The Long Road

Later that morning, Tre invited the band, Jakob and Joey over to his house for the day. We accepted gladly, knowing Billie and Adrienne were going to be anti - social and grumpy for the rest of the day.

We pulled up outside his house, which was as beautiful as Billie's house, and Tre showed us into his living room.

'So, how are Billie and Adie?' Tre asked as he fished a jug of lemonade out of the fridge in his kitchen.

'Cold and silent.' I responded, the image of a drunken Joey coming to mind. My guilt engulfed me once again.'

'They'll come around, they've done the whole Big Freeze more than once.' Tre said calmly, sitting down with the rest of us.

'Well, I dunno. I heard Dad got pretty pissed off.' Joey said nervously.

'Well, they were arguing about you. Billie thinks you don't care about him.' Tre said, giving Joey a serious look. 'He's been pretty anxious about that lately. It's like the American Idiot tour all over again. He really wants to look out for you. He's been going on about how he thinks you hate him.'

Joy sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. 'I don't hate him. He just freaked out when I got drunk, that's all.'

'Well, like I said, they'll come around.' Tre said, in an almost dismissive manner. He had probably seen Billie and Adrienne fight alot over the years, he was used to it.

Later on we went into Tre's own music room, where he had a nice little stash of his own guitars and a nice drum kit. After a little jam session, we decided to watch a movie. I looked through Tre's huge collection of DVD's till I found one of my favourite movies, Zombieland. We knew it wouldn't be appropriate for Jakob, but he didn't seem to mind. We giggled through out the movie, occasionally talking to each other. Katie's phone ran and she went outside to answer. She didn't come back till around the end of the movie.

'Hey Katie, I wanted to talk to you - y'know - about Justin.' I whispered as she came back inside.

Although Katie had looked unusually pale, she suddenly blushed deeply.

'Well, I - well I told him. Last night at the party.'

My heart jolted excitedly for her. I sat up and looked at her red face.

'So? How'd it go? Tell me!' I whispered excitedly.

'Shh! Justin might hear you!' Katie whispered back. 'Okay, well, I told him, and he kinda just stood there, looking stunned. Then he just gave me this huge grin and - and kissed me.'

I tried not to yell out 'Yes!' as I heard this. Katie and Justin were finally together! At least one thing had cheered me up that day. But suddenly Katie grabbed my arm.

'Leslie, I have to tell you something now.' She pulled me up and took me into the backyard. She wringed her hands and looked at me nervously, but with a hint of a smile on her face.

'I - I got a call from the guy we met at the library back in San Francisco.' she said quietly. 'That was him that called me when I went out.'

My stomach seemed to drop. I had completely forgotten about going through all those files, trying to find a name. Had the librarian found a link? Or better yet, had he found my father? I urged Katie to continue. Katie suddenly gave me a huge grin.

'Well -he - Oh Leslie! He found him! He found your dad!'