Deception

Come And Get Drunk!

The front door opening loudly jarred Cassie out of her reverie. She blinked a few times and then realised that she was still crouched on the floor with tears staining her cheeks.

Tre and Mike were too busy laughing and chatting to notice, so she quickly muttered something about going to the toilet and slunk away.

“Hey, Billie, come and get drunk!” Mike called loudly.

Clearly they had started drinking on the way back.

Cassie made her way to the bathroom where she washed her face and re applied some makeup.

After a while she made her way back out to the lounge where she noticed Billie had now joined them. He was sitting on the far side of the room fiddling absently with a beer bottle. The rest of the night the only noises he made were small grunts in reply to a conversation he was clearly not hearing.

***

“Billie was quiet last night.” Tre commented as he assisted Cassie in re packing their suitcases for the flight home.

“Yeah.” Cassie agreed.

“You were quiet too, but I’m kind of getting used to that.” Tre said softly.

Cassie’s stomach dip a flip; her act was slipping.

“I’ve just been tired, you know. I’m sorry, I’ll perk up soon. It’s been a hard couple of months.”

“Are you sure that’s all it is?” Tre asked worriedly.

“Very sure, I love you. After I rest, I’ll be back to normal.” Cassie assured him.

Tre lit up every time she said those three magic words to him. It made Cassie guilty, but what could she do?

“Um, am I interrupting?” Unexpectedly, Billie appeared at the door. He was standing there looking very nervous.

Cassie looked down and pretended she was studying something very exciting on the top of the suitcase.

“Never, man. What’s up?” Tre said brightly.

“I just wanted Cassie’s expert fashion opinion on something.” Billie replied, trying to keep his voice light and casual, but to someone who knew what was going on, you could hear him straining.

“Sure.” Cassie said without tone, then followed Billie down to his room.

“I wanted to ask you one thing.” Billie whispered as he began laying out three shirts on the bed.

Cassie just nodded, and wondered about the shirts.

“I have to know if you really love Tre or if you’re some fake bitch trying to worm her way into fame. Or a married man’s pants.”

“How dare you!” Cassie hissed at him.

“Answer me.” Billie Joe demanded, handing one of the shirts to her.

“What is with the shirts?” Cassie asked, irritated.

“In case someone walks in, we have to look like we’re sorting through clothes.” Billie answered, then crossed his tattooed arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows, waiting for her answer to his original question.

“If I didn’t love Tre I wouldn’t have been with him so long. I couldn’t stand it”

“That doesn’t answer anything.”

“Yes it does. I love him. There, are you happy, you nut job.” Cassie threw the shirt as hard as she could at him but he caught it easily.

“You fucking better. If you hurt him…” Billie’s threat was cut off by his door opening.

It was Tre.

“Are you guys arguing?” He asked incredulously.

“No.” Billie Joe and Cassie answered at the same time.

“It sounded like it from outside the door.”

“Why? What did you hear?” Once again, Billie failed at keeping his voice light and casual.

“Nothing you were saying, just the voices sounded really harsh. What are you doing?”

“Picking out shirts.” Cassie was no better at acting casual in times of great stress.

“Oh. Uh, Adrienne said your phone’s off so she rang Mike’s. She wants to talk to you.” Tre said to Billie who was picking his nails nervously.

Mike came into the picture then, carrying his Blackberry at arms length.

“She’s pissed off.” Was all Mike said before handing the phone to Billie Joe.

You could hear Adrienne yelling from across the room. Billie was patiently trying to calm her down for the first ten minutes. Then he exploded. Once this happened, everyone evacuated the room to give him his privacy.

A while later, Billie Joe emerged from the bedroom clutching his two packed suitcases, ready to take them to the front door for the hotel porter to pick up. He looked tired, like he had been running a marathon.

