Roxanne

“So how was your weekend?” Billie asked rather casually as he took a seat on the edge of my aunts pool. I watched him hesitantly place one foot into the water and then, as soon as he must have came to the conclusion that the water wasn’t too cold for his liking, he stuck the other one in as well.

It was when we both realized that I had yet to answer him that Billie looked up at me and I felt my cheeks burn (not that was I entirely sure that they had even stopped from before, that is). I couldn’t understand why this man made me so nervous, yet everything seemed to be so casual in his mind. While it had taken me ridiculous amounts of courage to even look at Billie’s hair, he had turned and decided to run a hand through mine almost what seemed to be subconsciously. The worst part of all of this was the fact that I knew perfectly damn well how ridiculous I was being, yet I couldn’t seem to snap out of it.

“Roxy?” Billie asked slowly. He was now looking up at me with a rather confused look, however once my eyes connected with his, a grin crossed his face and he patted the spot on the patio next to him. As if he knew that inviting me to sit next to him would only cause another few minutes of me staring rather blankly at him, his grin widened and he took my hand to pull me down next to him. I obliged.

“It was good,” I admitted slowly. Truth be told, my weekend had been awful. I had sat and sulked over my lack of contact with Billie, and therefor did absolutely nothing productive other than convince myself that I was, yet again, unwanted. I wasn’t going to really share that with him, however.

“Just good?” Billie asked. He chuckled. “Now, come on. I told you literally everything about mine and I just get it was good?” He tilted his head to the side and cocked an eyebrow. I did my best to avoid eye contact from him by allowing my eyes to focus in on my hands, knowing damn well as soon as we made it I would melt, however, once noticing my pitiful attempts, Billie only placed one of his hands over mine and shifted forward so the point where our eyes finally met. I scowled mentally. I had no choice but to look at him.

Once our eyes connected, I felt my lips pull upwards into a small, bashful smile. Billie wasn’t doing a damn thing to embarrass me, yet I couldn’t help but feel slightly mortified. I shrugged slowly as his fingers linked with mine once again. He pulled my hand into his lap as he sat up straight once again and began to caress my fingers with the hand that wasn’t taken. “I, uh,” I mumbled, stumbling over my words. I was trying to think of something to say without lying to Billie, however also avoiding what I really did at the same time. I shrugged once again, doing my best to buy time. “I bonded with my aunt,” I finally admitted. “And, honestly, just lied in the pool all day.”

Billie grinned at me before leaning over to place his lips upon my cheek. “I can tell,” he admitted. “You’re pretty tan.”

At Billie’s rare compliment, I perked up a bit. I don’t believe I had ever, ever had anybody tell me that I was tan before. It was almost unheard of. “Really?” I asked. I must admit, the excitement in my voice was incredibly pathetic, however at that certain time I didn’t bother to be embarrassed.

Billie stared at me for a moment with his crooked teeth showing between his lips that were slowly stretching into a grin. “No,” he admitted. At first I hadn’t believed I had actually heard his words, however once I realized what he had said, I scowled and slumped forward a bit. At my posture and my sudden attitude towards him, Billie snorted loudly and took the hand that was caressing my own to wrap around my shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he managed between short snorts of laughter. “I am. I didn’t mean to ruin your excitement, I just knew I’d get a response from you.” He continued to laugh for a moment before he pulled my body closer to his and placed another kiss upon me, however this time it was on my temple.

God forbid it be my lips. I was starting to question if Billie avoiding my lips had any significance. The last time I had seen him, we had spent the last few minutes upon my aunts porch with our lips connected. Since then, he had managed to avoid me all weekend (while I had come to know wasn’t actually intentional) and now he seemed to be avoiding my lips. I hadn’t seen the man all weekend, while I thoroughly enjoyed sitting with him and talking to him and his small kisses that were placed upon cute places such as my cheek and my forehead, I was almost craving a real kiss from him. He was the man here, shouldn’t he have been the one trying to make a move on me?

Which, of course, only managed to construct more paranoia—what if Billie had regretted kissing me?

