Forgetting You, But Not the Time

I waved goodbye to Carly, who had the decency to drop me off at my house while Billie seemed rather fond of the idea of locking himself up in his room upon returning home without a single word to anyone, not even his own mother. I was completely confused as to why he was acting in such a way, but then I figured it had something to do with the party, and considering we hadn't made contact through the duration of it, I guessed what I didn't know was something I wasn't supposed to know in the first place. If that made any sense, of course.

Closing the door and locking it behind me, I walked into the living room, noticing a grin spread across my father's face that could put most toothpaste commercial models to shame. I eyed him suspiciously as he made his way over to me, revealing the teenager in him.

"Well? How'd it go? Who was there? Did you have any fun? Well?"

"Oh good Lord, Dave, she only attended a study group!" Interrupted Reese who pranced over to the two of us, gaping at my father who seemed rather speechless upon knowing she had heard him, bearing in mind he completely forgot she was in the room. "What could be so interesting about that?"

My father seemed to mentally smack himself hard in the face before finally answering her. "Well—well studying is very important and it means a lot to me that she got the help she needed and learned as much as she possibly could." He turned back to face me, eyes twinkling with amusement at the given situation. "So, honey, did you have fun?" He asked, referring to the "study group" I had "attended", though I knew he was asking both me and Reese separate questions.

"It went perfectly fine, dad. I had a very good time and learned a lot." Reese seemed satisfied for the time being, and so did my father, for that cheeky grin reappeared on his slightly wrinkled features. He, after all, was in his forties. "I'm going to head up to bed, now." I informed the two, jabbing my thumb towards the stairs. The both of them gave me their own versions of good night, my dad's being a wink and a gentle kiss on the forehead while Reese's was just a simple wave of the hand, looking like she was trying to swat away a very pesky fly.

I grabbed a hold of my bag that I made sure to drop off at the bottom of the stairs to where Reese didn't see it, and trudged my way up to my room. Once inside, I closed the door behind me and turned on the lights, tossing my bag off to the side and throwing myself on my bed. I reminisced on the day's events; I had met a boy, I had spent a large quantity of my time with said boy, I met two other girls and two other boys who seemed to accept me just as easily as Billie and company had, I got to play the drums in front of a live audience for the first time in my life, I spent time with Mike and Carly, and I think I made Billie rather jealous with the fact that I was becoming significantly close to Chase. Maybe it was just me thinking for the absolute best, but it surely looked like Billie was irritated with Chase's mere presence; especially when he was near me.

I shrugged the thought off and turned on my side, supposing it was just my imagination getting the best of me. Playing with the hem of my pillowcase, I felt myself staring off into space. I wasn't tired, I had taken a nap earlier that night. I wasn't hungry either; I had plenty of food at the party. But I surely was bored. I looked over at the clock, noticing it was nearly one o'clock in the morning. I sighed and chuckled to myself, thinking back on how Reese seemed to honestly believe that I was at a study group. Who would be out studying that late? She was just so gullible. On rare occasions—occasions like these—I was glad that my dad married someone like her; she may be strict, cold, cruel, etc., etc., etc., but if her husband said I was going somewhere specific, she believed him with no doubt. If she was as motherly as her first impressions were, she would've bombarded me with millions of questions upon returning so late, but since she wasn't, I got away with too many things way too easily.

Exhaling sharply, I sat up and slid down to the edge of my bed, allowing my legs to hang over the rim. Suddenly thinking of what to do, I ran to my closet and threw on my oversized black hoodie, a different pair of jeans and my black beat up converses. Grabbing my cell phone just in case beforehand, I made my way over to my window, listening carefully to be sure that dad and Reese were going to bed before slowly opening it and climbing down the lattice. I knew it'd be a long walk, but since I had nothing better to do, it seemed like the best idea. If only I had my car back.

It was fairly cold outside, but I managed with the large hoodie. I threw the hood over my head and took out my cell phone for light as I turned down a deserted road. No cars were seen, which seemed to relieve me to a great extent. The trees were rustling in the winds, placing a calming effect over me. The scent of the air relaxed me; the smell of rain before it fell. I knew it probably wasn't a good idea that I was walking so far from home when it was going to be raining soon, but I didn't really mind. If it rained, it rained.

