Always There

As of Billie Joe's 33rd birthday, he had nine albums under his belt, still had a lovely wife and two growing sons, two Grammy Awards and his band was now being referred to as the biggest rock band in the world. It was an honor, to say the least, to be thought of in that respect. To themselves, they had always felt like they were the greatest. Having others think and say so was just an added bonus.

Before they knew it, the guys found themselves touring Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In between the concert dates, Billie Joe's oldest son Joey turned 10 years old. He was now two digits. It was a milestone. His eldest was a decade old. He was probably more giddy about it than Joey.

The following month, on April 7, 2005, Green Day could be found in New York City for the umteenth time in their career. They were waiting backstage at TRL, in the Green Room, waiting for the show to begin. And then the time came for them to walk out into the studio, waving to fans seated inside, while making their way to the windows to wave at the fans on the sidewalk outside. Billie Joe stuck his head through the round, circular thingie in the middle window, while he watched Tre out the corner of his eye humping the window to his right.

TRL was typical. Emphasis on the cheesy hosts and horrible countdown of shitty music videos; further instilling Green Day's insistence that popular music was at the worst it's ever been. Following TRL, Mike and Billie Joe shot over to FUSE to tape an hour long show of Steve's Untitled Rock Show while Tre went to spend the rest of the day with his daughter Ramona. That hour went better than TRL, considering the fact that the music was a hundred percent better.

Two days later, Green Day performed at Saturday Night Live which was hosted by Cameron Diaz. They partied until six in the morning and Billie Joe felt content to have his wife with him. Upon returning to their hotel room closer to seven in the morning, Billie Joe fell back into bed with Adrienne curled up against his side. He pressed his lips to her temple and stared up at the ceiling as he began to wonder what was next for him.

As soon as he heard Adrienne's light snoring and knew she was out cold, he carefully removed his arm from underneath her as he stood up and walked into the sitting room of the hotel suite.

He sat down on the couch and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, flipping through the pictures of his kids to stick his finger behind Joey's fourth grade school picture and pull out a slip of paper he had kept hidden.

He stared at it for what seemed like forever before lifting up the phone and placing the receiver against his ear. Slowly but surely, Billie Joe began to dial the number on the paper, taking a deep and nervous breath as he did so. Waiting for someone to pick up the other end was killing him with anxiety.

"Hello?" came a slightly tired female voice that he hadn't heard in years. "Hello?"

Nerves overcame him and he hung up the phone rather quickly, running both hands through his hair as he stared down at the floor. He couldn't believe he had chickened out. But what would he have said? How could he have started a conversation?

He just couldn't do it. Not yet.

* * *

Fast forward seven months.

In just a few weeks it would be Thanksgiving.

But right now, he was picking at the leftover Halloween candy his sons had collected a few days earlier. Him and the guys had been done touring for almost a month now and could finally rest. But, for some reason, Billie Joe had never been so bored. When on tour, he missed home. Yet, once he was home, he never knew what to do with himself. He promised Adrienne they would go to Minnesota to spend Christmas with her family. But that was the only definite thing he had planned in the coming months. That and Tre's birthday.

Rolling his head back on the couch he stared up at a spot on the ceiling, literally bored out of his mind. He was so desperate for something to do he was willing to go to extremes and shave his head and wax every ounce of hair off his body while walking around saying, 'Yo quiero Taco Bell.'

Adrienne appeared in the archway to the living room, the sound of her clearing her throat catching Billie Joe's attention. He turned his head to the left and gave her a light smile.

"Hey, babe."

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how bored are you?"

He tipped his head back and sighed. "Eleven."

He heard the smirk in her voice as she replied, "That wasn't one of the options."

"Yeah, well, I try to go that extra mile."

"What else is new." Adrienne sank down on the couch beside Billie Joe and cuddled into his side as she rested her head on his shoulder. "You know what I want?"

"Hmm?"

"You to be able to just be content doing nothing special, here at home."

"I'm doing that right now," he insisted.

"No, you're not. You're not happy just sitting still. You always have to be moving," Adrienne replied. "Maybe you need to go on some sort of spiritual retreat and figure out what can calm you down."

"You talk as if I'm a hyper five year old who's seriously in need of Demerol."

"Well, you can never sit still. You're always on the go."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize. I just...I wish there was something I could do to calm your nerves," she said tiredly. "Maybe---"

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe you should leave."

"Excuse me?" Billie Joe sat up straight and looked over at his wife. "Are you kicking me out?"

"No. Nothing like that. I mean maybe you should leave and have some alone time somewhere, figure out what it is you need to do to be happy just being at home. With your family."

"And where am I suppose to go?"

"Well, there's that bungalow you like to stay in at the Chateau Marmont in LA."

"No. LA is fake-topia. I can't deal with the bullshit down there."

"Alright," Adrienne shrugged. "What about the penthouse in New York you have? That guy that was leasing it from you just moved to Florida, didn't he? Go to New York for a while. The boys will understand. Just...just make sure you're home for Thanksgiving."

"New York City?" Billie Joe repeated as his wife nodded.

"Yeah. Go to New York. It's the City That Never Sleeps. You'll fit right in."

Oh, Adrienne. You have no idea what you're saying...