Tensions

Hadn’t her makeup been enough?
Couldn’t her sudden change in wardrobe have sufficed?

“I—“

“She’s here with me. We came here to see the show.” Terrence uttered with the utmost poise, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend’s middle as he saw the scene in front of him.

Adrienne looked from Serenity’s horrified face and then to Terrence’s, only to look back at the fake redhead. Serenity couldn’t even look beyond the angry woman’s face, because she knew who was behind it. She could already see a blurry outline of him as she strained her eyes to focus on the woman in front of her.

“Adrienne, where’d you put my belt? I can’t find it anywhere…” another dangerously familiar voice floated by.

Serenity Reynolds simply wanted to pop a bullet into her brain this instance. Glancing up, she took in the ghastly sight of Billie Joe Armstrong, green eyes and all. He hadn’t seemed to notice her yet as he oddly eyed his wife, whose arms were now folded uncomfortably against her chest.

“Look at our old friend Billie, I’m sure you remember her…” Adrienne strained a smile at her husband, turning his elbow around to view the shaking vixen and her awkward boyfriend.

“Huh?” the guitarist answered, turning around to see who his wife was talking about. Squinting his coal stained eyes, it took him several short moments to look beyond the makeup, beyond the unstylish clothing, beyond the horrendous wig to see her. The woman that he hadn’t seen in over three years, the woman that he had an awful affair with, the woman that nearly cost him his marriage.

And when he did recognize her, his mouth gaped open, and his green eyes nearly popped from his skull.

“Serenity?” Billie Joe asked, simply for clarification.

She didn’t know if she should respond, walk away, or give him a handshake.

“Hey there.” She smiled crookedly, focusing solely on the floor and not into his eyes.

“Do you all know each other?” The Nine Inch Nails guitarist asked, looking uncomfortable. No one answered for what seemed like several days, until Serenity finally spoke.

“Yeah, I used to date someone in the band.” She quietly whispered, hoping that Tre didn’t hear.

“Did she say what I think she said?” Blaze whispered into Tre’s ear. The pair were currently leaning against a small table, Tre’s eyes glued to the scene unfolding in front of him.

“What?” he said in annoyance.

“Is that your ex, Serenity?” Blaze prodded, not appreciating the fact that he wasn’t paying enough attention to her.

“Yeah, and that DOES NOT mean to go make trouble. Matter of fact lets just leave, I don’t even want to see her.” He exclaimed.

“You dated THAT?” Blaze questioned, looking at Serenity. She looked like an older woman who clearly didn’t realize she was aging. What thirty year old woman honestly pounded on layers of eyeliner and wore Bob Marley shirts with sneakers?

Tre sighed, before turning himself around to grab another hors d'oeuvre from the table behind.
“She wasn’t like that when we dated. Doesn’t matter anyway, I just don’t want the awkward tension, so we should just leave. You want one of these?” he asked, popping a treat into his mouth. “They’re pretty go—“

When Tre noticed nothing but silence coming from his fiancé, he turned around, only to find she had disappeared. With knitted eyebrows and crumbs trailing down his chin, he looked to his left and to his right, only to find strangers. And then he looked towards where Serenity, Billie Joe, and Adrienne were currently huddled, only to see Blaze walking up to Adrienne.

“I think we should get going now,” Terrence smiled to the celebrities in front of him.

“Now wait a minute. What’s all the commotion about over here?” Blaze announced, standing right beside Adrienne.

Billie Joe rolled his eyes, “There isn’t any commotion.”

“I know. It’s just everything got eerily quiet when you guys joined up. What’s going on?” she asked

Serenity glared with confusion at the redheaded idiot in front of her. She didn’t recognize her at all, but she seemed quite friendly with the band members. But Ms. Reynolds had had enough, she wanted to leave NOW.

