Heaven Is A Place For Angels

Angela stopped in the hall and was good on her way to walk out of the house again. Billie grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stay. She felt even more panicked when she heard footsteps coming toward the hall.

"Sweetie, is that you?" a woman's voice said. Billie bit his lip and Angela did the same.

"Yeah, there's been a little bit of an accident, you know" he said, as he pushed Angela forward. As he did that, Adrienne walked into the room, and she dropped the notebook she was holding, at the sight of the heart-broken girl with a soon-to-be-a-bruise-mark on her cheek, standing in the hall.

"Oh... my... God!" was the only think she got out, as she moved her hands to her mouth. When she got a hold on herself she continued. "Little bit of an accident? How do you call this a little? She's been beaten for fuck's sake."

"Like I haven't noticed." Billie said sarcastically, holding Angela's arm as she got her shoes off. "I'll tell you what happened later. She's got to talk to her dad now."

Adrienne let out a painful sigh and grabbed Angela's other arm to help her. No one said something, until Angela swallowed and opened her mouth.

"Where's dad?" she said with insecurity. Adrienne bit her lip and raised her eyebrows.

"In the living room I suppose. He was there the last time I saw him." she said. Angela looked at the floor and swallowed once more.

"Okay, hey ho... let's go." she said and walked toward the large room. The first thing she saw was the blue couch, and her father was sitting on it, making notes on his computer.

"Hi dad." Angela said and was relieved when he didn't turn around.

"Hi honey." he replied, as he was writing on the keyboard. Billie stood behind Angela and intended to push her into the living room if she didn't do it by herself. She took one small step, but Billie gave her a nudge, forcing her to walk into the room and face her father. She sat down a bit from him, still looking down on the floor. Her father seemed to be too busy to take any notice of her.

"Dad... something happened..." she said with difficulty. Now, he looked up to her. First, he didn't say anything, but he could see how hurt she was. You could say that he was in shock. Billie had been standing in the doorway, watching the daughter and father. He didn't want to interrupt, and explain what happened, but he was prepared for the unpredictable. All he could wonder about now was how Stephen felt. The older man stood up slowly, and turned around to face the rock star. He started to mumble something and walked closer and closer to Billie. Angela sat there and couldn't figure out what her father was up to.

"... if you... I'm gonna..." was some of the things you could hear from him now and then. Suddenly Stephen had pushed the smaller man against the wall and was holding the back of his neck. Billie didn't have time to react and Angela froze. Was her father that stupid that he though that Billie could do something like this to her?

"Have you lost your fucking mind?!" Billie cried, he was scared and knew that he didn't have any chance against this guy. Angela didn't have the power to say anything, all she wanted to do was to hit her father and tell him what a jerk he was, but she couldn't move.

"Did you do that? Did you do that to my daughter? If you did this I'm gonna make you wish that you'd never been born" Stephen said in and loud and threatening voice. Billie tried to gather some courage to answer him, but before he did that, Angela had finally woken up from her shock. She stood up, and actually managed without tottering.

"You're nuts, you bastard!" she yelled and rushed over to them. "What the hell makes you think that he would ever hit me? You've lost it, you idiot!" She had started to pull in his arm, to make him let go of Billie, but she couldn't do it.

"I want to hear it from his own mouth!" her father said, not making a move. Billie tried once again to gather courage and pulled it off.

"I'd never hurt her, and if you don't get that, then you've got some serious problems," he got out. Angela was on the edge of breaking down, once again, but tried to hold the tears back.

"And I suggest that you try to talk to her instead of making any quick decisions about who did it," he continued and tried to keep eye contact with Stephen. The man couldn't quite get the situation. Slowly he let go of Billie, who didn't dare to move, until Stephen had stepped a few steps back. Stephen went to the couch and sat down on it, with his head in his hands. He didn't say anything to Angela, and she was still fighting with holding back her tears.

"You just don't understand," her father started. "My baby's hurt, and I don't know what to do. You don't understand what it's like to have a child... "

"I've got two sons," Billie said, just to make it clear. "I can understand"

"Whatever, that was stupid of me." he said, while he shook his head. Angela just looked at her feet. "What can I do?" Stephen asked.

"Start with apologizing, and after than, listen to her, and I'll retire." he answered, and nodded his head toward Angela.

"I'm sorry. Angela?" he said, and tried to make contact, for the first time that night. Angela didn't move; she didn't want to. She wanted to stand at that spot for the rest of her life.

"Come on, come to me." Stephen pleaded. Billie put his hands on her shoulders.

