Remember Me

I woke up to light humming and a stream of sunlight in my eyes. I blinked a few times to get an idea of what was going on and where I was. I recognized it almost instantly considering that I'd only been on this room a handful of times during my stay. It was Billie's room. The familiar light blue walls illuminated by the sunlight slipping between the drawn blinds.

The racks that went to the ceiling loaded up with various records and CD's and cassettes. I read a few of the titles that I could actually see from here:
Elvis, the Beatles, AC/DC, the Ramones, actually there was a load of Ramones CD's. He must be a big fan of them. 

I heard light chuckling and became aware that I still had my head resting upon Billie's chest. He was awake. Hell, who knows how long he'd been awake but stayed there not to wake me. Therefor the though of it made me all warm and buttery inside again. I giggled when I looked up and our eyes met. He pressed a kiss to my temple.

“Are you ready for World War III?” he joked.

I gave him a confused look “What do you mean?” I asked warily.

He let out a laugh and scooted up into a sitting position and pulled me up along with him. “I mean that Mike dropped in this morning relaying a message from Ollie that all my siblings are coming home for dinner tonight and Brad is coming over too. She wants us to meet him. And like him.” he said incredulously. Like it was a very hard thing to comprehend to him. He could never like the man who was trying to take his fathers place.

I nodded and leaned against his shoulder “I'll bet he'll be the biggest dipshit ever and your mom will see it, and chase him out of the house while prodding him with a broom.” I giggled at the vision I had of that.

He laughed loudly. Wiping a tear of laughter from his eye “That would be hilarious. But I do want to see my mom happy. I really do. I was really blind to anyones happiness other then my own when my dad died. I never noticed how... How empty she became. And now she finally has another chance at happiness, and I... I'm fuckin it over for her.” he sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair.

“Just one day at a time.” I murmured.

His eyes darted to me like he'd seen the light “You're right. Completely right. I need to take this one day at a time and stop freaking out about it. It's gonna be alright. Right?”

I nodded surely “Yes, it will be fine.”

He grinned at me and rose from his bed. Walking over to the dresser and picking up a comb to brush his hair. Then he just stood there gawking at his reflection. He laughed then and turned to face me “I know this is crazy,  but I think I want to dye my hair.” he grinned mischievously.

I raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“What?”

“I want to dye my hair, turn a new leaf. I'm sick of blond.”

“But your color of blond is pretty.” I whined.

He snorted and pulled open his dresser drawer and dug around until he pulled out a wad of one dollar bills. 
“Did you know blond isn't my real hair color?” he grinned over at me before looking down to count the wad.

I looked at him with a surprised expression “Really? What is it?”

“Brown. An ugly, boring shade of brown.” he laughed falsely as he shoved the money into a wallet with a chain on it and clipped it onto his belt loop.

I nodded slowly. So it wouldn't matter if he dyed it anyways. Because he already had. I shrugged and got up, I went to my room to get dressed while he got himself ready to do something. Rather or not he was planning on going out and getting it done professionally or buy the cheap dye at Walmart, I have no idea.

I pulled a grey t-shirt over my head followed by a pair of acid wash black skinny jeans. My hair was almost shoulder length, but not long enough to do anything with, so I left it down after brushing it all out. I put on some eyeliner and mascara Ollie had bought me yesterday and it bought out my hazel eyes noticeably.
I put on the same old pair of worn black Chuck's I'd Been wearing since I arrived here. I finished up and net Billie in the living room. Reading a note Ollie had taped to the front door for him and him only.

‘BJ
I'm sorry for everything I said over dinner. But I wanted to prove to you what a great guy he is. I invited him and all your siblings over for dinner so you can all meet him. 
I went out shopping for the groceries for dinner. You're on your own for lunch, and if you go out please be home by five.
Love you, mommy :)’

He cocked an eyebrow at 'mommy' then chuckled. His eyes darkening again at the mention of Brad.
He wrinkled up the note and shoved it into his back pocket and grabbed my wrist and we walked outside into the warm sun. It'd almost become a daily thing for us to go out in the morning together. He started up the street towards Main Street. I followed in tow while he hummed a song. I recognized it as the song he had played at Allison's party. Though I cannot remember the name of it.

