It Seems I'm Too Far Gone

“So this is all the music you had back in Jeu-sey?” Billie Joe asked, playing up the word “Jersey” with a fake accent. Adie smirked.

“Yes, unfortunately. There isn’t as much... uh… culture in Jersey as there is here,” she replied.

The two of them were sitting in Adie’s room on one Saturday afternoon, going through some of the things packed away in Adie’s closet. It was now May and it was closer than ever to two things: Adrienne’s graduation, and the moving day to Minnesota. Her parents didn’t want to waste any time in leaving, so they were scheduled to be out of the house the week after Adrienne’s graduation. That in itself was a sensitive subject. It had taken a lifetime of convincing to get her parents to agree- or rather, accept- that Billie Joe was getting one of Adrienne’s tickets to her graduation. At first, her mother was irate. Her father was quiet, but patiently explained to Adrienne, in efforts to keep his wife from erupting, that they needed the other ticket for family, as there were many members that wanted to come to California to attend. Adie was obstinate though. She refused to let her father give Billie Joe’s ticket to some distant family member in a chivalrous act to keep her mother at bay. It was ludicrous. They didn’t like Billie Joe and they didn’t want him dating Adrienne, but for months it had been out of sight, out of mind. They didn’t ask, but rather assumed she was seeing him, and she didn’t give them details about their relationship. And ignorance truly was bliss.

Once, however, this problem arose, Adie was nowhere near stepping down. Eventually, she did win after many hours of yelling, and personally gave Billie Joe his ticket when she arrived back upstairs to her room where Billie Joe sat waiting patiently on her bed.

To say Billie was apprehensive about sitting for hours at Adrienne’s ceremony was a huge understatement. Apart from their first initial meeting over dinner months before, the Raleighs and Billie Joe Armstrong were kept separate in all aspects of the word. At first this made Billie uncomfortable and he persistently wanted to try to be a bigger part of Adrienne’s life. However, as time went on, he realized that this was probably for the best and Adrienne assured him that he was the biggest part of her life; this was something that shocked them both a little.

Now, however, with only a week left until graduation and two weeks until the move, it was the move that was heavy on both of their minds. Adrienne was done with high school, having the last week off since it was semester exam week. She had achieved a class rank of number five, which she was very proud of, and had already started planning her classes at the University of Minnesota. Things in the academic part of her life were looking up and lovely. It was the personal part of her life that left her feeling like she’d been hit by a truck. Nevertheless, she kept up her spirit.

“Ugh this band is horrible,” Billie Joe said, hitting the fast forward button on Adie’s cassette player. All of the underground stuff Adie owned was on cassette. Unfortunately, since coming to California and hearing some good music for once, the tapes she kept from Jersey and states before was packed away. Listening to them now was kind of funny even.

“Huh, Green Day,” Adie said with a smirk. “This one wasn’t very good. I think I can toss it,” she said, and lobbed it across the room at the trash can. Billie intercepted it.

“Hey now,” he started. “I’ll have you know that this little tape will be worth quite a large sum of money one day,” he said and Adrienne snorted.

“Oh really?” She questioned.

“Yes really,” he replied and popped it in the player. He hit play and after a few fuzzy seconds the sound of someone lazily testing a drum kit and a rambunctious audience could be heard through the speakers.

“Hey we’re Green Day, though some of you may have known us as ‘Sweet Children,’” Billie’s voice said. “And this song’s called ‘At the Library,’” and after a few drumstick clicks, Billie Joe hammered away at the guitar.

“Nice,” Billie Joe said, smiling in spite of himself. “This was made at the Gilman- I remember that show. Right after we put out our EP and Livermore about had an aneurysm at us changing our name.”

“Livermore?” Adrienne questioned.

“Larry Livermore. He owns Lookout Records- the people who put out our EP,” he said, and bobbed to himself on the radio, as much as he tried to stop from looking self righteous. “This was a good show.”

“They’re all good shows,” Adie said, smiling at him.

As the tape played on, Billie and Adrienne finished boxing up and throwing away the stuff in her closet. Needless to say the tapes were mainly tossed- with a few obvious exceptions- and by the time they were finished, nothing but empty hangers remained. The wind through the open window made them rattle like skeletons. It gave the room, which was also half boxed up, an eerie feel. Adrienne didn’t want to be around it much longer.

“Let’s take a walk,” she said, and the two of them headed downstairs. Since it was mid-day Billie Joe actually used the front door for once. Adrienne’s mother was conveniently in the back room when he arrived and when they left.

***

On the day of Adie’s graduation, the school board made a last minute decision to hold the ceremony inside. The temperature high for the day was supposed to be 80, and it, in fact, shot up to 85 by 9 o’clock in the morning. While it was stuffy inside of Pinole Valley’s tiny gymnasium, it was nothing compared to the sweltering conditions outside.

