Falling Out

Felicia came barreling at us in the cafeteria. She sat her book bag on the ground and started rummaging through it frantically.

“What are you looking for?” Chuck asked her as he took a bit of his apple. She shushed him. Donovan laughed beside me. Ever since I had let him in during our talk on the phone the night of Mike’s dinner, it’s been a tad bit awkward for me. I have never revealed that much to a single person or even talked that much to someone other than Tre. Donovan hasn’t brought it up, which I am glad for.

After a few more minutes of searching, Felicia pulled out a magazine. I immediately knew what it was.

“Where in the hell did you get a Kerrang! magazine?” Chuck asked her as he took the magazine out of her hand. He flipped through a couple of pages before Felicia snatched it back from him.

“I ordered it from GDA.” She turned to the article.

“I didn’t know you guys were intense Green Day fans,” I said as I took a bite out of my apple, trying to distract myself from throwing up.

“I like their music and know somewhat about them but Felicia is like obsessed with them. You should see her room. Wall to wall Green Day posters, artwork, and even a blanket she ordered. It’s kind of scary how much she loves them.” Felicia threw a fry at her brother.

“I’m not that obsessed.” Chuck laughed.

“Really? What’s Billie Joe Armstrong’s birthday?”

“February 17, 1972.” They laughed. Felicia rolled her eyes. It was really awkward that this girl knew more about my father than I did. I didn’t even know his birthday.

“Do you like Green Day? Because if you don’t, I don’t think I could be friends with you.”

“I like their music.” And it was true. I did like their music. Felicia smiled.

“Good. Well, here is something that we all didn’t know. Remember when we were talking about that girl Billie Joe Armstrong supposedly had an affair with? Well, turns out it was his daughter.” She set the magazine open in the middle of the table. Donovan grabbed it and began reading it. This was weird. Really, really weird.

“So he did cheat on his wife?” Chuck asked. Felicia shook her head.

“No, it was before they met.” She turned to Donovan.

“Remember that article I was telling you about? About him talking about this girl that broke his heart that inspired some of the music?” My heart dropped. Holy crap.

“I can’t think of her name...” Felicia tapped her chin, trying to recall her name. I gulped. Okay. I’ll bite.

“Wasn’t it, uh, Amanda?” She snapped her fingers.

“That’s it! I bet she’s the mother. I mean, he said he dated her before meeting Adrienne. That’s the only person I can think of that he loved enough to write music for. If that’s the case, what a bitch for not telling him about her.” Donovan gave the magazine back to Felicia.

“Don’t be rude, Felicia. You don’t know what happened even if you think you do. Plus, don’t speak ill of the dead. It’s bad luck.” Chuck took the magazine away from her again and began reading it.

“I know. But it must have sucks, you know? Not knowing you had a daughter and then poof, here she is, 17 years later,” Felicia said as she took the other half of Chuck’s sandwich. He didn’t seem to care. She was very abrasive and out there.

“What about his daughter? She never knew about her father. She never had a father,” I blurted out. The others stared at me. It made me a little nervous. I pointed to the magazine.

“And I read the article and it said that, you know, that she went through a tough ordeal and that they met under a-a terrible circumstances. So, I mean...” I looked down as they continued to stare at me. This is why I don’t speak.

“I think that’s the most I’ve heard you talk since I met you in Alabama,” Felicia said. I just smiled at her. She nodded her head.

“I agree with you, though. But I really, really, REALLY want to know what happened. I mean, it sucks that her mother died but it said that she died when the daughter was young so it had to be something recent. If I knew her full name I bet I could find the answer on Google.” It was kind of strange hearing someone talk about me or about my father and his friends. Billie was right that being related to a celebrity is hard. At this moment I was very glad he didn’t give out my name.

“Alright, let’s get over this. Billie Joe Armstrong has a daughter, I get that it’s awesome for you, Felicia, because you stalk them daily, but this is boring talk,” Chuck weighed in. I snorted. Chuck smiled at me.

“Fine. What do you want to talk about then, Puddin’ Pop?” Chuck glared at Felicia. Hard. I was missing something.

“Pudding Pop?” I asked. I was feeling confident. Thank you, Vicodin. Felicia and Donovan burst out laughing.

“Shut up, guys.” Chuck grabbed the rest of his sandwich out of Felicia’s hand. Felicia began to tell the story.

