Our Little Secret

"Hello?" Tre answered cheerily.

"Tre?" Mike asked from the other end.

"The one and only. Is that you, Mikey? I'd recognize your voice anywhere," he teased.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Yes, Tre. It's me," he said, feigning annoyance.

Tre made a sound of acknowledgment. "Well, what's up, Mikey-boy?"

"Okay, no," Mike said with a chuckle. "I let you get away with Mikey, but no way in hell are you calling me that."

Tre scoffed. "We'll see about that. But seriously, what is it?"

"Oh, well, I wondered if you wanted to come with me and Billie to The Gilman tonight. We kind of made plans earlier, though I'm not sure if they still stand 'cause that was when we were gonna look for a new drummer, but if you wanna go, we can."

"Well, are you sure the plans are still on?"

"I don't know. Billie will probably go if we ask. And plus, I kind of think he needs some cheering up. Yesterday, after you left, his mom made him feel pretty bad about everything that happened."

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry."

Mike shrugged, though Tre couldn't see. "It's not your fault. It's no big deal, really. Billie just said he felt like shit, so I figured he probably just needed a distraction or something. And he'd never say no to Gilman."

Tre nodded on his end, silently agreeing to the proposition. "What time?"

"Well, I'll get off work at five and Billie doesn't have work today, I don't think, so probably meet us there around six thirty or so?"

"Works for me. I need a good excuse to get out of the house. It's so boring here."

"Yeah, you just moved, didn't you?" Mike asked with interest. He was proud that he remembered that, considering when he was told, he hardly knew Tre. "Probably don't really know anyone around here, huh?"

"Well, yeah, there's that. But back where I used to live, there was hardly anyone around. Lots to do outside and everything. Here, we're surrounded by other people who would probably call the cops if I tried to have any fun."

Mike closed his eyes and laughed silently. He would have spit out his drink had he been drinking anything. "God, I don't wanna even want to know what you used to do for fun out there."

Tre smirked to himself. "No, you don't."

Mike stopped talking momentarily when he heard someone coming down the steps. "Just a second," he told Tre. He turned to see who it was and saw Ollie walk in.

She looked at him with a sad look. He realized it was probably due to the previous day's events. She didn't say anything relating to that, though; she just teasingly reminded him that he should spend less time "talking to his girlfriend on the phone" and more getting ready for work. Mike chuckled and told Tre he had to go. After he hung up, he went upstairs to prepare for work. He had been hoping he'd see Billie that morning before heading off to work, but when Billie had no reason to get up, he would often sleep well into the afternoon. And Mike knew it was pointless to try to wake him, so he simply let him sleep.



That evening when Mike had gotten off work (and dragged Billie's ass out of bed), the two of them headed off to Gilman St. to meet up with Tre. On the drive there, Mike had noticed that Billie had been quiet, but he knew that he was often a reserved individual. He didn't even bother asking his friend what was wrong because he already knew his friend's answer would be a lie.

They arrived a few minutes earlier than Mike had planned, so they headed inside to purchase themselves some drinks. "What do you think Tre'd want?" Mike asked as they walked over to the bar.

"I dunno. The only thing I've ever seen him drink is beer, and they're not gonna let us have that here." Gilman was the only place that Billie always respected the rules. The thought of being kicked out outweighed the appeal of alcohol.

"Mmm, yeah," Mike acknowledged. "Just get him whatever, I guess. If he doesn't drink it, I will."

Billie nodded and ordered the three of them some drinks and waited to receive them. Mike sat down down on the chair next to Billie, and Billie followed suit. Once they received their drinks, they waited impatiently for Tre to show up.

"Billie—"

"I don't wanna talk about it, Mike. I'm not upset about it anymore."

Mike stayed quiet for a second before responding. "I wasn't gonna bring up your mom; I was gonna ask you about John."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to talk about him either." Billie was fully aware that he was being an asshole. And he felt bad that his frustrations were being directed at Mike when he wasn't doing anything wrong. In his defense, he hadn't wanted to go out today anyways. He had known that he'd be in a bad mood and had wanted to spare everyone's feelings. So much for that working out. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay," Mike said. And Billie knew he fully meant it.

At that point, they both gave up at conversation and waited in silence for Tre to show up, which he did so not a minute later. He was quieter than the two other boys were accustomed to, but that was only because he wanted to test the waters with Billie. He wasn't sure if he was still upset about whatever conversation had taken place the previous night. It hadn't sounded too bad over his prior phone conversation with Mike, but he knew the situation could have easily been downplayed.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"What's up?"

"I don't know," Tre answered. "Nothing much."

"You didn't get in trouble over yesterday?" Billie asked with a smirk. It was amazing how quickly his demeanor changed. Mike wasn't sure if it was a true shift in emotions or if Billie had forced it to come about.

Tre visibly relaxed when he realized Billie wasn't quite as off as he had anticipated. "Eh, I didn't really mention it to my parents," he explained. "What they don't know can't hurt them."

Billie groaned. "Tell that to my mom." Before anyone else had the chance to respond, Billie shoved a drink into Tre's hand and pulled his two friends closer to the stage. "Come on, you two assholes," he joked. "Let's go see what band's playing.



"Are you sure your parents aren't gonna care if we crash here for the night?" Billie asked.

"Not if you keep your fucking voice down," Tre whispered. "The key is to not let them know you're here."

"Let us know who's not here?" an older man's voice asked as the lights suddenly came on. Billie and Mike could only assume the man was Tre's father. No one else was up either, so it appeared to just be the four of them.

"Um… Hey, Dad!" Tre tried cheerfully.

"Frank," the man said warningly, "It's almost midnight. Where have you been?"

"We were…" he paused to think of an excuse. He sighed when he realized the truth was probably better than any far-fetched story he could came up with. "At Gilman."

"And you two?" he addressed Billie and Mike. "Shouldn't you be at your homes right now?"

Billie looked down at the floor and then awkwardly glanced back up at Tre's father. "Yeah. But Tre said we could stay here tonight so we wouldn't have to drive back home in the dark. Very responsible of him," he added.

Frank sighed at his son. "You weren't even going to ask? Just let them stay here without letting your mother or I know?"

"Um… Dad, can Billie and Mike stay over tonight?"

Frank sighed again but nodded his head. "Yes, but only because it is pretty dark out like you said, young man," he said to Billie. "Though I know were just making that up as you went along, it probably isn't all that good of an idea to have you two head home alone. You can stay up in Tre's room if you like."

Tre looked at his father in surprise. "Thanks, Dad. I—Okay."

Frank nodded. "I'm heading off to bed. You three do the same, okay?"

Tre nodded back. "Yes, sir." Tre waited for his father to retreat upstairs before making a quick detour to the beer in the fridge before heading off to bed.