Our Little Secret

On Saturday, Tre pulled up to Billie and Mike's house around four in the afternoon. Mike had called earlier to let him know that Billie was still sick, although Tre had kind of figured that out already. Billie hadn't been to school since he got sick; Ollie wouldn't let him go. Hell, Billie had wished she'd made him go. At least then he could manage to get out of the house. (He'd probably end up cutting class anyway, and honestly, that's what he really wanted.)
But Mike and Tre weren't about to let Billie ruin their plans. They were going to that party for Tre's birthday with or without Billie Joe. Billie had been trying to convince Mike he was fine, but Mike figured that when Billie threw up all over himself, there was no way in hell he was up to heading out. Mike had told Tre all of this, too, during their earlier phone conversation, so Tre was well aware of their plans for tonight. He and Mike were going to go together in Mike's beat-up truck, which is why Tre was meeting him at his house. He walked up the front walk and knocked on the door so he could let Mike know he was there, but instead of Mike, Ollie opened the door to let him in.

Tre panicked mildly. He suddenly realized he didn't know what exactly Mike had told Ollie regarding their plans for the night. He was pretty sure that it wasn't anything along the lines of "we're going to out and get hammered for Tre's birthday."

Lucky for Tre, Ollie didn't say anything about whatever they were doing that night. She greeted him as cheerfully as ever, which was actually pretty nice considering Tre thought she didn't think to highly of him after she found out about all of them skipping school. "Hello, Tre. Billie Joe's up in his room. He wanted to say happy birthday to you before you and Mike headed out. Speaking of Mike, I think he's upstairs, too."

Tre nodded and smiled at her. "Thanks, Mrs. Armstrong," he said as he shyly passed by her to head up to Billie's room.

"It's Ollie, sweetie," she called out after him.

Tre smiled but didn't look back at her. She was never anything but nice to him, but he couldn't help but feel a bit awkward around her at times. After that incident with David, (who Tre only recently found out was Billie's older brother,) he was always worried Ollie was just pretending to be nice to him while she secretly hated his guts. Ollie, however, was well aware of this and always chuckled to herself whenever he acted odd around her.

Tre knocked on the door to Billie's room, and Mike opened the door a second later. "Hey, Tre," he said smiling. "Happy birthday."

Tre smirked. "Thanks, Mikey."

Mike glared at him while leading him the few steps to Billie's bed. "I'm gonna kill you, you know that?"

"Mm-hmm," he replied cheerfully.

Billie swatted at the two of them from his bed. "Yeah, yeah. While this is all very touching," Billie joked, "I have a present for you," he told Tre.

Tre looked away from Mike and over to Billie. "I thought this whole party was my present," he said. "You don't have to give me anything."

"Oh, relax. It's nothing," Billie replied. He never could quite figure out why Tre didn't want a present. It sure as hell wasn't 'cause he was humble or anything. "Hand me my wallet," he instructed, sitting up a bit in his bed.

Tre hesitated. 'Not money, you dumbass.' Once again, Tre felt slightly guilty over whatever his upcoming present would be. 'Don't give me something you don't have,' he thought. Despite his mental protests, he reached over to the shelf by Billie's bed and grabbed his wallet.

He handed it over to him, and Billie dug through it. The thing was stuffed more with pictures than with money, Tre noticed, as a bunch of old photos fell out. Tre hadn't realized what a sentimental guy Billie was. Mike was in a bunch of them, even some of the older ones. It was funny seeing his friends so much younger. The only other person Tre recognized was Ollie. Tre figured David was probably in some of them, but he didn't remember what he looked like well enough to recognize him.

Billie didn't pay much attention to the pictures that fell out. He just continued flipping through to find the money he had set aside for Tre's present. His wallet wasn't very organized, to say the least.

"Got a lot of pictures there, huh?" Tre said.

Billie looked down at the photos and smiled. "Oh, yeah. I gotta clean this thing out. Some of these are older than dirt," he joked. He gathered the photos and flipped through a couple of them. He pulled one out and set the rest aside on his bed. He propped it up on the shelf by his bed and looked at it for a quick second.

"Who are they?" Tre asked of the two in the photo.

Billie looked at him smiling. It was only a half-assed smile, one that didn't reach his eyes. "Me and my dad," he answered quietly.

"Yeah?" Tre said cautiously. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

Billie looked back at the picture, still smiling.

"Billie?" Mike asked quietly.

Billie ignored him and turned back to look Tre. "It's the last picture of the two of us together," he said. This time he smiled a genuine smile, but it quickly turned into a sad one. "He—He passed away about a week later. My mom got me a copy of this a couple years ago," he explained. "I was ten."

Tre didn't say anything. Luckily, Billie had turned away from him and once again back to the picture, so he didn't see Tre standing there awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

"Billie…" Mike said.

Billie ignored him again. "He was… He was really cool. He was the best dad," he said quietly. He turned again to look at his friends. He shook himself out of his mood and attempted to look like he wasn't as upset as he felt. "Mike met him a few times," he said with a smile. "It would've been cool if you had, too."

Mike cocked his head at his friend. He knew this upset him more than he ever liked to admit. Billie pretended to not notice his friend's sympathetic smile. He'd be damned if he ruined Tre's birthday. He reached back to his wallet and quickly found a twenty dollar bill. "Here's your present, by the way," he told Tre with a forced smirk. "Spend it on a hooker or something," he joked.

Tre took it with a smirk mimicking Billie's. Mike relaxed as well. Neither one of them believed Billie was okay with their conversation, but he clearly didn't want to dwell on it, so they wouldn't make him.

"Hey, happy birthday," he said. Tre smiled, this one a little more genuine than his previous smirk. "Now, get out of here, you assholes," he instructed jokingly.

Mike and Tre laughed. They all said their goodbyes, though they were a bit tense on Billie's part. "I want a full report tomorrow of what I missed," Billie said as the other two left the room.

As they made their way downstairs, Mike passively told Tre to "just drop it." Tre knew what he was talking about and silently agreed that he wasn't going to bring it up with either one of them. No need to create any more awkward situations between the three of them. When they reached climbed in Mike's truck, Mike looked over at Tre. "Look, don't feel bad about bringing that up," he said.

'What happened to dropping it?'

"Believe it or not, Billie can actually really enjoy talking about his dad; he just doesn't like talking about the fact that he's gone, for obvious reasons," Mike explained. "Just don't worry about it, okay? Billie's fine; he probably just wants to be alone for a bit."

Tre nodded half-heartedly.

"I mean it, Tre," Mike said, starting to smile. "Don't let this ruin your birthday. I'm sure Billie will forget about it by tomorrow and so should you."

Tre nodded again, this time more convinced by Mike's words.

"Okay, now, it's about time we headed off to your birthday celebration."

"You realize we're the only ones there who are gonna be celebrating my birthday."

"Doesn't that make it even better?" Mike asked. "Who wants a big fuss over their birthday? This way we can get the whole 'party' thing down without everyone embarrassing you the whole time."

Tre chuckled. "Well, when you put it like that…"

Mike smiled and put the truck into gear. He prayed that relying on Billie's unreliable directions would manage to get them to this party in one piece.