“Okay, so we have been friends since the beginning of our lives. Our mom’s were best friends. Anyway, when we were young all he would eat is pudding pops which is just like a chocolate popsicle. One time,” laughter, “he took them,” more laughter, “a whole box of pudding pops and put them under his pillow because Donovan kept on eating them and he got so mad because of it. We were staying the night and when he laid down his head on his pillow he screamed. He screamed so loud that his mom ran out of her room into his and he was covered in chocolate. He sat on his bed and cried and cried and cried.” Felicia was rolling. I chuckled.

“He blamed us for killing his beloved pudding pops. And from then on his mom started calling him Puddin’ Pop and it just stuck like the melted chocolate to his hair.” Chuck just rolled his eyes.

“It’s not funny.” Right then, I saw Tyler walking toward our table. I immediately looked down at my food. I didn’t want to look at him because I was still feeling weird about our last interaction. I've seen him in my classes but I never talked to him; I never looked at him. I tried to avoid him at all times and now he’s walking towards us. I saw two hands appear on either side of my tray. I felt a presence behind me and I knew it was him. I shrunk down as far as I could.

“What are you nerds laughing about?” His breath hit the top of my head that sent shivers down my back. It wasn’t the good kind of shivers. I continued to stare at my food, trying to calm myself. I saw Donovan out of my peripheral stand up.

“Fuck off, Tyler. Get off of her.” The hands disappeared; the eerie feeling of presence was gone. I straightened up and put two and two together that Donovan had pushed Tyler off of me. Tyler’s hands went up in defense.

“Hey, calm down. I was just saying hey to some old friends.”

“I don’t care if you are giving us a million dollars, dick. Get the fuck away from us.” I felt my shoulders being squeezed and I froze.

“Dude, get the fuck away,” Donovan yelled as he pushed him away again. Undoubtedly the whole cafeteria was looking at us. I looked at Felicia who looked a little shaken up. Chuck was standing up as well. Few seconds later, after Tyler walked out of the cafeteria, they sat back down. Donovan patted my back; his last pat lingered a bit. It didn’t bother me as much as Tyler’s did.

“Are you okay?” I nodded. He removed his hand and I loosened back up but I was still on alert.

“Are you okay?” Chuck asked Felicia. She just shrugged and grabbed her magazine.

“It’s whatever. He’s a dick.” I wondered what had happened between those two. I mean, I get not liking someone but the way that Donovan acted with Tyler and Chuck wanting reassurance that Felicia was okay made me think that something happened between the three of them. Plus, Tyler said that they were old friends.

The mood at our lunch table didn’t improve when Tyler walked out. I was glad when the bell rang five minutes later. We all walked to fourth period, which we all had. We sat in our respected seats and listened to the teacher drone on about the Korean War. About halfway through the lecture, I started feeling the pills start to wear off. I started getting a headache and a little nauseous. I asked to go the restroom pass, which he gave me. I took my bag with me and went to the bathroom. I dug through my bag and got the bottle. I took three out and took them. I sighed in relief. Right when I put the pills back in my bag the door opened. I had a brief flashback of Tyler walking in but when I saw the familiar green hair I sighed in relief.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked from the door. She was looking at me like I was crazy person.

“Nothing. You just scared me, that’s all.” She walked over to me and leaned against the counter.

“So, you’re going to be dating my brother soon-”

“What?” She rolled her eyes.

“The way you two keep sneaking glances at each other and talking to each other on your cell phones isn’t fooling anyone. You two will be making out in three months, I bet.” I didn’t say anything. I was stunned at her blunt candor.

“Anyway, I don’t know that much about you and you don’t know that much about me. Donovan is going to have some bro night with Chuck Friday night and won’t be home. I’m thinking maybe we should have a girl night. We can go to your house or you can come to mine. You can stay the night.” I didn’t know what to say, really. Which shouldn’t shock anyone at this point. I’ve never stayed with anyone over night or hung out with them after class or really anything with anyone. It shouldn’t be that bad, though. But she definitely wasn’t coming to my house because if she saw who my father was she’d probably have a heart attack and die and then come back to life and kill me for not telling her.

“That sounds cool. I’ll have to ask permission but I don’t see why they would say no.” She smiled and clapped with excitement.

“Cool, this will be cool. I’m excited. Are you vegetarian or anything because all I’ve seen you eat is apples.” I shook my head.

“No, I’m not. I just don’t like meatloaf.” She made a disgusted face.