It was obvious that Terrence wasn’t going to take charge of the situation, and she was only making a fool of herself in front of thee Trent Reznor. So with a soft ‘excuse me’, the secret agent look-a-like skid passed Terrence, and speed walked out of the room and down the narrow hallway.

She didn’t know where she was going, but at this point in time, she really could care less. She absolutely LOATHED the tainted glare Adrienne was pounding into her skull. Hated the deadly and awkward silence that had consumed the entire room, hated the uncomfortable sensation around Billie Joe.

Desperately trying to regulate her breathing, Serenity placed a hand to her chest, slowly inhaling...and then exhaling.

A myriad of emotions were floating through her body. She felt anxious, nervous, angry, shocked, maybe even a little insane.

The room, or rather closet, she found herself in was rather dark and small. There was nothing particular inside, a few spare cords, a broom, numerous wires, and a miniscule mirror hanging against the cement wall. The less than spacious area didn’t even have a door, simply a small doorway opening.

"Ridiculous." Serenity mumbled to herself in the shadows.

The entire situation was after all ridiculous. She wasn’t even supposed to be here at all. If things had went according to plan she could have been at home with Bianca and Trevor, putting them to bed or watching cartoon re-runs with them on the couch.

After staring at the floor for a few moments, Serenity realized that her shoelaces had somehow become undone. She sighed before kneeling to the floor to tie her laces before they caught somewhere and caused her an unforgivably embarrassing moment.

Mumbling miserably to herself, she didn’t hear someone walk into the small room. She didn’t see the man hovering a few feet away from her. Failed to see the cautious smirk on her lips, failed to notice his quirked eyebrow or the way his arms were folded loosely against his chest.

“Need help with those?”

Her eyes immediately darted up as her brain found familiarity in the voice…his voice.

Slowly, she brought herself up from her knees to stand only inches away from the man of her past. The man that she had fell head over heels for. The man who’s heart she broke, and who broke hers in return.

“Ohh” was all she could muster to say.

And suddenly he was extending his hand.
“I like the hair” Tre smirked, wrapping a red ringlet around his finger.

His hand was practically touching her face, and that small action alone made her feel a bit uneasy. Her brown eyes stared cautiously into his blues.

“You know it’s a wig, right?” she affirmed, finally being able to smile, just a little.

The drummer brought his hands back down, an awkward smile on his chiseled face. “I figured. You really couldn’t really miss it back there.” He said, pointing back where the reception like room was.

Serenity couldn’t help but chortle. The wig had been atrociously red and an obvious sham.
“Well, there goes my disguise.” She mumbled, not daring to look him in the eye. She instead trained her eyes beyond Tre, to see if Terrence was planning to find her or not.

“Yeah…” Tre replied, scratching his hair for a moment. He felt extremely awkward himself. It’s not very often that the woman you fell in love with, that caused a tidal wave of drama in your life, suddenly appeared at your show. And it definitely wasn’t often, that you found yourself alone with this woman in a dimly lit closet in an arena.

“Sooo...” Tre mumbled, after clearing his throat from the moment of silence. “How’s life?”

And she was just about to answer her ex, when a small voice appeared from outside the closet.

“Tre? Is that you?” a woman’s voice whispered.

The red haired woman from earlier peeped her head from around the corner and smiled when she noticed that it was indeed her fiancé. Prancing over to Tre, Blaze gently slapped his arm.

“Where did you run off to?” she scolded him.

“Terrence?” Serenity pondered aloud, noticing a tall, lean figure a few feet behind the red headed broad.

“Seny?” Terrence laughed, emerging from the shadows. “I was looking all over for you.” He smiled, placing his hand in hers. He glanced at Tre and the talkative woman from prior and rose an eyebrow. “What were you doing?”

“Okay, okay, jeez.” The pair heard Tre squawking, his girlfriend grinning adjacent to his annoyed self.

“Serenity, this is Blaze.” Tre smiled awkwardly, wrapping his arm around the woman at his side. And then he added, “my fiancé.”

