Rebel Yell

Marci was going to be out, which meant one less problem for me to worry about, whilst I went out with Cheri. It was awful for me to be so secretive around Marci, even though I wasn’t being forced to go out with Cheri, I was still excited at the prospect and that’s why I was being so grumpy around her.

I always looked good when I was out with Cheri, people would usual turn and gawk at us and I turn and kiss her to make sure everyone knew I was with her. I sighed at my brief memory, as I watched Marci get ready to go out with Debbie. She was struggling to get into a pair of fish net tights and hopped madly around the bus.

“I think you should have your hair down” Debbie was combing her hair straight in the small bus mirror, when she turned to look at her friend, distastefully, before she carried on hopping around, now tackling the art of pulling her ripped denim shorts up.

“I hate my hair down, it’s too bushy” she stopped in front of the mirror and looked at herself before rolling her eyes at her hair. “I saw this reporter today Debbie and she had lovely brown curly hair unlike mine. It is so unfair and I ask myself ‘why can’t I have my hair like that for once” she patted her hair down before throwing it up again into a tight pony tail.

“Don’t start Marci, your hair is fine and you look fine so stop playing with your t-shirt. She looks fine, doesn’t she Billie” Debbie acknowledged me, as I sat, checking out my rough stubble around my face on my bunk. I looked up to see Marci, stood with her arms out waiting for my approval.

“you look fine” I smiled at her and she sighed unrelieved at what I said. She picked up her black coat and pulled it around her.

“- you should have seen this girl though Debbie, she looked amazing” Marci turned back to Debbie who shook her head, “anyways, hey ho, lets go” she pointed her thumbs to the bus door and I decided to step down from my bunk to get myself ready to go out. The clock had just turned 5 to 11 and I knew that my date with Cheri, was nearing it’s time but instead of feeling even guiltier about leaving Marci, I was getting aroused. Dirty as it may sound, that I was being aroused by going out on a date, it wasn’t. It was instead the pure excitement and the spur of the moment type of situation I was in, that made my blood fill with adrenaline. I was going out to do this and that would be it, cleansing of my system, if you would like to see it like that.

“Bye Billie” Debbie muttered to me, bringing me out of my daydream and making me look at her as she nudged Marci outside.

“Goodbye Billie, have a good time doing whatever it is you are going to do” Marci walked back to me and kissed me tightly, shocking my nerves at her touch. I shivered slightly because I did not need any faint reminder of her, during my next few hours of bachelor hood.

She pulled away from me, her hands grabbing my arms tightly and looked at me hopefully for a glint of the Billie Joe she had back in Rhode Island. That however had disappeared; along with my own morals today and I smiled hoping to give her a glimmer of hope on her doubt about me.

“Goodbye Marci” I spoke quietly into her ear and she half smiled at me. It wasn’t even a happy smile or a smile well fitted for Marci but a shy, meek look that seemed not to even brighten up her face. Her eyes began to dip away from my own and she turned her head away from me, patting my shoulder. With that she was gone out the door, closing it quietly behind her and leaving me to collect my stuff together before going out to meet Cheri.

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It felt far to correct walking into that city Mall with Cheri at my side. People turned to stare at us both as we wondered down the glossy white mall, towards the Chinese restaurant at the end of it. I felt like a total celebrity and I embraced it as I strutted like one of those idiots you saw on a catwalk, hand in hand with Cheri.

“table for two” the old Chinese lady asked us, passing us two menus. I looked at Cheri and she nodded, doing her little super model pout.

“Illy bear, could you go sit down and I’ll come and join you, I just need to go use the lady’s room” she threw the menu at me and I nodded, watching her wonder towards the bathroom with a cute little swagger.

She was wearing a very short white dress, which highlighted her sexy, long legs that went on for ever and ever and ever and ever and

“sir, if you could follow me please” the Chinese lady held out her hand towards a two seated booth in the corner of the Chinese restaurant. It was highlighted in a red mist and a few candles were dotted around the table, with a red drape that sheltered the windows, adding to the mystery of the restaurant. “Drinks?” the lady asked and I quickly thought through what drink Cheri would want.

“A Bud and a Martini” she noted down the drinks and nodded leaving me to look around the restaurant. It was a nice place with odd bits of Chinese traditional deco that hung around the room, low enough for any tall person to hit their head on, if they weren’t careful. The rest of the room had that mist of red around it, with all the tables having white linen clothes un-splattered by the colourful Chinese food.

