Class is Now in Session

Departure

Tre's mouth fell open. "What?"

"She saw us on Halloween and she knows now," I told him.
"Did she tell anybody?"
"No, I don't think so. Tre', what are we supposed to do now?"
"Well, I guess we'll just have to be a little more careful or something," he replied with a shrug. I walked over and gave him a hug.
"I don't want to keep this a secret anymore, Tre'. It's getting hard." My words came out a little muffled against his shirt.
"I know it is. It's hard for me, too," he replied, wrapping his arms around me. "But we have to keep it a secret just a little while longer. Don't worry, it won't be like this forever."
"I hope not," I said simply.
"Now," Tre' let go of me, "I think we should go downstairs and go on with our lives. We'll figure this out." He placed a tender kiss on my lips, then walked out.

The next day, I told Cynthia that Mike had agreed to talk to her if she really wanted to.

"Oh my God, he actually said yes?!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah he did. He says that he'll stop by school sometime this week so you can talk," I explained, smiling at Cynthia's glee.
"Thank you SO much, Ms. Ericson!" Cynthia exclaimed, giving me a hug. I laughed and gave her a hug back. "Don't mention it. I was happy to do it. Now go and sit down, I have a story to tell the class."

When Cynthia was in her seat, along with everyone else, I stood in front of them all and leaned against my desk. "Okay," I said, "I heard that a lot of you guys were wondering how I met the guys from Green Day. Well, it's an interesting story, I guess, so I'll tell it to you guys." I immediately got the classes attention. I smiled and began my story. "Well, I guess it all began in the late eighties, early nineties..."

The class was entranced by my story. I love telling stories to people so it was fun for me, too.

When I finished my story, there were about two minutes left until the bell rang. I told them all to get their stuff together and to start lining up so they could go to their next class.

When the bell rang, all the kids started to file out into the hall. A lot of them told me on their way out that my story was awesome and I was so lucky and all that stuff. I just smiled and thanked them for enjoying it so much.

When I got home that day, I walked into the kitchen and saw that I had a new message on my answering machine. I pushed the Play button and was greeted by Tim's voice. My stomach flipped over inside me. I started rapidly pushing the button that lowered the volume so that only I could hear the message.

"Hey Carrie, it's Tim. Um...well I haven't heard from you in a while so I was just calling to see if you wanted to go out some time this week or something like that. You could come over to my place if you want. So, uh, just give me a call back when you get this. Thanks, bye."

I immediately erased the message. I didn't want Tre' finding out. I was half under the impression that Tre' believed I'd already broken up with Tim or something. But I hadn't. As far as I knew, Tim and I were still officially dating. I think I had just been avoiding talking to him for a while.

I decided I couldn't avoid him forever, so I gave Tim a call the next day after work. But I'd made sure that all three of the guys were out of earshot when I made the call.

I sat on my bed and listened to the phone ring on the other end of the line. Soon, somebody picked up.

"Hello?" the voice said.
"Hi, is this Tim?" I asked.
"Yes it is. Who's this?"
"Take a wild guess," I teased. I wanted to make things seem as normal as possible.
"Hey Carrie, how ya been?" Tim replied, laughing.
"Not bad. You?"
"I've missed you. How come I haven't seen you in so long?"
"I've just been busy, I guess," I replied, lying back on my bed.
"Well, what do you say to coming over sometime later this week?"
"That'd be fun. When should I come over?" I said.
"How about this Saturday. I'm free then," he offered.
"Um, I think Saturday's good for me," I answered.
"Great. Then how about you come over sometime around eight and we'll take it from there?" Oh God.
"Sure, that sounds good."
"Alright then. See ya Saturday."
"Bye."

I quietly hung up the phone. I closed my eyes and placed a hand on my forehead. I didn't know how long I could keep it up.

Saturday came around soon enough and I found myself driving over to Tim's house. I'd shaken Tre' off when he asked where I was going by telling him that I was going to see a friend. He bought it and didn't give it a second thought. But he did give me a hug and told me to have fun. "Not too much fun, I hope," I thought as I left.

When I got to Tim's house, I knocked on the door. It opened almost immediately.

"Hey Carrie," Tim greeted me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and gave me a kiss. "Tre's a better kisser," I thought, quickly hiding a smile.
"What's so funny?" Tim asked.
"Oh, nothing, it's just good to see you again," I said, covering myself.
"It's good to see you, too." He gestured for me to come in so we could start our "date."

That night wasn't too bad. I really liked Tim, but I didn't really love him. Tim seemed more like friend material than boyfriend material. It probably sounds cliche', but that's what I think.

