Our Little Secret

The first thing Mike and Billie did when they got home that day was head upstairs to Billie's room. Billie was a pretty private guy, so not too many people were allowed in his room. That's why he was so thankful when his mother finally let him and his brother David have separate rooms. He didn't like people snooping around his stuff, but he and Mike were close enough that he didn't really have a problem with him being in there. The only other people ever up there it seemed were his family and the occasional girlfriend, and his family was usually in there without his consent.

Mike sat down on Billie's bed while Billie opted to sit on his dresser. Billie often sat there when he was agitated because a small board was loose and he distracted himself by picking at it. He probably didn't even realize he did it, but Mike always picked up on it and took it as a signal to talk with him.

"You still mad at John?"

Billie shrugged. "Why shouldn't I be? The guy's an ass."

"You have such a way with words," Mike said sarcastically. "I actually wanted to tell you something, and it'll hopefully cheer you up a little." Billie looked over to Mike curiously. "I was talking to Tre after lunch today, and we were talking about how we needed a new drummer. He told me that The Lookouts are probably gonna be splitting soon, which would make him available to join Green Day."

Billie held Mike's gaze for a moment before looking away to think it over. He couldn't really think of any good reason not to let Tre join, except he seemed to have a screw or two loose. They needed a drummer, and Tre was available. It didn't hurt that they already knew him, too. Billie knew, however, that it wasn't solely his decision, so he turned back to him to discuss it. "Well, do you want him in the band?"

Mike shrugged. "We need a drummer, and we already know Tre." Billie chuckled to himself and rolled his eyes when he realized Mike was repeating everything he had already thought himself. "I mean, sure, he's a little—"

"Psychotic?"

"Exactly. But I don't really see why he couldn't join. It seems like a perfect idea to me—everyone wins."

Billie nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. You wanna talk it over with him tomorrow? We can talk about the little technical details and stuff."

"Works for me. Do it at lunch?"

"Probably. Either that or after school, but I don't know if he's gonna wanna come over after what happened with John. I mean, he already canceled today." Billie stopped for a second. "Do you think he didn't come over 'cause of me hitting John? What if I ran him off and he hates my guts now?"

Mike burst out laughing at Billie's worries, leading Billie to be artificially offended. "Billie, I just told him I'd talk to you about him joining the band. That's why he didn't come over today; he thought we should talk it over first. Do you really think if he hated your guts that he would still suggest working with us?"

Billie laughed a little, too. "Well, I guess not. Cut me some slack, though. I think I'm still on amphetamines at the moment, so I'm not thinking clearly."

"Never would've guessed, Billie."

He rolled his eyes. "Hey, do you wanna practice some so when Tre comes over, he's blown away by our awesomely perfect songs?"

Now it was Mike's turn to roll his eyes. "Why not, Billie? But if we're gonna practice by ourselves, we need some beer."

"Definitely," Billie agreed. Then Billie cursed himself out. "Except I'm pretty sure I went through them all last night."

Mike smirked. "Then I guess it's your turn to buy some more, huh?"

Billie smiled and rolled his eyes. "I hate you, Mike."

"I know." While Billie looked for his keys, which were right on the floor, Mike's curiosity suddenly hit him. "How did your mom not notice, like, five cans of beer missing this morning?"

Billie shrugged. "Maybe she thinks David drank them. Or maybe she just didn't go in the fridge."

Mike rolled his eyes at his friend's stupidity. "Billie, we had eggs this morning… and milk… and orange juice."

Billie scoffed. "Okay, smart one, why the hell would we have milk and orange juice?"

"Billie… never mind." Mike finally appeared to grow bored of watching Billie search for his keys and just told him where they were. "Billie, your keys are right behind you."

Billie scowled jokingly. "I wasn't even looking for my keys. I was looking for… something else."

Mike snickered. "Uh-huh. Just go get some drinks and we'll practice when you get back."



"Dad?"

"Yeah, Tre?"

"You know on Monday how I went over to Billie's house? And I called you and gave you his phone number?" His dad nodded. "Do you still happen to have that?"

"Don't you have it somewhere?"

"They never gave it to me."

"Why do you need it?"

Tre stared him dumbly. "So I can call him and Mike."

His father shook his head and chuckled at his son. "I figured as much, Tre. Why do you need to call him, though?"