Adrienne stood in line, waiting for the clock to hit 10 so they could begin their procession through the gym doors. In the window, she could see her faint reflection. The obnoxious royal blue polyester robe and hat she wore made her red hair stick out like a Raggedy Anne doll. The heels she wore to match her dress were obviously uncomfortable and digging into her feet but, as her mother had insisted on them, she felt that it was worth the pain to at least look nice on such an important day. Even so- she just wished it was over.

The entire spectacle went off without a hitch. There were boring, redundant speeches, a quick walk followed by some moderate applause, and then, of course, caps were thrown and silly string was everywhere. Adrienne stuck around for a moment and enjoyed the fun, but eventually made her way over to her family and Billie Joe. She greeted everyone sweetly, giving out hugs and kisses, and receiving even more. Finally, she spotted Billie Joe, hanging back by the bleachers, obviously uncomfortable. For one, he was in his least favorite place in the world. For another, he was in ironed pants, a dress shirt, and a tie. It wasn’t really his style.

He hugged her and kissed her gently as soon as she came over to him. For him, this was a pointless ceremony. For her, it was pretty important. And so, he was happy for her- truly.

“Congrats!” he said and he pulled his hand out of his pocket quickly, tossing a handful of confetti up into the air. It fell lazily on the both of them. Adrienne laughed hysterically.

“Oh my gosh, you’ve been waiting for that for hours I can tell,” she said, shaking her hair in an attempt at getting the multicolored flecks out of it.

“Why, who’s this strapping fellow,” Adrienne heard from behind her. The voice belonged to her mother’s brother- Adrienne’s uncle Robert, or “Robbie.” Uncle Robbie was hands down Adie’s favorite relative. He had apparently gotten most of the humor in the family.

“Uncle Robbie, this is my boyfriend, Billie Joe,” Adrienne introduced them. At the word “boyfriend” Adrienne felt other eyes in her family turn towards their conversation. The two men shook hands.

“Wonderful to meet ya, Bill. Mind if I call ya Bill?”

“Not at all. Anything works,” Billie Joe said politely. He made a mental note that he already liked this “Uncle Robbie.”

Most of the rest of Adrienne’s family came over to introduce themselves to Billie
Joe. He found he liked the members of Adie’s extended family far more than her immediate family. They too found him to be enjoyable company and most of them were truly happy to hear that such a nice, down to earth young man was dating their Adrienne; even despite the, now fully dreadlocked, hair.

Eventually, after what felt like hundreds of photos later, they all piled back into their cars and drove back to the Raleigh house, where a small party waited them. Adie had taken off her robe to reveal a petite sundress underneath. It was slate gray and covered in small, pale blue flowers. It flowed gently in the breeze outside and hugged her small frame perfectly. Adie was actually quite happy with this dress, which was saying a lot as she usually hated her flat frame.

Billie Joe was waiting for her by his car in the parking lot, smoking a cigarette. When he saw her he smiled and found he couldn’t peel his eyes off of her.

“Wow, you look beautiful,” he said, walking over to get her door for her. Self conscious to the look he was giving her, she started fidgeting.

“Ugh, this wind… my hair,” she said, attempting to flatten it down while the breeziness whipped through it.

“Nah,” Billie said, grabbing her hands from her head. “It’s perfect,” and he kissed her softly before leading her into her seat.

When they got back to her house, it was full of delicious, homemade finger foods and three different kinds of punch. Even more family had shown up, and even more of them continued to make Adie and Billie Joe happy. To his surprise, Billie Joe found himself enjoying the get together far more than he thought he would. Especially when Mike and Tre showed up.

“I’m so glad you guys came,” Adrienne said, hugging them both.

“Well of course we couldn’t miss our little Adrienne’s- ooo tiny sandwiches,” Tre said, b-lining it to the first snack table. Adrienne laughed.

“Help yourself, Tre,” she said, shaking her head.

It wasn’t too much longer that the sun had started to set. The sky outside was a vibrant orange and the temperature had dropped to something that was at least bearable. Most of Adrienne’s family had left, but a few, like Uncle Robbie, stuck around. They were staying to start taking things up to Minnesota tomorrow morning. When dishes were being cleared, Adrienne decided to take off to the park with Billie, Mike, and Tre. She felt bad for leaving the clean up for others, but knew she’d be hard at work tomorrow, bright and early.

They went and sat around the merry-go-round, facing each other. Tre had snagged a plate of desserts from the party and set it in the middle for them all to snack on. It was the perfect end to what had actually turned out to be a perfect day. The only problem was, it was the perfect end to what had turned into a perfect life in California.