Hail and Farewell to Paris

The Irish girl was called Heidi, and she was very pretty. Mike had brought her to dinner in the Westin Hotel restaurant that night. She sat opposite me, Billie, Tre, Dan and Jason in a little black dress. Mike kept glancing at her every now and then; Billie kept prodding my side with his finger every time his bassist’s eyes wandered.
“So Heidi, what do you do?” Jason asked nervously as the blonde chuckled.
“Oh I own a bookstore on Grafton Street.”
My eyes lit up at her words, “A bookstore?”
“Ava reads like she’s going blind” Billie smiled sipping from his wine.
“Really?” Heidi grinned, I wasn’t quite sure whether the smile was because of what Billie said or because he had said it to her.
“You should come to the shop tomorrow Ava and pick out a few.”
I smiled at her, “That’s really nice of you Heidi, I may take you up on that offer.”
“You should Ava, we’ll be at Marlay Park tomorrow doing the sound check so you may as well.” Mike grinned.
I nodded, slightly annoyed that Mike had just planned my day for me. Billie seemed to read my mind as his hand found its way to my thigh quite sympathetically.
“Hey guys I rang Pad before, we’re gonna go down after the show aren’t we?” Tre spat, mouthful of food gushing across the table. Despite Tre’s drunken stupor earlier, he seemed to recover quickly when ‘dinner’ was mentioned.
“Pad?” I asked the drummer, flinching at the spray of saliva.
“Yeah, he owns a pub called The Boars Head; whenever we are in Dublin we go there for a drink…free drink…” Billie butted in before Tre could spray the table with another bout of saliva.
I nodded, listening to the story of how Billie delightfully urinated in his socks after too much free Guinness from The Boars Head.

“I’ll come and get you about 10 tomorrow morning Ava” Heidi shot across the table as we all stood up from finishing the meal.
“Okay” I nodded threading Billie’s hand into my own.
The singer turned around to eyeball Mike, “Thought you said you lived an hour out of Dublin Heidi, you’d have to get up at like half 6”
The blonde blushed at Billie’s words, before the bassist answered,
“I said Heidi could stay in my suite, it’s too late for her to go home now.”
“Sure it is” Tre hissed before pushing past the four of us and heading to th elevator, texting a message to his daughter as he went.
“Wanna get a drink then Heidi?” Mike asked the Irish girl, after a very uncomfortable 5 minutes silence.
I didn’t look up to witness her reaction, but by the bassist and her disappearing around the corner I assumed she was more than happy to.
Billie and I jumped into the elevator quickly before the doors shut. Tre looked up from his phone at our entrance.
“Hey guys”
Billie threaded his arm around my waist and let his head fall on my shoulder softly. The wild black wisps of his hair tickled my nose and I stroked them out of the way quickly before I sneezed.
“What do you think of this then Bill?” Tre asked halfheartedly.
The singer sighed, his whole body dropping before he replied, “she’s a fan, he needs to be careful.”
“Poor Brittany” I sighed, not quite sure whether I was meant to say that out loud or keep it swimming around my head.
“Poor Brittany?” Tre questioned me sarcastically, “Brittany? Ava she’s a complete bitch and Mike deserves better.”
“He should tell her then, not cheat on her! He should tell her he’s not happy because lying is ten times worse, if it was me I would rather know” I hissed back at the drummer whose tired eyes glanced over my serious face for a moment.
“Okay…” he answered, “he should tell her, but I’m not getting involved, and you two shouldn’t either and by that I mean you Ava.”

“So…” Heidi spoke loudly over the loud music in the rather trendy arts café we were sat in for brunch. I had wanted to go to Avoca Café but Heidi insisted that this café, notably named, Bad Ass, was much better and cheaper. I had my doubts as I sat inside it's orange walls.

