Paper Lanterns

The next few weeks consisted of christmas shopping, wrapping then hiding presents, yelling at Billie Joe for tearing up your room looking for the presents, making up, chilling with John, Mike, Lisea, Dani, and of course Billie Joe, playing a couple shows, and going to Green Day's. Green Day started getting shows at Gilman St. with much thanks to John, who really insists on being called Al Sobrante but you refuse to just to annoy him.

"Come on, Maria. Tell me what you got me!!" Billie pleades with you again for the millionth time today. He's on his knees now like he was begging the Lord's forgivness or something. You just sat there laughing.

"Nah, that's okay." You say getting up and walking towards your bedroom door, but not before messing up his hair. "I like seeing you beg."

"Oh so like me begging, eh?" Billie said coming after you, smirking. Brad and Ollie were out shopping. "Kinky."

You shook your head. "That all you think about?"

"Well, I think about you..." He trails off. "But that leads to sex. And I think about music..but then I end up thinking about 1,000 hours and that is basically about making love which is like sex, but.....I don't know. So to answer your question, yes."

"You're hopeless, Armstrong. You know that?" You say walking out the door and walking down the street. "HOPELESS!" You walked all the way to Dani's house which is, well kinda far. But definitely not as far as Jingle Town, you think to yourself. You finally get to her house and see a young Michael Pritchard's truck in the driveway in replace of her parents car. The door's unlocked so you just walk in. You walk into the kitchen and pull a soda out of the fridge and yell to wherever they may be in your Ricky Ricardo accent, "Ohhhhh Luuuucy! I'm homeeeee!"

"SHIT!" You hear from upstairs. You can't help it, you start laughing. You fall onto the couch and Mike and Dani emerge from the upstairs with their hair and clothes a bit disarray. "What's so funny?" Mike asks. You take one look at them and start laughing again, so hard that you produce tears.

In the middle of fits of laughter you manage to say, still speaking in the Ricky Ricardo accent, "Lucyyy, you got some 'splaining to do."

"This is not what it looks like." Mike said quickly, thinking you wouldn't notice the messed up hair and messily thrown on clothing.

"You're not Lucy. She is!" You say pointing to a very red-faced Dani.

"Are you on drugs?" She speaks up.

"Nope. I'm clean as a whistle." You say, still laughing.

"Is she drunk?" Dani asks Mike.

He shakes his head no. "She's rather calm when she's drunk actually."

"Oh." Dani says.

"Hey, Dani. I guess you got your christmas present from Mike a little bit early, eh?" You say winking at Mike.

"Yeah, she's on drugs." Mike and Dani say simultaneously.

"GOD DAMNIT." You say rather loudly. "Why is everyone doing that?! It's driving me towards insanity!"

Dani looked at you a bit confused. "One...what is everyone doing? And two...you're already past insanity, Maria."

"How dare you insult me in your home." You say becoming completely serious.

"Speaking of homes, why aren't you at yours and Billie's?" Mike asked curiously.

"Because he wouldn't stop asking me about his christmas ----OH SHIT!" You cut yourself off. "I left him in the house, alone, with his christmas present up in my closet. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." You got up off the couch and walked out the door, and sprinted back home, leaving Dani and Mike trying to comprehend what just happened.

[Billie Joe's Point of View -1st person]

Maria walked outside the house and went down the street somewhere. I didn't bother following her because I had another idea. Operation: Find my present before she comes home. I walked upstairs and went into her room and looked in the only place I hadn't looked in yet. Her closet. I opened it, only to find it was rather messy. There were clothes all over the floor of the closet, old board games we hadn't played in ages, old notebooks, and things of the sort.

"Now if I were my present, where would I be?" I thought out loud to myself.

"BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG!" I heard a voice which was distinctively Maria's scream from downstairs. "IF YOU'RE UP IN MY ROOM LOOKING FOR YOUR PRESENT, YOU WON'T LIVE TO GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANT FROM ME THAT YOU'RE NOT GETTING." Shit. She wasn't gone very long. Gotta get out of here. Just as I turned around I saw a very worn out Maria leaning against the door frame staring back at me. "I...thought...I...told...you..."

"Uh...it wasn't me!" I said quickly. Oh then who's in her room, dumbass?..Right that'd be me. Before I could say anything else she charged at me, causing the both of us to fall on the bed. (Me: closet's by the bed, by the way) Hmm...Brad and my mom are out shopping and we're both on her bed..maybe I will get what I really want after all...

"No way, Armstrong. Not today." Maria said getting up. Can she read my mind? I mean, I wasn't even smirking. Was I? "No, I can't read minds. And no, you weren't smirking either." How does she do that? "You're just so predictable."

"Oh yeah? I'm predictable?" I said sitting up. She smiled and nodded. "Okay how's this for predictable?" I grabbed her and pulled her back down ontop of me. I flipped over so she was underneath me.

Maria laughed. "I told you you were predictable." She whispered in my ear.

"What can I say?" I said not completely ontop of her, since my fists were on either side of her. "I can't help myself."

"Maria! Billie! Brad and I are home!" I heard my mom call from downstairs just as I was about to lean in and kiss Maria. Fuck, and to think I was almost sure I was gonna have my way with her too. Damnit. I got up and walked over to the door.

Maria propped herself up and said with a grin on her face, "You know Billie, it's not nice to curse."

"Are you reading my thoughts, Maria?" I inquired. Heh, inquired. That's a big word..wonder what it means. I'll ask Mike later.

"It means to question. And Mike's busy at the moment." Maria said trying to stifle a laugh. "And yes, I can read your mind. It's one of the perks of being born into the strange family I have or had or whatever." Great now I'm dating a psychic. Hm, psychic sounds like psycho. So, I'm dating a psycho, I mean psychic. "I heard that." I shook my head and walked downstairs.

[Even though that was fun, back to Maria's point of view -2nd person (normal)]

You got up and followed Billie Joe downstairs. So now he knows you're secret. Probably not good for the relationship though. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. "Did you know Maria's psychic?" You heard Billie Joe ask Ollie.

"Yes, of course I did." She simply replied as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. "Why? You didn't?"

"Nope." Billie said just as you stepped down the last stair.

"Maria, you never told Billie Joe you were psychic?" Ollie asked you.

You shook your head. "The topic never came up."

"Maria, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Billie asked me. Uh-oh. This can't be good.

Once outside and sitting on the stoop Billie began telling me his opinions, when you could've just tapped into his mind and listened yourself. But noooo, we have to do it the mortal way. Figures. "Why didn't you tell me you were psychic?"

"Like I said inside, the topic never came up." You said. "I mean, what was I supposed to do? Huh, Billie Joe?" Silence. "Was I supposed to walk up to you in nursery school and be all 'Hey Billie, what's up? By the way I'm psychic'? I don't think so."

"Yeah well you still could've told me." He snapped back.

You sighed. "I didn't know how. Plus I was afraid."

"What were you afraid about?" Billie Joe asked you pulling you into a hug.

You paused. "I was afraid you'd think I was some kind of freak and not want to be my friend anymore if I told you." You moved your head away so you wouldn't have to look at him.

Billie placed his left index finger under your chin and pulled it up so you'd have to face him. "Look at me, Maria. I love you so fucking much and nothing could ever make me think anything bad about you. And don't you dare think otherwise, you hear me?" His lips then brushed against yours for a second and he pulled you in closer to him. You both sat there for a while before walking back inside.