide her abuse from teachers and friends. All she would do is wear lose sweatshirts to hide the bruises on her arms. But there was one day in particular that she regretted not doing anything.

She couldn't remember what day of the week it was but it was definitely a school day. The night before, Ella's parents beat her for no apparent reason. Her face looked like the mafia came to visit her.

There was no way in hell that she was going to school looking like that. Leave it to Billie Joe to notice that she didn't show up in the morning.

Ella had just been lying on her bed, feeling a little sleepy from the night before. The phone rang as she opened her eyes. She lazily got up, noticing that her parents weren't even home.

"Hello?" She said groggily.

"Hey babe where were you this morning? I missed you." It was Billie Joe. Ella couldn't help but smile that it was him.

"Umm I kind of started my 'time of the month'." She found herself saying. She squeezed her eyes shut and mentally kicked herself about lying to her own boyfriend.

"That sucks. I have to go though... we're playing a gig today somewhere. If ya feel better you could come. I'll miss ya."

"Me too." Ella said softly as the two both hung up.

* * *
Billie Joe was worried about his girlfriend.

After the abrupt phone call, he knew something was up. After knowing Ella for almost a month, he could tell from how she talked or acted if something was wrong.

For some reason, this was all bothering him. As Billie Joe stepped onto the small stage at the local bar that was pretty much always open, he couldn't keep his mind off of Ella. Of course she was one of the first things on his mind every single day, but when it came to music he always forgot about everything else.

Mike could tell something was up as it was obvious Billie Joe was in outer space. After finishing playing the song 'At the Library', Mike gave Al a look to purposely unplug a wire to stop playing for a minute.

"Sorry everyone just a second." Mike said into the microphone after hearing a loud sound coming from the wire being disconnected.

Billie Joe gave a puzzled look to Mike.

"What the fuck was that for?" He asked his fellow band mate.

"Dude what's wrong? You're not being you." Mike said as the small audience gave each of them puzzled looks.

"I'm worried about Ella. Something was up today." Knowing him for a while, both of Billie Joe's band mates could believe him.

"Let your mind wander, forget about it a little for the rest of the set. Or else we'll have all these idiots throw beer bottles." Al consulted Billie Joe. He plugged in the disconnected wire.

Billie Joe turned around and faced the crowd, taking a deep breath and trying to take Al's advice.

"This next song is called 'Only of You' for someone who I really care about."

* * *
Ella mindlessly stared at the television. There was pretty much nothing on except for crappy daytime soap operas.

As if she really gave a shit about each character's problems. There was enough drama with her parents to make a dramatic movie about. She sighed and pressed an ice pack against her soft cheek that had a big bruise on it.

There was a knock at the front door. Who would even be knocking on her door at this time? Unless it was Billie Joe. But he would've let her know before coming over.

She sighed and walked to her front door. As she checked through the window, it was her neighbor Mrs. Matthews. Ella's neighbors rarely came over except for the usual suburban borrowing things from one another routine, which was about it.

"Shit." She muttered to herself as she unlocked the door.

"Hello Ella! I just came over to give your mother back her dish. Is she home?" Mrs. Matthews said brightly. She noticed Ella holding the ice pack.

"Oh dear, what happened?"

"I uh, fell down and all. I'm ok though. My mom isn't here. " Ella said, forcing herself to smile as if she was ok.

"Oh I hope you feel better dear. Just give this back to your mother." Mrs. Matthews smiled brightly at Ella, handing her the dish and walking off.

"Bye Mrs. Matthews." Ella called after her.

She sighed, closing the door and headed into the kitchen to put down the dish.

Later on, as the day progressed, Billie Joe had called again. He was wondering if he could come over but she had said it was best if he didn't. Just in case her parents came back from wherever the hell they were.

It was around ten o'clock when Ella's parents had come home. Knowing from experience that they didn't dare come into her room to do anything to her, she stayed put in her room.

All she could do was helplessly stare out her window like her boyfriend was doing as well through his.