Love and Conspiracy

About a week had passed and things slowly started to go back to normal. Mike stopped acting like a frightened child around me and I acted as if nothing had even happened. As for Billie and I, we kept our talking to a minimum since there was no time for us to be alone. In fact, I hardly let myself look at him because he always had this look in his eyes that made me want to melt. I forced myself to try and forget about him; to focus my attention all towards Mike, however it wasn’t completely successful.

~~~

“You ready to go?” Mike asked with a smile. I smiled and nodded back.

“Of course!”

It was the first show ever since the whole… incident. Luckily, it was at the Gilman and not another house party, though. However, that didn’t stop me from worrying.

There was a line outside the building, like always, as I met up with Jess. She smiled and gave me a big hug, not seeing me since the party.

“How have you been? I heard about what happened. Are you doing okay? How are you guys doing now?” she bombarded me with questions. I laughed as I tried to quiet her.

“I’m fine; we’re fine. I’m just trying to forget that ever happened,” I said coolly. She pursed her lips to think for a moment.

“Well, that’s good. I know Mike would never purposely do something like that to anyone. That whore on the other hand…” she drifted off.

“Oh, that reminds me. What did Tre end up doing? Is he okay with it?” I questioned.

“Of course he is! He was a little bummed out the first day, but after we got him drunk and had him check out hot girls, he became his pervy self again,” she said with a laugh, “Hey, you guys are coming over to our place after the show, right?”

“Well, I don’t see why we wouldn’t,” I joked as the line started to move forward.

“Great,” she said, wrapping her arm around me, “I missed you, girl!”

Once we got inside, I made my way to the front of the stage, wanting to get the full experience again. Jess looked shocked from my bravery.

“Ah, it’s growing on you, isn’t it?” Jess said, lightly pushing me. I smiled.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Well, you better be up for some crowd surfing then!” she yelled among the loud voices surrounding us.

“You bet your sweet ass I am!” I yelled back with a laugh.

Within another twenty minutes, the guys made their way onto the stage and the lights dimmed. Billie’s single guitar strum rung throughout the small venue.

“How you guys doing tonight?” Billie said calmly into the microphone, receiving a small response. He frowned for a moment. “I said, ‘How you guys fucking doing tonight?’!” he yelled, causing more cheers. “Are you ready for a fucking show?” The crowd couldn’t contain their excitement. He smirked and looked down at me for a brief moment, winking so subtly that no one could even notice. However, I could feel Jess look over at me. Before she could say anything though, the music started right up.

We were quickly pushed up against the barrier as a mosh-pit started not too far behind us. Jess and I jumped up and down, singing along with the lyrics as if they were our own. We were, no doubt, their biggest fans.

It wasn’t until halfway through the third song when a large guy standing behind me tapped my shoulder and pointed upwards. I excitedly nodded, giving him the ‘okay’ to pick me up and throw me above the sea of hands. From the corner of my eye, I saw both Billie and Mike smile as they got even more enthusiastic into their playing. Seconds passed and I was gently thrown to the back. Not a minute later, Jess followed.

“We’re going back up there, right?” Jess yelled.

“Hell yeah we are!” I yelled back, leading us into the tightly packed crowd.

~~~

The crowd slowly made their way out of the show once it was over. As the guys started to pack up their stuff, Jess and Chris came up to me.

“Hey, we have to go drop off a couple of his friends, but you guys are still more than welcome to come over afterwards!” Jess said happily.

“Alright, yeah! We’ll see you guys in a little bit then,” I said, waving before they left. I walked up to the stage where Mike was wrapping some cables up. “Can I help with anything?” I asked.

“Nah, I think we got it all covered; we’re almost finished,” he said, walking off the stage. I shrugged and walked outside to get some fresh air in the meantime.

I sat down on the curb for a good ten minutes before somebody walked up to me. It was a blonde, messy-haired girl that looked trashed.

“Hey… hey,” she said in a raspy voice, “Do you wanna buy some drugs?” She looked faintly familiar.

“No, thanks,” I said, shaking my head.

“Do you wanna buy some coke?” she asked me again. I looked up at her.

“No, I don’t want any. Sorry,” I answered, getting a little irritated. Her shaky hand reached up to her face and nervously scratched her cheek.

“Look, I really need some fucking money. Can you at least give me a couple of dollars so I can buy some food for the night?” she said, looking around. I heard someone come out the same door as I did. She looked up.

“Billie Joe?” she said, almost out of breath.

“Izz?” he asked, “What are you doing here?” She walked towards him.

“Oh, Billie. Take me back! I love you so much,” she said frantically trying to get close to him. He pushed her away.

“Did that guy do this to you?” he asked, more concerned as he looked at the track marks on her arm.

“You wanna buy some crack?” she said, changing the subject.

“No, Izz. What the fuck is going on?”

“So you don’t wanna any drugs?” she sounded hurt, “Ugh, fuck you Billie! You only think of yourself!” She stormed off and got into a car across the street.

“Well, that was strange,” he said, sitting next to me on the curb.

“I know; I kind of feel bad for her. Who knows what she’s gotten herself into,” I said, truthfully.

“I’m glad I’m not involved with that anymore,” he shook his head before lighting up a cigarette. “Anyways, how’d you like the show?”

“It was great, like always,” I said with a laugh. A goofy smile spread across his face as he put his arm around me.

“I saw you crowd surfing; looked like you were having the time of your life,” he said.

“I was,” I answered simply, looking up at him. He was slowly leaning down for a kiss, but someone opened the back door.

“Hey, Billie- Oh, uh… sorry. We need your help in here,” a random guy told him, avoiding eye contact with us.

“Ah, alright,” he answered, taking his arm from around me, “You should probably come with me so no more druggies start bothering you again.”

“Yeah, I suppose I should,” I said, laughing.

Once we went back inside, I wandered over to where Mike was standing. He had a distressed look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, nothing. Just felt lightheaded for a moment,” he replied. A smile spread across his face as he leaned down and kissed me. I awkwardly forced a smile once he pulled away.

“Really great show tonight,” I said as he put his arm around my waist and we watched the remaining of the people leave the venue. He lightly chuckled.

“Thanks,” he answered.

“Hey, so Jess and Chris want us to go over tonight. You wanna go?” I mentioned.

“Oh yeah, we have to take Tre home anyways, so I don’t see that being a problem.”

“Great!” I said enthusiastically.

I looked around the room to find Billie looking at me. I couldn’t help but just smile at him.