“Whoa, what was Adrienne’s deal?” Mike asked with a slight grin on his face. By this time everyone was seated at the dining room table packed and ready to go,

“She just misses me, that’s all. Sometimes she gets a little mad I’m not around more. Joey got into trouble at school and she just wished I was there to give the kid more guidance.” Billie Joe explained of his wife’s anger.

“Just tell her to suck it.” Tre joked, gesturing to his privates and causing Cassie to slap him playfully.

“Are we ready to go?” Cassie asked, looking everyone in the eye except for Billie, who she just glanced over.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here, I’m dying to see Ramona and little Frank!” Tre jumped up from the kitchen stool he had been perched upon excitedly. “And I’ll bet anything they’re just as eager to see you. Ramona was pretty psyched when you said you would take her to get her nails done.”

“Totally.” Cassie smiled half heartedly.

***

At the airport a couple of hours later, Tre said he was going outside for a smoke and asked Billie Joe to join him. Mike said he would have a cigarette later and would stay behind to look after the non smoking Cassie.

“Good, I’m glad I’ve got you alone for a sec.” Tre began as soon as they were outside and leaning against the building.

“Did you have something you wanted to ask me?” Billie raised his eyebrows as he drew a smoke from his leather jacket.

“Yeah. Um, you know how you and Cassie were…talking…before? Well, I actually did hear a bit of what you were saying but I don’t understand.”

Billie Joe shuffled his feet uncomfortably and took a shaky drag on the cigarette, not saying a word.

“Please explain to me why you were asking Cassie if she loved me or not.”

Billie still remained silent, squinting at the sky, watching a plane take to the skies.

“Billie. Tell me, I thought I was supposed to be one of your best friends.” Tre’s voice began sounding tight and strangled.

“We are,” Billie began, slowly measuring his words. “That’s why I was making sure Cassandra is for real.”

“Why would you think that now? It’s been ten months and you’ve never been suspicious of her intentions until now. Has something happened that would make you question her?” Tre’s thoughts flicked back to how strange his girlfriend had been acting lately.

“No,” Billie lied to the man who was practically a brother to him. “Nothing has happened, we were talking about love and stuff while we were picking out a shirt for me and I just decided to ask her point blank; there was no reason for it, it was just conversation.”

“Then why were you both so tense?” Tre pressed.

Billie rolled his half smoked cigarette around using his thumb and forefinger and exhaled deeply. “We weren’t arguing, I guess we were just getting a little passionate about who we’re in love with.” It was almost the truth.

Tre seemed to be satisfied by this and smiled as he butted out his own smoke. “Thanks, Bill. You know, I’m really happy with her. I hope we go the distance.”

“I hope so too.” Billie lied once more for Tre‘s sake. He wanted nothing more than Tre and Cassie to break up so that she would be out of their lives. He had no more friendly feelings left for her since she told him she was in love with him and supposedly Tre as well.

***

Once they were back home in Oakland, the four of them said their goodbyes and went to their respective houses. Cassie had only just moved into Tre’s extravagant home three days prior to the tour beginning.

“I can’t believe we’re hardly gonna see the guys until the end of this month!” Tre slapped his hand against his forehead as they began their drive home together.

“Yeah I know, it’s crazy.” Cassie replied staring out the window, listlessly. She was thinking about how hard it was going to be to last until the 28th of the month to see him again. It was only the 14th for crying out loud!

“Are you okay, Cassie?” Tre asked.

“I’m just dandy.” She tried to smile, but couldn’t. She hated it that Billie seemed disgusted by her very presence since she told him the truth. She was already disgusted enough at herself for what she was doing.

Time was going to go by very slowly at the Cool-Walker residence.

***

“So, Cassie, my mom’s name is Lisea but Frankito’s mom’s name is Claudia. My mom says that daddy was very busy, although I don’t really get what that means?” Tre’s daughter, Ramona was chatting away to Cassie while she unpacked hers and Tre’s suitcases.

