Half Wit

“Thank you so much Mrs.Armstrong, and sorry for the late hour,” Lou said, blushing a little as she entered the house with a small bag over her shoulder. Adrienne smiled at the girl and then shook her head at the state she was in. Before Lou could even protest against it, Adrienne wrapped her arms around the girl and pulled her in a hug.

Looking shocked for a moment, fresh tears sprang into Lou's eyes before she buried her head in Adrienne's chest and sobbed quietly while the woman rubbed soft circles on her back. She had only talked to Billie Joe briefly and didn't know the complete situation but she knew that the girl needed someone to talk to right now and if she was the only one the girl could turn too, she would gladly be that someone. Knowing that she loved Lou as much as she loved Emelie.

“You'll be alright my dear, don't worry,” Adrienne whispered, bending down so she could look Lou in the eyes and smile at her, looking at her hopeful and so, trying to spark some hope in the girl. Lou swallowed and closed her eyes, nodding a little before she was lead into the kitchen by the older woman.

Sitting down on one of the chairs, Lou was grateful that she was so well accepted in the Armstrong household, remembering the day she had arrived here first and Billie Joe had freaked out about her sweater and bag. The memory still made her smile to this day and she had always been grateful for Emelie's kindness and the acceptance she received from the Armstrong family.

“I prepared Emelie's room for you,” Adrienne smiled sweetly at Lou who looked up from the cup of hot chocolate milk Adrienne placed in front of her. She nodded, not really knowing what to say and surprised by the kindness of this family unlike her own family. She scowled a little at the reminder of her bad family and sighed sadly. Adrienne sat down next to Lou and took the girl's hand in her own.

“If you want to talk, you can always talk to me alright Lou darlin'?” Adrienne said, smiling and stroking some of Lou's red hair out of her eyes. Lou bit back tears at the soft words of the woman and nodded before picking up her cup and drinking a little from the hot chocolate milk Adrienne had prepared for her.

“I ... I don't think I want to talk about it for now, can I go to sleep?” Lou asked, looking at Adrienne with pleading eyes as she placed her cup of chocolate milk back on the table, still half filled with the drink. Adrienne smiled kindly at the girl and nodded, standing up and motioning the girl to follow her.

“Don't worry, sleep as long as you want alright? I'll call school tomorrow and call you in sick, I'll think up of an excuse why I'm calling them for you and not your parents,” Adrienne said, tucking Lou in after she had changed in the nightgown she had brought with her. Lou nodded, her eyes already half closed from the tiredness catching up with her. This whole night and everything that had happened had worn the girl out.

Adrienne bended down and placed a soft kiss on Lou's forehead before wiping some of her hair from her eyes and tucking it behind her ear and then leaving the room after shooting one last worried glance at the girl. Frowning a little, Adrienne made her way downstairs and saw the still half filled cup of chocolate milk standing on the table, she smiled sadly and saw Lou's broken eyes in front of her as she placed it in the sink, telling herself she would do the dishes the next morning.

After hearing Adrienne walk down the stairs, Lou opened her eyes again and let some tears fall down her cheeks as she sat up on the bed and hugged her knees to her chest. She was amazed by the mothering she had received from Adrienne, not being used to this, Lou hadn't exactly known how to react to something like that in a situation like this. Sobbing as she placed her head on her knees, Lou didn't even try to hold back tears as the whole night replayed in her head.

“Lou honey? You alright?” Adrienne's voice came from behind her door, Lou looked up and gazed at the door that lead towards where she was hiding. Whispering a soft 'no', she was glad to see Adrienne's sweet smile reflected back at her as the woman entered the room and saw the girl with tear-stained cheeks.

“Aaw darling, come here,” Adrienne walked over to the girl and pulled her into another hug. Lou responded to this hug by wrapping her own arms around Adrienne's waist and burying her head in the woman's chest as she cried. Adrienne was surprised by the sudden hug back from the girl but didn't let her go as she let the girl cry on her shoulder, smiling sadly at how the girl clung to her.

“I just .. can't understand ... how they can't accept me the way I am!” Lou blurted out between sobs, still not daring to lift up her head and make eye contact with Adrienne “I'm their first child, I'm supposed to be important to them, instead they can't accept me and thrown me out because of my own choices!”

Adrienne pulled back from the hug and placed her hands on Lou's shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes and smiling sadly.

“If they can't accept their own child's choices, or see what a wonderful person you are, then they aren't worth the fact that you are their daughter,” Adrienne said, wiping some of the tears from Lou's cheek with her thumb. Lou sniffed a little and looked straight into Adrienne's eyes before she bit her lip to prevent more tears from falling and nodded sadly.

