Good Riddance

The next day I sat at the same table with a sense of trepidation. It seemed like I was just tempting fate now. The girls sat on the table beside mine looked at me as if I was totally crazy, I ignored them but I couldn’t help glancing at my watch every few moment as it ticked closer to one.

Then he was there and he sat beside me as if nothing was different from any other day and I almost heard the thoughts of amazement coming from the girls on the table next to us. I looked up from my own half eaten lunch and he smiled at me.

“Hey” he said and with that he put his feet on the table. Billie didn’t appear to have lunch with him, nor did any of the others so I hastily put mine away in my bag.

“So,” said one of the other guys, this guy had his hair in a peak at the front of his head, “You’re new?”

“Yes” I said quietly, I noticed that the guy was holding hands with the other girl, a blonde, petite girl. What was with everybody being paired up?

“And your British?” the guy with the hawk hair asked.

“Well done Captain Obvious” said Billie with a grin relaxing even further into his chair, I didn’t quite see how this was possible, but he managed it somehow. Next he would be putting his feet on the table.

“So any idea what Billie sees in you?” asked the guy.

“Tre!” Billie mumbled sharply with his eyes closed. I blushed heavily, a dark red stain creeping up my neck and to my pale face.

“Erm-

“Lay off guys” mumbled Billie with his eyes still closed. Did he have a late night or something?

I looked in his direction thankfully as the inquisition let up and the guy called ‘Tre’ randomly turned to his right and practically pulling the small blonde girl onto his lap, started kissing her in front of everyone. Nobody flinched. I guess they were used to it.

“Had a good morning?” Billie asked eventually to me.

“Yeah, I guess” I said quietly, “You?”

“I dunno,” he said, “I just got here”

I tried to hide my look of surprise but I think I failed miserably as Kiera started to laugh.

“Billie likes to think of himself as the ‘bad boy’” she said, "Skipping school and all that"

“Shut up” said Billie sitting up, “I am the bad boy”

“You wish” she said. He swore at her and once more I tried to contain my look of shock, I was too innocent for this table.

“Wanna walk Scarlett?” asked Billie sensing my discomfort.

“Um, yeah sure” I said biting my lip and blushing again. He got up and I followed suit picking my bag up off the floor as I went, he didn’t even bother saying bye to his friends but they looked a little preoccupied anyway. The blonde and Tre were still sucking face and Kiera and the guy with sideburns were doing something that I’m not even sure was entirely legal in a school canteen.

“You coming Scarlett?” asked Billie.

“Um yeah” I said blushing again and walking after him into the mild November day. Why was I following this guy?

“Sorry about them” he said after a moment of walking.

“It’s alright” I said, “They only want to know more about me, the questions Tre was asking, I couldn’t answer them either. Why do you want me around?”

“Why would I not?” he asked.

“Well for starters, you’re a Senior” I said, “Two years older than me – nearly, you could have your pick of any of the girls in your year or the year below you, you’d probably have them swooning at your feet if you declared yourself to be looking. I’m just a plain, new kid from England”

“Wrong” he said.

“What now?” I asked.

“You’re far from plain Scarlett” he said.

“Thanks,” I said blushing deeply again, “Where are we going?”

“To the hill” he said pointing ahead of us. I looked up from my feet and saw in front of us was a small hill in the school field, it was deserted unlike the rest of the field and I thought that there might as well be a flashing sign next to it saying BILLIE’S HILL, much like there was on the table. Nobody seemed to want to cross him.

I sat down when we reached and he flopped next to me and relaxed lazily, he shut his eyes and lay back.

“Long night?” I questioned and he grinned.

“Not particularly” he said, “I’m just a regular seventeen year old guy”

“What a lazy ass?” I asked with a grin.

“Pretty much” he said his smile not faltering.

“Don’t you get into trouble?” I asked feeling a little silly for asking the question.

“Not anymore,” Billie said, “I’ve worked hard for this reputation, I have to keep it up”

“Bad boy” I said under my breath.

“Precisely” he said opening one eye.

I grinned.

“Relax!” he said patting the grass next to him, “Lay back! We have all day”

I rolled my eyes, something I didn’t do very often because my mum told me off for doing it but I lay back anyway making sure I wasn’t touching him as I did so. I had no idea why this guy had picked me to be his protégée but it was quite nice so I guessed I would just go with it.