"Go to him, and I'll go to Adie, to explain what happened." he whispered, and gave her a push forward. Angela muttered and went over to her father, not to sit down beside him, but to stand there with her arms crossed. She heard Billie leave the room and immediately felt insecure.

"Angela... " her father started, but was then out of words. He tried to pick it up again.

"Will you just... tell me what happened at least?" he finally said. Angela wasn't sure if she wanted to trust him, but after all, he was her father, why shouldn't she trust him? She opened her mouth to start talking, but closed it again and swallowed. She was so nervous that the pain in her cheeks was back.

"I... " she started, "... met this guy at the dance-club Theo's sister took me to. And... "

She started to explain to her father what had happened, while she still had her arms crossed, staring into nothing. The only thing she didn't want to do was to make eye contact, she didn't dare to. Stephen tried to understand this time, and wanted to put up a calm face, although he was furious inside. Angela told him about everything, about how sick that guy must have been, and about how Billie had found her, but she left the part out where the guy had kicked her, 'cause she didn't want to go to the hospital. She also pleaded that he wouldn't do such a big deal of it, 'cause she just wanted to forget.

"What do you suppose I'll do then?!" Stephen said at last, he had had enough. "He can't just go free, that asshole!"

"I know!" Angela responded. "But just leave it for now, will you? The police wouldn't do anything anyway."

Stephen was silent. She was right; he couldn't really trust the police in this country. He thought for a moment, a very long moment.

"If you ever... " he started, "... see him again, come directly to me, and I'll take care of it, okay?" he said as he stared into the wall, like he was very unsure if he was doing the right thing. This was the first time he actually had listened to her, when it came to these sorts of situations. [Author-note: And I know that the best thing would probably be that they went to the police regardless. But well... It'll be much more exciting this way.] She hugged him, she saw that he needed that, and he was grateful for it.

"But will you just let me go to the police station to leave a description of the guy?" he asked calmly.

"Sure, if it'll make you feel safe, then go ahead." she said back. "Now I'm only worried about how Theo's sister's going to feel when she gets home. She's been looking for me"

"Don't worry, I'll talk to her. Go to sleep now, darling, you need it." Stephen said fatherly. Angela couldn't feel more grateful.

"Thanks. I love you." she said and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Love you too." he answered and stroked her red cheek. Angela walked out on the room and into the corridor, where she found Billie Joe and Adrienne leaning toward a wall each. Adrienne looked absolutely heart-broken because of the story, and couldn't help it but pulled Angela into a hug.

"Sweetie, you must feel terrible." she said with a soft voice. Billie Joe bit his lip.

"Thanks for reminding me." she mumbled. Adrienne let go of her and gasped, putting her hand in front of her mouth again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just... "

"I know. It's alright. Can I please go to sleep now?" Angela pleaded. Adrienne nodded and removed some hair that had cowered some of Angela's face, and Angela was quick to put it behind her ear.

"Come on, dear, we'll walk you to your room." Adie said and grabbed Angela's arm softly, and Billie Joe grabbed her other arm suddenly, just smiling.

"Mhm, okay." Angela mumbled. They came to the door to her temporary room.

"Let's go shopping tomorrow." Billie suddenly said. Angela looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I did NOT see that coming." she said like she thought that he was kidding, but he was actually dead serious.

"I'm not joking, let's go shopping." he said and crossed his arms.

"You're funny sometimes, Billie Joe Armstrong." Angela said and patted his head.

"I am? Why thanks." he said and tried to look like a gentleman. Adrienne giggled and kissed Angela on the forehead.

"Get some sleep now, Ángel, and we'll think about something for tomorrow." she said.

"You really shouldn't... " Angela started, but Billie was already dragging Adrienne down the corridor, to make clear that he didn't want to hear her say those things.

"Bye then." she said in a loud voice.

"Night, night." Billie shouted back, while Adie waved at her.

She walked into the room and got into her pyjamas. She looked at her watch; it was two o'clock in the morning, and all she wanted to do was to fall asleep. She looked at herself in the medium-sized mirror that was hanging on the wall. A song came to her mind.

"She sees in the mirror of herself
An image she wants to sell
To anyone willing to buy"

She stroked her hand over her read cheek that was turning into a bruise, and was suddenly seized with dread.
"Fuck." she whispered. She didn't want to be in Spain anymore. Is was strange that she actually had got the fact that Billie Joe was a human being, and she hadn't been that eager about seeing him. Now it really didn't care. She went over to her bed and lay down, the pain in her stomach came back for a moment but she just closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. The last thing she saw before she fell into her dream world was the guy's face, and it seemed to haunt her.