It's Not As Easy As It Looks

I licked the envelope, shuddering at the taste as I firmly shut it. I stared down at it, the little b5 brown envelope with a red white and blue postage stamp on it. This was going to let me live in the country – I was actually going to live in America. I could eat Hershey’s every day, drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, I could get a tan and probably never see snow again.

I sighed, as Wade took the envelope from my shaking hand. “Come on, we need to give it to those people,” He said, pointing out people in business suits behind glass walls. It was the International building, one that dealt with illegal immigrants and other things. “Be brave.”

I gulped, walking down with a business suit of my own on, I was nervously scratching my hand, whilst nervously looking to Wade – wanting to hold his hand like he was my mother. God, I wish she was here.

“Hello, how can I help you?” The woman asked -- her brunette hair hiding away in a tight bun – so tight her facial expressions were lost in tight skin.

“Hi, I – erm… I’m applying for a visa.”

***

“God, you put a suit on someone and their motivations get sharper, huh?” I laughed, glad everything was behind me as Wade drove me back into the main Manhattan. “Oh hey, you know before I go to California, can I look around New York? Y’know – visit Little Italy, SoHo and TriBeCa, Greenwich, etc?”

Wade nodded his head, eyes remaining on the road. “Well, why don’t we go visit now? Office is closed at the moment, and well, your plane leaves tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!” I shouted out. “I don’t even understand why I have to leave such a gorgeous place!”

Wade sighed, slowing down to stop at a traffic light; he turned to face me in his seat. “My section is moving back to California – it’s a lot cheaper, to be fair.”

I nodded slowly, smiling a little to lighten the mood. “Alright, I’m sorry to sound like a spoilt brat,” I said laughing a little.

“It’s okay,” He replied with, taking off the handbrake and putting his foot down on the pedal when the light turned green. “I understand what you’re going through – I mean… who wants to leave the city that never sleeps?”

Well, I certainly didn’t, not at all. It had been my life dream to come to this city, the city of amazing culture, amazing architecture. I loved it, and I hadn’t really had a chance to view it, apart from staring longingly out of a yellow cab’s darkened windows, or whilst sipping champagne in an overpriced limo.

This wasn’t grabbing a chance; it was looking at it, wanting to jump into it, but being too scared to fall too deep.

Wade reached to his radio, pressing the knob to turn it on, and then the volume up. "Yeah, Neal, those are crazy thoughts, but I think these stupid inventions are very crazy, I mean a water proof towel. Ha," I shook my head and groaned, turning the knob on the radio and moving stations, without even considering Wade.

It was a cheery woman’s voice this time; she had a strong Brooklyn accent. "So what are getting for Christmas Derrick?"

The name instantly reminded me of Billie Joe--I still didn't know what was wrong. Who was this Derrick they were talking about?

"Oh, I don't know, my wife's getting me something,” Derrick bellowed out, his voice deep and soothing at the same time.

"Like what?" She replied back, her tone become more annoying to my ears.

"I don't know, I don’t even know what to get her, I am totally stuck – what do women even like, Sheryl?” He asked her, I rolled my eyes and changed the channels again.

"This is the New York weather report, we have a forecast of cold air, and snow, it's going to be very cold, so pack your thermals and get ready to be building snow men."

I smiled, snow, I hadn’t seen that in awhile. Maybe like a year or so – which was kind of sad since I used to invite my friends around to my house and we’d build snowmen, or make snow angels.

We weren’t really into pelting snowballs at each other, it was painful, and it made your hands even colder.

“Thank you, Clive, for the weather, wow, snow in New York City? That’s magical. I hope you spend the time with a loved one, sitting by a fire – we don’t want our listeners catching pneumonia!” She laughed; I sighed in reply and turned off the radio.

I turned to look at Wade, biting my lip a little; I shook my head a little and turned around to peer out of the window, sort of window shopping the big apple again.

I hope you spend the time with a loved one, sitting by a fire.

I had none, none here. I was alone, and I wasn’t sure whose fault it was any more. “Wade,” I croaked, my voice being just above a whisper.

“Yeah?”

“Do we… I… have to leave?”

***

"Mr. Dirnt, Mr. Cool," A nurse called, Mike and Tré looked up, Tré’s eye immediately widening at the site of a woman in uniform.