Adrienne hugged the girl again and then gave her another peck on the forehead before starting to leave the room again, giving Lou her own space to deal with this. Before she could leave however, Lou stopped her with her soft voice.

“Uh, Mrs. Armstrong .. this seems awkward to ask but can I .. stay with you? I don't really want to be alone right now,” Lou asked, blushing a little at the nerve she had to even ask this to the mother of her best friend. Adrienne looked at the girl sitting awkward on the bed with pleading eyes before her own eyes softened at the girl and she nodded. Lou smiled grateful at the woman before standing up from the bed and hugging her again before following her to the main bedroom where Adrienne climbed in bed and patted the spot next to her.

“Don't worry, I won't tell Billie,” Adrienne smiled, teasing Lou a little at the fact that she was wearing an over-sized Slipknot t-shirt as her sleeping wear. Lou blushed a little and walked over to the bed, climbing next to Adrienne. Not really daring to get closer, Lou kept her distance but Adrienne clearly had other thoughts and pulled the girl in a close hug before softly humming a song and causing Lou to fall asleep while being hugged.

*

“I wonder how Lou is,” Emelie muttered, hugging her knees to her chest, sitting on the couch while the bus was driving towards the next location. Billie Joe smiled at his daughter and sat next to her, a cup of coffee in his hands as he pulled her in a one way hug.

“I'm sure your mother is taking care of her, Adrienne got a thing for making sure people around her are alright and she's good at making them feel alright too, don't worry so much.”

Emelie nodded and sighed a little before standing up from the couch and kissing her father on the cheek and walked to the bunks. Billie Joe watched her retreating form and smiled at his daughter, feeling proud of her that she had alerted him of Lou's situation so they could help the girl. Picking up his own cellphone, he rang Adrienne's number, wondering himself how it had gone that evening and if everything was alright with Lou. No matter how much the two fought over the fact that she kept wearing Slipknot merch, Billie Joe still had a soft spot for the girl and couldn't bare seeing her hurt or sad.

Letting it ring a few times and noticing that Adrienne didn't pick up after a minute or so, he guessed his beautiful wife was already asleep and hung up, hoping that he hadn't woken her up anyway and just hung up when she was about to pick up. Looking at his cellphone, Billie Joe yawned and stretched his arms out just above his head before he stood up from the couch and scratched the back of his neck. Stalking towards the bunk area, he searched for his own bunk in a daze before he climbed in it and closed his eyes, muttering some incoherent words under his breath and falling asleep.

Emelie on the other hand, couldn't quite fall asleep. Sighing, she sat up and made sure she didn't hit her head on the bunk above hers before reaching out for her laptop, she knew that it was a little late to get on line and do something but since she couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake anyone up at home by calling them at this hour, her laptop and the wireless Internet connection were her best friends.

Seeing that there were still several people on line on AIM, Emelie sighed and immediately saw that they were fans, all the people except her close friends and family members on her list were Green Day fans, how they had gotten her screen name was unknown to her but she knew that it would be better to just go offline again. Not that she didn't want to talk to fans but it was late and she was almost sure that most of them would ask questions on how the boys were and she wasn't really in the mood for that.

Deciding that it was no use anyway to be on the computer at this hour, Emelie sighed and closed the laptop before getting out of her small bunk and walking up towards the front of the bus. The only one awake on the bus at the moment was herself and the driver, and even he didn't feel like talking to the teenager so in a matter of only a few minutes, Emelie was laying on the couch and looking up to the ceiling.

To be honest, Emelie's worries about her friend was the only reason keeping her awake and she knew that Lou herself would beat Emelie up if she knew that the girl didn't sleep because she worried too much. She was probably alright and safely sleeping over at Emelie's house. Her mother was there if she needed anything. That was probably the fact that made Emelie feel so disappointed in herself, it wasn't her.

Not that she minded that her mother took care of the girl back home but for some reason, Emelie felt like a bad friend. While she was on tour, her friend was having problems back at home and she wasn't even there to help Lou get through them. Instead, she was somewhere on the border between Utah and Denver.

Hearing her cellphone somewhere around her, Emelie frowned and quickly lifted up the pillows on the couch in search for it. Seeing that it was on the counter, Emelie quickly grabbed it and answered the call before the volume would rise and wake everyone on the bus up.

“Lyra, ever heard of the right timing? It's in the middle of the night?!”

“Well then why did you pick this fucking phone up?” Lyra shot back to Emelie, probably smirking to herself to get such a reaction out of her friend.

“Because otherwise it would've woken up the whole damn bus that's why,” Emelie rolled her eyes and tried to keep her voice down so she would wake anyone up herself.

“So, how is it going?”

“...” Emelie didn't really know how to respond to that question. It seemed too abnormal that Lyra would actually ask this when she was on the phone to her friend in the middle of the night.

