To know you is to hate you.

It was 5am on a Friday morning when I got the phone call. As expected I had been asleep in my bunk on the tour bus. Tre was snoring on the bed above mine and Jason was asleep in front of the television. But Billie Joe’s bed lay empty across from me.

I searched for the cell through my tangled sheets and put it to my ear. I was expecting to hear my best friend’s cheerful voice but I was rather surprised to hear that of a woman’s; a woman who definitely wasn’t Brittney or Adie.

“Is this Mike?” my name was said carefully as if she wasn’t sure of it.

“Yeah.” I rubbed at my eyes with my knuckles, “What’s up?”

“A man here has you as his ‘ICE’. He told us to call you. At least we think he said that.”

I sat up so fast that I rattled my head off the top bunk. Tre stirred and mumbled. What did she mean ‘we think’?

“B-Billie Joe. Is he okay?” I knew it was him, no one else had me as their ‘ICE’.

“He’s unconscious but he’ll be fine –“

“What happened!?” I demanded.

“If you could come down to the hospital I can explain everything to you sir.” She sounded frightened but at that moment I couldn’t care less; my best friend was laying in a god forsaken hospital alone and unconscious.

I hung up and immediately began to pull on a pair of pants and a shirt. Tre sat up in his bunk.

“What’s going on?” He yawned.

“BJ’s in the hospital. I’m going down there to see if he’s okay.”

“Shit sticks! Is he okay? What happened?”

“I don’t know. But you should stay here.”

“No fuckin way—“

“No Tre! Just stay here!” I cut him off abruptly and dashed from the room.

I lifted a set of keys from the coffee table and left before I could be questioned any further.

**************

A war was being waged between my rational brain and my imagination. One part reassured me that Billie Joe would be fine, while the other tried to convince me that he wouldn’t. It was optimism verses worst case scenario.

At the hospital, as I paced down the corridors, I debated whether to call Adi and the boys. When I was directed into Billie Joe’s room I decided it wasn’t necessary. He was sitting upright, his head wrapped in cloth bandages and talking to a young nurse. The doctor had already explained to me that he had to receive ten stitches on his temple and that he could be rather confused at times. However he smiled weakly at me when I entered and motioned to the chair beside his bed.

“BJ are you okay?” I asked taking a seat.

“Completely. This here,” He pointed to the bandages, “Is just something I’m tryin out.”

I chuckled.

“What happened?”

“I don’t really remember. I was getting smokes at a store and on the way back to the bus I was jumped. Everything kinda is fuzzy after that.” He looked down at his hands and gingerly gazed back up at me.

“Shit man.” I replied quietly.

“Don’t worry about it. It could have been worse and I’m willing to bet that they’ll let me leave now. “

He stared down at his sheets; his eyes were glazed and dull. For a moment I saw nothing of my best friend and instead I saw a stranger. The green of his eyes seemed brighter than usual and his smile was crooked.

“Billie Joe?” I questioned.

“What?” He looked up at me, “Who?”

That struck me dumb. Was he playing with me?

“I said 'Billie Joe'.”

He seemed to mull it over for a moment before gently shaking his head and flashing me his pearly whites.

“Yeah, sorry dude, blacked out there for a second. Was thinkin about a large cup of coffee and reruns of X-Files on the tour bus.”

I tried to laugh, I really did, but I couldn’t help worrying about his behaviour. The doctor popped back in to inform Billie Joe that he could get dressed and discharge himself and while he did that I took the opportunity to talk to the doctor.

“Are you sure he’ll be okay?” I asked her.

“He should be, but if anything comes up you should bring him back immediately.” She checked her charts as she spoke and ‘hmm’ed to herself.

“We’re actually leaving today. We’re in a band and right now we’re on tour –“

“Well I am afraid that Mr Armstrong will have to take it easy for a few days.”

Lucky for him we weren’t actually playing for another few days, it was mostly travelling that would be done over the next few hours. I neglected to give her this information and simply nodded. Billie Joe joined us in the hallways fully dressed in his stripy t-shirt, jeans and converse. He ran his fingers through his hair in a vain attempted to style it.

“Make sure and put your feet up when you get home.” The doctor smiled, “I don’t want to be hearing of any more injuries.”

“Sure thing sweetheart.” He joked.

We bid her farewell and left the rowdy emergency room. Although Billie Joe was acting like his normal self, cracking jokes and chattering, I couldn’t help but get an eerie feeling from him.