Warning

"Oh my God." Adrienne drew her legs up under her and brought the weekly paper close to her face. "St. Jimmy... he's back." Adrienne quickly read through the piece on how the local government was cheating the flavor of Minneapolis by cutting the fine arts in the city school system and replacing it with more free periods or physical education classes in the day for students who were not academically inclined. It was signed with the classic line, 'I'm St. Jimmy. That's my name and don't wear it out.'

It was, ironically, placed next to Billie Joe's piece on a socialite's wedding he had to cover, much to his disgruntlement.

"I'll be damned." Adrienne quickly cut the article out carefully and placed it in the drawer of her desk.

"Adrienne,"

Adrienne looked up to find one of her coworkers in her office doorway. "Yeah?"

"The insurance guy is here. Didn't you have some questions on your dental portion."

"Oh, yeah. I'll be right down." Adrienne quickly grabbed her purse and the booklet on her insurance and went down the steps and into the lounge where a man about her age was talking to another lady.

He was apparently finishing up with her as she shook his head and went to the door, greeting Adrienne as she went. "Uh," Adrienne started, "Excuse me, but I have some problems and questions on my dental portion...." She stopped and started at the man in front of her.

"Well, okay. What's the question?" His blue eyes met hers. "I'm Frank Wright with Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance by the way."

Adrienne's mouth hung open. He obviously did not recognize her.

He began to look at her curiously. "Can I help you?"

Adrienne, coming to her senses, finally said something. "I wanna be your dominated love slave."

"What did you say?" Frank's expression became one of confusion melted with surprise.

"I wanna be the one who takes the pain. Oh, come on Tre', don't you remember me?" Adrienne grinned as he grinned even wider and his pointed a finger at her.

"Adie " He hugged her tightly. "Oh, shit How've you been? You look awesome. How's it going?"

"It's going all right. What about you? Selling insurance? I never would have thought of that. How did you end up here?"

"Job. I got paid better out here. I've been here for about three years. I'm married and I have kids, do you believe that? I know you do, you gotta." He hugged her again.

"Yeah, I do. I have one of each. Oh my God You look so good, this is amazing " Adrienne beamed as they sat down on the couch. "What have you been up to?"

Tre', still grinning crossed his legs at the knees and sighed. "Well, I got really heavy into drugs after Billie, you know.... got in trouble, went to rehab, got out, met the mother of my first child, got in insurance through my sister who got me the job, worked my way up, got divorced, then remarried, had another kid and moved out here. That's about it. Wait, speaking of Billie Joe, are you guys still together?"

"Ah, well. After you guys left that last time, we didn't speak. However," She brightened up and pulled herself up to the edge of the couch, "We literately bumped into one another a couple of months ago on the street. He's here in Minneapolis."

"What?" Tre' sat up as well. "I never thought Billie Joe would leave California. He loves it too much. What about Warning?"

"He hates it here and wants to go back at the first chance he gets. He got fired from Warning." Adrienne's tone dropped to a soft whisper. "He got fired because he was getting political and their boss didn't like it and Wes didn't stand up for him. So, now he's here trying to do something with the scene that's budding here while he's working for the Herald."

Tre' shook his head. "Yeah, that sounds like Wes. I don't know they guy really well, but I know him well enough that he probably used Billie Joe to get what he wanted and until he didn't need him anymore. Warning's been doing pretty well and getting better, circulation and popularity wise. I haven't been reading it in awhile because it was getting censored, except for St. Jimmy, whoever that was. How long was Billie Joe fired because, I haven't seen his name there in a long time."

"He was fired a couple of months ago, right before he moved out here." Adrienne leaned even closer. "Billie is St. Jimmy and St. Jimmy's back. Did you read the Herald today?"

"I knew it." Tre' slapped his knee. "I knew it. I thought that was him. It had the same basic style of Billie Joe, but I wasn't sure. But I was right. I knew it."

"Excuse me, I have some concerns about my insurance?"

Tre' and Adrienne turned to face one of Adrienne's coworkers holding a similar packet to Adrienne's. "I'll be right with you." Tre' said in a smooth voice. "I will work on those questions for you and call you later." He told Adrienne as he winked at her. "Have a good day Mrs. Wilkerson."

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Hey mister, where you headed? Are you in a hurry? I need a lift to happy hour. Say oh no Do you brake for distilled spirits? I need a break as well. It's the well that inebriates the guilt. The cold turkey's getting stale. So tonight I'm eating crow. Fermented salmonella poison oak? No.

Billie Joe sat on his roof bundled up against the cold and watched the crowd below him. He was focused on an older man in a business suit as he talked on a cell phone. The man had a briefcase, trench coat and probably would not be out of place at Wall Street.

What struck Billie Joe as odd was the fact that that particular man was there. This wasn't a neighborhood that catered to the wealthy, more like the normal incomed people of the world. However, this was an area with several bars and Billie Joe watched the man hurry into one. He didn't expect to see him come out for a long time.

Troubled times, you know I cannot lie. I'm off the wagon and I'm hitching a ride."

Sighing a puff of breath into the air, Billie Joe climbed back down into his apartment. He stared at his cell phone which was sitting on his unmade bed. Billie Joe was not fond of that piece of technology at the moment. Because of that phone, he had to hear his son scream and yell at him.

Joey was Billie Joe's only child and he was at a point in his young life that he hated his father. Maria had told Joey that Billie Joe had been spending time with Katrina and Jakob and apparently, Joey was jealous of that fact.

Shaking his head, Billie Joe took a bottle of prescription sleeping pills and took a dose. Maybe he would wake up and everything would have just been a dream.