While Billie still seemed incredibly interested in me, there was quite the chance that he had still liked me and was indeed interested me, and therefor enjoyed spending time with me, however had also deemed me as a friend. Perhaps kissing him the other night had completely changed his mind about what sort of relationship, if any he wanted with me.

I couldn’t help but frown as I realized how correct I was, and that this was Billie’s way of letting me down slowly. Well, shit. I was sick of being let down, especially slowly. If the man was going to end whatever we had, if it was even anything at all, right now, then just end it. The last thing I needed was his insincere pity. Men always seemed to underestimate how strong us females are. Coming from a girl that had just been dumped after several years of dating only a mere week ago, I was pretty damn strong. True, I suppose I had flown across the country, but I didn’t seem to be doing all to bad now, did i? I didn’t need Billie feeling bad for me because I wasn’t good enough for him. I had gotten enough of that from Bryan and just about everybody who lived in Connecticut before I came.

I scowled as I felt a hand gently place itself upon my shoulder and shake me a bit, as if to shake me out of my thoughts. He did a considerably good job because within half of a second I realized that Billie was still indeed sitting with me with his arm wrapped now around my shoulder. Upon the realization, I lifted my chin to make eye contact with him. Billie cocked an eyebrow and a rather confused look crossed his face. “What’s wrong?” He asked. All traces of laughter had ceased to exist on his face and truth be told, it made me a bit sad that I had caused it. I was just a baby with raging emotions. I was not what Billie needed. His wife had probably been so mature, and so much less of a ridiculous teenager. “Roxy?” Billie cooed. Despite the look of confusion and even slight worry, a small smile still managed to take over his lips. He then chuckled quietly and tugged my body closer to his, almost in a reassuring sort of way. “What’s going on?” He asked. His lips brushed my cheek with each word. “I thought we were starting to see a less nervous Roxanne. I know I haven’t talked to you in a few days, but am I really going to have to start back at square one?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Billie’s somewhat rhetorical question, however that didn’t matter due to the fact that before I could even begin to think of how to respond to the attractive man sitting beside me, he had thrust his fingers into my side, therefor causing the same scene as at the ice cream stand to unfold. Just as I had outside of the ice cream stand, I squealed loudly and began to attempt to get as far away from Billie as humanly possible. Unfortunately, just as he had outside the ice cream parlor also, Billie managed to overpower me and therefor bring my body back up against his. I wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon.

I was damn near positive that as Billie had jabbed me in the side once again I began to yell at him, however my squeals of displeasure were drowned out by his ridiculous laughter. He was having far too much fun tickling me. “Stop it,” I cried out desperately. Out of pure desperation, I began to kick and pound onto the arm that he was clinging to me with. I could never understand why people enjoyed to tickle me—it was absolutely awful and probably my least favorite activity in existence.

It was only after a few more painful jabs to the side that Billie must have begun to feel bad for torturing me and therefor eased his grip on me. However, as soon as I began to take full advantage of my chance of escaping, Billie managed to grab a hold of me again. Rather than bringing my body back against his to tickle me again, Billie only wrapped his other arm around me, enveloping me within his body.

While I was still rather upset at what he had just put me through, I’d be blatantly lying if I were to say that being held within his arms right then didn’t make me any less discouraged.

If it had been my decision to have been made, I probably wouldn’t have melted against Billie’s arms so easily. However, seeing how absolutely ridiculous my mind and body had become around the attractive man, as soon as Billie’s arms had locked me into place, I felt myself melt against him. In lieu of fighting against his grip, I rested my head on his shoulder and found my hands resting against his t-shirted chest between our bodies. Without so much as a second though, Billie pulled me into his lap.

