Pieces of Truth

I got off work and left Amoeba around ten, then headed back to the apartment I called home for some reading for my class I had the next day.

I took a break around 11:30 for a dinner of leftover macaroni and cheese.

Midnight came and passed, and it was 1:45 when I heard screaming and yelling outside of my window.
I groaned, shutting my book and getting up, heading out onto our little balcony patio.

As per usual, a group of people; mostly guys, occupied the complex's hot tub below. Nothing totally out of the ordinary. It had been a while since I had heard them though. It was always the same guys, I could tell.

"Could you shut up!?! It's two in the morning!" I yelled down at the people, leaning over the railing.

"How about you get the stick out of your ass and go back inside, bitch!" A guy yelled back at me.

"How about you come up here and say that to my face, fucker! 4-D, see you here!" I yelled, turning on my heel and returning inside the apartment, pulling the sliding glass door closed behind me.

Twenty minutes passed, and I heard a harsh knock on the door.

"Is this where the bitch lives?" the voice called angrily.

"So, you decided not to be a chicken and come up to try and call me out," I wore a smirk as I opened the door, but that smirk quickly vanished when I saw Billie Joe Armstrong standing in the doorway.

"Grace?" he asked, his angry tone disappeared as his voice cracked.

"I'm sorry," I stuttered, "You have the wrong person. My name is Elle."

I quickly tried to close the door, but something someone stopped me from doing so.

"Get out!" I yelped, "leave me alone!"

"No. I'm not going anywhere," Billie yelled back, pushing on the door and making his way inside.

I stepped back as the door flung open and Billie came in, closing the door behind him.

"You.. You need to leave right now," I said, staring at the ground rather than the man who had broken my heart.

"Grace, look at me," he said softly, and I brought my eyes to up to meet his longing, lonely green ones.

"Have you been living here this whole time?"

I nodded.

"So the post card from Florida?"

"A lie. To keep you thinking I had gone far away."

"You've been here all along," he said angrily, but it was directed at himself rather than me.

"Yeah.."

"I knew I should have searched around town. I'm such an idiot."

"You believed what I wanted you to believe. And you need to go."

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no, as in, I'm not fucking leaving now that I've found you, Gray. I'm miserable. I'm nothing, literally wasting away without you."

"Billie Joe, I didn't want to be found. You don't get it. I'm trying to move on.. I'm taking classes at UC Berkeley. I have my job at Amoeba."

"Wait. You still work there?"

"Yeah. Tre said you never wanted to go after I left."

"You still talk to Tre and Mike?"

I nodded hesitantly, waiting for him to go off.

"I can't fucking believe them. How could they sit back and watch me suffer, then go hang out with you?!"

"Maybe you deserved to suffer for what you did to me," I spat, growing more and more irritated as each word flew from Billie's mouth, so I tried to shut him up.

"I never slept with any fucking groupies! Damn it, Grace. Why won't you believe me?!"

"I don't need or want to hear this, Billie Joe," I said as I ran a hand through my hair.

"I'm pretty sure you do," he shot back, and I glared at him from my spot near the kitchen.

"You don't know what I want."

"But I know what I need," he pleaded with me.

"And what exactly do you need? And don't say 'you' because that won't fly."

"I need you to hear me out. You never stopped to listen to my side of the story.. You just assumed what Tre said was true and acted on instinct.'

"I couldn't stick around to listen to you try and explain yourself. I was too shocked and hurt, so I wasn't exactly gonna have a heart to heart with you."

"I think we need to have it now then," Billie said, crossing his arms over his chest.

The front door opened, and in walked my room mate, Tre, and Mike.

"Oh, fuck," Tre let out, closing the door behind the three as they came in.

"Ellie, what's going on?" Kelsey asked, and I shot her a glare.

"I don't know. You brought them here! And my name isn't Ellie, it's Grace."

"I can't believe you guys fucking knew she was here and didn't tell me! We're down in those hot tubs all
the fucking time, and you didn't mention it once!" Billie growled at Tre and Mike.

"We didn't know she was here," Mike tried, but Billie wouldn't have it.

"You two knew she wasn't on the other side of the country! You knew she was at Amoeba while I was in
that warehouse slowly dying."

I watched this scene play out, and I could see Billie was fuming; if Mike or Tre said something wrong, he'd probably start throwing punches.

"Stop this right now. You three," I pointed to Kelsey, Tre and Mike, "are going to stay here. Billie Joe and I are gonna go for a walk. Let me go put shoes on. Billie, you go wait in the hall so you don't try to kill your best friends."

Billie Joe nodded, knowing not to test my patience and stepped into the hallway.

I went into my room, picking up my Chuck Taylors and sitting on my bed.

"Ellie-- Grace. I'm so sorry," Kelsey apologized when she came in my room.

I ignored her as I pulled on my shoes.

"I didn't mean for this to happen.."

"Then why did you bring them here?"

"I zoned out and they wanted to hang, so I said we had a hot tub, and they knew it was the Foxboro place, so I said yeah."

"I bet I can make a run for it. Billie won't even know what hit him. I'll take the stairs, get in my car and just drive."

"Running away from your problems isn't going to solve them."

"It'll prolong my having to face them though," I finished as I tied the second shoe and got up, grabbing my car keys and shoving them into my pocket.

"I'll see you later," I said to Kelsey, then waved to Mike and Tre.

"Good luck," Mike told me, and I smiled meekly.

"Make yourselves at home," I said before quietly opening the door.

I peeked out and saw Billie pacing down the hall, his back facing me.

So I crept out into the hall, gently pulling the door closed, and I began to speed walk down the hall, towards the stairs and away from Billie.

"Grace?" I heard as I reached the top of the stairs and I took off running, trying to tune out Billie's following footsteps.

I ran down four flights of stairs and got outside of the building then kept running, ignoring my car.
I had gotten about two hundred feet away when I heard Billie calling my name, but I didn't look back. I knew I could outrun him; he was an avid cigarette smoker, which fucked with his lungs, shortening his distance.

But when I heard the footsteps increase, I tried to pick up my pace.

I groaned, trying to fight the searing pain now in my stomach, forcing me to double over. I stopped moving, leaning one of my hands against the wall and throwing up.

Guess my body couldn't handle running a four minute mile.

I leaned over to hurl again, but I stumbled backwards and fell into a pair of familiar arms.

"You're gonna be ok, Grace. I promise," Billie lulled, stroking my hair as he held onto me, keeping me steady as I caught my breath.