Life As It Is

Upon finding out the sex of his unborn child, Billie Joe was as happy as he could be during that next week. He felt like he was on top of the world. Well, he sort of was. With his band making millions by the minute, his happy girlfriend, and his great friends, he really was.

The morning of just another weekday, he and Ella awoke at the same time, coincidentally. She tugged on his arm playfully, making him groan.

"I'm not getting up," He whined.

She sighed and chuckled softly.

"I swear, you're worse than our unborn child."

He turned around to face her, his green eyes lazily looking at her brown ones.

"El, you scare me sometimes. You really do."

She continued to laugh until suddenly she paused putting her hand on her stomach. Billie Joe noticed and immediately shot up from lying down.

"What's wrong?" He asked, a bit worried.

She looked at him with a big smile on her face. "The baby just kicked."

He put his hand on her stomach and felt the light kick of the baby. It was just one of those moments where it was like a reality check. In less than three months, there'd be a baby around. A little baby girl.

They locked eyes suddenly and kissed.

"I love you," She whispered.

"I love you too," He whispered back.

* * *

Ella looked down at the water she was drinking at Mike's café, Rudy's Can't Fail. She was sitting at the counter, waiting for her boyfriend's best friend to serve her lunch.

"Soo... I heard the baby kicked this morning," He said, handing her a plate of a burger and French fries.

She looked up and smiled. "Yeah. It was really... I can't even explain it."

"Tell me about it. I can't wait to go through that with Holly." Ella took a bite out of her hamburger, her eyes fixated on him.

"Speaking of going through things... are you planning on telling my best friend and my boyfriend on the situation yet?" She was getting down to business.

Mike leaned his elbows on the counter and faced her, sighing.

"I know, I know. I have to do it soon before it's obvious to everyone that Adrienne's pregnant and not putting on weight."

"Yeah. I really can't take it anymore, Mike. I'm so sick of hiding shit from people. Not even Tre knows what's going on."

He nodded, agreeing. "I'll tell them when I feel like the time is right." She nodded back at him.

"Hey!" A cheery voice behind Ella said. She turned around to see none other than Holly, her face flushed from obviously rushing to the café. She took a seat next to her best friend and kissed her boyfriend.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Nothing." The two said in unison.

Ella touched her stomach again, feeling the baby kick yet again. Her best friend immediately noticed, gave her a smile and reached over to feel her stomach.

"Holy shit," She said, clearly amazed.

"Yeah. It's the best feeling in the world."

Later that evening, the gang had decided to have dinner at Mike's and Holly's.

"That's it," Tre grumbled, sitting by himself. "I'm getting me a girlfriend."

"I don't think the Victoria's Secret catalog has personal ads, Tre." Billie Joe said, squeezing Ella's knee, making everyone laugh.

"You are so lucky El is sitting between us, Armstrong," He said through clenched teeth.

"Right, you would've just beaten the shit out of our lead singer anyway." Mike said.

Green Day's drummer got aggravated.

"Meanies."

After dinner, Ella got up and headed towards the bathroom to "freshen up". She took a good look at herself. She was clearly changing again, as usual. She had remembered one time in her life when she was clueless about the life of a teenager, now she was clueless about the life of a mother.

There was suddenly a knock at the door.

"Just a second." She called out over the door.

"It's me." Billie Joe called out.

"Oh then come on in... I'm just fixing my—whatever makeup I have on."

He walked inside, closing the door behind him and facing his girlfriend.

"What's up?" She asked him, turning her head back to the mirror as she fixed her hair around a little.

"Nothing really. Just got bored."

She laughed softly. "And here I thought you were going to pull a cheesy line on me like 'Oh I missed you so much'."

"Dammit." He scowled.

"You loser."

She walked closer to him, placing a kiss on his lips as he grinned. He grabbed her again in for another, yet longer, kiss.

"You did what?" Holly suddenly screamed.

The scream scared both of them and stopped them. They quickly opened the door and headed into the living where Tre was coming down the stairs as well.

"I slept with Adrienne." He mumbled.

"What?" Billie Joe said; his grin fading.

Mike and Holly suddenly acknowledged everyone's presence in the living room.

"I slept with Adrienne and now she's pregnant."

"I-I can't believe you would fucking do that to me!" Holly yelled, the tears starting to roll down her cheeks, angrily.

"I'm sorry!"

"Sorry is not gonna fucking help you." She continued to yell.

The thirty-three year old pregnant woman cried. Her hands were shaking and she found herself on her knees, hurt by what her boyfriend had just said.

Ella and Tre locked eyes, they were both horrified. Billie Joe just stood as still as stone.

She got up, grabbed something glass.