“I hate it when people tickle me,” I admitted to Billie. Though I was sure he already knew and tickled me for his own joy, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Billie chuckled as he tilted his head in order to make eye contact with me. Although I thankfully managed to catch myself and didn’t actually gasp, as soon as our eyes connected I felt as if I had had the wind knocked out of me. While I knew that only a mere half hour ago or so when Billie and I had made eye contact within my aunts kitchen and I had found myself gushing about how beautiful his eyes were then, they seemed to pale in comparison as to how they were now. As if the fact that his pupils had shrunken to minimal dilation hadn’t been enough to show off the beauty of his green irises, the sun seemed to be working in his favor by reflecting off of them. The beautiful green irises I had focus upon in my aunt’s kitchen not too long ago seemed to magnify and therefor left me almost literally speechless. It almost didn’t seem fair that someone could have such amazing eyes.

“Do you?” Billie cooed. I almost missed his words, however forced myself to focus on them. A small, coy smile emerged across his lips. I scowled at him once I realized how innocent he was acting. That man knew damn well by now how much I hated it. Once hearing my scowl, Billie chuckled and slid a hand onto my waist. “I can’t say I noticed.”

“You’re lying,” I accused. Without so much as a second thought, I lifted my hand to caress Billie’s clean-shaven cheek. At the feeling of the warmth of my skin against his own, the faux-coy smile that had been on Billie’s lips spread to a full out grin. Apparently he had been expecting me sudden movement as much as I had. “You know I hate being tickled,” I added.

Billie gasped over dramatically and I rolled my eyes. “Roxy,” he murmured. He moved the arm that had still been wrapped tightly around my back so that his one free hand could now occupy the other side of my waist. At the feeling of his hands placed on my waist and tugging me against his body despite the fact that I was already sitting in his lap, I felt my stomach being to turn with butterflies. I don’t believe Billie and I had ever had so much contact between our bodies and while I was in no way disapproving of it, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to cope with it without hyperventilating. I was enjoying it far too much. “I am insulted that you would think that I would tickle you while knowing you hate it!” He took a hand from my waist place onto his chest, over his heart as if I had hurt him. I rolled my eyes. “What kind of a man do you think I am?”

Despite how ridiculous and over dramatic Billie was being, I giggled quietly and swatted at his hand that was still placed over his heart. It was when I went to swat Billie’s hand that my pinky had accidently become caught in the collar of Billie’s t-shirt and pulled it down. While I had become somewhat used to (yet however still infatuated with) the tattoos inked into Billie’s arms, the flash of color I had seen when accidently pulling down the collar of his shirt genuinely surprised me. Billie had had tattoos on his chest, too?

Billie must have noticed my sudden attention on his chest rather than his words, which caused his to attention to also be diverted to his chest. “What?” He asked after a moment of silence. Billie lifted his eyes from his chest and up to mine, however was unsuccessful due to the fact that I was still focused on the flash of colors I had just seen. When he realized he wasn’t going to obtain a verbal answer from me, Billie looked back to his chest and then, once realizing that he wasn’t going to get much of an answer from his shirt, pulled the collar out so that he could look down his chest. It was when he had done so that I found my question answered—yes, Billie had tattoos on his chest. Quite a bit of them, too.

“Roxy,” Billie called. He finally obtained my attention by tilting my chin up with his own fingers. As soon as I realized that Billie had been calling me and I had been so blatantly obviously staring at his chest, I felt my cheeks being to burn profusely. Shouldn’t he have been the one staring at my chest at all chances? I was so pathetic. It had become more than obvious as to why Billie didn’t want anything with me—I was such a child!

Billie shook me gently. “Do I have something on me?” He asked with a nervous chuckle. A side of his mouth had been pulled back into an adorable crooked grin. “I can’t see anything, but I’m feeling pretty fuckin’ stupid right now,” he admitted. Another nervous chuckle emitted from his lips afterwards.

At Billie’s obvious embarrassment, I managed to regain control of my mind and my body, and laughed. “No,” I answered. I giggled Billie’s embarrassment. It was nice to have him embarrassed once in a while. “I just, I, uh…” I paused awkwardly as soon as I realized that I didn’t want to admit that I had been staring at the beautiful colors inked into Billie’s chest. I shrugged. “I was just daydreaming, I’m sorry.”

Billie cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. “You’re lying,” he pointed out. I frowned and swallowed thickly. I had caught Billie staring at my chest multiple times today and while it hadn’t bothered me, I certainly hadn’t called him out on it, therefor I would have appreciated him doing the same. “What’s going on?”

