Life As It Is

Now at six months pregnant, Ella was adjusting to the balloon size stomach she now had. She was always hungry at this point, constantly making her boyfriend go out and get her something whether it was eight at night or two in the morning. Her mood swings were slowly overtaking her as well.

Billie Joe didn't complain. Although this was his first time dealing with a pregnant woman, he was pretty calm. He finally experienced what it felt to take care of one since he had not unfortunately been there for Adrienne when she had been pregnant with Joey and Jakob.

Even though he was on tour, this time he was lucky enough to have her at his side. But it was going to be harder now that she had to head back home for the last three months of her pregnancy just to be on the safe side.

Though things were happy and going well for the couple, except for the occasional grumble from Ella about something that Billie had apparently done, everything really was okay.

The last night before the pregnant woman was off to leave for California, the two lay in bed together after yet another Green Day show.

They sat in silence, Ella putting her hand over her stomach.

"I'm hungry," she said, breaking the silence and giving a smirk.

"Really?"

"No. Just trying to get you to talk. Why all the silence?" She turned to her left side, facing him.

"No reason...just tired."

She eyed him for a second. Knowing he was definitely telling her a fib. Ella knew him way too well at this point in their relationship.

"Doubt it. Seriously, Billie...what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he mumbled. "It's pointless."

"Come ooonn," she nudged him. "You can tell me anything."

He sighed, looking at her curious chocolate brown eyes, waiting for him to say whatever was wrong with him.

"It's just that I'm gonna miss you too much."

She looked back at him, giving a soft laugh. "All this for that?"

He sighed again, putting the hand Ella had kept on her stomach under his. "I don't know...these last few months have made me feel so happy to be with you again and it kills me I won't get to see you for a while."

She gave him a smile, looking right at him.

"Billie," she said softly. "I'm not going anywhere this time. I'll be home the whole time."

She grabbed her right hand that had been on her stomach and used it to pull his head closer to her, letting her kiss him. They sat there—basically making out until they both pulled away.

"I feel like a chick now," he laughed at himself.

"I told you the chick flicks would pay off," she laughed and pulled him near her again, making him carefully get on top of her.

She giggled as he sacredly tried not to harm her stomach in any way.

The following morning, there was a vicious knock on the tour bus door, startling Billie Joe and Ella.

When the two opened the door, they found a hyper Tre across from them.

"NOOO EL IS LEAVING," he yelled, running right into her, but carefully, tightly hugging her.

"T-Tre get off of me," she said, trying to breathe.

Billie Joe grumbled and pulled the thirty-two year old drummer off of her, who still had a grin on his face.

"LAURA CAME LAST NIGHT!" he yelled, making the couple give him a mean look, annoyed that he was yelling like he was a five year old in the school yard announcing something important.

"That's great. And I bet you guys had a lot of sex."

"Yes we did!" the drummer said, twirling around and suddenly jumped.

The couple stared at each other and looked back at Tre, a grin still on his face and checked to see if his pupils were normal.

"Well, Laura is a lucky woman, isn't she?" Ella was amused at how even with a girlfriend, Tre managed to still be a pervert, somehow.

"Of course," he said proudly. "She's shacking up with The Cool."

"So what's your point, Tre? Did you come here to tell us how much sex you're having now that you have a girlfriend?" Billie Joe crossed his arms.

"That and to say bye to El—one of the hottest pregnant bitches to be carrying Billie's baby."

Ella looked at Billie Joe, the two thinking the same thing. They slammed the door in Tre's face, making him whine but then called for his girlfriend, scurrying off to her.

The thirty-four year old pregnant woman changed into something comfortable and got her bags ready in a matter of a few minutes.

"Ready to say bye?" he asked her, managing a smile. She nodded, taking his hand in hers and headed outside.

When she got outside, she saw the rest of the Green Day crew outside, ready to say good-bye to her. She saw Holly happily clinging onto Mike with a sad smile on her face.

She managed to hug everyone one by one and had to get Billie Joe to get Tre off of her. When she got up to her boyfriend at last, they shared a long kiss in front of everyone, who pretended to not really notice.

The limo came and with the help of the guys, she managed to get her stuff in there, heading off to the airport, off to a place called home.

* * *
Already a week at home, Ella had tried to make the best of it. When she wasn't on the phone, she was taking pictures (which she hadn't done in so long, but was a relief) of anything that inspired her. Not knowing a lot of people around, Ella and Adrienne went to each other's homes, both finally comfortable with one another.

Not calculating any sort of time difference, Billie Joe called Ella that night as she sat out in the backyard.

"Hey," she said as she answered it.

"Hey."

She gave a dazed smile. Hearing his voice was always great to her nowadays.

"EELLAAA!" Tre screamed from the other side of the phone, scaring her.