“Yuck, me either.” We walked back to class. The day droned on and before I knew it I found myself parking my car in front of the house and stared at it. It was still weird that I was inhabiting a place like this. A big place like this. I got out of the car and trudged up the stairs. I sighed before opening the door. I didn’t know what today held. It seemed like every time I came home from school I have argued with someone or not even talk at all. I did something I thought I would never do since I moved here. I was actually searching for someone. I entered the kitchen and saw Billie sitting at the counter reading something. Nope, don’t want to talk to him. I started to walk out.

“Amber?” I sighed before I slowly turned around.

“Sir?” Billie smiled.

“You need something?” I walked further into the kitchen.

“My friend Felicia, Donovan’s sister, wants me to come stay with her Friday. Donovan won’t be there and it’ll be just one night.” He got up and walked around the counter. He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.

“That’s fine.” I nodded and started to walk about.

“Amber,” I sighed lowly before turning around. I wanted to leave and go to my room to do the ridiculous amount of homework I had. But the look on his face told me that he wanted to talk. Talk about something serious.

“We need to talk about the other day.” He motioned for me to sit down. I put my bag down and sat down on the stood. He sat across from me.

“I wanted to apologize for overstepping my boundaries and calling your teachers. That wasn’t right of me.” I nodded, not looking at him.

“But I didn’t appreciate you yelling at me or snapping at Adrienne.” I looked at him. “I know you’ve been through a lot but that does not excuse your behavior the other day. This is a warning but next time you will be grounded. Grounded means no TV, no phone, no computer, and no car.”

“Okay. I’m sorry for being rude to you guys. It won’t happen again.”

“Okay. That’s it.” I got up and walked out of the kitchen probably a little faster than I intended.



“Are you all packed up for tonight?” Adrienne asked when she walked into my room. I nodded and grabbed the small duffel off my bed.

“Yeah, I think so.” I haven’t really talked to her or anyone these past few days. After that talk with Billie I just kept to myself. I’ve lived my whole life in drama and I didn’t want to cause more between this family who had the misfortune to have me in their house. I vowed that day to basically live how I lived with Carol and Jim, minus the constant fear and abuse. I wasn’t going to talk to them unless they talked to me. I was going to stay in my room and not be in anyone’s way. I spent most of the time in my room texting or calling Donovan anyway.

This was actually the first time that Adrienne has spoke to me in a few days.

“Are you nervous?” I shrugged and put my book bag on and my duffel on my shoulder. I wasn’t really because I had my white powdery mechanism with me.

“Not really. I like Felicia.”

“Do you think I can meet her before you go over there? I know you don’t want anyone to meet Billie because you want to keep him a secret.” I sighed.

“I know you want to but oddly enough I gravitated to the one person who knows more about you and Billie than I do. If she sees you she will instantly know who you are. When she thought I was Billie’s mistress she was pissed off at Billie because he cheated on you.” Adrienne smiled and sat on my bed.

“That’s sweet...I guess.” She patted the seat next to her. I inwardly sighed and sat beside her.

“Look, I didn’t take you snapping at me the other day personally. I’m used to it with having a preteen around. I understand that you had an off day at school. I just wanted to tell you that I know I’m not Amanda and I’ll never be her to you or even Billie but I am here for you if you need to talk or cry to. I’ve grown very fond of you, Amber.” I nodded, not knowing what to say.

“It’s okay; you don’t have to say anything. I just wanted to let you know.” She hugged me briefly before getting up. She smiled at me before walking out. That was weird. I got up and walked downstairs. I didn’t bother telling them I was leaving for school because I hadn’t done so these few days. I threw my crap in the car and drove to school. After taking my morning dosage, I opened my locker and started getting my books out. When I closed my locker, Donovan was there leaning against the lockers smiling at me. I smiled back at him.

Weird is the only word I can think of when I am around him. It’s not a bad weird but a good weird. He was nice to be around, which scared me a little. The only other people I enjoyed being around was my mom and Tre.

“Hey,” he said, still smiling. He smiled a lot but not this much.

“Hey, why are you smiling like a creep?” He shrugged and walked me to our class.

“I don’t know. I just feel like smiling. You excited to stay over tonight?” I nodded.

“I guess. This will be the first time I’ve stayed over anyone’s house before so it’ll be a first experience.”

“Well, you should’ve chosen someone other than Felicia.” I stopped and gave him a worried face.

“Why? What will she do?” He chuckled before grabbing my arm to get me to start walking again.

“Nothing, I was joking. You’ll have a good time. The only thing is that Mom won’t be around because she is going to Alabama for the weekend. Grandma has some big surgery so she is going to be there with her. That’s still cool, right?” I nodded.