I groaned inwardly and leant forward against his body to bury my head into his shoulder. Once Billie recognized the fact that I was hiding myself from him by doing so, he snorted and pushed my shoulders back in order to force me to look at him. “If I drooled on myself or there’s something on me that you’re not telling me about, I will not hesitate to tickle you until you bleed, Roxy,” Billie falsely threatened. He cocked an eyebrow and gently prodded my side with his fingers as if to show that he meant business. While I knew that Billie obviously wouldn’t tickle me until I bled, I certainly wouldn’t have put it past him to tickle me again.

I sighed softly while desperately trying to think of an excuse for as to why I was staring at Billie’s chest only moments ago, however as the pressure Billie was putting on my side was increasing, I found myself failing miserably at doing so. For someone who was known for their artistic ability and creativity, I really was quite terrible when it was necessary. “I, er…” I attempted to start lamely. Billie chuckled and gently prodded my side once again. I groaned as I was forced to keep going. “I just, I don’t know…” I shrugged and looked down at my legs in which were crossed in his lap. “I didn’t know your chest was, uh,” I paused and sighed loudly while dreading to continue. Once I came to the conclusion that Billie wasn’t going to help me, I reluctantly continued. “I didn’t know your chest was tattooed, also,” I finally blurted. Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure that what I had said was coherent at all.

Billie cocked an eyebrow and stared at me for a moment blankly, almost as if trying to figure out exactly what I had said before he snorted. “You know, Roxy,” he started. He tugged my body back so that our chests were pressed together in somewhat of a hug. “Whenever I tease you about not having seen tattoos before, you always judge me and act all insulted and shit, yet I always catch you in awe of them.” He laughed even louder when I failed to make a comment back. “Yes,” he answered after a moment of silence. He gently shifted my body and pulled the collar of his t-shirt down to reveal multiple colors inked into my skin. At the sight of all of the tattoos, my eyes widened. Billie chuckled and placed a wet kiss on my cheek.

“I have seen them before,” I argued lamely. The look on Billie’s face made it apparent that he was judging my words. I rolled my eyes and swatted his chest. “I have,” I insisted. I lived less than an hour away from New York City, of course I had seen tattoos before. I shrugged. “However, I’ve never actually been this close to them.” I paused as my eyes flashed to the tattoos covering Billie’s chest. “I always admired them from afar.”

“So you like them?” Billie asked. He seemed mildly surprised.

I wasn’t sure as to why Billie was so surprised at the fact that I liked his tattoos. Had I ever really done anything to show or tell him otherwise? “Yes,” I agreed.

My eyes drifted back down to Billie’s colored chest. While I had wanted so bad to run my hands over them and to outline them, I held myself back. What exactly would I have done if Billie had decided he had liked my chest enough to run his hands all over it? While I probably wouldn’t have been too insulted at the time considering how attracted I was to him, I couldn’t exactly say the same for him, and one of the last things I wanted to do at the moment was insult him. “I really do,” I added. I lifted my eyes to Billie’s beautiful green ones and smiled once they had connected. “Did they hurt?” I asked. “I mean, you’ve got so many, and I’ve always heard that they hurt so much.”

Billie grinned as he looked back down at his tattoo-clad chest. Without any hesitation, he peeled his t-shirt from his body and threw it onto the ground next to us. Although I hadn’t moved even so far as an inch, the fact that Billie had removed his t-shirt made my cheeks almost set themselves on fire. I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact that Billie, the man that I had met at the airport less than a week or so ago, was sitting in front of me in nothing but swimming trunks. I suppose I could finally understand how he had felt when he had shown up at my aunts house this afternoon to find me only in my bikini.

“Jesus Christ,” Billie mumbled. He laughed as he lifted his hands to place on my cheeks. As if I hadn’t been blushing enough by then, as soon as his hands came in contact of my cheeks, they seemed to become worse. I was in no way fit to handle this situation. Billie snorted. “Roxanne, am I going to have to take you to the hospital?” He placed on hand over my heart. “I don’t know if I can even find a pulse.”