“What? Can't I ask how the hell it's going, geez woman!”

Emelie didn't immediately respond to remark from Lyra and wondered if the girl actually had a reason to call her at this hour of the night or it was just because she once again couldn't sleep. Then again, whenever she couldn't sleep, she would fall asleep at a certain point of the night and sleep until something around 3 pm.

“Alright, I was just wondering if you've heard from Lou lately, she didn't exactly show up when we were supposed to go shopping earlier today and she had promised she would,” Lyra said, clearly showing her worry for her friend even though it went over such a small matter like not appearing for a shopping spree with the girl.

“She's fine, I talked to her earlier actually, she didn't say anything about the shopping spree so I couldn't ask but yeah, she might not be in school tomorrow, I don't know, she said something about that,” Emelie tried to give Lyra as much information as she could at this moment, not really knowing what she was allowed to say about Lou's situation.

“Oh, well, if you hear her, tell her ... just tell her to call me alright?” Lyra sounded rather defeated, like she had expected Emelie to give her the full scoop on what was wrong with Lou, knowing that Emelie would know more than anyone else about Lou's situation. Then again, Emelie was the kind of friend that would keep things to herself if her friend was in trouble or anything so Lyra couldn't really know if she was telling the complete truth or not.

“I will, and Lyra? She'll be fine, don't worry,” Emelie said with a small smile, assuring her friend about Lou's situation before hanging up and Lyra could ask any more questions. Sighing, Emelie threw her cellphone on the other side of the couch and sat on her knees so she could look outside. She wondered briefly if she would be able to see Taking Back Sunday's bus but realized that they were either too far ahead or just behind the bus for Emelie to see them from her spot on the couch.

“I hate this part of touring,” Emelie muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and finally sitting down on the couch again, pouting slightly. Hearing her father mutter something in his sleep, she was glad she wasn't in her own bunk, knowing for sure that she would've understand what he had just said and she wasn't really sure if she really wanted to know.

Eventually, Emelie managed to fall asleep on the couch, waking up when the sun was already shining through the window and realizing that someone had put a blanket over her sometime during the night. She smiled and pushed the thin blanket of her body, yawning a little and stretching her arms out above her head.

“Oh, hi dad,” Emelie yawned again as she finally noticed her father sitting at the small kitchen table in the tour bus. He smiled at her and stood up, grabbing another cup and filling it with the fresh coffee he had made earlier before handing it over to his daughter. She muttered a soft 'thanks' and held the cup, waiting a bit before taking a sip.

“Couldn't sleep?” Billie Joe asked, looking worried at his daughter that looked like she could several more cups of coffee. He wondered if sometimes he looked as bad as her after a few months of tour, trying to hide it with eyeliner as much as possible.

“Not in the bunk no,” Emelie muttered darkly, rubbing her tired eyes and leaning back on the couch as she was too lazy to stand up and walk towards the pot of coffee to refill her cup, “heard from mom yet?”

“Yeah, Lou is still sleeping, she arrived around 11 pm at home so yeah, Adrienne is letting her sleep out, she called school and told them that Lou is sick and that her parents are on vacation and that's why she's over at our house.”

Emelie nodded, smiling a little and finally standing up from the couch before retreating to the back of the bus, yelling over her shoulder that she was going to take a shower and no one should enter the small bathroom while she was occupying it. Of course, while she was doing so, Tré had found it necessary to hit her with his pillow as she passed his bunk, claiming that she had woken him up while Mike was still snoring slightly in his pillow, laying on his chest.

Coming out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later (which was a lot less than the time Billie Joe needed on some mornings, claiming his eyeliner was bullying him most of the time when Emelie told him about how long he was in the bathroom), Emelie was dressed in some loose jeans and an over sized Green Day shirt from the earlier days, most of the time making the band hug her more on the days she wore it, claiming she had to be their biggest fan while Emelie just wore the shirt because it was the one she felt the most comfortable in while on tour.

She had particularly chosen not to wear any eyeliner that day, not having found her pencil on the usual place in the small bathroom. Yet, her dreads were hanging loose around her neck and falling over her shoulders as she had forgotten to put them in a bun after she had gotten out of the shower.

Billie Joe smiled at her from the kitchen table, where he was sipping from a cup of coffee, briefly, Emelie wondered how many cups he had drank already that morning, knowing that she was to be trapped with a hyper Billie Joe on one bus the whole day, she carefully took the last bits of coffee and closed the cupboard where the coffee was stored, just out precautions. In the mean time, Mike and Tré where keeping themselves busy with the play station installed to the big television covering the wall of the bus. Emelie smiled as Tré kicked Mike's ass at the game and actually wondered what it was about video games and drummers winning them all the time.

