Dreams of Tomorrow

Athalya rubbed her eyes and sat up in her bed, listening carefully.
Someone had knocked on her door, it had awaked her. But now that she was awake there was no sound.

Frowning, she threw the covers away and walked over to the door. She opened it and saw Joey standing behind the door, a teddy bear in his hand.

“Can I sleep with you?” he asked.

Athalya glanced at the clock from over her shoulder and realized it was just after 4am.

“What happened Joey, did you had a nightmare?” she asked, stepping aside so he would come in.

“No. I just woke up and didn’t wanted to fell back asleep in my room.” He explained shyly, while entering Lya’s room. She closed the door behind her just as Joey jumped on her bed. She smiled and went back to bed, she pulled the covers up to her chin and made herself comfortable, ready to fall back asleep. Joey snuggled close to her, holding his teddy bear.

Athalya opened her eyes and saw Joey’s small form next to her. With a small smile, she wrapped one arm around him, bringing him closer to her and kissed his forehead.

**

There was a knock on the door and since the person received no answer, it opened the door and peek its head to look in the bedroom.

Billie Joe was looking for his son, because when he woke up and went to wake up Joey, he saw the door to his room wide open and with no one inside.

His first idea was to go downstairs and see if Joey was watching TV, his second idea was to go and ask Athalya.

Needless to say that he was quite surprised when he opened the door to Athalya’s room and saw Joey in Athalya’s bed. Lya was asleep, but Joey was wide awake, looking at the young woman.

“Joey, what are you doing here?” asked Billie Joe in a whisper.

“I wanted to check if Athalya was sleeping or not.” He whispered when Billie Joe knelled down to be at his son level.

“Why wouldn’t she?” asked Billie Joe, running his hand through his son’s hair.

“Because angels do not sleep.” Replied Joey. “I saw that on TV.”

Billie Joe smiled at his son.
“Lya is an angel?” he asked.

“I think so.” Said Joey.

“I think so too…” replied Billie Joe, glancing at Athalya. She stirred in her sleep and let out a yawn.

She blinked a couple of times and opened her eyes. She felt eyes on her and when she turned around, she saw Billie Joe and Joey looking at her with smiles on their faces.

“Did I miss something?” she asked, still half asleep.

“Come on, breakfast should be ready. Today’s going to be even shorter than yesterday.” Said Billie Joe, standing up and walking to the window. He opened the curtains and opened the window just as Athalya and Joey got out of bed.

The three of them made their way to the kitchen.
Adrienne was already in the kitchen and just like Billie Joe had said, breakfast was ready.

Athalya was spacing out during breakfast, thinking back to the previous night.
During that party, she had met Anna, Billie Joe’s older sister, and Ollie, Billie Joe’s mother. Both women had been extremely nice and lovely to Athalya. Tré and Mike were here too, as well as Mike’s wife and Tré’s wife. Unfortunately she hadn’t seen them all that much and couldn’t remember their names. Then, there was Jason White and a bunch of BJ&Adie’s friends. She spent a good part of her night with Joey since he was able to stay downstairs a little longer than usual. Then, after Joey went to bed, hours after his younger brother, Athalya ended up by Billie Joe’s side and stayed there until everyone left to go back to their respective homes.

Tré had been quite surprised when Athalya refused the beer he was handing her. When he asked if she was smoking, she just glared at him. From her negative answer, he concluded that she was part of the whole ‘straightedge’ movement.
Athalya had no idea what it was and if it was an insult so she went to ask Billie Joe before going to bed.

It was weird for her to think that the next day, at this hour, she’d be in class, back in HB.
She was perfectly fine in SF and if it wasn’t for her grandparents and Jimmy, she’d gladly stay here forever. If Billie and Adrienne agreed of course.
Life seems so much easier with them. She had almost forgot about her mother’s death, almost. She just wasn’t thinking about it that much when she was here.

She snapped out of her daze when Billie Joe snapped his fingers in front of her face. He smiled at her.

“Stop day dreaming, there’s quite a lot of stuff I still have to show you before you leave.” He said. “Go get dressed.” He added and then left the table.

Athalya blinked a few times and hurriedly finished her breakfast. She helped Adrienne cleaning the table and ran upstairs to her room. She got ready as fast as possible and when she came downstairs again, Billie Joe was waiting for her in the hall, ready to leave.

“Aren’t we going to wait for Adrienne and the kids?” she asked, glancing in the direction of the kitchen.

“Nope, it’s just you and me this morning.” He said, taking her hoodie off the pattern and throwing it at her. She caught it, put in on, put her Chucks on and rushed to the kitchen.