He started straight towards the Dollar General on the corner and we went inside. Greeted by a chime that echoed Throughout  the store. He went straight to the women's beauty stuff. Gawking up at the shelf of hair dyes. Of corse he'd buy them here, they ll strip the crap out of his hair. But chances are he wouldn't listen to me if I did tell him so.
He looked over all the normal colors without so much as a glance. His eyes fixed upon the rainbow colored hair dyes. A box of electric blue hair dye to be exact. I raised a eyebrow questioningly at his decision. But he picked it up and went to pay for it anyways.

When we arrived back at the house. Tré was sitting on his drum set pounding away while Mike had a Ramones CD blaring loudly out of an ancient looking boom box sitting on the garage floor. Billie walked in and turned down the volume to a background sound.

“Yo Mikey, I need your help with something.” he declared.
Mike looked over at Billie “What?”

Billie waved the box of blue hair dye before his eyes “This.”

Mike looked from the box to his friend go be sure that he was serious about it. Billie began to tap his foot impatiently declaring it so.

“I don't know man... Is blue even going to look good on you?” he asked while keeping a straight face.
Billie smacked his arm. “I don't know, just help me do it. If you help me dye mine I'll help you dye yours.”
Then he blew it when he looked up at Mike's hair. He started snickering. It was still short and scruffy thanks to Kim putting gorilla glue Ito his hair and having to have it cut out. 

Mike cut him a glare.

“Or not...”

“Tell you what, stop bringing up my ragged hair and I'll do it for you. Deal?” Mike snapped. Holding out his hand to seal the deal.

Billie nodded and saluted Mike, shaking hand before darting inside to gather the things they'd need to do it. I watched him go then went to take a seat on the shabby couch which was currently laying in a ray of sunshine. 

I started thinking about how tonight would be. I was probably equally as nervous about it as Billie. Because tonight... Tonight I'd have to face his five other siblings. And I was worried off my ass of rather or not they'd like me. Because if they didn't, they'd tell Billie they're opinion and Billie would let me go. To run the streets again like a rabid animal escaping the vet. Which was how I was feeling towards the doctor now. Hospitals in general scare the piss out of people. Let's not forget the fact that I probably still have a doctor hot on my trails hunting me down with a syringe full of a euthanizing potion.

I shivered at the thought.

I glanced over to see the 'beauty salon/hair dying station' Mike and Tré had set up. It didn't look incredibly safe how they were going about dying Billie's hair.

They had a trash can, full of the dye underneath a reclined computer chair. Billie laying patiently back in the chair awaiting his 'transformation'

I watched while a grand variety of cuss words were yelled between the three. Mike yelling at Tré once for almost drowning Billie in the bucket of dye. Then I think they got more dye on Billie's face than his actual hair. I have never witnessed hair being dyed nor had I ever learned how it was done. But just from watching I'm 100% certain they are doing it all wrong.

They had an old towel wrapped tightly around Billie's freshly dyed hair while Mike stood off hand, reading the back of the dye box.

“I... I don't know what we did wrong.”

He read a little more and then a sneaky grin came across his face and Billie saw it.

“What did you do?” Billie asked.

“Me and Tré, Uh... Might have had better luck dying your hair had we Uh... Read the instructions...”

Billie's eyes widened “What did you do to me?”
He leapt from the chair and ripped off the towel in front of a mirror hanging on the garage wall.
He just stood there for a second. Taking in his own reflection before he smoldered at his mirrored self and said “I look sexiesto.” with an Spanish accent.

We all laughed. Except for Mike who just sighed with relief. Something tells me that Billie would never let him live it down if he'd fucked up his hair.
Billie nodded once at his reflection and instructed me to follow him into the house. After the garage door closed behind us, the Ramones were turned up full blast again.

“Ok. I suppose I can be a little fair with you and at least tell you a little about my siblings so tonight isn't such a big flop.” he said while resting his palms upon either of my shoulders.

I nodded slowly as I tried to imagine everything he'd tell me.

“I have two brothers and three sisters. Alan, Dave, Marci, Anna and Hollie. You already have a pretty good idea of Hollie's style since you have been staying in her room.” he grinned.

“And she won't mind that fact?” I asked warily.

