Roxanne

I was mildly surprised to see the car that was parked in my aunt’s driveway when Billie and I got down to it. I guess that because Billie had admitted that he didn’t work a nine to five job and he simply didn’t seem to work any kind job at all, I hadn’t expected his car to be what looked like a new sleek BMW or anything even close to it.

Perhaps it was that that made me so attracted to Billie—I never knew what the hell to think when it came to him. Every single assumption that I had been able to make of Billie always seemed to be completely wrong in just about every way. I’ll admit that I did indeed like that the man was surprising me in just about every way, but at the same time it was beginning to piss me off seeing as he was only surprising me because I knew much less than I should have about him.

As it currently was, I was the perfect role model for any girl that wanted to be kidnapped. I was also the perfect not in what not to do scenarios.

I couldn’t help but wonder what Billie would have done had I refused to get into his car and used the excuse that I barely knew him at this point.

“Roxanne?”

I snapped out of my thoughts at the calling of my name and focused in on the man that was standing before me, holding the passenger’s side door open to the black BMW that had sparked my thoughts. The black sunglasses that Billie had taken off while inside my aunts had been placed back over his eyes and I really had to resist the urge to take them off of him. I didn’t believe that eyes such as his should have ever been covered up.

Billie chuckled slightly at what I assumed to have been the lost look that had taken over my face as my mind had drifted. I groaned inaudibly at myself but managed to smile and fight back the blush that I was usually wrestling with these days—especially around Billie. “Sorry,” I choked out.

I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why the hell I was so damn self conscious around Billie. Simple things, such as the fact that I had just dazed off for what had to be a minute tops, embarrassed the hell out of me to where I almost didn’t want to get into the car at all but instead run back inside and bury myself underneath the sheets of my bed.

Before I gave myself the time to embarrass myself anymore by continuing to stand in front of the door to Billie’s car that he was still holding open, I flashed Billie the most confident smile that I managed to muster up and slid inside while subconsciously pulling my dress down as far as it would go. I jumped a bit in surprise at the sound of the door closing gently next to me and looked away from my dress to Billie, who was rounding the front of the car with one hand shoved into his pocket and the other rubbing his clean-shaven face.

I took the opportunity of my few seconds alone in the car to look it over. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I was a bit surprised at how clean Billie’s car was. I hadn’t pegged him for a clean person—but that could have easily been because I didn’t think any male was clean. In fact, Bryan, even though he had graduated at the top of his class and had been such a sports figure in my town, he was perhaps the biggest pig I had ever met. I don’t believe in all of the years we had dated, his room had ever been really clean. Granted, I was only seeing Billie’s car at the moment, but I was still surprised.

My eyes lifted quickly from the interior of Billie’s BMW and to Billie himself as he slid into the driver’s seat. He closed his door with much more force than he did with mine and then stuck his keys into the ignition, however didn’t start the car. I cocked an eyebrow at that and cocked my head to the side a bit. Billie looked up at me and grinned. I wondered if he knew that his damn smile with those terribly imperfect teeth could have gotten him away with murder—he had to.

“What?” I asked after a moment of silence that Billie had used to stare at me in.

Billie chuckled as he had done when he had first caught me drifting off when we had been outside. Instead of verbally answering me, or really answering me at all, Billie just shook his head with a grin still on his lips and turned on his car. My expression didn’t change as the car’s engine came to life—instead I continued to sit in my seat in the car with a still-quirked eyebrow and my head still cocked to the side a bit in confusion. The only difference, if any, had to be that I was now a bit disgruntled. The reason for my miniscule anger was the fact that Billie had found something so damn amusing about me that I clearly had had no clue about. I knew Billie wasn’t making fun of me or anything [or at least I hoped not] but my self-consciousness obviously didn’t agree.

I was torn from my ridiculous thoughts, or rather, they were drowned out as the comfortable silence was destroyed by Billie turning on the radio. I squealed loudly in alarm at the sudden loud noise and lifted my hands automatically to cover my ears. It wasn’t the fact that Billie had turned on the radio that was the problem, but rather the fact that the radio’s volume seemed to have been turned up as far as it could go when he had turned it on.