"Hi Tre!" She called out, thinking she had heard Laura laughing in the background.

"How did you get in here, Tre?" Billie Joe yelled and she heard him shooing the couple away from the tour bus.

"Sorry about that," he said, and she could hear him sitting down.

"I'm used to Tre barging in anywhere and everywhere."

Ella chuckled, slouching in her chair.

"So, how's it going?"

"Fine, fine. Just trying to relax...I miss you," he added and could hear her grinning on the other end.

"You just had to add that in didn't you?"

"It shows how much I care."

"I figured that out on my own, buddy. How's Holly?" she asked, straightening up in the chair.

"Fine, doing God knows what with Mike..."

His voice trailed off a bit, obviously showing he didn't want to mention him at all.

"Billie," Ella sighed. "How long are you going to keep this grudge with Mike?"

"El, he slept with my ex-wife. Technically, we're still married for another two months. It's not even a grudge."

"Yeah but he's your best friend and you're on tour with him. He's in your band, you can't keep ignoring him."

"Yes I can. I'm never trusting or feeling the same way ever again about him."

The pregnant woman was aggravated.

"Fine. Keep being childish about it and not ever working it out with him when you've had so long to chill out about it. I'm sick of this already."

She slammed her phone shut and on the other end of the line, Billie Joe heard a click.

He called her again, but she refused to pick up. She was sick of him not trying to even fix things with Mike.

Ella opened her cell phone again, went through her phone book and called the number she was thinking of calling for such a long time. It was time to take action.

"Dude. If you wanna hook up with The Cool, you gotta wait in line." The voice said to her after picking up the phone.

"Shut up, Tre. This isn't why I'm calling."

"You and Billie boy had a fight so you're coming to me for comfort?"

"Keep in mind I have Laura's number and can call her and tell her anything I need to tell her about her cheating boyfriend." She gave a smile. Tre immediately shut up.

She explained to him what happened and told him her plan that would require him and Jason White. He agreed and took immediate action.

"El."

"Yeah?"

"When you and Billie have a fight again, you can come to me and we can shack up."

"I'm dialing Laura's number now..."

"NO! I was uhh—just kidding. She'll kick my ass."

Ella laughed. "Bye Tre."

* * *

Jason patiently waited in his tour bus for Mike and Billie Joe to arrive. He looked at his cell phone and saw a text message from Holly saying Mike was on his way and a text message from Tre saying that Billie Joe was on his way as well.

Mike got there first and made his way into the room of the tour bus where Jason had been sitting in.

"Hey man, what's up?" Mike said, sitting across from him. "You said you forgot the chords to Jesus of Suburbia." The thirty-two year old gave him a confused face.

"Mhmm. Yeah, it feels like I lost ten screws from my brain and uhh—it slipped my mind."

The bassist nodded, a bit scared at his friend's oddness.

Billie Joe walked into the tour bus, sighing. He had tried calling Ella ten times already but she had refused to pick up. He knew he was being a dick anyway.

"Hey—" he said walking into the room and noticing Mike. He fell silent and focused his attention on Jason. "You said you forgot how to tune a guitar—you know people do that for us."

"Yeah...but I meant for...the guitars we have and don't use to play on stage with."

The front man threw him a look. "You're just trying to get me and him in the same room."

"You're a wise man, Billie." Jason fleeted the room immediately closing it as Tre came out of nowhere, grabbing something to lock them both in.

"YOU BASTARDS!" They heard Billie Joe yell.

He started banging on the door, making Tre and Jason laugh. They heard Mike cursing them both out as well.

"We're not unlocking you until you guys make up and have make up sex!" Tre called over.

"Not gonna happen!"

"Guess that's too bad," Jason said.

Billie Joe groaned and gave up, moving to the other side of the room, away from the door and away from Mike. He got his cell phone out and pressed the two number, calling the one person who he knew would pull this trick.

"Hellooo?" The innocent voice asked.

"I know you did this Eleanor Montgomery," he said, pulling out the real name card.

"Did what? Knock me up...no see when a man loves a woman, or in our case: get drunk as hell—"

"Don't play stupid with me! I know it's your plan to lock me in this room."

She laughed innocently. "Oh William Joseph Armstrong, you know me so well."

"That's not my—whatever. Why lock us in here in the first place?"

"Weeelll when me and you were on the verge of breaking up, we got locked in your room and sorted out our feelings. Soo, I thought this experience would do you good about a decade later."

"You play dirty, don't you?"

Ella laughed again. "Oh you know it, baby." She hung up with a grin.

Billie Joe hung up as well with a groan. He and Mike sat in silence, not facing each other.

"If we're gonna be stuck in here, we might as well make the most of it." Mike said, breaking the long silence.

His band mate stayed silent. Mike sighed.

"How long are you gonna not talk to me?"

