Good Man

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.
- Jane Austen



Caroline woke up early on the morning of July 4th, despite having gone to bed at somewhat of a late hour the night before. She'd left her hair down instead of pulled back into a ponytail, so now her dark brown hair was in tangles and minor snarls. One nostril was plugged, the other not; she blamed it on the air conditioner. And there was the slight scratching at her bedroom door that perked her senses.

Sweet Baby.

Her new tabby cat, which she'd picked up at the SPCA with her kids the day before, was trying to get into the bedroom and obviously failing. The male feline was about nine years old and had come from a home of four other cats that apparently ganged up on the poor tabby cat too many times that the original owners would keep poor Sweet Baby in their extra bedroom with an extra liter box and extra bowls of water and food for him. But it became too much on their own hearts to keep the lonely cat virtually locked up, deserving of love. So, they made the choice to give it up to the animal shelter for adoption; preferably to a family with children where it would be the only pet and be the center of attention. Something of which it never had before.

And now, after only one day, Sweet Baby, which Caroline had helped her young children name, was finally coming out of his shell and wanting the attention he deserved. And coming all the way up the stairs to seek Caroline was undoubtedly a big step for the cat. After spending so much time in one room, rarely leaving it for fear of attack by another, more domineering cat, Tabby was spreading his wings, figuratively speaking, and get a lay of the land.

Caroline smirked as she sat up and pulled the thin duvet off her body and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Planting her bare feet onto the hardwood floor of her bedroom, she cracked her back, neck, fingers, ankles and wrists before standing up and walking toward the door. All the while listening to a male groan in the bed, shuddering at the sound of each crack her body could make.

"You're gonna be so crippled when you're old you'll put fuckin' Quasimodo to shame."

Caroline looked over her shoulder at Dave who was lying face down on the right side of the bed. Slowly, he turned his face upward and looked sleepily at her with an expression that appeared amused and confused at the same time.

It was rather cute, but Caroline shook that thought off as quickly as it formed.

She shrugged. "At least I'll be interesting."

Dave shook his head and laughed as he buried his head under his pillow in an attempt to fall back to sleep for a couple more hours while Caroline opened the bedroom door. Sweet Baby, startled at the sudden gesture, scampered back a little, then stopped dead in his tracks, gazing upward at his new owner and letting out a meow that was so adorable it made Caroline wanna squeeze every inch of breath out of his body.

"Good morning to you, too."

Padding along the hardwood floor of the upstairs hallway, she could tell by the silence that her children were still asleep. Either that or they were masterminds of mischief. Peering down at the cat she watched as he twisted his body in a sort of half jump upward before following after her down the stairs, mewing all the way.

"Shh," Caroline hushed. "You'll wake the house."

When she reached the kitchen, the gestured to where his food dish wash and leaned down to rustle up the hard brown, chicken and tuna flavored pieces in order to release a wafting of smells. And sure enough, Sweet Baby went straight to his food without a second notice and began chowing down with small crunching sounds.

Meanwhile, Caroline was busying herself with making a cup of Darjeeling tea and as she was waiting for the water to boil she headed outside to grab the paper.

"How suburban," she muttered to herself as she found her paper in its sleek orange bag, strewn upon the end of her driveway. And all the while, she was in a pair of boxer shorts and oversized T-shirt which didn't belong to her.

Still barefoot and also braless, she sauntered back into the house, paper in hand and now to a whistling tea pot on top of her stove in the kitchen.

"Okay, okay. Shut up," she grumbled to the tea pot as if it were living and could understand a lick of English, or any language for that matter. "I'm here, already."

Pouring the hot water into her tea cup, the tea bag floated to the top as its contents began to seep out as a brown cloud. Grabbing the tag at the end of the string, Caroline dunked the bag a few times and then used a spoon to empty as much of the rest of the tea as she could into the cup while hissing in pain at the hotness of the water. After tossing the bag into the garbage bin under the sink, she added her dollop of creamer, which she chose over milk for no particular reason at all, and then her two or three spoonfuls of sugar, depending on the size of the spoon itself.

Two scoops if it was big, three if it was small.

And then, Caroline was content.