I sighed heavily as I forced myself to regain at least some composure. To be honest, I was really beginning to wonder if I was ever going to be able to spend even an hour with Billie without mortifying myself beyond my own existence. I’m sure he was beginning to wonder that as well.

“They don’t hurt anymore,” Billie answered after he noticed that I was okay. I looked at his eyes for a moment before focusing back upon his tattoos. “I mean, they still are a bitch, don’t get me wrong,” he added with a chuckle. “Don’t tell anyone, but I cried like a fuckin’ baby when I got the first one done.”

I giggled as I mustered up enough courage to run my hand along his arm. “I would, too,” I murmured. I hesitated for a moment before outlining what seemed to be a photo strip on his forearm. “Who’s this of?” I asked quietly.

I felt Billie’s body tense somewhat and automatically knew what the answer would be: it was his ex wife.

Truth be told, I suppose I could have taken the jealous girlfriend position and become angry at the tattoo on Billie’s forearm and sulked, or I could have appreciated how ridiculously sweet it was of Billie to get his wife inked into his skin. Truth be told, I found the tattoo of her more romantic than anything.

“It’s Adrienne,” Billie admitted hesitantly. “I got it done a while ago,” he added.

I smiled up at him as I pulled his forearm closer to my face, studying the art etched into his skin. “It’s beautiful,” I stated. Billie’s body seemed to relax somewhat. While I could understand why he probably didn’t believe me completely, I honestly wished he would have. He and I have both been in love with two different people for so long, there was absolutely no reason for any jealousy on my part—especially considering Billie and I weren’t even actually together. I looked back up at Billie after continuing to study that certain tattoo and smiled while lifting one of the hands I had been using to run over the ink to caress his check. He finally sighed and seemed to relax completely. “It’s actually very romantic,” I concluded.

Billie grinned up at me while pulling my body closer to his. He turned and placed a small kiss into the palm of my hand. “You’re really fucking with my head, Roxy,” he chuckled. I cocked an eyebrow in confusion as to what he had meant by such a statement. “Not in a bad way,” he added. He smiled and placed another kiss into my hand. “I keep expecting you to go fuckin’ loco or something on me, but you’re just taking everything with such stride.” He sighed comfortably against my skin. “Where’s that overdramatic teenage girl sass of yours I keep expecting?”

At Billie’s last question, I couldn't help but to laugh loudly. At the sight and sound of my laughter, a large grin had crossed Billie’s lips. “I did flip out on you, remember?” I asked. I ran my thumb thoughtfully over the tattoo of Adrienne. “At the diner last week? You told me about your kids and I flipped out on you.”

Billie chuckled and shook his head. “Roxanne, I would have flipped the fuck out on me, too,” he said through his grin. “You thought I was a married man hitting on you. You had every reason to flip out.”

“No,” I argued. Truth be told, I was still and probably would always be mortified over the scene I had caused at the diner the first time we had ever gone out together. “I jumped to the conclusion that you were married and therefor flipped out on you without giving you a chance to explain yourself.”

Billie chuckled and shook his head, however made no argument. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured into my hand after a moment of silence, in which I took up studying the tattoos on his arms again. He managed to capture my attention again with that.

Quite honestly, I had no idea what to respond to Billie with. While I most certainly wanted to tell Billie how unbelievably attractive I found him, I was far too bashful to actually say it no matter how desperately I wanted to. Billie grinned once he realized he had made me speechless.

“Didn’t your boyfriend ever compliment you, Roxanne?” Billie asked.

I shrugged. “He did,” I admitted. Of course he did, Bryan hadn’t always been a dick. He was well aware of how attractive I was and reminded me of it quite a bit. However, Bryan was more of the type to tell me how sexy I was rather than beautiful. He was a stupid high school football player, what was I to expect?