“We’re going now. See ya later!” she said, hugging Adrienne and Joey and kissing Jakob’s forehead before rushing to Billie Joe.

She ran to the car, because he had already started the engine.

“Did you bring your camera like I told you to?” he asked, hitting the gas pedal.

“Yeap.” She said, buckling her seatbelt hurriedly and patting the small black&purple bag she had with her.

“Good. You might want to take pictures today even more than yesterday.” He said, leaving through the iron gates.

“Where are we going?” she asked, resting her hands under her tights and looking through the window worriedly.

“I’m gonna take you on a trip down memory lane.” He said. She raised an eyebrow but decided not to ask further questions.

Billie Joe seemed tense, well at least that’s how it felt to Athalya.
She zoned out, hiding herself in her own world, waiting for Billie Joe to talk to her. If he wasn’t going to talk to her during the drive, then she’d just wait until he’ll stop the car.
She lost track of time, just replying the last two days in her mind.
They were the best definition of family. If anyone ever ask her what her definition of family was, she’d simply say: “Billie Joe’s family”.

She knew she was getting attached to them, way more than she should. It wasn’t healthy for her mind to get attached so easily and so strongly to him, to them.

She absent-mindly crossed her fingers under her tights, wishing and hoping that she’d never have to regret it.

The car slowed down and came to a halt.

Athalya turned her head to look at Billie Joe but he was already out of the car. She blinked, startled, he was already on her side, opening the door for her.

“Where are we?” she asked, seeing only a regular road.

“On a street.” Was his replied as she hurriedly got out of the car, and Billie Joe locked it.

Athalya was looking at her surroundings with big, wide eyes, trying to catch every single detail. It couldn’t be just any random street if Billie Joe wanted to show her.

Billie Joe stopped and Athalya stopped by his side. He took a step closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

“I’m gonna ask again, where are we?” asked Athalya, looking at Billie Joe.

“924 Gilman Street.” He replied, his face expressionless.

“For real?” she asked, while searching for her camera in her bag. She had to take at least one picture. Tré told her that he had met Shania, Athalya’s mother, at 924 Gilman St. And from what she gathered, Shania went to see both Sweet Children and Green Day here quite a few times.

“Yeap, I thought you’d like to see the place for yourself.” He said, lightly tightening his grip around her shoulder.

“Oh my God.” Was all she managed to blurt out as she took her camera out of her bag and took a picture of the front of the building. She knew this place was very important in Green Day’s history. It was important for her to know what it looked like, since she was going to work for them in the near future.

Billie Joe took the camera from her hands.
“Go stand in front of the door. I’ll take a picture.” He said, smiling. Athalya almost ran to the door and strike a pose.

An old man was walking down the road, walking his dog. Billie Joe waved at him and asked him if he could take a picture of them.
The old man agreed and found the girl’s excitement quite amusing. He had never seen anyone so excited to be photographed in front of a creepy old building.

“Where are we going now?” asked Athalya, excitedly as they were making their way back to the car.

Billie Joe seemed more relaxed, as if he had been afraid of her reaction. He thought she was going to ask him why he had taken her there. But luckily for him, Athalya’s reaction had been far from what he had feared.

“Christie Road?” he suggested, getting in the car.

Athalya let out an excited squeal and jumped in the car, hurriedly buckling her seatbelt.

“You can’t be that excited to see a god damn road…” commented Billie Joe, starting the engine.

“Are you shitting me?” she asked, offended. “Of course I am. I mean, it’s part of Green Day’s history. Just get here already.” She said, almost jumping up&down on her seat.

“You really like Green Day that much?” he asked, glancing at her.

“Excuse me? I do not like Green Day. I fucking love them, all right. You guys are the greatest band ever, hands down. Now that I stroke your ego, can you start driving?” she asked, looking at him.

He chuckled and started driving.
It was amazing how she had open-up in the matter of two days. When he brought her here on Friday, he thought she was going to take some time to adjust and be herself. Guess he had been wrong once again.

“You know, it’s not that exciting…” he said, rubbing his neck nervously.

“Hey Billie Joe, do me a favour? Just stop talking, alright? I’ve wanted to go to SF and the bay area for years, now let me do my own Green Day pilgrimage kind of thing.” She said.

She was so excited, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

“I want to see everything in the area that is related to Green Day.” She said.

“Oh my God! Billie Joe, can you take me to 880 Studios in Oakland, and that place where you were staying when you wrote ‘Welcome to Paradise’… Oh, and that house where you shoot the video for Longview!” she said, not hiding her excitement. She was bouncing on her seat, holding the camera in her hands, close to her chest.

“How would you know about our videos?” asked Billie Joe, glancing at her and trying to stop himself from smiling. “When we first met, you said you had no idea what Green Day looked like…” he reminded her.

