Life As It Is

Ella walked into her house, angry at Billie Joe and herself. When she closed the door behind her, she saw them. Her parents. Drunk and angry. Ready to take everything out on her. A few yells, punches, and slams later; she was unconscious.

Then she heard her name.

"Ella. Wake up." Mike nudged her softly on the floor. Her eyes immediately opened. She gasped a little. She had a horrible headache. A typical hangover.

"Owww... "She said as she stood up, "How much did I drink last night?"

"Enough to keep you and Billie passed out till three." Mike said.

"It's three in the afternoon?" Ella exclaimed and looked outside. The sun was brightly shining so she turned away.

"Yep." He nodded.

Ella looked around her room for an aspirin bottle. "Where's Billie Joe?" She asked as she finally found the aspirin bottle.

"Downstairs, moaning about his headache." Mike and Ella softly laughed. The two headed downstairs.

"Hey what were you dreaming about? You were mumbling and shit." Mike asked Ella while they were walking down the stairs.

"Reliving bad memories." She simply said. And he knew what she meant.

The two friends found Billie Joe lying on the couch, with his eyes closed.

"Fucking hangover." He grumbled to himself. Ella walked over and tossed the aspirin bottle, then kissed him on his forehead.

"Enjoy." She grinned.

Billie Joe smiled and treated the aspirin bottle as if it were the eighth wonder of the world.

The rest of the day was spent with Ella, Billie Joe, and Mike playing Nintendo and surfing through the channels on TV. Since the couple had officially ruined their sleeping routine for a while, it took them a while to get to sleep.

It was late into the night, and the couple had finally gotten to sleep in Billie Joe's room this time; sleeping peacefully. Ella started mumbling and suddenly woke up gasping.

She had the dream again.

"Mmm... what's wrong?" Billie Joe asked after being awoken.

Ella was breathing deeply. She finally got her normal breathing pattern back, and explained. Billie Joe, the listener as he always was, clung to every word she said.

"I think it's a sign." Ella said when she was done.

"About what?"

"I don't know, maybe to go visit them." She was looking down at her hands. Visiting them had never even crossed her mind.

"Maybe... you do have a point though babe." Billie Joe agreed. Ella nodded, and the two tried to go back to sleep.

* * *
The next few nights for Ella were spent being sleep deprived. She kept having the same dream over and over again. Ella knew what she had to do.

<br />"I'm gonna go." She simply told Billie Joe.

<br />"You sure?" He asked.

<br />"Yeah, it's been bothering me enough."

<br />Billie Joe nodded,"El, I'm there for you no matter what." She nodded back and laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.

* * *
After talking it over with Ollie as well, Ella made her decision to show up the following week. Billie Joe of course, drove her over to the prison. He stopped the engine and Ella was fumbling with her seatbelt.

"You sure you're gonna be ok?" He asked worryingly.

Ella touched his cheek and smiled, "Yeah I'll figure it out. Don't worry about me ok?"

She turned around, opened the car door and entered the prison. When she got inside, it felt like she was right in one of those movies that had a really professional prison. Ella took a deep breath and spoke to one of the officers.

A few minutes later, she was taken inside a room where she could talk to both of her parents at the same time. She saw them enter the room, and the memories came rushing back to her.

Her parents didn't seem like they had changed much. Probably the only thing that changed about Ella's father was that he needed to shave. They both sat down and looked at their daughter.

"We didn't think you were ever going to visit." Her mother said breaking the silence.

"Well now I am, aren't I?" Ella said confidently.

"Eleanor," Her father said, starting to speak, "What we both did was wrong. Things were out of control and we took it out on you."

"Why take it out on me, dad? For the past couple of years I knew we were in big trouble with the bills and stuff. But that gave you no right to treat me the way you did. I barely had friends during high school because I had to live under rules you didn't need to set for me. I never did anything wrong to both of you. I haven't even had contact with any of our family since you lost your job at the factory." It was good to let it all out and just have her parents listen to her.

"We were frightened. Your mother and I didn't know what to do. Obviously, we weren't good parents to you." Ella's father said.

"You shouldn't have started to drink. Both of you have never trusted me and you know it. I know it was wrong of me to go and sneak out all those nights after I stormed off with Billie Joe. But you were making assumptions and I couldn't get through to either of you." She said, not afraid of anything.

"I couldn't have blamed you for ever storming off," Her mother said, "You deserve the best. And we're going to be out of jail in a few years and become better people." Ella's father nodded.

"You don't have to forgive us right now."

Ella bit her lip, "I've moved on from what happened. But... nothing can ever be the same with you both." She finished what she said quietly. They both nodded.

"I just wanted some closure with both of you right now. I got accepted at UC Berkeley."

They both smiled, but both of their faces looked slightly pale.

"Congratulations." They both said, attempting to smile.

They talked for a few more minutes until the security guard told them that their time was up. They had been given an hour, and the hour was up. Ella slowly got up, looked down and slowly left. A sigh of relief came over her. She finally had closure.

Billie Joe noticed his girlfriend walking down the stairs towards the car. He had expected her to look upset or to even cry a little, but she didn't.

"How'd it go?" He said as she quietly got in the car.

"Fine. I got the closure I needed." She said.

"Good." Billie Joe smiled. She smiled a little too and then moved a little to kiss him.

"What was that for?"

"Just being there for me like you said you would."

As usual, the couple slept in bed together. They were pretty tired although they hadn't done much during the day except for just sitting around and talking. Since then, Ella moved on as she said she did to her parents. Ollie had asked her what had happened and was proud of what Ella did.

Ella noticed Billie Joe grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and laughed.

"What?"

"Remember when I told you that once you got into UC Berkeley I'd do my 'I-told-you-so' dance?" He continued to grin.

"Oh god... please Billie Joe, don't do it." She started laughing.

"Pffttt... too late!" He jumped straight out of Ella's bed. All of a sudden, he was doing a dance that looked like disco and the electric slide mixed together. Ella was laughing uncontrollably.

"Told you so, told you so, told you-told you- told you so!" Billie Joe yelled. Ella was still laughing. She swung her legs out of her bed, then pinned her boyfriend on the ground.

"Shut up." She laughed and kissed him, they stayed down there for a little while, just kissing before Ella let go of Billie Joe.

That night, Ella didn't have the dream. She never dreamt about it again from there-on.