At the sound of the music blasting through the speakers, Billie jumped back in his seat and reacted the same way as I had by covering his ears although instead of squealing as I had, he just gasped. Out of complete shock, the two of us did nothing other than sat in our seats, hands over our ears while wincing at the music for a good few seconds while it continued to scream at us.

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do and nowhere to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain

The Ramones. I should have known.

Instead of making any movement to stop the music, considering it wasn’t my car we were sitting in and I had no idea what to do in the first place, I did nothing but snapped my eyes shut and grasped my ears tighter as if it would save my hearing. It was when I was beginning to wonder if the noise would ever stop when, ironically, it did.

I opened up my eyes and slowly uncovered my ears, as if afraid that the radio would turn itself on again. Instead of the silence that we had been surrounded in before the music and that I was now expecting to once again hear, I heard laughter coming from the seat next to me. And it wasn’t just a soft chuckle or anything of the kind, as if Billie found the whole situation amusing—the bastard was cackling at me. My mouth dropped open a bit as I stared at Billie’s shaking body in a way that would easily let him know that I thought he was a complete idiot as soon as he bothered to look at me.

I’ll admit that it was amusing to watch Billie as he squirmed in his fit of laughter, even if he was laughing at me.

Billie’s laughter died a bit as he began to gasp for air to speak while I continued to stare at his idiocy in confusion. In between short gasps of breath, Billie managed out a few words. “You,” he gasped while pointing to me. “You—oh god.” Billie shook his head slowly and lifted the hand he had pointed at me with to wipe his damn eyes as if he had been crying. After allowing himself to catch his breath, he continued what he had been trying to say a minute or so before. “You should have seen your face.”

Seeing that I clearly wasn’t following what the hell he was saying or seeing what was so funny about it, Billie lifted his hands to his ears and clamped his eyes shut. He then cowered back against his seat as if he was afraid someone was going to beat him. It was then that I realized that he was mocking me.

I scowled loudly and reached over and slapped Billie’s arm as hard as I could. Upon hitting him, Billie just began to laugh again. “Shut up. What else was I supposed to do? I wasn’t exactly expecting The Ramones to start screaming at me when you turned on the car!” I pointed an accusing finger at the faux blonde. “And neither did you, tough guy.”

Billie continued to giggle at me for a moment before the giggles thankfully died. Instead of laughing now, Billie cocked an eyebrow and eyed me almost suspiciously. “You know The Ramones?”

I mirrored the look Billie was giving me by also cocking an eyebrow and eyeing him in the same way. “I don’t live under a rock back in Connecticut, Billie—of course I know The Ramones; who doesn’t?”

The suspicious look on Billie’s face melted in a warm grin. He chuckled and then twisted to face front in the car. “You’d be surprised,” he stated. “Fuck, that’s awesome.” I watched with a grin as Billie twisted around in his seat to get a better view out of the back of the car as he began to back out of my aunt’s driveway. “I didn’t think you knew who they were, never mind liked them.”

I know that despite the fact that I constantly reminded myself of how off limits Billie was, I couldn’t help but remind myself how adorable certain aspects of him were. Currently, it was the look of excitement on Billie’s face and the sound of his voice at the fact that I had known the world-famous punk band.

“I don’t go around making people deaf by cranking them up all the way on my radio,” I joked, “but they’re a good band.”

Billie chuckled and lifted a hand to rub his clean-shaven jaw. “Sorry,” he apologized lamely. “I didn’t have the stereo on on my way over so I had no fucking clue it was that loud.” He sighed and mumbled a bit to himself, though I managed to catch his words. “That’s the last time Tre fucking drives my car.” I decided not to question him on it.

After a moment of silence in which I found myself staring at the streets of Berkeley that Billie was guiding the car down, Billie found reason to interrupt it. “Hey, Roxanne?” He called though didn’t give me time to answer. “What kind of music are you into?” I didn’t mind the question in the least, however I’m not sure if I can say the same for Billie—he seemed almost hesitant at asking it.

