It's Not As Easy As It Looks

I always thought I could predict the future, you know, I may have inherited it from my father as he told me I was destined to be a failure.

I was leaning on the wall, innocently just listening in on the band as I found out they were staying there. I heard mumbling and there door closing, which was my sign to stop poking around in other people’s business. I silently counted in my head, three, two, one.

There was a knocking on my door that was so loud it ricocheted off of my hotel windows. I smirked to myself, waiting a little while before walking to the door and acting surprised as I opened it.

“Hi!” I smiled, looking to see all three Green Day members now at my door, I looked to Mike – taking in his image like I hadn’t even saw his face before. He was a lot taller then I imagined. “Come in, please,” I said, eagerly wanting to get to know them. I showed them over to the coach to sit them down, but only two joined me.

I watched as Mike’s smile turned into a frown as he looked past my shoulder. “Tré…” He said, firmly, as if Tré was his son doing something horribly wrong.

I turned around in the directions Mike gaze was to see Tré shifting through my mini-bar, I frowned just like Mike, but I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t shout at him, it would be a bad… fourth impression? I bit my lip, still in total confusion of how to handle this situation before Billie raised his voice.

“Okay so you jump on her bed, steal her mini-bar things… you really are the asshole, Tré,” He said, rolling his green eyes at his younger friend.

Tré sighed and turned around from the mini-bar, a bottle of Baileys practically engraved into his hand. “We can all share, do you mind, Jen?”

I felt I had no power and simply shook my head. “No, no, it’s fine, I like Baileys,” I dumbly pointed out, mentally kicking myself for sounding like such a teenager again.

“Do you drink, normally?” Tré smirked, seeing right through my disguise, I smiled sheepishly before looking down to my hands.

“No, I’m like… a teetotaller,” I grinned, but accepting the small clear glass the contained Baileys Tré had just poured for me. “But, every now and then,” I said quietly, before downing the drink. It burned a little – I wasn’t used to the vodka burn because I hadn’t tasted alcohol in so long. I coughed a little before meeting Tré’s eyes. “Stronger then what I remember… maybe it’s just America’s version.”

“It uses different things then the European version,” He pointed out to me, before sitting himself down next to me. “Because we’re cool in America,” He bragged, almost adding it like it was an afterthought.

I just plainly rolled my eyes, and fiddled with the glass in between my fingers. This was the start of my big break in America, I can’t just play it smoothly and safe, anymore. I held up my glass to Tré who still held the bottle in his hands. He smirked whilst filling it up to the top, and gave refills to the other two.

With each glass filled my vision became a whole lot blurrier, I felt my barriers around my body just tumble and crash away, and all I did was laugh. “Y-You know, I haven’t got drunk in ages,” I said, turning to face Billie who just smiled at me.

“You’ve had three shots, and you’re slurring,” Billie laughed, taking the glass away from me but I was quick and got it back. “I’m not letting a young girl like you drink herself to death because she feels she has to impress someone.”

“You’re not my shrink,” I said, trying as best as I could to get the words out right. “And I’m twenty five in like three months,” I hiccupped, and refilled my glass myself. “I’m not impressing anyone but myself with how I’m holding down my drinks.”

“See how long that lasts,” He replied, smirking. I just rolled my eyes at him, and put down the drink, feeling uneasy all of a sudden. I watched for quite a while the three grown men laugh and share stories with me, each of them slowly becoming more intoxicated.

Why are they protecting me from something they are doing, too? Damn hypocrites.

I went to stand up, only being slightly dizzy after an hour of partly sobering up. I looked at the three guys as they wheezed away; I walked to the kitchen to get a glass of juice, steadying myself on the kitchen counter as I went by.

Orange, pineapple, grapefruit… ah, apple.

I picked up the carton of apple juice and opened it, getting the tin foil from the opening stuck on my finger for awhile. I sipped from the carton until I felt eyes watching me. I turned around and was shocked to see Billie staring at me, I chocked a little on the juice before settling the carton down.

I looked at him, my eyes still wide. “W-What?” I stumbled over my words, still coughing from the juice stuck in my airways.

“That wasn’t very lady like,” he said, mockingly.

I sighed and faced away. “I guess neither is getting drunk but I still abolished my no alcohol rules and got tipsy,” My barriers were still down, for some reason, though I was quite sober. I felt like opening my diary and making Billie face plant it.

“The other two have gone back – you know… probably to have gay sex or to through up, or both like that dog on YouTube,” Billie said, rather quickly, I just gave him the quirk of my eyebrow in response and he laughed. “I thought I should check up on you, make sure you’re okay.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and looked back up. “Check up? Jeez, I’m not a little kid!” I shouted at him. Inside I was still reeling in from what my father had done for the past twenty four years – locked me away like Rapunzel and treated me like a child. All was quiet, and I chewed the inside of my mouth. I felt guilty – it wasn’t Billie’s fault. He didn’t know my backlog. “I’m sorry,” I apologised, as Billie’s shocked face dissolved into a smile.

