Billie Joe Armstrong Is My Step-Father...and I Hate It

I had tried everything. Threatening to run away and live with grandma, threatning commiting suicide, threatningmurder but nothing seemed to snap my poor, defensless mother out of this... phase. She would brush me off and say “Don’t say things you want act on, Gracie.” Gracie. Who calls me that?! She never called me that until... recently. When I was eleven, my father died due to a car accident but it didn’t look like it. What car accident slits your throat and wrists and leaves everything else? But mum insisted we, as in me and my younger brother and sister, Kage and Hollie. My mother was stunning, page three model stuff. Honestly. But she was not all she seemed. The 90’s “punk rock” stage left it’s mark on her. She looked young and beautiful, like someone who was head over heels in love with David Beckham or something but that wasn’t true. Mum was a punk rocker, and I loved her for that. It’s rare you get one of them. Of course, rare, beautiful girls leaves traces...

Now I’m sixteen and I found out my mum was dating again. It was obvious when she flounced back from some party, all over-the-moon with something. Twirling and humming, making us chocolate cake only to remember Kage and Hollie were long since in bed and I was the only one up. And it was one a.m. And mum never bakes anything. I knew, instantly, something was up here. Something unusual, unlike mum. I’d never seen her this happy since dad died. After a few pressing questins, sarcastic threats and doing the thing that mum hates most, tickling the truth out of her, she confessed. She was dating again. Was I happy?

To hell I was.

I was fucking raging. How did she think she could just... replace dad like that?! After she confessed, I went bat-shit nuts on her. Yelling that she couldn’t possibly replace my dad and whoever it may be was dead to me. That’s when it all came tumbling on my like an avalanche on a very huge mountain.

She was dating the lead singer of my favourite band, my idol, the guy I loved... Billie Joe fucking Armstrong.

That pressed more questions. Doesn’t he have a wife, what about his kids, what was he doing there, why’d you talk to him, why’d he talk to you, what happened, did you kiss him, did he kiss you, did you have sex, how long was this going on for? Oh, just wait.

He was divorced now, he still has his kids, he was down there on some work trip, mum really likes Green Day just as much as me, he found her interesting, the chatted each other up, he got her a drink, she laughed at everything he said that was meant to be funny, he kissed her, they didn’t have sex and they only met that night.

I was a little less mad, but by no means, I was mad. So, I sat at the oppisite end at the table from... him, clutching my fork so hard and pretending it was his neck. Most teenage girls like me would be fucking crooning over him, making sure he was at home and stuff. I wasn’t. I wanted his life to be hell here. My fist curled tighter around the fork, smirking slightly at the thought of strangling him.

“Grace, eat that” mum said, sitting down beside him. She was painfully happy with him. Painfully. I continued to glare across the table at him. “Grace? Grace, stop that!” I dragged my gaze to my food.

“Disgusting things put me off my appetite...” I snarled, quietly. Kage rolled his eyes dramatically and Hollie looked confused.

“I like our new daddy” Hollie said to mum after taking her gaze off me. “He’s really nice to me.”

“That’s sweet, but I’m not your dad... yet.” He gave a suggestive glance at my mum and I dropped my fork after realizing I couldn’t grip it any more tighter.

“And you never will be.”

“Grace!” my mum barked, her eyes narrowing. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved my mum more than anything but... now, I felt she made bad choices in life.

“Yea, you’re not married yet” Kage said, his mouth full of bacon.

“Kage!” mum yelled. “Remember what we said? About visitors at the table?”

“Oh yea, the visitor-at-the-table eat” Kage said, wiping his mouth un gracefully and starting over again, more dainty with his food. Mum shook her head.

“Oh, c’mon, they’re all awesome, Samia” Billie laughed. “Espically that Grace over there.” I gave him a glare so deadly... and he responded with a fake one back. I widened my eyes and snarled into my food.

“Really? Coz I beg to differ about you” I said.

“GRACE!”

“WHAT?!” Mum shot me a glare just as deadly back. I tried responded but I couldn’t. Mum meant too much to embarrass. Even if it was in front of the demon from hell. So I just looked down and muttered, “Right, yea, sorry. I’m civil to his face... his... horrid, digusting, gut-wrenching-!”

“Graaaace...”

“Civil, yea, I get it mum! I wasn’t talking to him, was I?” I said, out spreading my arms innocently.

“Yenno, she reminds me of myself” Billie said.

“Oh, charmed” I replied, sarcastically. “Coz that’ll make me ugly though, won’t it?”

“GRACE! What did I say?!” mum yelled.

“No, she’s fine” Billie soothed her. “She’s a challenge.” He smirked at me. I swear, it took all my strength not to punch him in the face. Hard.

“As long as she doesn’t turn to physical violence, that’s alright with me” mum sighed. Kage spoke up.

“Grace, what did you mean it’s surprise he doesn’t turn people to stone?” he asked. Mum dropped her fork and laid her forehead in her palm.

“Lord, help me now...” she muttered. It didn’t stop me.

“Well, it just seemed that Medusa was extremly ugly, yeah? Well, he’s just as, why doesn’t he kill people?” I said. Kage nodded in understanding.

“I don’t get it...” Hollie said.

“Medusa was an ugly monster, Hollie” I explained, happy to keep tormenting Billie, even if he was watching me with an amused smirk. WHAT?! Why wasn’t he mad?! Why was he just letting this go on?! However, Itried to make it worse as I went along. “She turned people to stone by looking at people. She had snakes in her hair and she was turned ugly by some freak. I think she had a snakes body but I dunno. That’s what it was like on Clash of the Titans anyway.”

“Mummy, will she come to me?! Just like the Grim Reaper?!”

“Who told you about the Grim Reaper?!”

“Grace did! She said he was him!” She pointed at Billie Joe, who burst out laughing.

“Don’t laugh, this is serious!” mum whined. He tried to stop but he kept letting out slight chuckles, which led to him laughing again.

“She also said you were a-!”

“KAGE, DON’T MAKE ME SMACK YOU!” mum exploded. Kage shut up immediantly. Mum calmed down as Billie wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

“I’m done” Kage said, jumping off his seat and scraping his remains into the bin. Or at least, he was. “Oh, Grace, remember you said we need to give the scraps to him because he was a dog?”

“Jesus, what haven’t you said about me?” Billie said, obviously highly amused by this. I faked a laugh before scowling. Mum gave Kage a glare so he just presumed scraping his reamains in the bin.

“Me too” Hollie said, climbing down. Hollie was only three and she had thick curly browny golden locks, like mum. It was just me, mum and him.

“Just me, you and You-Know-Who, mum” I said. “But like I said, disgusting things put me off my appetite so I’ll scurry off too.” I gave her an innocent smile and gave Billie and extremly fake one before scowlign at him and mirroring Kage’s actions. I stopped at the bin however.

“Unless you want these” I said, holding up the plate. “Dogs eat left overs.” Mum had given up trying to stop me. Billie laughed, however. It angered me how I couldn’t get to him.

“I’m good for today” he said. I scowled again, dumping the left overs in the bin ungracefully (for a girl named Grace, I was very ungraceful) and I dropped the plate in the sink.

“Love you mum” I said, smiling.

“So do I” Billie said, smiling at her. My smile dropped to an awful glare and I stormed out, hearing them laugh silently about something.

It was sick. Sick, sick, SICK!