“Good. If I would have known Felicia was going to invite you to stay sooner I’d probably bail on Chuck and the scored tickets to see Simple Plan. He won them on some radio show. I swear, that kid is the luckiest person I’ve met.”

“My little brother is going to that concert.” He nodded.

“Cool, I might see him there! Even though I have no clue what he looks like.” I highly doubt he’ll see him even if he knew. Billie got some backstage passes and was going to be singing a song with them. We walked into our first period class and I tried to avoid eye contact with both Altman and Tyler.

Before I knew it, that day was over. When the final bell rang students couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. I met Felicia in the parking lot by Donovan and her car that they shared. I was going to be driving us to her apartment complex.

“Alright, boys. Give Simple Plan my love. Don’t rock out too hard.” Felicia gave them a hug. Donovan gave me a small wave before getting into this car. I did the same.

“Awe, your car is so cute,” she said when we got in my car. I smiled.

“Thanks.” I started my car and she gave me directions to her home. When we got there we traveled the few flights of stairs to the fourth floor.

“It’s not much but its home,” she said when we walked in. It was really nice, actually. She showed me around her small apartment. We walked into her room and I tried not to gasp or looked surprised. Donovan was right; her room was covered in posters with my father’s face. Felicia took my bags and threw them by her bed.

“I know, I know. I have a problem,” she said referring to her Green Day covered room. I sat on her bed and looked around the room.

“I didn’t say that.” She sat on her desk chair and smiled at me.

“A lot of people think I’m weird, including my mom and Donovan, because I am so obsessed with this band. They don’t get how much their music has helped me. Especially when-” she stopped midsentence. She looked at her hands for a moment before looking back at me.

“Have you noticed how much animosity there is between our little niche of friends and Tyler?” I kicked off my shoes and crossed my legs. I answered with a nod.

“I used to date him, Tyler, I mean. It was the tail end of sophomore year, that summer, and middle of junior year. I really loved him. I didn’t care that he sold drugs because that’s where Donovan and Chuck got their pot from. He was a little on the douchy side but that didn’t bother me so much. It was a little endearing, actually.” Her face changed. She looked down.

“It wasn’t until those last few months that we were together that I actually saw his true side. I had found out he was cheating on me because I actually got an STD from him, only Chlamydia. But when I confronted him he yelled at me and accused me of cheating. I didn’t know he snorted a line when I told him and he got so mad that he started punching me.” I bit the inside of my mouth, preventing flashbacks from appearing.

“He had busted my lip and broke my collarbone. Donovan and Chuck wound up jumping him when I came home that night like that and Mom was about to press charges when I convinced her not to. It got around school and people were actually blaming me for this. I started listening to music more, specifically Green Day, dyed my hair green and became a whole different person. I can handle him in class but when he hovered over you the other day, he was staring me directly in the eyes and it just threw me off.” I didn’t know what to say. So I went with the usual and what people told me.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.” She brushed it off.

“I’m over it, really. I just thought you should know that he’s a terrible person and cannot be trusted.” We sat there for a few minutes in silence.

“Alright, let’s get over this quiet fest and make cookies. You eat cookies, don’t you?” I laughed.

“Yeah, I do.” We walked into the kitchen and started making cookies. Well, we didn’t make them; we just took cookie dough and put them in the oven. We set the timer and walked into the living room.

“So, I don’t want to be rude but I watch a lot of TV and I am sad to say that I watch The Bold and the Beautiful.” She started going to a menu and clicking on her show.

“No, that’s cool. It’s your home. What’s The Bold and the Beautiful?” The show started coming on.

“It’s a stupid soap opera that I am sadly addicted to.” She started explaining to me what was going on but I couldn’t follow. I thought my life had drama but these people, sheesh. I was glad when the timer went off. I got up and went to get the cookies. I pulled them out and set them on a plate, letting them cool. I walked back into the living room and tried to seem interested in this TV show she was watching.

When the show was over Felicia got up. She grabbed my hand and brought me to her room.

“Sit on the bed.” I did as she told me. She walked over to her closet and started rummaging through it before pulling out a shoe box. She sat down beside me and smiled.

“Okay, I don’t know how you will react but don’t freak out, okay?” I gave her a confused look. She opened the box. I thought she had a gun in there or something drastic like that. She pulled out a stick looking thing that was made out of paper.

“What’s that?” I asked. She thought that was the funniest question in the world because she laughed for a good solid minute.

“Did you really just ask me that? You’ve never seen a joint before?” It then clicked. I remembered walking in on my mom with something like that in her hand right after Gran died. She cried when I did and apologized profusely. I had no clue why she was apologizing to me but I told her it was okay anyway.