We spent the night just watching movies and talking. Tim did begin to kiss me every now and then, but I didn't let him get too far. I didn't want things to get out of hand. I could sense that he wanted a little more, but I wouldn't give in. I was NOT going to become a slut and start sleeping with more than one guy.

When I got home that night, it was about 11 o'clock. When I walked inside, Mugsy trotted over and sat at my feet. He looked up at me, expecting some attention. I picked him up and carried him while I checked everything and made sure all the doors were locked and all appliances were turned off. The guys were nowhere to be seen, so I assumed they'd already gone up to bed. I took Mugsy upstairs with me and put him down on my bed while I got ready for bed.

As I lay in bed that night, I thought about all the things that were going to happen eventually. I thought about everyone finding out that I was with Tre'. I thought about what would happen to his career if he had a serious girlfriend in his life again. I thought about what his kids would think when they found out. I thought about what the fans would think. I even thought a little about what was going to happen with the paparazzi. I actually doubted that the paparazzi would be that much of a problem since Green Day generally seems to fly under their respective radar. All my thinking put me to sleep after a bit.

The weather was getting colder out now. Most of the leaves had fallen off the trees and were littering the grass everywhere. Thanksgiving was coming up and I knew the guys had to be home with their families to celebrate. I never usually did anything for Thanksgiving. I went and had dinner with my parents a couple times and I celebrated with Lucy few times, too. I found Thanksgiving a pretty useless holiday. It's just an excuse to eat, drink, and watch football until you pass out.

When I told the guys that they should probably head home sometime soon to get back into family life, they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

"We were just gonna tell you that we wanted to start getting ready to go home," Mike explained.
"Then we're on the same page," I replied, feeling just as relieved. I didn't want the guys to think that I was kicking them out of my house or something. "I guess you guys should probably leave sometime next week."
"I guess so," Billie said.
"You guys have to get plane tickets and other crap, though, don't you?"
"We're not too worried about that. I mean, it's not exactly hard to get a few plane tickets when you're famous," Tre' said.
"No, I guess it's not," I said, laughing slightly. After a few seconds of silence, Mike said, "We're gonna miss you, Carrie. It's not often that we get to have a vacation and see our friends."
"I'll miss you guys, too...a lot," I told them. "I never get to see you. The last time you were here, it was back around 2000 and you guys said you just wanted to get away from home for a few days."
"Which turned into a few weeks," Billie added. "I guess we just have more fun here than we do at other places."
"That's good to know," I replied, smiling a little.
"Then it's settled, I guess. We're leaving next week," Mike said. The finality in his voice was a little saddening. I didn't want the guys to leave but I knew they had to. They had to get back to their families and their lives.

The days leading up to the guys' departure seemed to fly by. It seemed like it was only yesterday that we were discussing when they were going to leave. Before I knew what was happening, I was driving them up to the airport with all their luggage in my car.

When the guys reached their gate, I felt like I was going to cry. I didn't want them to leave...especially Tre'. I was going to miss him the most.

"Don't worry Carrie, we'll call you soon," Billie said, giving me a hug.
"Yeah, we won't be strangers anymore," Mike continued, doing the same.
"You promise?" I asked, laughing a little at how childish it sounded.
"Cross our hearts and hope to die," Mike replied, sounding just as childish. Then, someone announced over the loudspeaker that the guys' plane was about to take off.
"You guys gotta go," I told them, trying to hurry them to the gate.
"But I don't wanna!" Tre' whined, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and almost knocking me over in the process. He even stuck his bottom lip out like a little kid about to cry. I laughed and patted his arm. "Come on, Tre', you gotta leave," I laughed.
"Fine, but just do one thing for me," he said, releasing me from his crushing embrace.
"What?" I replied.
"Tell Lucy that I expect a new pair of shoes waiting for me next time I visit," he told me.
"Will do," I laughed. "The gates about to close guys, you better hurry."
"Bye Carrie," Billie said, giving me another hug and kiss on the cheek.
"Take care of yourself," Mike said, giving me a hug and kiss, too.
"I will, Mike." As he and Billie picked up the few carry-on bags that they had and started towards the gate, I turned to Tre'. I felt tears come to my eyes as I looked at him. He pulled me into a soft, warm embrace. As he held me, he whispered into my ear, "I might be back sooner than you expect." He placed a kiss on my cheek and ran after Billie and Mike, turning back to give me one final wave before the gate's doors were closed.

I stood in the terminal and watched their plane take off through one of the big, glass windows. I felt alone already. More alone than I'd felt in months. Tre's words were still echoing in my ear. I had no idea when he would show up, but I did know that, when he did, I was going to be happier than I'd ever been in my life.