“When Lisea says your father was busy, she means that he is a very successful musician. It doesn’t matter that you and your brother have different moms. Your daddy has been through a lot and none of it is his fault.” Cassie said the last sentence more to herself than the fourteen year old girl.

“Oh, okay.” Ramona was not convinced. “Mom says a lot of other stuff too.”

“Like what?”

“Like daddy is a deadbeat dad, but I don’t know what ‘deadbeat’ means and when I asked my tutor, she said to never say that word again. Is it a bad word?” Ramona asked, starting to help unpack.

“Mona, it’s a very bad word when applied to your dad. He has done the best he could. You love him, right?”

Ramona looked affronted “Of course I love my daddy!”

“Good. Now next time your mom says something horrible about your dad, you can tell her that you think he’s doing just great with you and Frankie.”

“I will.”

After Mona had finished her serious conversation she launched into story after story about her friends. Cassie tuned out and just tried to make the appropriate noises when the time arose. The only time she listened was when Ramona talked about the two Armstrong boys.

Cassie found it especially funny when Mona told her how Joey had tried to flirt with her by telling him that both she and he were named after the band ‘The Ramones.”

“God, I miss young boys and their bad pick up lines.” Cassie laughed. She liked to imagine that that’s how a fourteen year old Billie Joe might have behaved.

“You like the stories about Joseph and Jakob.” Ramona pointed out perceptively.

“Why do you say that?” Cassie tousled the young girl’s brown hair, the same colour as Tre’s.

“You only laugh or comment when it’s about them. You don’t seem to care when I talk about Stella or Brixton.” Mona replied, referring to Mike’s children.

“I laughed when you told me how Estelle tried to shave off all little Brixton’s hair so she could tell people he was a shaved monkey!” Cassie tried to defend herself. Was she really that transparent?

“I guess…” Mona said tentatively, pushing her straight hair behind her pierced ears.

She looked at Cassie curiously for a while and Cassie’s heart started racing. What if this teenager could see right through her and expose her?

“Cassie? Do you have a crush on Joey or something?” Mona said, sticking her tongue out at the thought.

Cassie couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing hysterically. Ramona looked hurt for a second but then joined in the laughter. Cassie suspected she didn’t know what she was laughing at.

“Oh, kid, you are hilarious.” Cassie panted as she tried to steady her maniacal laughter. She should never have been concerned a mere child could uncover her secrets.

Mona stuck her tongue out again, it was like a trademark of hers, and swept out of the room.

***

The next week went by too slow for Cassie. She occupied most of her time by taking Ramona and Frankito out for shopping trips and ice cream. She also spent a lot of time thinking about going on tour with the Green day boys again and how awkward things with Billie would continue to be.

Cassie thought it was funny how the three guys didn’t have a lot to do with each other outside of work. When they were on speaking terms, Billie Joe had explained that they liked to spend as much time apart as they could when they weren’t working so that they didn’t get sick of each other and begin to bicker, as they often did during a long tour.

So Cassie had to make do with Tre and his family. Tre’s sister and parents came by that week so they could see their son before he jetted off to Europe.

Young Frankie announced to everyone that day that he hated it when his daddy went away to sing because he didn’t get to see him or Ramona until he got back because when Green Day toured, Tre’s kids had to split up and live full time with their respective mothers, rather than spend half their time together at Tre’s. Ramona echoed his sentiments saying she hated being shipped between Oakland and New York because she missed seeing Frankito.

This put a sour note on what was a perfectly lovely family get-together. Cassie was even enjoying herself until the kids’ little tantrum.

Tre spoke to her later wondering if maybe he should quit the band and be a full time father so his kids wouldn’t be split up.

Cassie encouraged him not to, saying that he can’t give up his life for them and that he’s doing the best he possibly can. She couldn’t bear the thought of Green day splitting up so that she would very rarely see Billie Joe. Maybe a few times a year for a friendly reunion? Cassie shuddered.
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Longer chapter for you guys because I haven't posted in so long.
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