Roxanne

There was an awkward silence in the room for a few minutes as the two of us continued to stare at each other while processing Billie’s angry words. The look of pure anger that had taken over Billie’s features within the past ten minutes or so seemed to slowly become replaced with what I could only describe as regret. I watched as his mouth opened a few times as he began to attempt to speak, perhaps to actually explain the nonsense that he had just yelled at me, however each time rather than hearing an explanation, all that was audible from him was a soft sigh. As soon as I realized that I was going to be the one to have to break the awkward silence, I began to attempt to find a way to answer him.

All that I was able to do, however, was laugh.

Not giggle, or chuckle, or anything silent to myself, but full out laugh.

I wasn’t sure where it came from, but as soon as the first bubble of laughter escaped my lips, I couldn’t manage to hold back the rest. It had been as if Billie had been tickling me rather than just yelling at me. The worst part of it all had been that I honestly couldn’t stop. Rather than laughing with me, Billie continued to stand five feet from me with a cocked eyebrow and crossed arms. Perhaps it was his obviously unimpressed attitude that finally sobered me.

“What the hell are you going on about?” I asked while gently wiping at a tear that had escaped my eye while laughing. Billie looked far less amused than I had been feeling. In fact, if I hadn’t known better, I would have said that the guy looked somewhat hurt by my laughter. I felt a frown tug at my lips as my heart skipped a beat inside my chest. I hadn’t meant to hurt him by laughing. I hadn’t even meant to laugh, but could he really not see how ridiculous this was?

Billie continued to stare at me for a moment with his arms still crossed and his eyebrow still cocked. I had been about to ask him another question, or even change the subject completely, however I hesitated once a long, loud sigh escaped his lips. “I don’t know,” he admitted. He lifted a hand to run through his hair. I winced as I watched him tug on tufts of it in what seemed to be aggravation. “I just, I-I don’t know, Roxanne. But I feel like you do.” His eyes flashed to mine and judging by the frustrated groan that he exhaled next, I assumed that my expression hadn’t given him the answers that he had wanted. He dropped his body down onto the piano bench that was between us. I hesitated for a moment, but then followed suit. I placed the Grammy on the piano.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted lamely. I know it sounded stupid, and was stupid, but at the moment, it had honestly been the only words that had come to my mind. Billie hadn’t left me with too much to work with.

Billie chuckled and lifted a hand to rub his eyes. “No, no, of course you don’t,” he muttered. I frowned at his bitter tone. He exhaled slowly and focused his eyes upon the piano that was still placed in front of us. “Can you play me a song?” He asked. His voice sounded strained, however not angry anymore and I knew that he had genuinely been trying to seem calm and collected. I suppose that Billie attempting to calm himself down was better than nothing.

And so despite the fact that I hadn’t played the piano in years, and it was honestly the last thing that I had wanted to do at the moment, I decided to attempt to help Billie. Perhaps if he actually calmed himself down and cleared his mind, I’d be able to get some sort of explanation about what the hell had gone on before.

I frowned deeply as my eyes focused upon the pianos keys. Despite the fact that at one time in my life, I had been good at playing the piano, at that current moment, I felt as if I had never seen the instrument before. I glanced over at Billie, whom was now also staring intently at the keys, from the corner of my eyes and after hesitating for a moment I began to play the opening to the first song that had come to my mind.

A grin crossed my lips at the loud snort that came from my left. I jumped, however didn’t stop playing at the feeling of his hand placing itself upon my shoulder. “You’re unbelievable,” Billie remarked. I felt my heat skip a beat and shudder inside of my chest at the sound of the laughter that followed his words.

As soon as I finished playing the final note of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, I looked up at Billie and grinned widely at him. I shrugged and pretended to brush dirt off of my shoulder. Billie giggled loudly and before I noticed that he was even moving closer to me, Billie had placed his lips upon my own. Despite the tension that had been between the two of us for most of our time together that afternoon, I not only welcomed, but melted against his lips. Truth be told, I could have stayed like that for the rest of the day and have been content.