"Mr. Armstrong is ready to see you now, room 368, I’ll walk you there," The two of them nodded and followed the nurse, Tré couldn't help but stare at the woman's ass, Mike nudged him and when he got eye contact with Tré he shook his head.

"What?" Tré asked, ever so innocently, his eyes peering at the women every now and again.

"Stop checking her out!" Mike blurted out, a bit too loud. The nurse turned around, narrowing her eyes at Tré, he looked away and blushed, and Mike tried to stop himself from laughing.

"We'll talk after you've saw Mr. Armstrong," The nurse smiled and let them into Billie's room, Tré's face lit up as the woman gave him her number, she winked and Tré smiled and walked in to see Billie, flipping channels on the T.V hanging above the bed from the ceiling.

"Hey Bill," Mike smiled, taking a seat in the chair next to Billie Joe's bed, whilst Tré sat on the other side, staring and memorising the number in case he lost the piece of screwed up paper.

"Hey Mike,” He managed to get out, his voice sounding huskier than usual.

Mike sighed, looking at the state his best friend was in. "So... what happened?" He was more concerned about how Billie was, but small talk was getting the best of him.

"I went home, y’know, to see Adie, I – I er, I couldn’t take it, I had a panic attack," Billie placed his hand over his eyes; he was not a man to show a sign of weakness, especially in front of his male best friends. "I'm getting a divorce, no matter how much it tears me up inside, she's betrayed me and the kids, and this is hurting too much, I think she's totally ruined the marriage, there's... there’s nothing left to fix," He sighed, wiping his tears with the back of his hand.

Mike nodded, taking the hand of his best friend, smiling. "It's the best decision Bill, I’m glad you’re being so strong about all of this."

“Yeah, and we’re here for you, man, 100% of the way,” Tré said, finally devoting his time to his sick friend, rather than some girls number. “But hey, look, I got this girl’s number, her name’s Stevie… so thanks man, if it hadn’t of been for your panic attacks, I wouldn’t have a hot girl’s number,” Tré joked, laughing and then standing up to hug his older friend.

“No problem… I think,” Billie’s brow knitted in confusion, but after a few seconds he started to chuckle along with Tré. “Glad my panic attacks can be of service.”

***

“You don’t have to do this for me, I just need to take some cash out at the bank, and I can get taxis around – even a horse drawn carriage!” My hands flew up to my face in excitement as I smiled at Wade, who had just stepped out of his car.

“Nah, it would be wrong,” He said in reply, walking over to my side. “I know how much you like New York, and I’m the one dragging you away from it all.”

I looked up to the taller man, blushing as he smiled at me. “Well, thank you,” I finally smiled back, and noticed Wade leaning in to meet my lips.

Isn’t there a whole law case about boss and worker relationships?

Mr. Raindrop, falling away from me now,
Mr. Raindrop, falling away from me now,
Do you know how much you mean to me?
Why must you leave?

I looked down, feeling my phone vibrate against my leg, upon hearing my ringtone I quickly got it out and answered. “I – uh – h-hello?” I stuttered, not fully recovering from a near kiss from my boss.

I didn’t look at him at all, instead I turned around to face a small little Italian shop, and I put one finger in my ear to hear the person on the other end more clearly. “A-Aggie? Why’ve you called me?”

“Being your best friend and all--,” I heard Aggie sniff, probably meaning that she was sitting at home, staring out of her Cannock window, crying to herself, which, by me thinking that made me scratch my head and sigh.

“—stop, I’ve heard enough from everyone else, okay, I don’t need to be butchered anymore, I’ve only been gone for five days!” I yelled, for many reasons. “Just, please, this is a bad time.”

“Well… w-when is a good time, I can call up later, I suppose,” She spoke quietly, sniffling every few seconds.

I hung my head low, shaking my head though she could not see me do it. “I – I don’t know, Aggie, I just… I’m just starting out here in America, finally having a good photography job, I’m trying to be happy, and no one really seems to understand how hard it is on your own, honestly… I – I think about you lot every day and it kills me,” I took a breath to calm myself, I felt tears burning my eyes and I just swallowed them down. “Don’t make this any harder.”