The restaurant was full, with different groups of people who all sat in various different parts of the room. Some occupied the small tables in the middle, whilst bigger parties took up the large booths at the other ends. I wouldn’t lie, the noise in the room was loud and people battled to get their voices to be the loudest in there, but the small booths nearest to the windows, which I was sat on, seemed to be the quietest. They seemed to be made especially for two people and as the lady returned with the drinks I scanned the low cut booths at the people who sat there.

They all seemed to be deep in conversation, their heads buried into their food and only the backs of their heads could be seen.

“Hello, I’m back” Cheri slotted herself in front of me, blocking my view of the people in front and smiled. “So then, where were we?”

“Well I got drinks but she hasn’t come to take our order yet, so I suggest we pick something” I looked down at the menu, as she picked up the Martini to drink it, her other hand grabbing mine as it rested on the table in front.

“eww, Martini” she yelped quickly and I quickly looked up to her sour face, as she placed down the glass in front of her.

“I thought you liked them?” I was concerned because I could remember so clearly that she liked Martini. I knew for a fact that she liked them because her breath, as she slept that night, stunk badly of gin and I could even remember walking past her as she slept and how it put a smile on my face every time she burped an olive breath. I could also remember the curves in her face and how her brown hair fell over her cheek bones, making some of her intakes of breath catch pieces of hair. It was also, how her eyes twitched in her sleep and her hands move crazily by her side whilst she dreamt, that made me want to sit and stare at her, even though I, myself, was overcoming my hangover. I remembered even more, that once Mike had woken up, that he too- wait, Mike was never around Cheri because he hated her.

In fact it wasn’t Cheri at all I was remembering but Marci back in Florida, after her mad night of drinking. I looked up to Cheri, who sat looking puzzled at me,

“I have never liked Martini’s- Gin is too overrated” she rolled her eyes at me and I laughed at my silly mistake but that was to be expected, as after all Marci was my girlfriend now. She smiled again at me, “what are you laughing at?” she patted my hand, “is it to do with a nice memory” she let her leg under the booth roll up my own leg and I smiled cheekily at her. I’m such a bad boyfriend…..

“No, it’s not important” The Chinese lady headed back over to us, holding out a pad of paper,
“What would you like to eat?” she sweetly asked and I nudged Cheri to begin,
“I’ll have a Brown bean, with the water chest nuts and chicken” she spoke aloud, pointing to the laminated menu in front of her to show the lady what she wanted. But something didn’t ring clear to me and I had to ask,

“You don’t like water chest nuts, in fact you hate them” she shook her head at me as the lady next to us jotted down her order,

“I love water chest nuts Billie, you must have me confused” I looked at her dumbfounded but again I was near positive that she hated them. It was the time that we had gotten back late and a take away had been ordered. I had gotten a water chest nut dish and I had offered her some, to which she declined, telling me her pure hatred for them. But once as my memory whirled, I had mistaken Cheri for Marci. Shit! I could feel the nerves make my collar sweat with fear that, Marci was going to come around the corner and catch me out. Bad, bad boyfriend.

“Sorry I just got you and my tour manager mixed up” she nodded and pointed to another side dish to the woman,

“And what would you like sir?” the lady prompted me and I looked again quickly at the menu, damn it I don’t know what I wanted. I briskly looked at the entire list and found one basic dish that I would usual go for,

“Sweet and sour chicken please” she noted down my order and wondered away, leaving me alone with Cheri.

“so then, how’s the touring life?” she had begun to play with her knife and I watched as she bit her lip down, watching me intently whilst rocking the knife back and forward.

“It’s good but I’m getting a little tired of all the moving and waiting before the shows. What about you, how’s life been?” she circled her finger and rolled her eyes at me,

“It’s been the same old, same old. Nothing I can’t handle” she briefly stated and picked up the salt pot, dropping her knife and tipping the salt carelessly back and forth. “What about Mike and Tre?” her question took me by surprise, knowing that she hadn’t had the best of relationships with Mike or Tre for that fact. Mike had disliked her from the moment he had seen her, something about the ‘type’ of girl she was and how apparently she had tried it on with him down the club. It had also stirred up trouble between Mike and his girlfriend, Adeline Rose, somebody whom was absolutely perfect for Mike but was distraught to hear Cheri’s attempts down Gilman.

It really did put pressure on our friendship, something which was very strong due to the circumstances of being in a band together but I still insisted on being with Cheri. That was up until a month before I had met Marci, where for the last time; I had sex with her and simply removed myself from her life.

“Mike, you don’t like Mike, not after the circumstances around you two” she looked a little taken back with what I said but quickly overcame it,

“No, I’m just wondering. We are just friends right, so I’m just curious” it seemed very fair of her to say and my heart quickened at how this new result with Cheri, taking an interest in my best friend would have improved the situation, if she was still my girlfriend.