I shrugged my shoulders and turned to face forward in my seat. “I like a lot of music,” I admitted openly. When I saw that Billie clearly wasn’t satisfied with my lack of an answer, I continued slowly. “My favorite band is Muse,” I stated. “They have been for years.”

Billie seemed surprised by my answer. It was the look on his face that made me wonder if maybe I wasn’t the only one being constantly surprised in this relationship we had here. Granted, yes, I did know a lot less about Billie than he knew about me, but I guess he didn’t really know all that much about me, either.

It made me feel a bit better about myself.

I had been pining over the fact that Billie seemed to know just so damn much about me while I felt as if I had known almost literally nothing about him, yet now that I was actually thinking about it with a straight mind, I believe I was blowing it all out of proportion. Yes, Billie did know much more about me than I did about him, but it wasn’t anything mind-blowing.

“Muse?” Billie asked without taking his eyes from the road. “Muse,” he repeated to himself. “They’re from, like, England, aren’t they?”

I rolled my eyes at the way Billie described my favorite band. “Yeah,” I confirmed. “But they’re amazing—I absolutely love them.”

Billie chuckled softly. “Well then I guess I’ll have to take the time to listen to them.” I nodded although I think it went unnoticed by him. Billie seemed to hesitate again, but then proceeded in asking me more questions. “What other bands?” He asked. “Or music, whatever.” He waved a hand dismissively.

The question of what music I liked had to be the least personal question Billie had ever asked me in the short amount of time that I had known him, however it somehow managed to have the biggest effect on me. It was after Billie had asked me what other bands I was into that I decided to completely avoid the question until I got an answer from him. I wasn’t going to be a bitch about it at all considering there was no reason to be, however I was going to avoid the question and perhaps even ask him as many questions as possible to show him what the hell it felt like to be clueless about the person next to you while pouring out just about all of your information.

“I like a lot of music,” I repeated from before. I then shrugged. “What about you—what bands do you like?”

Billie mirrored my movements by shrugging. “I like a lot of music, too,” he admitted. I expected Billie to keep going and so the car was silent for a good minute or two. It was after that minute or so when I saw Billie lift a hand to run through his thick hair that I began to realize that that was most likely all the details I was going to get about Billie’s music preference.

I groaned silently to myself in frustration and then also lifted a hand to run through my bright red hair while turning to look back at the streets of Berkeley. I was becoming aggravated with this man.

What brought my attention back from my silent sulking was when I heard Billie clear his throat and mumble lamely to who I assumed had to be himself. I lifted my head from the window that I had been resting it on to look over at the thirty one year old seated next to me only to see that he was looking at me with what could only be described as a perplexed look on his face.

I hadn’t realized that my muted groan hadn’t been muted at all at first, and so I just sat in my seat and stared back at Billie in confusion for what seemed the longest time although I’m sure it had to have been only about ten seconds, tops. “Are you alright?” Billie finally asked after not getting some sort of explanation from me.

My eyes widened as I realized that Billie had indeed heard me and I immediately lifted a hand to rub my temples while doing my best to hide the fact that I was also trying to hide the blush that was making sure to say hello. “I’m sorry,” I apologized honestly. “Oh god, I’m sorry.” I sighed, although it sounded like a huff and moved my fingers from my temples and to my now burning cheeks. I tried my best to ignore the fact that I could see Billie grinning from the side of my eyes at my blush that he had noticed. “I’m such a baby.” I laughed and shook my head as I sat up straighter in Billie’s car.

Billie chuckled, although he seemed slightly nervous. He didn’t say anything because I honestly believe he didn’t know what the hell to say. I felt a bit bad for him to be honest— having being stuck in a car with a dysfunctional teenager and all.

“I just,” I sighed again. “I feel like I don’t know you,” I finally admitted openly. When I saw the grin on Billie’s face become a bit less prominent as it turned into a look of confusion, I felt the need to quickly correct myself. I didn’t want to hurt Billie’s feelings in any way and I was beginning to feel as if I had started to do so.

