Good Riddance

“Hey baby” I whispered into the phone. I was sitting on the bottom step in my hallway talking to Billie. I had to be quiet because I’d told my parents I was talking to Jess about this afternoon, if they heard me calling Jess baby they might be slightly concerned. I was currently wearing trackies and a hoodie, I had wanted to be comfortable after the tight lycra of this afternoon.

“Hey gorgeous” he said easily, “So well done for earlier, you were amazing, I stayed awake just for you."

“Stayed awake?!” I laughed.

“The other couples were boring” he said, “You and Zach were the best pair by a long way. Although I admit I was a bit jealous”

“What for?” I giggled.

“That Tango and Rumba was very sexy” said Billie gruffly.

“Not from me it wasn’t” I said, “They’re is supposed to be chemistry between me and Zach, which there is, but on my part it’s just a friend. If there wasn’t the dance would suck”

“I know that” said Billie, “Doesn’t stop me feeling a twinge of jealousy when he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you close. My territory.”

“Forever and ever amen” I giggled. Billie just laughed at my statement.

“I have bruises from this afternoon though” I said.

“Why?” he asked concerned.

“When Zach lifted me above his head for the final lift,” I said, “He got his hand in the wrong place on my ribs so when I draped myself backwards, it bruised”

“Idiot. I’ll kiss it better.” said Billie under his breath, “You still looked fantastic and I that costume was wow. When you came over it was like whoa”

“Thank you” I said, “Sorry I couldn’t say anything”

“I understand” he said, “Your mom was glaring at me”

“Yeah my dad was talking about you on the way home” I said.

“All good I hope” Billie said with a laugh.

“I think you know the answer to that” I said to him with a giggle.

“Yeah I probably do” he said, “What did he say?”

“That he didn’t think I should begin to associate with people like you because you might become a bad influence on me” I said.

“Too late” said Billie, “You’re mine now”

“That’s exactly what I thought” I said.

“Are you coming out tonight?” Billie asked.

“I can’t tonight” I said, “Mum is currently in the lounge with Zach’s mum and dad and my dad downing several bottles of wine and she wants me to go and celebrate with them”

“Even though you’ve got school in the morning?” asked Billie.

“Since when did that matter to you?” I whispered.

“Never,” he said, “I just thought it mattered to them”

“It does” I said, “But tonight is special, although not as special as last night”

“Yeah last night was very special” he said, “You’re so incredible”

“Thank you” I said and I couldn’t help blushing even though he wasn’t around, “You’re making me blush!”

“As always” he said with a chuckle, “Are you picking me up tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah” I said, “I’ll be there as soon as possible, before my mum smothers me”

“Be careful of that” said Billie seriously, “Otherwise I might have to come and rescue you”

“I wish you could” I said, “I’ve already endured three hours of congratulations and well dones, everyone seems to forgotten that this is just the first round”

“But it’s the first step” Billie reminded me, “Don’t put yourself down Scar. You are brilliant”

“Thanks” I said and my head jerked up as my dad walked out of the lounge with a glass of red wine in his hand.

“You not finished on the phone yet Scarlett?” asked my dad. Billie went very quiet on the other end, he had been humming.

“Nearly done” I said, “Jess is just going out”

“With that boyfriend of hers?” dad asked, “Tell her she can do better”

Dad walked back into the lounge.

“Can do better?!” Billie fumed on the other end.

“Sorry about that!” I said, “My dad’s a snob. Now you know why I won’t let them anywhere near you”

“It’s alright, it’s not you” Billie said, “You’re not like them”

“Thanks” I said, “You better go before he comes back out and discovers I’m still on the phone”

“Night night Baby” he said.

“Night” I whispered, “Love you”

I put the phone back on the hook and stood up wearily before walking back into the lounge to rejoin the ‘party’.

