Best Man

Staring out the window from his first class window seat, Tre watched as the left wing of the plane he was on cut through the final layer of clouds and began its descent upon the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. Feeling Billie Joe, his friend and band mate, leaning over him to stare as well, Tre sat back so that he still had a good enough view while not to obstruct what view the guitarist had.

"This is the second time ever that I've flown into Buffalo. The first time was when I came here the day after Thanksgiving to see how Mike was doing," Billie Joe muttered, placing his elbow on the arm rest between his and Tre's seats and resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "All other times we came here we came by bus. I always love flying to new places. Not saying, that is, that Buffalo is technically new or anything...just...you know...flying into it."

The green-eyed punk shifted his gaze to Tre and let the right corner of his mouth inch upward in a half smile.

"Yeah, it's a smaller airport than places like JFK or LAX, but that's what's nice about it. Flying here, there isn't as much stress of 'Oh God, oh God, where the fuck's my luggage?'" Tre remarked as Billie Joe slowly returned to sitting back in his own seat.

"Yeah," he agreed. "So...you and Giselle? Still bumping uglies, huh?"

"For a lack of better words, yes."

"You love her?"

Tre hesitated; focusing on the runway tarmac the plane was coming upon. "Yes," he replied quietly after a few moments when he turned to look at Billie Joe.

The lead singer nodded and smiled, patting his friend's leg very much platonically. "I'm glad," he replied, just as the plane lurched with its initial touchdown upon the ground.

Billie Joe then let out a small grunt when the plane lurched a few more times, slowing its speed and eventually turning around on the runway to dock with the airline's gate.

When the pair eventually made their way off the plane and through the gate, Tre wasn't surprised in the least when Billie Joe threw a fedora hat on his head and placed sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. He was, after all, the most recognized out of the three men in Green Day and was hounded more than the other two.

Such was the life of a lead singer in a rock band.

Tre, with his medium brown hair, which he'd recently stopped wearing in a faux-hawk style, now walked around with it still the same length but floppy.

In fact, all three of them -- Tre, Billie Joe and Mike -- seemed to be going through the same hair phase. Growing it out longer as if they were hitting their mid-life crises a decade earlier. Billie Joe's was getting longer again, but then again his hair grew so quickly no matter what he did. He had to go for a trim or cut at least two or three times a month if he truly wanted to keep it at a certain length.

As the two shorter members of Green Day found themselves at the baggage claim, Tre looked over at his friend's profile and nudged him before gesturing to his hair.

"You think we're subconsciously bringing back hair metal?"

Billie Joe just looked at Tre for a moment; his eyes hidden due to his sunglasses. But then he smirked. "Oh yeah, baby. Fuck punk. We're gonna make Ratt and Quiet Riot cool again."

Tre laughed, then pretended to shudder in disgust. "I remember a time when I thought those bands were the shit, yo."

"Yes, back when we were naive, young and stupid."

"Yeah," Tre concurred. "Now we're just stupid."

The two laughed as they found their luggage and pulled it off the conveyor belt; dragging their rolling suitcases behind them while Billie Joe's guitar case was strapped around him for safekeeping and his handheld suitcase was being carried in his free hand. The same went for Tre, except for the guitar case part.

Walking out of the baggage claim area on the lower level of the airport, via the revolving door, they were greeted by cold, early February air, the two of them immediately shuddered this time for real as they looked from side to side.

"Now where's our goddamn ride?" Billie Joe grumbled.



Caroline sat quietly with Mike sitting beside her in their car while they remained stuck behind the red light that prevented them from turning left into the airport entrance.

"Their plane landed twenty minutes ago," Mike remarked.

"I know."

"We should've left earlier."

Caroline sighed. "I know."

"Billie's gonna chew us a new one for being late."

Looking at her fiancée and giving him a dirty look, Caroline gripped the steering wheel tighter with her hands and looked back up at the stoplight above.

"I'm just stating facts here," Mike commented with a laugh in his voice.

"Facts I already know, thank you very much," she retorted, saying a silent prayer when the light finally turned green. "And, if you'd remembered where I left my keys we wouldn't be running late."

The car turned into the airport entrance and they began their short voyage to the drop off/pick up area.

"It's my fault you couldn't remember where you left your keys? Oh, good one."

"You used the car last. This morning. Remember?" Caroline questioned rhetorically with a quick glance at her lover.

"Uh, yeah. And don't you remember me telling you I put them next to the microwave when I got back from Lucy's?"

"As if I heard you. You were in the kitchen and I was in the living room. Like I can hear through walls."

"I said it loud enough," Mike said with an incredulous laugh.

Caroline simply rolled her eyes. "You know better than to talk to me from another room," was all she said as they pulled up outside the revolving door of the baggage claim.

Where Billie Joe and Tre looked like little boys shivering in their boots.

"Now you're chastising me like a kid?"

"No. I'm stating the facts," she said with an impish grin; throwing his earlier comment back in his face. But out of love. Not to be rude on purpose.

Unlocking the doors with the automatic lock button, Mike rolled his window down and stuck his head out after throwing Caroline a tempestuous look, to which she stuck her tongue out at him.

"What the fuck took you so long?" Billie Joe barked before Mike got a word out. "My balls froze and rocketed so far back up into my body that I have a vagina now."

"Great visual, huh?" Tre snorted.

"Sorry," Mike muttered. "Caroline forgot where she left her keys."

Billie Joe bent forward to look into the car, lowering his sunglasses to get a good look at Caroline.

"Caroline? I doubt she forgets anything. Stop passing the blame, Pritchard."

With a smile spreading across her face, Caroline pursed her lips and scrunched her nose triumphantly as Mike looked back at her, shaking his head in defeat.

