Life As It Is

Ella walked into the airplane with tears still running down her cheeks as she still tried to wipe them away. Parting away from someone she loved was definitely harder than she thought. It hadn't been that hard to leave her parents, who she hadn't even bothered to see before she left because of course, they had definitely lost contact.

She paced herself as she walked through the aisle, looking for the seat that matched what it said on her ticket. When she found her seat at last, it was a two person seat. The second person was already there.

The girl, who looked around Ella's age, had blonde hair with a purple streak in it. Definitely a punk. She was smirking and flipping through Rolling Stone as she chewed gum. The seat were Ella was supposed to sit was the window seat where she had to pass the girl.

"Excuse me," She muttered as the girl moved her legs so Ella could sit.

"Thanks," She muttered again.

The girl nodded and went back to her magazine. A few moments later, she looked back up again at Ella who was staring out the window.

"You ok?" She asked.

Ella looked over at the girl with her now puffy brown eyes and shrugged.

"Not really."

"How come?"

Most people would've been annoyed at the girl for asking that. But Ella was never one to be annoyed at such things.

"It's a really, really long story... "

The girl looked over at her watch.

"Oh, I think a five to six hour flight is enough." The girl laughed.

Ella sighed and started to tell the story. By the time she was done, the plane was already taking off for New York.

The girl hung onto every single word from her abusive parents to what had recently happened. She was obviously a committed listener like Billie Joe was.

"Wow," She said, amazed. "What a journey."

"I know," Ella nodded and tried to get more comfortable in her seat.

"Sounds like a tragic fucked up love story. But who knows, it might be for the best. Plus, he was like, your first 'love'."

"I don't know... "

"Only time will tell umm... what's your name?"

"Ella."

"Right, yeah. Ella. Only time will tell."

She smiled at this.

"And your name is... "

"Holly."

"Holly. Cool." She smiled.

"Yep."

"So what's your story?"

Holly shrugged, "Nothing really. Came from Oakland, nowhere near Berkeley or Rodeo though. Divorced parents, coming to this college to become a journalist... " She trailed off and mentioned the same college name she was going to.

"Sounds cool. I'm gonna go to the same place as you by the way."

"Yeah... I left the punk scene, just everything to follow my dream."

"That's really gutsy."

"Thanks," She said and chuckled. "I can be gutsy sometimes. Like the fact that I have no place to live... "

"Ha. Same here."

The conversation continued to go on and on. For the next hour or so, Ella hadn't set her mind to Billie Joe. The two learned a lot about one another. They became friends quickly as well as roommates since they were practically homeless people.

When they finally arrived, Holly had already dozed off to sleep on her shoulder. Ella smiled but suddenly thought of her now ex-boyfriend.

"Holly," She whispered, nudging her new friend. "We're in New York now... "

Holly groaned a little and woke up.

People were slowly exiting the plane. And so were the two new friends.

* * *
Ella spent her first night in the big city in a hotel. She and Holly had planned to meet up the next day. It was good to know that she at least knew one friendly face in such a big city.

Although while being on the plane, she hadn't really thought about Billie Joe, she wasn't as distracted anymore. She lay down on her bed and unpacked what she needed. She stumbled across the pictures she and Billie Joe had taken on her nineteenth birthday. The one where she was also kind of taking a portrait of him.

She smiled and thumbed through the photos of them acting silly, kissing and whatnot. Ella wished she could have savored those moments more if she had known they'd be her last.

She wished that somewhere down the road they'd end up together again. Or that she'd fall in love like that again. She was hurting and having doubts.

Without him she felt like she was missing out on something. Maybe it really wasn't for the best. But who knew yet? It hadn't even been twenty-four hours yet.

He was going to be on tour anyway and probably meet tons of groupie girls. Now that he was available he could take total control over that.

Come on Ella; he's definitely not like that. She thought to herself. Knowing that Billie Joe was better than that and always despised it whether he was single or not.

She sighed and turned on the TV to get him off her mind again. And to prevent being homesick of her old habitat.

* * *
The next morning, Ella woke up feeling crappy. The previous night she went through the small little fridge in the room and drank a little, feeling depressed. She knew better than to drink to make her pain go away.

She sighed and went to go take a shower. She would be meeting with Holly in about two hours.

Ella stripped down to nothing and got into the shower, letting the warm water soothe her body. In a matter of a few minutes, she was out and feeling refreshed. But her heart was still aching.

She felt that she needed to do everything in her power to get Billie Joe off of her mind. They made their decision and that was that. How long would it eat at her though?

Two hours later, she was out and about to meet with her new friend. The two were sitting at a cheap restaurant, looking for something cheap of course to eat.

"How'd ya sleep?" Holly asked as Ella looked at the menu.

"Shitty. You?"

"Like a baby. I had major jetlag. And I'm guessing you got a little drunk and of course was thinking about Billie Joe?"

Ella nodded.

"I'm not that stupid." They both gave a laugh.

After their short breakfast, they both browsed through the classifieds to find something not as pricey as Manhattan apartments usually went.

They were in luck, but they first had to get jobs.

"I used to be a waitress," Ella said, remembering her old job and forgetting the warm goodbye celebration they had given her two days prior as well as the other goodbye party. How could she have forgotten?

Holly shrugged.

"Guess I need to become one then. Not much experience with jobs."

While registering at their new college, the girls managed to find jobs in a matter of a few days. It would take them a while to earn the money they needed for the apartment they wanted. But Holly was actually good at negotiating with the apartment's landlord.

"You sure you wanna be a journalist?" Ella raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes," She said, raising her eyebrow in return. "It's better than that."

Things were of course moving fast again. Given to her past, she was of course used to things always moving fast. In Holly's case, it sort of seemed the same since she seemed to have been adjusting easily as well.

The two were getting along fine and seemed to have a steady friendship.

The first few weeks in her new shared apartment, Ella just couldn't sleep. She constantly went through the pictures of anything that had to do from where she came from. Some nights she'd just sit there and think. She was still heartbroken just as Billie Joe probably was.

She wished she knew where he was at that exact moment. Ella mentally kicked herself for not knowing the exact tour dates. She sighed again and wished she just—stop wishing things already.

It was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do. You couldn't hold each other back, She said to herself.

Life was tough at the moment. At this time, Billie Joe would have reassured her just like she would to him.

Maybe all she needed right at this time was just Holly and school. Then she'd think more into a love life again. For now, it was a bad time. She wanted Billie Joe happy just as much as he wanted her to be happy too.

She was slowly trying to move on.

But how long would it take until she and he were probably ready to move on?