“Duh! After you gave me the picture, saying that you were Green Day’s singer and guitarist, I started flickering through every music channel available, waiting for one of your videos to show up.” She explained. “Yeah, crazy I know…” she ranted. “Want to know something even more crazier?” she asked, without waiting for his answer.

“I know all of your songs, in their order of appearance on your CDs. And of course, I know all of your songs by heart. Oh, and I’m still learning the exact date when your albums came out, but I’m working on it, you know…” she ranted.

If there was one thing Athalya couldn’t shut up about, it was Green Day. Most of the time, she was more of the quiet type, only speaking when it was necessary, but if you ever mentioned Green Day in her presence, her whole face would light-up and she’d start talking about them. She could talk about Green Day for hours. Telling every little detail she knew about the band. It was her mother who taught her every thing she knew about Green Day, about their history. Athalya was like a walking Green Day encyclopaedia. But it would only get worst in BJ’s presence.

“Are you serious?” asked Billie Joe. Athalya just hid her face in her hands, blushing.

“You should just lock me up in an asylium. I’m a basket case.” She said. When the words: basket case left her mouth, she uncovered her face and sighed.

“Someone I knew in France said that I was just a groupie. I gave that person a black eye.” She randomly commented. And then hid her face once again.

“I remember someone saying that my obsession with Green Day was unhealthy.” She whispered.

Billie Joe stopped smiling and turned to look at Athalya.
“What?”

“My obsession with Green Day and anything Green Day related is unhealthy. That’s what certain persons say.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s unhealthy to have a passion. I’m sure the persons who said that were just jealous because you are passionate about something, and they are just lame.” He said, before parking the car.

“You think so?” she whispered, uncovering her face.

“Yeah, I do. It’s thanks to people, I should say, fan like you that Tré, Mike and me are still able to do what we love. Without our fans, we wouldn’t be where we are now.” He said.

“Green Day is awesome, that’s why you got so many fans.” She said, unbuckling her seat belt.

“You’re our number one fan then.” He said with a smile, before getting out of the car.

“Am not. That’s stupid to say that. I mean, fans have different ways of being fan of a band, and yeah… I don’t know… I don’t really like it when people say: ‘I’m their #1 fan.’ Because, it’s not necessarily true you know, maybe someone on the other side of the world is more fan than that person, so technically, yeah…” she trailed off, frowning. “I’m losing my train of thoughts. I’m not sure I was being very really clear… Anyway, I’m a fan of your band, and you’re my favourite band.” She added, walking side by side with Billie Joe. “And that’s never going to change, ever.”

“How can you be so sure about that? Maybe when you’ll listen to our next album, you’ll think it’s shit or something…”

Athalya’s eyes widened.
“A shitty Green Day album? It doesn’t exist.”

“How can you be so sure about that?” asked Billie Joe.

“I know it. You guys are just too talented and awesome to do a shitty album.”

“Okay, okay, stop stroking my ego. You need money, is that it?” asked Billie Joe, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Wh-what?” asked Athalya, her voice raising, her eyes wide with shock. “Are you serious? You really think I was telling you all that just to have money?” she asked, completely taken aback.

The corners of BJ’s mouth twitched upwards. He tried to prevent himself from smiling, but he failed.

“Oh come on! I was joking!” he said.

Athalya ignored him, holding her chin up and accelerating her pace.

“Athalya Shania Relva.”

She froze and turned around, starring at Billie Joe with her mouth half open.

“How do you know my full name?” she asked.

“I was there the day you were born, silly.” Replied Billie Joe, rolling his eyes.

“I thought I was born in France?” she asked, frowning.

“You weren’t. You were born in Oakland, then you mother left to Ecuador, and then she went back in France.” He said.

“Really? I was born here?” she asked, excitedly.

“Not right here where we are standing, but yes, you were born in Oakland.”

“That’s so awesome. I’m part American then, right?” she asked, grabbing Billie Joe’s arm.

“Yes, you are part American. I thought you knew that…”

“I did not! That’s awesome! Thank you!” she exclaimed, before wrapping her arms around Billie Joe in a tight hug.

“Huh… you’re welcome?”

“Hold on!” she said, puling away from the hug, “You said Ecuador? Did you… Good Riddance?” she rambled. “Really?”

Billie Joe chuckled.
“Let me put that in the right order. You were asking me if I wrote Good Riddance when your mother left for Ecuador?”

Athalya nodded.

“Then I can’t answer that.” He replied.

“Wh-what?”

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“Stop taking everything I say seriously Lya. You could say that in a way I wrote Good Riddance for your mother. That’s the best answer I can give you.”

