Live without Warning

"I don't know... does Billie even like candy?" I asked, walking to the candy aisle of the convenient store.

Adie smiled as she followed behind, "Of course he does. Trust me, I know this man, and this man has hidden stashes of candy everywhere."

We laughed; "Does he really?" I asked.

Here I was in the convenient store down the street from the studio, getting the men some stuff to eat and play with when they were bored. Adrienne, Billie Joe's stunning wife, came with him to work today, and as I expected when I first saw her, she became bored of watching the same old boring routine of writing and recording songs, so she decided to come with me to do my duties.

She was a beautiful woman; not skinny although she wasn't big, she had long black hair, and she was almost always smiling. She had many tattoos going up and down her arms - but she wasn't covered in sleeves of tattoos - and she didn't look a day over thirty, even though she was a little older than Billie was.

It was still early in the morning and only Mike and Billie were in the studio writing some songs. Tre didn't need to come in until after nine AM to do some mixing. First Billie and Mike needed to do some work together, because even though Tre helps with the lyrical writing, he doesn't write as much as Mike and Billie do.

"Should we get them some magazines?" I asked, picking up 'US' and 'Peoples' magazine.

She shook her head amused, "Not unless you want them to burn them and smitten them to Hell."

I laughed, "Good call." Of course; what was I thinking? Why would rock stars want to look at the lies in the magazines? Of course I never noticed Green Day in many gossip magazines, but still, it's like going behind your rock star friends backs and reading up on them.

We had both carried bags and bags full of little colorful candies and chocolates back to the studio. It was a sunny day in Oakland, causing an unpleasant heat-wave that hit the city. Everyone was dressed down and wearing their most fashionable sunglasses.

"Autumn, you know how Tre is, right?" Adrienne asked unexpectedly as we walked up a sidewalk on one of Oakland's most famous streets for it's entertainment facilities.

I stared at her through my dark shades with a questionable look, "That's a really weird question, but yea, to a certain extent, I do," I said slowly, laughing a little bit, "Why do you ask?"

She caught up closer to me and wrapped her free arm around my own, "Just wondering. A lot of girls, when they meet Tre, they kind of get creeped out by his tactics and everything. Just know that when he's talking about sex, he's only joking and doesn't actually expect you to get in bed with him."

I shifted my eyes around at all the stores we were passing by, trying to let her words process through my mind. I didn't understand why she was telling me this stuff, but I guess since she's known Tre for so long, it made her feel as if it was her job to keep me informed that Tre doesn't mean it if he says something stupid.

I was about to say something until she beat me to it; "Wait - how old are you?"

Slowly, I said, "Nineteen... I'll be twenty in about two month or so," I didn't know what she was starting to get at.

She smiled lightly, "Well, Tre will be thirty soon, so maybe he's grown up a bit," she stopped talking, which I was glad she did do since I was starting to blush a bit for a reason I could not identify.

"Has Tre said anything stupid to you?" she asked, turning to me.

Here we go...

I thought about it; "I'm pretty sure he's flirted a few times - not to the extreme that you're probably thinking of. Other than that, he's been really sweet and straight forward."

She nodded, "Honestly, I think he's sick of the relationships he's gotten into with the girls that only wanted him for his fame and money..."

Yea, I heard him talk about that.

She sighed, "But he had a bad reputation for only getting girls to sleep with him. I don't think he's really like that now though. He seems to be trying really hard to clean up his act and find that right girl, you know?" she looked at me, as if she was looking right through my sunglasses.

Slowly, I said, "Adie... are you trying to hook me up with him?"

She laughed out loud, shaking her head, "No, no! Ah, I'm so sorry! I just really needed to rant for a second to someone who knows Tre, and who is a girl, and knows what he's like. Sorry, I just always knew girls who were either intimidated by Tre's crazy antics or were too easily fooled by his intentions. I was just making sure that you weren't scared of him or too attracted to him for the wrong reasons."

I shook my head, understanding what she meant; "No, actually, I haven't seen either sides of Tre really. He's flirted, but not like; "Hey, baby, you wanna suck my cock?", more like; "I got my eye on you." then he'd wink at me or something. Nothing too dramatic," I paused, "He's confessed to me that he's looking for something serious and long-term when I had first met him in the forest."

There was a silence, until I looked over at Adie and noticed her eyebrows up in question, "You met him in the forest?"

I smiled softly and said, "Yea, I was taking a jog and there he was in the woods. Don't ask me why he was there - I think he had finished a date or something - but I forgot to ask him."

"Was it a forest by some school?" she asked, her voice getting lower.