I think it was around then that I finally realized that perhaps the reason that Billie wasn’t telling me about himself had nothing to do with the fact that he just didn’t want me to know about him, but maybe rather the fact that the man didn’t know how the hell to talk about himself. To be completely honest, I think I had been wrong about Billie the entire time when it came to the lack of conversation that we had had about him.

“I mean, I obviously know you,” I continued to stutter. “But I feel like I don’t…know you. Like, anything about you.” I laughed and lifted a hand to my forehead in which I rubbed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

Silence.

“Oh,” Billie muttered after a moment. He looked thoroughly surprised, but more importantly, not angry or upset like I had actually expected him to. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair. As ridiculous as it sounds, the absolute shock that crossed his face at the realization of what I had said made my heart flutter a bit, despite the situation. “Oh.” Billie laughed a short, somewhat rigid laugh—he sounded nervous. “I didn’t think that I was that interesting.” He seemed to hesitate and I watched as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel before lifting one of his hands to run over his jaw. “Okay, well, ask away I guess.” He shrugged. “There’s not much to me.”

I somehow doubted that—Billie seemed to be an incredibly complex person, and that was coming from someone who barely knew him.

There had been so many questions that I had created in my mind while pining over the guy throughout the past few days that I had been dying to ask him, however I guess I didn’t really believe that I’d ever have the chance to verbalize any of them because now that Billie was allowing me to, I found myself speechless and almost literally frozen. When I didn’t answer right away but rather stammered a bit before coming quiet, Billie looked over at me and cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, err…” I hesitated. The fact that my mind wasn’t all too good on the spot had never bothered me prior to this situation. “What’s your favorite color?”

There was a short silence in the car and I began to fear that Billie had come to the conclusion that I really was just incredibly stupid. God knows I felt stupid. I was mortified, to be completely honest. In fact, if it had been possible, I would have turned and just dug myself a hole in the seat that I was currently sitting in. Perhaps even jumped out of the car itself if that had been easier.

My ruthless thoughts had been cut off, however, by the sudden barking of laughter.

My head twisted around at the sound that had startled me, but when I realized what exactly it was, the only thing I found myself able to do was sink down in my seat even more as if hoping that it really would just eat me. I couldn’t count the number of times I had completely embarrassed myself around Billie anymore and I don’t believe that I wanted to. It was beginning to get to the point where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be around Billie anymore because the more I was around him, the bigger idiot I made out of myself.

For the second time within the past hour, Billie was laughing at something stupid I had done.

Billie’s laughter died down as he slowed the car at a red light, in which I was incredibly thankful for. I didn’t know how much longer I could take it, even if I did like his laugh. When the car was fully stopped at the light, Billie giggled a few times and shook his head. He then opened his eyes and focused in on my pathetic form that was curled up in the passenger’s seat of it car and after chuckling and smiling sympathetically at my obvious mortification, he reached over and placed a cool hand on my arm.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Roxanne,” Billie chuckled. “I’m not laughing at you—that was adorable and,” he paused to laugh, “and probably the last thing I expected you to just ask me.” As the light turned green, Billie sat back up in his seat and continued to drive, however his eyes kept glancing back at me to make sure I was alright.

“I feel almost legitimately retarded,” I admitted after a moment of silence.

Billie shook his head and laughed. He took one hand from the steering wheel and reached over to grip my shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t, sweetheart.” He chuckled. “I’m sorry for fucking laughing so hard, but,” he chuckled again, “fuck, Roxanne. I really wasn’t expecting that.”

“Well I’m good for things like that then,” I muttered.

Instead of verbally agreeing with me, Billie just gently patted my shoulder.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence between the two of us, however it was comfortable silence. The radio had been turned up a bit once Billie realized that he couldn’t really do much to stop me from sulking at my own stupidity, especially when he couldn’t keep a straight face when trying to do so.

