I Left My Heart in San Diego

I cautiously walked around the corner, not knowing what to expect. This is Tre Cool we're talking about.

I spotted Tre sitting on the couch Billie and I had laid on that first day I came over to watch Green Day practice. "Hey, Arizona," he said, looking up at me. He patted the seat next to him. "Come sit."

I sat down next to Tre, watching him, wondering what his first move would be. "So..."

"So what?" Tre asked. He checked his wristwatch. "Only fifty-nine more minutes to go."

I winced. "Can I tell you something?"

"Does it have to do with how awkward you feel sitting right here? On this couch? Right next to your boyfriend's best friend?" I nodded. "Then tell away."

"That was pretty much it."

"Oh. Well...um...what do you wanna do?" Tre asked.

"I thought you were going to do something perverted," I told him, giving him a surprised look.

"That's just a facade, Arizona. Keeps the girls away," he said, smiling.

"Well it certainly works...," I muttered.

"If you won't tell everyone what happened between you and Billie last night, will you tell just me?" Tre asked, curiosity injected into his voice.

I looked at Tre, searching his face for some sort of a twist or something. "I guess that's not terrible...," I said. "Or perverted," I added.

Tre smiled and shifted so that he was sitting across from me. "You wanna lay out? You're welcome to," he said. I smiled for once and stretched out my legs on top of Tre's.

"Okay, well, we got home and we kinda went upstairs right away. We didn't jump into anything, we just kinda laid there and we were just talking." Tre fake-yawned. I kicked him. "Sorry this isn't the big sex story you were looking for, Frank."

Tre shot me a look. "How do you know my real name?"

I laughed at Tre's sudden shocked expression. "Billie told me. He told me Mike's real last name, too," I answered.

"That's just like Billie. Always doing things his way," Tre remarked, smiling.

I smiled and continued, "We started off asking basic questions about each other. Almost right away, Billie discovered my weak spot."

"Where is it?" Tre interrupted.

"Like I would tell you. You would only use that to my disadvantage," I said. My voice dropped a notch, remembering. "Then I learned about Billie's dad."

Tre sighed. "Yeah? How'd that happen?"

"He asked if I had any siblings, and I said no, it's just me and my mom, that my dad left when I was ten. Billie then said 'At least you have a father.' and I was like what are you talking about? and then he said that his dad died when Billie was ten."

"How was Billie? Talking about all this, I mean."

"At first, it was just a single tear rolling down the side of his cheek when he told me, then it finally settled in for me and I instantly shoved my hands under his back - since we were laying on his bed - and squeezed him tight to me. I kept saying how sorry I was and I could feel Billie crying under me. I felt so bad for him." I sighed and shook my head. "When I withdrew my hands from behind his back and Billie had stopped crying - I know, it sounds really weak - he told it was okay because I didn't know."

"Crying doesn't make you weak," Tre said.

I looked at Tre, right into his bright blue eyes. I happened to notice they were a little green. A greenish-blue, like how Billie has yellow-green eyes. I wondered if multi-toned eyes was a commonality between the three guys. "So Tre Cool has a deep side."

"It's been known to pop out here and there," he said, crossing his arms and smirking.

I smiled and continued, my voice still soft and low, "I then asked Billie how his dad died and he told me it was cancer. I told him I was sorry again, and then, you don't know this, yesterday afternoon, my mom's boyfriend from back in San Diego came here to Oakland to live with her and they wanted to talk, alone, so they kicked me out for a little while. I didn't know anyone besides Billie in my new neighborhood, so I walked across the cul-de-sac to Billie's open garage. When I walked in, Billie was sitting on one of the stone benches on the wall and he had an acoustic guitar with him, about five sheets of music set out in front of him. He was quietly playing a song I hadn't heard before. I had walked under the garage door and sat down next to Billie. When Billie stopped playing and held his head in his hands, crying, I put my hand on his back, startling him. He relaxed when he saw it was me, but he said he was really embarrassed that I was seeing him cry. I laughed. Well, last night, Billie told me that that song was about his dad."

Tre nodded his head slightly, taking this all in. "You must be pretty special."

I raised an eyebrow, curling a leg up to my chest. "What do you mean?"

Tre looked me, right into my bright blue eyes. "Billie doesn't talk about his dad a lot. He hardly talks about him with us and we're practically an extension of his family. If he told you about his dad without a lot of hesitation, there's definitely something about you that Billie likes. Then there's definitely something different about you, Arizona," Tre explained, never breaking eye contact. "You have really pretty eyes," he added, turning his face down so I wouldn't see his faint blush.

I smiled, a chuckle escaping my lips. "Embarrassed, Tre?" I asked.

Tre looked back up at me, his face soft and vulnerable-looking. "I'm not one for giving compliments," Tre said. "At least not to anyone who's not my girlfriend," he added.

"Well, if you makes you feel any better, thanks," I said. Tre smiled, making his blue-green eyes brighten. "Billie's a lucky guy," Tre muttered.

I smiled. "You're turning into quite the hypocrite. You say you don't give compliments to anyone else except Zie, but you've already given me two," I said.

Tre smiled a little, moving ever closer to me. I noticed a hint of nervousness on his face. "Would it be okay if I kissed you? It wouldn't mean anything, I just wanna see what would happen."

I searched his face for a sign of a trick or a catch again, but could find none. Tre Cool was being serious. I nodded, wondering what would happen. Tre moved in slowly, awkwardly, his lips finally meeting mine.

His lips were cold meeting mine, making me jump slightly. The nervousness I saw on his face I could sense in his hesitant kiss. I started to kiss him back, and I noticed how gentle Tre was being, like he was afraid he was going to break me or something. I heard something from around the corner, but didn't pay much attention; I was captivated by Tre's soft and gentle kiss.

Suddenly, a body ripped Tre's mouth from mine. Someone was rolling around on the floor with Tre, another guy. After a moment, I realized it was Billie. OH, SHIT. "Billie!" I yelled. The scuffle didn't stop. "BILLIE!" I screamed. The scuffle still didn't stop. Seeing no other options, I threw myself onto Billie and Tre, hitting whatever person was nearest. "Fuck!" I yelled, an elbow thrusted into my stomach. The fight ceased instantly.

"Arizona, what the fuck did you do that for?!" Tre yelled, blotting the blood coming from his nose with his hand.

"Well, Billie wouldn't stop beating the shit out of you if I just yelled at him so I had to take some action!" I yelled back, my hand on my stomach. "Who the fuck elbowed me in the stomach?"

"Could've been me. I was trying to elbow Billie in the face to get him off me," Tre said.

"Fuck you," I said.

"Calm down! It was an accident, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had hopped on top of us!" Tre said defensively.

"What the fuck were you doing, Izzie?!" Billie yelled, finally speaking.

"Calm the fuck down, Billie, Tre asked before he kissed me. It didn't mean anything," I said as calmly as I could, trying to diffuse Billie's anger before he went back to beating the shit out of Tre.

"It looked like you were kissing back!" Billie yelled.

"Billie! I'm right here! There's no need to yell at me!" I said, tears starting to fall from my eyes as I raised my voice at Billie.

I wasn't sure who got to me first, I think it was Billie, but I don't know, I was too busy trying to run away.