He shook his head and led the way to the kitchen. Pawing through the refrigerator for a snack while he told me a few things that should be of interest to me.
Like the fact that his older brothers, Alan and Dave, got him into punk music and inspired him to start a band after his dad died.
Then he said that his sisters were very simple people. And after he spotted the nervous glint in my eyes, he assured me that they were not judgmental and that I'd be fine. But I'd believe that after I'd met all five of his siblings and actually feel like I still belong.

After he'd finished the sandwich that he'd slapped together, he rinsed his plate and instructed me to follow him to the beach. Whenever he says 'beach' I know what to expect. We'll spend our remaining two hours before Ollie needed us back hanging out under the willow in the secret meadow. And it really was too beautiful of a day out to stay inside all day.
We waved goodbye to Mike and Tré as we passed the garage and Billie gave them simple instructions to tell Ollie we were out and would be home by five for her special dinner with Mr. Replacement. And that he hadn't run away so he could ditch. Though I could tell he very much wanted too. But on the way down the sidewalk from his house. He declared he'd suck it up tonight because he wanted me to meet his brothers and sisters. Course that made me feel all warm and buttery inside, that he was facing the man who was trying to take his dads place just so I could meet his family. I stopped walking and paused before standing on my tippy toes and pecked him on the cheek before entwining my hand with his again and we skipped down to the docks on the bay across from Gilman. 

He told me some stories about how he'd met various people in his life. Operation Ivy, Mike, Tré, he explained them to me in greater detail then Ollie had. She had only briefly said that he met them at school. Which made me wonder why he didn't go now.

“So why don't you go to school now?” I asked him as we slowly walked across the white, glittering beach.

He sighed and ran a hand through his now blue hair. “I dropped out to pursue my musical career. I didn't feel like I belonged there anyways, I mean, seriously. Surrounded by cheerleaders, jocks? Nerds and stuckups? I think I'll pass.” he laughed as we ducked under the canopy of branches leading into the forest by the water.

I nodded “That's understandable. I wouldn't know if I ever went to school or not anyways, so I can't exactly judge you.” I laughed as we followed the trail as it began to slope downwards where the stream was.

We continued on without much more conversation. Simply enjoying each others company in the dim, muggy forest. The only sound that passed between us was the sound of our shoes squishing the damp earth beneath our feet. Though the closer we got to the clearing, the quieter it got. The loud birds chirping above shut up and it was just us as we passed through the shadows of ageless trees. Into the clearing with the secret path to the willow meadow.

When we got to the meadow. We a avoided the willow and went to the stream behind it. Which always made a peaceful, calming bubbling sound whenever we had been here. Without a second thought, Billie plopped down upon the grass on the bank and pulled off his converse, soaking his feet in the ankle deep water. I followed suit.

We sat there for a bit, swishing our feet around in the water and every now and again I would glance up at Billie and see how the afternoon sunlight caught his sapphire blue hair and it shimmered, I could probably sit like this and watch him forever. But then a sad thought crosses my mind, we have to to back home in an hour to face not only Ollie and Brad but Billie's five siblings. What an event tonight will be...

I began to wonder. If id ever lived this life before, by choice and not by force. Ollie hadn't given me many options when we met. But I didn't complain, well I couldn't... You get the point. Anyways, the more days that pass, the more I begin to think o don't want to know who I really am, because in this life, I met the love of mine. So why should I give it all up just to know that I do have a family somewhere. With my own set of siblings and parents and I may have lived on the rich side of town, snuck out my bedroom window to go to wild parties on the pier and get drunk. Just to have a glimpse at a life I couldn't have. But I'm glad I'm not like that now. I looked up at Billie who was contently looking down at the water the shimmered silver in the sunlight.

“Y'know, maybe I could give him a... Chance. For my mothers sake. It's not going to be in my best interest you know? But hell... I suppose I could give it a go. Worst thats going to happen is that the night will end in yelling profanities at each other. Right?” he chuckled nervously.

I don't think he had any intention of actually wanting to meet the guy. But rather just do it to make his mom happy. I nodded and looked over at him.

“Hell, though I have to be honest. If I don't like the guy and get bad vibes off him, I'm gonna tell my mom and I'm not going to let her cluelessly continue on like this.” he cut a quick glare at the water.

“Well whatever blow out occurs, I'll be there the whole night right beside you.” I assured him while quickly pecking his cheek.

He smiled over at me “Good. I might need some backup.”