Pieces of Truth

[Grace]

Billie and I tried to start planning the wedding, but we seemed to always have a conflict no matter what. I wanted the ceremony to be in a church; Billie didn't.

Billie wanted to wear white and I absolutely refused. We made a deal; no church if he wore a black suit, and we were okay with that compromise.

A lot of things had been going on though. Christmas was coming up and it was pretty hectic. I had talked Ross and Stella into doing a gig at Amoeba for New Years Eve and Billie was going to start recording soon.

And today was Tre's 21st birthday. He could finally 'drink' with us and tonight we planned on pushing him to the brink. When we went to Tre's to pick him up, we brought him his gift; new parts for the drum set he wanted to rebuild.

The three of us met up with Mike, Sarah and a bunch of their friends at Tre's favorite bar, then the party commenced.

Separating from Billie, I mingled with people I had never met, but had always heard about from Tre. They seemed to know about me too, so it was surprisingly fun.

We all cheered Tre on as he slammed twenty-one shots of tequila, sticking a half of a lime in his mouth immediately after. I noticed that Billie had disappeared after Tre did his shots, so I took the opportunity to hang out with the birthday boy.

"Tre! How's it feel to finally be the big two-one?" I asked, nursing my second Pabst Blue Ribbon in case I had to drive later. His answer was incoherent, so I figured he felt pretty good.

Closing time was approaching and I still hadn't seen Billie. I found Mike, seeing as Tre was incapacitated beyond belief.

"Have you seen the Beej?" I asked the practically sober Mike.

"Uh… I think I saw him go to the bathroom a while ago. I'll go check," he told me, walking off quickly.

The bartender was announcing last call, so I quickly ordered a Jack Daniel's, throwing it back as fast as I could.

Mike seemed to be taking forever, so I went back and into the men's restroom myself.

It was like I had walked into a party of its own. There were probably eight or nine guys in there, all taking hits off of a few joints or popping pills or drinking.

I saw Billie, who was sucking face with some guy, and I don't know if it was the whiskey or what, but I laughed. Everyone jumped at the sound of my voice and Billie pulled away from the dude.

"Gray! What brings you to a place like this?" he asked, obviously strung out on something or another.

"It's time to get outta here," I answered.

"Ohh," he nodded, suddenly grinning, "Ok! See you guys."

We went out and found Mike, who had our car keys.

"Can I drive, oh Master of the Sobriety Test?" I asked, keeping a hold on one of Billie's belt loops so he wouldn't wander off.

"Yeah. Just be careful," Mike told me, handing over the keys.

Walking outside, an old, white El Camino drove by, catching Billie's attention and so he began to sing, or well, shout at the top of his lungs.

"El Camino, El El Camino. El Camino, El El Camino. The front looks like a car, the back looks like a truck. The front is where we kiss, the back is where we…"

"Billie Joe!" I interrupted and he looked at me with a childish smirk.

"El Camino, El El Camino. El Camino, El El Camino!" he finished his little song.

"Come on, let's get you home," I laughed.

Billie Joe didn't fall asleep until 7 a.m., so neither did I.
I had no idea what he was on, but it sure as hell got him all wound up. Knowing that I had finals to study for, I didn't sleep for very long. I was up by noon, in my little office with the door shut and a huge cup of coffee. I only had two more finals, then I was off on winter break for five weeks.

Around four, Billie came into the room looking like a hot mess. He sat on the futon, rubbing his face while he groaned miserably.

"Well good morning," I greeted, "What the fuck did you do last night?"

"I don't even know," he shook his head, "I'm pretty sure it was coke. What did I do?"

"Let's see. You made out with some dude, caused a scene when we left, then came home and ate basically everything you could get your hands on. Wait. Coke as in cocaine?"

"Yeah. The guys I was with offered, and who am I to turn something down?" Billie shrugged, then looked up at me, "Unless I should have turned it down.."

"No! I mean. Well, doing coke in a bar's bathroom is a little sketchy," I laughed, "I'd feel better if you did it somewhere familiar, you know?"

'Yeah, I get it," he nodded, seeing my point, "Tre had a good time though, right?"

"Oh please. He had a blast! He's probably still drunk!' I smiled, closing my boring textbook.

"You done studying for today?" Billie asked hopefully as I shrugged.

"For now. I won't get much done with you here!"