Feeling a lump in my throat, I pressed the disconnect button on my phone and looked sadly as ‘call ended’ flashed on screen, with the total time of two minutes and three seconds. I heard Wade sigh as I turned around to face him; he was scrunching up his fluffy hair. “That was weird.”

“What?” I asked, frowning, not moving closer to him in case hormones took control again. “The call or--.”

“Both, I guess, I – er… for the safety of our jobs let’s just… keep this under the rug, okay?” He pleaded, lifting his sunglasses from his head and putting them on the bridge of his nose, despite the fact it was the 13th December, and snow was predicted to fall anytime soon.

Ah, the magic of snow, the way it lays a blanket over everything and turns it into a dazzling stage which people slip upon on. It covers the ugly, makes everything and everyone seem special.

It started to snow just as we walked past the Blue Note in Greenwich Village, right at the same time Wade’s phone started to ring. He excused himself and shuffled along the side walk just far enough so I couldn’t eavesdrop.

I looked up to the Blue Note, taking in the all the signs about new jazz bands that were playing soon, being suddenly reminded of Jasmine, not that she liked jazz, just that she picked out ‘Jaz’ as a nickname for herself.

I sighed, I looked into things too deeply at times, wishing I didn’t have to think of such stupid things like a friend that now probably hates me for moving countries without forewarning

When Wade started walking back, I kind of dreaded it, I mean, we just had a really awkward moment and I didn’t know how to get past that. “That was Tré – apparently Billie in hospital.”

My eyes widened as I put my hand to my mouth. “What?! Oh my God! Is he going to be alright?” The feeling of someone like Billie being hurt made my stomach churn so badly.

“He’s fine, and awake, and being discharged later today, so don’t worry about it,” Wade smiled, putting his arm around me so we’d keep moving. He’d obviously put the previous encounter into the back of his head. “So, the Blue Note?”

“Yeah, a jazz club, yawn,” I laughed as we started walking down the street in sync with our footwork. As we walked I just took in the buildings, not really paying attention to anything Wade was telling me. I looked up to the clouded sky, watching the snowflakes tumble down to Earth so majestically. Oh how I wish I was a snowflake, right now. Flying through the air, feeling special, feeling like one in a million.

“—and you’re not even listening are you?” Wade said, pushing me a little to grab my attention.

I looked to him and burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry! I was just being pensive, that’s all,” I threw my hands deep inside the pockets of my felt black coat, whilst looking down to my high heeled shoes. Why did I wear a business suit? The shoes were murdering my feet. Especially since the snow was making me slip all the way down the street. “The snows getting pretty heavy… I think we should start to head back.”

“You sure?” Wade asked me, obviously knowing how much I loved the city.

“Positive.”

***

Four days later.

Ways to Lost Weight in 10 Days...

Nope.

I Woke Up In A Morgue!

I groaned loudly, throwing the magazine down to the floor. I would normally spend time reading the magazine, but honestly, I didn’t feel like it – it didn’t really cheer me up. God, y’know some people would kill to be staying in a hotel in Oakland, California, where the view is so amazing you can see the golden gate bridge, but I had the NYC blues at the moment. I wanted to look outside and see the Chrysler building.

I craned my neck down and cocked it to the side to see the article the magazine was splaying in front of me. It talked about marital blues for the lead singer, Billie, and of course marital heaven for bass player, Mike, since he had gotten engaged to his now fiancée Brittany. Tré was also featured, but as I read on my eyes grew wider…

Oh my dear Lord.

I rushed to my telephone that was resting on the hotel bed stand and dialled up Tré’s number as fast as I could, after three rings he finally picked up. “Tré you have to look in the OK! magazine!” I rushed out, my words all sounding like on big blurry sentence.

After a short pause I heard some rustling and then finally he answered me. “Yeah, I know, we make a cute couple, huh?”

I looked down to the picture of me and Tré just simply strolling along with the rest of the band on the beach. I narrowed my eyes, wishing Tré was there to feel my evil glare. “No – no way! Tré, what about your nurse girlfriend, Stevie?”

“I’m only kidding,” He chuckled. “Hey, I hope Billie doesn’t find this, what with his marital depressing suicide stuff they gracefully described it as.”