It wasn’t much longer until Billie pulled his car into the parking lot of a small, one-floored building that was surprisingly busy considering I assumed that most people were working at that time of the day. As soon as Billie killed the engine, he turned to face me in his seat instead of getting out. He chuckled and placed his hand on my arm again. “Roxy, are you alright?” When he saw the blush on my cheeks he just shook his head with an amused smile. “Should I take you to the ER and tell them that you’ve just stopped responding and I think the vessels in your cheeks have exploded?”

I scowled.

Billie laughed and opened up the door to his side of the car. He stepped out and closed it behind him gently while I also removed myself from the BMW that I had managed to kill all my dignity while inside of. By the time that my door had closed, Billie was standing next to me.

I was a bit surprised that I had never noticed it before that moment, but as the two of us stood next to each other in the parking lot of the café, I realized the height difference between Billie and me. It was completely different than the other day in the market seeing as Billie was now miraculously taller than me. He was also just a lot taller in general.

For the first time since I had met Billie, I had to look up to make eye contact with him.

Out of confusion at Billie’s sudden growth that I’m sure hadn’t happened overnight [especially to a man that was over thirty], I allowed my eyes to fall from Billie’s sunglass-clad eyes, past his striped t-shirt and black shorts and finally to his shoes that weren’t the pair of tattered Chucks that I had been accustomed to.

Instead of the pair of Converse that Billie had been wearing each time I had seen him so far, there was a pair of black Creepers that had to have given Billie at least another two inches in height on his feet. And well, considering the fact that I had only been wearing a pair of sandals and Billie’s shoes did indeed give him some height, Billie was indeed taller than me that day—much taller.

I felt a bit bad for the man, really. It was obvious that he was very much aware to his lack of height and wasn’t all too confident with it. I didn’t mind it, though—I liked the fact that Billie was around the same height as I was. I liked the way our bodies fit together when we hugged because of it. It wasn’t as if I was exactly tall, either.

Once Billie noticed what I had obviously noticed, I heard him chuckle nervously and wrap an arm around my bare shoulders in order to get my attention away from his feet. I decided not to tease Billie or anything of the sort about his height and so I allowed him wordlessly to lead me from the parking lot to the front of the small café in which I had come to learn was named Rudy’s Cant Fail Café.

With the hand that wasn’t resting on my shoulder, Billie pulled open the door to the café and slid his arm back from around my shoulders to allow me to step inside while he followed closely behind. When we stepped inside, my eyes immediately took notice of the walls that were made out of brick and painted white along with the blue and orange booths and chairs.

What surprised me, however, was the feeling of the eyes that I could feel on me.

I hadn’t noticed it when we had first stepped into the café since I had been taking in the place itself, but the more my eyes focused on all of the people inside of it, the more eyes I realized were on me. I felt myself shrink back in surprise into Billie’s arm that had discreetly wrapped itself back around my back as I began to feel more eyes on us. A few people seemed to be staring at the doorway in what I could only explain to be shock while other did a double take before going back to eating or talking to their companions.

It only took me a few seconds to figure out that the eyes weren’t on me at all, but rather the man standing right beside me.

Once it occurred to me that the people hadn’t been staring at me, but instead Billie, I also turned to look up at him. Billie sighed and rubbed my arm in a reassuring manner. He smiled to the people that were staring at him and waved with the hand that wasn’t resting on my arm before leading me rather quickly to a secluded booth in the back of a room joined to the one we had just been in in the café.

Billie smiled sweetly towards me and motioned for me to sit in the orange booth while he took the blue chair across from it. I did as he motioned for me to while he also sat. Billie’s mood seemed to have changed ever since whatever the hell had just happened in the other room—he seemed…embarrassed.

We both sat in silence for a moment until a waitress came and introduced herself and gave us our menus. It was when Billie was looking through his while biting the skin on his thumb in what could have easily been mistaken for anger or slight anxiety that I decided I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “Billie?” I called hesitantly.

At the sound of his name being called, Billie’s head snapped up from his menu and he sat up from his hunched over position in his seat. He smiled what I believe was apprehensively at me—as if he was waiting for something to go terribly wrong. “What’s up?” he asked. “Are you alright?”