Taking the cup of tea and the paper with her, she walked out of the kitchen and into the skylit family room where she curled up onto her sofa and immediately searched for the 'funnies.' Sipping her tea languidly once it wasn't as hot, she laughed quietly at her favorite comic strips, Rhymes With Orange and Pearls Before Swine. And then, out of habit, she read the remaining comics even if she didn't like them, finishing off that section of the weekday edition of the Buffalo News with reading her horoscope, along with the horoscope for Taurus; Mike's astrological sign.

She hoped, that wherever he was, his fortune still pertained to him in some way, shape or form.



Later that day, in the mid afternoon, while Caroline, her kids and even Dave were joining Val and her family at LaSalle Park for vendor foods, live music and fireworks in the evening, on the other side of the country, back in the Bay area of California, Tre was very sullen, unresponsive and barely holding on.

It had been two weeks now that he'd been a widower and the shock of it all still hadn't set in. It was different when he lost Mike, his friend. He was greatly attached to the guy who'd been like a brother to him for twenty years, but he was just a friend, as harsh as that may seem.

Giselle was his wife, the mother of his newborn. She was the woman he'd pledged to spend the rest of his life with. She was his third, and the third time was supposed to be a charm, not a short-lived and grievous affair.

Adie was worried, as was Billie Joe. They were at such a loss of their own at what to do, to say, to think. It seemed like there was nothing that could comfort the poor drummer and it took everything in him to be bothered to take care of his infant girl.

It was left up to Tre's mother, sister Lori, Adrienne, Claudia, Ramona and even Ellis -- despite Tre's initial displeasure -- to take care of Avarielle. The only one of the six women caring for her that was truly devout in the duty, seemed to be Ellis and Tre didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to warm up to the idea of her coming by every day. In a way, it was like having another extension of his dead wife in his presence; which was a good and bad thing.

He longed for the reminder, at the same time loathing it. It showed him a glimpse of what he had, while teasing him of what he'd never have again. It was a Catch-22 of sorts and he wasn't sure how to feel about any of it.

And as Adrienne and Billie Joe Armstrong worried for their friend's mental health and detachment toward his baby girl who needed him now more than ever, they were just as worried for another friend who had left without warning and whom they had to learn, from watching Entertainment Tonight, had resurfaced in her hometown of Buffalo, New York with both of her children in tow and had been just recently spotted throughout town with her bandmate and boyfriend from once upon a time Dave Jozwiak.

But while Tre was holed up in his house on the holiday, much like Caroline was the year before after Mike's death, and while Caroline was carrying on as if it was just another day and everything was rainbows and butterflies in her world, a moment's notice away from completely breaking down, it was the Armstrong couple who seemed to be the most kept together.

They'd lost their friends, yes, but they had each other, something of which Caroline and Tre weren't as fortunate to claim. Billie Joe still had his wife, and Adrienne still had her husband, so they couldn't truly understand what the other two were going through, nor did they really want to. They tried to ignore that day, hopefully someday far off in the future, when one had to leave the other.

"We need to do something," Adrienne muttered to her husband, whom she'd just celebrated their nineteenth wedding anniversary with two days prior.

She was in the midst of making a fruit salad while Billie Joe was mixing the punch for later that afternoon.

"We already have enough finger foods. What more can we do? Buy out Safeway?"

Adrienne shot Billie Joe a withering look. "No, dumbass, not the party. We need to do something," she repeated, giving him another look that said, Are you catching on, yet...dumbass?

"Oh," Billie Joe remarked. "Do something."

"Uh, yeah."

"Yeah, we should," he agreed. "But what should we do? Tre's like a zombie, not quite as bad as Caroline was, but a zombie nonetheless and Caroline's...thousands of miles away." Billie Joe gestured with his right hand as if shooing away an annoying fly, signifying Caroline was back east.

"Maybe I can try talking to Tre; get him to open up. If we'd have paid better attention to Caroline after Mike died, maybe she wouldn't have overdosed. I don't want Tre to take the same path. We can prevent that from happening this time now that we know the signs, plus, I wanna be around to show Joey the ropes at Adeline this summer so that when he starts working there full time next month, he'll be up to speed. But that leaves you free to go see Caroline, feel her out and figure out what she's doing and, well, feeling..."

"You want me to go feel another woman?" Billie Joe joked lightly. "I believe you are a very awesome wife. Other men should be jealous of me. My wife of nineteen lovely years is pushing me to feel another woman." Giving Adrienne a sidelong smirk, he stepped away from the punch bowl and reached out to place both hands on either side of her shoulders. "You are awesome."

