Backstage

Sami could hear Billie laugh on the other end of the line.

“I was wondering how long it was going to be until you found my number,” he said. Sami let go of her breath. Thank god he wasn’t mad.

“Yeah, how long did it take?” Sami joked. Billie laughed.

“Hmm, let’s look at the clock here. We left at 1:52 and t is now…2:05. Thirteen minutes, you win!” he said with a laugh. Sami laughed with him.

“What do I win?”
“The privilege to talk to me on the phone."

“Billie! Shut up and go to bed!” Someone yelled in the background.

“Alright! I’m going!” Billie yelled to the voice. “I gotta go. Talk to you later?” he asked.

“Sure! I mean…Uh…yeah…that’d be cool,” she covered.

“Smooth, Sami. Very smooth,” Billie laughed. Sami blushed slightly. “Ok, bye."

There was a click and he was gone. Sami looked at Katie, who still hadn’t unpinned Sami’s arms and then to Nikky who was still holding the phone up against Sami’s ear.

“I’m done now. He’s gone. And Katie, I can’t feel my fingers,” Sami said. Katie got up off of Sami and Nikky turned the phone off.

Sami sat up and began flexing her fingers so the feeling would come back. Nikky and Katie sat down next to her. They were both staring unblinking at her.

'Ok, this needs to stop,' Sami thought annoyed, tired and angry. They didn’t stop.

“WHAT!!” she finally screamed.

“Welll…” Katie said. Sami gave an annoyed sigh.

“WELL WHAT!?!” she yelled.

“Don’t play dumb. What did he say?” Nikky said.

“He said that he’d talk to me tomorrow. Ok? Are you happy now?” Sami said irritated. 'What Billie and I say to each other is going to STAY within each other,' Sami thought.

“Oh come ON!” Nikky pleaded.
“Guys, I’m tired. We have to travel tomorrow and our van is annoying and small. Let’s just find a place to stay so we can get some sleep," Sami bargained.

“Guys, the first motel we see, we are pulling in, no matter how crappy it looks,” Katie grumbled. She was tired and just wanted a bed to sleep in.
“There,” Nikky called from the back. Sami looked up from the steering wheel. A beat up sign that read ‘Motel’ was hanging in front of them. Sami turned into the parking lot next to an equally old, beat up van as their own. The three of them slowly walked up to the motel counter and checked in. They got to their room and went to sleep instantly.

“JESUS CHRIST!” was what Sami awoke to. She groaned. ‘What now?’ She thought. Sami kicked the covers off and changed out of her pajamas to her jeans and an Operation Ivy T-Shirt. She heard stomping in the bathroom. From the looks of the room, her band members were already up.

“What happened?” Sami yelled into the other room. Katie walked out of the bathroom with Nikky by her side.

“That is the second cockroach we killed since this morning! This place is crap!” Nikky yelled. Sami laughed. She walked over to the counter in the kitchen and grabbed a coffee mug.

“Alright, we’ll go after I get some coffee,” Sami said as she walked out the door.

“The machine is down stairs and to the right, but I’m warning you now, it tastes awful!” Nikky yelled.

“Don’t trust this place! It could be poisoned!” Sami heard Katie yell. Sami sniggered.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Sami walked down the stairs and saw a coffee machine. She walked over and waited for the guy in front of her to be done. Obviously, she was standing too close to him. When he turned around, he knocked into her and his coffee sloshed all over.

“Crap, I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s alright,” she answered.

“Sami?”

She looked up at the guy’s face.

“Oh my God, Billie!” she said utterly surprised. Billie stood there just as stunned.

“Wow, this is awesome! What’s up? How come you’re here?” Billie asked her. Sami shrugged as she put her mug in the machine.

“We were too tired to look for a nice place, so we just pulled in here. What about you?” Sami asked.

“Same,” Billie said. He took a sip of the coffee but quickly spat it back out.

“Frickin’ God! That tastes like shit!” he said. He poured the mug’s contents into the garbage can. Sami took her own mug out of the machine and smelled it. It smelled alright so she took a sip. She quickly spat it out just as Billie had.

“Man, that’s horrible,” Sami said. Billie stood there laughing.

“If I told you it tasted bad, why did you drink it?” he asked still laughing. Sami smiled.

“I can have my own opinions.”

“Well, this place isn’t exactly the Ritz either.”

“Yeah, Katie and Nikky were just telling me that since this morning they’ve already found two cockroaches.” There was a stream of profanity from upstairs followed by a loud pounding.
“Make that three,” Sami finished. Billie laughed.

“BILLIE! GET UP HERE WE HAVE TO GO!” Sami heard Mike yell from upstairs soon followed by a shriek of “MIKE!” Katie had found Mike. Billie snickered.

“Well, I gotta go. Talk to you later,” he said. He gave Sami a hug, a swift kiss on the cheek and headed upstairs.

*Green Day's Bookmobile*

It was one week later. Billie, Mike and Tre had decided to just sleep in their van for lack of energy to keep driving down the roads.

“So, Billie,” Mike said from the bottom bunk of the make shift bunk beds the band had set up.

“Hmm,” Billie mumbled from above him.

“Do you like Sami?”

“Little bit, why?”

Mike shrugged.

“I don’t know, I just thought that you were crazy about that Adrienne girl,” Mike answered.

Billie’s eyes shot open.

“Oh no…” he breathed. "Mike…I forgot about Adie…” he muttered as he sat up quickly, only to result in his head connecting hard with the van’s roof. “OW! Fucker!” he groaned as he clutched his head.

“See? This is the price you must pay for being so fine,” Tre laughed from the other side of the van.

“Goodnight Billie,” Mike laughed from below him, knowing that Billie wasn’t going to sleep tonight.