Life As It Is

It had felt like forever since Mike had informed Ella about what was going on with Al, whereas in reality, it had only been a day.

Of course, the last time Ella had kept a secret from Billie Joe was when her parents had continued to abuse her. He already could tell something was up with her. Her worst fear right now was him finding out by just the expression on her face.

But nothing had really seemed odd to Billie Joe in the past twenty-four hours.

Ella sat in her bedroom towards her desk, working on a paper. Although her papers were intended to be long and complicated, she was pretty good at writing papers—whether it was for high school or college.

The door was closed and the house was very quiet. Billie Joe was out and about with his friends and then at band practice.

Then the door opened loudly.

"Honey I'm home!" Billie Joe said goofily as he walked in.

Ella looked up from her paper and her jaw dropped. She couldn't believe what he did. Billie Joe had chopped off his jet black hair that had been growing out in the past and then dyed it blonde.

"Excuse me sir but my boyfriend might be coming soon and he'll kick your ass and call the cops on you." Ella tried to keep a straight face as she spoke.

"Hmm... too bad, I'll kick his ass first." He bent down to kiss his girlfriend.

"Ok what's the deal with the hair?"

Billie Joe shrugged, "Just needed a change."

Ella winced a little from the inside. Change was usually a good thing or a bad thing. But what he didn't know was the bad change.

"You don't like it?" He said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Are you kidding me? It gives me more of a chance to tug on your hair,"
She said and grinned.

* * *
Without any notice, the month of February had arrived. It was yet another Valentine's Day which was spent again not making it a big deal between the couple. Because of course, three days later Billie Joe Armstrong would be turning eighteen.

The day before the future rock star's birthday, something unexpected happened.

Ella had been getting ready for one of her classes, glancing at the clock; it was around one o'clock which gave her enough time to drive over to the campus with her semi-new car her boyfriend had given her as a Valentine's Day present.

Just then, Billie Joe had walked into the house with a bored expression.

"Hey... what are doing home?" His girlfriend reluctantly asked as she was looking around for her keys.

"Uhh... maybe you should sit down," He said with a sort of important look on his face.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Ella joked.

"Oh El, get real." He smirked.

"Ok so what's this about?"

"I kinda made a decision today... "

"About... "

"Dropping out of high school. Which I umm... did."

Ella's ears had definitely perked up after the information she had just received.

"You what?"

"I dropped out El... " Billie Joe trailed off a little.

"But why?" She was full of questions.

"Because it was holding me back from what I wanna do. Be a musician and be in a band," He said, satisfied with his answer.

Ella was still speechless, trying to take in all this information. There was a long silence as she was thinking.

"You don't have to support me. I get it if you don't... " Billie Joe said to break the silence.

"No, I do," She said softly, "Because I believe in you. But what are you gonna tell your mom?"

"Shit. I was thinking more about your reaction." Ella gave him a smile and took a glance at the clock again.

"Damn, I have to go Bill. I hope it all goes well." She stood up, gave her boyfriend a long kiss and was out the door.

Please God don't let Billie dropping out be something he regrets later. Ella thought to herself as she walked out.

Later on in the evening, Billie Joe had to confront his fear of telling his mother that earlier in the day he had dropped out of high school. Hopefully a similarity they both shared now would bring them closer and not farther apart.

After practicing in front of a mirror, practiced in front of his girlfriend and his friends, he took a deep breath and walked into his mother's bedroom where she was quietly resting.

Billie Joe quietly knocked on her day.

"Come in kiddo," Ollie said as she was now sitting on her bed.

"Hey mom," Billie Joe said, "We need to talk."

Ollie saw the concern on her son's face and had definitely taken the hint that something was up.

"What's wrong Billie Joe?"

"Today I kind of did something that I think I really should do."

"Well what'd you do?" His mother asked curiously.

"I umm... I dropped out of school."

"What?" She said with a stern voice.

"I dropped out," He said, quietly this time.

"Billie! Why did you do this?"

"Mom, I was bound to fail anyway. I mean, I don't like school. It's holding me back from music."

"Sweetie, I don't want you to regret this. I dropped out too but I could've done bigger, better things if I hadn't," Ollie said, her voice growing softer.

"I know, I know but can't you just believe in me? I mean, I have Mike and Al... Green Day is going great."

Ollie sighed and reached her hand out to her son.

"Ok Billie. You're almost an adult and I can't hold you back forever.
So if dropping out is what you really want, then you don't have to go back."

Billie Joe hugged his mom and left the room to his own to find his girlfriend anxiously sitting on his bed.

"How'd it go?" She asked impatiently.

"Actually... pretty good. I thought I'd really get it."

Ella hugged her boyfriend.

"Good, good." She smiled as she had her head resting on his shoulder.

"I just really hope I don't fuck this up," Billie Joe said as they broke apart.

"Why'd you do it in the first place though? We never talked about dropping out or anything."

He shrugged, "I think it was kind of like... a spur of the moment, you know? I was just in that place, thinking, watching everyone and I just knew that I didn't belong. Music is what I wanna do and high school was just in the way of it."

The next day Billie Joe officially turned eighteen. It was of course a joyous occasion that ended up with a huge hangover.

And of course, his girlfriend was always at his side. This year, Ella had gotten him a very expensive and rare Ramones vinyl.

"See this is why I love you!" He leaned over to her since she was sitting on her lap and kissed her.

She grinned as she was kissing him, glad that the simplest thing could make her boyfriend of a year and one month happy.

Their kisses had deepened and soon enough they had moved to the bed. But of course, Mike stopped them.

"Shit!" He said a little too loud which frightened the two of them.
They both looked embarrassed and quickly got off of each other. Then they giggled.

"I swear if you two get any closer you'll become a grilled cheese sandwich," Mike said, muttering. The couple continued to giggle.

Later on, everyone had a good time enjoying Billie Joe's birthday. It was yet another fun time with booze that would later be regretted the next morning.

Everything was going great as usual, but the couple knew that whenever good things started to happen, bad things equally started to happen.

It was just something they both knew.