About half an hour later, I reached a familiar set of fences extending down the side of the road, vines wrapped securely around them. Searching for the right spot, I walked down the road about a block until I noticed the opening in between the center of the fence and a poll holding it up. I pushed my way through it and was immediately greeted with the tracks at Christie Road. I hadn't been there in so long, it felt like. In all reality, it had only been a couple of days. But going so long without visiting Christie Road left me with an insecure feeling of guilt and discomfort.

I walked down the middle of the tracks for a while, just being alone and allowing myself to think. There wasn't many moments such as these where I got time to myself and to just be. I couldn't really describe the feeling of it, but basically I didn't have any worries, nothing serious on my mind and not feeling in the least bit uncomfortable, I was just... being me, without any interruptions.

And I continued walking for some time; so long that it was already almost four o'clock. It was amazing how fast time flew when I was at Christie; but while you're there, nothing really matters, so I suppose that's how time would go by so fast. I sighed, satisfied, and finally took a seat down on the edge of the train tracks. It was still very dark outside, not counting the multiple flames of light from about a mile down the open field where teenagers lingered, smoking and laughing their troubles away.

Haley and I used to do that, I remembered, gazing longing down at the group of people that laughed at nothing in particular, considering they were as stoned as all get out.

Thinking I should start heading back home, I stood from my spot and was about to turn around and head back towards the fence when a figure suddenly stopped me. I noticed them sitting on top of an old, rusty car that looked as though it had seen much better days. I stepped a bit closer, wondering how in the world I hadn't noticed it before. Upon moving so close I was nearly touching the bumper, I noticed the person had blonde hair... with dark roots. Billie.

I raised my eyebrows and walked around to the front where, indeed, there sat Billie, smoking and gazing off into the distance, apparently in a world of his own.

"Billie?" I asked softly. He jumped, seemingly startled at the sudden amount of noise and looked down at me. I noticed a smile tug at the corner of his lips.

"Hey, Spence." He put out his cigarette and motioned for me to join him. I did so and took a seat next to him.

"I didn't know you knew about Christie." I spoke up after a moment of silence. Billie chuckled softly.

"I could say the same about you." I laughed and looked down at my hands,

"I suppose we both kept secrets, huh?"

"I guess we did." There was another moment or two of silence, smiles both on each of our lips at the presence of one another. Although I adored being alone, spending time with Billie and just Billie alone lightened my mood incredibly. "How've you been?" Billie then asked, looking over at me. I took my eyes off the teenagers that were now determined to stand from their spots and looked over at him, our eyes connecting.

"I've been alright. Not much really going on at the moment. What about you?"

Billie shrugged carelessly. "About the same." He looked back out into the open area, as did I, becoming mesmerized by the moving grass as the wind brushed through it. God, how I loved Christie Road.

"I love it here." I said, more to myself than to anyone else. At first, I didn't even realize I had said it out loud until Billie replied,

"Me too." I looked over at him once again. "Gives you time to be alone. Get away from it all for a while." I nodded in agreement. I took my eyes off of him and returned my gaze to the fields. "I wrote a song about Christie Road... kind of a long time ago." (Me: I know it's on their second album, but let's just say he wrote it at an early age, okay?) I felt myself smile and turned to face him for the third time.

"Really? Well, let's here it then." I turned my body at a ninety degree angle to fully face him. And he sang to me. No music, nothing but his voice floating through the air almost majestically...

Staring out of my window
Watching the cars go rolling by
My friends are gone
I've got nothing to do
So I sit here patiently
Watching the clock tick so slowly
Gotta get away
Or my brains will explode

Give me something to do to kill some time
Take me to that place that I call home
Take away the strains of being lonely
Take me to the tracks at Christie Road

See the hills from afar
Standing on my beat up car
The sun went down and the night fills the sky
Now I feel like me once again
As the train comes rolling in
Smoked my boredom gone
Slapped my brains up so high

Give me something to do to kill some time
Take me to that place that I call home
Take away the strains of being lonely
Take me to the tracks at Christie Road

Mother stay out of my way of that place we go
We'll always seem to find our way to Christie Road

Mother stay out of my way of that place we go
We'll always seem to find our way to Christie Road

If there's one thing that I need
That makes me feel complete
So I go to Christie Road
It's home...