“Stop trying to figure it out, you won't find the solution anyway,” Billie Joe said, rolling his eyes a little at his two friends yelling at the television trying to distract each other from the game and so win from the other. Emelie sighed and walked to her bunk, starting to search for her book before settling down on the couch with a pillow supporting her back before opening the last page she had reached previously.

“You still didn't finish that damn book?” Billie Joe asked in wonder, looking at Emelie who was still reading the same book even though she could read it out in one day.

“I did, last night, I just started again cause I couldn't sleep and it's such a damn good book.”

“I hate you,” Billie Joe muttered, glaring slightly at his daughter for having such a lust for reading while he couldn't even read a small article in the newspaper. Then again, he wasn't really interested in those small articles so that's probably why he couldn't exactly stand them, let alone read them.

“It's okay, I hate you to,” Emelie smirked at her father, letting a grin grow on his lips before returning to her book.

“Then why do you keep hugging me on random moments?”

“Oh, you know, I got to get money somehow,” Emelie rolled her eyes with a small smirk playing on his lips. Billie Joe opened his mouth several times before sighing and pouting.

“You little whore.”

“Look who's talking, you randomly take your band members up the ass,” Emelie smirked, enjoying this little banter with her father. It had been a while since they had a good conversation like this, not really trying to have one subject but just try to out-best each other in witty comebacks.

“That's only on the Internet!”

“Oh so you admit it that you take your band members up the ass?!”

“I ...uh...DAMN IT WOMAN!”

Emelie smirked, realizing that she had just won the conversation. Mike was looking at them for a few seconds with a frown on his forehead before sighing and shaking his head.

“Well it sure ain't me he's taking up the ass.”

“Are you sure?” Emelie asked, smirking and closing her book as she knew that she wouldn't be reading with this conversation going on.

“Yeah.”

“How do you know?” Emelie smirked.

“Because it's me he's banging!” Tré quickly said, throwing the controlling on the couch before running over to Billie and sitting down on his lap, planting a wet kiss on the singer's cheek.

“So Mike, how do you feel being the only one not getting laid on this tour?”

“Fuck you Em,” Mike said, laughing a little and mocking her a little. Emelie raised an eyebrow at him and then smirked, shooting a glance at her father trying to push Tré off his lap.

“I thought I told you I only do that on weekends, it's Friday.”

“Isn't Friday part of the weekend?” Mike asked, wondering what Emelie was trying to say.

“It's Friday morning Mike, it's not weekend yet,” the teenager replied, looking at Mike with a smug look on her face.

“Damn it Tré, I thought I told you I'm not interested in you that way!” Billie Joe half-yelled, still struggling to drink his coffee while Tré kept kissing Billie Joe's cheek with kisses.

“Well somebody is horny,” Emelie noted, looking at the the two men sitting on each other's lap.

“I always heard coffee is good for your sex life,” Mike joined in at Emelie's side, smirking at Billie Joe drinking his coffee.

“Yeah, it kept me awake during the whole damn thing,” Billie Joe said annoyed.

“See, he likes it up the ass,” Emelie pointed at her father who spit out his coffee in shock at her comeback before glaring at her.

“How do you know? You haven't even gotten laid yet,” the singer shot back at his daughter.

“...Are you sure about that?”

Billie Joe's eyes widened slightly before he opened his mouth several times and closed it again.

“Have you?” he asked, looking worried at her and trying to figure out if she was joking or not, he hoped he was not but you could never be sure with daughters of the age of 17.

“Well you know, me and Adam...”

“...”

“Sheesh dad, stop freaking out already, if I want to get laid I'll ask Mike,” Emelie responded, winking at Mike, “too bad he takes it up the ass just like you and Tré so I don't know if that's bad for me or you guys.”

“If I took Tré and Mike up the ass, you wouldn't be here,” Billie Joe smirked.

“Shit.”

“I win,” Billie Joe claimed and finally managed to push Tré of his lap before dancing around the hallway of the bus, singing some random song while shaking his ass.

“I thought I told you not to fucking dance around with that white ass of yours!”

“Well guess what? People love this white ass,” Billie Joe remarked, slapping his ass and looking smugly over shoulder at his daughter.

“Yeah, that's why there are hate communities and groups on LiveJournal supporting 'butt tanning lotion' and planning on sending you some bottles.”

“Have you been drinking again?”

“Yeah, I'm high on coffee,” Emelie rolled her eyes at her father thinking she would drink.

“...You can get high on coffee now?”

“Yeah, after effects are humping amplifiers, turning into a girl because of overdose make-up and taking band members up the ass.”

“I think we get the point already,” Billie Joe sighed, shaking his head and taking up his cup of cold coffee now before sipping from it and making a face at the coldness of the drink.

“Oh, and cold coffee tastes like shit, take that from me.”