Sequel: Hold On

Life As It Is

Scattered Pictures and Troubled Times

It was soon sometime in 1997. At the age of twenty-five, Billie Joe Armstrong had accomplished quite a lot. He was a successful musician with his band Green Day and had a wife and child. Not many people could achieve that at such an age.

Like all bands of course, Green Day had suffered quite exhaustion from their Insomniac tour and decided to cut it short to relax. This paved the way for the next album they'd be making.

It was the typical boring Saturday morning. Although he was as rich and famous as he was, Billie Joe was cleaning with his wife of three years. They were both recovering from a fight they had had sometime during the week.

Billie Joe carefully went through each and every one of his boxes in his bedroom. He found things from his childhood that he reluctantly kept, things from various tours, and of course, items from his teenage years. He grinned at all the weird things he still had, and being the packrat he was, didn't want to throw them away.

He reached the end of the box when all of a sudden he saw a stack of pictures with a rubber band to hold them all together. He looked at it questionably and slowly picked it up and took the rubber band off to go through the pictures. He turned away from the box and went through each and every one of them.

They were pictures of the girl he used to once love. Ella. He distinctly remembered that the first stack of pictures had been from the gig with Tre before he had become their official drummer and the day Ella's parents had been arrested after they knocked her out. Her photography was still wonderful although it was eight years old.

The next stack contained pictures she had taken from their school concert. He remembered that day perfectly.

The last stack was pictures of them. The portrait she had taken of him and the pictures where they were just fiddling around with the camera. Shots of them kissing, making funny faces and whatnot. He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath the whole time. He let out a sigh.

Ella seemed like a lifetime ago. Something way before Adrienne. The thing was, as much as he loved Adrienne, he still loved Ella. He knew that even as a married man and seven years later.

He was wondering how she was, how things were going, was she married? So many questions to ask to her.

And just like that, in the spur of a moment. The lyrics seemed to spill out into his head. He quickly got his pad and pen and started jotting down lyrics.

I've got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor
Reminds me of the times we shared
Makes me wish that you were here


He couldn't think of the next two lines but quickly thought of something as he grabbed his guitar and fiddled around with chords.

Now it seems I've forgotten my purpose in this life
All the songs have been erased
Guess I've learned from my mistakes


In a matter of a few minutes, he was done writing up to the end of the song.

Open the past and present now and we are there
Story to tell and I am listening
Open the past and present and the future too
It's all I've got and I'm giving it to you

Loose ends tied in knots leaving a lump down in my throat
Gagging on a souvenir
Lodged to fill another year
Drag it on and on until my skin is ripped to shreds
Leaving my self wide open
Living out a sacrifice

If you got no one and I got no place to go
Would it be alright? Could it be alright?


Given his talent, he could hear the song already playing in his head.

He knew he'd never see her, but he secretly thought the song kind of had his last bits of hope of knowing where she was and how she was doing.

* * *
Billie Joe forgot about the song for quite some time until Green Day had been in the studio.

"Any new songs Bill?" Mike asked him as he was tuning up his bass, all set as Tre fiddled around with the drums.

"Uhh yea... " Billie Joe said as he took out the song out of his pocket.

"Scattered." Mike read off the title and started to look at the lyrics. In a short matter of time, Tre walked over and read over his shoulder.

"OUUU! Mikey boy has a looove note!" Tre said like a five year old.

Mike hit him in the arm.

"Shut up, it's Billie's new song."

"It's a looove song."

"No shit Sherlock."

Billie Joe drummed his fingers again the desk he was leaning towards. When Mike and Tre were done, he explained about the instrumental parts.

"Sounds good man." Mike said as he tried to figure out a good bass part while Tre hopped back to his drum stool.

"Thanks."

"I'm guessing you wrote it for Adie?"

Billie Joe's stomach did a flip. He couldn't lie to his best friend of fifteen years.

"No... " He said as he looked down at the floor.

"Then for who?" Mike asked curiously. Clearly, he'd forgotten Ella through the years.

"Ella." Billie Joe said in a near whisper.

"What? You haven't thought about her since... you met Adie."

"Well she did cross my mind sometimes. But yeah man the song is about her. I found the old pictures and it all just came to me."

Tre sighed as he listened in on his fellow band mate's conversation.

"I miss Hot Stuff... "

"Shut up, Tre." Billie Joe and Mike said in unison and laughed. Then Mike's expression turned serious.