“I still don’t know all your friends” I murmured after a moment.

“Well you know Kiera and Tre” he said, “The guy who Kiera is with, I’ve known him since I was ten, he’s called Mike, he kips in my basement. And the blonde haired girl who was with Tre is called Jess. She’s really sweet”

“She seems pretty quiet, like the total opposite of Tre” I said.

“Ha!” Billie said, “When you get to know her you can’t shut her up, or at least when she’s not sucking face with Tre.”

“Tre?” I asked him.

“Not his real name” he assured me.

“What is?” I asked, “Surely it can’t be that bad?”

“Erm, yeah” said Billie with a grin, “It’s Frank Edwin Wright III”

“Oh” I said, “It’s kinda retro”

Billie laughed, “I’ll tell him that; he might change it back!”

“Hum” I said with a smile and after a pause I said, “How did you know where to find me last night?”

“Huh?” he asked, “Oh! I didn’t, we’d just being using one of the music studios and then I saw you in the dance studio and I wanted to apologise”

“Oh, you saw me dancing?” I asked blushing.

“Yeah” he said, “You were really good”

“Thanks” I blushed crimson again. I hated the fact that I kept blushing, it was actually ridiculous the amount I blushed.

“You’re cute when you blush”

I looked down at him sharply because I was leant up on an elbow.

“Oh is that why you want me around?” I asked, “Because I’m cute?”

“It was what drew me to you initially,” he said not attempting to lie, “But you’re actually really sweet”

I huffed and rolled away from him and sat up. I realised that I was being very immature and I relented shuffling back over towards him.

“So you haven’t told me anything about you” he said.

“You haven’t asked” I said.

“Well, now I’m asking” he said.

“Alright then” I said with a smile.

***

“Sorry I’m late Sir!” I said throwing myself into the maths classroom about ten minutes after the bell went, “I got lost”

“Yeah, lost with Billie Joe Armstrong” I heard someone mutter under their breath.

“It’s alright Scarlett,” said the teacher choosing to ignore the mutterings of the class, “Have a seat”
I took a seat at the back of the classroom and tried to ignore the following stares of my classmates. Maths class was easy to get through, the stuff we were doing wasn’t difficult and I just got my head down and got on with it until the bell rang.

“Scarlett, can you stay behind just for a moment?”

I made a face as I leant down to get my bag; great, in trouble on my second day. I straightened up and waited as the rest of the class filtered out before making my way to the front of the room.

“Ah yes Scarlett,” he said. I waited for him to talk.

“I couldn’t help but overhearing a member of the class saying that you have been seen with Billie Joe Armstrong and friends?” he asked,

“Erm –

“I’m not telling you who and who not to be friends with Scarlett,” he said, “You’re a teenage girl, you’re going to do what you want but I am giving you some advice, Billie Joe is bad news. He skips school and has been known to er, take advantage, of several girls in the year below him who were shall we say ‘enamoured’ by his attentions. Just some food for thought.”

I had listened closely as he spoke to me and now he straightened up and dismissed me. I walked out of the classroom with the maths teachers barely veiled warning in my head.

“Scarlett?”

I looked up to see Billie waiting for me outside the classroom; how did he know what subject I had? Maybe I’d told him at lunch.

“Hey” I said to him.

“What’s up?” he asked, “In trouble on your second day?”

“Not really” I said as we walked out of the corridor, “Just getting a warning”

“About?” Billie probed.

“You” I said deciding not to lie to him. He hadn’t done anything to me except be nice.

“Me?” he asked. His expression wasn’t shocked but his tone of voice was quite bitter, “What’s been said?”

“Mr Carlson just reckons I shouldn’t be ‘seen’ with you or your friends” I said, “He said you were bad news”

“You knew that already though” Billie said, “I told you that at lunch; I haven’t been lying to you”

“Never said you had” I said quickly.

“But there’s something else?” he asked.

“He said that you tended to make a,” I paused.

“A...?”

“A habit of sleeping with girls in the year below yours and several girls had already been ‘enamoured by your attentions’” I said recycling Mr Carlson’s words.

