Always There

"Mmm," Billie Joe moaned lazily. "We should, you know...do that more often."

Maria rolled off his chest and laid beside him, curling up against his side. "You just like it when I'm on top. All you have to do is lay there while I'm doin' all the work," she teased.

"Nuh uh. There was thrusting on my part. And, uh...making faces like this," he commented, looking at her like he'd just taken a shit.

Maria laughed and sat up, separating their joined bodies and slinking off the bed to pull on her discarded underwear and a white shirt. She walked over to her bag and pulled out a pair of black, bike shorts; running her fingers through her hair. her hair that had once been blonde when he met her, but from lack of touching up her color job, her brown roots had come in. She pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail and then told Billie Joe to get dressed.

They hadn't gotten much sleep. After a quick romp in bed, followed by talking for a while, they had fallen asleep around 3 AM. They woke up at 8, and it was now half past. But they were young and used to going 36 hours without any sleep at all.

Dressed in a pair of his ratty, black jeans and a flannel shirt, Billie Joe followed Maria downstairs, not even worrying about his bedhead hair. Both were barefoot as they padded into the kitchen to the smell of bacon and eggs cooking. As strictly vegetarian as they were now, the young couple couldn't help but be caught up in the intoxicating smell that was greasy bacon. Shaking it off, both stepped into the room where Maria's mom was at the stove, vehemently expressing her opinion about a local politician who'd been reelected to office.

"Who cares about if he's cheating on his wife every other day, what should be focused on is how he's pardoning that asshole who was accused of molesting that little girl. They don't care about that? All they care about is where he's got his cock at night."

Billie Joe's eyes widened, never expecting any mom to speak like that. Especially that early in the morning. Maria smiled as she walked up to her mom.

"Oh, hey ya Temperance," her mom said, giving her daughter a big hug. "Catcher said you got in last night. How was the drive?"

"Long, but good," Maria replied. "Did Catcher already leave for school?"

"About an hour ago. I called in sick so I could prepare all the food for tomorrow. So, shh, don't tell anyone." Her mom winked and then took sight of Billie Joe standing shyly behind Maria. "And you must be Billie Joe. We've heard a lot about you."

As Billie Joe went to reply, Maria's mom pulled him in for a hug as well.

"Wait, who's this?" came a deep, male voice that was laced with a faint Hispanic accent. A man in his mid to late 40s who had been sitting at the kitchen table the entire time, set down a local newspaper, folding it and setting it down next to his cup of coffee.

Maria grinned and practically skipped over to him. "Hey dad." Giving him a small hug and a peck on the cheek, she gestured to Billie Joe. "This is Billie Joe Armstrong. My boyfriend I said I was bringing home with me for Thanksgiving. Remember?"

"I remember hearing something about a boyfriend who plays guitar in a punk rock band and lives in the apartment in the basement of your Uncle Ned's house. But this young man looks too handsome and shy to be any form of rock musician," Maria's dad smirked. "He's really an artist, isn't he? Goes to all those San Francisco beatnik, open mic poetry readings and snaps his fingers. Oh, wait. He has a Ramones shirt. I take it back."

Billie Joe laughed a little. "Heh...yeah. I, uh...you...you have a nice house, Mr. and Mrs. Cevallos."

"Oh, don't call us that. Its makes us sound like adults or something. Please. Call us Enrique and Lynn."

Nodding, Billie Joe agreed to do just that. "Okay...Lynn."

"Well, pull up a chair, sit on the floor. Tell us about yourself, Billie Joe. Is that a nickname?"

The guitarist pulled out a chair and sat down beside Maria. "Uh, no. It's my actual name. My mom's from Oklahoma. That's my excuse."

"No need to be ashamed of your name. We named out kids Temperance and Catcher."

Lynn ended up plopping down eggs, strips of bacon, and pieces of toast in front Maria and Billie Joe. Unfortunately, they had to break Lynn's heart by announcing they were vegetarians now; that they didn't eat meat. But contrary to what they thought, her parents didn't have a field day. They simply stated that then there'd be more for the guests coming over the next day and that there was still other things the could eat.

The rest of the day, Maria went shopping with her mom and Billie Joe stayed behind with her dad, watching some TV with him, talking about different kinds of music and what Billie Joe's goals for the future were.

When Maria came home, she began to help her mom with the desserts; that consisted of cherry, apple and pumpkin pies, cheesecake, brownies, and other sugary sweets.

"So, when are you gonna tell him?"

Maria looked up at her mother and narrowed her eyes. "Tell who what?"

"Billie Joe. And you know very well what I'm talking about," Lynn replied.

"Oh...I, uh. I sorta started to a few weeks ago, but we ended up getting into a fight about something slightly off the subject I was about to lead to. And then afterward, I just...I couldn't bring it up."

"Well, sooner or later he's gonna know. I mean, one day he's gonna roll over and be all 'where did she go?'"

Maria just looked down, stirring the pie crust mix with a little more force before she stopped suddenly. "It's almost 9:30. I'm gonna go watch 'Mad About You.'" With just a node, she walked away, heading into the living room and plopping down on the fluffy, wraparound couch right between Billie Joe and Catcher. Her dad was sitting in his usual leather recliner. All three guys had on 'Home Improvement' which was about to end. Catcher started doing Tim Allen's question-sounding grunt thing and Maria just looked at him like he was a retard.

"How are the desserts coming, Temp?" Enrique asked as he pulled out a bag of weed and from his pants pocket and rolling papers.

"They're coming..."

Billie Joe raised his eyebrows and looked at Maria to know if her father was for real. She nodded.

"I told you they were really liberal," she whispered.

"You smoke, Billie?"

Billie Joe was in heaven. He simply smiled and nodded, clearly finding this all fucking awesome. He watched as Enrique rolled him a joint and lit it then took a hit and passed it to Billie Joe. Hesitating, he took a hit as well and Maria took it from him.

With a laugh that caused the smoke to billow from his lips, Billie Joe muttered, "Have I mentioned how cool this family is?"