"Holly, no!" Ella yelled, but she didn't listen. Holly was in her own world now.

She aimed it at him but failed as he jumped out of the way. The glass object fell and crashed a million little shards of glass everywhere on the carpet.

No one knew what to do now. They all stood speechless.

Holly wiped her tears away, but they just came running down again.

"I thought we were something," She said. "I can't believe you would even be with another woman, especially your best friend's ex-wife! No wait, they're not even divorced yet."

"Holly I—"

"Yeah you never meant to hurt me. Bullshit, Mike. You hurt me. You knew it'd FUCKING hurt me." She raised her voice.

"I know but it all happened so fast and—"

"You could've stopped it," She paused for a second. "Is this why you were showering me with gifts? OUT OF GUILT?"

The bassist stood there, looking down.

"I knew it. I fucking knew it. You're just another asshole in the world." She cried out.

He looked back up at her, not knowing what to say.

"You dragged me out here to California. Made me move out just so you can go and sleep with someone else. You made me drag my best friend here. Well, at least things are working out for her. I doubt it ever will with us again. We're over."

She stormed out of the living room and ran up the stairs. Ella motioned to Tre, giving him a look to make sure she was going to be okay.

"You slept with Adrienne." Billie Joe said quietly. "How could you?"

"Billie it all really happened fast and she was hurting about you guys and—"

"That gives you no fucking right to go and sleep with her. And as Holly kindly pointed out, we're not even divorced yet."

His hurt green eyes met Mike's confused blue ones.

"Were you guys drunk?" He suddenly asked him.

"Billie—"

"Were you fucking drunk?" He growled; his tone of voice that had never been heard by Ella.

"No," He said quietly.

"I knew it. I fucking knew it."

"I never meant to hurt you either."

"Yeah, whatever. You hurt me too, Mike. You slept with someone I used to love so much. You're supposed to be my friend. Scratch that, my BEST friend AND band mate."

The thirty-two year old man was speechless again.

"And you hurt your girlfriend, you fucking asshole." He ran over to start hitting him, but Ella suddenly jumped in to stop it from happening.

"Whoa. No, Billie. Don't hurt your best friend."

"He's not my best friend anymore."

Billie Joe walked away, stopping himself from even doing anything to Mike, who quietly went to the kitchen to go clean up the glass from the carpet.

"I'm gonna go see Holly, okay?" Ella put her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. He nodded as she quickly headed up the stairs.

She walked inside the bedroom to find Holly madly packing as Tre looked over and shrugged by helping. A few moments later, she was done. She turned around to see Ella and walked towards her, immediately crying on her shoulder.

"Oh, sweetie," She rubbed her back a little as Tre stood silently. "You want to stay with me and Billie for a while?"

Holly looked up and nodded, trying to stop herself from crying again. She turned around again and picked up the majority of her bags and headed downstairs.

"Stay with Mike, okay?" Ella told Tre as he nodded.

"God, this is all messed up," He said quietly.

"How do you think I've been feeling since I found out like a month ago?"

"You knew?"

She nodded and shrugged. "It's not like I could say anything."

Tre got the rest of Holly's belongings and headed downstairs with Ella where they found a helpful Billie Joe help Holly go out into the car.

Ella and Tre looked over at Mike, who was picking up the pieces. When he looked up, they noticed his cheek was red.

"What happened?" They asked.

"Billie hit me and left." He got up and headed towards the trash can.

"Why'd you tell her tonight, Mike?" Ella asked him.

"It felt like the right time." He shrugged.

She turned to Tre. "Make sure he's okay." She reached over and hugged him before leaving.

She slowly made her way to Billie Joe's car and opened the passenger seat door, and got in. He started the engine and took off.

As they drove to their house, they all stayed silent. When they got to a stoplight, Ella couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I knew about the situation for a month now," She muttered.

Billie Joe looked over at her.

"How?"

"I found the pregnancy test in Adrienne's trash when I went over that day." She looked out of her window.

"At least you only slept with Billie," Holly angrily muttered. "You had nothing to do with any conception of any other child."

As they pulled into the driveway, Billie Joe reached over and squeezed his girlfriend's hand.

The minute they got home, Ella herded Holly into one of the guest bedrooms and got her to sleep.

"We'll talk in the morning, okay?"

Holly nodded and eventually got to sleep.

After her best friend went off to sleep, Ella went into her bedroom to find Billie Joe lying down, staring at the wall.

"Hey," She said softly, lying down next to him.

"Hey."

"You wanna talk?" At this point, she wasn't sure about what to do or say. She had been expecting this all to blow up sooner or later.

