Tensions

He groaned tiredly, he really hated doing this. Why should he, Billie Joe Armstrong, rock star extraordinaire have to go clothes shopping with the boys? Wasn’t that in Adrienne’s job description? Wasn’t she the one who knew their sizes, favorite colors, and all that other bullshit.

“Daaad…” Joey whined, eyeing the odd looking t-shirt his father had dangling in his grasp, “that’s so ugly”.
“Yeah, well so are you. Now try it on,” Billie chided, thrusting the one size too small button up into his son’s face. Joey snarled something underneath his breath before snatching the horrendous article from his father and almost slamming the fitting room door closed.

Rolling his eyes Billie took just a few short steps before reaching Jakob’s dressing room.
“Jake, you done in there?” he knocked
“Yeah!” the smaller child called out.
“Alright, come outside with what you want so we can leave and grab some lunch,”

It seemed as if everything had gone back to normal, well, not quite for the guitarist. After his falling out with Serenity, Billie Joe had been kicked out of his home, forced to live in an apartment outside the city with no contact between his wife and band mates. He’d often spend his days and nights drinking or writing new music with the soft tunes of his guitar. Tre sure as hell didn’t contact him, but Mike occasionally called and stopped by, disappointed, but still worried about his dear friend. And after only four weeks of living on his own, he drank himself into a depression when Adrienne stopped by with separation papers for him to sign. And after arguing that entire night, and beating his head against the wall a couple times, he complied and temporarily signed his marriage away. And so, Mr. Armstrong had spent over an entire year without his beloved wife and children. Sure he could see them whenever he wanted, but he missed that joyous feeling of being a family, a warm and solacing family with the gracious wife, two children, and the dog, well sans the dog.

He did everything in his power to mend his marriage, to mend his faults. He even prayed, which was out of the ordinary for the guitarist. Every night that he spent alone that entire year was miserable. He’d wake up in the middle of certain nights, anxiety crushing his petite figure into nothing. And then he would roll over, hoping to revel in the warmth and protection of his wife, but his skin would only come in contact with the coolness of crinkled sheets.

Adrienne unfortunately had felt the same way, depressed, gloomy, and simply disappointed. She wanted to desperately forgive her husband, to have him hold her during the night, to laugh and make warm conversation with him, but she couldn’t. Her mind remained on the stiff fact that he had slept with someone else; correction, had formed a romantic relationship with someone else. She kept imagining them together, imagined how they would meet up in some city, how he would lie to her and tell her that he was meeting some small bands for a drink. She would have been less angry if it was just a one night stand, but for over a year those two had been involved! She felt betrayed, enraged, used, and slightly abused. How could someone who claimed to love you so much, hurt you so deeply?

And then one night, Billie Joe came over, tears glued in his eyes. It had been over an entire year since the separation, enough was enough. The kids were asleep upstairs since it was a school night, but he marched inside, straight up the stairs to their, well, her bedroom. She was lying on the bed, reading a magazine with her reading glasses glued to the bridge of her nose. When the door creaked open, she shot up and stared at the crying Billie Joe in front of her. He rambled on about being depressed, about wanting to kill himself, about trust, about how he couldn’t live without her, about this, about fucking that. And when he was done, he stared at her for a reaction, but she simply continued to stare back at him, her magazine now closed and folded tightly in her fist. And then her eyes began to water, and it wasn’t long before she was diving off the bed and into his awaiting arms.

Billie Joe’s bushy eyebrows quirked in amusement.
“You sure you can handle that Jake? It says it’s really spicy” he skeptically asked
“Yeah,” Jake nodded profusely, closing up his menu. “mom cooks spicy food all the time,”

“And you always cry and never eat it too,” Joey countered, earning him a smirk from his father.
“Shut up,” the younger sibling scowled
“You shut up,”
“You shut up,”
“No, you shut u—“

“Alright, alright. Lets everyone shut up, ok?” Billie interjected, tapping his fingers against the glass table.
“He started it,” Joey mumbled quietly
“No I didn’t, you started it!” Jakob retorted
“Yes you did!”
“Did not,”

“GUYS…”
Both boys shut their mouths noticing the aggravation in their father’s tone. The restaurant they were currently at was just about packed full of patrons. Only one or two tables seemed to be void of life, but Billie Joe was sure that they were booked for future reservations. And as he tapped his laminated menu atop the table, one person in particular caught his eye among the throng of many.