I also was beginning to doubt Heidi, Tre’s warning ringing fresh in my ears I tried to ignore the questions and surprising off hand remarks that kept falling from her mouth all morning.
“So Billie didn’t know you were coming?”
I turned to her, tearing my eyes away from the window were the busy streets of Dublin rattled past.
“No, I thought I wasn’t coming until my boss let me off work, so I caught him at the airport.”
“Oh like The Wedding Singer style?” She asked, flicking her blonde hair from her shoulders.
“Sort of I suppose, except Billie was the one in first class and Billy Idol wasn’t there.”
She chuckled politely, her eyes wandering also to the window .
“Mike’s great isn’t he?”
I jumped at her words, not expecting her to actually say something as blunt as that.
“Err, yes he is…” I drifted, wanting to take hold of her shoulders and shout “He’s also engaged”
“I must say…” I began speaking wanting to do nothing more than to change the subject, change the subject quickly…
“You handle Tre quite well; when I first met him I was terrified of Tre.”
She chuckled, “I know what Tre Cool is like, I’m a big Green Day fan to be honest.”
I nodded at her, Billie said that last night, it’s strange how he can tell who genuinely likes him and who wants to rape him because he happens to be a punk rock god.
Heidi showed me her tattoo of a girl with a syringe from an early album of theirs, her eyes lighting up like it was Christmas as she pulled up her top to reveal her hip.
“I’ve loved these guys for years. I knew who they were straight away, as soon as they stepped onto the plane. I couldn’t believe my luck.”
I chuckled inside I was screaming. Why didn’t Mike have the ‘crazy fan’ radar like his singer and drummer?
“So how did you meet Billie?”
I could feel my eyes glaze over; my heart began thudding at the sheer memory of how we met so perfectly that day, this question, that I loved being asked, thoroughly distracted me from my crazed fan thoughts…
“We met in Paris, nearly two years ago now.”
She nodded, “You guys are a great couple.”
I smiled at her, my cherry red lips forming a huge part around my teeth.
“I didn’t know who he was, they joke that I was the only person on the planet who had no idea who Green Day were.”
“You really had no idea?”
“Really”
I could tell she didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care, the more time I spent with this girl the more I realized I didn’t trust her. Even when she had piled all kinds of classical literature and poetry into my arms from her bookstore I still felt the same way, grateful, but still untrusting.
She also happened to pick out a Baudelaire for Mike.
“He told me he liked it, which surprised me but, I don’t know much about this guy, he’s a poet isn’t he?”
My stomach plummeted.
She owned a BOOKSTORE and had no idea who BAUDELAIRE was? The French poet would probably be laughing in his grave at this, I felt like crying, I just wante dto get back to Billie and the others.
Nope this girl wasn’t in my good book that’s for sure.

A tattooed index finger found its way across my cheek, the skin prickling at his soft brushing touch. It amazed me that I still melted every time Billie Joe’s skin came into contact with my own.
“How was your day?” he whispered pressing my back against his dressing room door.
“I would like to rant about it but for some reason my mind has gone blank”
Billie smirked, reaching forwards and pressing his lips against my own. That familiar fiery sensation set off in the pit of my stomach and I let out a small whimper as his hands began to move their way around my torso and hips.
“Why aren't you tired after a huge concert like that?” I gasped as he began planting kisses across my neck and collarbone, my body arching upwards to meet his.
He chuckled into the skin behind my ear, “I am but then when I saw you standing there in this dress I suddenly become a Dulex Battery and I keep going and going…when necessary”
My hands clasped over his palms that were fully cemented on the royal blue material of the dress he had bought me for my birthday. It was the first time he had seen me in it, as he came off stage, looking sweaty but oddly fulfilled like a heroin addict after a shot, his eyes fell on me and he suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me into his dressing room. Slamming the door and attacking me with his lips, not that I was complaining in the slightest.

Suddenly a pounding bang erupted through the door and straight into my spine.
“Come on Bill Man, get ya ass down to the Boars Head.”
“Coming Dan!” Billie yelled, looking at me like a scolded child, I winced at the unnerving thumping vibration through my back.
“We’ll finish this later” he whispered at me.
“If I can still walk” I sighed following him from the dressing room and out into the corridor, rubbing my sore spine carefully.