“Have you ever smoked pot?” I shook my head. Her mouth fell open.

“But you know what it is, right?”

“I’ve heard about it but never seen it.”

“You wanna try it?” I’ve heard kids at my old talking about how wonderful it was to smoke pot. Before I could answer, Felicia lit it up and took a drag from it. She held it in for as long as she could before letting out a plume of stinky smoke. She passed it to me.

“It’s official I am a bad influence. But you’ll enjoy it, really. It mellows you out and makes you feel...lifty for lack of a better word.” I took the joint from her hand and stared at it. Mellow. With pills they help me not to feel so chaotic inside. Mellow sounds good right about now.

I put the joint between my lips and sucked in. I instantly coughed making Felicia laugh.

“Do it slower it. Fight the urge to cough.” I did it again, slower and fighting. I did as Felicia did and try to hold it in as long as I could and I let the smoke out, coughing a little as I did. We passed it back and fourth until it was gone. I looked at Felicia. Her eyes seemed much more red that they appeared because her skin was so light. She smiled at me.

“How do you feel?”

I felt amazing.

For some reason her asking me that sent me into a fitful of laughter which made her laugh. We just sat on her bed and laughed at nothing in particular but it didn’t matter. My eyes felt swollen and puffy and my lids were heavy. It was a different kind of high.

I looked around her room and my eyes landed on a single poster on her wall. It was of Green Day, of course. They all three stared at me with judgmental eyes, like they knew at this moment I was high.

“Fuck you,” I told the poster. Felicia laughed more. I pointed to the poster I was talking to.

“Look at him. He thinks he is sooooo amazing and he thinks he is the best thing in the world. Well, he isn’t. Sure, he’s written so much amazing music but he sucks as a person. You hear me, Billie Joe Armstrong? You suck!” Felicia continued to laugh.

“Why are you yelling at paper Billie Joe Armstrong?” I looked at her and laughed.

“I don’t know!” And I didn’t care. My stomach grumbled. More laughter.

“I’m hungry,” I told her. She shook her head.

“If you eat it brings your high waaaay down. It takes it away faster.” She got up and walked over to her small TV. She pulled out a box with the most craziest picture on it. She looked at me and smiled.

“Have you ever seen Squidbillies?” I laughed as I shook my head. Squidbillies. What a funny word.

“Oh my God, it’s the best thing ever. It makes zero sense when you aren’t high but when you are you totally get their lives. It’s a show about squids who are hillbillies. You just have to watch it.” And we did. We walked about five episodes and I got even more lightheaded from laughing at this stupid show. I mean, a squid hillbilly, who would have thought it?

Eventually we walked into the kitchen and ate the entire plate of cookies. Pot made them taste so much better. We then proceeded to eat more food. When our high were being lowered, we smoked more pot.

Eventually I woke up to the sound of the door opening and shutting. I lifted my head and saw that I was on the couch in the living room. I forgot how I even got here. I looked down and saw that I was in my pajamas. I started to panic. I hope I didn’t change into them in front of her.

“Hey.” Donovan came into view. He sat down on the floor and was face to face with me. I smiled.

“Hey, what time is it?” He looked at his watch.

“1:25 PM.” My eyes widened. It was so late.

“The kitchen is a wreck, what did you guys do last night?” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Donovan still sat on the floor.

“Um...smoked a lot of pot and ate a lot of food.” He snorted.

“Have you ever smoked pot before?” I shook my head and rubbed my temples. I was starting to have a headache. I didn’t know if it was because of the amount of pot I smoked or because I hadn’t taken any pills.

“Did Felicia pressure you into it?”

“No, she didn’t,” I said as I yawned. I sat up and looked around the room. It was a mess. Numerous blankets were in a pile in the middle of the room. I then remembered we made a fort and ate popcorn. It was a weird night. I got up and stretched. Donovan got up and followed me into the kitchen. My mouth literally fell open with how much of a mess it was.

“Jesus, what did you guys do last night?” I shook my head in disbelief of how much of a mess it was.

“I’m sorry. I’m going to start cleaning it up.” And I did with the help of Donovan. As I stood at the sink and washed a plate that had some sort of red sauce on it, Donovan spoke up.

“Dude, Felicia is going to be so pissed.” He rinsed the plate off that I handed to him. I started on a bowl.

“Why?” I asked. He took the soapy bowl when I was done with it.