I scanned over the magazine, my fingers tracing the words. I scrunched up my face for a second before sighing and letting my eyes rest and focus on a picture of Billie, smiling, and genuinely looking happy, though the magazine described him as ‘crumbling away on the interior, but trying to keep it together on the exterior’ it made me roll my eyes, Billie seemed really… okay recently. “He’s going to find someone better – much better, I know it.”

I heard Tré sort of “smile” you know when you can tell? Well I could now. “You’re a good friend, y’know that, right? I hope you stick around for awhile,” He said, causing me to blush, even if I was in the privacy of my own guest room.

“Thank you,” I replied, shyly, laughing a bit. “You haven’t seen the other side of me though,” I didn’t mean to make it sound so bitter, or horny, depending on how you looked at it, but when talking to Tré – the words rolled out of my mouth like a rollercoaster ride.

“Do I want to?”

“No,” I replied, quickly, and then I burst out laughing again, almost to take the tension out of the conversation. “So, do you need any help?” I almost face palmed, mainly because why would I even ask that? Polite, Jenni, you are being very polite.

“Actually I do, I’m all tied up with Stevie, if you know what I mean--,”

“—Tré that’s gross,” I groaned, cutting him off being he carried on.

“Let me finish!” He pleaded, sounding like a little kid wanting the highest price toy in the shop. “Okay so, Mike is busy with Brittany and well… I need you to go out with Billie… like just for a walk, nothing special… or even a bar.”

My eyes widened, and my breath became quicker. “W-what? L-Like a date? Tré are you CRAZY?! He’s married.”

“Adie cheated on him,” Tré sighed, I felt the pain in his voice, he really did care for his best friend.

I nearly dropped the phone, at this point, though. I mean I know there were rumours, but this was cemented now and it made my stomach do somersaults. Is romance and love dead now or something? I don’t know anyone in a long loving relationship, and it was heartbreaking to think like that.

There was really no hope left… had Cupid died?

I sighed and then just made an ‘oh’ noise. I didn’t even express my whole view on the day that Cupid died, I just kept quiet and solemn, well really, it’s all I could get out at the moment, I was still in shock, but when I finally piped up enough courage, I immediately felt nervous. “Sure… I-I’ll help him, anything for a friend.”

After putting down the phone, I exhaled deeply and rubbed my forehead, right, a bar, he likes drinking right? Right!

I walked into the bathroom in the suite and took a shower, I hopped out 10 minutes later, drying myself off whilst shuddering myself to a near death. I waltzed into my room, wondering what the hell to wear; finally I managed to pick out a simple black dress and matched it with a brown belt around my waist.

I put on makeup – but I didn’t over do it. This was to cheer him up, not to turn him on. Wait... what if Billie Joe... didn't want to go out?

I sighed and settled down the black bottle of eyeliner onto the marbled surface of the bathroom counter.

I remember all those angst filled years I’d stare into the mirror and hate what I saw, but failed to do anything about it. Once I learned I had to help myself and learn to appreciate others before anything else, it was easy for a makeover, outside and within myself. I gave my reflection a half laugh before turned around and grabbing my purse.

I made the short journey to Billie’s apartment, as I took a cab ride there. I paid my fare to the cab driver, but remained seated inside. I rolled my eyes and stared out the window; it was raining oh so much, and I didn’t even bring an umbrella.

I got a quirk of the eyebrow from the cab driver, as to signal he wanted to move on as he had been paid now. I bit my lip and grasped the car door handle, immediately taking it off like it had scorched my hand. The cab driver let out an aggravated sigh and looked at me via his mirror. “Hey, lady, you’ve paid your fare, now get out of here.”

Groaning at the fact he was right to be impolite and kick me out of his cab, I finally managed to open the door and step out. I looked at Billie’s house and admired it, this was the first time seeing it in real life and it was quite stunning, to be honest. It wasn’t a huge mansion, but it was bigger than I could ever afford.

I clutched my purse and put it above my head for shelter as I made a quick escape for a roof over my head. Once I had reached his house I stared at his white door for awhile, contemplating whether to knock it or whether to just call another ride home and hang my head in shame. Fuck you, Tré. You dragged me into doing this for Billie.

Oh grow up, you’re both responsible adults. Just show him what it’s like for a good time out… make him forget his blues!