Apparently Billie hadn’t had the same intentions, however, because only a few moments later he pulled away. Although he had taken his lips from me, he hadn’t separated the two of us completely. Rather than going back to his seat on the bench, Billie slid a bit closer to me and wrapped one arm around my waist and began to run the other through my hair. He leaned in and placed a kiss upon my forehead. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. For the first time in a while, he actually sounded like the man that I had become obsessed with rather than the crazy lunatic he was before. I smiled awkwardly at him and he chuckled at my lack of words. “I shouldn’t have, ah,” he paused quickly and pursed his lips, “deceived you.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Billie’s wording that he had apparently needed a moment to piece together. “Deceived me?” I asked slowly. Billie’s apology probably would have meant a lot more to me had I had any clue as to what the hell was going on.

Billie stared into my eyes rather intently for a moment. In fact, the only reason that he stopped was because I had been the one to break our eye contact. Truth be told, he was making me somewhat nervous. Between flipping out on me only a few moments ago and how he was now acting incredibly awkward and somewhat shady, I wasn’t sure what to think of the man sitting across from me. I went to admit that to him, however he spoke first.

“I did,” He started hesitantly. He frowned. “I just feel like you know and that you’re fucking with me, now,” he admitted.

I frowned deeply at the fact that I was beginning to feel as if Billie and I were going in circles and nowhere near finding a solution. “Like I know about what, Billie?” I snapped. When he failed to respond right away, I sighed heavily and stood up. If he was going to continue to be vague and dance around what he had just screamed at me only moments ago, I was better off at my aunt’s house, tanning by the pool—alone. “I think I should go,” I stated as I began to take a step away from the piano stool.

Billie stood up abruptly and grabbed a hold of my shoulder. Not hard enough to hurt me, but certainly to stop me from moving. “No, no,” he mumbled. “Don’t go, please.” Even if his words hadn’t had any effect on me alone the hint of desperation in them made my heart skip a beat. “I’m sorry,” Roxy,” he apologized. “This just isn’t how I wanted this all to go down.” He sighed heavily and lifted the hand that wasn’t still resting on my shoulder to run through his disheveled hair. “You’ve got to understand,” he continued, “after Adrienne and I divorced, I, uh, well, I rebounded.” I cocked an eyebrow at Billie’s news. I couldn’t exactly blame him for rebounding. It wasn’t as if he had done it intentionally. “I fucked around with a couple of girls, who each acted like they had no idea who I was.” He rolled his eyes. “I was pretty fucking stupid, and messed up from the whole divorce, so I believed them. I was stupid. I thought that they were into me, but they were into Billie Joe Armstrong.” His name came out as a sneer, as if he had been talking about an enemy rather than his own self. Despite the fact that I still had almost no idea what Billie was talking about, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat sympathetic towards him.

“But then I met you,” Billie continued. “And I like you, Roxanne. I think you know that by now. And you seem to be into me, but I thought that they were, too.” He frowned deeply and tugged at his hair angrily. “Sometimes I think that you’re really just into me, but other times, when you get really shy and shit, I can’t help but start to wonder if it’s because you’re like fucking starstruck or something.”

I cocked an eyebrow and folded my arms. “Starstruck?” I asked slowly. He only nodded. Billie thought I was starstruck around him? Why the hell would I have been starstruck by him? He had told me that he was in some small ass band that wasn’t even on iTunes. While true, I had thought that Billie being in a band had been pretty hot, I wouldn’t have considered myself starstruck. It wasn’t as if I had been making out with Matthew Bellamy. “I’m not starstruck, Billie,” I stated slowly. “I’m shy. I don’t know your band, Billie. You told me that you weren’t on iTunes, and I took your word for it and didn’t look you up—,”

“No, Roxanne,” Billie interrupted. “I told you Sweet Children isn’t on iTunes. Green Day is. You said you found us yourself.”

“Green Day?” I asked. What the hell did Green Day have to do with this conversation? While I know that it had been sparked by the Grammy, I couldn’t see why he was going on about them now. Was he going to flip out and tell me that he was in the band again?

“Yes, Roxanne, Green Day,” Billie stated slowly. “My band, Roxanne.” He frowned. “Do you not remember me screaming at you a few minutes ago about how it’s my band?” He asked. “About how I won that Grammy in 1994?” He shook his head slowly.

And then it all clicked.