Her hair was just as silky looking as hers, the color just as jet black as hers, her frame was just as thin as hers, hips just as slender as hers… Serenity. His emerald eyes couldn’t help but follow her figure as she seated herself with another woman to one of the unoccupied tables. The only difference between the two, was that Serenity’s complexion was a bit darker, and her ass, well, much rounder than this woman’s. He couldn’t help but grin to himself as he focused his eyes back onto his sons.

He hadn’t thought of Serenity for maybe a year now and he hadn’t seen her in about three years. Three long, but fruitful years. All thoughts of her had to be erased from his mind if he were to truly mend his marriage to Adrienne. He had to try and forget their wild nights together. Or that time he took her to New York City, and ESPECIALLY that time when they first met. He suddenly found himself wondering how she was, where she was…

She could just make out the distinguished dorsal fin of the shark as it broke through the water’s foamy surface. In a state of fright, she clamped her hands over her brown eyes. There was no swimming away, the speedy shark would surely turn her into an intricate filet, well, either the shark or the pair of sea demons just a few inches away from her in the bubbling waters. The demonic pair giggled and wiggled as they watched her, Serenity, shaking in fright. And then suddenly, the foaming bubbles around her suddenly flew onto her face… she’d been gotten.

“Aaah”, she screamed playfully, not helping but to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. The toy shark that had been bobbing in the bathtub swam up to her stomach, guided by the hand of her daughter, Bianca.
“Mommy!” the toddler squealed with laughter, bubbles all over her head and face.

“Don’t do that, Trevor!” Serenity scolded her son, whom had taken a liking to drinking the soapy bubble bath water. The young boy giggled before splatting his hands against the water, which caused his twin sister to do the same, which then caused about a third of the tub water to spring out of the tub and onto the floor.

“Guys!” Seny laughed, quickly stepping out of the tub and wrapping a towel around herself. Leaning over, she removed the plug from the drainer, allowing all the soapy water to tornado itself down the drain. The pair whined, trying to catch the water before it escaped, but to no avail.

Serenity then lifted both kids out of the tub and wrapped towels around them both before shutting off the light and marching the kids into her bedroom. After dressing both and herself, it was time for bed.

“Where daddy?” Trevor yawned, his lazy green eyes slowly drifting off to sleep.
“He went to the supermarket,” his mother replied, brushing out the damp ringlets in her hair.

“Spooket?” he attempted to repeat, trying to shift into a comfortable position next to his sleeping sister.
“Yea” Serenity sighed, placing her hairbrush on the dresser. “I don’t know what’s taking him so long,”

And as soon as the words left her mouth, she heard the keys being inserted into the keyhole down the long hallway. Moments later Terrence appeared in the doorway, a small grin plastered to his face.
“What?” Serenity asked, still brushing out her damp hair.
“Look what I got…” he said in a sing-song voice. And in his hands appeared a small case of carrot cake, her favorite, and two clinking bottles of her most favorite Belgian beer, Chimay.

Her eyes immediately brightened. Carrot cake and beer? Who could resist that?

“They’re asleep, right?” Terrence asked, lifting his head to see if his angels were comatose.
Serenity quickly nodded before nudging Terrence out of the bedroom, and quietly pulling up the door to a whisper, so that it was barely open.

“Where the hell did you find Chimay?” she asked, plopping herself down alongside her boyfriend on the couch. He didn’t answer her right away, instead taking his time to remove the stubborn bottle caps. After handing her a bottle he responded “I caught Jordan outside of Publix and he must’ve got off work. He had a whole case in his car, so I asked for a couple.”

“This is the best beer ever,” she purred, tipping the stout neck of the bottle to her lips. Jordan was one of Terrence’s good friends, who luckily worked at a local bar. Serenity flicked on the television as she settled the beverage between her thighs and giggled when Terrence couldn’t open the carrot cake container.

“Give it here,” she teased, grabbing the plastic box from his grasp.