"Till you leave this band in a body bag."

"That's great... real mature, Billie. When are you going to even try to hear my side of the story?"

"What's there to hear Mike?" Billie Joe faced him. "That you slept with someone I'm about to divorce? Because oh, I already heard that."

"Well you didn't hear that everything happened so quickly I didn't know what I was doing. I had a lot of guilt in me. You're being a complete hypocrite."

"How am I being a hypocrite?"

"You slept with Ella and you felt guilty too."

"Adrienne didn't forgive me right off the bat."

"But she eventually forgave you."

Mike made his way closer to Billie Joe. "I mean it, Billie. I never meant to hurt you or Holly. But Adie was hurt and she was vulnerable and it wasn't entirely her fault. But what's done is done. You can't dwell on this for the rest of your life. We've all made mistakes."

"Yeah, well...I used to love Adrienne a lot. I mean, I still do but not in the same way if you get what I mean. But to hear that you slept with someone I shared my life with for ten years that hurt me a lot. I know I've sort of moved on, but she's been an important part of my life."

"I know. I'm not asking you to start trusting me again so quickly. I know Holly is slowly doing it, it's going to take time, but we've been through deeper shit than this. We just got back on tour after spending the last few years hating each other and then recorded a kick ass album. I don't wanna go back to how it was almost two years ago."

Billie Joe bit his lip, meeting Mike's eyes and nodded.

"You're right."

"So... do you forgive me or do I have to beg you with some chick flick dialogue from bad movies my girlfriend has been making me watching?"

He smirked at him. "Bro's for life, man."

"AWW!" Tre sniffled on the other side of the door. "NOW KISS."

"Shut up, Tre," they both called out.

The door opened and a teary Tre ran up to them and tightened them into a hug. "I fucking love you guys!" He exclaimed.

"Kodak moment." Jason gave a smirk at the three.

"Tre get off of us or so help me God you'll be wearing a drum kit on your head." Mike threatened him and Tre let go of the two.

"How are we going to get back at these two?" Billie Joe faced the taller man.

"Well since we can't get back at the women because—they're women and they're carrying our kids, these two little bastards will spend five hours locked in here during one of our days off." Mike gave an evil grin.

Tre and Jason stared at the two.

"Go back to fighting!" Tre yelled.

The best friends gave each other a high five and left the room to the frightened Jason and Tre.

* * *

Ella's cell phone rang annoyingly as she turned over to her side to see that it was almost six in the morning and that Billie Joe was calling her. Tiredly, she picked it up.

"Hello?" she answered the phone with a tired voice.

"Hey, did I wake you up?" he asked softly.

"Yeah but its okay...where are you?"

"Well it's our day off so Mike and I have successfully locked Tre and Jason into the bathroom of Jason's tour bus for five hours."

She gave a tired grin. "That's great."

"Listen, El...I'm sorry about being a complete dick the other day about this whole situation. It was good of you to lock us into that room because well—I finally won't feel like I'm faking it on stage anymore every time I introduce Mike."

"It's okay. I'm just glad you didn't punish me and Hol'," she yawned.

"There was no need. Except for these two bastards."

"Hmm..."

She closed her eyes a little bit.

"Babe, you sound really tired, you sure you don't want me to let you go?"

"No, no. I want to talk to you."

"Fuck, next time I should do the math before calling you," he chuckled.

She laughed. "You were never good at math, hun. Don't sweat it out."

She heard him chuckle softly again and could distinctly hear him pick up something.

"Even though I know you're saying you're not going back to sleep because you want to talk to boring ol' me, I'm going to allow you to go to sleep because I'm going to sing to you as you fall into deep sleep for the next few hours."

"Oh really..."

"Yep. It's my present to you for being the best girlfriend known to man."

"Aww...that's why I love you." She could hear him grinning on the other end of the phone.

"I love you too."

"So what will you be singing me to sleep to?"

"Oh just this song... "

"What song?"

"You'll find out in just a second. It's the Billie Joe Armstrong special acoustic version for a special woman carrying my child."

Ella giggled.

Billie Joe picked up his guitar and craned his neck so his shoulder would hold the phone. He played the familiar riffs to the most familiar song she knew and loved out of all the great songs there were in the world to choose from.

" I wish I could tell you,
But the words would come out wrong,
Oh if you only knew,
The way I felt for so long
I know that we're worlds apart,
But I just don't seem to care
These feelings in my heart,
Only with you I want to share
The first time I caught a glimpse of you,
Then all my thoughts were only of you
I hope that when time goes by,
You will think the same about me
Many nights awake I lie,
I only wish that you could see
I know that we're only friends,
I hope this feeling never ends
If I could only hold you
It's the only thing I want to do"

Ella fell asleep at the end of the song with a smile on her face and her heart beat at a quickening beat.