Billie didn’t seem to believe me because after I had admitted that Bryan did indeed compliment me, he only shifted me in his arms so that both of his hands were cupping both of my cheeks. “He has no idea what he’s lost,” Billie stated slowly while staring at me. A small smile picked at the corner of his lips. “Because you are, honestly, the most gorgeous fucking person I’ve ever met.”

Before I had any time to react, or to even think to react to Billie’s statement, I became aware of the warm sensation of his skin—his lips being pressed against my own. Billie Joe Armstrong was, for the first time since I had seen him Thursday, finally placing a kiss upon my lips.

As soon as I became aware of my surroundings once again, along with the feeling of his cool lips against my own, I lifted my hand to cup his neck and gently pull his face closer. I had waited all damn weekend and all damn day to be able to finally kiss this man again, there was no way in hell I was going to allow him to stop anytime soon.

I felt Billie pull back slightly from our kiss despite the grip I had on him, however before I had had the time to begin to panic that he hadn’t wanted to kiss me anymore, he placed yet another kiss upon my lips. And then another. And another. And another. Each one lasted longer until finally he stopped disconnecting our lips and only focus upon opening them.

I felt sick. I felt as I had the other night on my aunt’s porch when Billie had first kissed me, however so much worse. It wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying the feeling of Billie’s tongue against my lips, but rather I seemed to be enjoying it too much. It all felt too good and I was becoming increasingly nervous that it really was too much for me to handle. There were no more butterflies in my stomach from the other night, but now rather large birds attacking my insides.

I shifted a hand up from Billie’s neck and to his blonde tousled hair, accidently knocking his sunglasses from the top of his head. At the sound of them hitting the patio behind Billie, he pulled his lips away quickly in confusion to look over his shoulder. Once he realized what had fallen, he snorted and wasted absolutely no time in turning back to me to continue where he had left off.

I suppose that I could finally set my expectations of Billie dumping me at ease.

Everything about him was so different than Bryan. The way his lips moved, the way his tongue moved, the way he tasted—everything. He tasted so faintly of what, although I had never seen him smoking or tasted a smokers mouth before, seemed to be cigarettes, yet at the same time of mint from, quite obviously, brushing his teeth.

I had never thought that a man could make cigarettes taste so good.

All too soon for my liking, Billie slowly withdrew his mouth from my own, and I was once again left to do nothing but savor what had just happened in my mind. I wanted so desperately to do nothing but force his lips against my own once again, however I managed to hold myself back.

Billie grinned up at me from where he sat with me still perched in his lap. Without another word, he leaned forward and pressed another gentle, yet quick kiss upon my lips before once again depriving me of the perhaps the most fantastic sensation I had ever had the pleasure of feeling.

“Are you really one of those girls that refuse to get their hair wet in a pool?” Billie asked after a moment. I’ll be the first to admit that that hadn’t been exactly what I had been expecting from Billie’s mouth at the moment, however at the same time I found it amusing.

I hesitated before answering, knowing fully well that he was going to judge my answer. It wasn’t so much that I refused to get my hair wet, but more of it wasn’t my actual motif. I used a pool to tan or to cool myself down. Swimming wasn’t much fun by myself.

“I don’t refuse to,” I answered slowly. Billie smirked at me and cocked an eyebrow. He was, quite evidently, not believing me. “I just don’t really see the point. I enjoy lying on a raft in the pool, but,” I shrugged, “I’m content with staying dry from the waist up.”

Billie scoffed loudly, almost seeming offended by what I had said. I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes, knowing fully well that whatever he was going to do or say next probably wouldn’t have been ideal for me. At that, he managed out a short snort of laughter, but then gently shifted me off of his lip and slid into the pool. While I had the chance, I stood up and quickly moved myself to the other side of the pool in order to avoid Billie once he had come back up from underneath the water. I knew where this was going, I had seen plenty of chick flicks—there was absolutely no way that Billie wasn’t going to try to pull me into the pool.

When Billie had resurfaced, he cleared the water from his eyes and face and pushed his hair back from over his eyes. It was when he turned to where we had been previously sitting and noticed that I was no longer there that I heard a few curious mutters emit from his mouth, along the lines of ”where the fuck did she go?”. While I did my absolute best my mute my giggles, I have to admit that I failed rather horrible, thus catching Billie’s attention.