I rolled my eyes and hesitantly knocked his front door a few times. My teeth started to clatter and it was the first time since I had gotten out of the cab that I had realised how cold it was standing outside with just a simple dress on. I crossed my arms in seek of warmth as I started to grow impatient.

Not being able to stand the cold much longer, I knocked the door and rang the bell daringly. I pressed my ear to the door to hear what the chime was, but I couldn’t hear. He probably has good sound proof doors… or a broken door chime.

My mind was racing… just thinking of how in a few moments I was going to be the most embarrassed person in California. With my ear for some strange reason still stuck to the door, I heard rustling on the other side; like a lock being opened. I wasn’t that fast with my reactions though – the door shot right open after that, causing me to lose my balance and stumble into Billie.

Award for the most embarrassed person in California goes to Jennifer Walker!

“Oh… o-oh my God… I’m s-so sorry,” I stumbled over my words; becoming as red as a boiled lobster. This was a great way to start off a night out… I was as nervous as hell before, and now the embarrassment was unbearable, I just felt like crawling into the bush besides Billie’s house and crying my heart out, but something in Billie’s eyes calmed me, and so I just smiled and then took my hair loosely behind my ear. “Do you want to go to a bar or something?”

The calm notion in his eyes had faded as he looked away and nervously scratched his head. “I don’t really feel up to it… you know?”

I just nodded and scrunched up my face. “Sure, I know so er… I’ll see you around?” I faked a smile, despite feeling like my lunch and breakfast were going to rush up and surprise Billie. I waved a little before turning around, wondering where the heck to go to now since it was still raining like hell.

“Jen!” I heard Billie call out just as I was about to step onto the concrete pavement. I turned on my heel and look to see him signalling for me to come back. I sighed, sort of wishing he had done that before I had gotten wetter. I walked a quick pace back to his door, he opened it and let me in. “Come in, I’ll get you a towel,” He chuckled, obviously noting how I looked like a drown rat.

“Thank you,” I said quietly, whilst shivering, as he wrapped the towel around me. I smiled at how nice he was being to me, despite his whole rock star-tattooed image. I shuddered as I rubbed Billie’s towel up and down my arms to get warmer.

Billie smirked and then led me into his living room. “Take a seat, I’ll make you a warm drink…. what do you like?”

I just shrugged back at him in reply. “…anything but tea.”

“You don’t like tea?” He asked, his eyes wide open in shock horror surprise.

I put my hand over my mouth to stop my laughing too loudly. “What? It doesn’t fit my stereotype? I have the accent… not a big fan of the life style.”

“Sorry,” He apologised, putting his hand on my shoulder and then patting it. He then left to go to his kitchen, without actually getting an answer to what I wanted. After a few short moments, Billie walked in sighing and shaking his head. “Do you want to go to the store with me?”

"Dressed like this?" I said pointing to my outfit.

"Sure!" He smiled; I rolled my eyes and nodded slowly.

"Okay then, let's go, I need some milk and sugar, apparently," Billie chuckled, and grabbed his coat off his coat hook. We made our way outside, it was raining heavily still, I knew I should have warm something warmer, y’know, like a coat, I groaned to myself, almost feeling my face melt as the rain hit it harshly, I could feel the make-up washing away.

Billie led me to one of his cars, which happened to be a Mini Cooper. I didn’t expect him to have such a car, being a “rock God” after all; I half expected a burnt out 67 Ford Fairlane, because I heard he owned one. He honourably opened the door for me, I smiled and blushed at him, before biting my lip and bending down to get into the “mini” car, no pun intended, it really was mini.

The drive there was very solemn, and there was an awkward tension in the air. I could almost taste the silence as the pitter-patter of the rain crashed down onto the small car. I sighed, wondering how I ended up here, if I hadn’t of bought that magazine and saw the pictures then I would never have called Tré, meaning I wouldn’t be uncomfortably sitting in the same car as Billie Joe Armstrong, not to mention his heart had been shattered recently, and he’d probably rather be at home by himself crying, here I was him bugging him. Damn that magazine.