Exactly twenty minutes later I found myself being ushered into The Boars Head by Mike. The pub was exactly how I imagined; it looked a hundred years old, with scrubbed wooden tables, a painted dark green bar to the left and lots of Vintage Guinness Advertising hanging on the wall. We settled ourselves, all nine of us, Billie, Tre. Mike, Jason, Heidi, Dan and three other roadies. At that very second, a man with one tooth and a balding head appeared with a huge pitcher of beer and nine pints of Guinness.
“PAD!”
“Hey Pad” Billie jumped up and gave the man a hug before turning around to me,
“This is Ava, Ava, Pad.”
I stood up and smiled at the Irish man who took my hand and shook it roughly, he smelled like alcohol to such an extent that the fumes in which he emitted would probably get you a little dizzy.
“Ah, hello Ava pet, Billie was right about you of course you’re a stunner thats for sure”
I blushed, “Thank you, I guess”
Billie winked at me before following the owner back over to the bar.
“Oh God, this what happened last time, Billie tries to keep up with the locals and…”
“Urinates in his suitcase I’ve heard” I giggled as I sat back down next to Dan to watch the singer laughing with the other Irish men at the bar.

As the night went on, the music became louder, the bar became fuller, Billie became drunker and Mike and Heidi, much to everyone's disgust, became closer.
It got to half three in the morning and everybody had left, we were currently trying to walk back to the hotel, me and Dan trying to prop Billie up as Heidi was trying to get Mike to sing some Green Day songs.
Tre kept taking the piss out of her with the other three roadies. I was getting pretty sick of her myself. It was like a child and a parent.
“Oh Go onnnnn Mike, plllleease”
“No Heidi, no, come on, it’s too late”
“Come on….Don’t wanna be an American Idiot…”

Tre turned to me, “She needs to shut the fuck up...oh, here, Ava, I’ll take Billie for a bit, he may be little be he’s a dead fuckin weight”
I chuckled, “Thanks Tre” I stumbled as he hooked his arm underneath his band mate’s shoulder.
“Billie and Guinness don’t go, they just don’t fuckin mix.” Dan grumbled as I clacked alongside the drunk and his crutches.

“Well…well how about…I’m having trouble tryin to sleep…I’m counting sheep but runnin out”

“Someone just kill her” Tre spat as we rounded into the hotel lobby.
“I’ll get the key, just sit him on that seat guys I’ll be back in a minute, thank you”
“No worries Ava see you in the morning” Tre kissed my cheek and scurried after Dan, who waved politely at me.
The receptionist grinned at my tired eyes and passed me the key, “Good night miss, will he be alright?”
I turned to where the man behind the desk had just nodded his head, “Yea…” But suddenly stopped speaking.

I froze; sitting on the edge of the chair,
Stroking Billie’s limp head was Heidi.

My stomach fell to my feet, as I began slowly walking towards her, I wanted to turn my head around to find Mike but I couldn’t remove my eyes from the scene in front of me.
“Heidi…what are you...?”
“Sssh Ava, he’s asleep, look how cute he is…you know…I’m a little drunk…but I think you’ll understand…I mean…I like Mike yeah sure…but every fans dream…is…the singer…is… Billie…”
I stared at her, she was crazy, this girl was insane.
“Heidi…get away from him…” I stammered, not knwoing what on earth to do.
“No Ava…you don’t deserve him, do you know what people say about you on the internet? That your just with him because of his money, your just a pretty face, someone trying to fill Adi’s shoes.”
I felt the tears building up in my eyes, I couldn’t quite believe this was happening, I had a feeling this weekend would not go the way I had planned, but this, this was a completely different picture altogether.
So everyone hated me, all of Billie’s fans hated me, I felt sick, so sick, I had never once thought that my relationship with Billie would have any influence on his fans. How stupid and naïve could I be?

“Get the Fuck out”
I jumped, Mike was standing next to me, apparently appearing from no where.
“Mike I…”
“No Heidi, Get away from my friends and get the fuck out.”

The Irish girl stood up and ran out of the hotel lobby like she was on fire, tears streaming down her face.
Mike and I stood frozen next to each other, the only sound being Billie’s consistent breathing. I wanted to laugh and cry, not quite sure how to react to this, it was like a bad movie script, something stupid and ridiculous in an Australian soap opera.
“Mike I…”
“It’s okay Ava, I’m sorry about that, I really am, don’t listen to her, she’s…she’s mad. Just…come on lets just get him to bed.”
Billie let out an almighty snore as we lifted him up and I couldn’t help it but chuckle sadly. Even though huge tears were streaming down my face.