His ex-girlfriend couldn’t help but swallow back a small lump in her throat as her eyes widened in shock. She was neither jealous nor angry, simply surprised.
“Wow, congratulations!” she beamed.
“Thanks.” Tre replied, discretely eyeing Terrence. Serenity quickly took notice.

“Oh, uh, Terrence this Tre, and his fiancé…” She paused.

“Blaze.” Blaze smiled graciously, finishing, extending her hand towards both Serenity and Terrence.

“yeah… and this is my boyfriend, Terrence.”

Terrence simply nodded his head off a little at the couple in front of him. He was definitely regretting opening that envelope in the glove compartment at the moment.

“Tre’s told me so much about you.” Blaze continued, unfortunately.

Once again, Serenity was surprised. What exactly did Tre discuss with his fiancé about her? And why did he feel the need to talk about her to his significant other anyway?

“Hmm, that’s not good.” Serenity laughed, trying desperately to bring humor to the awkward scene.

“Soo..” Tre coughed, “how did you guys like the show?”

“It was nice. We got to meet a lot of people backstage.” Terrence answered.

“Yeah, we came here for his birthday.” Serenity added, adding a small kiss to Terrence’s cheek.

“Oh, happy birthday, man.” Tre exclaimed, followed by Blaze wishing him one as well.

“Yeah, it was a couple weeks ago, but thanks.” Terrence gushed.

A loud tone suddenly flooded everyone’s ears.

Pour some sugar on me,
C’mon fire me up

“Sorry.” Blaze said aloud, her red painted fingers diving into her back pocket for her cell phone. “One sec.” she whispered, backing out of the small room.

“She seems nice.” Seny nodded. “Have you guys set a wedding date yet?”

Tre brought his blue eyes from off the floor, “yea, sometime in June.”

“What is that? Your third marriage?” Terrence pondered, not meaning to be that rude.

“Terrence…” Serenity gritted through her teeth, not liking where the conversation was headed.

“Yep, third time’s a charm.” Tre replied. “It’s better than having a lady who doesn’t wanna marry me.” He added a little slyly.

“Um, I think we better g—“ I began

“Sorry about that, my wedding planner loves to call at the most inconvenient times.”

"Anything important?" Tre nudged her

"Nah." she shook her head, pocketing the phone. "Am I the only one that could eat a whale right now? I'm starving." she chuckled lightly.

"You're not the only one. Most of the food was gone when we got backstage." Terrence answered, raising his eyebrows when he felt his girlfriend's grip around his hand tightening.

"Maybe we should all go get some dinner together, yea?" Blaze suggested, not noticing the looks of despair in the eyes of the people surrounding her.

"I'm sure they have other dinner plans, Blaze. You can't just w--"

"No, it's no problem. Right baby?" Terrence faced Serenity, smiling.

What the hell?!

"I don't know. We really should be getting back." Serenity said hesitantly.

"You guys are invited to eat at our place if you want..." Terrence boldly suggested.

No
he
did
not.

She was so stunned at his gesture, that her mouth was simply clamped shut and dry. She could find no words to dispute his gesture, her voice box completely gone.

Dinner at her house? With her children present? The same children that were Tre's, and that he had yet to know of their existence?!

"Uh, I don't know. We hav--" Tre tried making up an excuse, but was interrupted by his pestering fiancé.

"That'll be fine. We can all catch up." she smiled brightly... much too brightly. And then she whispered jokingly "and you can tell me all the dirt on Tre before I regret saying I do."

If Tre didn’t want to disclose any information about his past relationship to Blaze, then she'd simply have to find out from the other person involved, Serenity.

Her intentions weren't completely selfish though. She honestly wanted to get to know Serenity. She certainly wasn’t looking for a deep friendship with her fiancé’s ex-girlfriend, but she simply didn’t want an enemy or any awkward feelings towards the woman.
And after months of uncertainty, she would finally be able to know...and see, if Tre was truly over this woman.