Swatting at her husband, Adrienne pushed him away with a laugh. "Feel her out, not up. God, you're such a retard."

A shit-eating grin plastered on his face, he kissed her on the lips and then pulled back. "You know you love it." After a moment or two, he serioused up and gave a nod. "But you're right, we need to do something."

"We've established that, husband." Opening a can of peaches, Adrienne dumped them into the large bowl before her. "You and Caroline seem to have this adorable, brother-sister relationship going on so it makes sense for you to go to her and get her to open up. She respects you and vice versa."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah, I'll see about booking a flight to Buffalo early next week, then."

"Good."

"Right now, I wanna focus on the here and now, the holiday with my family and friends, enjoy the festivities and not the blahness."

"I'll second that."

Both husband and wife stopped their ministrations with their punch and salad, respectively, and looked at each other; smiling. Billie Joe puckered his lips and blew a kiss in Adrienne's direction.

"Love you," he muttered.

Adrienne blew a kiss right back. "Love you, too."



Laying back on the palms of her hands, with a worn blanket underneath her, Caroline looked up at the multicolored, fireworks-littered night sky which was virtually cloudless. To her left was Dave, holding Chloe in his lap with Mikey between them. To her right was a second blanket belonging to Val and Joe, which was occupied by said couple and their three children.

It was a wonderful evening and she was happy that her kids were enjoying the display of exploding lights above them. She was also happy how they were completely out cold on the drive home to her Orchard Park home from LaSalle Park.

With Dave's help she placed her kids in bed and then they retired to her bedroom together. However, Dave hung back in the doorway, watching her take her earrings out and stepping out of her jean shorts; standing in front of her dresser in just a tank top and her red, bikini-style panties.

Looking sideways at her friend since forever, Caroline narrowed her gaze at him. "What's up?"

"I should be asking you the same."

"Lost me."

"Really? Have I?"

Caroline stopped what she was doing, placed one hand on her dresser and turned her body to face him. "Dave, speak your damned mind already."

"What is this?" he gestured between the two of them with his right index finger. "Me, you. Are we an 'us' or am I a booty call so you're not alone? I mean, aren't you with Gerard or something now?"

Caroline looked down at the space of floor in front of his feet and sighed. "Gerard is my friend. A really good friend who was there for me when I needed it, and yes...I was with him...in a sense. I was with him, but not with him. We're not anymore. I couldn't lead him along, potentially giving him the idea that anything between me and him would someday flourish."

"Okay, so...like I asked; me and you? What are we? I never thought we'd be going down this road again."

Caroline looked back up at him and stared at him. "And what road is that?"

"The boyfriend and girlfriend road."

"We're not."

This time, Dave sighed. "Then what are we?"

"Why do you need a definition?"

"Because I need to."

Caroline blinked, continued to stare and frowned. "You're one of my best friends in the whole world who I feel comfortable enough to share my bed with. You've been here before, know all the ropes," she gestured to her body. "Why are you being awkward now?"

"I'm not being awkward, I'm just...curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"Don't bring adages into this, Care."

"I'll bring what I damned want to into this."

Dave sighed and finally stepped forward, shutting the bedroom door behind him so their voices could be muffled from her sleeping children. Rolling his eyes at Caroline he stepped closer to her and stared down to the tip of her nose.

"You always did have a way about you to make my pants get all tight in certain places."

Caroline laughed and looked down at the slight bulge in his pants.

"You're just a horny manwhore."

"Better, I've ridden a rollercoaster of you. I was your friend first, then your bandmate, your boyfriend, your friend and bandmate again, and now I'm your dirty, dirty mistress." He brought a finger to his lips and made a shushing noise. "Better not tell anyone. Keep it a secret and it makes it all the more exciting."

"Are you mocking me?" she inquired, looking up at him with defiant hazel eyes and suddenly feeling the need to turn the air conditioning up full blast to cool her body temperature down.

"A little."

"Okay," she replied simply, grabbing the bottom of his shirt and pulling his body up against hers.

Their lips met gently as his kiss enveloped her and slowly she backed up toward the bed, crawling backward onto it with her hands and feet.

Beckoning to him with a curl of her finger, she smirked, "Wanna mock me a little more?"

Dave just smiled and climbed onto the bed.