Pieces of Truth

A tapping on the glass of the sound booth woke me up from my short nap and I saw Billie standing there with a smirk on his face.

"What?" I asked, holding up my hands in a shrug and he pointed to me.

"Me?" I pointed to myself, watching him nod.

"Come here," I waved him in and he sat beside me.

"Did you have a nice nap?" I asked as I ruffled his hair.

"That I did. What about you?"

"It was quite lovely," I laughed as he kissed my cheek.

"So how would you like to make me lunch, seeing as I made breakfast?"

"Ahh, that's why you're being so nice to me! Alright, I'll make lunch, since I just can't say no to that face of yours," I smiled, getting up and leading Billie upstairs.

Together we made a couple of sandwiches with some fruit, because I told him we would make pizza for dinner. We sat out on a bed sheet in the backyard with a couple of beers and ate our lunch, just enjoying the day before we wouldn't have the chance until spring.

"Hey, why don't you invite the guys over and I'll get Sarah and Kelsey and we can all make pizza tonight," I suggested, knowing we could turn this into a good time.

"Awesome! You're a smart cookie, Grace. I'll get the boys, the booze and the fun. You bring the chicks and groceries," Billie said as he shot a grape into my open mouth.

I went and picked up Kelsey then we got Sarah and hit up the grocery store. When we returned to Billie's house, Mike and Tre were there.

We got music playing and cracked some beers, and I noticed a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter that wasn't there when I left.

"Hey Billie, what is this?" I asked, setting down what we got from Vons.

"Um, it's something for after dinner," Billie answered, his cheeks flushed as he grabbed the bag.

We all gathered in the kitchen to make our own pizzas and we used literally every pan we could find, ending up with eight cookie sheet sized pizzas for the six of us. Nearly an hour after we sat down for dinner, most of it was gone and everyone was stuffed.

"Bring on the dessert!" Tre laughed, patting his full belly.

"I didn't make anything," I shrugged, "Sorry!"

"That's ok, cause I supplied the after dinner treats," Billie explained, going and heading off to get whatever.

Kelsey, Sarah and I gossiped while Tre and Mike joked around until Billie came back with the brown bag I had seen earlier.

We sat around on the living room floor and I knew what was going on as soon as Billie dumped out the contents of the bag.

"I'm gonna call it a night.. It's been fun!" I said in a cheery voice as I got up, heading into the kitchen to do the dishes.

"Start without me, guys," I heard Billie, then I heard him come up beside me.

"Grace what's got you so freaked out?"

"I know what's going on," I answered, scrubbing the pans.

"Yeah it's some good shit. I figured we'd all have a good joint or two after a good dinner."

"I don't really want to be doing any drugs right now. Sorry," I said simply, trying to give him a hint.

"Oh, cause of your brother?" he finally asked and I nodded.

"And don't tell me it's not my fault, because I know. I don't know why, but I feel like I shouldn't be doing them right now," I tried to explain.

"Well it's up to you. Do you wanna go to bed then?"

"Once I finish these I think I might go mess around in the basement. Is that cool?"

"Totally! Do whatever," he smiled, "As long as you're ok."

"I'm fine," I nodded, making a face as he kissed my forehead before returning to the living room.

I got all of the dishes done quickly, then slipped downstairs into the basement, grabbing a guitar and heading into the sound booth. I had always wanted to record something, but never had the chance. Now was my opportunity to try things out.

After turning on all of the equipment I needed, I sat in the booth and played a few songs I had written a long time ago, laughing every time I messed up. I finally got a few that I didn't mess up on, then I decided to end my little session with a few words for Billie.

"Thanks for letting me use your studio, Beej. I hope you enjoy this little piece of myself, because it's just for you. Love ya!"

I clicked off the recording stuff then fiddled around on the drums before laying down on the surprisingly comfortable decorative sofa.

I guess I had fallen asleep because I was woken up rudely by a ridiculously high Billie Joe.

"Gracee! Get uppp. Come do something with us!" he whined, his reddened, bloodshot eyes watching me intently.

"No, Billie. I'm tired and want to sleep," I said, trying to get him to go away.

"Please?" he begged, grabbing my hand and pulling me up the stairs. When I got to the main floor, I noticed that no one else was up.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"Shhh," Billie said, holding his free hand to my lips, leading me up to his bedroom.

He shut the door behind us, attacking my mouth with his, somehow managing to push me back onto the bed.

"What the fuck, Billie?" I yelped, inching away from him.

"Everyone went to sleep.. I'm horny. Come on, nobody will even notice" he breathed, trying to tug off my pants.

"No, you're fucking strung out. Get the hell off of me!" I used all of my strength, rolling him off me and jumping up.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked as I headed for the door.

"Home. You're out of control," I told him, hurrying downstairs and out of the house before he could stop me.

The next day, I swear Billie called thirty times and I didn't pick up once. Kelsey on the other hand decided to answer the phone and tell him to stop.

"No, she obviously isn't here, Billie!" my friend told me through the phone, "Ok, yeah. She is.. But she doesn't want to talk to you."

Kelsey hung up then decided to ask me why I was giving him the cold shoulder. So I told her about last night and she was shocked.

"I didn't think he was like that..."

"Yeah, well at least you didn't have to find out first hand," I said, grabbing an apple off of the counter and plopping down on our couch.

Kels left for work a while later and not even five minutes passed before a knock hit the door.

"Did you forget your keys again?" I asked with a laugh as I opened the door, expecting to see my clumsy room mate.

Instead of the petite blond girl, the petite, bleach blond Billie Joe was standing there.

"Oh," I said casually, "Hi."

"Can I come in?" he asked cautiously. It had been a long time since we've been in a fight.

"I guess," I shrugged and he walked inside the apartment.

"Look, I'm sorry about last night.. I know what I did when everyone else was asleep, and I was way out of line," he apologized sincerely.

"You can say that again!"

"In my defense though, I wasn't thinking straight. You know I was high.."

"That shouldn't be an excuse. You've never done anything like that after a few joints. Something was different."

I couldn't put my finger on what though.

"Ok, yeah. This time I didn't have just pot. I had something a little stronger too," he admitted.

"Seriously? Billie.. You know how I feel about drugs and that shit right now," I told him in my serious, concerned voice.

I wasn't about to have him turn into Jeff or Kurt or Sid Vicious for that matter.

"Yeah, but that doesn't apply to how I feel about it. You do your thing and I do mine," he reasoned.

"Well you go do 'your thing' away from me then, if you can't respect my choice," I said blatantly, watching a surprised look hit his face.

"Grace.."

"No! I really don't want to be around drugs, and since you won't lay off, I don't really want to be around you. Sorry but that's just how it's gonna be for right now."

"Just because your brother was killed for drug money doesn't mean it's the drugs' fault!" Billie exclaimed, practically shouting at me, "It's his fault because he was too dumb to pay his dealer!"

"And you know all about that, huh, Two Dollar Bill?" I sneered.