He shrugged. "I don't even know what to say. Frankly, I don't know how I'm even feeling. It's like one of those speechless feelings when you know you're all pissed and shit, but you can sum it all up."

"Yeah. I know."

"I mean, he's supposed to be my best friend. We've been through so much together. We started a band together. I can't believe he'd even get together with someone I once fell for as much as I had for you."

She nodded and smiled slightly.

"I'm surprised the only thing you've hit tonight was Mike and not any furniture."

"I'm pissed but I don't throw a lot of shit around, even if I'm this pissed."

"I doubt it. I've seen you trash stuff before... "

"Well maybe I'm not in the mood to do that. I think I'm more hurt than angry."

Ella sighed. "I wish I knew what else to say to you."

"I wish I knew what to do."

* * *
The thirty-three year old pregnant woman turned around and looked at the alarm clock next to her that read four o'clock in the morning. She groaned and got up, heading straight to the kitchen.

Just as she knew, Holly was there, gorging herself on ice cream.

"I knew I'd find you here," She said, sitting across from her.

"Well this is our thing. When times are tough and your so-called to-die for boyfriend breaks your heart into pieces, this is where you'll find us." Holly took another bite out of the chocolate ice cream.

Her best friend got up and found a spoon, sharing the ice cream with her. They both sat in silence, eating.

"When did this all get complicated again?" Holly asked, breaking the silence and fighting the tears again. "We were finally out of the whole awkward stuff with you and Billie. My relationship with Mike was great."

Ella shrugged.

"I know. What did he tell you when he, well decided to tell you everything?"

"That Adrienne was feeling down, that she kissed him and it all suddenly led to sex."

"Yeah, I heard pretty much the same thing when she had told me. God, I feel so bad even keeping it from you and Billie."

"Its fine, El. Don't beat yourself up about it because I wouldn't have said anything either if I were in your shoes."

"I know, I know. But you try keeping secrets from those you care about." The last ten words she said really reminded her of Mike.

A little while later, they found themselves in front of the television, flipping through the channels.

"Ahh the old days." Holly said, giving a weak smile.

"Yep."

Ella had the remote in her hand and began flipping through the millions of channels Billie Joe had. She stopped when one of the music channels were showing good, decent music videos that didn't contain the "bling-bling lifestyle" they were accustomed to seeing in today's society.

They had just finished watching Nirvana's "Come As You Are" video when all of a sudden, they heard the familiar drum beat, the familiar surroundings, and then the familiar bass line they knew so well.

"Please, change the channel." Holy gulped, as Ella changed it to something else.

* * *
The following morning, Billie Joe found himself actually fully awake at seven. He looked to the side of him to find Ella sleeping deeply. He nudged her for the first time to get up.

"If you nudge me one more time I'm gonna slap you," She said.

"Damn. What time did you go to sleep?"

"An hour ago," She said, changing sides. "So please let me sleep and do the "I-Told-You-So's" when I'm ready to pounce on you... somehow."

The thirty-three year old man kissed his girlfriend and the lips and got ready to go out. He made his way downstairs a few minutes later to find Holly on the couch, sleeping. Billie Joe sighed, opened the door quietly, and headed for Adrienne's house.

When he got to Adrienne's, he immediately knocked on the door and waited a few moments before the familiar dreadlocked woman opened the door.

She took one good look at him and knew he knew.

"Come on in," She said, sighing as he went inside.

The two exes went into the kitchen and sat across from one another.

"So... I guess you know exactly what's going on, right?" Adrienne asked him.

"Yeah." Billie Joe looked around her kitchen, unsure of what else to say even though he was the one who had reluctantly decided to come over.

"I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did... I should have told you too."

"It's not you who I'm mad at, Adie. It's Mike."

"Why? I slept with him too, y'know."

"I know you did. But we're not together anymore. It's the fact that my best friend slept with someone who I had a life with... I-I don't know how to explain it but I'm just angry and upset."

"You have every right to be," Adrienne looked at him directly in the eyes. "But you have to know that he wasn't the one who made a move first, it was me."

"He could've stopped you and you could've stopped him. That's all I know."

"I've felt guilty since that day and everything is still so complicated."

He nodded. "I know it is. But what are we gonna tell the kids?"

Adrienne felt a somersault in her stomach. She and he hadn't thought of that until that very moment.

"Frankly, I have no idea. I know for a fact Joey is going to be devastated again."

"And Jakob will just be confused."

They sighed and shared an awkward silence.

"When did things get so tough, Billie?" Adrienne rested her head on the table.

Billie Joe reached over and rubbed her shoulder a little.

"I don't know, but if I'm right about something, it would be that everything happens for a reason."