I cocked an eyebrow as I shifted in my seat to cross my legs. I should have been asking him that considering he was the one that had changed completely within the past few minutes. I twisted my head to the side and leant forward against the table. “I, uh,” I stuttered. I didn’t really know how the hell to say what I wanted to. “What just happened?” I finally asked with a nervous chuckle.

Billie sighed and lifted a hand to run through his hair. He then shrugged almost dismissively. “It was nothing,” he stated. “My friend owns this place so I’m in here a lot. It’s just that they know me; that’s all.”

I don’t want to call Billie a liar considering I liked him too much to do so, but I don’t believe that any part of me believed what he was saying. Instead of just nodding my head and leaving what he had said like I’m sure Billie had obviously been hoping for me to do, I decided to question him more. “But why would they just sit and stare at you?” I asked. I shifted in my seat. “I mean, they were staring in awe, Billie.”

Billie sighed in discontent. “I don’t know why else they were,” he stated. For the first time since we had stepped into the small café, Billie’s eyes met mine. A corner of his lips pulled up to result in a crooked, pleading smile while his eyes held the same pleading look in them. He was silently begging me to not ask him anymore questions about what had just happened.

It took me just about all of my will power to do so, but I dropped the subject. Verbally.

On the inside, as the two of us sat at the back of the café in a now awkward silence, I was still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. I had never had anything of the sort happen to me before and I guess I was now a bit thankful for it because the kind of attention I had just gotten wasn’t exactly welcoming.

We both continued to sit in the uncomfortable silence for at least ten minutes. To avoid awkward conversation, Billie sat and pretended to look at his menu the whole damn time. When the overly-friendly waitress came and took our orders was when Billie finally decided he had had enough of the awkwardness. And so he smiled up at me and shifted in his chair to pull it closer to the table. “You never answered me in the car,” he pointed out with a crooked smile. I cocked my head to the side in question; though I was thankful he was finally speaking. “What kind of music do you like?”

I grinned at Billie’s attempt to start up conversation and decided not to be difficult about it. “I did answer,” I argued playfully. “Muse is my favorite band.” I shrugged. “Other than that, I like a lot of bands like Oasis, The Hives, The Strokes, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

I was a bit surprised to see the grin on Billie’s face after I had named the bands I liked. Billie chuckled at my surprise. “You’re the first girl that I’ve met in a long ass time that has good music taste, I’m surprised.”

I grinned back at Billie at his compliment and thanked him quietly. “What about you?” I asked in return. “You never answered me, either.”

Billie sat up straighter in his seat and shrugged. “I like a lot of music,” he stated. “The Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols.” He hesitated for a moment and then lifted a hand to run over his face as if he was mulling over the decision to continue like whatever he was going to continue with was some big secret. “Uh,” he muttered. “Green Day.”

I cocked an eyebrow at how much of a big deal Billie made out of the fact that he liked the band Green Day. It sounded as if he was admitting to me that he had been secretly in love with the Backstreet Boys rather than Green Day. And while I had never listened to Green Day, I was pretty damn sure that they weren’t a thing like the Backstreet Boys.

“Do you know any of them?” Billie asked, cutting my thoughts off.

My eyebrow stayed cocked at Billie question before I laughed. I was honestly beginning to believe that Billie really did think that I lived under a rock back in Connecticut—of course I had known the bands he had listed, they were literally legends. “Do you really think Connecticut is that far away that I don’t know bands such as The Sex Pistols?” I asked with a laugh.

For what had to be the second time in all of the times I had ever seen Billie, I think he actually did blush. I assume that he must had known it, too, seeing as he chuckled nervously and dipped his head down so that I couldn’t see the pigment in his cheeks. “I was just wondering,” he mumbled bashfully. “It’s not exactly like you look like you know them,” he admitted with a nervous chuckle. He then lifted his head and looked at me wearily. “You do know all of them?”