Once he finished, I felt my eyes burn. I could already feel as though that song was my life story, all laid out for me right before my very eyes. Every detail, every word... it all explained my exact thoughts of that place. Suffice it to say, I was shocked almost to the point of a loss of words, but not nearly, considering how much I wanted to say to him at that point.

"Billie... that was just... amazing. Really. You really are an artist." Although I had so much I wanted to say to him, I could only find myself to speak those eleven words (Me: I bet you just went back to count, didn't you? *grins*). Billie smiled over at me.

"Thanks. I love writing songs. It seems that's the only way to express how I really feel at times."

"I understand completely."

And another round of silence. I watched as the sun slowly began to rise. It looked so beautiful; I hardly ever got to watch the sun rise this way. I turned my head to face Billie, who had been staring at me previous to turning my head. I smiled, but he didn't return it. Instead, he brought his face closer to mine. I was both shocked, scared, nervous and excited all at the same time. The timing seemed almost too perfect, too good to be true. And when his lips slowly, yet shyly, met mine, I felt myself rise on the inside.

The feeling of his soft, full lips moving in rhythm with mine created butterflies in the pit of my stomach. And when he went to pull away, I instinctively grabbed a fist full of his bleached hair and brought his lips back down to mine. Almost quicker than expected, a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and slowly backed me up against the windshield, sweetly slipping his tongue into my mouth to caress my own.

It was like a dream come true... like reality had escaped from us and had left us behind in this other world... the timing seemed almost too perfect, too good to be true...

"Spencer? Spencer?" I gasped and turned to face Billie. And it was.

"What?" I choked, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and out of place.

"I asked if you were alright. Did you zone out there on me?" He smiled slightly. I bit back an angered sigh and instead grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry. I got lost there for a moment." That put a large damper on my once bright mood. I felt a hand being placed on the small of my back and I jumped.

"Come on, we should probably head back." Billie removed his hand as quickly as he had placed it there and jumped off the car, turning around to help me get off. I grabbed both his hands and he safely pulled me to the ground. The both of us walked off in a hush, me still greatly angry that I had imagined that. I wanted to hit myself for imagining it in the first place, but I also wanted to give reality a good slap for not making it happen for real in the first place. I scowled, no reason, just scowled.

"Spencer, Spencer," Billie grabbed my hand and quickly led me across the street after a car had honked at me a couple of times. Of course, I hadn't noticed any of this until Billie linked his fingers with mine and started pulling me away from the angered driver. The driver, who was a male, shook his head, glaring over at me while Billie smiled and waved happily at him, as if nothing had happened. "What was that, Spencer?" Billie then asked once the car had driven off. I sighed.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just thinking a lot this morning. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to nearly get hit by a car." Billie laughed gently at that.

"Don't worry about it. You just scared me there for a moment. I thought you were really out of it."

"I was." I laughed.

We continued walking for a little while longer, occasionally talking about the most random of things here and there, but probably because Billie didn't want me to daydream again and him have to save me from a car speeding down the road in a rush. But as the both of us got so engrossed in our conversation, I had no idea where were going until I happened to look up and see my house. "Wow, I didn't realize you were taking me home first."

Billie grinned. "Well, I didn't want you walking home alone. That wouldn't be very gentlemany of me now would it?" I giggled.

"Gentlemany? Is that even a word?" Billie shrugged.

"It is now." I smiled and looked down, catching a glance at our hands that were still laced together. Billie must've noticed this too and quickly pulled away, both of blushing like a bunch of lovesick teenagers. I walked around to the lattice beneath my window, Billie following me. Just as I was about to climb up it, I turned around and gave Billie a hug. He seemed surprised, but returned it nonetheless.

"See you later?" Billie nodded and I waved at him one last time before climbing up the side of the house, once again having a smile plastered on my face that I couldn't seem to get rid of.