While the pair cuddled together on the sofa, drinking imported Belgian beer and a Publix carrot cake, something flashed onto the television screen that caught the attention of both. It was a simple commercial for birthday gifts and trinkets, but Terrence’s birthday was quickly approaching, and Serenity still had no idea what to get him.

“Do you plan on telling me what it is you want for your birthday…” she whispered, dipping her index finger into a particularly frosting filled section of the small cake.
Terrence grinned, “I don’t really care. Anything’ll be fine.”

“There must be something you want…you need…?”

“Nope.”

His girlfriend sighed and tipped the bottle to her lips once more, savoring the taste. She absolutely hated shopping and planning for a significant other’s birthday. She was always bewildered on what to get them, their tastes and whatnot. And Terrence would be no different. They had been dating for about two years now, and she could not have been any happier. He had helped her in a time of her life when everything was baffling and spiraling down. When she was emotionally bruised and hurt, when she needed the love, support, and affection of a man…

And speaking of birthdays and affection, she could unmistakably remember the birthday and affections of a certain man. A man that had changed her life forever, Tre.

It had been three years since she last saw him, well, in person anyways. It wasn’t uncommon to find him and her ex-lover on television, some online webpage, or even in a magazine. Not to mention at home, where she lived with not one, but two daily reminders of him.

But things were definitely better this way and she was especially happy when she found out that the band had ‘squashed’ all malice towards one another, and was coming back with a tour, despite it taking nearly two years. She didn’t want to be considered the Yoko Ono of Green Day, the reason behind a powerful and talented band’s demise.

“I’m beat. You ready for bed” Terrence nudged her, disrupting her from her vivid thoughts.
She nodded, fingers already reaching for the remote to turn off the television.

And for the first time in a couple of months, Serenity’s mind wandered off to Tre. Where he was…how he was doing…

“I can’t believe it’s the last show,” Mike sighed, recapping his bottle of water on his unsteady lap.

“I know, but it feels like we’ve been on the road forever. Maybe I’m getting too old…” Billie Joe pondered aloud before taking a sip of his beer. And just as the guitarist engaged in a loud belch, Tre Cool appeared from the down the hall, his face twisted in repulsion.

“No one go in the bathroom for a few minutes” he winced. “And no more of Jason’s tacos either” he added, plopping himself down on the long sofa adjacent to Mike. The trio usually didn’t share a single tour bus, but since all their family members had left last week, it was unusually quiet. And no man could really pass up a chance of having a cold beer and relaxing ‘man chat’ with his best friends.

The small U.S tour they were currently pursuing was just about over. Everyone was more than ecstatic to bring this tour to an end, especially Tre, who was now going to enter an overwhelming task of planning a wedding in a couple of months.

"Where's the remote?" Tre asked, fingers and eyes searching the corners of the couch for the device.
"Here," Billie Joe rang, tossing it to the drummer.

Skimming from channel to channel in the city of Detroit, he didnt find much to watch. But, something did catch his eye. Sex, of course.

All three men watched with dismal delight, as a man and woman tossed and turned in the sheets, patches of bare skin visible at certain moments. And after the pair finished, the woman said something among the lines of "I need a divorce,".

Obviously, the gentleman between her legs was NOT her husband.

Tre quickly turned the channel, bitter memories suddenly coming back to mind. He had forgiven Billie Joe, for the most part. But he certainly would never forget.

"I'm gonna go take a nap," Billie awkwardly stated, standing up unsteadily in the moving tour bus. Mike and Tre nodded in unison.

"Still mad?" Mike asked aloud, turning his head to his best friend.
"Not really,"
"I think you are. Thats why you turned the channel,"

"I turned the channel because it reminded me of Blaze," he offered.
"It'll get easier," Mike nodded off. He knew it reminded Tre of Serenity, it even reminded HIM of Serenity, and he barely liked her.

"I think I'm gonna take a nap as well," Tre fake yawned before standing up to walk down the narrow hall to his bunk. And once inside, he dug into his wallet and retrieved a picture of Frankito with Blaze, his future wife.

She had only left a week ago, but he missed her like crazy. And then Mike's words sank into his brain. And for a moment, he thought of her, Serenity. A woman that dynamically changed his life and the way he thought.

And just as quickly as she emerged in his mind, she was erased. And he sighed before drifting off to sleep.