"Oh! Well, I had this really important discussion with Mike—that's Billie's friend—and he was supposed to pass the message along to Billie, so I wanna see if that went well."

"Wouldn't they just call you or let you know tomorrow?"

"Well… yeah, but it's really important, and it can't wait."

Frank sighed and shook his head at his son once again. "Number's up by the phone… where we keep all our phone numbers."

"Oh, well, that makes sense. I'm gonna go call," he said as he skipped into the kitchen. He could hear his father laughing under his breath from behind him, but he chose to overlook it. He stepped over to the phone and hopped up on the counter to look through their collection of phone numbers. When he found Billie's number, (whose name, he noticed, was spelled wrong,) he dialed it and waited for someone to pick up.



Billie was still out of the house when the phone rang downstairs, so Mike was the one who ended up trudging downstairs to pick it up. He sighed before answering as he hadn't been in the mood to be disturbed. "Hello?"

The person on the other end was silent for a moment as if he was uncertain of what to say. "Mikey?"

Mike rolled his eyes and smiled when he realized who was on the other end. "Tre, what did I tell you about calling me Mikey?"

"I don't know—it makes you horny?"

"Tre…" Mike shook his head with a slight chuckle. "What do you want?"

"Wait, how did you know it was me?"

"You and Billie are the only two people who have ever called me Mikey and gotten away with it. And I know it's not Billie 'cause he only does that if he's hyped up on acid, which I'm pretty sure he's not."

"Oh! Speaking of Billie," Tre said excitedly. Mike wondered if it was possible for that guy to ever stay on topic. "Did you happen to talk to him?"

Mike nodded even though Tre couldn't see. "Uh-huh. He said he thinks it'd be a good idea for you to join. But we figured we should talk everything over with you before making any final decisions."

"Well, is Billie there now?" he asked. He was hopeful they could discuss it now, but he tried to sound indifferent.

"Actually, he's out shopping at the moment. He'll probably be back in a few minutes if you wanna just stay on the line, though."

"Sure. I can bug you in the mean time."

"Somehow, I don't doubt that," Mike said with a laugh. "Hey, you said you're birthday was coming up soon, didn't you?" Mike didn't know how he remembered that, but he was glad he did. He wanted to be able to change the subject before Tre got the chance to. He had a feeling Tre would try his hardest to make the situation as uncomfortable as possible for Mike.

"Oh, Mikey, you remembered," Tre responded, trying too hard to act flattered. "It's next Saturday."

"I thought it was something like that. You, me, and Billie should get together sometime next week or something so can come up with something to get you."

"Yeah, sure. We can plan something out later." Tre felt a little bad about making his friends buy him something. Not that he didn't absolutely love getting presents; on the contrary, he usually spent months obnoxiously hinting and often downright begging for presents. But for one, he hardly knew Mike and Billie, and more importantly, from what he had seen the few days he had been over, the two of them didn't appear to have much money to spare. It didn't seem to bother them, though, so he figured it shouldn't bother him.

Mike was about to confirm their plan to make plans, but then he heard the front door being unlocked. It was too early for it to be anyone but Billie returning, so Mike didn't doubt it was him. "Hey, Billie's home if you wanna talk to him. Or we could probably put it on speaker, I guess."

"Yeah, that'll work."

"Billie!" Mike called over as soon as Billie entered the house. "Get in here." As he said it, he turned on the speakerphone so both he and Billie could talk to Tre.

Billie walked into the kitchen and placed their beer, along with another bag of items, on the counter. "What? I thought we were gonna practice." He didn't seem to be in the best of moods; he was probably coming off of his high.

"Tre's on speaker. I told him we agreed he could join the band."

"Oh, hey, Tre. You wanna join the band, you're in. Simple as that."

"That's it?" Tre asked. "No specifics?" He would've figured they'd have to go over a bunch of stuff first before it became "official."

"Pretty much. I mean…" Billie sighed and rubbed his temple. "…We'll probably have to talk some things over with John. He is—was our manager after all. Knowing him, he'll probably try to fuck us over if we don't talk with him about everything." He stopped for a moment before he realized Tre wasn't responding. "Don't worry, though. You're in the band whether he likes it of not."

Tre let out a deep breath that he had hardly realized he was holding. "So I'm in the band?"

"You're in the band," Billie affirmed.