A blur of lights could be seen in the distance – in between the window wipes flashing past my eyes trying to wipe off as much rain they could in a mille second. The lights grew larger, and soon enough I could make out a sign saying 7/11, which because of my good general knowledge meant we were at the store already. “We’re here,” Billie shakily said, breaking the ice, and reading my mind in the process.

“Oh,” Was all I managed to get out, realising Billie had parked far away. On purpose? Pah! Billie isn’t evil… right? “Looks like it’s time to get wet again,” I smiled as I turned around to face Billie, who wasn’t even looking at me. I quickly turned away to look out the car window and wait for him to make the first move.

I heard rustling, and I shifted in my seat to see Billie trying to grab a rich black umbrella from his back seat. Handy. I silently laughed as he gave it me, I took it but just stared at him, mentally questioning him. “Ladies get privileges, right?” He gave me a goofy smile and turned off his engine; he took off his seat belt and hopped out his car. “Are you coming?” He asked me, as he leant down to look into his car.

“What? Oh, sorry,” I got out of my day dream and smiled, before also taking off my seat belt, and then warily opening my side of the car. I immediately put up the umbrella and ran over to Billie’s side to shield him from the rain – luckily, because of his height; I could stretch up to cover him without my arms hurting.

We walked into the brightly lit store, and I took down the umbrella, giving it a good shake as I wrapped it up and carried it by my side. Billie walked straight into the fruit isle, which was strange, since neither milk nor sugar were being sold there. I looked at all the fruit in stock, smiling at something I hadn’t even heard of before coming to the USA.

We carried on walking until a young man, with a 5’oclock shadow walked past me, eyeing me up and down and then chuckling. I frowned, and watched him walk away. I hung my head low, and then jumped as I heard footsteps nearing me, thinking it was the strange man coming back for more laughs. Instead I felt a soft touch on my chin, as the person lifted my head up. "You okay Jen?" My eyes met Billie’s deep green eyes as I sighed and picked up a peach from the nearest stand.

“Just peachy, thanks,” I replied, laughing as I held it out to Billie, who chuckled and then encouraged me to walk forward. We had to stop when a hoard of Green Day fans practically raped the poor lead singer. I didn’t know whether to cry, laugh, or just back away in terror. Amazingly, everything calmed down and all but two fans were left, but they decided not to approach us, of which I was grateful, because honestly, their screams were killing me slowly.

I then studied the two girls – they looked similar, possibly sisters. One had ginger hair, the other dark brown with red hints, the darker haired looking older and taller than the other. Since they hadn’t approached us, I figured they must be shy, but desperately wanting to meet the man I was standing with… I was now probably being envied, who’d of thought? I nudged Billie and nodded in their direction, I hesitantly grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the two shy girls, who just looked even more nervous standing so close to him.

“Hey, girls,” Billie started with, obviously sensing their nerves, and trying to ease them up with a common conversation. “Want a picture and autograph? …geez that sounds big headed.”

The two girls giggled, they seemed to be more at ease, though their faces were still bright pink. I smiled at them when they glanced to me for a second, their attention being devoted to Billie 99% of the time. “S-Sure,” The oldest spoke up. “My names Tessa… t-this is my younger sister Morgan… I’m twenty, she’s eighteen… erm… we’re big f-fans,” She nervously said, stuttering as much as someone with… well… a stutter.

Billie signed their things, and I happily took a picture of all three of them – my photography skills finally being put to good use. The girls looked so disappointed to leave that I concocted a plan. “Hey… erm… wanna shop with us?” I asked them, and watched their faces turn into true shock, once they had gotten over the fact they both nodded and smiled at me.

“Hey, what’s your name?” The youngest, Morgan asked.

“Jennifer,” I smiled at her as we walked side by side, following Tessa and Billie who were happily walking ahead of us talking about something completely different. “So, you don’t look eighteen.”

“A lot of people tell me that,” She giggled, putting her hand to her mouth and then flicking her long wavy hair over her shoulders. “So, what do you do? I-I mean… how do you know Billie? I-I’m sorry I must seem so rude to ask!” Morgan put her hand over her mouth again, and this time I just giggled at her.

“I am a photographer for a company that are currently doing a mass project for American Idiot, the branch moved to California recently, so I moved close to the band and I guess you can say I’m sort of friends with Tré, so that’s how I got here.”