She then popped the trunk open with the button near her left knee so Billie Joe and Tre could go ahead and place their shit inside the rear compartment. After that was said and done, they piled into the car and Caroline pulled away with the newly arrived pair sitting side by side in the backseat.

"So, how was the flight?"

"Aw, it's awfully nice and also very cliché of you to ask, Caroline. It was great, thanks," Billie Joe smiled, giving her a wink. "How are you doing, you sexy bitch, you?"

"I'm doing great---" Caroline began to reply.

"No, not you. Mike," Billie Joe laughed.

"Me?" the lean bassist inquired, eyeing his long-time friend in the rear-view mirror. "Oh, feelin' sexier than ever."

"And lookin' it, too." Billie Joe leaned forward and ruffled Mike's hair then went as far as to place a kiss on the taller man's cheek. "I'm glad you're doing great."

Mike just smiled. "Thanks."

"Hey, I'm hungry. Could we stop somewhere?" Tre asked like a child wanting a cookie.

Caroline met his gaze in the rear-view mirror. "What're you in the mood for? There's a Denny's down the road from the airport."

"Denny's. The pothead's Mecca."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

They held each other's gaze a few more moments longer until Caroline finally pulled her eyes away to drive off down Genesee Street.



After that night, when Billie Joe and Tre arrived in Buffalo and went to eat at Denny's with Mike and Caroline, they all began to talk shop; in regard to both bands.

Green Day and The Sinners.

While the latter had already rented out space at Chameleon West, the former thought it'd be awesome to do the same.

It was, after all, while Billie Joe and Tre had flown out in the first place.

Mike was already hanging out from time to time in the studio; watching how The Sinners' sessions progressed, while occasionally lending a hand when Caroline found herself stuck with her bass parts. And that in itself got him itching to make and create with his own band.

So he called for them to come out.

The first two weeks went by with a surprising maturity on the older group's part. They jumped right into going over what they'd already been working on prior to Mike's second heart attack along with developing new ideas and discussing how they wanted to make a great record. Because, frankly, their last release which had come out two years earlier and was American Idiot's successor wasn't as, well, successful as they'd hoped, mainly because touring was shorter due to Mike still taking it easy from his first heart attack.

But with all the hard work they were putting into this new project, they were beginning to lose sight of some playtime.

And Green Day was nothing without playtime.

Luckily for them, Billie Joe's 37th birthday had arrived in the nick of time.

While he was out of the studio during the morning, going to the nearest Guitar Factory with Dave, everyone else ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to decorate both studios with crepe paper streamers and balloons.

When the birthday boy finally arrived back with the younger guitarist, he was surprised, though he admitted to having a feeling something like this would happen at some point during the day. He was just unsure of when.

Smiling and grinning like a friggin' loon the entire time of the party, Billie Joe didn't take long to get smashed once the alcohol and birthday cake, which was in the shape and decorated to look just like 'Blue,' was brought out.

The great thing about Billie Joe when he got drunk; he was a very lovable guy. A very lovable guy.

The only bad thing about it was as soon as Caroline got some alcohol into her, she became just as lovable.

Though, after what happened several months earlier when the two of them were found drunkenly making out by Adrienne, Caroline was more careful this time.

Billie Joe flirted with her like crazy, simply because she was the only woman there, and with her dark brown hair, it's possible he was seeing his wife before him instead of Caroline.

She even caved in at one point and agreed to dance with him; with Billie Joe standing behind her with his arms wrapped around his waist and his lips pressed to her neck, talking about whatever to her.

And while they ground against each other as the music played, Tre wandered over to Mike who was sitting on the arm rest of the studio couch with a glass of red wine in one hand as he watched his drunken friend make a fool of himself with his fiancée.

"How can you be some calm?" Tre asked.

Mike turned his head up at Tre and raised his eyebrows questioningly. "You mean about Billie and Care?"

The drummer nodded, glancing at the gyrating pair in the center of the room. "Yeah. How can you not get angry at how they're acting in front of you?"

"Because I know them. I trust them," Mike replied. "I know how they get and they mean no harm. They're like two five-year-olds who'd been given a bowl of frosting to eat, only for it to make them act off the walls. But as soon as they come off the sugar high, they go back to being themselves."

"Or maybe the alcohol brings out the real them."

"No," Mike shook his head. "The alcohol exaggerates who they really are. They're lovable to begin with. Billie Joe loves Adrienne and no one else. And Caroline loves me. Hell, she'd die for me."

"Really?"

"Yes." Mike looked up at Tre again after watching Caroline laughing at how Billie Joe was dancing around her like a belly dancer. "She'd throw herself off a cliff."

"I wish I could've been so sure about Caroline like you are when I was with her."

"Says the man who's been obsessing about getting her back since I began dating her," Mike added with a questionable tone.

Tre frowned and looked down. "I was an idiot. And I'm sorry, but she'll always have a hold on me. I can't lie about that and you can't expect me to."

"I'm not," Mike assured.

"I've fallen in love with Giselle," he blurted out in a hushed voice.

Mike just looked at his friend. "I'm glad."

Tre met the gaze he was receiving. "That's what Billie said on the plane."

"Well, we are glad, Tre. It's about time all of us stepped out from under this gray cloud we're living under and embrace the future. You know?"

"Yeah, I know."

As the two of them looked back at Caroline and Billie Joe, they smirked at how the guitarist was twirling her around.

She was giggling so happily until she stopped in her tracks and placed a hand on her stomach and mumbled something about having to throw up.

As soon as she bolted into the studio bathroom, Mike and Tre laughed at the expression on Billie Joe's face.

"Where'd she go?" he slurred.

"You spun her around too much and now she's gone to throw up," Mike laughed.

As Billie Joe frowned, his displeasure in losing his dance partner didn't last long, because soon he'd pulled Dave up off his ass and replaced Caroline with her bandmember.