“All right…” she replied, trying to be expressionless, when she was just beaming with pride and joy.

**

“Did you guys have fun?” asked Adrienne when Athalya made her entrance in the kitchen, beaming.

“It was awesome!” said Athalya, hugging Adrienne. “I saw 924 Gilman Street, Christie Road, 880 Studios, Green Day’s old house, and we saw the Golden Gate Bridge.” She rambled. “I also saw Ollie’s old house, where BJ grew up.”

Adrienne smiled at Athalya’s excitement.
“Did you take pictures?” she asked.

“Yes, I did! With the camera my grandparents gave me for the Green Day gig. I have a few of pictures left I think… I mean, I can take a few more pictures.” Lya said. She sighed and let herself fall on one of the chair by the counter.

“I need to calm down.” She mumbled, crossing her arms on the table and then resting her head on top of them.

Adrienne chuckled and placed a glass of water next to Athalya.

“It’s not your fault, it’s Billie Joe’s. He wanted to show you so many things this morning, your head must be spinning… Do you want to lie down for a while?” asked Adrienne.

At the same moment, Billie Joe entered the kitchen.
“Lya, do you have a moment? I want to show you something…”

Athalya looked from Billie Joe to Adrienne and then got up from her chair and followed Billie Joe down to the basement, to BJ’s studio.

“All right, let me find what I’m looking for. You can sit down…” mumbled Billie Joe, looking through a pile of CDs.

Athalya spot a big red cushion in one of the corner and went to sat on it.
“What are you looking for?” she asked, crossing her arms on her knees, looking at Billie Joe.

“Demo.”

“All right?” Athalya bit the inside of her cheek and waited for Billie Joe to actually found what he was looking for.

“Oh fuck it! I can’t find anything… Just fuck.” He muttered, running a hand through his dark locks. He walked over to the nearest wall and picked up one of the guitars that were hung on the wall.

“No way…” whispered Athalya, as Billie Joe sat on the armchair. He plugged the guitar to the small amp and turned to face Athalya.

“Okay, so I wanted to make you listen to some ideas of songs I had for the upcoming album you know… But since I can’t find the CD…” he said, taking a guitar pick from his pocket.

Athalya joined her hands together, as if she was going to pray, and smiled, crossing her legs underneath her as BJ started playing an unknown song.

“I'm on a sentimental journey
Into sight and sound
Of no return and no looking back or down
A consciences objector to the
War that's in my mind
Leaving in the lurch and I'm
Taking back what's mine

I'm on a mission
In the destination unknown
An expedition
In the desolation road
Where I'm a...

Castaway - going at it alone
Castaway - now I'm on my own
Castaway - going at it alone
Castaway - now I'm on my own
Lost and found, trouble bound
Castaway…”

Billie Joe stopped, and looked at Athalya, waiting for her approval.

“It’s short.” She said.

Billie Joe smiled,
“It’s only the beginning of the song.”

“Whoa, I just can’t wait to listen to the whole song. It sounds different from Nimrod.” She said.

“In a good or bad way?” asked Billie Joe.

“Very good way.” Said Athalya, nodding.

Billie Joe smiled, and started strumming on his guitar. Athalya immediately recognized the song and move to sat on the floor, at his feet.

“An other turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you were to go.” Sang Billie Joe, looking at Athalya.

“So make the best of this test and don’t ask why,
It’s not a question but a lesson learned in time.” Sang Athalya.

“It’s something unpredictable, but at the end it’s right
I hope you had the time of your life.” They both sang, smiling at each other.

**

Adrienne frowned as she had been calling Billie Joe’s name for the last 3 minutes and he still hadn’t come up from the basement. He usually always heard her.

Sighing, she finished setting the table and made her way towards the small staircase that leaded to the basement.

She opened the door and was surprised to see Billie Joe strumming on his guitar, singing with Athalya. Both of them were heavily concentrated and hadn’t noticed Adrienne standing in the room.

She waited until they were done singing “One of my lies” to make them acknowledge her presence. She walked over to Billie Joe and lightly kissed his cheek.

“Lunch is ready.”

“So soon?” asked Billie Joe, putting his guitar aside and stretching his arms above his head.

Adrienne chuckled,
“It’s already 2pm Billie.” Said Adrienne, holding out her hand to help Athalya get off the floor. Lya smiled and took it, pulling herself back on her feet.

“Already?” exclaimed both Lya and BJ, looking at each others with wide eyes.

“You still have some time ahead, your flight is tomorrow morning…” said Adrienne, pushing Billie lightly so he would climb the stairs faster instead of grumbling incoherent words about time being too fast.