Billie hadn’t been screaming insane nonsense at me a few moments ago. He had had just a nice house and such a nice care because he had been in an extremely successful band. He had tried his damnest to hide his name from me because he had thought that I would recognize it. Why he had been so extraordinarily awkward when it came to any mention of the band. Why he had had the Grammy. How he didn’t work a 9 to 5 job, but was still able to live luxuriously. Why there was a Grand Piano in the first room of his home. All of his tattoos. Why he had been so angry when I had mentioned that Bryan had listened to them. Why Sweet Children didn’t exist.

Billie had lied to me. He had lied to me and told me that he was in some lame ass band because he had rebounded off of two girls that both had used him when he had gotten divorced. He was now convincing himself that I was about to be the third.

But most importantly, Billie had lied to me. Since the first day I had met him, he had lied to me about possibly one of the biggest parts of his life. And I had been naïve and young, and everything that my aunt had called me, and believed him.

I felt sick.

I felt stupid. How embarrassing. Billie had been feeding me lies and I had eaten them up like a starving animal.

“Roxy?” Billie called quietly. By his tone and the hesitant look upon his face, he seemed to have figured out that it was all finally unraveling within my naïve mind.

I sighed heavily and placed myself back down onto the piano bench. Billie sat down next to me just as quickly as he had risen before. “So you’ve lied to me since day one,” I stated bluntly.

Billie winced. “No,” he answered slowly. I glared up at him and he smiled what looked rather painfully. “I deceived you,” he stated. I rolled my eyes and scoffed at his obnoxious use of wording and Billie lifted his hands up in front of him as if to shield him. “Sweet Children is what we called ourselves when we first started out. We changed our name to Green Day,” Billie explained. “I didn’t want to lie to you, Roxy, but I really fucking liked you, and it was so nice having you just like me, the creep you met on the plane. Not the rockstar.”

I rolled my eyes. “Billie, I don’t care what kind of band you play in,” I snapped. “I really don’t give a crap if you’re famous. Famous rockstars are notorious for all but good things. It’s not like I instantly find you more attractive than if you were just in a small band.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m not some groupie. I don’t want to sleep with you because of your name. You’re not the lead singer of Muse for heaven sakes. I mean, yeah, it’s cool that you play in a famous band, but otherwise I really don’t care” I shrugged. “My dad is high up in the industry in New York. I’ve met tons of celebrities, Billie. I don’t think you’re some special star because you’re one.” I frowned.

“But I didn’t know that, Roxanne. And after the other two, I just didn’t feel like being me for once.” He sighed heavily. “I got with Adrienne when I was a small, lame band trying to make it, y’know? When we divorced, I had made it. People around here recognize me, Roxanne. Do you even understand how hard it is to find someone that is genuinely interested in me?” I went to speak, however he cut me off. “The minute I think oh, this girl actually fucking likes me I find out they’ve been a fucking fan of Green Day for five years and have made it a fucking goal to sleep with me. You are the first girl that I have met since Adrienne that sees me as a guy. You have no fucking idea how nice it was to be that asshole from the plane to you. I was such an asshole to you at the airport, when you were in my seat because I thought you were acting stupid just to meet me.” Billie looked back up at me, and despite how upset he had sounded while ranting just then, a small smile tugged at his lips. “But you were just lost,” he continued. A small chuckle escaped his lips. “And really fucking innocent. And beautiful. And, y’know, you seemed to actually fucking hate me.” He snorted loudly now and shook his head.

“I did,” I admitted while a smile began to tug at my lips also. “I thought that you were the biggest asshole that I had ever met.”

Billie laughed loudly. He placed both of his hands on either sides of my cheeks and pulled my face to his in order to press a kiss against my lips. I accepted it without any hesitation. Despite the fact that I didn’t agree in any way with Billie for lying to me, and I was somewhat angry with him for doing so, I couldn’t help but to see where he had been coming from. He was right, there was no way that I could understand how he had felt about the entire ordeal. I suppose if I had been in his shoes, perhaps I would have made the same stupid mistake as him.

“I’m so sorry, Roxy,” Billie murmured against my lips. “I shouldn’t have lied to you, I know,” he admitted. “I was just really fucking afraid that once you found out who I was, y’know, you’d think of me differently. Like everyone else does. It was nice keeping you in the dark and having you be genuinely interested in me.”

“But how long did you think that that was going to last?” I asked Billie. He didn’t respond, but instead looked ashamed. “I mean, if you live around here and you are in some famous band, don’t you think I would have found out eventually?”