Later I was wandering around my room, pulling on my pyjamas. Everyone else had already gone to bed but I had had pleaded that I had to finish some maths so I was still awake. I heard a tapping noise at my balcony window and I put it down to the large tree that grew in the back yard. The tapping continued and got a little louder until I went over to investigate what it was. I opened the glass door and stepped out in the cool night trying to find the source of the tapping.

“Scar!”

I looked down into the garden and grinned widely as I saw Billie stood there with a handful of pebbles.
“What man are thou that, thus bescreened in night, So stumblest on my council?” I said to him leaning on the stone balcony. He laughed recognising the words he had been studying in his english classes recently; one of the lessons he actually enjoyed.

“By a name I know not how to thee who I am and with love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; therefore they kinsmen are no stop to me” he said with a smile as he started to climb the trellis to my balcony. As he came over the balcony I spoke again.

“If they do see thee, they will murder thee” I whispered to him.

“I don’t care” he said and drew me into a kiss as he fully stood up on the balcony. I drew him inside, out of the December night and into my dimly lit room.

“Are you parents still awake?” he asked.

“No they went to bed about half an hour ago” I said with a smile as I put my arms around his neck, “It’s all quiet”

“I like it” he said, “I came to rescue you like you requested”

“After the intensely boring evening I have just endured, I am delighted” I said with a grin, “Although we’re going to have to very careful, this is so risky”

“Have a little risk in your life Scar” whispered Billie in my ear.

“Why do you think you’re here?” I asked him, “I could have left you outside”

“Yeah but you wouldn’t have” he said.

“No I wouldn’t” I agreed, “Now I was just going to bed, are you coming?”

Billie smiled and stripped off his jeans, boots and shirt leaving him only his boxers. I shoved his clothes under the bed and got in, waiting for him to get in the other side.

“I have no idea how we’re going to get away with this” I said as I turned my light off and cuddled up to him under my duvet.

“Well we’ll find out in the morning won’t we?” he said with a smile, “I just like to be with you”

“Mmmm” I agreed, “You make an extremely comfortable pillow”

“Well at least that’s one thing I’m useful for” Billie muttered with a smile in a voice.

“Shhh you” I said and trailed kisses down his chest where my head was before putting my head back down and closing my eyes to sleep.

***

“Billie!” I said, “Wake up!”

I got a grumpy noise in reply before I finally managed to wake my sleeping boyfriend up enough so he was actually coherent.

“Scarlett!” I heard my mother call from down the corridor and her footsteps were coming closer.

“Get under the bed!” I said to him and he practically fell out the bed and slithered under the bed, I was surprised at his sudden agility so early in the morning. I got out of bed just as the door opened.

“Morning mum” I said brightly as she entered the room with a breakfast tray.

“Breakfast?” I asked her, “Why?”

“For doing so well yesterday, I thought you deserved breakfast in bed” she said, “Don’t worry I’ll leave you alone”

I noticed a t-shirt on my side of the bed which was certainly not mine. I just prayed my mum wouldn’t notice it as she placed the tray on my bed and turned around.

“I’ll be ready to leave in about an hour” I said with a smile to her. She nodded and left the room with a smile.

Billie crawled out from under the bed with a grin on his face.

“Well that was exciting” he said.

“A little too exciting” I whispered, “Get in the closet and get changed”

I quickly ate my breakfast while he got changed, I remembered to throw his t-shirt in after him and he muttered his thanks. I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been, letting it get this close, I guess I just needed him last night.

We managed to get him out with my mum noticing, I had to call her upstairs while he snuck over the balcony so she wouldn’t inadvertently see him running over the lawn. That was only the first time that month that Billie was in my room while my parents were home without their knowledge.

We broke for the Christmas break the week after and the month of December passed. I went to Jess’ for her new year party which was very nice. I loved the fact that I was kissing Billie as we welcomed in the new year; hopefully it would be a good one.

January was a tough month for me; Thursday’s were now mine and Zach’s dedicated dance day, I did eight hours of dance practice every Thursday’s along with my other practices as well. We were working on our dances for the Inter-states which were at the end of February but also working on our technique in other dances. Mandy had started us both on street dance which was a new phenomenon to me but I loved it anyway.