I sat back against the booth and pulled down my dress as I shifted my crossed legs. I hadn’t thought much of Billie questioning my music taste beforehand, but now that he was pushing these bands in my face I’ll admit that I was becoming a bit confused. The fact that he also looked slightly anxious and it seemed to take so damn much out of him to say that he liked Green Day was beginning to throw me off, also. “Yes,” I confirmed. I then shrugged. “Except for Green Day—they sound familiar, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually listened to them.”

As soon as those words left my lips, the tension in Billie’s body seemed to completely disappear.

Billie allowed himself to drop back against his chair as his body visibly relaxed. The fretful smile on his lips turned into just a soft one and any traces of the worrying that Billie seemed to have been doing was just gone. Perhaps Billie and I got along so well because he was just as neurotic as I was lately.

I made a mental note to check out Green Day when I got home that night.

“Billie?” I called out after a moment. Billie raised his eyebrows at me in order to show that I had his attention. “Can I ask you a few things—like, a few things I’ve been wondering?” I asked slowly. I didn’t know how else to say what I had so desperately wanted to lately. I didn’t want the guy to feel like I was interviewing him or anything of the sort.

Billie chuckled as he took a sip of the root beer he had ordered. He waved a hand to me to tell me to go ahead before actually saying so. “Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

I shifted a bit in my chair out of slight excitement at the fact that I was finally going to be able to ask Billie the things I had been pining over since I had left him at the airport. In order to make sure I was asking the correction question, I took my Sidekick from my bag and quickly found the name that he had entered for himself under my contacts.

Billie J.

When I looked up from my phone after placing it on my lap I smiled genuinely at the perplexed look that was visible on the man’s face from across the table. “Um,” I mumbled. “In my phone, you put your name as Billie J,” I said while emphasizing the J. “What the hell does that stand for—it’s been killing me.”

Billie chuckled and sat up straighter. “Joe,” he stated simply.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Your last name is Joe?” I asked. I suppose it wasn’t exactly impossible for Billie’s last name to be Joe, but it certainly hadn’t been what I had expected. Billie Joe? It sounded so…incomplete. Billie shook his head slowly and while he was smiling, it became a bit less prominent. He looked nervous again and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why—all I was doing was asking the damn man his last name. “It’s not?” I asked slowly. Then what the hell was it, his middle name?

“Nope,” Billie answered slowly. He leant against the table and began to play with the straw in his glass. “My last name is Armstrong,” he said monotonously. It took only a few seconds to string his name together.

Billie Joe Armstrong.

I liked his name, to be honest. It hadn’t been what I expected in the least—no, certainly not, but I wasn’t one to complain. His name went together smoothly.

I hadn’t noticed the way Billie was staring at me as I repeated his name in my head a few times, however when I did, I felt confused. The man was staring at me with a slightly intense look—as if he thought that by telling me his last name he’d get a large reaction from me. I suppose I had been rather annoying about it, but I wasn’t going to exactly jump around now that I had learnt it—well, literally jump around.

Once seeing that I was calm and planning on staying calm, Billie relaxed in his seat again. He smiled crookedly. “Billie Joe Armstrong,” he stated as if he didn’t think that I had put it together yet. He was stating it as if his name held some subliminal message or something of the sort. When he got absolutely no reaction other than a smile from me, he looked a bit surprise, but nevertheless smiled. “Well,” he hummed. “My turn. What’s yours?”

I grinned at the way Billie had turned the question around. Truth be told, ever since Billie had told me his full name, my mood had lightened quite a bit—I now actually knew something that I should have known about him. I sighed at my last name considering it was nothing special. “Watson,” I stated with a shrug. “Roxanne Serenity Watson.”

Billie’s mouth twisted into a grin at my name. I'm not sure as to why, but he actually looked somewhat surprised. “Shit, Roxanne," he chuckled. "Even your name is gorgeous. It matches you perfectly.” I don't believe he meant to actually say that to me at all by the look on his face. In fact, even he looked shocked by his own statement.

I'm petty damn sure that we both blushed at it, though.