“Roxanne,” he spluttered. “Roxanne, what the fuck are you doing over there?” He then began to wade over to where I was standing.

“No,” I snapped as soon as he began to move. At my tone he paused for a second, however at once continued along his way once he remembered how little of a threat I really was to him. “I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to pull me in.” I scowled loudly at Billie while he laughed. “I’m telling you right now, that wouldn’t be funny and I would certainly not enjoy you doing so.”

“Roxy,” Billie cooed. “Roxy, baby, don’t you trust me more? Come on. Would I really do that to you?” While I momentarily froze at the fact that Billie had just called me baby, I snapped out of my state once I noticed how much closer he now was to me. At once I sprinted over to the opposite side of the pool, once again. Billie groaned loudly and hoisted himself out of the pool to sit on the edge. He then began to pat the spot next to him.

“No,” I spat. I crossed my arms and glared over at him.

Billie sighed heavily and rather than giving up, he just stood up and crossed his arms. He was mocking me. “Come on,” he cooed. “Don’t you want to be with me?” He pushed out his bottom lip into a pout. “I wouldn’t push you into the pool, Roxy. I don’t even think you can swim.”

At Billie’s insult I scoffed loudly in shock. He snorted loudly at my sudden attitude. “I can absolutely swim, Billie Joe Armstrong,” I snapped. The only response I received from Billie was snorts of laughter. And while it was hard to force my own down, I did my absolute best in order to show Billie that I was not amused.

“Well, I can’t really believe that, Roxanne,” Billie stated with a shrug. “You know, I still don’t know you that well, and I can’t really be too sure that you’re telling me the truth.” He grinned widely at me. “I guess you’re just going to have to show me.” I only shook my head with a smug smile sitting upon my lips. There was absolutely no way that Billie would be getting me into that pool with his words. After a few moments, Billie sighed and ran a hand through his wet hair before once again sitting down. “Fine, fine, you win,” he called with what seemed to be defeat. “Just come sit with me. I don’t like you so far away.”

While in absolutely no sort of way did I believe that Billie’s sudden surrender was genuine, I couldn’t seem to help myself from sitting with him because unfortunately, just like he, I also didn’t enjoy being so far from him. Despite the fact that I knew damn well that this was in no way over, I cautiously went over to Billie and slowly sat down. “Now,” Billie began slowly. “I’m going to get into the pool,” he slowly slid off of the side of the pool and into it once again, however kept his head above water this time. “Would you care to join me?”

I watched Billie cautiously for a moment, eyeing him up suspiciously. Billie rolled his eyes and groaned. “Come on, Roxy. The water is fucking beautiful. Don’t be such a girl.”

“Hey,” I called. “That’s rude. I enjoy being a female.”

Billie only laughed and shook his head. “Three seconds is on the clock, Roxy. Three.”

Perhaps had Billie actually given me three seconds to get into the pool I would have gone willingly, however I’ll never know due to the fact that as soon as I began to actually contemplate getting into the pool with him, he grabbed my body and almost effortlessly pulled me back into the pool with him. Thankfully I had learned how to hold my breath underwater when I had been younger because just as effortlessly as Billie had pulled me in, he had dunked me under the water.

I came up spluttering and scowling, ready to find the man that had just pulled me in and wreak havoc on him.

“I could have drowned!” I cried out before I had even cleared the water from my eyes. “Billie Joe Armstrong, you could have killed me!”

By the time I had regained my composure, all that I could hear was the sound of Billie cackling next to me. Quite honestly, I don’t think I had ever heard the man or just about anyone laugh so damn hard. “Roxanne Serenity Watson,” He mimicked between chortles of laughter. He also turned to face me and stuck a hand to his hip just as I had done. “You are completely alive.”

At Billie’s mocking, I scowled loudly and actually stomped my foot as if it would make him settle down. Unfortunately for me, however, at seeing my small temper tantrum, Billie began to laugh all over again. “Oh my god, Roxy,” Billie gasped between snorts of laughter. “Oh my god, you are so fucking cute when you’re mad.” He wiped a tear from his eye that, truth be told, I wasn’t sure was real or not.