“I was always going to tell you, Roxy,” Billie admitted. “It wasn’t as if I was going to try to keep this a secret from you forever. I just wanted time for you to fall for me before you were introduced to Billie Joe Armstrong.”

A small smile tugged at my lips despite the way I had currently been feeling. While I wasn’t furious at the man, and did see where he was coming from, I couldn’t help but be hurt that he hadn’t trusted me enough to share who he was with me and instead lied to me. “I don’t date liars, Billie,” I stated once I pulled away. He frowned. “No matter what their social status is. If I’m going to keep seeing you, you have to promise me that you won’t ever lie to me again.”

Billie nodded. Another kiss was placed against my lips. Then another. And another. “I promise, baby,” he murmured. I still felt my heart flutter at the word.

I pulled away and extended my arm with my pinky out to Billie. He looked down at it and cocked an eyebrow in what honestly seemed to be sheer confusion. “You need to pinky promise this with me, Billie,” I explained. “You can’t break a pinky promise. It’s honestly as close to breaking the law as humanly possible without actually breaking one.”

Billie laughed loudly and smacked my hand away. “What am I, five, Roxanne,” he asked through a few snorts. “I’m not going to pinky promise you shit.” I rose an eyebrow and crossed my arms while turning away from him. When Billie realized that he wasn’t going to get any sort of response from me until he gave in, he groaned loudly and pulled me back around to face him. “Fine,” he caved, “but you’re really fucking lame, Roxanne.”

I grinned as Billie linked his pinky with mine. As soon as he had pinky promised me to not lie to me again, Billie stood up from the stool and pulled me up with him. He picked up the Grammy, went over and placed it back onto the mantel on the other side of the room and then took me by my hand from the room we had just been sitting in and back into the hallway. Once he got into the doorframe, however, he froze and turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Did you really tell me that you weren’t impressed by me because I’m not the lead singer of Muse?” He asked. He sounded genuinely amused and I watched as a smile caused by the realization as to what I had said to him crossed his face.

I felt my cheeks burn and adverted my eyes from his. I had said it to him because I had been angry. Of course I had been impressed with Billie’s band. “They’re my favorite,” I admitted coyly.

Billie snorted loudly and shook his head. He gently backed me up and pressed me against the wall next to the door frame and placed a soft, however strong kiss upon my lips. “You really are unbelievable, Roxanne Watson,” he murmured. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” I just giggled.

Only a few moments later Billie had begun to lead me down the hallway. Eventually, after passing many doors and a few other rooms, Billie and I had ended up standing at the end of the hallway with a large, beautiful kitchen to our right and another large room with a bunch of couches and a large fireplace to the left of us. Billie lead me into the kitchen. “Have you eaten?” He asked. I shook my head and he smiled. “Well let me make you lunch,” he offered. “It’s the least I could do for you after flipping out on you earlier.”

The kitchen I had now been standing in the middle of had two large French doors at the back of it which seemed to lead to a smaller sized, however beautiful yard that seemed to hold a rather large pool. The only thing that separated the kitchen from the room to the left of it were two large archways along with a couple steps. In the middle of the kitchen was a large granite island with three black chairs placed at it. The room hadn’t needed any artificial lighting at all considering the sunlight that poured in through two large windows that were situated over the sink and the French doors that sat off to the side. His kitchen was absolutely beautiful.

Billie led me over to one of the black chairs and rounded the island to the large refrigerator that sat in the corner of the kitchen. He opened it up and began to rummage through it. “What do you feel like?” He asked after a few moments. “I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’m a bit of a chef,” he bragged. I giggled as he pretended to brush dirt off of his shoulders.

“Well serve me your best,” I offered with a shrug. “I’m not picky.”

Billie bit down onto his bottom lip and scratched idly at the small hairs that were beginning to grow onto his chin. He shrugged. “I make some mean pancakes.”

I giggled at Billie’s offer, however didn’t hesitate to accept it. I loved pancake and a guy that could cook them well could easily win my heart. “Pancakes sound amazing.”

Billie flashed me a grin and then began to take out whatever he would need from all of the cabinets and the fridge. As he began to make the batter for the pancakes, I lifted myself from the chair that I had been seated on and began to wander around his kitchen. At the sound of my footsteps, Billie’s concentration on what he was making broke and he looked up over his shoulder at me. A smile melted across his features. “You can explore all you want,” he offered. “I’ll give you the tour of the house once we’re done eating, but anything is open to you.”