“HE SAID WHAT?!” Billie near shouted. I had to stop walking because he had stopped about three paces behind me.

“I’m not repeating myself” I said to him. I didn’t make any move to go back to him or to move on, I waited for him to catch me up if he wanted to. It took him about another five seconds to actually be able to see past the cloud of red and step to my side again.

“Did you believe him?” Billie asked.

“Why would he lie?” I shot back at him. Billie faltered for a moment as he tried to come up with an explanation. It was actually kind of cute to see him flounder for an explanation, his hair fell in his eyes and he blew it out of the way.

“Look, Billie,” I said to him after the pause became too great, “I don’t care about what you’ve done or what reputation you’ve got. I’ve been here two days, what sort of Bitch would I be to make solid judgements on people after such a short amount of time? You’ve been nothing but nice to me but if that’s just a front to get me to have sex with you than you can leave right now because I’m not that girl. But if it’s not then stick around because I quite like your company.”

There was another long pause and I raised my eyebrows at him as he fully thought over everything I had said.

“You’re pretty cool Scarlett, you know that?” he asked after a moment. I was taken aback momentarily as his question threw me.

“Is that I’m gonna stick around?” I said.

“Yeah” he said, “I won’t be a “player” around you”

I laughed at his poor attempt at a posh British accent.

“Fail” I commented and he shoved me.

“So it’s all better?” he said.

“I don’t care whether you sleep with different girls every night” I said with a shrug.

“Because?”

“You’re not sleeping with me as well” I clarified.

“You’re very blunt”

“I find it gets you more places than if you try to muddle your way through life” I said with a shrug and kept walking.

“So where you headed?” he asked.

“To the dance studio for practice” I said, “Modern Dance tonight”

“Can I watch?” he asked. I blushed furiously.

“Come on!” he said, “I watched you last night”

“Why would you want to?” I asked incredulously, “It’ll be very boring”

“If I get bored I’ll go next door to the music room” he said with an unapologetic shrug.

“Okay,” I said with a grin, “When do you actually go home?”

“When I feel like it” he said with another shrug, “My mom’s used to it by now. I prefer it out anyway”

“Where does Mike go?” I asked.

“Well right about now,” said Billie glancing at his watches, “He’ll be doing ‘homework’ with Kiera”

“Homework?” I said, “Mike doesn’t really seem like the type to –

I stopped when I saw his amused glance.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re too innocent!” Billie laughed, “Do I really have to spell it out?”

“What are you talkin – Oh!” I said clicking what he was talking about.

“Quick off the mark today, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Shut up!” I said shoving him, “Not my fault I’ve led a sheltered lifestyle”

“Now you’re with the cool kids you won’t be living a sheltered lifestyle much longer” he said.

“Only you think you’re the cool kids,” I said, “Everyone with a brain seems to think you’re the people to avoid.”

“So you don’t have a brain?” he asked.

“At the moment, no” I said with a grin, “Not until something happens to give me one”

“What would have to happen?”

“I’m not telling you, you figure it out” I said.

“Now who’s the one muddling through?” he said, “What happened to being blunt?”

“Woman’s prerogative” I said still smiling. Billie shook his head at me but he was smiling as he held the door open to the arts block for me.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get changed” I said heading for the changing rooms just to the left of the dancing studios.

“Oh and Scarlett?” Billie asked a mischievous grin on his face that made my heart beat a little bit faster and my breathing to speed up a bit.

“Yes?” I asked trying to contain the blush that was threatening.

“You said something that intrigued me earlier...?” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“You said that if I wanted you around for sex then I could leave now” he said.

“Yessss?” I asked.

“Like forever?” he said.

It took a moment for me to understand what he was asking me.

“Billie!” I said to him in shock.

“What?” he asked pretending to be innocent, “I really like you as a friend, I think you’re really cool but you’re also very cute and I would like to know whether I’ll ever have a chance”

I tried to get control of the blush which at his last words I had had no hope of controlling.

“It depends entirely on the circumstances” I said eventually, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to change”

Billie laughed at my answer but in a friendly way and he turned away from me to go stand by the window of the dance studio. I shook my head after him and then turned back to the clock room. Were all seventeen year old guys like that? Sleep and sex on the mind 24/7?

I guess I was going to find out.