Our Little Secret

"You're pretty good, you know that?" Billie asked breathlessly.

"Well, duh. Yes."

They'd just finished practicing a couple songs, and Billie and Mike were impressed with how quickly Tre had grasped everything. Tre wasn't about to inform them he and his friends already knew most of the songs on Green Day's EP; he liked getting all this credit for being a fast learner. He wasn't going to be the one to stop it.

"You're not modest at all, are you?" Mike joked.

"Nope," he said like the smartass he was.

Since they had finished practicing for the moment, Billie took off his guitar and walked into the back corner of the garage. Tre turned around in his seat to watch him, curious as to what he was doing. When Mike mimicked Billie's motions, Tre stood up and stood a few feet away from the other two. Billie quickly turned around, and Tre saw he had a couple of joints in his hand. He silently offered one out to him, and Tre took it. Billie also handed one to Mike and kept one for himself. Mike pulled his lighter out of his pocket and lit all three.

A part of Tre was worried about getting caught, but who was he to say no to free drugs?

Billie walked over to the single step leading from the garage to the house and sat down. Mike did the same, and Tre stood awkwardly to the side.

"You gonna join us?" Billie chuckled as he patted the space next to him.

Tre grinned and stepped over to his two friends. He sat down on the step where Billie had indicated, gently shoving him out of the way. Billie jokingly shoved him back, and the two of them amused themselves for a few minutes with that.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," Mike said. He looked over to the two of them and shook his head.

Tre pretended over-dramatically to be offended. "Mikey! Did you just call me an idiot?!"

Mike laughed. "Did you just call me 'Mikey?'"

Tre raised his eyes in thought, acting like he was searching for the answer to Mike's question. "Yep," he said smiling. "Why? Does it bug you? I'm gonna keep doing that just to piss you off. Hell, I'd do it to Billie here, but his name's already funny."

Billie looked up, confused as to why he was being dragged into this conversation. "How the hell is my name funny?"

Tre shrugged and mumbled an "I dunno." He grinned. "It just is."

Mike leaned over to see Tre's face. "Do you always act like this? It's like you're constantly high or something."

"It wouldn't surprise me if he was."

"'He' is sitting right here," he said to Billie. "And yeah, for the most part I always act like this. I'm betting I was dropped as a child."

"From a cliff."

"More than once."

"I heard that, you two."

"You were meant to," Mike said.

Billie laughed. "Oh, my God, you guys are fucking mental. Can't we just smoke in peace? Getting high and whatnot, it's supposed to be all relaxing and shit." The way Billie was talking made Mike wonder if this was the first joint Billie had had today. Probably not.

Mike smiled then leaned his head against the door frame while Billie shifted himself so he was now laying on the garage floor. The three of them stayed there a good ten minutes before Billie finally made a move to get up.

"We should probably finish practicing, you guys. We have to get that fucking bridge down."

"What time is it, anyways?"

Billie looked at his watch. "About five. Once we get this down, we can go in and get something to eat, okay?"



Half an hour later, the three of them were still hard at work. They had perfected the bridge like Billie had wanted, but he had insisted on "just one more thing." All three of them were exhausted, not to mention starving.

At a short break between two songs, Mike finally said said something to Billie. "Billie, we really need to take a break. I'm fucking hungry."

Billie didn't even look up at him from his papers. "Just, like, five more minutes, okay?"

"Billie, you said that twenty minutes ago. Either we take a break or you play without a bassist." He saw Tre out of the corner of his eye, and even he looked tired. "And from the looks of it, a drummer, too."

Billie looked up at him and sighed. "I'm kind of hungry, too, I guess. Are you going to stay for dinner?" he asked Tre.

"Sure. I should probably let my dad know, though. You got a phone?"

"No, Tre," he said sarcastically. "Why the hell would I have a phone?"

Mike chuckled. "Yeah, it's in here." He opened the door and walked into the kitchen. Tre and Billie followed, and Billie carefully balanced his guitar against the wall. Mike walked a few feet to the phone and handed it to Tre. "Here you go."

"And try not to talk too long. We're trying to cut down on the phone bill."

Tre nodded and dialed his phone number. Tre talked to his dad a few minutes while Billie pulled a couple dinners out of the freezer. He held them out to Tre, silently asking him which one he wanted. Tre pointed to one as he continued his conversation. "Hey, he wants your number." Billie pointed to a little sticky note by the phone and Tre read the number to his dad. Tre spoke a little more and then hung up the phone.

"Hey, I'm gonna go shut the door so none of our stuff gets taken, 'kay?" Billie didn't wait for an answer, not that he was expecting one.

While Billie was in the garage, Mike started getting drinks out for everyone. "Hey do you drink beer?" he asked Tre. He wasn't going to assume anything, but if Tre'd done all those drugs, you'd think he'd have tried alcohol.

"Yeah, that's fine."

Billie walked back inside right as the microwave beeped, signaling their dinner was done. He walked over and took ot out as Mike set their drinks on the table. Billie followed him and set the food down. Tre naturally followed them over as well. After grabbing a few plates, the three of them sat down together at the table.

"Just take whatever you want," Billie said to Tre. They were sharing one of those larger microwave dinners that said it served, like, eight but barely fed four.

As the three of them were eating, Tre wondered where everyone else was. 'They can't be the only ones that live here.' Billie and Mike just seemed to act like this was a normal thing, though, and Tre didn't really care to mention it. It was none of his business, and for once, he was going to mind his own.



A couple hours later, the three of them were sprawled across the living room floor mindlessly watching the only thing they could find on TV. They heard the door from the garage open, but neither Mike nor Billie seemed bothered by it. Tre wondered who it was, but upon seeing the others' lack of response, he didn't pay much attention.

"Billie?" a woman's voice called out.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Do you think you and Mike can help me out with the groceries?" She made her way into the living room. "Who's he?" she asked curiously, pointing to Tre. Her tone of voice and her appearance gave Tre the impression she was a pretty nice lady; a little older than he thought Billie's mom would be, but nice nonetheless. "And why are none of you wearing any shirts. It's freezing in here."

"We were busy practicing," Billie told her. He pushed himself up off the floor and stood up. Mike stood up to help with the groceries along with him, and Tre figured he might as well help, too. Billie noticed Tre standing up and then remembered his mom had asked him to introduce him. "Oh, this is Tre. He was helping us out with practice since John had better things to do." Billie barely tried to hide his disgust for the guy. It was pretty obvious that he didn't like him all that much.

"Well, actually, he should probably be heading home about now. It's getting kind of late, and you guys probably have some homework to do, huh?"

"Yeah, we'll take him home after we get the groceries."

"Hey, put a shirt on, you two. It's cold out. And you might want one, too," she told Tre.

The three nodded and put their remaining clothes on. They went outside through the garage to the car to get the bags. Within a few minutes, they had brought all the bags inside, and Billie's mom, Ollie, insisted they take Tre home before it got any later.