The only thing that made the dance classes suck was that I then had fit all my school work around them, I had to stay an hour later every night to have private tuition to keep up with my work. This cut into the already limited hours I could spend with Billie. We were working well around the problem because we could spend our Saturday’s together which made up for any lost time during the week. Jess and Tre had a “break” in January, I was informed by Billie that this was a regular occurrence and by the end of the month they were all over each other again. Jess was taking more stuff than ever and while she was adamant she wasn’t addicted to anything, at every party we were at she was always either stoned or high. I tried to stop her and so did Tre when he noticed the pattern developing. She wasn’t getting ill so eventually we gave up when she chewed us both out over it and said we were trying to stop her having fun.

Kiera was spending her weekends up at the airbase near here. Mike spent a lot of time there with her, she got her Private Pilot’s License at the end of January and then she moved onto her first fast jet training programme. I know that Mike wanted her to follow her dreams but I also knew he got terrified every time she stepped into the aircraft, it was so dangerous.

Things at home weren’t too great either, my mum had started to go to church and she came back every Sunday afternoon preaching to me whatever the reverend has spouted out during his sermon. This led to one very sticky conversation one Sunday afternoon in which she attempted to make me promise not to sleep with anyone until I was married to them. I managed to talk my way out of that one with a few diverting statements. Dad was also working more than ever so he was out of the house a lot and I only saw him on weekends, might see him on a weeknight if I was lucky.

February arrived in a blaze of warm sunshine, spring was definitely on its way in for which I was delighted. Green Day got booked for a string of shows across the area which was cause for celebration and celebrate we did, I can’t actually remember what happened that weekend, it was the first time I got truly wasted and my mind was blank of most of the events.

Then there came the problem. Billie was cutting class so much that there was no point him in being in school, he wanted to dedicate all his time to the band. Ollie was unhappy that he wasn’t going to school but she was willing to support him in what he wanted to do. So on February the 16th he dropped out of senior year, it was one day before his eighteenth birthday. I was sad that he didn’t want to stay at school but if he was happy then I didn’t really care. It also meant he had more free time on his hands which he willingly dedicated to seeing me when I had free time as well. We celebrated our three month anniversary (we didn’t really celebrate it – I just mean we reached it) in the middle of February.
The interstate dance competition came at the end of February and we won. Surprise. I would have been intensely disappointed if we hadn’t considering the amount of practice we had been doing. Zach and I were now the U18 Representative’s for the USA in Ballroom and Modern Show Dance. With it came some publicity which was not a big fan of, I had to appear on some TV interviews but because I was only sixteen I was spared the embarrassment of too much – apparently the fame could distract me from my studies and dance. I got a few people around school asking me to sign their shirts which was intensely embarrassing. Zach had girls fawning over him for which I was not surprised because he now had muscles the size of – well his guns were big. They had to be, he had to throw me around all the time and while I wasn’t heavy he still needed to be strong. Zach and I got a provisional offer from TAP which my mum was so ecstatic about that she took the family off to Florida for a weekend, I was so not complaining.

We broke up for Easter in mid march and the sun was a lot warmer, I was looking forward to the summer term at school because even without Billie there it should be good fun and it also meant we could spend more time at the bridge. The Championship finals for the Dance competition were at the end of June and there were fifty countries competing in it. Over the Easter break I got my hair changed, it now had choppy layers in it to give it more volume and it went brighter blonde because it was being bleached by the sun. I also got my ears pierced, that was the one my mum agreed to, the one she didn’t agree to was me getting my belly pierced. I did it anyway.

It was now the middle of April and I was heading out for games. The school games kit consisted of white shorts and a black fitted t-shirt. We had two double games lessons a week in the summer because they reckoned some of the kids in the year weren’t getting enough exercise, if I got anymore exercise I would collapse I think; I had my Thursday dance day, my other classes, cheerleading squad (which Mandy insisted I joined to tone up my muscles) and games as well. I had to eat more than the rest of them anyway just to keep up all the calories I burnt.

