False Pretense

Ten minutes later Traci and I were sitting at the kitchen table with two newly opened Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles and a bag of potato chips. I glanced out the slider door and saw Blondie sitting on the railing of the deck talking to Mike.

"Who is that?" I asked, pointing their way.

"Who? Oh, that's Billie Joe."

"Why is he such an asshole?" I took a sip of my drink and Traci laughed, popping a chip into her mouth.

"He's been having anger issues lately. He had a girlfriend, Ashley, and he thought he had found the perfect couple. Only to find out she was cheating on him from the beginning and it's left him hurting real bad." Her explanation caused me to glance back out the door. He was laughing and nursing the same Corona, and at that second, he didn't seem too bad. In fact, something struck my interest. He had different emotions written all over him.

Anger. Distraught. And, well, slutty. Like a boy who'd been around.

"Oh, god, here comes Ashley." Traci said suddenly, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look toward the living room and saw a girl heading straight for the kitchen.

"What's the big deal?" I kept my eyes at the girl approaching, but heard Traci sigh.

"The big deal is, is Billie Joe sees her he's going to heat up and become angry. And he's mellow right now, now that's he's high." I laughed and stood up, cutting off Ashley's trail for the back deck.

"Hi, I'm the bartender." I smiled and she raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I'm the bartender. I get the drinks." I felt Traci's eyes on me and as I glanced back at her, I could tell she was stifling a laugh.

"Well, could I get a Budlight?"

"Err, no." She cocked her head to the side and looked me up and down; I could tell she was angry with me.

"No?" Did she not hear me?

"Yep, this is my right to refuse service to anyone." I placed my hands on her right arm and turned back to the direction of the living room and gave her a little shove. I heard her scoff as she looked back at me but continued to walk away.

I sat back down at the table and took a big sip of my drink. Traci was smiling at me and my head was starting to spin.

"What did you just do there?"

"Well, Billie seems like a real big asshole, which I got to witness first hand. So, I didn't want him to become as angry as you said he would if he saw her." She nodded but that sly smile wouldn't leave her lips.

"What was that?" I turned in my seat and saw Billie with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What was what?" Traci asked before I could. Billie walked and stood in front of me, his breathing seemed to be increasing.

"Who do you think you are, my fucking bodyguard?"

"What? No? I just didn't want to get you upset! I was trying to do you a favor!" Billie turned to Traci now, his face growing red.

"Did you tell her my fucking business?" Traci was speechless, it was obvious she was used to his abuse, but I wasn't going to stand for it. I stood up and he looked back at me; his eyes dark.

"Don't you fucking yell at her! Who do you think you are, Mr. Righteous? I don't know why you're getting so upset! I just trying to do a nice thing!"

"Nice? You're new here, Sassy, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't know how simple courtesy works. You have no right to try and keep my ex-girlfriend and I away from each other!"

"Wow."

"What?"

"She's messed you up bad! You can't move on from a fucking relationship? I don't even want to know what else you haven't moved on from in your past." His face seemed to turn into stone after I said that. His eyes grew ever more dark and narrowed as he stared at me.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?! You have no right to come in here and just jump to fucking conclusions! You don't know shit, you fucking ignorant asshole!" He was really heated now, I took a slight step backwards and shut my eyes tight.

When nothing happened, and nobody spoke, I opened my eyes slowly and saw Billie looking at me incredulously.

"Did you think I was going to hit you?" When I didn't answer he seemed to get even more angry, if that were even possible at this point.

"Well.."

"Well?! Did you think I was going to fucking HIT you?" He put a lot of emphasis on the last few words as he stared me down until I grew enough courage to look him in the eyes.

"I did." My voice was low. I watched as he took a step back and he looked up at Mike helplessly. He looked like he could actually fucking cry.

"Mike, lets fucking play now." He turned and made his way through the crowd in the living room, actually shoving somebody out of his way.

Mike seemed reluctant to leave, he looked at Traci who nodded and he walked after his friend. Traci was at my side seconds later, pulling me into a hug. The look on his face wouldn't leave my mind. I closed my eyes as I hugged her, feeling a rush of guilt run through me and I couldn't help but burst into tears.

~ ~ ~

I watched with glassy eyes as people started filling up the garage. That bitch had made me feel weak. Somehow, just by yelling at each, she had knocked down the walls I'd spent years building up. I shook my head as I pulled my guitar, Blue, around to my front and turned back to Tre, who nodded in approval.

"This one is called Christie Road." I grumbled into the microphone, my anger from minutes ago was still sitting in my system, waiting to come out. Hopefully playing would calm me down; that's what it usually did.

I noticed throughout our set that Traci and Kat didn't come watch us. I sort of hoped they left, I didn't want to see them, especially Kat, for the rest of the night.