There was a moment of silence, before Morgan let out an ‘oh’ sound and putting her finger on her chin. “But you have an English accent…” The poor girl looked utterly confused, so I just raised my eyebrow at her. She obviously didn’t get it.

“I’m from England, I moved over a few weeks ago,” I stated as she nodded her head in reply. “It was like a once in a life time opportunity – a photography job in Manhattan… and it was my dream, too.”

“So you miss it?” She asked me, I sighed as my face dropped.

“More than anything.”

***

As we approached the counter Billie started unpacking his things from his trolley and watched the woman at the counter scan his items through – most of them not being what he came here for. He glanced to me and frowned, as I still held the peach I had picked up earlier. It was bruised from heavy handling, though. “Put it on the belt,” He offered, and I shook my head.

“I don’t want to make you pay,” Well, of course I did, but I always said that so I didn’t look greedy – I was poor, he was uber rich, yes, yes I really want him to pay. …oh forget it the peach is worth hardly anything, I can so pay for it myself! “Thanks for the offer,” I smiled at him, as his smile matched mine and he nodded.

Once we were all done with paying and packing, we met up in the car park and I held out the once again soaking umbrella for everyone to huddle under. “Do you girls have a ride home?” Billie bellowed out, rain trickling down his face from his encounter with the rain.

“We were going to call another cab,” Tessa replied, looking sad and freezing. “Remember – I said my car had broken down, and my parents don’t live here.”

“It’s true,” Morgan whispered to me, as I looked to her and sort of widened my eyes a little in response. It left me with many questions in my head, that’s for sure.

“Tell you what, since you are such devoted fans, how about I take you home in my car?” Billie offered them with a warm smile. His kindness made me like Billie a lot more, I honestly didn’t feel bad about picking up that magazine now, I was so glad to have this opportunity to see this, and meet these people. Lady luck loves me, perhaps.

We all, somehow piled into the Mini, and started off on a rainy journey. I sat at the back, talking to Morgan, whilst I let Tessa bond more with Billie Joe, they seemed to have a lot in common.

Whilst talking to Morgan, she suddenly raised her brow at me, and laughed, I was really confused, wondering what the hell I had said to her to make her laugh at me. “W-What?” I asked, worriedly.

"Why are you wearing a dress, if you only went to do some shopping?" Morgan asked me. I smiled to myself... some thing’s are just best left forgotten...

***

18th December, oh, nearly Christmas. Joy.

Morgan and I had been invited around to Billie’s – this was a good sign we were probably more than just acquaintances now. I was giddy with excitement as we both walked up Billie’s driveway. I had spent the whole night talking to Morgan via the hotels WiFi and MSN, we had a brief history of each of our lives, and a little bit of everything else was passed around, she liked the same things I did, and we both found it easy to talk to one another – despite the six year age difference, we were pretty much had the same personalities.

I learned that Morgan’s parents had abandoned their children four years ago to pursue their business careers, whilst in the midst of a dirty divorce. Tessa had moved to Chicago with her sister to live with their mother’s sister, Claire, who unfortunately died a year later. After a short pause between IMs, Morgan carried on to tell me that Tessa rented a small house in Oregon before losing the house to a planning commission to build a new mini mall. The two then moved recently, as in, a week a go down the coast to California, where Tessa found a house which just so happened to be by her favourite bands residence.

I was then persuaded that she and her sister were not stalkers.

I knocked on Billie’s door, and waiting a while for him to answer, in the meantime Morgan and I joked about, wondering what Billie was up to and making up things. ”Maybe he’s trying on women’s clothing.”

The door soon opened, and Billie appeared, looking very heterosexual in a casual t-shirt and faded dark jeans. His black hair was rugged and all over the place and it looked like he hadn’t shaved in a while. Amazing at how fast a beard can grow. “Come in girls, I have pizza!” He smirked, obviously thinking that was great food for two young women.

We both thanked Billie as we walked into his house and settled down our bags; Billie turned on his CD player and led us to his kitchen to eat pizza and root beer. “Welcome to California, girls.”

We clunked out root beers together in celebration, but were interrupted midst of it all by the door opening and someone noisily running into the kitchen. It was Tré, of course, who looked a little bit out of breath. “Y-You mean you’re having a party and you didn’t invite me?!”