The sun was bright and warm as we stepped out for games. Seniors and Sophomore’s did games together depending on what group of subjects they were in. This school had weird timetable arrangements. It suited me though because it meant that I got to do games with Tre and Jess because they were studying and they fit in the right category to be doing games with me.

My black shirt rested just above my navel and my silver belly stud glinted in the sunlight. Billie hadn’t yet seen the belly stud, I had had it done three days ago but he had been away in Oklahoma with his mum visiting family. He had gone a week ago and I already missed him. Oh and my parents were still completely oblivious to my relationship with Billie and my mum was still trying to push Zach and I together.

“Right,” said our games tutor as we gathered on the grass track in front of the school, “Today we are starting athletics”

A groan went up from most of the assembled group but I saw Bolt grin. He might grin, he was reputed to be the fastest sprinter in the area.

“Right I want sprinters over there and the ones who want to long jump over here” said the tutor, “Sprinters are going to go with Mr Darnell and long jumpers are going to come with me”

I immediately went into the group for long jump; I hated sprinting with a passion.

“Right then you lot” said Mrs Kent, our group leader, “Once around the track and then we’ll start long jumping”

Another groan went up from the group as we went once around the track, it was so pointless; running in a circle just to get back to where you started from.

“Now take your eleven strides and place your marker” said Mrs Kent handing us all a marker. I rolled my outlined eyes at Jess and together we counted out our sprinted steps to eleven and placed our marker. Mine was a little further back than Jess’ because I had slightly longer legs.

“Mr Wright! Take this seriously!”

I looked up and laughed to see Tre dancing up the red sand to put his marker down.

“Oh Mrs Kent” he said, “This is games, when have I ever taken it seriously?”

Mrs Kent just glared and gave up. We sat on the side of the grass as people took their turn.

“You any good at this?” I asked Jess.

“No, I prefer 200m” she said.

“Why aren’t you with the sprinters?” I asked her.

“They’re doing shuttle runs today” she said pointing, “Look”

I looked over and indeed saw that they were doing stamina tests. I hated those things, last time I did one I was physically sick afterwards.

“Scarlett!” called Mrs Kent, “You’re up!”

I rolled my eyes and got up.

“Now Scarlett, show the rest of them how it’s done” said Mrs Kent.

“What?” I asked her.

“You should be good at this,” she said, “Just launch yourself or something”

I pulled a face and took up my position and started to sprint forward, my foot hit the white board and I took off. I put my legs in front of me and landed in the pit a few seconds later, I was careful not to put my hands behind me because the measurement was always taken from the back most part of your body. I got up and brushed myself down.

“3 metres!” said Mrs Kent, “Good, but I think you can do better”

I glared at her and returned to sit with Jess and Tre.

“Whassup?” asked Tre.

“Nothing” I said and stared blankly into the distance

“There blatantly is,” said Jess, “Come on, otherwise I’ll start singing!”

“Argh no!” I said, “Anything but that!”

Jess shoved me lightly.

“I miss him” I whispered. I couldn’t believe I was admitting to missing him after only eight days of being apart.

“Awww!” said Jess, “That is so sweet!”

“So not helping” I said.

“Sorry” she said, “He’s coming back soon isn’t he?”

“Four days” I said.

“Call him” said Tre.

“Yeah, because she hadn’t thought of that before” said Jess turning to her boyfriend with a smile on her face. Tre just shrugged and started to tickle Jess until she cried for mercy which didn’t take very long; that girl was really ticklish.

“He’ll be back soon” said Jess.

“And then you can have lots of i-missed-you-so-much sex in any venue you choose” said Tre.

“Tre!” I said and then thought about it, “Yeah I suppose”

“See coming around to my way of thinking is always the best” said Tre. I just shook my head and giggled.

I just wanted Billie to be home.