I smiled over at him as I began to wander into the room that had been across from his beautiful kitchen. The room had had a large, tan plush couch in the center of it which faced the fireplace. Over the fireplace was a large flat screen television. To the left and right of the couch were also large loveseats. They all looked comfortable enough to sleep on.

Underneath the TV, placed on the mantelpiece were multiple framed pictures. After hesitating for a moment, I stepped over to them and began to study each. The first picture had been a school photo of a young boy that looked to be only 10 years at most. I assumed that it was Billie’s oldest son, however his name escaped my mind. The resemblance between the small boy and Billie was uncanny. Billie’s son genuinely looked like Billie, but in the form of a 10 year old boy. “Is this your son?” I called to Billie despite being in the other room. Billie looked up from the batter that he was mixing and squinted, as if that would have improved his vision.

“Is that the school photo?” He called back. I didn’t have to respond, however, because within a few moments Billie had decided to join me in the family room. He smiled at the photo that I had been looking at. “Yeah,” he answered. “That’s Joey. He’s 8.”

I grinned back at the photo as Billie went back into the kitchen. “He looks exactly like you,” I admitted.

Billie chuckled. “I get that a lot. It’s scary. Jake looks a lot more like his mother. They’re great kids, Roxy. They’re little terrorists, but they’re great overall.”

I giggled at Billie’s words and continued on down the line of photographs. Most of the photographs that were on the mantle consisted of Billie’s kids, or Billie and his kids. A few of them were of Billie and the same two men that also looked to be around his age. I recognized one of them as the guy who had picked up Billie from the airport. Sometimes all three of them were in the same photograph, while others it would just be two of them. I wondered if any of them had been his band mates.

My attention was drawn from the photography by Billie whistling at me in attempt to get my attention. I turned to face him and with a grin, he waved at me with a spatula in his hand in the kitchen. “Come here,” he called. I obeyed without so much as a second thought.

“Who are the other guys you’re in pictures with over there?” I asked as I hoisted myself up onto the island behind Billie. “They both have brown hair and blue eyes? One is significantly taller than the two of you?”

Billie laughed as he flipped a pancake in the pan. “That’s Mike and Tre,” he explained. He looked up over his shoulder at me briefly. “You might recognize Mike as the one that picked me up from the airport that night. He’s the taller one. Tre is the one that ditched me in New York. He was supposed to have the seat you ended up sitting in.” I knew I had recognized the taller one from the airport. At the airport he had had brown hair, however in many of the photos he had had blonde, also. Apparently Billie hadn’t been the only member of the band to dye his hair.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Your friends name is Tre?” I asked. “As in French for very?”

Billie laughed and nodded while sliding a pancake onto a plate. I grinned at the chocolate chips that I could see in it. “His last name is Cool,” he added.

I wondered if I looked as unimpressed as I felt. “Your best friends name is Very Cool in French?” I asked.

Billie giggled as he poured more batter into the pan. He looked up at me and once seeing the look upon my face, he let out a cackle. “It’s not his real name. His real name is Frank Edwin Wright the third. I don’t know exactly why we call him Tre. He had it from before he was in the band, and he tells us that he was too stoned and drunk to remember why it started. He says he just knows that one day he was calling himself Tre Cool. It’s hilarious when he hits on girls with it.”

Well, I could see why the guy would change his name. I got tired enough from having to write out Roxanne Watson. I couldn’t imagine how obnoxious it had to be to write that entire name out all of the time.

“And how often does that get him laid?” I asked.

Billie laughed and sighed. He rubbed his free hand down over his face. “Not much.”

I giggled at Billie as he stepped away from the stove and over to the fridge. He opened it up and pulled out a bottle of beer for himself. He turned and placed it on the island besides me and then reached back in for another one. He lifted it to me, as if offering it to me. I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re aware that I’m eighteen, right?” I asked slowly. A grin crossed his lips.

Billie chuckled. “Yeah, and I’m sure your precious, innocent eighteen year old self has never had a beer or any alcoholic beverage before, right?” He teased. I grinned at him as he placed the bottle of beer back into the fridge and took out a bottle of Poland Springs water.