“well I think they both think the same really. It’s just really boring now and I think we all want to go home but overall they are great” I grabbed my glass and scanned the booths behind Cheri’s head again as she bent down to her bag to fix something.

“They must have liked Woodstock then, I heard Mike had his teeth put through by a security guard” she leant back up and smiled before pulling her chewing gum away from her mouth and pinging it back.

“Yeah, they liked doing it but I want to know about you. How’s your cat, Fudge doing?” I tried to turn the conversation around, wanting to know about how Cheri was and what crazy wild things she had been up too. She used to do all sorts of wild things, such as breaking through my window, back at my mom’s house to visit me in bed or diving on me at one of our shows, just to steal my attention.

“Cat’s dead but it’s ok, so your tour manager must be proud of your success during this tour” she asked me quickly and I placed my glass down after swigging from it again. This get together with Cheri had turned out to sound more like yet another interview than a friendly get together and quite frankly I just wanted Cheri to talk to me like she used to do, serenade me with her sexiness, so that I could ‘get it out of my system’.

I had thought about it last night, whilst Marci slept, how I would get away with it, if the situation would arise for me to sleep with Cheri and it was simple enough. It would only be the once and it would be like the old times, except the romantic attachment between us would be gone. But then my mind turned back to what she had just said about my tour manager, my girlfriend, Marci.

She unintentionally, was burning a deep imprint of guilt onto me and it was starting to feel worse, than what I had felt like before. I tried to promise myself that I wouldn’t feel so guilty but with Cheri mentioning Marci, Marci’s beautiful face lit up in my mind and along with her face, she gripped onto my stomach and twisted it but she deserved to do that to me.
I looked up to Cheri and she sat looking at me, patiently for an answer but quicker than it came, the feeling of wanting to jump her, disappeared. I wanted to instead just say ‘sorry’ to Marci, as Mike’s, moral moment yesterday night, circled my mind again and the kiss that she had given me, along with the ‘love you’s’ she had whispered to me earlier, burned like scolding water down my neck.

“Billie Joe, your tour manager, is she proud of you?” Cheri asked again and I snapped out of my Sigmund Freud moment to look at her, in a different light.

“She is very proud of us but we are more proud of her because she is a wonderful person, who I very much love” I made a stand with myself, declaring my love for Marci in front of Cheri to try and resist any future temptation. Cheri’s face however dropped in surprise.

“Really, well that’s new for you. Is she your girlfriend?” she leant forward, towards me and I nodded my head, even though that little bit of my promiscuous Billie appeared again, slapping me silly for mentioning this to her.

“Yes she is” I picked up my drink and gulped the rest of it down quickly with Cheri nodding her head. She lent her head, into the palm of her hand and nodded at me in amazement, like she had just dug up gold.

“You kissed me last night you know, does she? Or is this, some quick fling before settling down properly? Maybe we should go find somewhere to go after this, if you want to finalise it” she grabbed a piece of her hair and twirled it between her fingers.

“No Cheri, this was supposed to be my last fling but I love Marci too much to do it, I can’t believe how stupid I have been” she pouted a little bit and was about to say something else, before being interrupted by the Chinese lady, returning with our meals.

“Sweet and sour chicken?” she asked and I raised my hand, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had confused myself enough today and it felt like I had just solved the meaning to life. How could I have even thought about doing this today, why am I such an idiot at times.

“Billie Joe Armstrong?” a voice, so familiar made me go stiff in my place but it also made Cheri go ridged, as the Chinese lady placed her food in front of her. “Cheri fucking Rigby, you bitch” I looked up to Cheri before we both turned, to look at the tall, black haired, heavily tattooed lady who was stood in front of our table glaring at Cheri evilly with her green eyes.

“Adeline Rose Thomas” Cheri bowed her head and my mouth dropped open at Mike’s girlfriend in front of us both. She smiled sweetly at me but returned back to staring at Cheri.

“Finally slept with all the men in California then?” she spat nastily at her and Cheri’s lip curled upright but she dare not say anything after her last spat with one, Adeline ‘you touch my boyfriend again I’ll kill you’ Rose Thomas.

“What are you doing here Adeline?” I asked sheepishly, she was the only person now, who could rat me out to Marci.

“I have come to see my boyfriend, what do you think I’m doing here, Billie. Duh, stupid moment for Mr Armstrong, table 5 “ she chuckled, blushing her rosy red cheeks and smiling foolishly at me. “But since your busy with mega bitch, I’ll see you later on tonight” she blew me a kiss and wondered away from our table.

Shit.