I made absolutely no movement to get closer to Billie. However, he must have expected that much from me because as soon as he cleared the tears from his eyes, he began to wade over to me. I groaned angrily at the sight of him coming closer to me and turned as fast as I could in order to get away from him. “Roxy,” Billie called out from behind me. “Roxy, come here. I promise I won’t pull you under again.”

Despite how bad of a feeling I had at Billie’s words, I sighed and stopped angrily. Only a second or so after I had stopped moving in the water, I felt two arms slide around my waist and my body being pulled back against another warmer one. As angry as I was at the man that had just pulled me into the pool only a few minutes ago, I couldn’t help myself from melting at the contact of his body. He had full power over me and he damn well knew it.

When Billie had a good hold on me, he gently turned my body around so that I was facing him. Once our eyes connected, I scowled angrily at him and swatted at his bare chest. “Aww,” he cooed while pushing out his bottom lip into a pout. I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be mad at me, you know you needed to stop being a sissy little girl.”

I gasped loudly in shock at Billie’s words and went to slap his chest. However, right as my hand had gone to make contact with his colorful skin, Billie’s hand somehow caught my own. Before I had to the chance to snatch my hand back, he slid his fingers between mine and a small, somehow sweet smile took over his features. He leaned forward and brushed his soft lips against my own slowly. It was almost as if we were both trying to savor the feeling.

When Billie pulled away, he only continued to grin down at me. Unfortunately for myself, I couldn’t manage to force myself to be angry at him anymore. He knew damn well that by kissing me he had absolute full control. What a typical male.

I wanted so desperately to press my lips to Billie’s as easily as he had done to me, however at the same time I knew damn well that the chance of me actually doing so was almost slim to none. I still had a hard time running my hand through his damn hair, there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to muster up the courage to actually kiss him. The thought of me doing so actually made me feel slightly sick.

“Are you still mad at me?” Billie asked while still sticking out his bottom lip.

I sighed angrily and rolled my eyes while allowing him to envelope my body within his own. “No,” I muttered into his shoulder. “I guess not.”

Billie giggled while running his hands over my sides slowly. He stopped just above my ass, and then ran them back up to just below my breasts. “Good,” he cooed, “because you’re just so scary when you’re angry.” He picked up one of his hands to slide through my now wet hair.

I was thoroughly enjoying his touch far too much.

I felt Billie begin to slowly lead us back over to the side of the shallow end of the pool until his back hit it. As soon as he was sure he was against the side of the pool, he shifted our bodies and turned us around so that I was now somewhat pinned between him and the wall. In question as to what he was doing, I slowly lifted my head from Billie’s shoulder and raised an eyebrow in question. Before I had any chance to ask him what exactly his motif was, his lips were pressed back against mine.

Quite honestly, it was nice to know that he was at least half as addicted to the feeling of my lips as I was to his.

His kisses this time weren’t as soft and gently as they had been before, but rather a bit more hungry. While I was a bit surprised, I can’t recall that I minded too much at all. I slowly lifted my hands from being between Billie and I in order to cup his cheeks rather strongly while he seemed to lock me into place by placing both arms on either sides of me against the wall of the pool.

Our kisses had started out hungry and almost somewhat sloppy, however we both managed to control ourselves while, as cliché as it sounds, loosing ourselves within each other at the same time. He was so much better than Bryan—and I don’t mean that as a bitter ex-girlfriend, but as a girl that was kissing a man that had a lot of prior experience in making out. While Bryan had been sloppy and somewhat lost when it came to controlling his tongue and his lips and his movements in general, Billie seemed to have it all under control.

Everything about him, even the faint taste of cigarettes was absolutely fantastic.

“Roxanne?” I heard called faintly. I ignored it, passing it off as a figment of my imagination. However, as it became louder and angrier, it became a lot harder to disregard. “Roxanne? What the fuck are you doing?”