“Billie Joe Armstrong sang with SP last night. Totally unexpected. I didn’t know he knew them. But he sang ‘Untitled’ and he did a great job. She’s going to be so mad though. She hasn’t seen them live yet and when she finds out that I saw him before she did she will claw my eyes out.” I chuckled.

“Why hasn’t she seen them live yet? Haven’t they played a lot of shows here?” He sighed.

“She wasn’t as obsessed with them as she is now when she had saved up enough money to go see them when they played in Sacramento at the ARCO Arena last year. You know where that’s at, right?” I nodded. I really didn’t.

“She liked them enough to see them though and was really excited. Mom was going to go with her because Mom saw Green Day when they were younger. Anyway, some stuff happened to her and she had to go to the hospital and couldn’t make it.” I nodded.

“Was that when Tyler beat her up?” He stopped drying off a cup and looked at me.

“She told you about that?” I nodded.

“Yeah, that was when Tyler beat the shit out of her. I felt so bad for her because she had babysat these snotty kids next door for two months to save enough money for her and Mom to get floor tickets. She hasn’t seen them since. And they haven’t toured in a while.”

“I read where they are going to New Orleans in a few weeks to play with U2 at the Superdome.” He gave me a confused look.

“Really? Felicia hasn’t told me about that. She’s usually up to date with their tour schedule even those in different states.” I bit my lip hard. Crap. I don’t think I was supposed to say anything. Billie wanted me to go with them but I told them I didn’t like missing school. Plus, I didn’t like U2.

After we were done cleaning the apartment, Felicia graced us with her presence. Her hair was wet from taking a shower.

“Whoa, this place is clean. Did you clean it?” She asked me.

“Yeah, with the help of your brother.” She sat down in a recliner and yawned.

“I’m sorry for not helping. You should have woken me up.” I just shrugged. My phone dinged then. It was a text message from Billie.

Come home we are having a birthday party for Jakob. Today isn’t his birthday so don’t feel guilty. It’s this coming up Tuesday but we are going to have a party for him and probably go bowling because he loves bowling for some reason. The house is going to be full with hyped up 9 year olds just to warn you.

It was sad that I didn’t know that Tuesday was my little brother’s birthday. I really don’t know anything about them. I looked at Felicia.

“Hey, you said that Billie Joe Armstrong had two sons, right?” She nodded.

“When’s their birthday’s?” She gave me an odd look.

“Are you making fun of me?” I shook my head.

“No, no I’m not. I’m just curious.”

“Well, he has two children, Joey Marciano Armstrong and Jakob Danger Armstrong-” Danger? Really, Billie? Goodness, “-Joey’s birthday is February 28, 1995 and Jakob’s September 12, 1998. Hey, his birthday is coming up.” Donovan shook his head in disbelief.

“You are freaking me out, sister. Freaking. Me. Out.” He looked at me.

“Who texted you? Is everything alright?” I nodded.

“It was just my father. He wants me home.” I got up and went to Felicia’s room. I changed out of my pajamas and collected my things. I walked out and smiled at the twins.

“Felicia, I had fun last night. Thanks for having me.” She got up and hugged me. It didn’t bother me.

“You are fun. We have to do this again.” She pulled away and smiled. I looked at Donovan. He was giving me his signature lopsided smirk which made me shyly smile.

“Good luck,” I told him regarding him telling Felicia about the concert last night. Felicia looked confused.

“Good luck for what?” Donovan sighed.

“Felicia, sit down.” I walked out before I could hear anything else. I walked down the steps and to my car where I threw my stuff in the passenger seat. I texted Billie telling him I was on my way and started my car. On the way home I decided to stop at a toy store to get Jakob a gift. As I browsed the shelves I started to panic a little. I had no clue what he was into. I know he was into video games and he played Mario a lot. I then remember that he was chatting my ear off on the way to Alabama about dinosaurs. I found these dino eggs that were made out of hard sand. It came with a small hammer and brushes. I read that it was an archeological egg where you can find bones in the eggs and make a dinosaur out of. That sounds pretty cool. I grabbed all three types, a gift bag, and a card. When I got to my car with the bag of stuff in my hand, I rummaged through my bag to find a pen. I wrote in his card that he was a pretty cool kid and that I was glad he was in my life. And I meant it, too.

When I turned off my car I didn’t get out of it right away. I looked at the enormous house again and sighed. I looked around at the many cars in driveway, most I didn’t recognize. There are a lot people in there. I grabbed my book bag and pulled out the orange bottle. I took three pills, grabbed the gift, and went inside.