“Forget about it, I’m sorry, it’s just you’re young even though you don’t know it, and at times you need to be checked up on by someone,” His advice was still like a knife to my gut. I thought I could come here and not have to deal with dependency issues. “I’m not a guardian or a body guard, but hey, we’re acquaintances, right?”

I nodded, and smiled. “Acquaintances,” I then laughed and put the carton back in the fridge. “…who just got mildly drunk together.”

“Tré has that effect on people, don’t worry about it,” He said, before taking his arm from around his back, showing me a shot of Baileys. “No more mothering, take it.”

I glanced to it, scrunching up my face before taking it. “Why not.”

***

I normally woke up at the crack of dawn, but I was still pretty much in GMT mode, meaning my hours were all screwed up.

I blinked my eyes open, and suddenly groaned as the light peered in through an opening in the curtains. I rolled over in bed, my face smothering into the fluffy pillow the hotel had provided. I was still pretty much half asleep, until I heard a noise, my ears suddenly perked up.

Snoring – it sounded like snoring. I opened my eyes more to see tufts of black hair poking up from under the duvet. “Okay,” I said slowly, before attempting to get out of the bed, but I was blocked by what felt a strong arm. I closed my eyes and whimpered. I lifted up my arm and slowly moved the duvet down.

“Holy… shit…” I breathed slowly, hoping a panic attack would stay away from me. “B-Billie?” I stammered, and then shook him slowly. He groaned and turned around, meaning his grip on me loosened and I was free. I got up, looking at the fact I was still dressed in yesterdays clothing, I sighed, I smelt like crap, my head hurt and I’m pretty sure I looked like death warmed up, too.

I decided that before Billie woke up I’d at least make myself presentable before kicking him out of my bed, so I took a shower, got a change of clothes and did my hair and makeup.

I sat on the side of the bed where Billie was lying and poked him in the cheek, I felt his stubble against my finger and quick withdrew it. This whole “I found a rock star in my bed,” thing was kind of new to me. Geez, I couldn’t even remember how he got in there.

I poked him again, this time harder and faster, when he didn’t comply I gave him a quick slap on the face. He mumbled something incoherently before turning over again. I rolled my eyes – he was as worse as me in the mornings, and I defiantly wasn’t a morning person.

“Billie, get the hell out of here,” I moaned, grabbed his shoulder and shaking his whole body.

“Let me sleep, honey,” Was all he said, before annoyingly snoring again.

H-Honey? What? Had the guy gone absolutely bonkers? I’m guessing he wasn’t fully awake and thought I was his wife, of whom I’d imagine to be pretty pissed if she saw Billie now, in some other girl’s bed.

I coughed, quite loudly before getting up onto my bed and jumping on it. It was an old trick I had picked up quite a while back, it usually got the person up… or gave them internal injuries.

Billie shot up in bed and stared at me. He blinked ever so slowly before a confused face came to play. “This isn’t my room…”

I raised an eyebrow at him and placed both of my hands on my hips, firmly. “You think?” I said, and then kicked him with my foot. “Get out,” I sighed, rolling my eyes as he slowly got out of bed, he looked down to his clothes and then to me, looking relieved he was still fully clothed, meaning no naughty business whilst we got drunk last night.

Billie bit his lip as he turned around to face me; he was in the doorway to the room as he slumped against it. “Don’t tell the guys, okay?” Was all he said, I nodded and he walked out of my room, leaving me with some privacy.

I heard a strange buzzing sound emitting from the living room, so I decided to follow the sound and slowly walked towards it to see my flip phone vibrating and moving along the wooden coffee table. I picked it up, warily. I was worried at who was calling – my friends, my parents.

I almost screamed out in shear panic when I saw it was Wade. I quickly looked to the clock – it was midday, I was technically four hours late for work. I didn’t know whether to pick up or not, if I did I could be fired, and if I didn’t I could just hide away… and well, be fired also. I flipped open the phone and firmly pushed it against my ear. “Wade, hi!”

“Why are you so damn late?” Wade asked, sounding pissed off, and he should be, but he would have to get used to it since I was late for everything.

“I feel a bit sick,” I lied, though only partially. I felt like crap – I had a huge hang over. I just didn’t feel like keeling over onto the floor and dying today. “I’m sorry for not calling, Wade, I just got a bit...” I trailed off, looking into my bedroom and frowning. “…distracted.”

“A-hum,” He said, taking it in. “Okay, have the day off, but I expect you here tomorrow, on time,” He emphasised the last words, making me cringe.

“Okay, don’t worry, I promise.”

Oh Jennifer, you are an utter, complete idiot.