Right after I finished my last final, Billie and I went to work planning our big day. We hit a stride and seemed to agree on nearly everything; flowers, colours, guests, seating and even a cake.

My first day at work after taking time off for my finals, I was hounded by my female coworkers, who had immediately noticed my ring. Basically everybody and their brother knew Billie and I were together thanks to his constant visits and that magazine article, so it wasn't a shock when they found out we were engaged.

Stella and I had been talking about what I should get Billie for Christmas because he was becoming increasingly difficult to shop for. We actually had a real tree this year, decorated to the point of it probably being a fire hazard, and Billie wanted to make the holiday a huge deal.

Ross interrupted our conversation with a vague suggestion of his own.

"So what do you give a rockstar who does whatever he wants?" he asked.

"That's what we're figuring out, dumb ass," Stella laughed.

"Something that he can't get now that he's on track to being a huge star," the clever man told us, "Make him feel like Billie Joe the man, not Billie the punk rocker."

"But that's who he is! He always has been," I told Ross.

"Ace, you know Billie hasn't always been the way he is now," Stella told me.

"Trust me. I've known him for the majority of his life. He's always been like this." It was weird that they were saying this; they barely knew Billie at all.

Christmas came quickly, and Billie and I swapped gifts and watched Christmas Vacation. We had Mike, Sarah and Tre over for dinner as well.

After our huge meal, Sarah and I went upstairs to one of the guest rooms and chilled while the guys did their thing.

"So what did Billie get you?" Sarah asked.

Mike had gotten her a charm bracelet that I adored.

"He got me some CDs and stuff, then gave me one of his credit cards and told me to buy the wedding dress of my dreams," I smiled.

"That's awesome! I was planning on taking you dress shopping tomorrow in the city."

"Sweet! We have to call Ollie though. I want her to be there."

"We can do that," Sarah nodded.

When the three went home, I called Ollie and she was beyond excited to go shopping tomorrow. I got off the phone and went looking for Billie. He was at his desk in the basement, rifling through bills and double checking his calculator.

"Whatcha up to?" I asked, making him jump.

"I-uh. Nothing. Just going through the bills," he answered.

"Then why do you seem so stressed?"

"I'm not!" he said defensively, but I could see through him.

"No. Tell me what's got you so flustered."

"I think I'm broke," Billie finally admitted, "Not that it matters, you know? I just want to be able to treat you the way you deserve to be treated."

"Oh Billie. You know that I don't care about stuff like that. Money isn't important to me. We lived in that gnarly apartment with whatever we could scrape together, and we were totally happy," I said as I sat on the floor.

"I hated having to make you live there. You deserved so much better… It killed me, not being able to give that to you!" he was extremely frustrated by now, his face was bright red.

"Remember when you guys would play gigs and I would be practically the only person there?" I asked calmly.

"Yeah, I do… You always kept saying that one day we'd be playing sold out stadiums," he nodded.

"Every gig I tried to bring as many people as I could, because I knew you deserved more than playing an empty bar. This is a two way street."

"I just need to figure this shit out," he sighed.

"Let me take a look," I told him, making him get out of the chair, "I am almost a business major, you know."

"Shut up, smart ass," he laughed as I sat down.

Looking over all of the bills, I ran through and balanced the checkbook.

"Okay. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to pay whatever needs to be paid. That's that. I'll get my dad to buy my dress if I find one tomorrow and you can reimburse him later if you want to."

"Which I will, I promise," Billie told me. He hated owing people anything, whether it was a five dollar bill or a thousand dollars.

"Please try not to worry. I know you will, but it will all work out," I reassured him.

"Grace, I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything. Focus on recording your album in a few weeks and everything will go from there."

"You're so fucking optimistic. It makes me sick sometimes," Billie grinned.

"Um, sorry?" I didn't know what he wanted me to say.

"I really appreciate you helping me out," he told me again as I was practicing for my upcoming show.

"It's seriously no big deal! W'ere gonna be making the 'for richer or poorer' vows soon, so why not start a little early?" I shrugged.

"I promise it won't be like this forever." Billie was trying to be optimistic too, I could tell.

"If you were still bussing tables at Rod's and playing empty gigs, I'd love you just as much as I do now. Don't worry about anything," I smiled, strumming a pretty chord and Billie mimicked the same chord with his guitar, initiating a game.