I nodded, wanting to know if there was some significant, "Do you know why he was there?"

She stopped me when we had approached back to the studio. We were standing right in front of the door to the entrance. She took off her sunglasses and looked at me threw my own. She looked serious; she had something important to say.

She bit her lip; "Have you met anyone by the name of Wendy?"

I shook my head, not wanting to interrupt her.

She nodded; "Well, Wendy was the last woman Tre had dated," she lolled her head a little bit, "It last almost a year or so. I don't think you could say Tre was in love with her, but he was thrilled that he was starting to become faithful in his relationship and she seemed the same way too

"Anyway, one morning when Tre had his daughter, Ramona, staying over with him, Wendy decided that she would get close with Ramona and become the step-mother image that every girl dreamed of in a mom. Autumn, let me say; this woman had tricks hidden up her sleeve. In front of Tre she was this squeaky clean little Barbie who adored him, but when she was behind closed doors, she had plans and she was not the girl Tre thought he was in love with."

I blinked at her, really wanting to know what happened; "So, what happened?" I asked.

Adie pursed her lips, looking as if she was reflecting on the story; "It turned out Wendy was telling Ramona shit - absolute shit - about Tre. She was lying about him to her, telling her about how he was going to make things better for her and he was going to be better, but at the same time, she was telling stories to her like he was into drugs and alcohol and he was going to leave Ramona because he couldn't take her anything. All lies."

My jaw dropped and I immediately felt rage go threw my veins. Of course I didn't know anything about Ramona, but no one on this planet should ever go bad-mouthing to a child lies about their father, especially the fathers girlfriend out of all people.

"She even told Ramona that she would take her away and raise her by herself in a place that she would be safe from her father." Adie was getting raged as well as she told the story; "Autumn, I don't know how she came up with the shit she told Ramona and how not Billie, Mike, or me could not see what this two-faced witch was up to for a whole year," she shook her head.

She sighed, pulling herself back together, "Anyway, Wendy had everyone fooled, especially Ramona and Tre. Ramona could not face looking at her dad anymore and that tore Tre a part more than anything in the world and he didn't even know why she was treating him as if he hurt her bad. At the same time, Wendy would be sitting on Tre's lap, telling him it was okay, that Ramona was only going through some kind of stage in her life. Oh, and keep in mind, Ramona was only six or seven at the time so she only believed what was told to her."

I bit my lip, my heart racing and my blood rising at the thought of Tre being hurt by the lost connection between him and his daughter who I had not even met. But the thought that was almost making me literally bite my bottom lip off, was the thought of this faceless Wendy woman tricking and beating down Tre in secret, causing him more pain that he couldn't even identify.

She shook her head, "Tre was going to ask her to marry him. He bought her a diamond ring that was worth a fortune. Thing is, she knew he was going to ask her and buy her a ring that was worth an arm and a leg. Before he even asked her to marry him, she found the ring, stole it, and took it with her to who knows where.

"Tre was in a depressed state for a long time after that. Not only did he lose the girl he thought he loved, but he also lost a huge hunk of money and the respect and love from his own daughter."

I stared at Adie, wanting more than anything to find this woman who had stole my friends heart and broke it and break her for hurting him so and turning his life around.

"As for Ramona - well - it's starting to get easier for them to talk. I mean, there is still a little bit of a trust issue, but in the most, she does love him. He never let her down - he was always there for her. It was just Wendy's words that were bigger than Tre's actions that got to Ramona in the first place."

I nodded, understanding every word and feeling a bit better that Ramona was starting to trust Tre again for things that he didn't even do.

"Now the reason why you probably saw him in the forest is because Wendy lived in a house that was a little outside the forest, but her backyard was connected to the forest. He goes there time-to-time, looking for the ring he had bought her, hoping that he might find it. She left unexpectedly so a lot of her belongings are still there," she sighed, "It's unusual to leave and not take all of your stuff with you, so I think she will be back, and Tre will find her and get that ring back."

I shook my head, "Why doesn't he just leave it? Like, she's a bitch for what she did, but why keep going back just to find a ring? If I were in that situation, I'd just want to forget that the person ever existed and just go on with my life in peace."

"We wish it was that easy, but..." she pursed her lips, "Tre couldn't even afford that ring - it was that much. He bought it from a diamond store that was allowing him to pay by the month for it. Billie and I had to help him pay half for it. He's already paid us back, which took him close to a year, but it was a lot of money he had lost for nothing. A lot of money."

I nodded slowly, dazed off in thought as I processed the story in my mind, trying to visualize the whole thing, "I get it." I let out a tiny laugh, saying, "I really want to hug Tre right now to be honest. No one on this earth deserves to go through what he had to."