I grinned at him. “I’ve had it once or twice at a party. I’m not a fan. I don’t think it tastes good and I can’t hold my alcohol to save my life.” I shrugged. “I hate being sloppy.”

“So you don’t drink?” Billie asked while handing me the bottle of water. He cracked open the bottle of beer for himself and took a sip.

“No,” I answered. I shrugged. “I really have no interest in it.”

“Did your boyfriend drink?” Billie asked.

I laughed. “He was a jock, what do you think?” I asked. Billie grinned at me as he took another sip.

“It doesn’t bother you to be with someone that drinks?” He asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t care. It’s a personal preference. I mean, I really hate being around drunk people,” I admitted. “High schoolers, at least,” I added once I saw Billie wince. It took me a moment to realize that it probably had had something to do with the fact that he had called me up drunk the other night. “They’re so sloppy. My best friend, Sadie, drinks like a fish and then I have to be the great best friend and hold her hair while she throws up all night after.” I rolled my eyes.

Billie chuckled. He took another sip of his beer and lifted his free hand to scratch the back of his neck. “I’m, uh, sorry, y’know,” he apologized awkwardly as he looked down at the floor. He glanced up at me quickly. “For, y’know, calling you drunk last night.” He chuckled nervously. “I need to hide my phone from myself when I’m drunk.”

I giggled quietly at Billie’s sudden bashfulness and reached for him from where I sat on the counter. Billie slid himself between my legs and wrapped an arm around my waist. I couldn’t help but feel the blood flow to my cheeks at the feel of Billie’s shorts brushing up against the inside of my legs. While I couldn’t complain, I also couldn’t help but wonder if the man had had any boundaries with me.

“You were really cute on the phone last night,” I admitted as I subconsciously smoothed down my dress. “I was pretty down and you made me feel a lot better.” For a moment I debated whether or not I should admit to Billie that he had stopped me from making a terrible phone call, however I decided to bite my tongue. I hadn’t been in the best state of mind and there was really no reason to bring it up.

A small, timid grin pulled at Billie’s lips. I couldn’t help but grin as he tried to avoid eye contact with me by dropping his head down so that his eyes were level with my dress. The hand that belonged to the arm that was currently wrapped around my waist began to play with the fabric of my dress. “It’s pretty embarrassing,” he admitted with a soft chuckle. “I’m just relieved that I didn’t make a complete fuckin’ fool out of myself and start serenading you or something.”

I laughed loudly as I began to thread my fingers through his blonde and brown curls. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have minded that at all. I almost wished that he had. “I’m sure your voice is beautiful,” I cooed.

Billie lifted his head and eyed me in what seemed to be a suspicious way. When I cocked an eyebrow as if to silently ask him what he was doing, he just grinned and looked over his shoulder at the plate of pancakes that sat on the counter behind us. “Not when I’m that drunk,” he mumbled with a grin. “Rocky sounds better than I do.”

I giggled at Billie as he separated our bodies. He took my hand and gently pulled me off of the counter and then turned to grab a plate out of the cabinet along with a couple forks, knives and a bottle of syrup. I couldn’t help but wonder how much Billie had to make pancakes for his kids. Considering how he had had everything ready to make them this afternoon, even down to a bottle of syrup, I was willing to guess that his pancakes were one of his kids favorites.

Both Billie and I took our seats at the island and within only a matter of minutes, I had begun to dig into the food that Billie had made me. I suppose that I really hadn’t noticed how hungry I was prior to eating, but now that I was offered food, I had never been so hungry in my entire life. I could hear Billie laughing from next to me. “Shit, Roxy, have you eaten at all since our first date?” He asked. If I hadn’t currently been focusing on swallowing my food, I knew the smile that would have crossed my face at the thought of our first date.

I felt my cheeks burn in pure embarrassment as I wiped a bit of syrup off of my lip. “I didn’t eat at all yesterday,” I admitted. “I just had penne a la vodka at like 4 o’clock this morning.” When I saw the bewildered look on Billie’s face, I continued. “It’s my favorite thing to eat. My aunt made it, and left it with a note saying that she wanted to talk to me. I slept all day and got up last night, so I ate it.”

Billie looked intrigued. “Your aunt wants to talk to you?” He asked.