"Are you gonna tell Adie once she guesses the song's about her?"

"No. I'll say it was pure inspiration. I think we've fought enough times this week."

Mike shrugged.

"Whatever you say man."

* * *
"El."

Ella looked up from the small vanity table in her room and looked over to see a twenty-six year old Holly standing in the doorway. She had changed so much in the past few years. She grew from being a punk with blonde hair and a purple streak in her hair into an everyday brunette.

"Yeah?" Ella asked her. She turned around to see her own reflection. Her hair was a little darker than its natural form after she had various streaks in her hair at one point. Other than that she was happy with how she looked.

"Are you sure you guys wanna elope?" Holly walked over to Ella's and Dave's bed, slowly zipping up both of their suitcases.

"Yeah."

She knew throughout the on and off relationship of her and Dave particularly ticked off Holly because she thought that he wasn't good enough for her. This caused many fights as well.

"Come on. You're such a traditional girl sometimes. Are you telling me you want no fancy ass wedding?"

"Yes Holly. It's now or never."

Holly made a face. She was never the traditional girl, but every girl at a certain point in their life always had the fantasy wedding.

"He's making you do this isn't he?"

Ella sighed.

"No. We both decided on this."

"Honestly, I'd rather have a wedding where everyone at the magazine gets drunk and Aaron the journalist gets up on stage and starts to sing a Whitney Houston song."

After the explosion of Green Day, Holly and Ella's friend from school, Rebecca had begun a magazine called 'Alternative Magazine'. As cheesy as the title sounded their reputation never seemed to be ruined because of that. They were quite the successful magazine when it came to good bands.

"We'll have plenty of those at every damn Christmas party. Come on Holl, at least I picked you to be our witness."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Holly said, dismissing the topic. "Let's go to Vegas already."

* * *
Ella and Dave's marriage soon started and they were back in New York. So far, everything seemed fine to Ella.

She had been cleaning out her closets because it was that time of year again. She never realized how much crap she saved over the years. One thing she never forgot was where she came from.

After picking through things she wanted to keep or throw out, she stuffed everything back into the closet. When she was done, she noticed a box she had missed that was sticking out from under the bed. She slowly got on both of her knees and went through the things until her heart started racing.

They were things from Berkeley. Things from the years of 1989 and 1990. She held her breath as she went through things from Green Day's gigs. Until she reached the pictures she had completely forgotten about.

Even after seven years, they were still in good shape. The good times stared back at her and she remembered her love for Billie Joe. The fun times, the romantic times. She would definitely not throw these things out.

Although she was married as well, there was still a place for him in her heart. Regardless of him being her first love, he was different. He was someone who was unexplainable. Someone who'd never be forgotten in her life.

She smiled at the pictures one more time and put them back in the box to put back in the closet. When suddenly, she heard the door to her apartment open. It was Dave, and he was home.

Shit, shit, shit. She thought to herself as she was in a rush to put everything back to where it had been before. Except for the picture of her and Billie Joe kissing, which silently dropped to the floor without her noticing.

"I'm hooome." He called out, which sounded a little as if he were a little drunk.

"Hey honey," She said as she went towards him. Her suspicions were correct, he was drunk.

"You're drunk." She declared.

"Soooo?" He said, stumbling as he walked to their bedroom.

"Dave, you need to stop this shit. I don't like you coming home all drunk and shit. Once and a while, okay, but not every damn night."
"Whateverrr."

Ella rolled her eyes. She hated him drunk. She looked towards the floor to see the picture she had left on the floor by mistake poking out of the bottom of the bed where Dave was headed as he kept stumbling around.

As quick as she could, she swooped up the picture without thinking he noticed and threw it in the box as she quickly opened the closets as well.

"What the fuck did you just do?" He asked as he went towards her and poked her chest.

"N-Nothing. I went to go put something back in a box. No big fucking deal."

"Riight."

Dave sat on the bed as she had done a few seconds prior. He turned to her and kissed her hard on the lips.

"Stop it!" She said as she pulled away. He edged in closer and she pushed him away as he fell to the floor.

Ella shook her head and left the room.

As she didn't know five years prior before getting into a relationship with Dave that it was doomed, she didn't know that Holly was right. He wasn't good enough for her, but that certain someone who was still in her heart was. And would make a way back into her life as he once had done.