She weakly smiled, "You know; he'd probably like that. To be honest, I don't think anyone has hugged him over it. After it happened, he kept away from everyone for months because he just couldn't face the world, so we had no way in telling him how sorry we were."

I was glad that I kept my sunglasses on, because I wanted to shed a few tears for Tre over the story Adie had finished telling me. I wanted to hug Tre, tell him it was okay, but then again, it was a year or so ago, so if I brought it up, he'd probably go back into that same dark place. If anything, I should not tell Tre that I know what had happened between him and Wendy.

The bell above the door had rang, indicating that someone had either walked in or out of the studio, and since both me and Adie were outside, someone had to have walked outside to meet with us. I turned around, only to be faced with Adrienne's husband, Billie Joe.

"Are you two enjoying some girl talk?" he asked mockingly, grinning ear-to-ear.

Adie giggled a little, pitching the bags of candy she had in her hands into Billie's arms, "Take your filthy candy, you bum," she teased.

Billie raised an eyebrow at the bags in his arm, "We tell you to go get us some stuff to keep us occupied while we're at a fork in the road and you get us candy?"

"Candy? I wanted Playboy!" said the familiar voice of Tre as he stepped out of his car that had just approached the studio.

Again, thank God I had sunglasses on, because after the story I had heard, I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off Tre for that whole day, feeling something towards him that made me wish I could have gone back in time and warn him about Wendy.

He smiled at me as he walked to the curb; maybe he couldn't see my eyes on him, but he could definitely tell that I was looking at him since my face was pointed at his form.

"Good morning, lovely lady," he said, bowing a little in front of me.

I smiled at him, "No, good morning to you, Mr. Cool: King of the Drums."

He wiggled his eyebrows, "Are you trying to seduce me, Autumn?"

I giggled, shaking me head, "Not at nine in the morning, sorry."

He laughed as I turned my body around to open the door into the air-conditioned studio. Before I could open the door, however, Tre opened it from behind me, letting me walk in before him like a gentleman would.

I turned my head to him before I walked in, "Why, thank you."

"It's a pleasure, Sugar-Cane."

I walked in, smirking at his choice of name. I put my bag on my desk, put my sunglasses up on my head and turned to Tre, who was also by my desk, leaning on the cold, wooden, big table as he looked at me.

"What's new, Tre?" I asked, not wanting too much silence to go by that it would become awkward.

He twisted his face in thought, "I learned an awesome new drum beat. Well, I made it up, so I created an awesome new drum beat."

I smiled, nodding my head, trying hard to make it look like I was impressed since he seemed pretty proud about it, "That's amazing, Tre. If you ever play it in the studio, I'll come in and listen."

I couldn't help but notice the excitement grow upon his face as if he were a five year old boy, opening a present on Christmas day; "Why don't you ever come in the recording room and listen? I'm usually playing while Billie and Mike are scrambling and arguing over lyrics."

I nodded, smiling for him, "Yea, I'll come in when I finish all the stuff Scott wants me to do," I paused for a second, "I'll probably be in there earlier, taking coffee and food requests before lunch."

"Good, because you'll like my drumming. I'm really good," he grinned.

I couldn't help but smile as he bragged; this was Tre Cool, the drummer of Green Day, he was beyond just good, he was amazing if not more.

"I think you're being modest, Tre," I couldn't help but giggle a little.

Who could break this mans heart? You'd have to have no heart yourself to do what Wendy did!

"Tre, you ready?" asked Billie as he and Adie walked back in the studio, heading for the hallway that led down to their familiar recording room.

Tre nodded, looking at him. Once Billie and Adie were out of sight, Tre looked back at me and smiled, "I'll catch up with you later. Don't forget to come in and watch me do my thing," he said the last part, pretending to have a pair of drumsticks in his hands as he hit the air.

Before he was about to walk away, I grabbed his arm for him to stop; "Tre, wait," I said, pulling him into a hug that I felt like I needed to give him.

He hugged back, confused though more than happy to give me a hug. After a few seconds, I pulled myself away and smiled at him.

"What was that for?" he smiled.

I shrugged, "Sometimes a hug is much needed and I think you're an amazing guy who deserved a much needed hug."

By the looks of it, it looked like his cheeks turned a small tone of red as he grinned. He pulled me back quickly to give me a small hug before he had to leave back to recording.

"In that case, hug me whenever you feel like it's needed," he smiled softly, "I'll talk to you later."

I watched him as he walked down the hall and into the studio, feeling satisfied for my good deed. As long as he was happy, I was going to be happy myself.