I nodded slowly. “She left a note on the dish apologizing for overreacting and said that she would really like to talk to me and allow me a chance to explain myself,” I admitted.

Billie frowned. “Are you going to?” He asked.

I laughed without much humor as I wiped my hands on a napkin that Billie had handed me. “I don’t think that I have much of a choice. She owns the house that I’m currently staying in. If she wants to talk to me, I’m going to have to let her talk to me.”

Billie nodded slowly. He took a sip fro his beer and cleared his throw. “And, er, what if she tells you to stop seeing me?” He asked.

I laughed. “You mean like she did yesterday?” I asked. The grin was placed upon my lips due to the fact that Billie seemed to be somewhat worried about what we would do if my aunt forbid us to see each other—as if she hadn’t already.

Billie chuckled and shrugged. “True,” he mumbled and he began to eat.

“It’s funny,” I started as he began to eat. I saw him look up at me from the corner of his eyes and continued. “She came into my room when I was on the computer, looking up Green Day.” I laughed quietly as I remembered that evening that had only been a few nights ago. “She ended up talking to me about how attractive the lead singer was, and how you guys all live around here. I told her I’d set her up with the lead singer.” Billie coughed loudly from next to me, which caused me to stop talking.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I rubbed his back. Billie nodded and grabbed hold of my water bottle to drink. I imagine that beer wasn’t the best choice for washing down the food that was choking you. While he had been focusing upon not choking, I began to wonder which member of Billie’s band my aunt found attractive. I could have easily seen Billie’s friend Mike as the lead singer of the band. Billie being the lead singer hadn’t even bothered to cross my mind seeing as his voice and the one that I had heard through my speakers the other night didn’t seem to match.

I winced as I thought back to the car the other night when I had unintentionally insulted the lead singer’s voice. While I knew that Billie had just been messing with me, I still felt embarrassed knowing what I did now. I wondered if he had told his friends what I had said and if they had laughed at how naïve I was, also.

Billie nodded and once he wasn’t choking anymore, he chuckled awkwardly. “I don’t think that couple’ll be happening any time soon,” he said through a grim smile while rubbing the back of his neck.

I giggled quietly. “No, probably not.”

When Billie and I had finished eating fifteen or so minutes later, Billie had offered to make more, however I had politely declined due to the fact that my stomach had already become round from the food baby that had grown inside of it. Thankfully, I had been wearing a sundress that hid it.

“You should let me borrow some of your guys CDs,” I told Billie as he loaded the dishes into his dishwasher.

Billie looked up at me over his shoulder with a cocked eyebrow. “Oh yeah?” He asked. “I mean, I should make you go buy them since that’s how I make a living.”

“Fine,” I shrugged. “I’ll go tomorrow.”

Billie laughed as he closed the dishwasher and crossed the room to me. “Relax, Roxanne. I’d never have you spend money on my albums. I told you, I don’t give a fuck about the money. I had a bunch of them all downstairs in the studio that you can take. My mom buys at least one of every album that comes out and sends it to me.” He rolled his eyes and I giggled.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Downstairs?” I asked slowly. Billie had a studio in his house? Growing up in New Canaan I had heard of some pretty unique homes that held smaller movie theaters and even bowling ally’s, but never a studio.

He nodded as he went to the French doors at the back of the kitchen and opened them to let Rocky in. Rocky didn’t hesitate to run over from Billie to me, where he began to pant and due to the short tail he had, shake his body in anticipation for me to pet him. “Yeah. Like I said, I had this house built for Adrienne and I back in the 90’s. Of course I had a studio put in, seeing as what I do.” He crossed the kitchen to where Rocky and I sat and took my hand into his own. He tugged me towards the hallway gently. “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the house. The tour wasn’t over, we just made a short pit stop.”

I grinned as I allowed Billie to pull me down the hallway. Rocky had taken off in front of us by then and raced up the stairs to what I assumed was the third floor of Billie’s home judging by all of the doors on this one.

“Do I get to see the studio?” I asked lamely as he led me towards the foyer and up the beautiful staircase that had been placed there.

“Of course,” Billie answered with a slight nod of the head. He turned around and pressed a soft kiss against my lips. “Maybe if you’re lucky enough, you’ll get to see the master bedroom, too.” And with a wink and a devilish grin, he continued to lead me up the stairs.